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When you think of “adventure travel,” what crosses your mind?

• Hiking?
• White water rafting?
• Scuba diving?
• Something as sedentary as a cruise ship or land rover safari?

Those ideas lose their “adventure” status when you compare them to galloping on a horse in Africa with a zebra and wildebeest racing along side you, or quietly observing the elephant and giraffe.

How can a traveler visit the remote parts of the world’s most beautiful and interesting places while...

• Practicing a fascinating sport
• Avoiding polluting
• Keeping in harmony with history and nature
• Being free to explore exotic locations
• Making friends in remote places, and
• Sharing the experience with a willing animal?

Have you ever considered the tremendous advantages of adventure travel on horseback? A horse can take you to beautiful and remote places which are difficult to reach in any other way. At the same time, you can practice a challenging sport which has been a favorite of mankind for millennia.

Destinations like Africa, Asia, Europe and South America offer a wonderful variety of adventure tours on horseback. Though comparatively little known to Americans, the British and particularly the French have highly developed the riding tour concept in many parts of the world. In many locations in the United States rights-of-way for horses have been lost, but many still exist in other countries.

Horses and horseback riding are deeply woven into the culture and history of most cultures from Argentina to Ireland. This is how our ancestors traveled and for those with a sense of history there is no more appropriate way to go. If you arrive in a foreign place on horseback, you will most likely be enthusiastically greeted by locals with waves and smiles which greatly facilitate meaningful contacts. Those who arrive by bus, on foot or on a bicycle are usually ignored. Horses are a great introduction and ice breaker almost anywhere.

If you seek a wilderness adventure, then horses are the way to go unless you want to walk and carry your equipment. Riding tours can take you from inn to inn, castle to castle, palace to palace or from one comfortable camp to another. Costs are very reasonably compared to biking or bus trips.

Horseback riding adventures vary widely in the skill and experience required to handle them safely. Most of these tours move out at all paces and include some good gallops so that one can cover 15 to 35 miles in a day. Beginners need several days of instruction before attempting even an easy trip, but those who are reasonably fit, not too overweight and have open minds can catch on very quickly. A week of intensive riding with good instruction can easily prepare most people for the less demanding adventures.

One of the enormous advantages of travel on horseback is that you are sharing the adventure with a willing animal who is also interested in the sights and sounds and who loves a brisk gallop on a beach or open plain as much as you do. A day in the saddle is also great exercise and riding is an excellent way to keep fit while having fun. It is far more interesting and satisfying than sitting confined in a bus or land rover all day which really isn’t adventure travel at all. Another dividend is the keen appetite you develop after a day in the saddle for the delicious food you will be served.

On an African ride, a good horse can outdistance an irate Cape buffalo or elephant and keep you safe. Comfortable camps are set up for you each night, the food is excellent and the service superb. Or try a horseback tour visiting the castles of the Loire Valley and ride into the courtyards on your horse like a knight of old. You can gallop along forest tracks where the French aristocracy once chased the wild stag. There is a broad spectrum of possibilities available for horseback riding vacations.

If it appeals to you to travel in harmony with nature without using polluting, noisy machines or an unresponsive bicycle, then you should look into horseback riding tours.

Copyright 2005 Bayard Fox and Equitours, Ltd.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/

With its majestic Himalayan Mountains and fascinating local culture, Nepal is a favorite destination for adventurous travelers.  Each year thousands embark upon the experience of a lifetime to spend days or weeks in the breathtakingly beautiful country of Nepal.

Most adventure travelers in Nepal will be treated to magnificent views from high in the mountains.  They will wander through pure forests and past clear mountain lakes, rivers and waterfalls.  They'll visit remote Buddhist monasteries and shrines and see tiny mountain villages, full of friendly locals.

Trekking expeditions in Nepal are quite popular.  They typically involve a small group of people who have been given a list of equipment, such as hiking boots, to bring with them to Nepal.  Once they arrive in the country they set off together to explore.   There is usually a trekking staff that comes along on the trip and carries most of the camping equipment and even the travelers' bags.  They set up the camp, cook meals and break camp, leaving the traveler to enjoy the trek without the physical hardship of toting heavy packs.  

Treks are available for people with various abilities. While a person should be in good shape for these treks, one does not need to be a tri-athlete to take part.  There are more strenuous treks for those in great physical condition, as well as easier treks.  Many of the easier treks are appropriate for families and allow children to participate.  Some companies rate the treks they offer by level of difficulty, to help travelers judge which trek would be best for them.  

