Can adventure travel be meaningful as well?

Throwing yourself out of a plane may be very exciting, but can it be part of a meaningful holiday? Good news folks...

What it means to be meaningful

If you look up the word 'meaningful’ in a dictionary you’ll most likely find it defined as having 'a meaning or purpose’; a conversation, an action, an experience. So if all something needs to be meaningful is a purpose, then adventure could be very definitely described as meaningful!

Giving adventure meaning

Now we’d like to think that the purpose of throwing yourself out of a plane isn’t just to see if you’ll live! Hopefully it’s more about the sense of achievement and the perception it gives you of your place in the world. Where we find our sense of meaning is different for all of us but if perspective and accomplishment rank highly on your adventure priority scale then a bit of adventurous meaningful travel is definitely something to consider!

Not only will you be doing something really worthwhile and making a lasting difference, the experience will prove a personally and physically challenging adventure! Immersing yourself in a country’s community can be a cultural adventure in itself. Learning how to live a completely different way of life is no mean feat and for some of us eating a bowlful of who-knows-what cooked by the village’s best chef is enough of an adventure!.

For adventure addicts who crave a little more than that there are lots of ways of getting it. Meaningful tours, volunteering and challenges abroad are a brilliant way of exploring foreign lands, you can see some of the world’s most amazing sights in just a few weeks; just how life changing/life risking you want it to be is up to you!

Meaningful tours

Don’t be deceived by any preconceived ideas of a 'meaningful tour’ as tourist sight seeing in the jungle. It’s a lot more hard work than that, but when the work can be anything from teaching English in India to turtle conservation in Costa Rica it doesn’t really seem like a chore! Meaningful tours give you the chance to interact with the locals, and the local wildlife, in a way backpackers never normally do, with the added bonus of benefitting each area you leave; even if you’re only there for a few days! Tours can give you the chance to travel through the lesser trodden paths of Latin America, explore the wilds of South Africa or hop across Thailand’s beautiful coast.

You’ll see lots of hidden sights, trek through beautiful mountains, swim in pure blue oceans and travel in the hustle of cities so hectic you’ll have to hold on tight to your Tuk Tuk! There are also plenty of opportunities along the way to add a little more excitement as most tours offer optional extras, why not try boxing training in Thailand? Learning to surf in Australia? Or wind surfing and mountain climbing in South Africa? As well as an endless list of adventure sports your co-coordinators can help you find all over the world!

Volunteering and challenges

If you choose to volunteer abroad (and make one of the best decisions you’ve ever made!) the emphasis will be a little more on the project as you’ll usually be based in one place. That doesn’t mean that your project is restricted to what’s on the tin. You already know that you’ll be making a huge difference to people’s lives or homeland but there’s no reason not to make the most of being on another continent! So if your dream is to teach in Kenya you can take yourself off for a safari or white-water rafting, if its community work in Malaysia then why not delve into the caves as well as the history!

Entirely different but not a million miles away really are challenges; all the best elements of tours and volunteering combined in a short space of time, so they’re perfect if you’re on a limited time scale! Another benefit for those wanting to be meaningful is that challenges are relatively bespoke and may only run once! One opportunity then to pack in as much adventure as possible; a weekend full of water sports, trips into the rainforest, whatever you like, adventure is what you make it

• http://www.i-to-i.com/challenges/
• http://www.i-to-i.com/volunteer/

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