Africa is a family affair for the owners of Australia’s oldest travel specialist, Bench Africa, which turned 55 this year. The family-run company was founded by a Kenyan and owns ground operations in Africa. This proximity to the continent’s pulse, and the company’s practice of positioning its journeys within a broader ecological and social context, infuses the tourism experience. Visiting a chief’s homestead in Eswatini, for example, or meeting rangers involved in the restocking of depleted reserves in Malawi. See benchafrica.com

Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, south-west Victoria

For thousands of years, the Gunditjmara people have shaped south-west Victoria’s waterways and wetlands, creating channels and weirs for farming eel that are now recognised by UNESCO as one of the world’s oldest examples of aquaculture. At Tae Rak Aquaculture Centre & Cafe, part of Budj Bim Cultural Landscape at the end of the Great Ocean Road, a two-hour guided tour shares how Gunditjmara managed their country before European arrival, with a focus on the role of eels. After the tour, guests can try the signature kooyang (eel) tasting plates. Eel crackling is a highlight. See budjbim.com.au

Walkabout Cultural Adventures, Queensland

Juan Walker has a gift. He’s a total natural when it comes to sharing his knowledge, his culture and his country with others, particularly those who have never seen Kuku Yalanji country, around Port Douglas, through the eyes of its traditional owners. Juan hosts tours that feel like a day out with your new best mate, a mate who takes you swimming in rivers, spearing mud crabs in the mangroves, looking for natural medicines in the rainforest, who tells you stories and even stops in at his mum’s place for some damper. If only every tour experience was as enjoyable. See walkaboutadventures.com.au

International African American Museum, South Carolina

This poignant and important museum in Charleston opened in 2023 at the very spot where almost half of all African slaves entered North America. Their inhumane transport – shackled sardine-like in the bellies of ships – is powerfully depicted in the memorial garden, in a work called Tide Tribute. Inside the museum, the history is balanced with stories of survival and triumph. It takes several hours to explore the latest special exhibition and another nine galleries, which include an insight into the Gullah Geechee culture found in coastal areas of the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida. See iaamuseum.org

Canoe the Whanganui River, New Zealand

In 2017 the Whanganui River was the first river in the world to be recognised as a legal person, a battle that took 175 years. Owhango Adventures leads guests on canoe tours along the sacred river, explaining its importance to the Whanganui iwi (tribes), the history of their fight for recognition and what they are currently doing to protect the waterway even further. To paddle alongside these passionate and determined iwi, who now help other international rivers, including Australia’s Murray River, is to learn the Indigenous way of viewing human-landscape connections. Not just an immersive experience, but a life-changing one. See canoewhanganuiriver.com

Passchendaele Museum, Belgium

It’s one thing to see the white-cross-lined landscapes of World War I, it’s another entirely to visit this extraordinary museum, located right on the former frontline, and relive the horrors. With images of the fighting flashed onto walls accompanied by the sounds – the shouts, the screams, and even some of the smells – you’re transported back to those terrible times. And what was it really like to live through this? You hear the poignant letters the soldiers sent home, listen to their conversations and can wander through life-sized trenches yourself. This is the closest – thank God – you’ll ever get to WWI. See passchendaele.be/en/home-en

On Board Expeditions, Tasmania

There are many parts to this experience – the luxury catamaran that takes just 12 guests, the talented Tasmanian chef and the sublime food, even the seaplane flight that delivers guests from Hobart to Port Davey in the Tasmanian wilderness. But in the end, it’s the On Board crew that completes the picture – such is their knowledge of this remote region and its unique landscape and seascape, its plants and wildlife, its Indigenous and European histories and the challenges those isolated cultures faced alone and when they clashed. It has guests feeling connected to the area and yearning to return. And don’t the best stories leave you wanting more? See onboardexpeditions.com.au

Abercrombie & Kent’s Okahirongo Elephant Lodge

The design approach of luxury company Abercrombie & Kent assures that its lodges sensitively embrace the natural surrounds. None reflects this more than Okahirongo Elephant Lodge, an extraordinary retreat in the remote desertscape of north-west Namibia that was refurbished in 2023. Resembling a movie set on a futuristic planet, a series of whitewashed modules (seven suites and a family suite) extend along a ridge, directly overlooking the Hoarusib River Valley. The egg-shaped entrance pays homage to the local Himba people. Gourmet cuisine, wilderness drives and star gazing are also out of this world. See abercrombiekent.com.au