I think adventure travel is the best travel. Here’s why + my tips for how to do it.

There are a lot of ways to travel. 

You could backpack, travel luxuriously and stay in 5-star hotels, get catered to at an all-inclusive resort, take a guided group tour, travel with friends or a partner, volunteer abroad, or become a digital nomad. The options are literally endless. 

I’ve done all of these except for the all-inclusive resort. Admittedly, I’ve never stayed at one — I’m not ruling it out forever, but truthfully, I’m way too restless to lay on a beach for more than 2 hours at a time. Plus, I have a sense of adventure a notch above what a fully catered experience could get me.

I guess it’s no surprise that I think adventure travel is the best travel.

So, what is adventure travel?

According to Wikipedia, Adventure Travel “is a type of tourism, involving exploration or travel with a certain degree of risk (real or perceived), and which may require special skills and physical exertion.”

To me, adventure travel is a sliding scale. To my non-adventurous friends, I’m downright wild. But I’m tame and a bit of a worrywart to my more high-octane friends.

As with many things, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

I don’t think adventure travel is about taking crazy risks, going to war zones, and putting oneself in mortal peril. Nor do I think it involves naive unpreparedness with the assumption that “everything will work out.” 

Instead, I think it’s about taking calculated risks.

It’s about pushing past your comfort zone in a way that won’t negatively impact other people or places. It’s about leaving room in your schedule for spontaneity, thinking outside the box, and sometimes “doing it for the plot”. You know, doing things you “shouldn’t” do, but you know will make a great story some day.

The Benefits of Adventure Travel

Awesome travel stories

Without a doubt, my best travel stories come from adventure travel. This is when I’ve left room for spontaneity, meeting new people, trying new things, and pushing myself past my perceived physical limits.

If you’re tired of coming home from vacation and having no stories besides “the margaritas were great and I got heatstroke,” try the tips mentioned lower in this article.

It expands your comfort zone

It happens to all of us humans, but our comfort zones and what we think is “normal” change with every new experience. 

Adventure travel turbo-charges this expansion. When you travel adventurously, you’ll suddenly have a new definition of what constitutes “adventure.” Seeking out novelty while you travel will simply push the limits of your comfort zone.

Before I parasailed in Croatia, I was riddled with fear about it. Like “what if I fall out of the sky,” you know? But then, when they sent my friend and I up into the sky with nothing but a balloon and a rope, I was shocked by how peaceful it actually was. They even gave us champagne to drink up there.

Learning new skills

The point of adventure travel is that it’s not easy travel. Being adventurous means you’re out there in the world trying new things and seeing what you like. By proxy, you’ll learn new skills.

Whether that’s reading maps of foreign lands, learning to sail (like Laura did for a week in Indonesia, read that sailing story here), or whatever else, chances are you’ll pick up handy new skills as you go.

It reduces stress

To be honest, I don’t think laying on a beach or watching TV during vacation is that stress-relieving. Maybe it’s just me and my kind, but to me, those activities are just temporary band-aids. 

What really relieves my stress is giving myself new stress, albeit in a different form.

Hear me out. If things are going on in my life and I want relief, well, I’d probably just deal with what’s causing my stress in the first place. But, in the context of travel, I’m not going to go drink on the beach or turn on my favorite TV show. These are great things for masking stress, but not actually relieving it. 

Instead, I’m going to climb a mountain, learn a new skill, or throw myself into a situation that takes all of my physical and mental power and throws it into a new direction. I’m going to refocus the stress I’m feeling, instead of getting rid of it entirely. I realize this is what people call “being mindful,” but it really works.

When it comes to using your precious vacation days, I ask you to really think about what relaxes you, versus just distracts you.

You’ll become more resourceful and confident

To be frank, you’ll never feel resourceful or confident if you don’t make mistakes, try new things, and figure stuff out on your own. 

This isn’t a brochure for Anti-Hover-Parenting, but it’s true. The more you can say “It was hard but I did it anyway,” the more confident you’ll become.

Travel in general is a great way to feel resourceful and confident, but you’ll feel even more so if you have adventures.

Here are some examples of what I mean: 

• Get lost in a country where you don’t speak the language and notice how resourceful you are to find your way home.
• Thru-hike the Appalachian Trail and notice how profoundly accomplished it makes you feel.
• Walk the Camino de Santiago and find how your perspective of “difficult” changes.

My Tips on How to Have More Travel Adventures

Talk to strangers

Use your intuition and take common safety precautions. But otherwise, throw away mostly everything the “Stranger Danger” presentation at school taught you.

I’m here to tell you to talk to strangers. Get to know people while traveling – both other travelers and locals. 

When they invite you for a local meal, eat with them. When a local guy from Brussels unexpectedly swipes a fry from your plate, strike up a conversation and see where the night goes (it went weirdly, as you can read about on my author page).

However, if a certain Colombian guy with ties to a certain Narco asks you to go dancing all night in Medellin, you have permission to politely decline (but it probably would have been fine, you know?).

Follow your gut, don’t get wasted, and don’t follow strangers into back rooms, but I promise not everyone is trying to make a Dateline episode out of you.

Sign up for physical challenges

If you’re able, I highly recommend planning your travels around physical challenges. 

Climb mountains, go whitewater rafting, scuba dive, bike across a country, or thru-hike. Within reason and without putting yourself in actual peril, do things that test your mental and physical boundaries.

If you’re just dipping your toe into adventure travel, then sign up for activities you’ve never done before. Try parasailing or take surfing lessons. Go on a guided day hike or try bungee jumping.

Physical challenges provide a feeling of accomplishment that’s harder to come by in other ways.

Travel solo

Overall, my most spontaneous adventures happened when I traveled solo. Without the presence of a travel buddy, people are more likely to approach you and talk to you. Conversely, you’re more likely to seek out people to talk to as well.

Traveling solo is also a great opportunity to join a group tour where you’ll meet other people. Group tours aren’t the most adventurous in and of themselves, but they will put you in direct line with other travelers to hang with. Going on adventures with new travel buddies happens more often than you think.

Volunteer or work abroad

I’d argue that volunteering or working abroad is an adventure by definition, but this mode of travel will surely give you more opportunities for adventure. 

Volunteering or working abroad is a great way to go deeper into your chosen destination. You’ll meet local people who want to show you their homes and invite you to see the best of the area.

You’ll be more deeply introduced to local customs and learn more about what it’s truly like to live in the place. You’ll also hear about more activities off the beaten tourist trail.

Take alternative transportation

Want an easy, yet objectively hard, way to make your travels more adventurous? Look for ways to get to your next destination without taking the easiest or fastest route possible.

Drive across Europe instead of flying. Buy a bike and pedal to your next destination instead of taking the bus. Take a ferry instead of a plane.

Finding alternative modes of transportation will generally take a bit more time and planning, but I promise it’s a million times more adventurous than being crammed into Economy class. Just read Betty’s story about taking the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner instead of flying.

Go to places less traveled

Want to have more adventures? Get off the tourist trail. 

Sure, you can have adventures pretty much anywhere you go, but you’re more likely to meet other adventurous people when you travel to more adventurous places.

For instance, my fellow Travel Lemming Creator, Sky, randomly chose a Japanese destination by looking at Google Maps. She had no plans or intentions for the place, yet allowed the experience to come to her.

Sounds like an adventure, right?

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Thanks for reading! If you’re in need of some adventure travel inspo, check out travel stories by our writers! Read everything from Laura’s experience hiking a 12,000+ foot volcano in Indonesia to Chelsea’s experience backpacking the most remote town in Washington. Happy traveling!