There comes a point where you realise that the journeys that stay with you are rarely the ones that went smoothly. You remember them in the body first: in calves that still feel the climb, shoulders that still know the weight of a paddle, quads that haven’t quite forgiven a long descent.
Skin, muscle and bone become their own record of the moments when you left the comfortable part of the map and pushed into somewhere with a little more voltage. That’s the thinking behind our top adventures for 2027.
Some of these experiences are legitimately extreme: climbing Aconcagua, cycling across southern Africa, crossing Moroccan desert tracks or flying over Antarctica by helicopter. Others are gentler in pace but no less memorable, from birding beneath the Simmer Dim on Fair Isle and wandering in Moldova to moose spotting in Maine or walking sacred pilgrimage routes in Japan.
A few come with private camps, specialist guides and serious logistical muscle. Others ask for little more than curiosity, stamina and the willingness to get damp, dusty or mildly terrified. From Svalbard to Papua, Bhutan to Belize, these are 27 adventures worth building a year around.
1. Aconcagua with Karl Egloff
Argentina
Alpinist Karl Egloff navigating a high-altitude glacier at Aconcagua
Aconcagua is the highest mountain outside Asia, which is a formal way of saying it is absolutely enormous. This climb takes on the 360 Route with Karl Egloff, a record-breaking speed climber and one of the most accomplished alpinists in the world. Egloff broke Kilian Jornet’s speed records on Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua and Denali, and has climbed Aconcagua 18 times, which suggests a relationship with altitude that most of us will never fully understand. You will not be moving at his pace, thankfully, but you will be travelling with someone who knows the mountain intimately. Expect vast Andean landscapes, serious altitude, thin air, and the sort of summit attempt that makes every hill at home feel like a mere decoration.
Difficulty: Extreme. From £14,885; truesummitadventures.com
2. Trans Africa coast to coast
Namibia to South Africa
Cyclist in the Kalahari
Rat Race’s Trans Africa coast-to-coast is a 3,000km cycling expedition for anyone who thinks a century ride is a pleasant warm-up. Starting on Namibia’s Skeleton Coast and finishing near the Indian Ocean at Sodwana Bay, the 26-day route crosses Namibia, Botswana, South Africa and Eswatini by gravel bike. Along the way come desert tracks, mountain passes, savannah, game reserves, rhino sanctuary stays and the Okavango Delta, which is a fairly strong upgrade on your usual café stop. The riding is big, the landscapes bigger, and support comes via pit stops, medics, guides and a travelling catering crew.
+ Difficulty: Extreme. From £10,000; ratrace.com
3. Moose Safari Adventure
Maine, US
Kayakers on Moosehead Lake
Moosehead Lake is aptly named. This vast wilderness lake in Maine is one of the best places in the US to see moose, with guided adventures by land or kayak. Set deep in the state’s interior, it offers more than 600 kilometres of shoreline, around 80 islands and a moose-to-human ratio that heavily favours the antlered residents. The landscape is classic northern New England: glassy water, dense forest, hiking trails, autumn colour and the pleasing possibility of watching a colossal animal step from the trees as though it has misplaced a canoe. Audley’s tailor-made itinerary pairs the wilderness stay with time in Boston, making this a strong choice for travellers who want both city and backcountry in one trip.
+ Difficulty: Easy to moderate. From £5,488; audleytravel.com
4. Sahara Experience
Morocco
A camel in the Sahara Desert in Morocco
Annemarie Kaptein
Motor Adventures’ Sahara Experience follows part of the old Paris-Dakar route, beginning in Marrakech, then climbing into the Atlas Mountains before dropping into the desert. Across eight days, with six days behind the wheel or handlebars, travellers cover around 1,000km by enduro bike, buggy or 4x4, moving through Boumalne Dades, Erg Chebbi, Mhamid, Erg Chegaga and Foum Zguid. Expect long riding days, remote mountain valleys, golden sand dunes, desert towns and winding dry river beds as you venture off the beaten track into Morocco’s vast landscapes. Between the adventure, recharge in beautifully situated hotels and enjoy well-deserved meals at the end of each day beneath an endless star-filled sky. With GPS-equipped vehicles, support crew, mechanics, accommodation and meals all included, you’re free to focus on what matters most: the adventure itself.
