Antarctica is a dream destination for countless adventurers. People have only been visiting for a couple hundred years since its probable first sighting in 1820, and the first confirmed landing didn’t occur until 1895. Today, there are far more comfortable ways to see the White Continent. How you go depends on your travel style.

After more than two years, the CDC has dropped its Travel Health Notice for cruising. “Travelers will make their own risk assessment when choosing to travel on a cruise ship, much like they do in all other travel settings,” CDC spokesperson Dave Daigle told USA Today.

For the intrepid adventurer, Chile and Argentina present a welcome challenge. The wilds of Patagonia have tall mountains and glaciers to trek, with stunning panoramic landscapes as a reward for the hard work. Many of those landscapes feature beautiful lakes full of beautiful fish to catch. Whether you go by foot, by bike or by horseback, there’s an endless expanse to cover.

Towering mountains, ancient forests shrouded in mist and draped in moss, cascading waterfalls. You don’t have to journey to Middle-earth or some other mythical land to see them. In fact, you don’t even need your passport. You can find all these and more in the Pacific Northwest. In the summer and fall, the weather is nice enough to spend all day outdoors, whether it’s on top of a mountain or sitting on a patio enjoying a local IPA or wine after a day of activity.

There really is no place like New Zealand. Sure, there are some spots that will remind you of alpine Europe, some that will remind you of the tropics and some that are straight out of Middle-earth. But you’ve never seen anything that packs all the natural beauty, adventure and culture. With a population of just over 5 million in about 100,000 square miles of land, there’s a lot of wide-open spaces, and the people you do encounter are friendly and welcoming.

Travel is really ramping up. We couldn’t be more thrilled, and we know you’re excited too. We can tell because the requests are flying in as our travelers seek the freedom of an open world once more. We’re so happy to orchestrate your trips of a lifetime, and there are some words to the wise we want to share to make the process as smooth as possible. Depending on when you last traveled internationally, things might be a lot different than you remember.

Taking a European vacation this year is about to get easier. The European Union’s council has recommended to its 27 member countries that they drop pre-departure COVID testing requirements for vaccinated travelers beginning March 1. The council recommends that travelers who received the final dose of a vaccine regimen more than 270 days before arrival should have had a booster shot within 180 days of arrival to skip testing.

The images you’ve seen of turquoise waters lapping up on white sand, the ones that look like the Platonic ideal of “beach,” there’s a strong chance they’re from Turks & Caicos. Long white sand beaches overlooking that tranquil turquoise water have long been the islands’ calling card.

You know how I swore in this very space just a couple of weeks ago not to make any big wine purchases till this house situation was sorted out? Okay, so. What had happened was… I had this app on my phone from Princeton Corkscrew, one of my nearby fine purveyors, and it has alerts to sales. A sale on saperavi popped up.

Do yourself a favor and get to Australia at least once in your life. Yes, it’s a long way to go, but you will be rewarded with a land like no other on Earth, with unique wildlife and endless beauty in a place that’s as large as the continental U.S. with less than a tenth of the population. The people who are there are quick to welcome visitors with a friendly “G’day,” and there is something for every type of traveler to enjoy, from the wines of the Barossa Valley to the Great Ocean Road to outdoor adventures in Tasmania. You won’t be disappointed you spent so much time on the plane to get there.

A sure sign of the return of travel is the new flight routes airlines have added for 2022. After they cut many routes when things ground to a halt in the spring of 2020, airlines are not only restoring some of those but adding new ones that didn’t exist prior to the pandemic. These new routes will make it easy to access some exciting off-the-beaten-path places in style and comfort.

COVID protocols are a fact of life for international travel these days, but we’re pleased to report that just in the last week some of our favorite destinations have made it easier to get in. As is the case just about everywhere, being fully vaccinated will open more doors to travelers.

When we send our travelers out into the world, it’s our aim to make the experience as authentic as possible. That includes immersing yourself in the rhythm of daily life in your destination: the sites, the food, and especially the people. They’re the ones who make the place what it is. To live like a local, you need locals breathing life into the place to show you the way it’s done. Sustainable travel isn’t just about preserving the natural environment; it’s also about preserving the culture and supporting local businesses and people. It’s about preserving the things that make that destination unique and worth visiting in the first place.

For years, we’ve been helping travelers live like locals while on vacation. It’s a great way to immerse yourself in your destination and get a feel for what daily life is like in the land they’ve made their home if only for a few days or a couple of weeks. We’ve worked closely with companies that provide villas and apartments in many locations over the years, but lately we’ve been super impressed with the inventory they’ve added all over the world and right here in the U.S.

At this point, you might be so desperate to go somewhere, anywhere, that the destination itself is almost an afterthought. We completely understand, and we’re always up for a new place to explore or an old favorite to revisit and see what’s changed. We’re still, of course, navigating the unique circumstances that the COVID-19 pandemic has ushered into our lives. With those factors in mind, these destinations stand out for 2022.

Each January a lot of us sit down to set our New Year’s resolutions. Things are going to change this year, we tell ourselves. Sometimes we’re right, sometimes we do hold ourselves to our promises and take that next step. That works on a large scale as well as a personal one. Each time we think we’ve made progress in the fight against COVID-19, we seem to take a step back. Right now, it’s the highly contagious omicron variant that’s wreaking havoc.

Even if you’ve been fortunate enough to avoid illness or at least severe illness during the pandemic, we’ve all lived through a traumatic collective experience. Many of us who have avoided COVID ourselves still have lost someone close to us or friends and loved ones who have been sick. Life has been turned upside-down. Stress has weighed us all down at one time or another.

Wherever you’re celebrating, we hope you have a safe and happy festive season. If you’re at home, we look forward to new adventures in the upcoming year (if you haven’t started planning those, now’s the time). If you’re traveling over the holiday, be sure to bring everything you need, including passports, negative test confirmations and health declarations depending on your destination. And above all, be sure to have a wonderful time despite the extra protocols. Either way, we hope you enjoy the time with friends and family. It’s the most precious gift any of us will get this Christmas.

Some people on your gift list are harder to shop for than others. A gift that’s more open-ended than most gives them the flexibility to almost pick their own present. With the growing tendency to prefer experiences over things, a trend accelerated by almost two years’ worth of not having as many places to go, the Gift of Travel makes for a perfect stocking-stuffer. Trust us, they won’t want to return this.

Every twist and turn of the COVID saga can leave your head spinning, and while headlines about the omicron variant can be deflating, there’s good news too, with Merck and Pfizer pill treatments coming out that should help reduce COVID to an epidemic nuisance rather than the fierce and novel virus it has been. We’re always here to help answer any questions you may have about the latest travel requirements for your destination. Fortunately, there are new places opening their borders to tourism this month and in 2022 that will allow us to once again explore much of the world. With each protocol change that comes out, it’s abundantly clear that being fully vaccinated will open more doors for travelers.