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

Perhaps the most legendary historic route in the world, the Silk Road is actually a series of connecting routes that stretch 5,000 miles (over land and sea) from the Mediterranean to China. Though the term was coined in 1877 by a German geographer, the route has been used for thousands of years. Pictured above—a majestic view of China's West Lake.

This 220-mile journey, best done by car, traces the route the ancient Greeks took on their way to the site of the original Olympic Games. The road twists and turns through gentle rolling hills dotted with olive trees. Tony Perrottet, author of The Naked Olympics, which is about the origins of the games, says, “It’s hard to beat passing by villages and medieval monasteries that look like they haven’t changed for centuries.”

This nearly 6,000-mile, eight-time-zone-spanning railway is the world’s most popular historic train route. Traversing the sometimes severe landscapes of Russia, Siberia, Mongolia, and China, the Trans-Siberian is like “one big party” says Mary Morris, who made the journey for her travelogue Wall to Wall. Pictured above, the Trans Siberian Express traveling through a fall landscape.

First the Romans came and conquered the Nile River, cruising southward into Africa armed mainly with curiosity for what was beyond the known world. They’d stop to gawk at monuments and mummies. A couple millennia later, the Victorian British were back at it, navigating the Nile for the same reasons their traveling predecessors had. Pictured above, Ramses Temple and the Nile shoreline at Abu Simbel.

The Mississippi, the ultimate American river, is arguably the heart of America, says Mary Morris, whose recent travelogue traces her journey down the waterway. The 2,320 mile-long river stretches from the Land of 10,000 Lakes to the Big Easy, but Morris suggests boating the section between LaCrosse, Wisconsin and Dubuque, Iowa, where the lush beauty resembles other, exotic parts of the world.

This historic railway has become synonymous with luxury and exotic travel. Originally, the line went from Paris to Constantinople, but its ownership as well as routing has changed many times since then. Today the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express is run by Orient Express Hotels, Trains and Cruises, and passengers can embark from London, Paris or Venice. The Istanbul route includes stops in Budapest and Bucharest, just like in old times when the trains were operated by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits

The most famous Roman road was built in 312 B.C. and connected Rome to the south of Italy. Today it’s a great place for travelers to escape the chaos of the Italian capital. Writer Tony Perrottet says you can start in the Roman Forum and follow Via Appia Antica out of the city, passing by the famed catacombs, as well as ancient mausoleums. Today the millennia-old structures along the Appia share space with the modern-day mansions of Rome’s cultural and political elite.

You don’t have to be a Buddhist to enjoy this 800-mile-long pilgrimage route on the Japanese island of Shikoku. The lush natural beauty, jaw-dropping coast, and historic temples might be enough to lure the curious traveler, but as Don George says, “Walking the temple route is a pathway to the scenic and spiritual heart of Japan.” Pictured above, a stone gateway in Jinja, Shikoku.

This 51-mile rail line feels like a train ride to the top of the earth. And it almost is. With 550 bridges, 909 hairpin curves, and not a single tunnel, the route taken by the “Toy Train,” as it’s nicknamed, goes from Silijuri to Darjeeling in the Indian state of West Bengal. At times reaching elevations of 2,200 meters, the train line is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This 95-mile trek, made up of old military routes, reveals Scotland at its best. Beginning in Glasgow, Scotland’s biggest city, and ending on the top of the 1,300-meter-high Ben Nevis, the West Highland Way is an ideal tapestry of nature and culture wrapped up in a series of well-marked hiking trails. Pictured above, a team of hikers scales the heights of Ben Nevis.

The country's largest province is also its last frontier: a protected archipelago of 1,768 islands, located between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea. Intrepid travelers can discover its unique wilderness by swimming across the Danao, a volcanic lake, and boating along Puerto-Princesa, the longest underground tributary in the world and one of two UNESCO World Heritage sites in the region. The 18-day journey costs $4,600, airfare not included. Future adventures include Mozambique and Mongolia. www.pioneerexpeditions.com

Isolated for 36 years, the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya is back in the international fold. This 13-day journey with Mountain Travel Sobek, a northern California-based firm, takes visitors from the capital, Tripoli, along the Mediterranean to the 2,000-year-old city of Sabratha, and then into the cinnamon-colored Sahara. There are six departures in as many months starting in November at $5,030 per person, not including airfare. www.mtsobek.com

Located on top of a glacier-topped couloir at an altitude of 4,921 feet in the Swiss Alps, Whitepod is a ski resort unlike any other. No more than 10 guests at a time stay in a smattering of ecochic geodesic domes high above the ski resort of Villars. There's no running water or electricity, but plenty of luxe creature comforts: wood-burning stoves, sheepskin rugs, 14-tog duvets, Tilley lamps and iPod speakers. While Whitepod's expert guides and instructors help guests cut first tracks into the powder, owner and host Sofia de Meyer whips up champagne fondue and hearty pot à feu for guests above. Rooms (including guides, instruction, meals, ski passes and transfers from Geneva) from $265 per night. www.whitepod.com

