Once in a Lifetime Trips

By Chris Santella
Clarkson Potter, $24.95, 224 pages

From the author of Fifty Places to Sail Before You Die, as well as the other Fifty Places to . . . books, comes a unique collection of locations on and above our planet: Once in a Lifetime Trips: The World’s 50 Most Extraordinary and Memorable Travel Experiences. Having visited most of these places himself, Santella doesn’t just try to give readers some truly special and awesome places that our planet has to offer, but also to make a unique trip, journey, or experience out of it. The book is divided by definition of how one can reach certain places: by sea, in the jungle, in the mountains, in the country, in the city, and even in the sky. Each location has a two- to three-page entry featuring one or two photographs highlighting it, as well as a storytelling description of how one can best experience this unique place told through second person.

Some predictable places are mentioned-like Easter Island, the Galapagos, and climbing a mountain in the Himalayas. And some (if not a good percentage) of the places mentioned are out of most peoples’ price ranges, such as: “The World’s Greatest Opera Houses by Private Jet” and “Visiting the International Space Station.” Others require extreme fitness and skill: “Heli-skiing in New Zealand’s Southern Alps” and “Coasting on the King’s Trail of Sweden.” Nevertheless, Santella does provide a detailed page at the end as to how one can take a trip to each of these unique locations and whom they should contact. While a map may be needed for some readers to know just where these places are, they will at least delight and give reader’s ideas about what they might like to do to make their next trip a Once in a Lifetime experience.

Reviewed by Alex C. Telander