+ Difficulty: Challenging. From £3,156; motoradventures.com
5. Dolpo
Nepal
Peter Matthiessen’s The Snow Leopard is one of the great travel books, which means retracing its route comes with a certain amount of literary pressure before altitude has even entered the conversation. This 21-day journey with Nomadic Skies follows the path Matthiessen and naturalist George Schaller took through Dolpo to Shey Gompa, the Crystal Monastery, beside the sacred Crystal Mountain. The company first returned to the route in 2022 with author Lance Richardson, whose biography of Matthiessen, published in 2025, has since been shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize. The journey heads back into one of Nepal’s most remote regions, crossing high passes over 5,200m and moving through the cultures of Lower and Upper Dolpo, from shamanic Hindu traditions to Bon and Tibetan Buddhism. Expect huge mountain scenery, rarefied air and trails that sit well beyond Nepal’s busier trekking corridors.
+ Difficulty: Demanding. From POA; nomadicskies.com
6. Nordenskiöld Lodge
Svalbard, Norway
Polar night in Svalbard
Basecamp Explorer’s Nordenskiöld Lodge is the kind of Arctic hideout that makes ‘out of office’ feel inadequate. Set beside a glacier on Spitsbergen, in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, the world’s northernmost commercial lodge is reached only by boat or snowmobile, depending on the season and ice conditions. Once there, guests find four rooms, no phone signal, no Wi-Fi, and a great deal of polar drama outside the window. In winter, the adventure arrives by snowmobile and dog sled, with snowy wilderness stretching in every direction. In summer, the midnight sun opens the door to glacier walks, kayaking and hikes through a landscape shaped by ice, fjords and Arctic light. Interiors by Halvor Bakke bring warmth to the remote setting, while evenings are spent around the table with your host, in the sauna or by the fire, learning about life at the edge of the map.
+ Difficulty: Challenging. From £5,180; basecampexplorer.com
7. Papua rainforest
Indonesia
Indonesian phinisi wooden schooners anchored off the jungle-covered Papua coas
Silolona Sojourns & Cookson Adventures
For only a handful of guests each year, Silolona Sojourns offers access to a rare rainforest experience in Papua, travelling by luxury phinisi before heading upriver by powerboat into the forest. The experience is built on decades of relationships with forest-dwelling and village-dwelling communities, with visits kept deliberately limited and guests carefully vetted. A separate camp is prepared near nomadic communities, allowing access to the forest and river while respecting boundaries. This is a low-volume form of expedition travel, shaped by relationships rather than extraction. For those invited in, the reward is a rainforest journey that very few travellers will ever experience, paired with the craft, comfort and logistical reach of one of Indonesia’s great private yacht operators.
+ Difficulty: Moderate. From £14,100 per day; silolona.com
8. The Oman Expedition
Oman
An overlanding camp in the desert dunes of Oman
The Oman Expedition is an 11-day journey for travellers who want raw wilderness with a properly made bed somewhere in the equation. A collaboration between Canvas Club, Alila Hotels and Dunes & Stars, it begins with a night of coastal calm at The Chedi Muscat before heading into the Al Hajar Mountains. Around Alila Jabal Akhdar, the adventure sharpens with via ferrata routes, canyon hikes and cave explorations more than 2,000m above sea level. From there, the route moves through Wadi Hawer and Sharqiya Sands before the headline act: a 1,500km self-drive crossing of the Rub’ al Khali. After the desert, guests reach Alila Hinu Bay for diving, whale watching and the pleasant business of remembering what shade feels like.
+ Difficulty: Demanding. From £12,875; canvascluboman.com
9. Moldova Discovery
Moldova
Like your adventures well watered? Tucked between Romania and Ukraine, Moldova is one of Europe’s least-visited countries and one of its oldest wine-producing nations, with vineyards dating back several thousand years. This six-day trip threads the best of them into a broader introduction to the country. You’ll be based in the capital, Chișinău, with a guided train ride through the vast underground cellars at Cricova and a tasting at Château Purcari, Moldova’s oldest winery. In between, there’s the autonomous Turkic region of Gagauzia, the medieval fortress at Soroca on the Dniester, and Orheiul Vechi, a 13th-century monastery carved into limestone cliffs above the Răut River, finishing with a dinner and live folk music in Chișinău.
+ Difficulty: Easy. From £1,095; undiscovered-destinations.com
10. Kumano Kodo
Japan
Walking the steps of the Daimon-zaka pilgrimage trail in Wakayama
Shoko Takayasu
The Kumano Kodo pilgrimage network is one of only two Unesco World Heritage pilgrimage trails in the world, which gives it a certain gravitas before you have even laced your boots. InsideJapan’s six-day, five-night module follows ancient trails across the Kii Peninsula, beginning at Takijiri oji and ending at the sacred Nachi Taisha Grand Shrine. Along the way, travellers pass through some of Japan’s most atmospheric rural landscapes, with stays in traditional inns, forested paths, ridge-top settlements and time in the onsen town of Yunomine. It is physically rewarding without being performatively brutal, and spiritually resonant without needing to make a great fuss. Expect cedar forest, shrines, hot springs and walking that slows the mind down.
