Rivers Travel

A team of top explorers, adventurers and award-winning writers put together a list of the greatest travel adventures to get our hearts racing for 2011.

Talking to Adventure Travel Live, travel experts including Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler, explorer Benedict Allen and broadcaster Simon Calder share some of the most intense adventures available on the planet which include:

1. Tiger tracking on elephants, Kanha National Park, India
You’ll never get so close to a tiger in the wild.

2. Skiing on Asahidake, Hokkaido, Japan
Asahidake is Hokkaido’s highest mountain and sends out a stream of smoke from its vents. It enjoys eight meters of snow a year, the most consistently excellent in the world.

3. Diving with hammerhead sharks in the Galapagos
With basic scuba skills you can safely dive with these fabulous, iconic sharks – in the company of so many of them that you lose count.

4. Encounter with mountain gorillas in Rwanda
Nothing rivals a close-up with our closest relatives. The trek can take five hours. It is at altitude, in a rainforest, with no paths. Worth it – massively and emotionally.

5. Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru
Popular though this three-day trek is, nothing can prepare you for the awesome first sight of the ‘lost’ city of the Incas as you round the trail on the last day, seeing it perched high above the Urumaba with the mist swirling around it.

6. Larapinta Trail in Australia’s Northern Territory
Classic outback country: dry, dramatic, lots of wildlife … the ‘dry’ component would normally make it unwalkable until the establishment of regular water tanks made it one of Australia’s best hikes.

7. Trans-Siberian Railway, Russia
The greatest rail adventure of them all. I’d suggest the weekly Moscow-Mongolia-Beijing train. It’s six nights and over 5,000 miles across Siberia, the Gobi Desert, and through the Great Wall for as little as GBP410. You can even start your trip at St. Pancras.

8. Hot-air ballooning over the Serengeti, Tanzania
Even if there are no migrating herds, just to pass over the African savannah in silence is something you will never forget.

9. Hiking the Grand Tsingy Circuit, Madagascar
Tsingy are pinnacles and spikes of limestone creating the world’s most exotic rock garden. Rare succulents shelter in the gullies that visitors cross using boardwalks, ladders, and bridges. An extraordinary experience on an extraordinary island.

10. The wildlife of the Pantanal, Brazil
Check out giant otters, caimans, jaguars, green iguanas, and more.

What do we understand by adventure travel? Years ago, an intrepid traveller, would take many months of preparation, and need as many months again, to embark upon an adventure. They would need a lot of money to arrange all the resources they needed. We imagine them to be hacking their way through a Malaysian jungle with a trail of bearers behind, or pulling their sleighs across frozen Arctic wastes. Perhaps, even, exploring the upper Nile, or crossing a desert by camel.

We have travelled far since those early pioneers paved the way for us. Now you can go on a family adventure as part of your annual holiday. Honeymooners can enjoy the first blooms of married life in a tropical jungle or trekking in Peru. Seasoned travellers may go to remote places by canoe, or hike over a mountain range. Even gap year travellers can make the journey of a lifetime and fall in love with the Brazilian Pantanal, or the Australian Outback. You can travel as part of a group or on your own.

There are some tour operators that specialise in adventure travel. They already have the resources in place in your preferred destination. Experienced group leaders and much local knowledge allow them to offer a high quality service to travellers looking for adventure.

These tours are generally eco-friendly and travellers can interact with local people and put their finger on the pulse of a country or region, to really feel the heartbeat of a place. Adventure travellers are ecologically aware and are looking for something different. The adventure traveller is not just seeking his own gratification, but would want the local people to benefit from his visit. He is a responsible traveller.

Where can you start with adventure travel? You can start in your own country by doing something you have never done before. You can start by doing something adventurous for one day – go up in a balloon, or take a canoe trip down your favourit river. If you want to trek through the foothills of the Himalayas, start with a walking holiday through the local hills or across the moors where you live, and build your confidence and your enthusiasm

Adventure holidays offers something for everybody. A wide range of tours are available to suit various styles, tastes and levels of experience. These tours are for anybody who is looking for something different. Many group tours are only six to twelve people in size, so you can get to know everyone, an adventure tour can offer a good social interaction with like-minded travellers.

When is the best time to go on an adventure holiday? There’s the beauty of adventure travel, you can go anytime of the year. Different continents means there is something to do in any month of the year. When the Northern Hemisphere is having its summer, the Southern Hemisphere is in winter.

The adventure travellers of bygone years still have something to show us. Give yourself plenty of time to prepare. Save your money, read your books, and the old timers did not have the benefit of internet research – get to know something about your destination. Then a good tour operator can help make your dream holiday come true.

How about one of these destinations for a trip of a lifetime?

Asahidake Hokkaido Japan, hammerhead sharks in the Galapagos, hiking the Grand Tsingy circuit, hot-air ballooning over the Serengeti, Kanha National Park India, Larapinta Trails, Machu Picchu, mountain gorillas in Rwanda, Pantanal, tiger tracking, or the Trans-Siberian railway