Editor’s note: This article is part of our Meaningful Travel Forecast series and official travel report for 2019. ☆ Adventure awaits just around the corner in 2019. Well, okay, we got several months to go...but now is the ideal time to start researching and narrowing down the best adventure trips in the world.
Read the GoAbroad Official Report on the 10 Best Types of Adventure Travel Tours in 2019
Luckily, we’ve got it narrowed down to the top ten types of adventure trips. If you already know what type of adventure floats your boat, scroll down to find our top adventure travel tour company recommendations. If you are an eclectic soul, enjoy daydreaming about all the possibilities we offer and follow your intuition about which would be best for your trip this year. Grab your compass, let’s start exploring the best types of adventure travel tours in 2019 according to our community of of adventurers, travelers, program leaders, and international educators!
The best adventure trips in the world in 2019
GoAbroad CCO Nikki Powers predicts: “People are looking for unique experiences that are sustainable—eco-tours and other immersive tours like yoga allow people to have a balance of adventure with spirituality. With all of the craziness in the news and the real world, low-key trips like backpacking and trips with a peaceful or meditative element like scuba will see growth.”
1. Backpacking
Either you are intimidated by the thought of backpacking on the other side of the world, or it fires up your soul like there’s no tomorrow! Traveling doesn’t get much more raw than backpacking. Living simply with just what you can carry on your back is a humbling and exotic experience that allows you to thrive in the present moment. The best thing about the minimalist lifestyle of going backpacking is that you are free to trek along the gorgeous coasts of Thailand or roam the narrow streets in Rome. The only thing you have to worry about it which street food vendor to get food from and where your next destination will be. Cathryn Fortuna affirms that backpacking will lead the pack for adventure travelers: “It’s accessible and a more affordable type of adventure travel—bound to be boom in popularity.”
2. Photography
One of the best parts about traveling is forever being imprinted with memories and special moments. Doing a photography adventure tour allows you to capture these experiences for you to share indefinitely. If you just enjoy the craft of photography an adventure travel tour company will help give you mentorship and resources to develop better skills. If you are an aspiring travel blogger, doing a photography program is probably one of the best things you can do to develop your portfolio, polish skills, and grow your audience. Photography adventure programs are specifically designed to provide you the best opportunities to take stellar photos or capture incredible video content.
- GoAbroad’s program pick: Cross Cultural Solutions
- Traveler’s program pick: The Real Uganda
3. Yoga
Doing a yoga travel program gives you the opportunity to combine outer and inner explorations. Yoga can be a transformational practice on its own. Combine this with traveling across the world and you just set yourself up for a total mind, body, and spirit metamorphosis. When you learn anything abroad, you can expand the boundaries of what you thought you knew. Doing yoga with a new teacher gives you a fresh perspective on a new path to discovering more about yourself and the world.
- Traveler’s program pick: Mente Argentina: Yoga Program in Buenos Aires
There's something to be said about adventures of the soul, of the mind, of your overall well being. Slow travel is where it's at in 2019, and if you're anything like us, yoga adventures abroad are high on our to-do list!—Rebekah Glebe in 5 Best Places for Yoga Retreats Abroad
4. Safari
Were you ever a little jelly of Eliza Thornberry growing up? Do you just absolutely LOVE watching Planet Earth and want to be out there in the wild yourself? A safari travel program is probably for you! Being out in the wilderness can be a humbling experience--you are completely subjected to all the natural elements and natural predators that people don’t usual face in the modern world. This, obviously, can be a dangerous trip to take on your own. But! There is good news! By doing a safari adventure trip, you’ll be guided by experienced and knowledgeable people that know the terrain you are about to embark on. Without an adventure travel tour company, there is no other way to be THIS close to wild animals, while still making sure you get home in one piece. Literally.
- GoAbroad’s program pick: The Real Uganda
- Traveler’s program pick: Anti Poaching Experience with Conservation Travel Africa
5. Homestay
Sometimes, staying in one place is actually the best type of adventure travel tour. Homestays are when, instead of staying at a hostel or hotel, a person stays at the home of a local resident of the place they are traveling through or to. Homestays are great in a handful of ways. They allow us to get a better understanding of the culture of an area because we are able to live in that place like a local. Homestays give better chances to learning a new language (depending on how long you stay) or a place to brush up on an up-and-coming second language that is still in the works. Homestays can also give people a moment to chillax while traveling. Not all traveling has to be hopping on buses all day or spending less than a day in a new location.
