This Year's 5 Top Adventure Travel Trends - For Fitness Fans and Everyday Travelers!
If your favorite way to experience the world is from the outdoors, then adventure travel is for you. And the best news is: you don’t have to be an Olympian to enjoy adventure the Great Outdoors! In fact, the Adventure Travel Trade Association recently released a list of this year’s hottest adventure travel activities – and we bet several sound right up your alley. From cycling to safaris, trekking and snowshoeing to wellness and culinary escapes, there’s a hardcore or...
Lions and Tigers and Leopards in the Woods: 5 Destinations for Viewing Big Cats
Calling all cat people! In celebration of International Cat Day, we called on a global wild cat conservation organization to share where in the world we can get the best views of our favorite felines in their natural environment. And at the same time, support communities to rebuild the eco-tourism that supports big cats’ preservation in the destinations people and wild cats share. Panthera has shared a list of five destinations worldwide where eco-tourists are almost guaranteed to encounter jaguars, leopards,...
Epic New Routes Add 650 Miles for Cyclists to Explore the USA
New bicycle routes across the U.S. have added 650 miles of possibilities for people who love to see the world on two wheels. The Adventure Cycling Association, the largest cycling membership organization in North America, has revealed three new cycling routes along historic Route 66 in Oklahoma, through Minnesota’s 10,000 Lakes, and along the Delaware River. The new routes in Oklahoma and Delaware are the first U.S. Bicycle Routes in those states, while the new route in Minnesota is its...
First-Ever, Statewide Waterfall Trail in the U.S. Opens Just in Time for Summer
Kick off summer on a quest. For the very first time, a statewide trail helps active travelers get off the beaten path, connecting them to over two dozen waterfalls across the most scenic parts of West Viriginia. The 29 waterfalls of the official West Virginia Waterfall Trail are just a ‘drop in the bucket’ of the more than 200 waterfalls found in picturesque places around the state.Chasing Waterfalls in America’s Newest National Park Included on the trail are six waterfalls...
This Entire Caribbean Island is now a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve
This small French Caribbean island is known as the Isle of Flowers, the Rum Capital of the World, and now, its land mass, along with the marine zone around it, has become an over 12-million acre globally recognized eco-reserve. Martinique has been inducted into UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Program, so now over 5% of the Earth’s landmass is recognized for conservation of biodiversity, environmental education research, and sustainable development. The organization describes Martinique as “the 12th biosphere reserve along the...
This Old Ship is the Caribbean's Great New Dive Destination
Sunken wrecks aren’t just fascinating destinations for underwater exploration or fantasies of pirate ‘days of yore’. Properly and carefully submerged, wrecks enhance natural reef ecosystems and provide new homes for marine plants and creatures. A new submerged ship is about to become a prime diving attraction in the 2nd-largest barrier reef in the world. It will also contribute to sustainability in a number of ways.“The Wit Concrete” ship is a 375-foot long, 58-foot wide, and 38-foot deep ship originally built during WW2,...
New Ships Put the ‘Luxe’ in Luxury Expedition Cruising to the Remote Oceans of the World
It’s one of the biggest trends in cruising. Not getting bigger, but getting out there. In style. Expedition cruises used to be only for the most intrepid travelers. You would join a working research vessel on its voyage to a very distant destination, tolerating the discomfort for the once-in-a-lifetime experience of getting up close and personal with the unique and fascinating natural wonders and wildlife of a maritime region you’d never otherwise encounter. The good news is that you no longer have to...
The World has a New Ocean to Explore
Get out a sharpie – there’s a new ocean to label on your map of the world. Or globe, if you have one. You might have to update your travel bucket list, too. If you’ve already ticked off ‘visit all the oceans of the world’, you’ll have to uncheck that box. Even if you’ve seen, swum in, or sailed upon the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Arctic oceans, your work to ‘collect’ all the oceans of the world is not done. That’s...
5 Ways to Explore this Country’s Desert From the Traditional to the Extreme
If you missed your dose of exotic scenery and culture – or even winter sports adrenaline this year, one country’s desert can feed your travel imagination. The Qatar peninsula juts a hundred miles out from the Arabian Peninsula into the Persian Gulf. Most travellers to the region focus on the thrilling, ultra-modern capital city of Doha. But most of the small country is covered by sand, from barren plains to the Khor al Adaid “Inland Sea” of rolling sand dunes...
'Astro' Travel Will Have You 'Seeing Stars'
International Dark Sky Week, held during the week of the new moon each April, calls for people worldwide to turn out their lights and take in the beauty of the night sky without light pollution dimming its brilliance. It’s also an annual reminder that some of the very best travel experiences aren’t under the bright lights of a city. Some of the most awe-inspiring and life-changing travel moments involve absorbing Mother Nature’s greatest spectacles above us.Astrotourism is a growing trend that...