By The UNCHARTED® editors · 3 min read
The Luxury of Going Wild by Air
Since one of our co-founders, Chip Cunningham, is a pilot who fell in love with the Kenyan bush while flying clients in and out of Ol Donyo Lodge many moons ago, we fully appreciate a skyborne safari. These are some of our favorites.
Kenya: The Suguta Valley Flyway
Wake to Mount Kenya views and bush breakfasts with lions before heading north on a heli-safari to Lake Turkana, the desert lake brushing Ethiopia’s border.
Flying into northern Kenya’s badlands is an experience unto itself. You lift over the Great Rift’s deep gorges, slip across the red, desolate sweep of the Suguta Valley, then cross into Samburu’s greener, wildlife-rich terrain where elephants move beneath an endless sky.
Below, giant crocodiles idle in shallow pools and flamingos scatter in shifting formations. At the lake’s edge, swimming isn’t advised — the craggy shoreline belongs to massive crocs. Instead, your pilot dips low and slow, offering a closer look from above.
CUSTOMIZE YOUR TRIP
Namibia: Stars Above, Sands Below
Namibia may not rival its neighbors in sheer wildlife numbers, but this southwest African safari destination is anything but secondary. Its wildlife is desert-adapted — resilient elephants, spear-horned oryx — built for survival in stark terrain.
From the air, Sossusvlei’s towering red dunes spill into alabaster salt pans before the landscape shifts north to the Skeleton Coast, where fog and currents once drove whaling ships ashore.
At camp, stargaze beneath pristine dark skies and settle into the striking bungalows of Shipwreck Lodge, inspired by the wrecks scattered along this remote coast. Steeped in maritime history, the shoreline now hosts a vast Cape fur seal colony — drawing black-backed jackals and even prowling lions to its edge.
Antarctica: Fly Over the Treacherous Drake Passage
Shackleton’s 1916 voyage through the Drake Passage was once described as sailing into the “most dreaded stretch of ocean on the globe.” Linking the southern tip of South America to the Antarctic Peninsula, this 600-mile crossing is where the Pacific, Atlantic, and Southern Oceans collide in a relentless churn. By ship, it takes two days (if you’re lucky). By air? Just two hours.
Skip the turbulence and pair an epic Chilean Patagonia adventure with Antarctica instead.
After trekking windswept fjords, jagged pinnacles, and guanaco-dotted plains, board a specially outfitted aircraft in Punta Arenas bound for the South Shetland Islands. You’ll soar over the snarling seas and step aboard your expedition vessel in calmer waters. Then it’s Austral summer light, a glass of something cold, and humpbacks breaching beyond your cabin window.
Canada: The Wilds of the Great Bear Rainforest
The adventure begins the moment you board a floatplane bound for a hidden cove in British Columbia.
From above, this coastal temperate wilderness unfolds in layers — towering old-growth red cedars, kelp forests, restless surf, and salmon-rich rivers. Grizzlies, black bears, and rare white spirit bears move through the forest below. As you touch down on the bay, wind moves through the trees and the air shifts — a reminder that you’ve entered a remote sanctuary accessible only by air or sea.
Once settled, kayak through quiet inlets, leap from a floating sauna into icy Pacific waters, then warm up in an outdoor hot tub. Meals are hyper-local and unforgettable: spot prawns, briny uni, Dungeness crab, buttery halibut, wild mushrooms. For a deeper connection, forage and free dive alongside your chef before gathering around the fire to enjoy the rewards.
