In the 90s, active travel outfitters like Backroads gained popularity by offering inn-to-inn biking and hiking trips. Other sports like rafting and sea kayaking started to appear in itineraries in the first decade of the new millennium. The latest trend is family adventures, taking the whole clan down to say, Costa Rice for a week and trying as many sports as possible. Also growing in popularity are more historical adventures, like this trip I just received from Baobab Expeditions. From February 20-March 1, 2010, you can join the outfitter on a 50-mile camel trek across the Moroccan desert on an old caravanserai route. The trip begins and ends in Marrakech, before heading out with Berber Guides to the oases of Lawina and Saf’Sef. You’ll sleep under the palms while enjoying traditional Berber food and listening to the music, drums, tambourines and singing of the locals. Then it’s on to Erg Chebbi to see the sand dunes rising to over 500 feet. Pricing begins at $3533 and includes lodging, food, guides, and all the drinking water you can swallow.

 

In February, I had the chance for the second year in a row to float down the mountainous White River, a definite highlight of any trip to Jamaica. High in the hills above Ocho Rios, the water is cool and as clear as gin. Guides sing Bob Marley songs as you flow with the slow-moving current. Or listen to the high-pitched call of the yellow banana quit bird and peer out at the green mosaic of ferns, banana trees, and thickets of bamboo that climb the banks of this sinuous waterway like ivy climbs a wall. What’s wonderful about this river cruise is that all ages love the journey, from my 79 year-old dad to my 11 year-old daughter. The River Tubing Safari is one of the many adventures offered by the reputable Jamaican outfitter, Chukka Caribbean Adventures. To see my story on Ocho Rios, visit Away.com.

 

Snowboarding is so old school. The latest winter craze is snowkiting. Comparable to kitesurfers, who skim the lake and ocean waters come summer, snowkiters cruise over snow-crusted fields and iced-over lakes. Attached to a kite, snowkiters can catch air like kitesurfers, but you’re not coming down to a soft splash. The reason why you need to wear a good ski helmet. For more information on events and gear, check out snowkiting.com.

 

To truly get excited about the Winter Olympics in Whistler this coming February, you should sample several of the sports. At Utah Olympic Park in Park City, the ski jump, bobsled, and freestyle skiing venue are all open to the public. Freestyle skiers can take their lumps on small jumps before they try the big one, wannabe bobsledders spend $65 for a ride that lasts a little more than one minute. And, ye of proven mettle can sleep at night knowing that the 10, 20, and 40K ski jumps are accessible to amateurs. Our guide informed us that an 84 year-old man attempted the 20K jump and had a solid landing. Wonderful, I think to myself. That gives me another four decades to consider catching air the length of a football field and a half.  In the meantime, I’m heading back to the slopes to ski.
 

This must be the year of the dogsled because I just received my third dogsledding assignment in the past month. It must be the rare chance to get lost in the woods for an hour, day, or week that has propelled dogsledding from a marginal sport to the mainstream. All across the snowbelt, outfitters are popping up to lead guests on trips.  This is also true in warm-weather months, when Iditarod riders offer dogsledding on wheels to cruise passengers in Juneau making their way up Alaska’s Inside Passage.  With an average speed of 12 miles an hour, you can get out in the countryside faster than a typical cross-country skier. Plus, you don’t have to deal with the noise or smoke coming from a snowmobile. But the best part is hugging those cute little furballs.

In Maine, go with Mahoosuc Guide Service, offering trips ranging from one day to one week.  They also partner with the AMC in Maine to feature a sporting camp-to-sporting camp trip in late January. Wintergreen Dogsledding Lodge has been offering Lassie-led trips into Minnesota’s Boundary Water Canoe Area for 30 years. Using Wintergreen’s large chalet as your base in Ely, you and the other sled teams in your party will cover 5 to 10 miles daily, gliding across the ice on one of the Boundary Water’s mind-boggling 1,100 lakes.
 

Each fall, a fascinating event takes flight in the rugged wilds of northwestern Mongolia. It’s the Golden Eagle Festival, a celebration of the heritage and traditions of the native Kazakhs who use Golden Eagles to hunt small prey, not for sport but for survival. On the 10th Anniversary of the Golden Eagle Festival, adventure tour company Nomadic Expeditions offers a unique six-night journey through the Altai Mountains. Highlights include visiting families in their traditional huts, eagle-racing, and equestrian competitions where you have the chance for a Golden Eagle to perch on your arm. The Golden Eagle Festival will be held on September 30 – October 10, 2009.

I’m back in the Adirondacks, my home away from home and one of my favorite regions to write about. To give you a little taste of upstate New York, I’ve decided to dedicate this week to blogging about the area. The Adirondacks is the largest park of any kind in the lower 48 states. It is larger than Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, and Olympic National Parks combined. It is larger than the state of New Hampshire, larger than six other states. Its six million acres contains more than 2,800 ponds and lakes, 1,500 miles of rivers. Indeed, ninety percent of all plants and animals that exist north of the Mason-Dixon line and east of the Mississippi River can be found somewhere in the Adirondacks. 

Yet, for several reasons, the Adirondacks and even the Catskills in the southern part of the state have remained a coveted secret cherished mostly by northeasterners. Like most tourism in New York State, it is overshadowed by the large metropolis that sits in the south. More importantly, unlike Yellowstone, Yosemite, or even Acadia on the Maine coast, the Adirondacks are a state park. It’s not even entirely government owned. Within the “Blue Line” delineating the State Park’s boundary is a mix of public and private lands. Thus, despite its immensity, the Adirondacks will never have the popularity or crowds that swell the national parks in summer.

Although it took 26 hours or more on railroads, stagecoaches, and steamboats to get to the Adirondack Mountains from New York City in the 1870s, the remoteness of this region proved to be more of an attraction than a deterrent. To make traveling more pleasurable, the wealthy elite, including J.P. Morgan, William Whitney, and Alfred Vanderbilt built their own private railway car, complete with brass railings, shower, card room, and bed. Eventually they would have to climb aboard a boat to get to their final destination. Guideboats, a little larger than rowboats, were used to escort visitors on the network of waterways that form a vast web of blue throughout the Adirondacks. Enter the Boats Building at the wonderful Adirondack Museum on a hillside overlooking Blue Mountain Lake and you can find birch-bark canoes and guideboats dating back to the 1840s.
 

Across Costa Rica, you see billboard signs offering Canopy Tours, otherwise known as a zipline. It’s an exhilarating ride, especially when you’re socked into the cloud forest on an almost kilometer-long flight through the woods and can barely see anything around you, including the next platform to land. In rare moments when the clouds lift, you look down and spot the lush ferns, moss-covered tree trunks and vines that dangle down from the unruly ficus trees. Go with a reputable company like Selvatura. Or venture to Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast to spot monkeys and sloths in the jungle-like interior. Now ziplines are starting to pop up in North America. If you’re headed to Whistler next February to catch the Winter Olympics, try the year round zipline that cruises across Fitzsimmons Creek from Whistler to Blackcomb. Offered by Ziptrek Ecotours, it’s the longest zipline in North America.