Whether it’s meeting mountain gorillas or seeing the Northern lights, is 2022 the year for that dream holiday?
We reckon that this is the year to splash out on that once-in-a-lifetime trip.
So if you’ve got seeing a Kenyan safari or sailing up the mighty Mekong river on your bucket list, this is your sign to book.
Read on below to start your ultimate adventure.
Glamping in The Wild West
March marks 150 years since Yellowstone became the US’s first national park.
Central to the classic Wild West, it’s a place of giant river canyons, huge conifer forests, hot springs and the Earth’s largest collection of spurting geysers, including Old Faithful.
Combine glamping there, staying in a lavish safari tent just outside the park, with time in Jackson Hole watching broncos compete in rodeo shows, and a stint amid another wilderness, Grand Teton.
As at Yellowstone, elk and bears roam between jaw-dropping glacial summits.
Seven nights from £2,069pp, including flights, SUV hire and four breakfasts, americansky.co.uk
Experience Africa’s wildlife
Tick off Africa’s two ultimate wildlife experiences in one trip.
Intrepid’s 15-night group tour includes a trek through Ugandan forests to spend an hour in proximity to rare mountain gorillas before safari drives amid Kenya’s Maasai Mara, home to hippos, elephants, giraffes, lions, leopards and more.
Also packing in the rhino-happy Lake Nakuru park, a tea-plantation tour and visits to Maasai villages, this is an overland camping trip.
That means you’ll travel in an all-purpose bus and camp most nights, setting up your own tent.
From £2,204pp, B&B, including transfers, permits, entry fees, activities and 25 other meals. International flights are extra, intrepidtravel.com
Visit an Indian Ocean idyll
You could, of course, go to the Maldives but for an Indian Ocean trip that blends similarly wonderful white-sand shores and snorkelling with more activity options and more freedom to explore, and which omits pricey flight transfers, try Mauritius.
While there, you might also watch monkeys while trekking jungly gorges, go paragliding off the flanks of volcanoes or swim alongside dolphins.
Excursions to basket-weaving classes can also be arranged if you stay at adults-only Salt of Palmar, whose exclusive island guidebooks have been penned by locals.
Brightly coloured, the beachside hotel serves organic food and lays on yoga classes, a spa and a rooftop pool.
Seven nights from £1,893pp, half-board, including direct flights and car hire, bestattravel.co.uk
Hunt for the Northern Lights
The best Northern Lights trips don’t just put you up at Arctic Circle locations famed for prolific displays, they include devoted ‘hunts’ in which guides monitor the weather and whizz you towards reported sightings on heated sleighs.
While still subject to nature’s meteorological caprice, your odds are much improved. So it goes at Finnish Lapland’s promisingly named Northern Lights Village.
The laser-heated cabins here have half-glass roofs so residents can even scan the skies from their beds.
You’ll whizz through forested falls on snowmobile or take husky-pulled sled excursions by day, then get hunting after dark.
Four nights from £1,745pp, full board, in winter, including flights, transfers, activities and arctic clothing, theaurorazone.com
Sail the Mekong to Angkor Wat
Travelling from Vietnam to Cambodia, this tour sails up the mighty Mekong river sleeping aboard a classic, colonial-style riverboat.
Before crossing the border, you’ll get to shop at Cai Be’s floating market and photograph pagodas amid rice paddies.
A cyclo tour around Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, is followed by a visit to its Killing Fields to learn about the Khmer Rouge’s communist genocide. Last but not least come Cambodia’s world-famous temples.
Your tour here takes in vine-snagged Ta Prohm (Tomb Raider temple) and sunrise over Angkor Wat.
Nine nights from £1,274pp, B&B, including transfers, 11 other meals and entrance fees, international flights are extra, gadventures.com
Discover Brazil
Want to explore Amazonia? Available on a flexible, private basis, this ten-night Brazilian itinerary promises a five-day cruise.
You’ll meet friendly pink river dolphins and trawl an immense igapó (flooded forest), home to electric eels. You’ll follow the Ariaú River, where the film Anaconda was shot.
And you’ll go on guided walks or paddles, day and night, looking for parrots, caimans, sloths, spider monkeys and more.
Before all that come stops in Rio, with a guided visit to the Christ the Redeemer statue and the chic resort town of Búzios.
From £3,009pp, B&B, including transfers, four-star accommodation, eight other meals and all activities. International flights are extra, rainforestcruises.com
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