Everyone wants a challenge–the opportunity to nudge the limits of the body and the mind. Even on vacation.
Although many Americans will set themselves on idle as they loll beside a pool or lake this summer, countless others will seek adventure. You can find vacationers camping, hiking and fishing in national and state parks and on federally owned lands. You can find people rafting, trekking, climbing, sailing and kayaking all over the globe. You can find others on archeological digs in Israel, or bicycling from inn to inn in California, Vermont and France.
Adventure travel, as the genre is called, cuts across a wide range of activities and provides a buzz for all kinds of people. Adventures–some soft, some hard–can range from a learning cruise to Alaska to death-defying rock climbing.
Americans spend as much as $200 billion on adventure travel, including $100 billion on gear, according to Jerry Mallett, president of the Adventure Travel Society, an Englewood, Colo.-based adventure travel and ecotourism trade group.
And the Washington-based Travel Industry Association of America reports that in its 1995 study of outdoors or adventure activities, some 73.5 million Americans had experienced some kind of outdoors adventure. That report found that camping, hiking and skiing were the most popular adventure activities, scoring 85, 74 and 51 percent, respectively. Other popular pursuits included snorkeling or scuba diving, sailing, kayaking, white-water rafting and biking trips.
With most of the world accessible, travelers in search of something new and different look to adventure travel. That brings us to James C. Simmons, who has traveled to more than 100 countries in search of adventure, from remote river-rafting to non-taxing educational cruising.
Simmons, who has six books to his credit, is the author of “The Big Book of Adventure Travel” (John Muir Publications; $17.95), now in its third edition. Each of the book’s 11 chapters covers specific types of land and sea adventures, including profiles of adventure tour operators.
During a telephone interview, Simmons discussed a shift in interest from hard adventure travel to soft adventure. “This coincides in part with Baby Boomers pushing 50,” he said. “These were the people who back in the 1960s and 1970s started out traveling in their young and vigorous years. They did it on the cheap, and liked backpacking, camping and rigorous travel. As these people have gotten older, they’ve gotten more attached to the amenities of life. They prefer to have their adventures by day and creature comforts by night. That means a comfortable hotel or lodge, warm showers and good food.”
Simmons said the comfort trend is best seen in bicycle touring, which used to be done on the cheap, with participants staying in dormitories or bunkhouses. “And they (tour operators) were proud of the fact that the traveling was cheap and very little attention was paid to the so-called amenities.”
Bike touring didn’t take off until Vermont Bicycle Touring decided to give people really comfortable and often luxurious amenities at night, Simmons noted. “Other operators followed suit, and the industry exploded in terms of numbers. Some companies were experiencing a 25 to 30 percent growth rate a year. As the price went up to $200 to $300 a day, the bookings went up.”
“There’s been a major evolution because of the client demand for higher qualities of lodging and restaurants,” affirmed William Perry, president of Vermont Bicycle Touring, in a profile in Simmons’ book. “Instead of bunkhouse-style rooms, cyclists now enjoy four-star inns and gourmet meals.”
The trend toward softening adventure travel for Baby Boomers extends beyond cycling, Simmons noted. Travelers, he said, can trek in Nepal without having to huff and puff with a 50-pound backpack. Porters and yaks do all the heavy hauling. Parents intent on trekking in Nepal can take their children, and sherpas will tote the kids. In Yellowstone National Park, backpackers can hike to remote areas, with llamas carrying the gear.
Purists might argue that true adventure travel must push people to their limits. It’s the old theory of no pain, no gain. If you can’t lug a backpack, too bad. But as long as the environment is protected, then people should have limited access to hard-to-get-to places. Perhaps when people see great natural wonders, they will become more impassioned about protecting them.
For people in search of high adventure, Simmons suggests a rafting trip down the Colorado River. “It’s the classic river trip in the U.S., perhaps the world,” he said. “You can do it three ways: in a big sausage boat, which is perfectly safe; in a smaller oar-powered raft, which is three or four times more exciting and a great deal more dangerous; or in a wooden dory, which is the most risk-filled because these crafts are smaller and can smash up against rocks.”
For a moderate adventure, Simmons said he likes helicopter-assisted hiking in British Columbia, where a chopper takes you to a glacier or mountain meadow to hike with a naturalist for two or three hours at a crack.
Why the growing allure for adventure vacations?
“I think it reflects a dissatisfaction on the part of many people with more conventional vacation experiences. American are demanding active vacations,” Simmons said. “They are not content with passive, spectator-on-the bus, margaritas-by-the-pool vacations. Also, many Americans have long been watching National Geographic television specials, which have whetted their appetites to see special areas themselves.
“I think there’s another reason behind the surge for adventure travel,” Simmons continued. “American are addicted to self-improvement. And a good adventure trip changes the person in a way that a week at a Club Med doesn’t.
“It’s very common for people to remark on an increased sense of self-confidence after a trips such as rafting the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. I would say that adventure travel involves both discovery of the world outside us and the world within us. And that’s what makes it so satisfying.”
