Of late, regular travel has become predictable and boring. With falling airfares and the resulting increase of package tours becoming the most common way of vacationing, traveling has become uninspiring and monotonous.
That feeling of adventure that traveling is supposed to evoke has become jaded. This is what has given rise to a new form of travel these days – adventure travel! Adventure travel is not only popular with the adrenaline filled youth, but is increasingly being taken up by people of older generations too, because of greater fitness, health, leisure time and economic prosperity.
There really is very little else in the world that can be more thrilling than adventure travel, because it primarily involves risk taking. When you get out there, you finally start experiencing life at its edgiest – which is part of its excitement. It is not hard to figure out why.
This usually takes us into close proximity with Mother Nature at her rawest best. It also often introduces us to new peoples and cultures, thus broadening our perspective about the world we live in.
For those who really are into hardcore adventure travel at its adrenaline pumping best, there are many options, such as scaling the fourteen thousand feet craggy mountains of Colorado or the even loftier snow-capped peaks of the Himalayan range, bicycling along the route of Tour de France, or trying out a new heart-rate pumping adventure sport like white water rafting in treacherous, rolling icy waters.
You may choose to try para sailing into the updrafts from vertiginous cliffs, bungee jump off precarious toe-holds, or ski down hair-raisingly steep mountain sides. If it is thrills you are looking for, there is no dearth of them.
However, not all adventure travel need comprise of spine-tingling feats, defying death. For the gentler bent of mind, there are trips you can take which can be equally exciting and stimulating, without much danger involved in them.
For example, you could float up above the African veld in a hot air balloon to watch lions stalking their prey below, or take a walking tour of the ancient Angkor Wat temple smothered in the Cambodian jungles, or hike through the forest trails in the Amazonian jungles experiencing the exotic wild life there like the Caymans snoozing on the banks of the rivers or the brightly hued parrots squawking in the canopy of branches overhead.
Some of the other adventure travel sites include eco-trekking through the rain forests of the Caribbean in order to get up close to the insects, birds and animals that inhabit it. You could take camping trips to various exotic locales still off the tourist map and learn about the local people – their food habits, costumes, language and culture by actually interrelating with them.
Or perhaps you would like something more solitary and gentle. If so, there are still unspoiled beaches that are virtually deserted and exist for you to immerse yourself in the sun-splashed splendor of yellow sands and azure seas.
Or, if you want something a little livelier, how about surfing off the coast of Costa Rica? All of these provide a way of being a part of adventure travel, without it getting too hazardous.