In early May 2025 the annually recurring Eta Aquariid meteor shower will grace the night sky. The meter shower peaks on May 5 and May 6, but the best time to watch it is actually the week prior to avoid interference from the waxing moon. Depending on your location, you can expect to see anywhere from 10 to as many as 50 shooting stars per hour.

While approximately 30 meteor showers are visible from Earth each year, the Eta Aquariids (pronounced ah-QUARE-ee-id) have perhaps the most famous parent of them all: Comet Halley. The bright comet was the first to be predicted by astronomers as a recurring event and can be seen passing Earth approximately every 75 years.

Every May, our planet moves through the Halley’s jettisoned detritus, producing the Eta Aquariid shower. Each meteoroid is smaller than a grain of sand, but they’re moving at over 200,000 kilometers per hour, so they have a lot of energy and generate a lot of light when they streak across the heavens. No matter how often you may see it, the excitement of watching this incredible night sky event never fades.

Below, astronomer and Condé Nast Traveler contributor Phil Plait breaks down everything you need to know to see the meteor shower this May, including an overview of the science behind what causes this annual cosmic rainfall.

When is the best time to see the meteor shower?

The Eta Aquariids is active from April 19 to May 28. However, it’s important to plan around the moon phases when scheduling your viewing—as always, the darker the sky the better.

On May 5 and 6 the moon sets at around 3:00 a.m. and will be more than half full, so it will light up the sky before setting. It gets brighter and sets later every night leading up to the full moon on May 12, which means the week preceding May 6 may be your best window for catching the show.

Showers tend to peak after midnight—this is when the night side of Earth is facing into the direction of its orbit around the sun, so we see the meteors head-on (rather like how rain hits your front windshield when you drive in a storm rather than the rear window). This means the best hours for viewing are late at night or early morning before dawn.

Where can you see the Eta Aquariid shower?

The shower should be visible anywhere on Earth, but the Eta Aquariid radiant (more on that later) is somewhat low in the sky for most people in North America, so those located in the United States will typically only be able to see between 10 and 30 meteors per hour.

The radiant is directly overhead of people on the equator, meaning the best view will be from countries like Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Uganda, Kenya, and Indonesia. From here, seeing 50 meteors per hour is typical.

At Ol Pejeta, a private conservancy in Kenya where lions and cheetah roam, the Ugandan Ankole cows look a little out of place. It would be easy to think they had wandered away from a nearby village, destined to become unlucky prey for the big game animals. But actually, the cows are supposed to be here: They create biodiversity hot spots for other herbivores by stripping the grass, and they function within a beef enterprise that generates a supplementary source of revenue for Ol Pejeta—money that ultimately goes back into conservation of the land and wildlife.

Ol Pejeta uses its land for both ecotourism and ranching, a mixed-use, holistic approach to conserving wilderness areas in East Africa. It is one of the innovative ways that safari lands have been diversifying their revenue to ensure that the environment is protected. As natural assets shrink due to growing human populations and deforestation, ecotourism leaders are seeking sustainable solutions that help landscapes thrive while benefiting local communities and wildlife.

“What if we change the narrative of conservation?” asks Sue Snyman, director of research at the African Leadership University. Snyman argues that the current Western view of conservation supposes that people and wildlife must be protected from one another, that ecotourism can happen only in “untouched” environments and not on land used for other trades, like ranching and timber. “Conservation must not be about excluding people but about including them,” she says. This is the only way to create a holistic wildlife economy that extends beyond just sightseeing in places traditionally reserved for safari-led conservation. Ol Pejeta’s integrated land-use system is pioneering, but it’s not a new concept. The Maasai in Kenya have been grazing their cattle alongside lions and elephants for centuries. Moses Nampaso does the same at Mattikoko, his tented camp on the Lemek Conservancy, north of the Maasai Mara National Reserve. Like at Ol Pejeta, he uses his land for tourism as well as cattle. His 50 cows graze in the conservancy during the day, then are corralled at night. “This coexistence is better for cattle and wildlife,” he says.

