5 Popular Outdoor Adventure Travel Activities

If you’ve got a thirst for travel you’ll find all sorts of vacation packages and tourism opportunities that most people in your life would book in a heartbeat. But you’re a little bit different. You’d much rather climb rocks than sit in a spa, would prefer to see London from those arcane underground sewers than from the window of a plush bed and breakfast and are more likely to sign up for white water rafting than a wine country tour. You are an adventurer, and as such you’ll always be looking for opportunities to pair seeing the world with a wild experience. So what should make your list this year? Here are five popular outdoor adventure travel activities you might want to consider.

With winter right around the corner you might want to consider trying out snowboarding. If you have any experience skiing or surfing you should be able to pick this skill up fairly quickly. But even if it takes you awhile, you’ll be practicing while surrounded by the breathtaking beauty of a snowy mountaintop. Some more advanced snowboarders will build up the nerve to take things to the extreme, with helicopter drop-ins on some of the largest mountains on the planet. You can’t get there any other way, which means you’ll have the place pretty much to yourself.

If snow isn’t really your thing, hit the slopes prior to winter on a mountain bike. There are incredible mountain biking trails in regions all over the world. This is an amazing way to see the natural beauty of a new place with a different perspective. You can also get your bikes into some remote locations, as long as you have a four wheel drive vehicle. Just remember to bring some sort of global phone or radio with you. Injuries are common in this sport, and you don’t want to get stranded.

Another fantastic outdoor adventure travel activity is off-road driving. Some fans love rock crawling, basically taking specialized vehicles from boulder to boulder. Others crave sand, and hit the desert to speed around in the heat. Some prefer jungles, and look for rivers to traverse and thick undergrowth to get lost in. What’s great about this option is all the incredible gear and customization you can get into. There are dozens of conventions for people who enjoy off-road driving, and even some extreme races you can take part in if you think you’re up to the challenge.

If you’re more of a city person, consider doing a bit of urban exploration. You’ll want to head to a city with a long history, which usually means somewhere in Europe. These places have been built and rebuilt over the centuries, and there are literally thousands of miles of underground caverns, catacombs, treasure troves and train lines waiting for those with a willingness to explore. You can often find maps, but some experts will suggest that those maps are next to useless. Your best bet is to go down there with a quality flashlight and a GPS, to insure you can find your way out again.

Maybe you just want a touch of adventure, but with access to the rest and relaxation that other people crave while traveling. In that case, consider going on a zipline tour. A zipline is a set of elevated platforms connected by hundreds of feet of steel cable. You’ll hook onto that cable and then jump off the platform, ‘zipping’ from stop to stop. Check out FoxFireMountain.com for one example, but you won’t be limited here. You’ll find quality ziplines in almost every country, each of which has a totally different feel. You can zipline over beaches, jungles, mountains or plains, enjoying the view at high speeds.