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When Harvard wants to take its alumni to Jordan, it uses Distant Horizons, a California-based outfitter that specializes in travel to Africa, Asia and the Middle East. For more than two decades, the company’s president, Janet Moore, and her team of scholars have been taking curious wanderers (as well as numerous people from universities, museums and non-profits) to destinations such as Afghanistan, Libya and Kalmykia, a Buddhist kingdom in Russia. Itinerary stops include ancient palaces and ruins, a high number of which are UNESCO World Heritage sites; traditional, rural villages, seemingly untouched by the outside world; and colorful religious ceremonies.

Over the years, Moore, a pioneer in opening up many of these areas (some of which are on the list of countries the U.S. State Department has issued travel warnings against) to Western travelers, and the regional scholars who lead her trips, have built up an impressive number of connections. On the Harvard Business School’s upcoming journey to Jordan and Oman, this will translate into private tours of Amman’s Dar Al Anda gallery and Oman’s Grand Mosque in Muscat, as well as the opportunity to meet with Princess Wijdin Ali, Jordan’s first female ambassador to the U.N.

That type of insider access has attracted other top-tier institutions, including the San Francisco-based Society for Asian Art, which uses Distant Horizons on their member trips to Asia. According to an SAA spokesperson, “Our members are already extremely well-educated art enthusiasts and scholars, so we need to use people who really know their stuff and who can put us in touch with the most interesting locals and guides.” Sometimes, particularly in the more politically charged destinations, the most interesting locals and experiences are tied to a region’s troubled or war-torn past. While in Kabul, Afghanistan, Distant Horizons’ travelers can meet with prominent human rights activist Ahmad Nader Nadery, whose protests against both the Taliban and Soviet regimes had him arrested on multiple occasions, and discuss free speech with reporters for Pajhwok Afghan News, an independent new agency in a country once known for its brutal suppression of the media. Considering the still fragile state of many of these countries, the urge to learn often produces an urge to give back. Says one traveler of her experience in Afghanistan: “My heart was so touched by the country and the people that I returned to volunteer for two months with orphans and widows, two of the most vulnerable populations. It was the most difficult thing I have ever done but I am ready to return.” ~KATHLEEN McKENNA

Upcoming Distant Horizons Trips

Lodging options on all trips are the best available and run the gamut from grand hotels and restored palaces to more basic houses.

Sri Lanka: Island of Serendipity: March 7-March 25, 2008; $5,575 from the East Coast; limited to fifteen.

Iran: The Ancient Land of Persia: April 17-May 5, 2008; $5,390 from the East Coast; limited to twenty.

Crossing the Khyber Pass: Afghanistan and Pakistan: August 28-September 20, 2008; $7,620 from the East Coast; limited to fifteen.