Canadian Mountain Holidays

Since 1965, CMH has been choppering skiers to the far reaches of British Columbia’s peaks. You’ll hole up at one of their 12 luxury lodges in one of their 12 distinct ski areas and hit the slopes from right outside your door. Not only is the dry, fluffy snow some of the best in the Rockies, but skiers start at a lower altitude than the American Rockies (around 10,000 feet), meaning you’ll have more oxygen and can finish low enough to ski in the trees. A variety of packages lets you choose how long your multi-day stay is and how much chopper time you want so you can play as hard—or as easy — as you like.

Season: December – early MayPrices: 7-day trips starting around $4,900 per personFor more information: Canadian Mountain Holidays;

Helitrax

Colorado’s only heli-skiing operation is based out of Telluride. For guests staying in town, Helitrax offers one- to three-day packages, as well as private charters and a one-week package including unlimited heli-skiing and accommodations at a turn-of-the-century ghost-town luxury lodge with natural indoor and outdoor hot springs. You’ll fly to a peak landing-zone elevation of 13,800 feet, the highest in North America, where everyone from amateur powder hounds to steep-couloir experts will be satisfied.

Season: Mid-January – mid-AprilPrices: Single days from $945 per personFor more information: Helitrax; 866-435-4754

SwisSKIsafari

A unique, two- or three-country journey that choppers you through Switzerland, Italy and France while your bags travel by road. Ski Verbier, Courmayeur and Chamonix on the Three Valleys tour, or take in the splendor of the Matterhorn and stay in the famed Hotel Zermatterhof before continuing on to Cervinia on the Alpine Tour. Along the way are unique experiences like visiting the monks of the Grand St. Bernard Hospice, a famous mountain-pass monastery on the border between Switzerland and Italy. Experience mountain vistas and open-valley skiing as you appreciate the cultural difference and amazing cuisines.

Season: March – AprilPrices: $6,500 – $8,260 per personFor more information: SwisSKIsafari; +41-27-398-2194

Casa Tours/Andes Heliski

Go with Chile’s first heli-ski company for a week schussing the Andes. You’ll be choppered out of Santiago to a base camp just 10 minutes away. But where you’ll be skiing feels a world away — it’s terrain that would take a week and tons of expert gear to get back into. The runs here go from 14,000-foot ridges to 8,000-foot high-valley floors, and the longest is a whopping 9,500 feet — it normally takes four hours to ski.

Season: Mid-July – end of SeptemberPrices: $6,845 per personFor more information: Casa Tours; 888-311-2272

m/v Absinthe

Perhaps the ultimate in indulgence. Your helicopter ferries you and 11 friends to your waiting 201-foot megayacht off the coast of British Columbia where you land à la James Bond. As the ship sails into quiet coves, you’re in total control of your activities. Board the chopper and within minutes be in some of the world’s deepest powder and most gorgeous peaks. If the weather’s bad or you don’t feel like skiing, take the copter and go heli-fly-fishing or go waterskiing or kayaking. Return for a massage, a custom-cooked meal and a stocked wine cellar.

Season: March – April Prices: $36,000 per day (12-person maximum)For more information: Absinthe; 866-935-3228

Powderbird

Hit the backcountry of the Wasatch Mountains, in an area larger than all the Utah ski resorts combined. You’ll ski through untracked regions filled with Utah’s famous fluffy powder. Powderbird books per day, and you can expect an average of seven runs and 15,000 vertical feet while skiing with seven other guests and two guides. Or charter you own chopper and hit the vast backcountry with your friends.

Season: Mid-December – mid-April Prices: $700 – $910 per person, per dayFor more information: Powderbird; 800-974-4354

Wucher

The exclusive Arlberg region fittingly serves up Austria’s only opportunity for heli-skiing. Fortunately, you’ll find some amazing skiing out of the ritzy Lech and Zurs. Go with Wucher Helicopters and you’ll pay per run, with each lasting about an hour. You’ll be dropped off above treeline at around 8,500 feet, for wide-open, powder-filled skiing.

