Alaska

Prepare to feel small and insignificant! In Alaska, nature is raw, unspoiled, magnificent and big – very big. (Not that you can’t have fun trying to downsize it: how about a chip of ancient glacier ice in your glass of champagne?) Shaped by fire and ice, this land is seriously spectacular – and so is the wildlife. Grizzly bears scoop salmon from clear rivers, moose wander across deserted highways, sea otters float on their backs, gnawing on a fish supper.

Explore the frozen fingers of the icefields in a small ship and watch glaciers calving in slow-motion into the turquoise sea; or tramp, camp and canoe through beautiful Denali National Park. Ride the narrow-gauge railway between Anchorage and Fairbanks past Deadhorse Gulch into the heart of gold-rush country, the Yukon; or enjoy 21st-century comforts in the luxurious glass domes of the McKinley Explorer railcar between Anchorage and Fairbanks.

For unequalled bragging rights back Downunder, visit well-named Coldfoot on the way to the Arctic Ocean and a warm welcome from the Inupiat Eskimo people at the true Top of the World.

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