Extreme tourism

Fourteen-year-old Dexter Pletts with a golden eagle in Mongolia. Dexter's father arranged an extreme holiday there because he was worried about the amount of time Dexter was spending on computer games Photograph: Tony Pletts

The Pletts family travelled independently and stayed with Kazak-speaking eagle hunters in the remote mountains of Mongolia Photograph: Tony Pletts

Dexter Pletts with a local family. He now wants to visit North Korea Photograph: Tony Pletts

A cruise ship in the pristine wilderness of Antarctica, where demand for trips is so high there are waiting lists for 2010/11 Photograph: Paul Ooman/Getty

Tourists explore the beach in Antarctica from which the explorer Ernest Shackleton left Elephant Island for South Georgia Island Photograph: Frans Lanting/Corbis

Gentoo penguins on Deception Island, Antarctica. Environmentalists have called for a cap on the number of ships that can sail into Antarctic waters Photograph: Ralph Lee Hopkins/National Geographic/Getty

The BBC series Tribal Wives looks at individuals' search for meaning in their lives by visiting remote peoples. Yvonne Power, from Blackpool, spent a month with the Himba tribe in Namibia Photograph: BBC

Other people find themselves in their 'dreamscapes', such as Oman’s grand canyon Photograph: Lorentz Gullachsen/Getty

The final frontier: the ultimate destination for the trophy tourist may be reached in the next couple of years on Virgin’s Galactic spacecraft, the world's first commercial spaceline. The cost? A mere $200,000 Photograph: Start Creative/PA