While trekking is one of the most popular forms of adventure travel in Nepal, it is by no means the only one.  There are many ways to enjoy the great outdoors in beautiful and mysterious Nepal.

- The Himalayas make Nepal a favorite destination for mountain climbers.  There are well over 100 peaks open to mountain climbers in Nepal, including the famed Mount Everest.

- The mountains of Nepal also have trails for mountain bikers of varying skills.

- Nepal offers challenging climbing cliffs for avid rock climbers.

- While rafting and kayaking in Nepal, adventurers can float along picturesque mountain rivers enjoying tranquil views, far from the well-traveled paths.

- Finally, adventure travelers in Nepal can choose to experience a jungle safari from a jeep or the back of an elephant.  Nepal's wildlife reserves and conservation areas boast a variety of unique animals, including the Royal Bengal Tiger and the Greater One Horned Rhinoceros.

Travelling feeds the wandering soul, but it also feeds the corporate soul. Even the most top executives no longer travel solely for business purposes anymore. Leisure travel has become a preferred method for stressed-out businesspeople to unwind in their downtime. In today’s modern world, active executives take advantage of their vacation time by treating themselves to some well-deserved leisure travel. With this evolution of travel, the idea of what travel entails has changed as well. People are no longer satisfied to visit the same tourist traps, but instead want to explore their world through adventure travel. In the field of adventure travel, bigger is definitely better.

The concept of adventure travel is not entirely new. For as long as standard tourist spots have existed, there have been travelers that have gone out of their way to avoid them. Those travelers became the first adventure travelers. As the world of adventure travel progressed, more people became interested in traveling the road less taken. More travelers are curious about the world beyond the glossy travel brochures, and adventure travel has risen in popularity to become a world premier method of travel.

To learn how to define adventure travel and how to become an adventure traveler, you have to learn more about extreme sports. Some people, no longer satisfied with the typical sports like football, baseball or soccer, decided to look for excitement in more extreme activities such as base jumping and wakeboarding, thereby creating the field of extreme sports. As more people got involved in extreme sports, they would travel to meet up with one another and adventure travel got associated with their extreme lifestyle. These extreme sports enthusiasts incorporated their love of their sports into their traveling, and created a type of travel full of thrill and adventure.

Adventure travel certainly does afford adventure enthusiasts the opportunity to intertwine their sports with their traveling. This type of travel gives travelers the same burst of adrenaline that extreme sports can offer, and also gives travelers to see the world from a new perspective. Unfortunately, as with anything that relies on its obscurity to stay fresh and exciting, a rise in popularity spells out the beginning of the end for adventure travel. As adventure travel becomes more popular, the destinations that were once off the beaten path have become tourist attractions. This rise in popularity is best illustrated by the travel agencies that specialize in adventure travel packages for those interested in adventure but not interested in planning the trip themselves.

In addition to the standard travel options that cater to conventional tourists, most travel agencies also offer adventure travel packages for anyone who wants more excitement in their vacation. If you’re looking for a vacation that you’ll never forget, filled with stories you’ll retell for years to come, consider booking your own traveling adventure.

Adventure travel is becoming more popular all the time. It can be very expensive, though, and even a bit too dangerous for some of us. It doesn't have to either, though. Here are a few ideas for small adventures you can afford. They are followed by a definition of adventure that will help you add your own to the list.

Try treasure hunting. Rent or buy a metal detector and spend a relaxing but interesting weekend finding coins, jewelry and who-knows-what in the sand at the beach. No beach nearby? Look up the historical records for your town, to see where old picnic grounds were. Treasure hunters regularly find old coins at places like these.

Take climbing lessons. Whether this is on Mount Ranier in Washington, or Mount Washington in New Hampshire, it's sure to be an adventure. At least it will be more exciting than my trip up a local sledding hill with my ice-axe and crampons.

Travel form monastery to monastery. Make it a spiritual adventure or just relax. Most monasteries take in visitors, and usually have reasonably priced accommodations. The Buddhist ones in particular are most often in beautiful places.

Do a hot springs tour. This is for those who live in the west. Get a guide to hot springs or copy directions off the internet. Bring swimming suits (optional at some, for the more adventurous), towels and a cooler full of refreshments. Want more adventure? Seek out the ones that you have to hike into the wilderness to find.

<b>The Cheapest Adventure Travel</b>

Find and summit the highest peak in your state. This might be less-than-adventurous in some states, but it will at least be an excuse to get outside and get some good exercise. Be sure to bring your camera for the summit shot. You might try the highest point in the next state over for your next adventure trip. 

