You get only one life, and you must churn out most of it. Find out the real experience of being alive with some of the best adventure sports and traveling activities given below.
Every kind of traveler has their own bucket list to complete, and when it comes to adventure travelers, it is bound to become more packed with adrenaline. While some people like to enjoy a relaxing holiday with no activities, there are adventure travelers who love to do ‘Extreme’ things. For this reason, there are various travel destinations that offer the enjoyment of adventure sports, and if you are also one of the adrenaline junkies, it is time to create your own bucket list with some of the extreme adventure and travel experiences. Here are the top 25 recommendations for you.
- Bungee Jumping
Bungee Jumping has become popular over the years, and more installations have taken place in the last few years, with an increasing demand for it. You should bungee jump at least once in your life to experience the free-falling weightless state. Other than the gravitational pull, you will also feel the elastic feedback when you bounce and swing a few times after falling down. The highest place for bungee jumping in the world would be the Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado, which stands tall with a height of 321 meters. You can also find many jumping spots in South America that are absolutely beautiful and thrilling at the same time.
- Sky Diving
If you are looking forward to enjoying the weightless experience for a longer time while enjoying a bird’s eye view of the earth, then skydiving should definitely be on your bucket list. This adventure sport allows you to drop from an altitude of 10,000 feet with nothing but a parachute, and if it does not work, you will have a secondary, but if that does not work either, you can say goodbye to earth. Joke’s on you, you cannot participate in this extreme stunt without proper training and the presence of instructors, but once you experience this madness, you might want to dive even more. Some of the most popular destinations for skydiving are Hawaii, Dubai, New Zealand, etc., to name a few.
- Cliff Jumping
This is one of the most common adventure activities that most people do, and it can offer a greater dose of joy. All you need to know is how to jump and how to swim. In this case, you will jump into a water body from a cliff beside, and the motto is survival, of course. It is important to make sure the diving spot is safe before you actually make the jump. You can throw a rock in water to get an idea of the depth, but the best thing would be to pick a popular spot that is already being used for this purpose. This is only safe in deep waters, so do not jump into the shallow places.
- Base Jumping
This is the most popular stunt in movies and gaming, where you just jump off anything with a parachute, whether it is a building, a bridge, or a cliff. This adventure sport is very similar to sky-diving, but you do not dive from the sky, but from a monument instead. Although this might seem easier since you are not falling from the sky but rather from a base, it is still risky as it offers less time for being air-borne. The time to open your parachute after you make the jump is very short, and you need to be precise about the altitude. This activity comes with greater difficulty, and only Pros should do it with confidence.
- Shark Diving
If you are not afraid of the depths of the oceans and forgot about the exaggeration shown in the movie ‘Jaws’, you can go for shark diving, which is truly a wonderful experience. Yes, sharks are ferocious, but there is nothing more dangerous and demonic than us humans. While sharks kill an average of 6 humans in a year who go into their territory, humans kill 10 million sharks every year by taking over their territory in the ocean. Usually, shark diving is much like scuba, but you stay in a cage this time for safety. If you want to free dive with tiger sharks, there is a place in Cape Town, South Africa, to do that.
- Hang Gliding
Hang Gliding is much different from paragliding, but it can offer you a similar feeling of seeing the earth from a bird’s eye view. This adventure sport has a reputation for being ‘unsafe,’ and it has been practiced since classic times. It’s been around since the 1880s, back when aeronautics wasn’t particularly well understood. Now, the death rate for hang gliding is similar to that of playing soccer or running a marathon. When you pick the place you’re going to hang glide, try to pick a spot with a good view. Unlike skydiving, you may be able to spend a substantial amount of time in the air, and you want something cool to look at.
- Rock Climbing
Rock Climbing is not for the faint-hearted, as it requires a tremendous amount of mental and physical strength. It is a popular international sport and practiced by many, as the world is full of rock climbers, and some of them also make free solo climbs without any safety gear! Badass indeed! There are many rock climbing gyms where you can practice your grip, positioning, and strength, after which you can try those tricks on outside boulders and small rock faces. Once you are confident about yourself, you can go for higher mountains with cracks and rugged rock walls. Always make sure to be with a team and carry your safety gear, as this is a deadly sport with a lot of adrenaline.
- Portaledging
Portaledging is more like a superior level of rock climbing, where you will be climbing a single rock face for days. But where do you sleep in a sheer mountain face? You set up hanging tents to sleep in, and that comes with life risk, too. Portaledges are great and designed to withstand harsh conditions, so they can easily become your lifeline. But you should attempt this with the professionals and only when you are in complete control of your mind and body.
