Step Into Your Next Chapter 

Every luxury vacation starts the same way, with something you want to discover. Uncovering it is like a story: some are written in adventure, others in mystery, in the quiet of a shared legacy, or the long horizon of an odyssey. Chapters of Discovery brings together four ways to explore 2027, one for every kind of traveler. 

Find the one that's calling, or take your time and read them all. 

Chapter One: The Adventure — Luxury Adventure Escapes for 2027 

Every story needs a pulse. Here, it quickens with a summit reached at dawn, a rapid taken at speed, a creature watched in the wild on its own terms. Skis carve fresh lines through the Alps and the backcountry of North America. A boat drifts into the Okavango Delta as the light breaks. A peak in the Dolomites is earned, one step at a time. This is travel measured in altitude, distance, and encounter. Six of our top recommendations for 2027: 

Iceland: Peninsula Escape at Deplar Farm  

Heli-ski untouched powder straight from the lodge, or swap skis for horse rides, kayaking and highland hikes come summer, each day shaped by private guides. Hidden in the Troll Peninsula's folds, Eleven Deplar Farm pairs grass-topped roofs and floor-to-ceiling mountain views with a geothermal pool and firelit Icelandic cooking, raw adventure meeting quiet retreat. 

Costa Rica: River Rush  

A mile of unhurried tubing through a narrow canyon, rock walls closing in as the current carries you gently past hot waterspouts and hidden alcoves, before a few hundred yards of rapids and natural chutes send you bouncing and spinning through the finale. Keep your eyes up because howler monkeys swing through the canopy overhead, colorful trogons and tiger herons perch in the trees, and if you are really lucky, you might spot a sphiggurus, a prehensile-tailed porcupine that calls this canyon home. 

South Africa: Frontline Rhino Conservation 

Join the reserve's ecological team and specialist vets, including Dr Will Fowlds, on the frontline of rhino conservation. Depending on the day's needs, you might witness DNA sampling, ear-notching for identification, or the fitting of solar-powered tracking collars, hands-on work protecting one of Africa's most endangered species. 

Japan: Framing Fuji 

Climb the steps to Chureito Pagoda, heart pumping, anticipation building with every level. Then it appears: the pagoda framing Mt. Fuji exactly like the postcards, only more powerful in person. Snow-capped and serene, the mountain rises beyond the red tiers below, an iconic shot best seen at dawn before the crowds arrive. 

Ski: Heli-Skiing the Skeena Mountains 

Board a helicopter into the Skeena Mountains of British Columbia, landing on slopes no lift has ever touched. With just five guests per aircraft and 2.2 million acres to explore, your guide chases the best snow of the day: deep bowls, glacier descents, and fresh tracks through silent, untouched wilderness, far from any chairlift or crowd. 

Botswana: The Bush on Foot  

Trade the vehicle for your own two feet and let the bush reveal its smaller details: a beetle's trail, a fresh print, the alarm call that means something is near. The pace is unhurried, set to your fitness and curiosity, but nothing sharpens the senses quite like tracking wildlife on foot, deep in the heart of the Okavango Delta. 

Wherever the pulse quickens first, that's where this chapter starts writing its next line. 

Chapter Two: The Mystery — Cultural & Historical Escapes for 2027 

The Mystery is for those drawn to what history hasn't fully explained. From the songlines of Australia's red center to the lost cities of Peru's high Andes, the temples and tombs of Egypt's desert to India's layered, unfinished past, and Italy, an empire whose ruins have never stopped giving up their secrets, this chapter moves through civilisations older than memory, places built to keep as much as they reveal, and rarely in a hurry to explain themselves. Five of our top recommendations for 2027: 

Egypt: The Colossi of Abu Simbel 

Guarding the entrance of Abu Simbel tower four 20-meter statues of Ramses II, carved into the rock face thirty centuries ago to declare his power to Nubia. Saved from Lake Nasser's rising waters in the 1960s and lifted sixty-five meters to safety, the temple remains one of Egypt's most staggering feats, ancient ambition still fully intact. 

Peru: Kuélap, City of the Cloud Warriors 

Nearly a thousand years older than Machu Picchu, Kuélap was built by the Chachapoya, the Cloud Warriors, whose walls rise twenty meters above the cloud forest. Over four hundred stone dwellings sit hidden behind a fortress few outsiders have ever heard of, let alone visited. This is Peru's other lost city, quieter, older, and still waiting to be properly understood. 

India: Mehrangarh, Fortress of the Blue City 

Four hundred feet above Jodhpur, Mehrangarh rises straight from the rock, so imposing that Kipling called it "the work of giants." Rao Jodha raised it in 1459, and it still commands the Blue City below, indigo rooftops and market lanes where dyers and block-printers keep centuries-old crafts alive, the very trade that gave the world its jodhpurs. 

Italy: Valley of the Doric Kings 

The poet Pindar once called Agrigento "the most beautiful of those inhabited by mortals," and its Valley of the Temples still earns that praise. Doric columns have stood here since 582 BC, the Temple of Concordia among the best-preserved in the world. Walk the ridge between them, then picnic among the citrus groves of Kolymbethra Garden. 

Australia: Sunset at Uluru 

Watch Uluru shift through its full spectrum of rust and crimson as the sun drops behind the desert, a transformation the Anangu have witnessed for tens of thousands of years. Dine beneath a blanket of stars at the Sound of Silence, serenaded by a lone didgeridoo, in a landscape that feels older than time itself. 

Some places take a lifetime to fully understand: consider this chapter the first few pages. 

