BRITISH COLUMBIA
King Pacific Lodge
The floating lodge is not uncommon in British Columbia, whose western coast is fringed with thousands of densely forested islands and more than 16,000 miles of shoreline. For decades fishermen have followed salmon runs from floating shacks on rafts, and loggers still access remote swaths of woods from their barge-top mobile homes. But King Pacific is the grandest floating lodge of all. Vancouver-based Creekside Architects helped design the 17-room, 20,000-square-foot lodge -- which was constructed in 1999 from native pine, fir, cedar, and stone -- to feel airy and open, with soaring atriums and oversize windows. Every May a tugboat pulls the navy barge on which KPL stands to the tangled shores of Princess Royal Island, where it remains tethered for the summer. The uninhabited, 568,000-acre island lies smack in the heart of the recently protected Great Bear Rainforest, the largest intact tract of temperate rain forest on the planet. Miles from the nearest town, KPL ferries in all guests on a floatplane.

ONLY HERE In the lodge's Great Room, red cedar walls -- accented by massive pine columns and fir beams -- and floor-to-ceiling windows frame views of KPL's utterly wild setting: a placid harbor surrounded by endless waves of spruce, cedar, and fir forest.

OUT THE DOOR Cast to salmon on unnamed streams, sign up for heli-hiking forays into the Great Bear, or sea kayak pristine shorelines. If it's September, join a guided trek to look for the rare white kermode (or "spirit") bear.

FOR THE GUY WHO Has zero tolerance for crowds and an insatiable appetite for wilderness -- 4.4 million sprawling acres of it.

BOOK IT From $3,700 for three nights, including flights from Vancouver, meals, and activities; 888-592-5464, kingpacificlodge.com. May through September.

TANZANIA
Ngorongoro Crater Lodge
Teetering on the edge of Africa's most famous caldera, Ngorongoro features stone-and-thatch suites that were conceived by architect Silvio Rech and designer Chris Browne to evoke the mud huts of a traditional Maasai village.

ONLY HERE A Versailles-like interior (think chandeliers and freestanding porcelain baths) eschews the camplike theme of typical safari lodges.

OUT THE DOOR Spot lions, elephants, and other Big Fivers during the lodge's daily game-viewing drives across the crater's 12-mile-wide floor.

FOR THE GUY WHO Wants a front-row seat to one of the most wildlife-dense regions in Africa.

BOOK IT From $320 a night, including meals and excursions; 888-882-3742, ngorongorocrater.com. Year-round.

PATAGONIA
Hotel Salto Chico
Chilean architects Germán del Sol and José Cruz employed varying ceiling heights, curving stairs, and angled walls to create a minimalist all-white lodge that complements its stark Patagonian location among 9,000-foot granite peaks, glacial fields, and gray-blue lagoons. Every one of the 50 rooms has mountain, lake, or waterfall views.

ONLY HERE In the Bath House three walls of windows surround an indoor pool that overlooks the frigid Lake Pehoé below, giving swimmers the illusion of a Patagonian plunge.

OUT THE DOOR Adventure abounds in Torres del Paine, Chile's 600,000-acre national park. Hike around the base of the Cuernos del Paine or kayak the Serrano River.

FOR THE GUY WHO Longs to see Patagonia's savage peaks and finds comfort in clutter-free quarters.

BOOK IT From $1,560 for four nights, including meals, activities, and airport pickup; explora.com. Year-round.

YELLOWSTONE
Old Faithful Inn
Chances are you've seen a park lodge patterned after this one. Architect Robert Reamer broke from the traditional hotels of his day (Victorian, clapboard, frilly) to create a palatial log-and-stone building whose elegant rusticity has come to define the "parkitecture" of America's park lodges. Standing seven stories above its namesake geyser, the 386-room Old Faithful Inn originally opened its doors in 1904 to Northern Pacific Railway passengers seeking a cushy landing pad in the country's most famous wilds.

ONLY HERE Four levels of balconies overlook the 76-foot-high massive stone fireplace and chimney (built from 500 tons of local rhyolite) that dominate the lobby beneath a 92-foot log ceiling.

OUT THE DOOR Outwit the hordes by catching a pre-breakfast eruption of your geyser neighbor, then sign up for a half-day hike with a park ranger to explore the backcountry's lesser known geothermal wonders, waterfalls, and bison stomping grounds.

FOR THE GUY WHO Wants the classic first-time Yellowstone visit his dad had.

BOOK IT Rooms from $85 a night (book at least six months in advance); 307-344-7311, travelyellowstone.com. May to mid-October.

MOROCCO
Kasbah du Toubkal
Crowning a roadless bluff in Morocco's High Atlas Range, this fortress-like inn, which was built in the 1940s as a summer home for a local ruling family, sits above a remote village on the flanks of North Africa's highest peak, 13,665-foot Mount Toubkal. Restored in the 1990s in the spirit of a Berber hospitality center, the 11-room inn has carved doors, exposed-beam ceilings, and a Turkish bath. Guests hike in (a 10-minute trek from Imlil); mules carry luggage.

ONLY HERE In the Garden House a 40-foot glass wall brings guests face-to-face with the mighty Mount Toubkal.

OUT THE DOOR Kasbah's local Berber guides lead treks into the surrounding High Atlas, including two- and three-day Toubkal ascents.

FOR THE GUY WHO Seeks an exotic -- but refreshingly casual -- off-the-beaten-path adventure.

BOOK IT From $177 a night; kasbahdutoubkal.com. Year-round.

ADIRONDACKS
The Point
A century ago the Carnegies, Vanderbilts, and other big-name New Yorkers used to escape from city mayhem to their private Adirondack "great camps": elaborate log cabin complexes on wilderness estates that had buildings for various purposes, from providing sleeping quarters to storing sporting equipment. The Point was one such great camp, built from 1930-1933 as a home for William Avery Rockefeller (John D.'s nephew) by the genre's leading architect of the time, William Distin. In 1980 new owners transformed the four-building timber-and-stone retreat into an 11-guest room lakefront sanctuary for high-paying company, but preserved the historic (and high-end) feel. Old leather books and big-game noggins line the honey-colored spruce- and white-pine walls, and windows look through towering birch and pine woods to Upper Saranac Lake.

ONLY HERE The lodge keepers still use old-man Rockefeller's original fridge -- a five-by-six-foot cooled cupboard with multiple doors. Authentic antiques from his time, including a buffet table and candelabras, grace other rooms.

OUT THE DOOR The resort adjoins New York state's 6-million-acre Adirondack Park. Commandeer a canoe from the boathouse and paddle the 4,725-acre lake or, come winter, cross-country ski its frozen surface.

FOR THE GUY WHO Owns a tux and feels comfortable sharing a communal table with Manhattan intellectuals, Texas CEOs, and other gentry at twice-weekly black-tie dinners.

BOOK IT From $1,250 a night for two, including meals; 800-255-3530, thepointresort.com. Year-round, except for mid-March to mid-April.

TASMANIA
Bay of Fires Lodge
It takes a 14-mile, two-day hike to reach this 10-room coastal hideout that was built in 1999. Green architect Ken Latona set the lodge long and low amid casuarina pines to keep all man-made presence to a minimum on this wild stretch of beach in Tasmania's Mount William National Park.

ONLY HERE Everything is sustainable, solar-powered, and eco-friendly.

OUT THE DOOR Take a kayak to the unspoiled shoreline and dip into its numerous secluded coves.

FOR THE GUY WHO Wants to Leave No Trace without roughing it.

BOOK IT $1,304 for three nights, including meals and guides; 61-6391-9339, bayoffires.com.au. Late October through April.