Jennifer Byrne: Five places that made me

BALI

As for so many Australians, my first trip OS. I'd just sat the HSC and as a reward, my Dad took me to this magical land with frangipani-scented air, a fearsome volcano, and smiling brown faces who paid daily tribute to stone gods wrapped in gingham. Kuta was exciting rather than grubby then, while the Tjampuhan Hotel in Ubud was the height of exotic; I can still remember my first open-air shower, with geckos in the soap tray. After four years in boarding school, it blew my mind in the most exciting, inviting way.

ANTARCTICA

The greatest, noblest, most uplifting destination in the world. Over-egging? Well, I love it so much I'm now gearing up for my fifth visit to the Great White – also blue, and green, and violet – which is more than physical, it's a psychic experience. The closest you can get to visiting another planet on this earth, ruled by nature not man. Animals are curious and unafraid; skies are vast; the landscape in constant flux. The sea voyage is a joyous part of the adventure – longer from Tasmania and New Zealand, just a hop and a jump from Argentina; I've taken all routes and the experience is equally wondrous, leaving me elated and humbled because here, we are just another species on our beautiful blue earth. The top of many bucket lists – but why wait?

SPAIN

All of it, but especially the south, Andalucia. I'd heard about the glory days of Islam, back in the 7th century, but here I saw it – the exquisite elegance of the Alhambra Palace in Grenada; the vast Cordoba mosque, a graceful forest of red and white marble arches. At its heart, built during the 13th-century Reconquista, is a Christian cathedral. The story goes that when the Christians started demolishing the mosque centuries later, Charles V intervened, saying: "You have taken something unique in all the world and destroyed it to build something you can find in any city." They share the space now, in these troubled times the most beautiful thing of all.

AMSTERDAM

A toy town compared with Paris and Rome, which is exactly why it's my favourite European city. Human-sized, slightly loopy, with fabulous museums and the calm worldliness that comes of having built and lost an empire, and celebrating what's left. I brought my young son on a stopover to Gallipoli; we explored the city on bicycles, drifted along canals, honoured the memory of Anne Frank and took endless photos with tulips. For both of us, it became our happy place.

GALAPAGOS ISLANDS

I came to swim with the turtles and seals – but left with my brain on fire, because the Galapagos Islands are living proof of what I think is the world's best single idea, Darwin's "theory" of evolution. Travelling west to east, you can actually see it: the islands go from black volcanic plugs to verdant green nurseries supporting increasingly complex species of animals and birds, before time's up and they disappear – dragged by the Nazca tectonic plate – under the coast of Chile. Golden sunsets, flamingos sharing the beach with penguins and a bit of learning: for me, a perfect combination.

Jennifer Byrne will be the guest of honour on Chimu's Pure Antarctica journey departing on February 4, 2017. See chimuadventures.com/tour/pure-antarctica