Trips of a Lifetime

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Namib-Naukluft Park, Namibia

"Surreal" is the word most often used to describe the textured landscapes of Namib-Naukluft Park in Namibia. Its purple gravel plains are carpeted in soft green grass after the rains. Golden dunes rise up from the sea. The iconic Sossusvlei dunes, a series of burnt-red and deep-orange pyramids, tower some 300m (984 ft.) above the white clay pan into which the Tsauchab River has its annual petit mort (little death).

A little larger than Switzerland, the planet's oldest desert and fourth-largest conservation land is best experienced by car, with the windows open and the hot wind in your hair. It's not a wildlife destination per se, but step away from the gravel roads and you'll encounter some of nature's more interesting species, cleverly adapted to these hyper-arid conditions.

Head south from Windhoek, the capital, and spend the night at one of the fabulous safari camps in Namib Rand, the private reserve adjacent to the park, just an hour from Sossusvlei. Then head east to the lesser-known but equally captivating Naukluft Mountains, source of the Tsauchab's waters, where crystal streams fill jade-green rock pools. Finally return via the black boulders of the Juiseb Canyon to Swakopmund, where you can follow the dunes south to Sandwich Harbor for the refreshing sight of water teeming with flamingos and pelicans.

Photo Caption: Climbing one of the tallest dunes at sunrise in the Namib-Naukluft National Park in Namibia

Trips of a Lifetime

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Okavango Delta & Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana

Botswana's Okavango Delta and Moremi Game Reserve is a world where edible beasts -- zebras, giraffe, warthogs, antelopes -- are forever on alert, as lions, leopards, or packs of wild dogs lie in wait to take them down for dinner. This spectacular environment is arguably the best place on the planet for an intimate view of wildlife in action.

A fan-shaped oasis in a country that is 80% desert, the delta draws hordes of animals for a drink of its life-giving waters. After the summer rains, the delta is ravaged by water from Angola in the north, transforming it into another world, soaked with life and charged with the beauty of abundance. Visitors get to watch the flood plains of the world's largest inland delta miraculously fill up. Waterways dotted with islands and clogged by reed beds provide a network of navigable channels where visitors are poled around in dugout canoes. While basking in luxurious lodges and top-end safari drives, visitors await that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to watch predators take down their prey.

Photo Caption: Lions resting on the Okavango Delta in Botswana

Trips of a Lifetime

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Xian, China

A train crossing of China's Silk Road takes you through a cultural journey from the Far East to the Mideast, from modern Chinese megacities through an ancient arid desert plateau to stunning mountains. For an ideal 10-day trip, you can follow the ancient trade route used from the 1st century B.C. to the 10th century A.D. starting in Xian, home of the Terra Cotta Warriors. Along the way, travelers can make stops at the official end of the Great Wall at Jiayu Guan, the Mogao Buddhist caves near Dunhuang, the aforementioned desert basin of Turpan, and the provincial capital Urumqi -- an ideal base for a day trip to Heavenly Lake.

Time your travels so you hit Kashgar -- the end of the line -- on a Sunday, when its bustling market comes to life. Or, opt for a five-hour drive to the even more impressive Sunday market in Khotan, the largest in Central Asia.

Photo caption: Terra Cotta Warriors in Xian, China.

Trips of a Lifetime

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Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile

Torres del Paine is the crown jewel of Chile's national park system. Lakes of milky greens and blues ("paine" is the Tehuelche word for "blue"), gentle valleys, and frigid hanging glaciers captivate hikers who come to walk the park's circuit of well-maintained trails -- but nothing has more power to impress and compel than the Paine Massif -- a series of jagged peaks thrown up from the earth 3 million years ago.

This being Patagonia, weather conditions are also impressive and instantly changeable, from warm sunny pauses to screaming winds that can prevent anyone from walking exactly upright. The best time of year for hiking is late December through February, when weather conditions are at their most mild and daylight is longest, but intrepid travelers visit year-round.

Photo caption: The French Valley of Torres del Paine National Park in Chile

Trips of a Lifetime

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Easter Island

Whether you call it Rapa Nui (as do its Polynesian inhabitants) or Isla de Pascua (as do Chileans), Easter Island is synonymous with those giant carved heads known as moai. We know how they were made. We know where they were made and how they were transported across the island. We just don't know why -- and that's the great mystery. Theories abound, but possibly the most well-reasoned one is that the 12 Rapanui tribes carved ever-bigger versions of the original smaller moai to boast of their virility, strength, and power in a low-tech arms race that led to the eventual deforestation of the island and the decimation of its ecosystem. The population is estimated to have peaked at 15,000. By the time Dutch explorers first saw the island on Easter Sunday in 1722 (thus the Westernized name), the population had dwindled to just under 3,000 people, all facing starvation.

Fast forward to today, and you'll discover an island and a people who have proudly recaptured their heritage. Since it's the most remote inhabited island in the world (it's in the South Pacific more than a five-hour flight from Santiago), we recommend spending a week here, giving you time to explore the island at a leisurely pace and to recharge in its balmy climes. Be sure to visit Rano Raraku, the volcanic peak that served as the quarry (aka the "Nursery") for the famed statues, where you'll find moai complete or in process scattered about the slope.

Photo caption: A large stone moai statue on Rapa Nui, aka Easter Island