What is Adventure Travel
Getaways and escapes for adventuring spirits
As a guide to one of the Internet's leading portals for adventure travel resources, it's not uncommon to receive several e-mail inquiries each week from viewers wanting a definitive answer to the question: "What, exactly, is adventure travel?"
In many ways, structuring an adequate answer to that question is like the Jedi Knight trying to explain the Force. But I have reached several conclusions that should lead you down the right track. And regardless your preconceptions, you may find the answer rather elementary.
If we follow prescribed academic guidelines, the two keywords involved - adventure and travel - are easily defined. Of course, the term travel is a concept that needs no introduction. But adventure, alas, involves some cognitive elements of perception.
In other words, the term adventure can mean different things to different people.
In the words of poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, It is not length of life, but depth of life (that counts)....
And who was it that said, "Life is but an adventure...'? The point is, life can be simple, basic, repetitious, boring and common. Or life can be viewed as a great adventure. The choice is ours.
Which - in a round about way - explains the concept when the topic is changed from 'life' to 'travel'. Try this on for size: travel can be simple, basic, repetitious, boring and common. Or travel can be a real adventure. The choice is ours to make.
Are we getting anywhere?
For some, adventure travel equates to grabbing the whitewater kayak and heading down to the river, or securing a bungee cord to your ankle and jumping off the bridge. To others, mixing with the local culture at Tobago's annual Carnival celebration and breaking into a spontaneous dance in the street is what adventure travel is all about.
Ask the backcountry hiker why he treks across Scotland's Munro peaks and chances are good he'll tell you because it is a real adventure. Ask the questioning minds that assemble at Mexico's great Pyramid of Kulkulcan (Chichen Itza) each year to watch the seasonal equinox why they have come and they will probably tell you "for the adventure of it."
Floating in the clouds in a colorful hot air balloon is an adventure. So is a cruise to exotic ports of call, and whisking the family away to a nearby theme park. To some, a truly grand adventure involves viewing wildlife or spending time camping under the stars. To others, a gambling junket to Las Vegas or Atlantic City brings them the thrill of their life.
And adventures come in all sizes; big ones and little ones, daring adventures - or passive escapes to moonlit beaches and romantic encounters in paradise.
I think you're getting it now.
An adventure, whether passive or active, is the difference between common and uncommon; between normal and beyond normal. Try spending the night at haunted Myrtles Plantation in the spooky Louisiana countryside and tell me afterwards that wasn't an adventure! Or tour the King Tut exhibit at your local museum and tell me that didn't conjure up thoughts and emotions about our ancient past.
The art of adventure travel, simply put, is discovering what turns you on the most. From a calm picnic in the woods to a death-defying leap out of a skydive plan at 5,000 feet, adventure travel is as diverse as your own imagination. Conjuring up remote island getaways or images of cliff-hanging action on the walls of the famous K2 - it doesn't matter.
Adventure travel is what you make it - nothing more and nothing less.
So regardless your interest and skill level, and regardless whether you're into bungee jumping or fly fishing a quiet mountain stream, the thrill of adventure can strike anyone at any time at any place.
If there's only one rule, it's this:
...(And) in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years... - Abraham Lincoln.
Happy adventures!
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