+ Difficulty: Challenging. From £1,540; insidejapantours.com
11. Free Range Art Highway
Nevada, USA
The 800km between Las Vegas and Reno are not short of oddness, which is very much the point. Following US 95, Nevada’s Free Range Art Highway takes road trippers through a surreal collision of desert landscapes, public art and Americana at its strangest. Highlights include Seven Magic Mountains, the ghost town of Rhyolite, the Goldwell Open Air Museum, the International Car Forest of the Last Church, and murals in Reno. There is also The Clown Motel in Tonopah, for travellers who enjoy sleeping somewhere that might make a horror director say, “Actually, that feels a bit much.” It is an adventure by road rather than rope, but memorable in exactly the way a great road trip should be.
+ Difficulty: Easy. From self-drive costs; travelnevada.com
12. Antarctica by Helicopter
Antarctica
Antarctica is already one of travel’s great perspective shifts. Exodus’s Antarctica by Helicopter expedition adds the chance to see the continent from above, using the Polar Adventure Ship Ultramarine as a base for exploring the eastern Antarctic Peninsula. After crossing the Drake Passage, guests join at least two heli flightseeing missions over sculpted icebergs, snow-covered mountains, volcanic cliffs and vast Adélie penguin colonies. The expedition team keeps the itinerary flexible, responding to weather, ice and wildlife conditions as the continent allows. The result is a rare aerial view of one of the least accessible places on Earth, where travellers are reminded of their size.
+ Difficulty: Moderate. From £11,125; exodus.co.uk
13. Bhutan
Bhutan
Tiger's Nest in Bhutan
Bhutan has never been short on big mountain drama, but this eight-day National Geographic Signature with G Adventures journey goes far beyond the view. Travelling from Thimphu to Paro, the trip pairs Himalayan valleys and fortress monasteries with rare access to the people shaping the kingdom’s future. There is a private discussion on Gelephu Mindfulness City, a roundtable with contemporary artists at VAST, a home-hosted lunch in the Punakha Valley and a private longevity blessing from monks at Taphu Monastery in Phobjikha. The finale is the climb to Tiger’s Nest Monastery, known locally as Paro Taktsang, followed by dinner and masked dance performance in Paro. It is Bhutan with altitude and a serious amount of purpose.
+ Difficulty: easy. From £5,699; gadventures.com
14. Tara River rafting
Montenegro
Kayaking the Tara River
The Tara River cuts through Europe’s deepest canyon, a fact that becomes considerably more vivid once you are floating through it in a raft. This white-water adventure follows the river through the Unesco-protected landscapes of Durmitor National Park, navigating lively rapids beneath limestone walls before drifting through calmer stretches where the canyon’s scale begins to settle in. A full-day trip delivers an adrenaline hit to satisfy your quota for the year, while two- or three-day itineraries offer deeper immersion, with nights spent sleeping in simple riverside lodges or tented camps and meals eaten outdoors as the darkness gathers over the valley after sunset. This rafting trip is pure, elemental adventure: bracingly cold water, fast current, big rock and the deeply pleasing sense that your desk job has never been further away.
+ Difficulty: Moderate. From £65; raftingmontenegro.com
15. Off-grid Angola
Angola
Angola remains one of Africa’s great travel frontiers, long closed to most visitors by decades of conflict and still far beyond the well-worn safari circuit. Cookson Adventures’ eight-day journey is built around road trips, scenic charter flights and a custom mobile camp, allowing guests to reach some of the country’s most remote and striking landscapes. The itinerary crosses dunes that fall towards the Atlantic, explores shipwreck-scattered shores and encounters tribal cultures whose traditions endure in isolation. There are also high-speed dune driving experiences and an abandoned island outpost thrown into the mix. This is logistically complex, highly active expedition travel for people who have already done the obvious and want the map to feel large again.
