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Canada’s northwest is a place of mystical beauty, with limitless forests of spruce, pristine lakes, and great diversity of wildlife, including grizzly bears, caribou and wolves.
During the long winter nights the aurora borealis lights up the polar sky. Many of the hardy souls who have ventured through this wilderness have been too preoccupied with survival to enjoy their surroundings, but a private jet, a luxurious lake lodge, and gourmet dinners by the hearth can do wonders for one’s perspective.
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The ‘ Winter Ice’ luxury adventure for couples organized by Canadian boutique travel firm Horizon & Co. promises to make the northwest one’s home for a while, and also provides the perfect diamond shopping trip.
The top package on offer costs US$160,000 for two, and comes with US$10,000 in Canadian diamonds and a 25-hour private jet card. The jet flies you deep into the remote northwest, where a personal chef and a luxurious prospector’s tent await. Over six days guests learn all there is to know about diamonds, and take the stone they choose for their own from prospecting to polishing.
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In the 1997 movie The Fifth Element, Bruce Willis travels to the
space liner Phloston Paradise, an enormous ship with luxury suites,
a vast dining room, and floor-to-ceiling windows looking out at the cosmos.
While such a cruise would certainly be memorable, it probably won’t be
possible for the next three or four centuries.
Starry-eyed travelers, however, will soon be able to escape their earthly
bounds for a while with Virgin
Galactic’s commercial space service, which is scheduled to blast off
in 2009. For a flat payment of US$200,000, astronauts will travel to sub-orbital
space aboard the world’s first manned commercial spaceship, where they
can experience weightlessness for a short while and take in astonishing
views of the earth below.
Initially just one flight a week is planned, but the company, which bills itself as “the world’s first space line,” reckons there could one day be demand for one or even two flights a day.
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One big advantage this program offers is that the training covers three days, not the multi-year commitment required to be a professional astronaut. The training covers topics such as making the most of one’s time in zero gravity and what to expect during the flight, which promises “sensory overload.” What’s more, Virgin Galactic reckons the “vast majority” of people are fit enough for the flight.
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Russia’s arctic circle is a difficult place to reach. Most visitors reach this isolated part of the world standing on the runners of a dogsled, dodging polar bears and worrying about frostbite. A passenger aboard the Russian icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn, however, has no such worries: he has a cozy cabin with a view out onto the ice, which he can enjoy at leisure with a glass of champagne and high power binoculars near at hand.
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The entire journey takes 12 days and explores Russia’s Franz Josef Land,
a far northern archipelago of 191 islands. On day one passengers arrive
in Finland’s capital, Helsinki, before flying to Murmansk, the far northern
port made famous in many Cold War spy novels. There they board the Kapitan
Dranitsyn for the 12-day journey in one of the world’s most inhospitable
regions. Polar bears can be seen roaming the ice, and a speedboat provides
the opportunity for frequent landings on individual islands.
The rates for 2007 have yet to be announced, but similar trips cost about US$20,000 per person, and the cruise takes place in the summer months when the days are long.
Each of the Kapitan Dranitsyn’s 49 passenger cabins are large and comfortable.
The ship also has spacious drawing rooms, bars, a heated swimming pool,
gym and sauna. Even in the far north, comfort need not be far away.
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