Investigate and find the nearest hidden swimming holes. The best ones are ones that require a hike to get to. Watch for people heading down a trail with swimsuits and a cooler. Nobody hikes in swimsuit and drags a cooler into the woods, unless there is water involved.

Play Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Locate the nearest river that is large enough and has some public forest. Then build a raft from dead trees and float downstream for a day. We usually started by hiking upstream for an hour or more, so we could float back to the car.

A vagabond trip. Pack enough clothing and snacks for several days and just start driving, with no destination in mind. Who knows where you'll end up, and what you'll discover. Pack a tent or camp in your car to keep it really affordable.

That last one is a classic adventure trip in my book. Adventure is any activity you engage in that is new to you and doesn't have a predictable outcome. It doesn't need to be dangerous to be interesting and fun, and could even include a trip to the nearest large city for a weekend tour of the nightclubs. Of course, depending on the places you choose, this could be fairly dangerous adventure travel.

Ever since the man could walk, he traveled. At first, we traveled to escape harsh climate and find food, but as we evolved, we started traveling for fun. Thus appeared travel destinations and travel guides. As time passed, more and more people started traveling to various locations, for the landscape, traditions and thrills.

Here are a few travel locations that are sure to give you your thrills and kicks, somewhat like a top five, I guess, but don’t trust me - go check them out yourself out!

1. Himalaya

By far the greatest mountain range in the world, the Himalaya have captured the imagination of philosophers, mystics, mountaineers and empire builders from the earliest ancestors of contemporary Hindus and Buddhists to the present day. Mount Kailash, home of the greatest of the gods, and Meru, centre of the Hindu and Buddhist universe, rise from their surrounding ridges of the central Himalaya. From the high slopes to the foothills, people have carved out an often-meager existence in the harshest of environments with determination, subtlety and imagination enriched by powerful cultural identities. Tribal peoples living often at high altitudes have made their living from their tough environment through trade over the highest passes in the world, while farmers have developed agriculture on the man-made terraces of the warmer, lower-lying valleys and hills of the southern ranges. Although the mountain environment gives a common character to the whole region, each hamlet has its own identity. The villages of the arid high-altitude plateau of Ladakh could scarcely be more different from the homesteads of the monsoon forests of Arunachal Pradesh.

2. Kilimanjaro Climb

Just three degrees south of the Equator is the 5,895m (19,340ft) high, permanently snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain. It offers one of the best opportunities in the world to climb a peak at high altitude without needing technical climbing ability. Any normally fit, healthy person prepared for some physical exertion and exercise should be able to complete the ascent to Uhuru Peak, which involves approximately 70 kilometers of walking in total, and no technical climbing.

3. Torres Del Paine in Patagonia, Chile

Near the fjord area of Tierra Del Fuego and the Beagle Channel one may visit the famous Torres Del Paine National Park on the southern edge of the Patagonia Ice Cap. The area is easy to get to from Punta Arenas with transportation of buses, taxis and minibuses. It is possibly the most famous national park in South America with 60,000 visitors last season. It is some 100 km north of Puerto Natales. A 2422 sq. km park was given the World Heritage status in 1978 by UNESCO.

It gets it's name from three wonderful and very prominent polished columns of pink granite, the Towers of Paine (Torres Del Paine).

Here you may go backpacking and trekking, or you can join programs to do the mountain climbing as well. Nandu and Guanaco (Ostrich and Alpaca like animals) are frequently seen in the park refuge. There is a broad diversity of fauna y flora. Backpackers should have experience with overnight trips in rough country; those who desire to make ascents should have mountaineering ice and snow climbing experience.

4. Amboseli Safari

Amboseli National Park is one of Kenya’s most popular parks because of the stunning view it displays of nearby Mount Kilimanjaro, the world’s tallest freestanding mountain. When you go on your Amboseli Safari, be sure to get the famous photograph of elephants with the unforgettable views of Kilimanjaro in the background!

Streams from Kilimanjaro surface in the centre of Amboseli, creating swamps that attract and support a rich diversity of wild animals and birdlife.

As Amboseli is easily accessible, it forms a popular part of many of our safari itineraries. 

Amboseli is one of the smaller game parks in Kenya and the vegetation ensures that the animals are easy to spot. Lions can easily be found and can occasionally be watched stalking their prey.
Buffalo, zebra, giraffe, gazelle and other plains game are plentiful in the park and hippos live in the open waters and swamp channels. The elephants found here are surprisingly relaxed around safari vehicles; they were largely unaffected by ivory poaching and have some of the largest tusks.

Nothing beats the experience of adventure travel, so pack up your rucksack and give it a go!