- Running with the Bulls
If you are an animal rights activist or working with PETA, you might not enjoy this sport, but this is also a cultural reflection in many countries. In order to enjoy the authentic experience of running with the bulls, you need to head to Pamplona, where the annual bull-running event takes place and attracts thousands of people from all over the world. Pamplona is a city in Spain that conducts this event, and this sport has become a part of their national culture since 1924. Till now, 15 people have died, and the numbers can increase too. Again, you are not supposed to do it, but outrunning or outsmarting a bull sounds pretty fun, too!
- Surfing
Surfing is one of the best adventure sports on the sea that lets you play with the waves. It is like skating on water with a greater chance of drowning, and so, you must know how to swim in the sea. The sport itself might not be that crazy, but the surfers can be crazy as they chase the highest waves all over the world. Weather conditions play a vital role when you are doing some activity on the sea or the shore, and so, always be aware of the weather updates if you’re hitting the beach with your surfboard.
- Ziplining
Ziplining is one of those adventure sports that allows you to cross a greater distance with the help of a zipline on which you will be hanging. It is much like a ropeway, which is designed for a single person only. Due to its popularity, there are many zip-lining courses within the urban structures only, but the majority of them are in the outdoors and in the wild. Starting from the jungle zipline in Costa Rica to the desert zipline in Nevada, there are plenty of places and regions where you can enjoy this adventurous experience. It is a great experience unless you get stuck in the middle of the zipline.
- Sailing on Water
Sailing is one of the greatest experiences on water that you can do without going beyond the threshold of being ‘extreme’. Sailing requires knowing a lot of skills along with understanding your ferry and its condition, with constant attention. Sailing across the ocean might be too extreme and requires a lot of resources. But you can sail across a major water body and feel the same experience. It is like going on a voyage that you have always wanted to do.
- Hike on the Triple Crown
Hiking in the mountains is one of the greatest experiences that attracts most people, and if you are also one of them, you might want to trek for the rest of your life. You can go hiking on the Triple Crown, which is formed by three of America’s best-known trails. There is the Pacific Crest Trail, which follows the Cascades and the Sierra Nevadas from Washington to Southern California; the Continental Divide, which follows the Rocky Mountains from Montana down to New Mexico; and lastly, the Appalachian Trail, which takes you from Maine to Georgia. Altogether, this trek spans around 7,900 miles.
- Visit the Poles
If you want to do something extreme, visiting the South or the North Pole seems like a great idea, but it is also quite expensive. This one is another logistically tough feat to pull off. The North Pole is covered in shifting ice; Antarctica, while an actual continent, sees the most extreme weather on the planet. And a lack of infrastructure in both places makes them tough to get to. You can maybe try snowmobiling, flying, or dog sledding.
- Skiing or Snowboarding
Wherever there is snow, there are people skiing or snowboarding on it. It is a winter adventure sport and is practically everywhere. People have skied down K2 in the Himalayas. The safer bet is to go to Colorado, the Alps, or Banff. You could also set yourself a goal of skiing in every mountain range where it’s possible, you could set a total ski distance goal, or whatever. Skiing also requires an ample amount of leg strength and practice, so do not just jump on the snow without knowing the basics.
- Water Skiing
This is one of the easier and less dangerous items on this list, but skiing as a sport is too much goddamn fun not to put on your bucket list. Like snow skiing, there are a ton of variations on it. You can also go kneeboarding, tubing, wakeboarding, or barefoot skiing.
- Rafting or Kayaking
Another must. Whitewater rafting can involve as much expertise as you want it to. Basically, if you know how to swim, you can find rapids that are safe for you. That said, a worthy goal would be to be able to master Category V rapids, or possibly to take a trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Sign up now, though. The wait for that one is often up to two years.
- Stormchasing
This one’s for the photographers and videographers, but it still counts as “extreme” because it can be particularly dangerous, especially when you’re near rotating supercell storms like the one in the video above. Supercells can quickly turn into tornadoes, and a recent storm chaser was also struck by lightning. That said, massive storms like these can make for some amazing photos.
- Wingsuit Flying
Wingsuit flying is a variation on skydiving / BASE jumping. You have a suit that gives you a little extra lift, which means you can “fly” or, if we’re being more accurate, “glide” while diving a bit more. Stunts like the one above are extremely dangerous, and experts die on a fairly regular basis doing wingsuit jumps, but packaged into a simple skydive, it would be a good deal safer.
