While we enjoy relaxing by the sea with a book, we also love a vacation filled with adventure. We mean a trip where we experience a thrilling new activity and face a fear while exploring the rainforest’s canopies or the ocean’s depths. Nothing makes you feel more alive than a vacation that tests your limits and goes beyond the mundane everyday routines.
If you’re ready to plan an action-packed getaway, here are exciting excursions for risk-taking high-flyers.
Take a grand wilderness tour in Utah
Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star Amangiri boasts a stunning spa and breathtaking views. Camp Sarika is Amangiri’s glamping hideaway and the best way to experience the rocky canyons and sandy deserts of Southern Utah.
Book the camp’s five-night grand wilderness tour, and you’ll find an itinerary filled with hiking, workshops, fitness classes and more. One day, you’ll explore the Via Ferrata routes, a network of cables and ladder rungs on rocks and nearby mountains, and on another, you’ll do yoga atop Tower Butte, a land formation that’s only reachable by helicopter. There’s also open-sky sound bathing, slot canyon touring, aqua shiatsu therapy and guided meditation, making it an immersive odyssey for the mind and body.
Go whitewater rafting in Wyoming
Rusty Parrot Lodge & Spa celebrates the great outdoors in Jackson, Wyoming. The resort offers an assortment of activities, from mountain biking to snowshoeing. However, for action seekers, the most extreme adventure option at Rusty Parrot is whitewater rafting.
Guests at the lodge can enjoy an eight-mile cruise down the Snake, a class three river with about 10 exhilarating rapids. There are also calm sections of the excursion, where dips and swimming are encouraged. The whitewater rafting tour will pick you up and drop you off at the hotel, so you can maximize your vacation time, whether navigating through nature or visiting the spa for a deep-release massage.
Swim with whale sharks in Cancun
Whale sharks, an endangered species that can grow up to 60 feet, are the largest fish in the world. These mighty swimmers migrate through the Caribbean Sea just outside of the Forbes Travel Guide Recommended JW Marriott Cancun Resort & Spa.
To get a taste of deep-sea life, try an underwater journey that involves boarding a boat with a National Geographic snorkeler who will guide you as you dive to meet the gentle giants. After you swim with the stunning sharks, take a boat ride to Playa Norte in Isla Mujeres, where you’ll enjoy beach time and a ceviche snack.
Drive cattle in Montana
The Resort at Paws Up is a dreamy, 37,000-acre ranch alongside Montana’s Blackfoot River. The Four-Star resort boasts an impressive 100 miles of trails designated for horseback riding, ATVing, mountain biking and hiking. A private cattle drive, the getaway’s most challenging experience, requires horse know-how and the ability to steer your steed independently, so be sure your riding skills are up to par. For the cattle herding journey, you’ll learn essential rodeo tricks and have the chance to cut an 800-pound Corriente cow out from the herd.
Surf in Los Cabos
Five-Star Chileno Bay Resort & Residences, Auberge Resorts Collection is an ideal place to stay in Cabo because the property sits on one of the area’s only swimmable beaches. An innovator in ocean experiences, the resort is great for beginning surfers and those looking to take their carving to the next level.
Chileno Bay curates a full-day surf safari where you’ll take a speed boat to the nearby East Cape surfing enclave. There, a luxury lagoon catamaran will be your home for the next eight hours. Experts guide the day while a surf-specialized professional photography crew documents the action so you can share when you finally catch that wave on Instagram. There’s also a chef, water toys and fishing equipment to complete the outing.
Free dive in Hawaii
At Five-Star Four Seasons Resort Hualalai on Hawaii’s Big Island, you’ll find the once-in-a-lifetime freediving excursion. Led by champion free diver and ocean conservationist Kimi Werner, the two-and-a-half-day intensive teaches you how to dive into the water, hold your breath for an extended period and gather shellfish and seafood. And once your session is over, the hotel’s chef will treat you to a four-course dinner featuring ingredients unique to the Hawaiian Islands.
Ski and snowkite in Switzerland
St. Moritz’s Five-Star Badrutt’s Palace Hotel is a well-known skiing destination, but the resort offers much more than downhill and cross-country fun. There are plenty of other outdoor options, like ice skating, fat biking and snowshoe hiking. But the escapades that excite us most are skijöring and snowkiting. The former is a winter sport where an animal pulls a person on skis or a snowboard. Traditionally, skijöring involved reindeer, but today, horses are used. The skijöring at Badrutt’s Palace takes place on top of frozen Lake St. Moritz, which is just five minutes from the hotel.
If you’re not into horses, foray into snowkiting. Like windsurfing, you’ll use a large kite to glide over layers of ice on Lake Silvaplana or the Bernina Pass.
Play polo in Mexico
Four-Star One&Only Mandarina is a rainforest sanctuary on the Pacific coast of Mexico’s Riviera Nayarit. Besides being home to luxury treehouse accommodations, a Four-Star Tata Harper spa and five delicious dining options, the hotel also has a polo and equestrian club. Indulge your polo-playing fantasies with an on-field lesson from expert horseman Gustavo Mejia Ortiz.
And if you’ve always dreamed of galloping across the beach, you can do it here, too. Be sure to ask for Padrino, a gorgeous chestnut stallion that Kendall Jenner rode in a Vogue photoshoot. According to Mejia Ortiz, Padrino is one of the most intelligent horses in the stable. He’s been known to open his door in the middle of the night and escape to the pastures or food storage area.
Tackle a rainforest ropes course in Costa Rica
Exploring is encouraged at the Four-Star Andaz Costa Rica Resort at Peninsula Papagayo. The property, located within a 250-acre pristine preserve with three distinct ecosystems, is one of the world’s last-remaining tropical dry forests. Some activities around the resort include coral gardening, night walks and monkey spotting. Still, the best way to immerse yourself in the beauty of the jungle is by going on an aerial adventure. You’ll do seven ziplines, cross rope bridges, swing on logs and traverse aerial trails that pass a majestic weeping fig tree.
Try a family adventure in California
Children deserve a little adventure, too, and a good place to find it is Carmel Valley Ranch in Central California. The 500-acre playground recently underwent a multimillion-dollar renovation and debuted the children-focused Adventure Den. Every day the attraction provides something new, with two age groups (two to five and five to 12) focusing on a different topic. For example, on Mondays, young explorers will learn about Monterey’s local marine life, while Tuesdays concentrate on the history of the land and Wednesdays highlight native wildlife.
Parents can choose from hourly programs to all-day itineraries, allowing them free time to pursue adult activities (beekeeping and archery) or all-age ventures (falconry).
