MEET THE ASMAT OF WEST PAPUA
The Asmat region of West Papua was once notorious, due to its Indigenous people still practising headhunting deep into the 20th century. Those days are mercifully gone, but the Asmat and their villages are still wedded to traditions and practices dating back generations. This is a region that is still visited by few, and was all but off-limits until the early 2000s. Aqua Expeditions’ Asmat & New Guinea Cruise offers a glimpse into a way of life and history that is little known to most visitors, as you take a yacht (30 passengers max) around the West Papua coast, with jungle hikes revealing endemic forest kangaroos and waterfalls in between snorkelling the waters of Momon and Triton Bay. But the real lure here is the chance to meet and learn from the Asmat themselves. Aqua Expeditions (aquaexpeditions.com). Flexible dates; 7 nights from £9,455pp, excluding international flights.
JOIN A TRANSCONTINENTAL ARCTIC ESCAPE
Between the hip café culture of Iceland capital Reykjavik and the small-town wonders of tiny Churchill, Canada – known for its ‘polar bear jail’ and the hundreds of beluga whales that return every year to breed in Hudson Bay – there's an awful lot of adventure to be found. Silversea's Reykjavik to Churchill, Manitoba cruise exploits every inch, as you bounce up the west coast of Greenland on side trips to the Kangerlussuaq fjord and the brightly coloured historical houses of Paamiut, then cross over to Canada. Island pit stops break up the days at sea, as you pause to track down walruses on Lady Franklin (named after the widow of an explorer lost to these waters), the million-strong colony of Brünnich's guillemots on Akpatok, and drop by the Inuit arts community of Cape Dorset. Silversea (silversea.com). 9