Take three days to explore the country's southernmost province, a panorama populated by Bactrian camels, Argali mountain sheep, and saker falcons. You'll sleep in traditional-style tents called gers and wake up to skies that would put Montana's to shame. The rest of the 15-day itinerary with International Expeditions ($3,798 per person) includes visits to Mongolia's largest lake, Lake Hovsgol, located amid serrated mountains and a coniferous taiga forest. www.ietravel.com

Since 1991, Quark Expeditions has been leading a half-dozen Arctic adventures each year, the pièce de résistance being the 16-day journey from Murmansk to the pole aboard the Russian nuclear icebreaker, the Yamal. The $18,995 trip (airfare not included) entitles passengers to a twin cabin ($24,995 for the suite) and a host of luxuries: a heated indoor swimming pool, exercise room and sauna. The journey includes a day-long crossing of the Barents Sea, three days of travel through the Polar Ice Pack and a day at the pole before the return journey through Franz Josef Land, where spotting polar bears, Arctic fox and beluga whales is a breeze. www.quarkexpeditions.com

Forget sailing the Eastern Shore, the Long Island Sound or the Great Lakes. To do something truly unforgettable and liberating, join 17 others for the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. At more than 35,000 miles, the race will take some 10 months to complete. And considering that fewer people have circumnavigated the globe in a yacht than have climbed Mount Everest, you can be a part of an elite group with those rarefied bragging rights. The entire journey -- which starts in southern England, goes to South America, around the horn of Africa, through Asia, across the Pacific, through the Panama Canal and across the Atlantic -- costs $56,193. But you can also opt for each of the seven legs, which cost anywhere from $6,379 to $7,805 (plus $5,533 for training and kit). Among the ports of call for the 68-feet yachts are New York, Durban, South Africa, and Singapore. www.clipper-ventures.com

After decades of war, this former Portuguese colony is firmly back on the map -- at least for intrepid travelers. Five-star hotels and lodges abound, and these are the perfect places from which you can launch a journey to the Quirimbas archipelago, an unspoiled paradise of wildlife on the island nation's northeast coast. Jakera Adventures offers 12-day journeys led by wildlife photographer Paul Kerrison, first by kayak or traditional dhow through this astonishing waterscape dotted with pristine coral, and then by four-wheel drive through the savanna, speckled with 112 species of birds, including mangrove kingfishers and Madagascar bee-eaters. The journey costs $7,350, including meals, lodging and equipment but not airfare. www.adventure-kayaking.com

Discover the island aboard an Icelandic SuperJeep: a specially modified Ford Excursion with a six-liter, 400-horsepower engine, 44-inch partially inflated studded tires and the latest safety and navigation equipment -- which despite weather, will safely bring you face-to-face with this island's dramatic landscapes, including the Geysir geothermal area, Gullfoss waterfall and the amazing Blue Lagoon. The three-night SuperJeep Weekend Safaris start from $1,187 and include airfare between the U.K. and Keflavik as well as three nights accommodation in rooms with private facilities; entrance to the Blue Lagoon; two guided 8-10-hour SuperJeep excursions and airport taxes. www.discover-the-world.co.uk/iceland

Follow in the footsteps of Alexander the Great and Marco Polo as you discover Central Asia's five ex-Soviet 'Stans: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan. The 18-day journey ($8,980 without airfare) begins in the steppes of Kazakhstan and moves west to the shores of the Caspian Sea in Turkmenistan. Since the region was virtually unexplored, you'll see everything from Kyrgyzstan's Saka petroglyphs to Kazakhstan's Zenkov Cathedral and Uzbekistan's Bibi Khanym mosque. While the trip does have a city-hopping flavor, there are plenty of opportunities for naturalists to explore, especially Kazakhstan's Aksu River and Kyrgyzstan's Ala-Archa Gorge, native land of the increasingly rare snow leopards. www.zeco.com

How about sky diving? Not the regular variety from a couple of thousand feet -- a 30,000-foot jump. That's exactly what Incredible Adventures peddles. The firm, which organizes outrageous daredevil lunacies like flying MiG jets over Moscow, swimming with sharks and air-combat scenarios, offers thrill seekers HALO: a high-altitude, low-open 30,000-feet dive from its base outside Memphis. The $3,495 tandem outings (travel and accommodation not included) are the highest civilian dives ever recorded.www.incredible-adventures.com

Cape Town, South Africa

The one stop for high-altitude aviation junkies, Thunder City in Cape Town, South Africa owns and flies one of the world's most diverse and exclusive squadron of former military jets, including English Electric Lightnings (famous for their role as interceptors during the Cold wWr), the BAe Buccaneer or the Hawker Hunter, the pride of the Royal Air Force and the most successful British fighter jet ever built. They specialize in supersonic flights, high-speed aerial acrobatics and surface-hugging, low-altitude passes.

For more information, visit www.thundercity.com.

