Adventure Travel

Adventure Travel info, ideas, and photos

Adventure Travel is the fastest growing area of the travel industry. Traditional travel is all about seeing and observing, often though the lens of a carefully scripted tour. Adventure Travel, on the other hand, is all about doing, actively participating in activities which help you gain a deep understanding of a country, a people, and yourself.

Caravan #3 - in the Sahara
Photo: Shazbot, through a Creative Commons Attribution License

Because adventure travel could be as wide ranging as bird watching in Columbia, cruising the Galapagos Islands, rafting the Cumberland River in Kentucky, an Antarctic small boat adventure Tour, or climbing Everest, you might think of adventure travel as more of a state of mind than any particular activity.


Get off the beaten track-- get creative and you'll have a better experience. The vast majority of adventure travelers have a very limited number of experiences in mind when they consider an adventure travel trip. Trekking routes to places like Machu Picchu and Everest Base Camp, Kilimanjaro, and wildlife safaris to the Serengeti tend to be overcrowded paths. Head for lesser-known adventure travel destinations or even do a variation of these popular destinations for far better experiences.

Be careful with the adventure tour company you choose. Make sure they're not just a glorified old-school travel company with a few activities that make you simply think you're really going off the beaten track. Many adventure travel companies go to great lengths to make you feel like you're having a truly unique cultural experience, for example going to the house of a one-armed hat maker in Hue, Vietnam, when in fact your group may be the 3rd or 4th group from that company that has visited today!

You can save an enormous amount of money by planning the trip yourself. You'd be amazed by you can do with a few evenings of planning and some good guidebooks. You'll save a ton of money and go farther off the beaten track.

Consider a local adventure tour operator in the country in which you're visiting. Most adventure travel tour operators use the same local operators you could simply book yourself and save hundreds of dollars.

There's a great amount of fantastic writing of all kinds on adventure travel.

Click here for a list of great adventure books.

Best Adventure Travel Companies on Earth - National Geographic Adventure

Trends in Adventure Travel - USA Today

Eight Life Changing Adventure Travel Tips - Forbes

For Some Adventuring Never Gets Old - New York Times

Adventure Travel for Families Snowballs - USA Today