- Traveler’s program pick: Experiment in International Living in France
6. Summer Camp
Just because you didn’t get the summer camp experience as a kid, doesn’t mean you can’t now! Summers and camps were pretty much made for each other, like peanut butter and jelly, or peanut butter and chocolate...mmm. Summertime activities can include pretty much anything you can imagine: water skiing, knitting, improv, and banjo-playing. Participating in camps is a excellent way to coming out of your shell or learning that you actually do like staying in one. Even if you missed out of a summer camp as a kid, there are still opportunities to be involved. This time around as an actual camp counselor.
- GoAbroad’s program pick: Soccer Camps International
- Traveler’s program pick: Summer Camp Iceland
7. Hiking
Plain ‘n simple: walking your way across the world. There are mountains and mountains full of hiking travel programs you can sign yourself up for. Hiking tours are ideal for outdoor lovers, wildlife enthusiasts, and honestly, people who can handle a gnarly amount of physical exercise most days. Just as all the ecosystems are diverse, hiking adventure programs are also eclectic. You might find yourself on a trail going along the Himalayas, or on trek winding around cliffsides looking into the Mediterranean. If you are game, the path is waiting.
- Traveler’s program pick: Travel Hokkaido
Take on the world by land, by air, AND by sea. Spend one day hiking, the next biking, then hop in a kayak and paddle your little heart out. No adventure is too big or too small for you in 2019.—Erin Oppenheim, Meaningful Traveler & Intercultural Comms Graduate Student
8. Sailing
When most think think about “traveling the world” you can bet they think about traveling across land. But land is how much of the surface on Earth? 29%!! That leaves 71% of travel potential on Earth to the oceans. Few people ever leave the shore, but you can seize the day and make it across to a distance shore. Being out on the ocean for extended periods of time can be a life-changing adventure trip around the world for a lot of people. Not only do you get to learn all the ins and outs and teamwork it takes to sail a ship, but you can to travel to places most people have never seen before.
- Traveler’s program pick: Action Quest Adventure at Sea
9. SCUBA
Another place the majority of people never get to lay their own eyes on is the phenomenal world that lives just below the surface. Seriously, if you haven’t gotten to go scuba diving before, it’s like looking at an underwater city. It’s a whole new type of adventure. Coral reefs rise to the surface above you like buildings reach up to the sky. Fish swim in all directions and depths like a futuristic sci fi movie. It can feel calming to be underwater, hugged by the ocean in all directions with the security of SCUBA equipment. You can get PADI-certified on your SCUBA expedition, which sets you up for taking another scuba diving adventure trip around the world on your own. If you are interested in marine conservation or oceanography, doing a SCUBA adventure program sets you up to get hands-on experience in that field.
- GoAbroad’s program pick: Winterline Global Education
- Traveler’s program pick: Frontier SCUBA Programs in Madagascar
Perhaps one of the most mainstream, but underutilized types of adventure travel is to spend a large chunk of your time skiing or snowboarding in the mountains. What a gorgeous way to spend some time in the sunshine while shredding or meandering down a mountain, with nothing else but miles and miles of snow-capped peaks around you. Not only can you savor each day on the slopes, but you can also get trained to be an instructor--I.E. GET PAID TO PLAY. Sounds dope? Yes, it definitely is.
- GoAbroad’s program pick: EA Ski & Snowboard Training
- Traveler’s program pick: Skiing in Patagonia with Putney Student Travel
Next steps to book adventure travel tours
Here are handful of resources to get you started on your very own journey to heart-pumpin’ international travel. 2019 could be YOUR year to find adventure travel programs—and we can help make it happen! Get free program recommendations that match your travel goals, or use MyGoAbroad to bookmark and compare program options with confidence.
Still hungry for more? Bookmark these bad boys:
Travel Abroad Inspiration
- 8 Reasons to Sign Up for Adventure Programs Abroad
- 10 Totally Fresh Types of Adventures for Your Future Travels
- The Best Ways to Adventure Travel This Year
Program Selection Advice
- The Best Adventure Travel Companies
- How to Find & Book Adventure Travel Abroad Programs
- Short & Sweet (and Well-Paid) Summer Jobs Abroad
Affording Trips to the Most Adventurous Places to Travel
- How to Fund a Trip Abroad
- Tips to Plan a Trip When You’re Short on Time—And Cash
- 7 Kickass Travel Abroad Scholarships
[Get Matched with 5 Adventure Travel Programs for FREE]
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All types of adventures can awaken the soul—find yours today!
Adventure travel ain’t for everyone, but if you feel called for it, you have a special year waiting ahead for you. Adventure travel brings you to your limits, exposes your weaknesses and areas for improvements, and pushes you over the edge so you have no choice but to grow wings and fly. The best adventure trips in the world are fertile ground for this to happen.
There it is, the 10 best types of adventure trips in 2019 as predicted by experts in adventure travel. We’re confident that these 10 adventure types will continue to provide awesome, meaningful trips for those wanting to increase their adrenaline addiction this year.
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