7 Truly Epic Trips for Deeply Adventurous Travelers

Courtesy of Secret Compass

Pumas, also known as cougars or mountain lions, live as far north as the Canadian Yukon and as far south as the Andes.

Daily game drives usually lead to many other animal sightings. You might see guanacos⎯mammals related to the Andean llama and the African camel that are among the puma’s food sources; other notable species include gray foxes, red foxes, hairy armadillos, hog-nosed skunks, and birds such as Andean condors, Chilean flamingos, Austral parakeets, and crested caracaras.

The best times to lay eyes on pumas—dawn and dusk—are also optimal times to admire some of the park’s best features. Watch the sun hit the granite towers of the Torres del Paine, make a halo of a guanaco’s furry coat, or illuminate Sarmiento Lake’s otherworldly blue. 

Tracking the World’s Largest Mountain Lion: The Patagonian Puma 
From $6,250. Departures year-round.

Courtesy of ROW Adventures/Jared Cruce

River rapids classes are ranked from I (easy) to VI (extremely difficult).

The adrenaline flows as you pass through no fewer than 80 rapids over the course of more than 40 miles, looking out for wildlife such as black bears and river otters along the way. Rare plants, including the endemic Rogue River stonecrop, a flowering succulent, bloom on the slopes of the surrounding Siskiyou and Klamath mountains, and trail hikes and walks to historic homesteads break up your time on the water. 

Rogue River Rafting
From $895. Regular departures begin for the season in May 2019.

Courtesy of Natural Habitat Adventures/Ralph Lee Hopkins,

The town of Tasiilaq is the largest on Greenland's eastern coast.

During the nine-day summer excursion, a helicopter or boat delivers travelers to the camp on the shores of East Greenland’s Sermilik Fjord. By then, the snow has melted, giving way to plentiful berries and Arctic wildflowers. The views—of icebergs as large as buildings, of the Greenland ice sheet (which stretches over 1,500 miles from north to south), and of seals at play in the frigid waters—are unparalleled. Guided kayak excursions allow visitors to take an even closer look.

Despite harsh conditions most of the year, traditional living still thrives. Meet artisans who make handicrafts of stone and bone in Tasiilaq, drink tea with a local and learn about traditional beadwork in the village of Tinit, and watch a traditional drum dance in Kulusuk. A final perk: Natural Habitat Adventures offsets 100 percent of the carbon emissions from its trips. 

Discover Greenland: The Natural Habitat Experience
From $10,995. Seasonal departures begin in July 2018 and July 2019.

Ian Berry/Magnum Photos

Visitors to Nizwa might catch a goat auction at the souk.

Oman Walking: Mysticism Among the Mountains
From $6,995. November 10–16, 2018; 2019 departures also available.

Photo by David Bettini

The only way to arrive at the Horizontal Falls is by boat or aircraft.

Take a jet-boat tour through the Horizontal Falls of Talbot Bay, waterfalls created by massive tidal currents squeezing through two narrow gorges. Helicopter to sandstone-carved Mitchell Falls, where passengers may soak or swim in the emerald pools at the bottom and take a nature tour on foot. Or get a glimpse of the striking, beehive-striped Bungle Bungle mountain range on a scenic flight over the northernmost reaches of the Kimberley.

An onboard specialist lends insight into the region’s history of Aboriginal peoples, and the cruise itinerary includes outings to see ancient paintings and rock art sacred to the indigenous Wunambal and Worrorra populations. Visits with local residents help illuminate modern-day life in these cultures, and their connection to ancient ways. 

Kimberley Cruise: Australia’s Last Frontier
From $12,495. June 20–July 2, 2019.

Photo by Jen Judge

Your lodging for the night in Siberia? A reindeer-hide tent called a "chum."

Intensive cultural immersion with the Nenets is a key part of the experience. Guests live with some of the families, wear traditional fur and hand-sewn herders’ clothing, sleep in reindeer-hide tents known as chums, and brave the Arctic weather conditions. (Temperatures can drop to −40 degrees.) Daily life involves dismantling the tent, packing the wooden box sledges pulled by snowmobiles, and rounding up the reindeer every few days to move to fresh pastures. A highlight is crossing the frozen Gulf of Ob: Because there is no food for the animals on the frigid surface, herders and travelers must urge the reindeer on until they reach the far shore, a distance of some 37 miles. That leg of the journey can take up to 24 sleepless hours.

The migration culminates in the annual Reindeer Herding Festival in Yar Sale village. Hundreds of Nenets arrive from the surrounding taiga forest and tundra to compete in such traditional contests as reindeer lassoing, sledge racing, sledge jumping, and wrestling. 

Nenets Reindeer Migration
From $2,326. March 24–April 9, 2019.

Courtesy of Nature Expedition

Begin on the Silk Road in Kashgar, China, the center of regional trade, where artisans still craft wooden musical instruments and copper tea urns as they’ve done for hundreds of years. From there, guests travel along the Karakoram Highway over the 15,397-foot high Khunjerab Pass and into northeastern Pakistan. In the Hunza Valley, glacier-fed rivers run at the foot of jagged peaks, and the area’s ancient capital, Karimabad, sits atop a green hill overlooking the expanse below.

Kick into four-wheel drive for an amateur archaeologist’s dream ride through the valley. A 7th-century Kargah Buddha carved into a nearby mountain, and 13th- and 14th-century mosques testify to the region’s layered religious history. And for nature enthusiasts, crossing the Deosai Plateau offers the rare opportunity to traverse regional habitats of endangered Himalayan brown bears and threatened snow leopards before spending a final night in a peaceful evergreen forest. 

Hunza Valley of Pakistan
From $9,625. June 15–July 4, 2019 and August 31–September 19, 2019.