Season: January – April Prices: 350 euros ($450) per ride (for 3 skiers)For more information: Wucher; +43-5550-3880-0

Heliski Aran

Ski the Pyrenees in Spain’s Val d’Aran region, where the altitude is a breathable 9,000 feet and the runs can be in wide-open valleys or off of rocky cornices. Choose an aggressive ski day where you can take on three to six runs. Or just get one lift in the chopper and enjoy a long, leisurely scenic run with a stop for – what else – a long, leisurely, scenic lunch. You can also commit to the four-day heli-camp, where you’ll explore all kinds of hidden slopes.

Season: Mid-November – mid-May Prices: From 180 euros ($230) per person for 3 descentsFor more information: Heliski Aran; +34-646-13-36-21

Points North

Snowpack is what makes heli-skiing in Alaska so special — the snow sticks to almost inconceivable places, making even the most dramatic terrain accessible. You don’t pay for vertical feet here, but rather for helicopter hours, which works out to be more cost-effective. You’ll ski in an area of 2,000 square miles, over steep peaks and wide-open glaciers, watching for bears coming out of hibernation and staying in a cannery-turned-luxury lodge. Or book The Maritime Maid, an 85-foot vessel that can take you to even more remote locales.

Season: Mid-February – mid-MayPrices: $3,720 per person for a 6-day trip; The Maritime Maidis $6,250 for 8 people For more information: Points North Heli Adventures; 877-787-6784

Backcountry Helicopters

The only privately owned, family-run heli-skiing business in New Zealand is based in Mt. Aspiring National Park, in the center of the South Island. Skiing here is for those with patience; if the weather is marginal or worse, the birds can’t fly, which means there’s usually heli-skiing just 3 or 4 days a week. But when it’s good, it’s very good. Skiing is above treeline, going from about 7,200 feet to 4,800 feet, and there’s something for everyone, with plenty of bluffs and jumps for the experts and wide-open cruising basins for amateurs.

Season: End of July – mid-OctoberPrices: 3 runs for $460 per person; 7 runs for $615 per person; extra runs $50 per person eachFor more information: Heliskiing; +64-3-443-1054

Teeming with wildlife and blessed with an inordinate amount of postcard-worthy scenery, coastal British Columbia is home to killer whales, grizzly bears, and plenty of steelhead trout. The trick is getting to them. At Nimmo Bay, a small resort on the headwaters of the McKenzie Sound (across from the north shore of Vancouver Island), helicopters are an integral part of the agenda. Lodgers jet off to fly-fishing trips in the Great Bear Rainforest, rafting jaunts down the Klina Klini river, whale-watching expeditions and sea kayaking sojourns on tranquil fjords. Bring an iPod to fly to your favorite tunes.

For more information: www.nimmobay.com

Rotorua, a city of more than 50,000 in the North Island’s Bay of Plenty region (New Zealand’s own Lake District), is ringed by several varieties of exotic geothermal activity, including thermal springs, mud pools and sulphur vents. The appropriately dubbed Volcanic Air Safaris offers trips to nearby Mt. Tarawera, a vast lunar crater which famously blew its top in 1886, resulting in the loss of over 150 lives. Patrons can also pay a visit to Whakaari or White Island, an active volcano island 20 miles off the coast, where they can experience its rumbling vents firsthand (from a prudent distance, of course) or wander through the ruins of an abandoned sulphur-mining town.

For more information: www.volcanicair.co.nz

A massive curtain of water that makes Niagara Falls look like a faulty spigot, Iguazu Falls spills over the border between Brazil and Argentina. The statistics (1.67 miles long, 6.5 million liters of water per second) pale in comparison to the experience itself, which can surround visitors with some 260 degrees of falling water. Helisul offers 35-minute tours that suspend patrons vertiginously over the Garganta del Diablo, or Devil’s Throat. While the undeniable environmental impact of helicopter traffic in this UNESCO World Heritage Site has led to some controversy, Helisul (which also offers flightseeing trips over Rio) has invested in relatively new, quiet helicopters.

