With comfortable cabins (some with picture windows or even balconies), hot showers, good food and other creature comforts, soft adventure cruises aren't exactly roughing it. But even adventurous types who thought they'd never cruise will find the intensity they desire on these extreme itineraries.
- The Peruvian Amazon: From your small expedition ship, explore via skiffs and on foot a place time has forgotten. Your guide will take out a machete to cut through reeds and get you further into the flooded jungle. You'll see pink dolphins, monkeys and rare birds. Highly recommended is borrowing a kayak so you can quietly listen to the cacophony of jungle sounds that surrounds you – just be careful not to overturn, since in the water are anacondas, piranha and red-eyed caimans (alligators).
- The Mekong River: Exploration of life along the historically war-torn Mekong through Cambodia and Vietnam is fascinating, but it's not handed to you on a silver platter. While river ships offer topflight accommodations, wonderful food and tours of Hindu and Buddhist temples, there are times when you may find yourself climbing steep dirt embankments (crew ready with steady arms to help) to visit dusty villages. Local guides will take you to markets where you will feel totally lost (and that's the point) and tragic sites such as the "Killing Fields" may bring out extreme emotions.
- Antarctica and the South Shetland Islands: Icebergs, glaciers, whales and huge elephant seals are the big draws to the "Great White Continent," and so is the mere fact of adding the place to your bucket list. Adventure travelers will find opportunity to put on a parka, get in zodiacs and explore the cold, barren landscape. What you won't see are many humans. Some lines include opportunity to camp for a night in the wild.
- Alaska: You will find opportunity for adventure in Alaska even on mainstream cruise itineraries – shore excursion options include flying by seaplane to a remote fly-fishing creek, scaling and rappelling granite cliffs and glacier ice-hiking. Seeing a glacier calve brings high drama. There is also opportunity on small, expedition ships to get totally away from civilization, to tour remote reaches via zodiac or quietly kayak and commune with bald eagles, whales and the wilderness.
- Australia's Kimberly: In this wild and dramatic region of North West Australia, there is extreme in the startling red cliffs and outback. On your cruise between Darwin and Broome, you'll get a rush exploring inland via zodiac, an area of rainforest, mangroves, rivers and inlets, where views include hidden gorges with towering rock faces and giant, thundering waterfalls, as well as Aborigine rock art and opportunity to observe saltwater crocodiles.
- Arctic: Huge carnivorous polar bears rule in the North Pole, and that will likely be the number one sight you want to see. But as you bundle into a parka (even though it's summer) to explore via zodiac, on foot or via kayak you'll discover in the land of the Midnight Sun a pristine wilderness with glaciers, icebergs, fjords and even patches of wildflowers – which all happens to be jaw dropping beautiful. Keep your binoculars poised to spot walruses, beluga whales, bearded seals, rare birds and reindeer.
- The Galapagos: The best way to explore these islands, about 600 miles off, is active – as in via hiking, kayaking and especially snorkeling. Extreme comes on beaches where you need to step over sunning sea lions, snorkeling with more sea lions, penguins and giant fish, getting into staring contests with blue-footed boobies and generally gaining an understanding that this is a place where animals rule.
- Greenland and the Northwest Passage: If there is an "in" extreme cruising destination this is it, especially since changes in ice conditions only recently made a cruise through the famed passage even possible. Doing the entire route from Greenland through the Canadian Arctic to the Bering Sea takes several weeks, as you pass icebergs, glaciers and towering fjords and visit isolated places to spot polar bear and hear about the lives of Inuit people. Adventure opportunities may include kayaking, ATV rides, hiking, climbing and overnight camping. Shorter cruises explore the take-your-breath-away landscapes of Greenland.
- Micronesia and Melanesia: Cruises in Micronesia and Melanesia are filled with adventure, much of it in the water, as you snorkel or dive, for instance, to see some of the 500 species of corals and nearly 2,000 species of fish in the Coral Triangle (in the far west South Pacific). In one of the wildest corners of the world, you'll also have opportunity to observe the rituals of the local people – you may be greeted ashore by war canoes in Papua, New Guinea, for instance. Hikes take you deep into the jungle and on some itineraries to such attractions as the giant lizards of Komodo Island and the orangutans of Borneo.
- The Russian Far East: Do an extreme cruise to one of the most remote places on the planet to see whales and islands that are home to huge colonies of seabirds, bubbling geysers and volcanoes topped with snow. On zodiac tours you may spot such creatures as brown bears, stellar sea lions, Arctic foxes and fur seals. Hikes will take you through spectacular wilderness and to meet up with nomadic people.
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