7 trips that’ll change your life

Are you ready to go on the ultimate adventure?

By Ben Groundwater
Published: Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Not every holiday will change your life. Many will just pass in a pleasant blur of sleep-ins and email-free bliss. Some, however, will tip your world on its head. If you really want to be inspired, then these are the holidays for you.

Chase the Northern Lights

Just when you think you’ve seen everything the Earth can throw at you, when you’ve witnessed all the beauty possible, along comes the Aurora Borealis.
The mystical Northern Lights are best viewed in Norway, in the dark of winter and even if you miss the natural light show that’s so difficult to predict, there are experiences to be had up here that you’ll remember for the rest of your life.

Try spending the night above the Arctic Circle in a glass igloo, surrounded by pine forest, checking the sky for signs of pulsating light.

Go snowmobiling in the dead of night. Explore blue-ice caves carved out of glaciers. Experience true winter culture.

And, of course, keep your eyes on the sky.

Climb to Machu Picchu

There’s something truly great about hiking the Inca Trail, spending three days earning your time at the UNESCO heritage-listed conclusion, taking in the spectacular Andean scenery while taking the deepest of breaths in this high-altitude environment.

Then, the truly life-changing moment: standing at the Sun Gate in the pre-dawn gloom, watching as the light strengthens and Machu Picchu appears in all its glory.

It’s a moment you’ll never forget, and the chance to spend a full day exploring the site only heightens the experience.

Machu Picchu

Visit Antarctica

Penguins are the coolest. That’s something you very quickly realise in Antarctica.

These cute little creatures are endlessly watchable, as they waddle about in their tuxedoed groups, sliding down icy slopes on their bellies, huddling together forlornly as they suffer the indignity of their annual malting.

Penguins are great, but they’re not the only attraction in Antarctica.

This is one spectacular part of the world – a lonely, desolate place that’s also beautiful beyond description.

It’s the silence that gets you: the feeling of being so alone at the end of the Earth. It’s the blinding white of mountains and glaciers. It’s the creak and groan of icebergs, some shot through with iridescent blue. There’s nowhere else like this.

Wander the Fez medina in Morocco

It’s the old cliché: ‘a step back in time’. Except in Fez, it’s more than a cliché. It’s the truth.

To wander the 1000-year-old medina in this Moroccan city is to witness life the way it’s always been lived here: butchers chopping meat on big wooden blocks; spice vendors sitting behind colourful pyramids of produce; goods being delivered by donkey and cart; leather being cured and dyed in open-air vats; shoppers bustling through alleys.

Surrounded by walls, the old city is made up of narrow, maze-like streets leading to bustling squares.

You’ll get lost here, for sure. But you’ll be lost in another world.

Fez medina, Morocco.

Drive Southern Africa

It sounds intimidating – taking control of your own vehicle, exploring the vastness of countries such as South Africa, Namibia and Botswana on your own.

You’re camping in national parks, cooking your own food, spotting elephants near the road, listening as lions roar in the night.

It sounds intimidating, but this is an adventure.

And what an adventure. A self-drive trip in southern Africa is about choosing your own path and navigating your way through it. It’s about the thrill of discovery under your own steam. It’s about getting to know the real Africa, and realising that this place is not intimidating
at all.

It’s life-changing.

Walk the base of Uluru

For Australians, this is a way to gain an all-new understanding of the history and spirituality of our homeland.

Uluru is one of Australia’s most sacred sites, and a walk around its circumference, guided by a local Anangu (the traditional owners of Uluru), is the perfect introduction.

You can learn about the area’s flora and fauna, see rock art, hear a few of the local stories and legends, and appreciate the natural beauty of this land and the reason it is so sacred to those who’ve lived here for millennia.

You’ll never see Australia in the same way again.

See Uluru in all its wonder.

Watch a sunset at Ipanema Beach

Sometimes, it’s the simplest experiences that are the best. It’s the clichés. It’s the most unimaginative activities.

That’s a realisation you come to while sitting on the rocks at the eastern end of Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro, watching the surfers as they carve waves in the gentle light of dusk, seeing the sun dip below the hills in the distance, sipping a caipirinha sold by a street vendor, listening to the chatter of groups of locals and travellers sharing this experience.

It happens every single day – sunset on Ipanema – and yet it’s spell-binding, life-affirming and beautiful every time.

Ipanema beach, Rio.

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