Kim Brown Seely

As every traveler knows, milestone birthdays are the perfect excuse for milestone trips. But when my husband was planning for his 70th and our sons asked, “What are we doing for Dad’s birthday?” we realized our family had morphed into something very different from the one that had trekked the Andes for my 50th and the Dolomites for my 55th.

Unlike us, the roads were bendy, with no shoulders, and took their sweet time threading between stone walls and thorn trees. All morning we’d been driving on the left of these narrow, winding roads, as one does in Ireland, muttering (or worse) at occasional oncoming traffic.

Following the devastation of Hurricane Helene, the Great Smoky Mountains in spring are still alive with fireflies, fish, and elk. What the area needs now is tourists.

A couple embarks on an epic voyage across land and sea.

The power of a handwritten note is how it makes you feel.

Our kids were coming for Christmas, but it was the elk who stayed for dinner.

From whale watching to bunking at rustic-luxe resorts, here are six ways to embrace the remote wilderness that is British Columbia’s largest marine park.

A study links green spaces to lower hospitalizations

See the largest coastal temperate rainforest left on Earth.

Bits of white ice bob around our ship in the dark-blue sea, and every so often an iceberg floats by. It’s 5:30 am aboard National Geographic Resolution, but the sun hasn’t set all night. The vessel, on its inaugural voyage to the Arctic, glides silently up a bright fjord, and I’m up early – too excited to sleep – taking in the beauty while northern fulmars streak past like wingmen.

A search for healing – and leopards – in Botswana’s wide-open spaces.

Hiking, biking, dogsledding, and guiding: From Zimbabwe’s plains to Puglia’s hills, lives lived out of doors make for great wisdom – and great stories. Eight adventurers share their thoughts on why it’s important to get outside and what we can learn from nature.

Floating to Antarctica and Other Daydreams.

Click into central Idaho's legendary ski zone and cultural epicenter.

The water was blue and the torii gate standing knee deep in it was red. We walked toward it on a sandy path. My sister and I could hear the rustling of the forest to our left and the whispering of the sea to our right. The moment felt ephemeral, yet eternal. Young students in navy-blue sailor uniforms schooled around us, and the scent of pines drifted past, invigorating after the ship’s climate control. But then all of it was invigorating: the rustic simplicity of the iconic red shrine – arms raised to the sacred island it’s faced for hundreds of years – and the sleek cruise ship and cabin we were sharing for a week, a floating microcosm of French chic bumping up against the rarefied beauty of Japan.

Pristine nature and a dose of fitness buoy a cruise in Baja California Sur.

A Montana artist breathes new life into the things adventurers carry.

Getting back to basics for a big celebration.

Blissful downshifting in Portugal’s undiscovered Alentejo region.

A journey to the end of the earth reveals that, sometimes, we need to go far to go deep.

A lifelong love of the literary giant leads to the backroads, bars, and boats of Key West, Florida.

An Indian exploration in two acts.

Big landscapes and intimate lodges on New Zealand's South Island.

Notes on mountains of soul-stirring beauty.

How one young family took a historic but dilapidated Wyoming guest ranch, made it their own, and now invite you to visit.

Life is busy but rivers are long, which makes them ideal for friends and family bonding.

Expedition cruising takes a turn for the luxe on a journey through Melanesia.

In Italy’s boot heel, a coastal escape that’s long on allure and short on crowds.

In this storied Himalayan kingdom, travelers find serpentine roads, ancient Buddhist traditions, crimson robed monks, and, yes, rack of lamb with arugula for dinner.

On board a vintage sailing yacht, a Mediterranean voyage through Greece and Turkey turns back time - and turns heads.

Nothing really prepares you for your first day in the Great Bear Rainforest. It’s one of the planet’s last great expanses of coastal temperate rain forest, a place where you can still find salmon, wolves, eagles, grizzlies, and even the rare Kermode — or spirit — bear.

A trip up or down the Yangtze means you see the economic tsunami that is China floating by.

A private villa in Umbria, a Roman shopping spree, and the crucial element: friends who make the most of it all. No one checked e-mail. Everyone slept in, steeped in sensuous well-being and dolce far niente.

Charles weighed 400 pounds, stood nearly six feet when fully upright, and was 100 percent alpha male. His massive black head was luxuriantly hairy, and our eyes met daringly as he reclined in a bamboo thicket as big as a Barcalounger.

When Seattle’s Debbi and Paul Brainerd went looking for a weekend place on nearby Bainbridge Island, they heard that 1,100 acres of forest were being sold off in 20-acre lots. Instead of scoping out favorite parcels, Debbi decided that they should build a school in the woods for kids who rarely had a chance to leave the city.

Three generations take to the Colorado River for an awe-inspiring trip through the Grand Canyon.

After a taverna lunch of stuffed grape leaves and tomatoes, lamb, roast potatoes and pitchers of local wine, we down Greek coffees and push off again. Despite full bellies bound in bike shorts, we promptly realize how much we love this. Moving through a country at the pace of a bike ride is a remarkably intimate way to experience it. And what you encounter during an afternoon’s ride, is well, everything. Every single dog barking. Each rooster crowing. The road, rising and falling. The group spreads out, so it is just my husband and me riding through acres of silvery-leaved olive orchards. We pass two leathery Greek ladies – sisters maybe – out for a stroll.

The wind was the distillation of cold itself. It shrieked down the ice-covered basalt cliffs, ripped across the bay, and shredded the rocky spit where I stood with a dozen other red-parka-clad travelers. Moments before, a Zodiac had dropped us off for a rare landing at Antarctica’s Elephant Island. We’d scrambled ashore, thrilled to set foot upon the aptly named Point Wild, the legendary beach where Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition had survived – on penguins and seals – for an unthinkable 137 days.

Take a short journey to Stehekin, Washington and discover an unplugged paradise for all ages

We are scared to death of getting sucked under a big tow, but at the same time, it is exhilarating. Fighting our way across the dark river beneath a black sky feels like paddling through the night itself.