A third, increasingly popular option for property owners is to lease portions of their land, particularly sections on the periphery of sought-after wildlife areas, to tourism partners. It’s mutually beneficial: Landowners generate income without solely needing to sustain agricultural businesses, a fickle endeavor in certain parts of Kenya. Habitats and wildlife flourish. Tourists get to see lions. And employment opportunities surge—tourism in Kenya provides employment for 1.6 million people. These types of leases began in the 1990s; the Mara North Conservancy, established in 2009, is a prominent example, looking after 74,000 acres near the Maasai Mara National Reserve.

When you are on a shoot, how long do you spend in each location? How grueling is the work?

It varies hugely depending on species, behavior, location, type of sequence required and time of year. Some shoots are a matter of days, whereas some take months or even years. Each shoot is a culmination of many brilliant minds, our teams working in collaboration with local guides and scientists, learning about the habitat or the species we are filming and understanding the story we need to tell. Each shoot can be so different, and there are always surprises.

You have to be resilient, be able to think on your feet and be ready to go at any moment. It can be grueling and tough, both physically and emotionally—being away from home for long periods of time does take its toll – but ultimately, it is one of the most rewarding experiences, especially if you get the shots you came for.

A scene from Planet Earth III: A Mugger crocodile catches some deer by surprise in Yala Park, Sri Lanka.

Elliot Jones/BBC Studios

What is the most amazing nature encounter you’ve had?

I’d have to say being with the Indri in Madagascar. The experience has never left me.

Whalen’s ability seems like a super power, but it’s actually more science than anything. “I know the patterns,” he said. “They’ll come around the shoal chasing capelin. They’re going to exhale a certain amount of meters in the air.” He described how you can tell if it’s a short or deep dive depending on how high the tail goes up—if it does at all—and you can tell the direction they’re going by a slickness on the surface of the water. That last bit is called the whale’s footprint.

“The humpback especially is going to wave his tail at you,” Whalen said, waving his own hand and laughing. “It’s almost like he’s saying ‘see you later.’”

I thought of my whale-tail goodbyes the morning I left Triton. I walked over to the pavilion to offer my own parting words. There, a group of nine people, half of them speaking French, were watching the bay with Whalen.

“I’ve never seen a whale before,” a woman from Michigan said in passing. But just being near Whalen seems to summon the majestic creatures. Within minutes, a minke whale’s sleek back rose just above the surface of the water. Suddenly, everyone was pointing and talking, shouts of excitement in multiple languages. A pair of binoculars passed up and down the line. The minke receded beneath the surface.

I snapped a photo of Whalen and the group as a parting shot. In it, the Whale Whisperer of Triton stands in the middle of a line of people, pointing out to the water, showing the group exactly where they can expect to see a whale blessing its audience and surfacing for air. And then, right after I took the photograph, it did just that.

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Visiting Triton, Newfoundland

Whether you’re a whale fanatic or want to experience the other wildlife of Triton (such as moose, bear, and dolphins), these activities that put you in the heart of the action.

Badger Bay Boat Tours

Captain Mike does more than just iceberg and whale tours. He’s also a commercial fisherman; join him to pull up lobster pots or fishing nets, or accompany his family to their island cottage for a crab boil.

Great Whale Tour Network

Triton is part of a seven-stop driving trail through northeastern Newfoundland, taking you to different spots for whale watching.

Hiking trails in the area

Triton and the nearby towns of Brighton and Robert’s Arm all have hiking trails, ranging from 2 to 15 miles. Enjoy ocean views, berry foraging, and picnic spots along the way.

I raise wild birds every year but each year, each one is different and, you know, very, very intensive, particularly at the beginning where you’re giving 10 minute feeds. But yeah, that’s, that’s just been a really beautiful experience, but it’s meant that I haven’t been over to Oban in, in a long time so, you know, feeling very happy and very homebound at the moment and, and you realize that right here we’ve got everything that we need.

LA: God, that sounds magical. What a scene with the birds and also, like, incredibly intense.

