<p>From butterflies to sea turtles, non-human animals show incredible feats of navigation in specific environments, but only humans have mastered the ability to navigate all environments on this planet and beyond. Despite this apparent mastery, there is substantial variation in navigation ability across people. In this Review, we evaluate the evidence for factors proposed to underlie this variability. First, we consider lifetime factors, which include a person’s genetics, their lifetime environmental exposure (physical, cultural and social) and the ageing process. Next, we discuss lifestyle factors, which include sleep, exercise, the environments to which a person is currently exposed, and technology use. Finally, we review evidence for factors that arise from the specific physical and social attributes of an individual. We discuss the increasing focus on societal influences on cognition, detail the contribution of specific brain regions and explore the impact of technology use on navigation ability, which link to specific future research directions. Understanding the determinants of successful navigation ability might be critical to help to combat the decline in navigation ability observed in healthy ageing and in neurological diseases.</p>