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These destinations include the islands of Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion, the Seychelles and the Maldives.

There are Unesco World Heritage sites throughout the region, including the Seychelles’ Aldabra Atoll, where the world’s largest giant tortoise population can be found, and Madagascar’s incredible rainforests, which are home to spectacular and unique wildlife such as the famed lemur. In fact more than 90% of Madagascar’s plant and animal species are endemic to the island. 

There are a total of 19 main islands, just four of which are inhabited, and which in total account for about 3% of the total Galapagos area. The remaining 97% is the Galapagos National Park, which is a Unesco World Heritage Site.

The Chilean Fjords are a spectacular network of narrow and winding inlets cutting through the Patagonian landscape of rugged mountains, lush forests, creaking glaciers and expansive ice fields. Only accessible by ship, this region belongs to nature, with no cities or roads and no human population. Instead, only nature, wildlife, and serenity. 

Approximately 750 miles in length, the peninsula is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Gulf of California – also known as the Sea of Cortez – to the east, with the iconic Cabo San Lucas marking its southernmost tip.

A designated Unesco Marine World Heritage Site, the Sea of Cortez and its 244 islands, islets and coastal areas are a dazzling ecosystem of remarkable biodiversity, much of it endemic, that is teeming with extraordinary marine and birdlife, plant species and stunning landscapes. 

It boasts unique sites such as St. Kilda, a remote Scottish archipelago that’s one of the few double Unesco World Heritage Sites, and The Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland.

Another significant highlight is its rich cultural heritage of ongoing Celtic and Gaelic traditions, as well as the plethora of ancient castles, medieval ruins and long-deserted settlements that go back thousands of years and span Viking invasions, Roman conquests and Tudor history.

An immense and complex landscape of towering red cliffs, dramatic gorges and arid savannah intertwined with mangrove forests, thundering waterfalls, wild rivers and secluded white-sand beaches, it also boasts the world’s largest inshore reef and the only two ‘horizontal’ falls on the planet. It’s also home to the world’s largest living reptile – the saltwater crocodile, the largest population of migrating humpback whales anywhere on Earth, and important seabird and marine turtle breeding colonies.

Encompassing the northern parts of Scandinavia, Russia, Canada, Greenland and Alaska, it’s as vast as Europe in size and characterized by its distinctly polar climate and wildlife.

Antarctica is instead a pristine frozen wilderness, awash in blue and white and full of towering icebergs, calving glaciers, miles-long ice floes and snow-covered mountains. Not even home to a single land-based mammal, it’s ruled exclusively by marine and bird life – most famously its penguins, but multiple species of seals, whales and birds are all to be found here.

Partly sitting within the Arctic Circle, it comes with a cold, polar climate, and is home to more than half of the world’s glaciers. But its diverse landscapes also encompass towering mountains and breathtaking granite cliffs, vast Arctic tundra, lush rainforests, volcanic islands, stunning fjords and pristine waterfalls. Wildlife such as orcas and humpback whales, grizzly bears, seals, eagles, moose and vast numbers of seabirds are impressively common sights, while the indigenous cultures and fascinating gold-rush history round off what is a destination with a lot to offer.

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