Let the Games Begin: The New Year has arrived! Have you made your New Year’s Resolutions or list of goals you hope to accomplish or make happen this year? If so, I hope that travel figures prominently on your list. I know it did on mine…like that’s a surprise!
I’m sure you’ll agree that travel really spices up your life! And it gives you & me something to look forward to in the midst of our regular, busy lives. Certainly, my spirits are lifted when I have at least one trip on the horizon – even if it is quite a distance away. It creates that delicious aspect of anticipation!
Speaking of a common New Year’s Resolution: I’ve found that travel is a great motivator to get into shape – or perhaps even better shape – especially when an upcoming trip is filled with more than my usual physical activity. I like to say: “I Exercise My Butt Off” so I can “Travel My Heart Out!” Walking the Camino in Spain definitely incentivized me to ratchet up my fitness level!
Recently, I listened to a great podcast entitled “15 Benefits of Adventure Travel.” I felt like the “Active Travel Adventures” host Kit Parks was “channeling” me the entire time! Kit beautifully captured all the reasons why adventure travel can be so special, fun & fulfilling. Since her podcast was very inspiring, I am sharing it with you as a perfect way to start the new year!
Adventure Travel – Is It For You?
First, please don’t be scared by the term “adventure travel.” This is NOT climbing Mt. Everest or hang-gliding off the Matterhorn. Today’s adventure travel (sometimes called “soft” adventure) has much less risk and is way more fun! In fact, a majority of today’s adventure travelers are over 50 – and we say “no thanks” to crazy or dangerous!
Photo Credit: Al Macdonald / Sea Kayaking in New Zealand’s Abel Tasman Natl. Park
Adventure travel often means physically active outdoor adventures – in great places all around the world. For example, you can hike in Norway, Chile’s Patagonia region, or the Himalayas of Nepal. You can cycle in Vermont for the Fall Foliage or through France’s beautiful Loire Valley. You can whitewater raft through the Grand Canyon or even on the Nile in Uganda.
Other great choices include sea kayaking in New Zealand or in southern Thailand. Or you can be dazzled by the underwater world by going snorkeling or diving in Cancun, Mexico or Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Yes, the world really can be your playground!
Adventure travel also means traveling with a “spirit of adventure” – such as to exotic international locales where you can explore new cultures. I have always loved both types of travel, this “cultural travel” and adventure travel. Indeed, many of my trips combine the two – like trekking in Nepal where we were immersed in the fascinating Buddhist Sherpa culture.
About Kit Parks & Active Travel Adventures
Kit Parks might already be familiar to you. She recently launched her twice-monthly Active Travel Adventures podcast for 50-plus fit and active travelers who are looking for multi-day active trips. In one of my recent blog posts (link below), I shared Kit’s podcast episode in which she interviewed me about walking the Camino. We have plans soon to also talk about my Nepal Trek adventure.
Kit is a 57-year-old East Coaster whom I met last year at a travel blogger conference in Alabama, where we bonded over our mutual love of travel. Kit began her love affair with active outdoor travel adventures around 5-6 years ago. She started by hiking the Appalachian Trail. Kit is a passionate cheerleader for adventure travel, in part because she is such a “recent convert.”
That’s because, even though she was already well-traveled, Kit didn’t become physically active until she hit her 50’s. Before that time, she hadn’t realized that people like her could do the incredible kinds of adventure trips she is now doing. Of course, she had to first work hard at getting herself in shape, but soon she was hooked!
My/Our Travel Challenge for You for the New Year!
Near the end of the podcast, Kit issues the following challenge. I am sharing her words verbatim because they are so good! I join Kit in this challenge, as this is my Planet Janet Travels mission. I want to inspire you to “Just Say Yes” to that “Grand Adventure” that is calling to you!
I/We want to challenge each of you, no matter what your adventure travel level is, to do a +1 outside of your comfort level. For some, this will mean their first long weekend of adventure, others their first adventure trip outside the country or with a different language, others it may mean experimenting with solo travel, and still others leaping to self-guided travel.
Whatever your comfort level is, just take things up one notch…not a big leap, just a notch. This is how you build your confidence and get that sense of accomplishment and euphoria when you rise to the occasion. YOU CAN DO THIS!
Kit’s 15 Reasons to Consider Adventure Travel for Your Next Trip
Click photos to enlarge / Photo of me in Santiago celebrating as I finished my 19-day Camino
(This is the Cliff Notes summary version of the podcast)
- Adventure Travel Offers Life Changing Experiences
- Offers Personal Growth and Challenges
- Gives you a Sense of Accomplishment
- Helps you to Feel Gratitude and Improve Mindfulness
- Enables you to See Incredible, Often Inaccessible Landscapes
- Nature Improves your Brain
- Improves your Mental Health and Reduces Stress
- Learn New Things
- More Meaningful Travel
- You Get to Relive your Adventures
- You Meet Cool People and Bond Quickly
- Gives you Great Stories to Tell
- You Return Home Healthier and Energized
- A Unique Experience
- Adventure Travel is Fun!
- BONUS: Improves your Quality AND Quantity of Life
How To Listen to the Podcast Interview
The Active Travel Adventures podcast interview is entitled: 15 Key Benefits of Adventure Travel. Click Here to listen.
Instructions:
- The full podcast is 28 minutes
- It’s easy to listen to the podcast – simply click the “play arrow” in the red rectangular box.
- You can listen on your computer or phone (wherever you pull up the website link).
Right below the red box is a partial and then full transcript of the podcast, if you would prefer to read instead of listen. I really hope you enjoy Kit’s podcast and feel inspired to “Up Your Travel Game” in the New Year (and beyond) with some type of adventure travel that is calling to you!
To Listen to My Podcast Interview with Kit About My Camino in Spain, Click Here:
Comments: What are your New Year’s Resolutions around travel ? What types of “adventure travel” have you done? What is on your list?
Hi Janet,
I just wanted to let you know that I have been thinking a lot lately about your latest essay on Adventure Travel, just not in the narrow context of travel. Although I may be quite travel constrained by family needs, my greater inspirational takeaway is the bigger picture of your message – not to succumb to thinking about being limited by our age and to keep finding additional new things that are just slightly beyond our prior comfort zone. In many ways I have been doing that for over a decade since retirement, and you have just inspired me to look for the next new step to take in that direction. Who knows, it may even involve travel. Now that my wife has been threatening to buy an RV (to fill the extra space in her new shop building in Washington ), I just pulled out my “National Parks of the West” book (US/Canada) to see what parks we haven’t yet been to.
Have fun,
Lee
Thanks so much, Lee. It was wonderful to hear how the blog post article was inspiring for you – that’s always music to a travel blogger’s ears! And, yes, you really took the key message of stepping just a little outside your comfort zone to heart! I look forward to hearing about where your “next steps” will take you!