TRIP PLANNER
TRENDY TOURS
It all makes for easy riding,
but helpers are still on call.
okujapan.com
PEDAL PUSHER
Not just any vehicle will
do for zipping around the
vineyards and villages of
Chile. On special outings
of its Colchagua Wine
Valley tour, South Expe-
ditions unveils the stylish
Southmobile, reminiscent
of a 1930s Formula One
car, that runs on clean
solar and electric power.
According to South Expedi-
tions founder and inventor
Juan Rodríguez, “I wanted
to find a way for people to
travel from one winery to
another in a clean-energy
vehicle and still be able to
feel close and connected
to the surroundings.”
southexpeditions.com
BIKING REVAMPED
Couple one of history’s
greatest battle marches
with state-of-the-art
cycling tech and you have
Bike Odyssey’s month-
long, nearly 1,600-mile
“Hannibal: Barcelona
to Rome” tour, follow-
ing the footsteps of the
fearsome Carthaginian
general. You’ll go over the
Pyrenees and Alps, minus
the famous war elephants.
These days founder Sam
Wood is chasing down
GPS-equipped devices
for every handlebar (the
“Karoo” with downloadable
routes) and planning for
clean-energy support vans.
E-bikes are available, as are
shorter 10- or 13-day legs.
bikeodyssey.ccTough Issues
Don’t Get
IgnoredRising seas. Loss of wildlife
habitat. The politics of
division. The extinction of
languages. Poverty. These
and other complex issues
will require out-of-the-box
solutions. “When you takepeople out of the office
and into the field, you
shake them out of
their comfort zone, open
minds and hearts. Amazing
things can happen,” says
National Geographic
Emerging Explorer and
expert guide Aziz Abu
Sarah.LEAVE NO TRACE
Natural Habitat Adventures
leads the charge in the
zero-waste race. The
company reuses, recycles,
composts, or upcycles
as much as it can in the
seven-day “Yellowstone:
Adventure Under the
Big Sky” luxury campingexperience inspired by
the African bush. Partici-
pants will visit Montana’s
hot springs and grassy
overlooks while on the
lookout for wolves, bison,
and grizzlies. It’s not about
keeping the status quo, but
“improving the environ-
ments and communities
we visit as part of travel,”
says Court Whelan,
director of sustainability
and conservation travel.
nathab.comARCTIC BLAST
One of the most rarely
visited landscapes in the
world is the Floe Edge, the
so-called Line of Life where
the Arctic Ocean meets
icy terrain. Over nine days
of Arctic Bay Adventures’
“Life on the Floe Edge,”
Inuit guides welcome
guests to the boundaries of
Canada’s Baffin Island via
snowmobiles and toasty
tents. Here on the front
lines of a rapidly changing
climate, you’ll see what’s at
stake and explore solutions
with the first stewards of
the land. During the short
window in June when the
sun lingers for 24 hours,guests witness normally
shy wildlife passing
through for an exceptional
gathering, among them
walruses, beluga whales,
and polar bears. Local
meals such as char prove
crucial for warming up.
arcticbayadventures.comTHE HOLY LAND
IN WHOLE
The Greatest Story Ever
Told is even better with
fresh perspectives from
typically unheard-of
quarters. Nat Geo’s 11-day
pilgrimage through “The
Holy Land: Past, Present,
and Future” looks at
everything from archae-
ology in Jerusalem and
environmental activism
on the Jordan River to the
thorniest issues of politics
and religion. The goal
is to seek out diverging
narratives. Says guide Aziz
Abu Sarah, “By having two
guides, our travelers get to
experience the Holy Land
in a holistic way instead of
the singular story. We have
our groups have a meal
with a rabbi and then visit a
Palestinian family and have
a meal with them. Insteadof exploring one kind of
music, we invite one of
the few Palestinian-Israeli
music bands to play
Arabic and Hebrew songs.”
natgeoexpeditions.com/
exploreSTEM INCUBATORS
You’ll wish you were back
in high school with this
10-day Nat Geo Student
Expeditions trip. The
“Technology and Innova-
tion Workshop in Silicon
Valley” is the definitive
revenge of the nerds. High
schoolers will tinker and
design with the newest
gadgets at their disposal,
and meet Google-trained
engineers. Past workshops
have included decon-
structing an underwater
drone or OpenROV, diving
into immersive VR, and
prototyping rainforest
anti-poaching tech.
Students wrap up with
a capstone invention—
and have the opportunity
to receive Nat Geo
funding to launch it.
ngstudentexpeditions.comNATGEOTRAVEL.COM