Close your eyes and picture your next adventure. Maybe you’re envisioning craggy peaks that beg to be climbed, or a white crescent of sand where the sea teems with life. Whatever your version of exploration looks like, it doesn’t have to mean venturing to the far corners of the globe. Some of the most extraordinary journeys lie surprisingly close—no long-haul flight or jet lag required.
With National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions, exploring nearby means rediscovering the wonder waiting in our own backyard, where familiar landscapes transform into something extraordinary. Paddle through rainforest channels alive with scarlet macaws, trace volcanic shorelines shaped by fire and ice, or uncover the cultural stories that give each region its soul.
Here are seven destinations that feel worlds away—despite being close to home.
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Just a five-hour flight from Boston, you’ll find yourself in the otherworldly “land of fire and ice”—a moniker that is anything but hyperbolic given Iceland’s density of spouting volcanoes and riverine glacial floes.
On Arctic Edges: Iceland, Westfjords to East Greenland, travelers witness the North Atlantic at its wildest, from the steep-sided fjords of Iceland’s remote Westfjords to the iceberg-dotted inlets of East Greenland. In tiny Djúpavík, the rusted herring plant tells of an industrious past, while the cliffs of Vigur teem with puffins and eider ducks. Across the Denmark Strait, Zodiac rides bring you face-to-face with calving glaciers and the raw stillness of the Arctic wilderness.
Or venture farther on Wild Arctic Shores: Circumnavigating Iceland and Exploring Greenland, which completes a full loop around the island and beyond. Along the way, walk the rim of volcanic craters, cross the Arctic Circle at Grímsey and gaze down from the sea cliffs of Borgarfjörður Eystri, where thousands of puffins wheel through the air. The route continues to Greenland’s glacier-carved coast—an epic sweep of ice, water, and stone that captures the untamed spirit of the far north.
Get your fix of the tropics without the long-haul flight on an expedition along the vibrant coasts of Panama and Colombia. On Panama and Colombia: Exploring the Caribbean Coast, travelers move beyond the beaches into the living heart of the tropics—where rainforests, coral reefs and centuries-old cultures converge. Explore the palm-fringed isles of the Guna Yala archipelago, meet the Zenú artisans who handweave Colombia’s iconic sombrero vueltiao, and wander colorful riverfront towns alive with music and tradition. Between hikes in howler monkey territory and kayaking through mangrove forests, experience the thrill of transiting the Panama Canal—a passage between two worlds.
For a more romantic approach, sail aboard Sea Cloud II, a stately four-masted vessel that feels lifted from a Turner painting. On itineraries tracing routes from Barbados to St. Lucia or Antigua to the British Virgin Islands, days unfold at the pace of the trade winds. Glide beneath billowing sails, swim from hidden beaches, and stroll through lively colonial towns. Along the way, explore UNESCO treasures like St. Kitts’ Brimstone Hill Fortress and St. Lucia’s twin Pitons, and soak up the timeless rhythm of life under sail.
Scattered through the waters that abut Seattle, the San Juan Islands hold stretches of remote wilderness that feels like the ends of the earth—and they’re just the first stop on the eight-day Exploring British Columbia and the San Juan Islands adventure. Paddle along where pine forest meets the sea, or hike inland for sweeping views of the inky blue ocean beyond.
Across the border, the stately provincial capital of Victoria has lush English-style gardens, baroque architecture and sailboats bobbing in the harbor. After crossing the Johnstone Strait, it’s on to Alert Bay to learn about the cultural heritage of the Kwakwaka’wakw people. The expedition winds down in Vancouver, but not before a final dose of wilderness: hikes and kayak excursions in Desolation Sound, a vast expanse of deep water framed by lush temperate rainforest and the snow-capped Coast Mountains.
Costa Rica’s lush landscape is one of the easiest to reach for American travelers at just under three hours from Miami. In no time, you can find yourself within reach of toucans, monkeys and tropical rainforests.
On Costa Rica and the Panama Canal, travelers can spend just over a week discovering some of the greatest natural and man-made marvels on the globe.
Start your journey in Puerto Caldera, then venture to Corcovado National Park on the Osa Peninsula, one of the most biodiverse parks on the planet, where you can plunge into waterfall pools and listen to the calls of capuchin monkeys and scarlet macaws overhead. Take Zodiacs into the blue-green waters of Golfo Dulce and watch for rare birds flitting amid the canopy, snorkel in the UNESCO-listed bays surrounding Isla Coiba, and transit the many locks of the Panama Canal, a wonder of engineering that glows golden after sunset.
The southernmost tip of the Baja Peninsula is too often pigeonholed as a beach-resort hotspot, but those intrepid enough to look beyond the swim-up bars and breakfast buffets of Los Cabos will find one of the globe’s great marine paradises.
Along the way, you’ll find opportunities to snorkel among sea lions, get up-close with newborn whale calves on a panga boat, or trek along coastal desert trails spotting spiny-tailed iguanas and towering giant cardon cacti.
Just north of the border, the Maritimes and Newfoundland are a bastion of rich Acadian-influenced culture and endless seascapes. Visit the fishing community of Saint-Pierre, a sliver of French territory on the Canadian coast, and wander the cobbled streets of Old Québec, a UNESCO World Heritage site where French, British and Indigenous influences mingle beneath centuries-old ramparts. Cruise through the glacier-carved Saguenay Fjord, watching for belugas and minke whales as cliffs rise dramatically from the water, and take in the wild, windswept beauty of the Îles de la Madeleine.
At Gros Morne National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site, millions of years of erosion and uplift have exposed ancient portions of the Earth’s crust and mantle, making this one of the best places to glimpse the planet’s geologic history. Another UNESCO site awaits on Newfoundland, where remnants of an 11th-century Viking settlement and recreations of early sod houses offer a window into what life was like when the first Europeans arrived in North America.
With its hulking glaciers, hemlock-blanketed hills and bays where orcas hunt and eagles soar languidly overhead, Alaska feels worlds away. But getting there is surprisingly breezy, particularly if you live on the West Coast—it’s just a two-and-a-half-hour flight from Seattle to Juneau.
On our six-day escapes, travelers can explore a wide breadth of Alaska wilderness aboard the 62-guest National Geographic Sea Lion and National Geographic Sea Bird. Opt for the Juneau to Ketchikan route to see LeConte Bay, where icebergs come in an array of blues to rival Picasso; Wrangell, where you’ll delve deep into the history and culture of the Indigenous Tlingit clan; and Misty Fjords National Monument, the physical embodiment of the word “cinematic.”
Or try the Sitka to Juneau itinerary, where you’ll get the chance to spot brown bears on Chichagof Island, kayak the calm outer waters of Glacier Bay and raft down the churning Chilkat River.
