VOYAGE LIKE A VIKING

Norway-Canada

Around 1,000 years after Leif Eriksson became the first European to set foot in North America, trace his epic route across the Atlantic. From the Norwegian port of Bergen, set sail for the Shetlands and Faroes, both rich in Viking history. Make a stop in Iceland, where Leif was born. Delve into Greenland’s rich Norse, Inuit and seafaring heritage before sailing the Newfoundland coast to visit the Viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows. Finish in cosmopolitan Montreal.

A 15-day In the Wake of the Vikings cruise costs from £7,040pp including flights; Aug 23 2021 (0800 298 9700; vikingcruises.co.uk).

FOLLOW HISTORIC FOOTSTEPS

Wild Frontiers’s new trip along the Via Egnatia offers the same cultural immersion and away- from- themasses feel as the company’s furtherflung itineraries – it’s just more accessible, for those who feel like holidaying closer to home. Follow in the steps of Saint Paul and Alexander the Great, roaming across little-visited northern Greece, hiking in Unescolisted Meteora, tasting under-sung wines, sailing on the Prespa lakes and tracking wild bears in the Pindus Mountains.

A 10-day, small-group Along the Via Egnatia trip costs from £2,695pp excluding flights; May 7 2021 (020 8741 7390; wildfrontierstravel.com).

HAVE A ‘NICE’ TIME

Kazakhstan

To find out if Kazakhstan is, as Borat would say, “very nice!”, head to the country’s wild west. Here you’ll find it is very nice indeed: visit historic Shymkent, a key stop on the Silk Road; explore the 14th-century Unescolisted site of Hodja Ahmed Yassawi; spot Soviet relics at Aktau beside the Caspian Sea; drive through the surreal, sci-fi-like landscape of Mangistau, where an underground mosque lies near the Valley of Balls; and expand your locked-down horizons in a place few visitors reach.

A 10-day tailor-made Kazakhstan’s Wild West trip costs from £3,450pp excluding flights (0117 427 0129; silkroad-adventures.com).

BE A PHARAOH

Egypt

If this is the year to tick off a classic, why not do it in greater style? Don’t just visit the pyramids, take a private sunrise tour before they open to the masses. Then delve into the Valley of the Kings after hours, to have the tombs to yourself, cruise the Nile on your own bygone-gorgeous dahabiya and take a jeep safari from Siwa oasis into the Great Sand Sea. A visit to the new Grand Egyptian Museum could be hoped for too; it is due to open in 2021.

A six-night tailor-made Egypt trip costs from £4,315pp excluding flights (0207 426 9888; blacktomato.com).

ESCAPE TO ISLAND LIFE

Indonesia

For something completely different, plot a pioneering adventure across Sulawesi, one of the world’s most oddly shaped and culturally fascinating islands. From frenetic Makassar, plunge into the highlands to meet the Toraja people – learn about their curious funeral rituals, stay in a Tongkonan house and raft through wilderness. Roam the villages and hills around to Lake Poso, one of the world’s deepest, discover the prehistoric megaliths of the Bada Valley; and sail to the Togean Islands for dazzling reefs.

A 20-day tailor-made Adventure in Sulawesi trip costs from £3,795pp including flights (020 7720 9285; bambootravel.co.uk).

Phoebe Smith

Travel for me used to be about visiting landmarks and ticking them off as

though items on a shopping list, but that all changed at Uluru. I was persuaded to try something more adventurous – a couple of nights camping in a swag. I thought I would hate it, but as the tour buses left and I lay in my sleeping bag under a night sky pockmarked

with stars, I was spellbound. As dawn broke I woke to the sighing of the winds

and the call of the honeyeaters, fairy wrens and butcher-birds. A

cataclysmic shift happened in me – no

longer would I be content simply seeing a

place – I wanted to immerse myself within it and create moments to remember, ones that no photo could ever

capture. This is adventure travel at its best. May it soon return.

TRACKS TO TRANSYLVANIA

Romania

If the modern world feels too much right now, head to Transylvania, where time stands still. Explore by road and rail – including a handful of steamhauled narrow- gauge trains – and watch a bygone world roll by: Saxon villages, wooden churches, horse carts, haystacks. Visit the fortified citadel of Sighisoara ( birthplace of Vlad the Impaler), the painted monasteries of Bucovina and the ancient region of Maramures, sleeping in some familyrun homestays en route.

A 12-day small-group Rural Romania trip costs from £2,520pp including flights; Sept 1, Oct 6 2021 (01766 512400; ffestiniogtravel.com).