We all have our own form of preferred travel…. Whether it be luxury, budget, solo, family or a mixture. But even within those forms of travel, we can all experience some sort of adventure travel. For some, the adventure can be biking across a country or taking a culinary class. For others are little more daring, it can be hiking up the side of a mountain or repelling down it, or zip lining across a valley. Adventure travel can be anything that takes you out of the ordinary and gets you interacting with a different way of living and doing things.
Many see adventure travel as something extreme and dangerous – but it need not be. Just stepping out of your comfort zone is an adventure at times.
Not everyone is cut out for adventure travel, some prefer just lying on a beach with a drink in hand… perfectly acceptable if that is your thing.
I prefer doing something different and learning new things when I travel. I have not really pushed myself to any extremes yet, but given the chance I just might….
Photo credit: CameliaTWU (off and on) via Visual Hunt / CC BY-NC-ND
Adventure travel is usually categorized in two ways – soft and hard adventures. The soft adventures are the culinary and wine tours, bird watching, yoga retreats or religious pilgrimages and the hard adventures are more the zip lining, scuba diving, mountain climbing etc. According to Forbes.com – it is one of the biggest trends in travel in the Boomer travel (50 plus crowd) group.
Interestingly enough, many women are also seeking adventures on their own at this age…
The benefits of adventure travel can be enormous… some of the hard adventure travel experiences can help push you to places you have never been, increasing self-esteem and better awareness of your own capabilities at accomplishing the physical goal; but even the soft adventures can lead to both an emotional and spiritual discovery of self, accomplishing things that you leave you with a sense of calmness and inner peace, like you would on a yoga retreat or a religious pilgrimage.
I would love to try something like this gorilla trek and wildlife safari or hiking along the Inca trail, but I would also enjoy a wonderful wine and cooking tour or discovering the wonders of Egypt or Jordan…
What kind of adventure would you like to try?
Photo credit: pjbaldes via Visualhunt / CC BY-NC
So true that doing adventure travel can increase one’s self esteem. Too often we play it safe but when we get out of our comfort zone, the experience can not only be enlightening, but a boon to our “self”. I’m constantly seeking out adventures that are different because it helps me grow.
Exactly Janice…. every experience we have can change us in some way; it doesn’t always have to be high risk either to do that.