TripAdvisor®, the world's largest travel site, today announced the top adventure destinations around the world as well as bookable experiences that will get the heart rate climbing.
According to TripAdvisor Experiences bookings, the global popularity of adrenaline experiences is on the rise, up nearly 20 per cent year-on-year1, as more travellers go in search of daring enterprises. In fact, there was a 170% increase in bookings for bungee jumping, 81% increase for skydiving and a 67% increase for caving during the same period.
TripAdvisor identified ten destinations where travellers can seek out extraordinary, adventure experiences, based on places that are seeing the greatest amount of related search terms on the site.*
Top 10 Destinations for Adventure Travel
Known for its dense rainforests, volcanoes and majestic waterfalls, the “Rich Coast” offers thrill-seekers an adrenaline-inducing array of outdoor adventures. These bouncing off waterfalls from 30 feet and taking the plunge from the highest bungee jumping spot in Central America.
Beyond its beautiful beaches and heritage towns, Mexico also possesses a diverse landscape of jungles, mountains and deserts, making it one of the most popular destinations for adventure travel. Join a Playa del Carmen jungle tour where you can traverse the jungle on a 4x4 vehicle, rappel into a cenote and zipline through treetops. You can also opt for a snorkel tour in Cancun, exploring some of Mexico’s lesser-known reefs with a stop at shipwreck to marvel at the underwater ruins.
The Aloha State is more than just about sunbathing and pina coladas by the beach. Get your pulse racing with a shark cage dive in Oahu, where you can get within inches of grey reef sharks, sandbar sharks and hammerheads or test your rappelling skills on some of Mau’s most dramatic rock cliffs and waterfalls. Alternatively, get onboard an open-door helicopter ride and buckle in for dramatic, unobstructed views of Oahu’s beaches, waterfalls, Pearl Harbour, the world’s largest agricultural maze and the Halona Blowhole.
For holiday thrills and spills, New Zealand offers plenty of heart-stopping experiences. Fall to earth from 15,000 feet in 60 seconds of freefall with a tandem skydive over Lake Taupo or jet-boat over the Shotover River, manoeuvring through narrow canyon walls and squeezing past tight corners. Take to the water with a paddle through Class 5 white-water rapids on the Kaituna River, including a sharp 21-foot drop down Tutea Falls, the world’s highest commercially rafted waterfall.
From craggy mountain ranges, sand dunes to river canyons, Colorado is a natural adventure waiting to be explored. Be one of the few to see one of Colorado's most famous landmarks, Garden of the Gods, by climbing up a huge rock formation on this private rock climbing adventure. You can also take on the one-of-a-kind Fins Course zipline nestled in the Seven Falls Canyon. Comprising five zip-lines ranging from 300 feet to 1,800 feet and with heights of 500 feet, thrill-seekers will also love the two suspension bridges and a 180-foot assisted rappel.
The Sunshine State is teeming with bucket-list worthy experiences that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Make a beeline for a canyoning tour in the Crystal Cascades, where you can abseil, scramble over boulders, and jump into freshwater pools; or soar through the air whilst bungee jumping or riding the Minjin Swing at the Cairns Bungy Tower. Explore the Gold Coast on a Jet Ski Safari adventure where you can ride a high-speed Jet Ski through a 49-mile waterway filled with hairpin turns and bends.
Belize has plenty of outdoor adventure to get you out of your comfort zone. Experience two of Belize’s most popular activities in a single day with a zipline and cave tubing tour where you can fly through the jungle on a seven-cable zipline course before making your way through the tropical forest and float through an underground cave system in the heart of the Maya Mountains. You can also get up close to the Caribbean’s coral reefs and marine life with a SNUBA tour of Belize's famed Hol Chan Marine Reserve and Mexico Rocks patch reef.
Journey through Canada’s great outdoors and get your heart pounding with a snowmobile tour of Mt. Whistler’s wilderness, where you can whiz through backcountry trails, past scenic vista points, alpine bowls, and frozen lakes. Go off-piste and take a backcountry ski tour of Whistler’s remote trails comprising thrilling ski runs on a multitude of slopes and glaciers.
Travellers can go deep into Alaskan wilderness by hiking on some of its best-known glaciers. Trek through Mendenhall Glacier or Matanuska Glacier, where you can be rewarded with dramatic blue meltwater pools, glacial formations and incredible views of Alaska’s mountain ranges. You can also experience Denali National Park with a flightseeing tour that offers a bird’s eye view of majestic glaciers, snow-capped mountain peaks and even lands on a glacier for a walk on the icy landscape.
There’s adventure to be had amongst the sand dunes and wadis of the UAE. Kick off with a desert safari where you can spend the afternoon in a 4x4 vehicle dune bashing and manoeuvring down the dunes in a sandboarding lesson. You can also unleash the your inner daredevil with a flyboarding session at Jumeirah Beach, hitting the waves down the coast as you are propelled up to 45-feet in the air using high-speed water jets.
*Methodology
Adventure destinations were surfaced based on destinations seeing the greatest amount of related search terms on TripAdvisor including but not limited to Off-road, Adventure, Weekend Getaway, Extreme Destination, Remote, Extraordinary, Awesome, Thrilling, Bucket-List, Dare Devil, Things to See Before You Die, Unforgettable
1 Comparing bookings in the “Adrenaline and Extreme” category between January – July 2017 and January – July 2018.
