All ready for adventure and not sure where to go? Test out these ideas from Lonely Planet. Source:ThinkStock
The Daily Telegraph featured this great story on 10 Ideas for Active Holidays on the 14th April, 2014:
FOR an overseas holiday that requires a little extra effort but is definitely out of the ordinary, here’s 10 ideas from Lonely Planet.
FOR an overseas holiday that requires a little extra effort but is definitely out of the ordinary, here’s 10 ideas from Lonely Planet.
1. CANOE IN ESTONIAN BACKWATERS
“Europe’s biggest bog system” may not inspire you to jump on the next plane to Estonia. Fortunately, Soomaa National Park is a much nicer proposition than it sounds. It’s a labyrinth of quiet waterways and forested islands and one of the few places in Europe where people still make dugout canoes (haabjas). Join a canoe-making workshop and fashion a craft out of an aspen trunk, before exploring the nearby waterways in a pre-made vessel.
See soomaa.com
Arrive: Fly to Tallinn. From there, direct trains service the town of Tori, where the operators can pick you up.
See edel.ee
This bog is worth a visit - canoeing in Soomaa National Park, Estonia. Source: Supplied
2. HORSE RIDING IN SPAIN
Sturdily built and famously courageous, Andalusian horses were prized as the battle tanks of the Middle Ages. Learn how to ride your own steed with a long weekend in their home territory: the Sierra Nevada mountains of southern Spain. Cavalry charges are substituted for serene days trotting along dusty mule tracks – passing through olive groves and oak forests, and scaling hilltops with views that stretch as far as the Moroccan coast.
Guests find their stable in the riding school’s traditional Andalusian farmhouse, dining on locally grown produce beside a log fire.
See golearnto.com
Arrive: The closest airport to the riding school is Granada.
Riders in the Alpujarra mountains of the Sierra Nevada in Spain. Source: Supplied
Hiking with llamas with Berwyn Mountain Llamas. Source: Supplied
3. HIKE WITH LLAMAS IN WALES
If there were a vote for Wales’s national animal, the dragon would likely be at the top of the list, with various breeds of sheep in keen pursuit. Somewhere near the bottom of the candidates would be the llama. Fortunately, this hasn’t deterred Berwyn Mountain Llamas from offering llama-trekking tours, with two Welsh-born llamas trotting about the Cambrian countryside near the town of Bala. Tours range from short trots to 13km hikes.
Arrive: Llandrillo is best accessed by private transport – it’s roughly a two-hour drive from Birmingham and 90 minutes from Manchester.
Stay: Tyddyn Llan has individually designed guest rooms in a country house in Llandrillo, with a Michelin-starred restaurant on site.
See tyddynllan.co.uk
4. TAKE A BIKE RIDE IN ISRAEL
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv may be only 65km apart, but they could hardly be more different: the former a holy city of millennia-old minarets and spires, the latter a new city of gleaming skyscrapers and boisterous beachfront bars. A great way to see both sides of Israel in one day is to take a bike trip with a Jerusalemite guide. Cyclists depart from the ancient city’s Jaffa Gate, pedalling westwards (and mostly downhill) through the olive groves and rolling hills of the Israeli countryside.
You’ll arrive in Tel Aviv a few hours later, in time for a swim at one of the city’s beaches before the sun sinks into the Mediterranean.
See vayable.com
STAY: House 57 offers simple guestrooms in Jerusalem, with views of the Old City.
Stop off to enjoy the views and a swim at Tel Aviv’s beaches on a bike trip from Jerusalem. Source:ThinkStock
Head to Kendal in the Lake District for a sheer adventure. Source: Supplied
5. LEARN TO CLIMB IN ENGLAND’S LAKE DISTRICT
When they weren’t trying to conquer Everest, mountaineers such as Hillary and Mallory often practised their craft in the Lake District, scaling its sheer rock faces, ambling over grassy fells and stocking up on Kendal mint cake. Follow in their cramponed footsteps with a crash course in mountain navigation run by the Lakeland Climbing Centre in Kendal.
On a two-day break you’ll learn how to use a compass, read contours and pace out distances – before putting the skills into practice by climbing a local fell.
See kendalwall.co.uk
Arrive: Direct trains run to Kendal from Edinburgh and Manchester.
See tpexpress.co.uk
Stay: The Waterhead hotel in Ambleside has rooms overlooking Windermere.
6. TEST DRIVE CAMELS IN MOROCCO
Ride your own Saharan camel on Responsible Travel’s “Live with a Berber Family in the Moroccan Sahara” tour – striking out from the village of Merzouga on a two-day jaunt through shifting dunes, spending time with Berber families on the way. Accommodation is in a traditional tent – or, if it’s warm enough, guests bed down in the open air near their camels, falling asleep while watching shooting stars swooshing through the Saharan sky.
Visit Bedouin camps on a camel ride in Morocco. Source: Supplied
7. SAIL THE STOCKHOLM ARCHIPELAGO
Every summer weekend, hundreds of Stockholmers jump in their boats and set a course for the islands of the Stockholm Archipelago. And there are plenty of islands to explore: 24,000 of them, all within a few hours’ sailing from the Swedish capital. Join this tradition on a two-day sailing trip with Stockholm Adventures: board a yacht at the village of Vaxholm and head into the Baltic and take a pick of several thousand islands at which to drop anchor for the night .
Sail to the Stockholm Archipleago - seen here from across Riddarfjarden - in Sweden. Source:Supplied
8 . RAFT IN SWITZERLAND
A boat trip down the Danube generally means handsome cities, calm waters and genteel waltzes. But in the case of its tributary, the River Inn, it is entirely different: rocks, foaming rapids and a much bigger risk of capsizing.
To take your own not-so-serene cruise down the Inn, enlist on a three-night trip with Water by Nature, which includes a day’s rafting. Accompanied by a qualified instructor, rafters navigate through steep canyons and dense Alpine forests along the Swiss-Austrian border near the town of Scuol.
If you can muster up the energy, the trip also includes a mountain-biking excursion on nearby slopes.
If you’re keen to splash out, take a rafting trip along the Danube in Switzerland. Source: Supplied
9. GO HIKING IN THE FRENCH ALPS
Mont Blanc is the highest peak in Western Europe – which means that for most people it’s pretty much off limits for a short walk. Luckily you can at least admire the peak’s icy heights from the next-door mountain as part of a guided weekend walking tour with Alpine Trek.
Beginning in the Chamonix valley, you’ll scale high passes and take in views of mighty Italian and Swiss summits.
Arrive: Geneva is the closest airport to Chamonix. From Geneva, travel to Chamonix by train.
See sncf.com
Cool views: Hiking along a snowy ridge in the French Alps. Source: Supplied
10. TAKE A WALK IN THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS
John Keats once wrote that climbing Ben Nevis was like “mounting 10 St Paul’s without the convenience of a staircase”. Keats was underselling it (Ben Nevis is the height of 12 St Paul’s cathedrals) – but that shouldn’t deter you from conquering the summit of the UK’s loftiest mountain on a walking weekend with Walkabout Scotland.
Setting out from Glencoe, walkers negotiate the switchbacks of “the Ben”on their first day, bearing south the following morning to scale the pyramidal peak of Buachaille Etive Mor (the Beuckle) – a no less formidable Munro presiding over the heather-strewed expanse of Glencoe.
Arrive: Direct trains run to Edinburgh from London’s Euston station.
See scotrail.co.uk
Need to stretch your legs while travelling the UK? Try climbing Ben Nevis in the Scottish Highlands.Source: ThinkStock
“Like” Escape.com.au on Facebook
Follow @Escape_team on Twitter
COMMENTS
