10 Bucket List Trips for the Serious Adventurer

Culled from their some 200 trips offered each year, the staff of Wilderness Travel has picked their most extreme yet authentic voyages that every true explorer should add to their travel bucket list for 2014 and beyond.

1) Circumnavigate Like an Explorer – Sure, it's cool to cruise past an island, but have you ever truly gone around the entire island or circumnavigated an entire sea? Traveling an island or area in its entirety allows you to see its many facets, and can dramatically increase your wildlife sightings. Wilderness Travel offers a variety of circumnavigations via its small ship cruises that let you go through narrow areas that larger cruise ships cannot navigate. Circumnavigation trips include the Black Sea to four World Heritage Sites, New Guinea to visit remote tribes, the Hidden Coasts of New Zealand, Iceland and Spitsbergen in the Arctic.

2) Swim With Sharks in South Africa – If you want to knock out a bunch of bucket list items in one trip, staff recommend their Serious Fun in South Africa trip. On this adventure, travelers cage dive with great white sharks, tandem skydive over the Cape Peninsula, inner tube down the Storms River, take a walking safari in a private game reserve with lions, leopards and more, hike across Table Mountain, see Robben Island where the late Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, go zip lining and sleep in a tent under the African sky.

3) Discover the Great Trails of the Alps – Hiking the Alps is a definite bucket-list must-do, but Wilderness Travel takes it up a notch. Not only can you hike the Alps, but you can cross the borders of five countries on foot, to boot. On the Great Alpine Traverse trip, the ultimate Alps odyssey, walk through France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Austria below the peaks of Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn and past glaciers. Stay at hike-in lodges and travel via cable car, train and the famed Glacier Express.

4) Explore Otherworldly New Zealand – With the second installment of The Hobbit, which was filmed in New Zealand, in theatres now, interest in traveling to this country of breathtaking landscapes is peaking. Wilderness Travel offers a brand new New Zealand: Off the Beaten Path adventure that heads to some of the South Island's most beautiful spots, still undiscovered by most travelers. It includes stops at wild and remote Stewart Island, enjoying three of New Zealand's “great walks,” star gazing at the International Dark Sky Reserve and encounters with a variety of wildlife like sea lions, fur seals, royal albatross, kiwis and more. In the words of author Jared Diamond, “New Zealand is as close as we will get to the opportunity to study life on another planet.”

5) Climb “Kili” – If climbing a mountain is on your bucket list, Wilderness Travel will help you check off the task with the greatest chance of success. The company's less-traveled route up Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest free standing mountain in the world which lets you see more of the earth's surface than anywhere else, increases your likelihood of making it to the summit by giving you seven days of acclimatization. Once you've summitted, celebrate with a 4-wheel drive safari through Serengeti National Park.

6) Experience Alaska – Every American should experience Alaska–“the Great Land,” says the staff, and Wilderness Travel offers unparalleled ways to see the beauty of this state. On its small ship cruises, like Alaska's Inside Passage, travelers navigate the waters on board a 90-foot classic wooden boat with six kayaks, as well as a naturalist and chef on board. On the ship, you get to see everything up close, traverse narrow passages of sheer granite walls that larger cruise ships cannot pass, listen to the whales singing via the on-board hydrophone and venture by kayak into protected inlets. “It's a true travelers' cruise,” says Barbara Banks, director of marketing and new trip development. “You feel like an explorer like John Muir. This is truly discovery.”

7) Discover the Pyramids of Northern Sudan – Find more pyramids than in Egypt in this largely unknown area of the world! In the spirit of Indiana Jones, explore this undiscovered ancient site near Egypt with two veteran Egyptologist Trip Leaders. See the Nile, the orange dunescapes of the Nubian Desert that look like a scene from Star Wars, and a number of World Heritage Sites very much connected to the Ancient Egyptians. Expedition to Sudan is a real adventurer's trip!

8) See Africa's Big Game on Foot – A classic safari should be on everyone's bucket list and Wilderness Travel's Serengeti Wildlife Safari makes the cut. Unlike most safaris, Wilderness Travel offers you unfettered access to the Masai tribe, who have allowed the company's travelers to camp on their land. This gives you the great game experiences, like seeing big prides of lions, yet frees you from many of the restrictions of the national parks. It allows you to do game walks and night drives and enjoy incredible experiences you can't have within the park or inside a 4-wheel drive. You can even time your trip with the annual wildebeest migration.

9) Pal Around with Penguins in Antarctica – Pretend you are Ernest Shackleton and discover the world of Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic Isles on the Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falklands small cruise expedition. Massive colonies of king penguins await with all of their squawking and no fear of humans, as well as huge elephant seals basking on the beach and plenty of drifting icebergs. You'll also get to stop at Shackleton's grave site.

10) Follow in the Footsteps of Darwin in the Galapagos - On the Ultimate Galapagos adventure, spend 15 days hiking, snorkeling and sea kayaking through all parts of these volcanic islands. Walk and swim right up to the amazing array of animals like penguins, iguanas, sea lions and tortoises, which have no fear of humans since they have no natural predators. Shorter cruises are also available.

For more information or to book any of these bucket list adventures, call Wilderness Travel at 1-800-368-2794 or visit www.wildernesstravel.com.