+ Difficulty: Challenging. From £26,410; cooksonadventures.com
16. Fair Isle
Scotland
Puffin on Fair Isle
Ocean wanderer
For those who like their holidays with more birds than people, Simmer Dim on Fair Isle in Scotland may scratch that itch. Lying isolated in the North Atlantic between Shetland and Orkney, Fair Isle is one of Britain’s most remote inhabited islands, and in midsummer it barely sleeps thanks to the long Shetland twilight known locally as the Simmer Dim. This ten-day tour gives you a full week on the island itself, based at the legendary Fair Isle Bird Observatory, with cliffs thronged with puffins, guillemots, razorbills and kittiwakes at the height of their breeding season. Evenings at the Obs offer the rare chance to witness storm petrel ringing, with the island’s compact size meaning everything is explored on foot, through croftland, moor and sea cliff.
+ Difficulty: Easy. From £2,495; naturetrek.co.uk
17. Baja Traverse
Los Cabos, Mexico
Sierra de la Laguna
Los Cabos may be known for beaches, but the Baja Traverse 140k heads inland, away from the sun lounger circuit and into the Sierra de la Laguna mountains. This six-day coast-to-coast trek begins at Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park before crossing desert landscapes, cactus forests, natural springs and the Sierra de La Laguna Biosphere Reserve, the highest mountain range in southern Baja. Led by local experts from Baja Sierra Adventures, the journey finishes in the coastal town of Todos Santos, with each day adding a different kind of movement: hiking, swimming, cliff jumping, kayaking and camping beneath the stars. It is the kind of trip that makes a standard fly-and-flop holiday feel underemployed.
+ Difficulty: Demanding. From £794; bajatraverse.com
18. Tibet overland with Everest Base Camp
Tibet
The Roof of the World does not tend to underdeliver on scale. Royal Mountain Travel’s Tibet Overland Tour begins in Lhasa, where the Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple and Barkhor set the tone in suitably head-spinning fashion, before the road climbs out across high passes, turquoise lakes and monastery towns. From Gyantse and Shigatse, the journey pushes towards Shegar and Rongbuk, with Everest appearing from the north in the kind of view that makes conversation briefly redundant. There are big drives, big altitude and a fair bit of logistical muscle involved, but that is part of the point. This is an overland journey through some of the Himalayas’ most charged landscapes, ending with the border crossing into Nepal and the slow return to thicker air.
+ Difficulty: Moderate. From POA; royalmt.com.np
19. Crux of the Camino
Spain
Camino shells
The Camino de Santiago has never exactly lacked walkers, but Captain’s Choice brings a more comfortable rhythm to the pilgrimage. Crux of the Camino is a 19-day journey for up to 18 guests, walking more than 200km of the route’s most scenic and culturally significant paths between San Sebastián and Santiago de Compostela. Two experienced guides lead the way, while a private courtesy vehicle stocked with food and drink offers support throughout. Accommodation is suitably high-end, and the journey culminates at the Parador de Santiago de Compostela, one of Spain’s grandest historic hotels. The result is a Camino experience with effort, reflection and a little less punishment for the luggage.
+ Difficulty: Challenging. From £18,700; captains-choice.com
20. Belize Blue Hole
Belize
The Belize Blue Hole is one of the world’s most recognisable dive sites: a vast underwater sinkhole around 43 miles from Belize City, 125m deep and 318m across. Jacques Cousteau helped make it famous when he named it one of the world’s top scuba diving sites, and its pull remains obvious. Beneath the surface, divers can encounter stalactite formations, groupers, squirrelfish, angelfish and reef sharks in deep blue water. The full dive experience usually includes two additional dives at Half Moon Caye Wall and The Aquarium in Lighthouse Reef Atoll, where coral gardens bring colour, turtles and reef life into the mix. This is one for confident divers with recent depth experience and a taste for the iconic. Difficulty: Moderate
+ Difficulty: Moderate. From £216; amigosdivebelize.com
21. Cumbrian Odyssey
England
Crossing England on foot has a pleasingly old-school severity to it. Headwater’s Cumbrian Odyssey follows a 200-mile route from the Irish Sea to the North Sea, crossing three national parks before finishing at Robin Hood’s Bay. The 17-night self-guided expedition begins among the misty fells of Cumbria and pushes across exposed ridgelines, steep ascents, remote moorland and weather that will almost certainly want to be involved. Comfort is built into the logistics, with hand-picked accommodation, breakfasts, GPS navigation and daily luggage transfers, but the walking remains yours to complete. It is an endurance journey through the wild heart of England, with symbolic satisfaction waiting at the opposite coast for those with the drive to take it on.