Chapter Three: The Legacy — Family & Multigenerational Escapes for 2027 

The Legacy belongs to those who travel not to see a place, but to be changed by the people in it. A honeymoon over Maldivian water, grandparents and grandchildren sharing a Kenyan sunrise, a family finding its rhythm in Thailand, a recipe learned from local hands. This chapter moves through the moments that outlast the escape itself: a toast raised in another language, a tradition handed down through generations, a place that asks you to stay a little longer than planned. Some stories are remembered. These are the ones that get retold. Six of our top recommendations for 2027: 

Thailand: ChangChill's Elephants 

Walk into the Mae Wang valley to ChangChill, born when Supakorn Tananseth set out to build a sanctuary that would properly care for and protect the elephants his family had tended for generations. Here, four resident elephants roam exactly as they choose, observed only, while mahouts who've known them for years teach you to read a shift in mood from a flick of an ear. 

Vietnam: Trek Terraces Older Than Memory 

The Black H'Mong have shaped these mountains for centuries, turning steep slopes into the terraced rice fields that define Sapa today. Trek from Topas Ecolodge into Sin Chai Village, at the foot of Fansipan Mountain, where villagers still live by their ancestors' way of life, and a visit to a local home reveals just how much of that heritage remains intact. 

Kenya: Sunrise Over the Mara 

Rise before dawn and climb aboard a hot air balloon, lifting silently above the Mara as the sun spills gold across the plains, herds of wildebeest and zebra scattered below like shadows. Descend to a champagne breakfast amid the wilderness, then let a game drive carry you home, one of Africa's great mornings. 

Caribbean: Sailing the British Virgin Islands 

Set sail aboard a private catamaran through the BVI's 60 islands, dropping anchor wherever the wind and the day suggest. Steady trade winds and calm waters make this some of the most forgiving sailing in the world, equally suited to first-timers and experienced sailors. Explore deserted atolls and centuries-old shipwrecks along the way, or let the crew take you ashore for a few days on dry land. 

Maldives: A Night on Your Private Sandbank 

At Soneva Fushi, a private boat carries you to your own sandbank in the Baa Atoll, where the only footprints in the sand are yours. A Bedouin-style tent awaits, complete with a private bathroom, and a personal chef serves a candlelit dinner before quietly leaving you to the stars. Wake to breakfast delivered whenever you're ready for it, in a sanctuary built for two. 

Ireland: Tales by Candlelight 

By candlelight, a local storyteller draws you into Ireland's oldest tradition: tales of mischievous leprechauns, restless fairies and ghosts that have been told exactly this way for generations, long before they were ever written down. It's an intimate hour, held wherever you're staying, that connects you to the island's soul the way locals always have, through voice rather than the page. 

These are the escapes people ask to repeat, the ones that get handed down. 

Chapter Four: The Odyssey — Rail and Cruise Escapes for 2027 

The Odyssey belongs to those who measure things in distance from the ordinary. A polar icebreaker easing through silence, a private train crossing country that has no name for hurry, a boat delivered to an island most maps have quietly forgotten, here the arrival is only ever half the story. Every mile asks something of you, and gives back in kind: a colony of Emperor penguins, a view across the peaks of the Isle of Skye, a reef restored by hand for a future not yet arrived. Here, the route is every bit as worthwhile as the destination. Six of our top recommendations for 2027: 

Italy: Splendours of Sicily and the Adriatic Coast 

Board La Dolce Vita Orient Express in Palermo and watch a spectacle few train crossings can offer: the entire train decoupled and loaded onto a ferry to cross the Strait of Messina. In Sicily, wander Taormina's ancient theater before returning to the train for dinner as it continues north toward Rome. From there, the route changes shape entirely aboard Ilma, sailing past the Amalfi Coast before ending in Venice. 

Indonesia: The Last Dragons on Earth 

Board a speedboat through the Komodo archipelago to track the last living dragons on earth, ancient reptiles unchanged since prehistory, on guided treks across Komodo Island. Cool off on the pink sands of Pink Beach, snorkel the reefs of Taka Makasar, and drift alongside manta rays at Manta Point, before the day closes on the coral gardens of Kanawa Island. 

Antarctica: Rare Exploration of the Weddell Sea 

Few ships venture into the Weddell Sea, one of Antarctica's least explored corners, where the world's clearest water gives way to tabular icebergs and mountains that rise straight from snow-free ground. Humpback whales surface to feed on krill, curious orcas trail the ship, and Paulet Island alone holds 100,000 pairs of Adélie penguins nesting around its volcanic cone. 

Greece: The Sanctuary at Despotiko 

Board a private speedboat from Paros and thread through the Aegean's hidden corners: the Blue Lagoon's crystal shallows at Panteronisia, the cliffs and sea caves along Antiparos's southwest coast, and finally the untrodden shores of Despotiko, where the ruined Sanctuary of Apollo and Artemis still catches the Cycladic sun, once a gathering place for believers, now for those who simply find their way there. 

USA: Walking with Bears, Alaska 

From Tutka Bay Lodge, a water taxi and a scenic flight carry you over glaciers and volcanoes to a remote beach in Katmai National Park, home to one of the densest populations of brown bears on Earth. On foot with an expert guide, walk alongside bears fishing, grazing on sedge grass or simply resting, close enough to feel the true scale of Alaskan wilderness. 

Scotland: Aboard the Royal Scotsman  

Board at Edinburgh's Waverley Station to the sound of a lone piper, and step aboard nine beautifully restored 1960s Pullman carriages carrying just 36 guests through the Highlands. Days bring castles reflected in still lochs, whisky tastings, and Highland safaris; evenings mean a dram from thirty malts in the lounge car, and a formal dinner as the glens roll past. 

For those who want the story measured in distance, not days. 

Every great story leaves you wanting the next chapter. And ours is only just beginning. New places are finding their way into our pages, familiar ones are revealing themselves in new light, and the journeys ahead are still being written, with you. So the only question that remains is this: which chapter will you explore next?