Adventure Travel News

The Arctic Circle at 66 degrees north defines the lower limit of our great Arctic. Home to severe temperatures, extreme beauty and a delicate ecological equilibrium which is constantly under threat. In the Arctic you will also find some of the worlds best adventure travel opportunities. A combination of the cold, beauty and ecology leads to the perfect conditions for adrenaline rushes, wilderness tranquility and close encounters of the bear kind. The Arctic region encompasses many countries and areas including Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Canada, Greenland, Iceland and Alaska. Below are 5 of beouthere.com’s favourite adventures:

Dogsledding in Svalbard

Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago consisting of three islands: Spitsbergen, Bear Island and Hopen. Spitsbergen is the most frequented of the three by tourists. That said, it is by no means crowded. As with the following four Arctic adventures, Svalbard provides the experience of pristine wilderness that so many adventure travellers desire. One of the best ways to see the island and it’s wildlife (polar bears, Arctic foxes and reindeer), is by dogsled. The main adventure travel provider is Svalbard Huskies who offer 3.5 hour tours.

Skiing in Canada

Any adventure traveller will tell you that Canada offers almost any adventure any person could wish for. Furthermore, Canada largely offers the best landscape to enjoy those different adventures in. Adventure travel in Canada can range from ice climbing to caving to ballooning. But today beouthere.com want to promote one of the oldest and purest of them all: Skiing. Vast, inaccessible, landscapes are opened up by skiing and, to a greater extent, if you care to jump into a helicopter. One of our favourite adventure travel providers is Yamnuska Mountain Adventures. Their programs open up the Canadian Rockies in some truly adventurous ways, including Backcountry Skiing. You can start with introductory course and then progress to 4 to 6 day traverses of some of Canada’s greatest landscapes.

Eco Tours in Greenland

The Arctic Circle is home to some of the most fascinating wildlife on Earth, including the world’s largest carnivore, the Polar Bear and the largest species of dolphin, the Killer Whale. Who wouldn’t like a chance to see just one of those incredible animals. Well, there are many adventure travel providers who offer such opportunities. Whilst nothing is a given, going with the right adventure travel provider can mean the difference between seeing an endangered species or not. Arctic Kingdom Marine Expeditions offer leisurely cruises in the Greenland region. With wildlife photography at the top of the list, AKME pursue Bowhead and Humpback whales in Greenland’s Disko bay.

Sea Kayaking in Iceland

Sea Kayaking in Iceland. How good does that sound? beouthere.com don’t need to convince you. But we will anyway. Iceland is a minute Canada. Magnificence, stunning scenery, wilderness. European travellers should really investigate Iceland as a real alternative (at least once anyway) to Canada. The breadth of adventure travel opportunities is only exceeded by the sense of adventure you will have by enjoying them. Sea Kayaking is just one of many ways to attain this notion. Borea Adventures offer such an adventure. For 6 days, budding adventurers can enjoy the scenery of the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve or the peace of Sea Kayaking in the Icelandic wilderness.

Dog-Sledding in Alaska

The largest and least densely populated state of the US, Alaska is one of the last great wildernesses. And where there’s wilderness, there’s adventure. An article about the various adventure travel opportunities in the Arctic would not be complete without a mention of dog-sledding. Especially in a place that is home to the world’s largest wildlife refuge – the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Whilst there are few simple short tours in this region there are a number of expeditions. Several of which are offered by Alaskan Arctic Expeditions. Wildlife, wilderness and weather. The three highlights of a 12 to 21 day expedition around the ANWR. Start saving now. Expeditions run February, March, April and May.

Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversation. ~Elizabeth Drew

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. ~St. Augustine

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move. ~Robert Louis Stevenson

When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money. ~Susan Heller

Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything. ~Charles Kuralt, On the Road With Charles Kuralt

I think that travel comes from some deep urge to see the world, like the urge that brings up a worm in an Irish bog to see the moon when it is full. ~Lord Dunsany

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. ~Lao Tzu

Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe. ~Anatole France

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. ~Lin Yutang

Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind. ~Seneca

The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes “sight-seeing.” ~Daniel J. Boorstin

It is not down in any map; true places never are. ~Herman Melville

What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do – especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road. ~William Least Heat Moon, Blue Highways