+ Difficulty: Demanding. From £2,269; headwater.com
22. Mission: Impossible-style safari
Zimbabwe and Botswana
Deadvlei, a white clay pan located near Sossusvlei in the Namib-Naukluft National Park in Namibia
Yellow Zebra’s high-octane safari sounds like someone rewired a classic wildlife itinerary with an action film soundtrack. The journey begins in Zimbabwe with bungee jumping from Victoria Falls Bridge and white-water rafting on the Zambezi, before doors-off helicopters carry guests into Botswana’s Mababe Depression. Here, lions and buffalo gather in one of Africa’s most intense wildlife arenas. The route continues into the Okavango Panhandle in search of crocodiles, then to the Tsodilo Hills for ancient San rock art and finally to the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans for desert-adapted predators and meerkats. There are sleep-outs, helicopters, open Land Rovers and enough adrenaline to make the average game drive feel like a school run.
+ Difficulty: Moderate. From £9,352; yellowzebrasafaris.com
23. Tsaatan reindeer herding
Mongolia
Traditional Mongolian yurt
Mikey Sadowski
Sick of herding your kids to school? Why not wrap that for reindeer? With Intrepid, you’ll spend a fortnight tracking the Tsaatan, one of the last reindeer-herding peoples on earth, deep into the northern taiga. Expect off-grid with a capital O: little electricity, little signal and six adults sharing a teepee at 2,500m. You hike in with horsemen carrying your bags, help milk the reindeer, eat what the family eats, and learn many songs. The trip is bookended by the Chinggis Khan statue and Khuvsgul Lake.
+ Difficulty: Demanding. From £2,880; intrepidtravel.com
24. First Track and Last Track
Méribel, France
Three valleys, Meribel
Méribel has found two strong arguments for being on the mountain when most people are still negotiating with their duvet. The First Track experience gives skiers early access to freshly groomed slopes before the lifts open, pairing empty pistes with sunrise and the distinct pleasure of drawing the first lines of the day. The Last Track experience takes things in the other direction, heading up at sunset for fondue, cured meats, barbecues, firepits, champagne and live music before skiing down beneath a pink-hued sky. Both experiences offer a different perspective on the resort, especially in spring, when the light lasts longer and the mountain feels expansive.
+ Difficulty: Moderate. From £39; skipass-meribel.com
25. Everglades
Florida
Kayaking the Florida Everglades
Florida’s Paradise Coast has a wilder side beyond beaches and resorts. The Everglades National Park and neighbouring Big Cypress National Preserve offer subtropical wilderness at its most absorbing, with mangrove channels, remote islands, cypress swamps and wildlife-rich shallows. Everglades Area Tours runs boat-assisted kayak eco-tours led by naturalists and US Coast Guard captains, taking visitors out to uninhabited islands for paddling, beach walks and close encounters with manatees, dolphins, sea turtles and mangrove habitats. For a more immersive version, the Shallow Water Swamp Walk in Big Cypress has travellers wading beneath towering cypress trees among orchids, bromeliads and native plants. Your shoes may object. Your sense of wonder should recover quickly.
+ Difficulty: Easy. From £1,843; travelplanners.co.uk
26. The Guna coast
Panama
Eastern Panama is where the map starts to feel satisfyingly thin on detail. This 11-day journey with Nomadic Skies begins and ends in Panama City, before a chartered plane carries travellers towards the border with Colombia and the remote Caribbean coast of Guna territory. From there, the route continues by foot and boat through palm-fringed shoreline, dense jungle and coastal communities far beyond the usual Panama circuit. Led in collaboration with local Guna guides and experienced Panamanian jungle guides, the trip is designed to support guiding skills and help build responsible tourism in the region. It also ends with a properly strange historical twist at the site of the Scottish Darien Scheme, the failed 17th-century colony whose collapse helped push Scotland towards the Acts of Union. The final stop is Caledonia, an island town named by the Guna people after the old name for Scotland.
+ Difficulty: Challenging. From £2,677; nomadicskies.com
27. 10th Mountain Division hut trip
Colorado
The Rocky Mountaineer travels through Colorado
Colorado’s 10th Mountain Division Hut System is a backcountry classic: a network of remote huts threaded through some of the Rockies’ most spectacular terrain. Around Aspen and Vail, guided overnight trips allow travellers to head into the mountains on foot or by bike, with expert guides arranging meals, hut fees and essential gear. Guests can opt for a single cosy hut stay or link several huts together for a longer adventure. The reward is the kind of simple mountain rhythm that city life tends to beat out of you: move all day, eat well, sleep deeply and wake up somewhere that took effort to reach.
+ Difficulty: Challenging. From £261; paragonguides.com
