Sea of Tranquility

For this year’s Dream Trips issue, we went big. As big as the whole, wide world. We sought out the most over-the-top, once-in-a-lifetime journeys we could find on each continent and sent our editors out to experience them all. The good news is that each trip is bookable, so read on to get inspired to go.

ERNEST SHACKLETON, forgive me. I’ve sipped champagne on an ice floe in Wilhelmina Bay.

I’ve savored a croissant while watching penguins porpoise through glinting Antarctic waves. I’ve even received a full-body massage from a French therapist with an iron grip while our ship sailed smoothly across the Drake Passage.

Before my 11-day expedition cruise to Antarctica with the French cruise line Ponant, I had read the journeys of great polar explorers. I knew that Shackleton spent 497 days trapped at sea before crossing the passage—one of the world’s most notorious