TC: Yeah, and they can… Over the years, they, they, they show you such tenderness and how complex their social interactions are that they share with us as well. You know, a starling that I used to have would fall asleep in the nook of my neck and every night before she slept she traced my cheek with her beak. They are very responsive, beautiful, intuitive, compassionate, and wildly intelligent creatures. We have so much to learn. LA: You can follow along with Tamsin’s upcoming winter on the farm on Instagram. TC: You know, you’ve got Christmas and you’re walking out to the, uh, church service which is in this very old, um, 11th or 12th century church and the bell is rung… Uh, still there in the bell tower, and it’s rung when everybody’s standing inside and everybody’s just there with a candle-lit lantern.

LA: I mean, you talk about it and clearly you love that island and the life you chose really deeply.

TC: There’s a point in all of our lives where, you know, life, life can meet you unexpectedly or perhaps with a, a, a force of motion that, that you’re not quite ready for, but, you know, it’s always teaching you something very, very precious, I think. You know, those times of difficulty are really there as beautiful situations of growth, and it’s only when we dare to put down roots and to start to sow into that bare ground that really you’re, you’re really planting hope for your future.

And that might not come immediately, but it’s so important to do the sowing, to do the blessing in the time of… Those hard times of challenge and difficulty because the very act of doing that gives back so much, and what I’m suggesting is that we are all islands until we meet that point of really tapping into that greater, uh, source of presence, and it’s only when we start to really

On a recent weekday, I was able to snag a coveted seat aboard one of the AWSC’s charters. We cast off from a small pier tucked away in Ryder’s Cove, a small tidal inlet tucked behind the Cape Cod National Seashore. It was a beautiful summer day, and anticipation was running high. An overhead spotter plane directed us toward two separate sharks—these skittish fish disappeared into the murky depths within seconds of our arrival. Our sightings were just enough to catch a glimpse of the sharks’ size, and just enough to show us how quickly they can both appear and disappear. Apparently, the sharks have been feeling shy this season; in years past, they have been known to swim alongside boats for several minutes at a time.

But that’s the point of a shark safari—or any safari, for that matter. What you don’t see is just as important as what you do see. Even if you aren’t spoiled with a cinematic sighting of a white shark, you walk away from these charters with a sense of the interconnectedness of nature. You get a unique perspective of the ever-shifting sandbars of the Cape Cod National Seashore; huge flocks of tern seabirds fly alongside your boat across the waves, seals bob their heads in and out of the water.

For a long time, we were spoiled with the notion that Cape Cod was a one-dimensional beach destination—where humans could come for vacation, extract a certain experience from the landscape, and return home unbothered. Now, with the prevalence of a rebounding shark population in this region, we are reminded that the planet is not a stage for us, but a vast matrix of predators and prey in which we are only a small part.

“I hope that everyone walks away with a new appreciation for the species,” said Poirier. “I’ve seen people watching sharks with tears in their eyes. Being that close to nature is a powerful and eye-opening experience.”

And that’s the overarching goal here: education. What the charters of Cape Cod may not know they have in common with the tiger trackers of Ranthambore and the guides of the Okavango Delta is that they are all on a mission to protect and de-stigmatize these apex predators, to show that tigers, lions, and now sharks, are not the enemy. These are not the bloodthirsty killers that Jaws would lead us to believe—they are a beautiful and essential part of our natural world.

How to book

As with most safaris, a shark charter dozen’t come cheap. The 2023 price for a three-hour charter with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, also called the Chatham Shark Center, will set you back $2,500 (plus crew tips) for a maximum of six guests. But considering that price includes an overhead spotter plane, it’s a fair price. (And as the AWSC is a nonprofit, a portion of your trip counts as a tax deduction.) Charters run from July through mid-October, weather permitting.

All listings featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. If you purchase something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Hard and soft corals shimmer like confetti as reef fish swim busily past me, unfazed by my presence. Around me, pods of spinner dolphins socialize. In just a few days, I’ll dive alongside a dugong, a large, 1,000-pound manatee-like sea cow, and watch as it grazes on seagrass.