For more information: www.helisul.com

, Cairns, Australia

Northern Queensland is the Costa Rica of Australia, a verdant tropical swathe that encompasses dense rainforests, blinding white beaches and the world’s single largest organism, the Great Barrier Reef. From the gateway city of Cairns, the GBR Helicopter Company swoops its patrons over the Coral Sea to an anchored pontoon in the middle of the reef, where they can go snorkeling, enjoy a catamaran ride or take a spin in a semi-submersible vessel. For the upscale and amorous, GBR offers special sunrise flights to a private Coral Cay (i.e., your own private island) for a light, mid-morning brunch.

For more information: www.gbrhelicopters.com.au

While they won’t be gone any time soon, the Juneau glaciers are definitely in retreat, and Era Helicopters offers two-hour trips to the still-spectacular series of ice fields just north of the Alaskan state capital. Patrons hover over four distinct floes, receive some pointers on glacier taxonomy, then touch down for a brief amble on the ice (special glacier walking boots are provided). The dogsled trip, a popular “soft adventure,” allows customers to spend some quality time with dozens of seasoned four-legged Itidarod veterans.

For more information: www.flightseeingtours.com

, Zambia

Colloquially known as “the smoke that thunders,” the massive cataracts of Victoria Falls spume a towering cloud that’s visible up to 30 miles away. While the spectacle of the Zambezi River emptying into the Batoka Gorge is undeniably jaw-dropping, a trip to the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe can also involve plenty of wildlife watching. The Zambezi Helicopter Company offers a 30-minute “game flight” that sweeps over Zambezi National Park after a tour of the falls—elephants, hippos, rhinos and giraffes abound.

For more information: www.shearwateradventures.com/helicopters/default.asp

There are dozens of helicopter tour companies to choose from throughout the islands, but the big kahuna is Blue Hawaiian (of “Jurassic Park” fame). The winner of a prestigious International Star Diamond Award (an accolade usually reserved for high-end hotels and cruises), BH offers tours of Maui, Kauai and the Big Island that zip clients over active volcanoes, lava fields and rainforest waterfalls. In addition, golfers can get a lay of the land of their favorite courses and beachgoers can scout out other resorts. On the island of Kauai, Island Helicopters boasts a perfect safety record.

Fore more information: www.bluehawaiian.com; www.islandhelicopters

, Arizona

This is the big one. More than 600,000 people take air tours of the Grand Canyon every year. There are six companies at the park airport in Tusayan, and several more based out of Las Vegas. Papillon, which has been flying for more than 40 years, offers 30-minute sweeps through the “Dragon Corridor” as well as day-length tours that land at the bottom of the canyon near an ancient Indian village. Sundance, which flies from Vegas, offers a champagne picnic below the crater rim that includes a flight over Lake Mead, Hoover Dam and the Las Vegas Strip.

For more information: www.papillon.com; www.helicoptour.com

The Malaysian state of Sabah occupies the northern tip of the storied isle of Borneo and features a series of spectacular mountain ranges, as well as some of the world’s oldest extant rainforests. The area is also home to Mount Kinabalu, the highest peak in Southeast Asia. A minor ecotourism boom has brought flight-seeing trips to the region, and Sabah Air (which led tsunami relief efforts to Banda Aceh) leads expeditions that fly over rice fields spotted with water buffalos, orangutan preserves, mangrove swamps and the great mountain itself.

For more information: www.sabahair.com.my/public/default.asp

Shortly after the Soufriere Hills volcano erupted in July of 1995, two thirds of the residents of the “Emerald Isle of the Caribbean” were forced to flee, and the capital city of Plymouth lay under 40 feet of ash. This wasn’t expected—the volcano had never erupted in recorded history. While Caribbean Helicopters leads a number of island tours from its base in nearby Antigua, the Montserrat tour is (not surprisingly) the most popular. Passengers get an up-close look at the “exclusion zone” of abandoned towns, ash flows, dried lava fields and the old airport, which was hit by a pyroclastic flow (i.e. avalanche of rock, ash and dust) in 1997.

For more information: www.caribbeanhelicopters.net/tour-index.html