Cornwall, UK

Spice up your next bucolic holiday in England with Dinscott Tank & Military Collection. Located in rustic Cornwall, Dinscott is one of the largest purveyors of privately owned mainly post-war British armored vehicles and tanks. Some of the most notable are the 55 ton Chieftain main battle tank, the GKN Fv 432 Armored Personnel Carrier with space for 12 fully equipped infantrymen or the Hagglund Bv 206, also known as the Snowcat, which is still in use and was originally designed for use in the Artic circle by the Royal Marines. All are available to clients who take the helm and put these monsters through a grueling 1 1/2 mile off-road course.

For more information, visit www.tankdriving.net

Edinburgh, Scotland

Forget spending thousands and jetting off to some remote location just so you can have a possible encounter with shark -- albeit from behind the confines of a steel cage. In the wilds of Edinburgh, Scotland, you can dive into a 1.1 million gallon tank for a meet-and-greet with Europe's largest collection of sharks in what is billed as an underwater safari. There are 2000 other fish, including stingrays and crabs, floating about as well. If the daytime dives and shark-awareness courses aren't rigorous enough, Deep Sea World offers hair-raising night dives.

For more information, visit www.sharkdives.deepseaworld.com

Phalaborwa, South Africa

For the aspiring bushman, few adventures are as rewarding as the game ranger program offered by Ian Owtram of Antares, a field guide training center in Phalaborwa in South Africa's Limpopo Province, which is often referred to as the Central Gate to the Kruger National Park. The six week-long courses are accredited by FGASA (The Field Guides Association of Southern Africa) and are meant for aspiring field guides as well as those who want a more broad-based knowledge about animals, their surroundings and more. In addition to intensive practical and written training, clients work in the field and up close with some of the world's rarest species.

For more information, visit www.antares.co.za

Worldwide

Offering everything from MiG fighter jet flights over Moscow to zero gravity astronaut training and European rally racing, Incredible Adventures offers an eclectic set of envelope-pushing programs. Some of their most interesting are piloting (in the full sense of the word) the iconic Douglas DC-3, taking off in an ultralight, driving a NASCAR-style, 500-horsepower car, or learning to do covert ops, be it driving James Bond-style, escaping an ambush or pistol training.

For more information visit www.incredible-adventures.com

West Virginia

If you've ever found yourself transfixed on the rodeo races on RFD-TV, then Zbulls is perfect for you, even if you are an ABR (short for amateur bull rider). The West Virginia-based company will elucidate you on all the finer points of the discipline, including how to deal with a double kicker (a bull that kicks up with the hind legs, walks on the front legs and then kicks again with the hind legs, before the hind legs touch the ground) and an Honest Bucker (a bull that bucks the same way every time out of the chute), all the while making sure you are never ever Freight Trained (a contestant or clown that gets run over by a bull traveling at top speed).

www.zbulls.com

Offering flights to the International Space Station, as well as suborbital excursions and dozens of related jaunts like centrifuge training, this respected outfitter is a one-stop shop for the serious space explorer. What's more, you needn't be a certified cosmonaut to get a feel for the experience. Thanks to programs like their Launch Tours, visitors can witness the crew of the Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft soar into orbit, tour the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia and then make for the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard Space Adventures' chartered jet.

For more information: www.spaceadventures.com

For $200,000 per person, SpaceShipTwo (built by Scaled Composites in Mojave, California) will carry just six passengers in reclining seats for the 2.5-hour flight to the edge of Earth (about 60,000 feet). There they can gaze at the curvature of the Earth and the cosmos above. Best of all, if you're a Virgin Atlantic frequent flyer, you can trade in your miles (all two million of them) for a free trip on Virgin Galactic.

For more information: www.virgingalactic.com

With 24 underwater suites, each featuring panoramas of breathtaking coral landscapes, this "seven-star" hotel will be entirely unique. The resort, which will initially only offer seven-day stays costing $15,000 per person, is spread over 225 acres of a private island in Fiji. If sleeping with the fishes isn't your style, you can choose to relax in a stilted bungalow over the sea.

For more information: www.poseidonresorts.com

Dubai's latest out-of-this-world project will be located just offshore, at a depth of 33 feet in the waters of the Persian Gulf. The $620 million Hydropolis Underwater Resort Hotel, designed by Munich-based architect Joachim Hauser, will be a bowl-shaped structure located in a man-made lagoon with 200 rooms and 30 suites, anchored to the seafloor. Set to open in late 2008 at $1,000 a night, Hydropolis will also include a concert auditorium and a 'beach' with artificial clouds and security by way of an anti-missile radar system. The company is also planning projects in Oman, Monaco, Las Vegas, Rio de Janeiro and China.

For more information: www.crescent-hydropolis.com

Offering half a dozen pricey expeditions, this stellar outfit will bring you face to face with the Titanic in the icy waters of the North Atlantic for $38,900 or take you on an 11-hour journey to rendezvous with the German battleship Bismarck off the coast of France for $29,000. The company also offers less extreme dives to the tropical wonders of Papua New Guinea's Solomon Sea.

For more information: www.deepoceanexpeditions.com