I’m in Marsa Alam, Egypt, three-and-a-half hours south of the popular tourist destination of Hurghada, and I’m staying—and diving—with Red Sea Diving Safari. The Egyptian family-run ecotourism business, which has been a pioneer in conservation and sustainable resort operations for over 30 years, runs three diving resorts on Egypt’s Red Sea, including this one, Marsa Shagra; Marsa Nakari; and Wadi Lehem. It’s also one of the first certified PADI Eco Centers—a new accreditation created by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors, or PADI, in association with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), which recognizes and elevates the world’s most environmentally committed dive centers.

Launched this past Earth Day with 11 such designated centers, PADI developed the program in response to a 2022 Reef-World Foundation study, which found that 95 percent of divers want to book with sustainable operators, but struggle to book with confidence. The evaluation process is rigorous: To be a certified Eco Center, dive centers must show their commitment to protecting the ocean, in part by establishing marine-protected areas with PADI’s Adopt the Blue program, the largest network of underwater dive sites for marine conservation. They must also be Green Fins-certified, a program developed by UNEP and The Reef-World Foundation that IDs best practices around diver behavior, staff environmental training, and waste management.

“The PADI Eco Center credentials designate our members who exemplify environmental stewardship in their operations,” says Julie Andersen, Director of Global Brand for PADI Worldwide. “The ultimate goal is to connect ocean lovers with sustainability leaders in the dive industry through a rigorous verification that gives travelers the confidence that their tourism dollars are going to make a positive impact.”

PADI-certified and aspiring divers can now use the online PADI dive center search to find Eco Centers and book with dive shops like Red Sea Diving Safari, or one of the other Eco Centers the program launched with such as Mexico’s Dive Ninja Expeditions, Key Largo’s Silent World, or Oceans Unlimited in Costa Rica. Currently, there are more than 35 Eco Centers, with new ones certified and added to the list each month.

In an additional bid to demonstrate their commitment to conservation, Red Sea Diving Safari also allows divers to complete their PADI Dive Against Debris specialty course free of charge. The course not only teaches them how to properly identify, remove, and report marine debris—it also emphasizes how to do so safely and responsibly.

If the world were flat, the far southern tip of Chile would be just the spot to peer over the edge. The epicenter of this rugged destination is Puerto Williams of Navarino Island, on the nearly pristine Cape Horn archipelago. This frontier locale of 2,000 hearty residents faces Beagle Channel, the narrow waterway named after 19^th century British explorer Charles Darwin’s iconic ship. Billed as the world’s southernmost city, Puerto Williams is developing new maritime and airport infrastructure to boost sustainable tourism and restore its legacy as the gateway to Antarctica, a slice of which is part of Chile. The city also aspires to become a hub for scientific research across the UNESCO Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve.

Modern-day explorers will discover a rich, untrampled landscape right around Puerto Williams itself, whether navigating through icy fjords or spotting crimson-headed Magellanic woodpeckers in sub-Antarctic primary forests. Boasting a more laid back, less commercial profile than the Argentinian city of Ushuaia across the channel, Puerto Williams is the ideal destination for intrepid travelers eager for immersion into a raw natural realm.

All listings featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. If you book something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Sliversea offerings to Cape Horn include Chilean coast itineraries and 30-day trips to the Antarctic Peninsula and Falkland Islands.

Silversea

Getting there via cruise

For travelers looking for outdoor adventure without ditching creature comforts, small cruises that embark from Chile’s central coast port city of Valparaiso are a posh option. Relying on the local Chilean naval base for logistics, Puerto Williams has long hosted turnarounds of passengers heading into or out of Antarctica. The first phase of a new multipurpose dock now under construction will facilitate the arrival of slightly larger ships with around 200 passengers by the end of the year.

Silversea, a unit of Royal Caribbean, plies Chile’s long coast to Puerto Williams. Silversea offers an indulgent month-long option that reaches the Antarctic Peninsula plus the Falkland Islands and other far-flung South Atlantic islands. Prime your camera for sightings of king penguins, seals and whales wolloping through the frigid seas, while majestic albatross soar overhead and cormorants flap across choppy waters.