The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land. ~G.K. Chesterton

To get away from one’s working environment is, in a sense, to get away from one’s self; and this is often the chief advantage of travel and change. ~Charles Horton Cooley

And that’s the wonderful thing about family travel: it provides you with experiences that will remain locked forever in the scar tissue of your mind. ~Dave Barry

Travelers never think that they are the foreigners. ~Mason Cooley

Most travel is best of all in the anticipation or the remembering; the reality has more to do with losing your luggage. ~Regina Nadelson

I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within. ~Lillian Smith

Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness. ~Ray Bradbury

There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror. ~Orson Welles

Now I know why they tell you to put your head between your knees on crash landings. You think you’re going to kiss your ass good-bye. ~Terry Hanson

I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them. ~Mark Twain

I feel about airplanes the way I feel about diets. It seems to me that they are wonderful things for other people to go on. ~Jean Kerr, “Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall,” The Snake Has All the Lines, 1958

In America there are two classes of travel – first class, and with children. ~Robert Benchley

Just get on any major highway, and eventually it will dead-end in a Disney parking area large enough to have its own climate, populated by large nomadic families who have been trying to find their cars since the Carter administration. ~Dave Barry

If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home. ~James Michener

If God had really intended men to fly, he’d make it easier to get to the airport. ~George Winters

I met a lot of people in Europe. I even encountered myself. ~James Baldwin

Whenever we safely land in a plane, we promise God a little something. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960

The only way of catching a train I ever discovered is to miss the train before. ~G.K. Chesterton

The time to enjoy a European trip is about three weeks after unpacking. ~George Ade, Forty Modern Fables

I did not fully understand the dread term “terminal illness” until I saw Heathrow for myself. ~Dennis Potter, 1978

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime. ~Mark Twain

I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad. ~George Bernard Shaw

I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine. ~Caskie Stinnett

A passport, as I’m sure you know, is a document that one shows to government officials whenever one reaches a border between countries, so the officials can learn who you are, where you were born, and how you look when photographed unflatteringly. ~Lemony Snicket

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries. ~Aldous Huxley

The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see. ~G.K. Chesterton

We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment. ~Hilaire Belloc

Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen. ~Benjamin Disraeli

The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway. ~Henry Boye

At beouthere.com we want to answer the question that all adventure travellers ask before booking a tour: who is the best adventure travel operator?

At beouthere.com we go one better than telling you our own opinion. We give you the opinions of 1000s of adventure travellers who have experienced these companies before.

User reviews are the most powerful medium when it comes to product recommendations. Take tripadvisor, for example. Thanks to these guys, there are very few hotel users who will book up without checking tripadvisor.

How can the modern adventure traveller find the right adventure amongst ever growing volumes of tour options, trip reports, and environmental incentives?

The adventure travel market is a fast-growing niche within the tourism sector. Adventure travellers can now find almost any adventure in any country of the world. Whether it be Caving in Afghanistan, Surfing in Fiji or Ballooning over the Serengeti, there is an adventure tour operator or adventure company to take you there.

Gone are the days when an adventurer would have to spend weeks planning his or her expedition with swiss-like precision. Modern-day operators will organise every detail of the trip, right down to the level of adrenaline you will experience.

Your choices in adventure travel are literally endless. Unsurprisingly there are hundreds of companies offering Safaris, Skiing Trips, Scuba Diving and much more. They exist in such numbers because each offers a slightly different service and every adventurer wants a different experience.

So what are adventure travellers really looking for? Surly for each individual the ideal experience is different. Some will want greener trips whereas others will yearn for really ‘out-there’ trips were the accommodation is a tent, not a 5-star hotel and the transport is a yak rather than an air-conditioned coach.

So, to uncover global adventure travel and the right experience for you, the answer is simple. Draw out a 3-part check list:

1. Experience,

2. Out-There Factor

3. Environment. For each part work out what you want from a trip.

Then read trip reports, operator reviews and speak to the adventure companies.

Your dream adventure trip is out there. Just make sure you know what you want before you book.

Dear Adventurers

Welcome to the first post by beouthere.com

Keep checking back for updates and stories surrounding the world of Adventure Travel. The beouthere.com team are dedicated to making your adventure experience better, so please provide any feedback you like via feedback@beouthere.com

For a little idea about what we are about check out the Adventures of Dave: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14h_3SP0S94

All the best

The beouthere.com Team