Let’s get physical

Forget those holidays you spent doing a convincing imitation of a sloth. These days it’s about pushing yourself to the limit and seeking the ultimate adrenaline rush. Claire Coleman investigates

Two weeks on an idyllic beach being waited on hand and foot might sound like the perfect holiday, but many of us are ditching such lethargic pursuits in favour of something a little more active. According to market intelligence expert Euromonitor, adventure tourism is the travel industry’s fastest-growing worldwide trend. And UK consumers are driving the craze: this sector of the UK market grew by a staggering 20 per cent each year between 1999 and 2005.

“Low-cost flights mean people are far better travelled and consequently tired of mass tourism,” explains Caroline Bremner, Euromonitor’s global travel and tourism manager. “They’re looking for something different and that’s where these extreme trips come in. In the past, competitive holidaying was all about how many countries you’d been to; now it’s about what you’ve done. Micro holidays [lots of shorter holidays rather than a single long one] are also a big trend, and that means some trips can be activity-led and others relaxing. Activity holidays can also be domestic, short-haul or long-haul, depending on the time and budget.”

So whether you want to go white-water rafting in the wilds of Wales, explore Afghanistan’s Ajar Valley, witness the wildebeest migration in the Masai Mara, go snowkiting in Iceland, dive with sharks in South Africa, swim with whales in Tonga, bike the “Death Road” of Bolivia or even mine diamonds in Siberia, there’s probably someone out there who can arrange it for you.

This new fashion for the extreme has spawned a new style of travel agent. By their very nature, such trips require a more bespoke approach. Can you imagine your local High Street travel agent knowing what level of fitness you’ll need to climb glaciers in Chamonix, or what sort of equipment you’ll need for nine days of jungle-trekking in Borneo? Smaller companies are crowding into this niche, offering a far more individual service. On the whole, they’re young, dynamic, hands-on organisations, staffed by people with a passion for, and personal experiences of, the holidays they sell. They can whisk you away to places that would never previously have been considered holiday destinations, and offer activities that you might only have seen on the Discovery Channel.

Tom Marchant is one of three former City executives who last year founded the bespoke travel company Black Tomato, offering everything from upmarket weekend breaks to adrenaline-fuelled adventures. Their avowed intent to “ensure that every minute away from the grind counts” speaks volumes about their clientele. “Our customers work in a very competitive business and that extends into their social lives as well,” explains Marchant. “They want to have done something or seen something that nobody else has, and that pushes them to try even more extreme things.” He believes that this work-hard-play-hard philosophy goes some way to explaining the increasing popularity of activity-based holidays. “The problem with a conventional beach holiday is that you can lie on a beach but still be thinking about work. If you’re trekking through southern Argentina and concentrating on every step, that really is a big enough distraction to take your mind off everything.”

The desire to be active also comes into it. “In general, people are more concerned about their health than in the past,” says Marchant. “Most of our clients are in the gym at least three times a week. That’s OK for the working week, but when they’re on holiday they want something more. They want to learn a new skill, have a different experience. And they want to come back from holiday feeling fulfilled, having really achieved something.”

Tara Wood knows all about this. Her travel company, Wild Fitness, which claims to offer genuinely life-changing health-and-fitness holidays in the stunning setting of the Kenyan coast, was born out of her frustration at failing to find any holidays that were active enough for her. “While there were things like Club Med, there was nothing that really looked at health from a holistic point of view,” she explains. “What we offer integrates fitness and nature in a way that is amazingly restorative and provides a total counterpoint to most of our clients’ draining, urban lives.”

And that, in a nutshell, is the real appeal of this type of holidays. They are vibrant and exciting individual experiences—better still, there’s not a desk, computer or suit in sight.

Wild at heart
Justin Astley-Rushton, 46, is executive director of a commercial services company in London. In January 2005 he spent three and
a half weeks in Kenya with Wild Fitness.

“Working in the City made it difficult to commit to a regular fitness routine. Apart from skiing, most of my holidays were about lounging on a beach. I wanted something that would kick-start a healthier lifestyle.
“With Wild Fitness the focus was on functional fitness and training in a stunning natural environment—running on beaches, through jungles and up sand dunes, swimming in creeks and seas and boxing outdoors while the monkeys looked on.

“I lost nearly a stone and got my fitness to a level where I could look forward to exercise. I gained a new understanding of nutrition and I’ve given up caffeine, eat five times a day to maintain my blood sugar and only eat organic.”

Bike to nature
Matthew Barton, 37, from Leeds, is a programme manager responsible for mobile phone development. In the past five years he has taken eight cycling holidays with Saddle Skedaddle, which offers  holidays throughout the world—from off-road adventures in the Andes to more sedate tours around Scotland, Spain and South Africa.

“I’ve always enjoyed activity holidays and had been on quite a few sailing trips before I got back into cycling. There’s definitely been a rise in the number of these types of holiday on offer but I find that the smaller companies seem to offer better service: it’s more personal, and there’s a greater sense of actually getting involved with the country rather than just seeing it superficially.

“The most extreme Skedaddle trip I took was probably to New Zealand. As well as the cycling, we took a three-day cruise around the islands, went river sledging, sea kayaking and heli-biking (a helicopter drops you at the top of mountain so you can cycle down).
“I love it. It’s a total distraction from work as your mind is entirely occupied by something else and you get to see parts of the world that you would never see on a more conventional holiday.”

“I love it. It’s a total distraction from work as your mind is entirely occupied by something else and you get to see parts of the world that you would never see on a more conventional holiday”

Crossing cultural divides
Londoner Amanda Drake, 46, works in private banking and has taken several trips with Wild Frontiers. The adventure travel company specialises in trips to off-the-beaten-track destinations such as Afghanistan, Syria and Libya and puts the emphasis on cross-cultural interaction and genuine involvement with the local communities.
“When I was younger I did a lot of backpacking to south-east Asia, Nepal and India, but then life just took over. A picture in a magazine of some people surrounded by mountains caught my eye, reminding me how much I used to love adventure travel and I decided I simply had to go.

“My first trip was to Pakistan. I was the second youngest in the group—the oldest was 78. But they were all exceptionally active people. More importantly, they had the adventurous spirit. You either have it or you don’t. Many of my friends imagine I will be kidnapped, and I suppose that slight element of danger adds to the excitement.
“I’ve stayed with a Bedouin family in Syria, trekked on horseback with Indian royalty and my next trip will be along the Silk Route. Then in December, I’m off to spend the winter solstice with a tribe in the Hindu Kush and hope to see a snow leopard. It’s wonderful to have rediscovered my love of travel.”

Winging it
Joanna Mountain, 26, is a PR executive from Bournemouth. She spent a weekend in Poole doing a kiteboarding course at the FC Watersports Academy, which runs a range of water-based activity courses from one-hour windsurfing lessons to three-day sailing courses.

“I used to live in London, but having spent some time working as a dive instructor in the Philippines and Thailand, I knew I wanted to be by the sea and so moved to Bournemouth.

“Kitesurfing has become a huge sport in this area. It used to be a very niche, extreme activity, but there’s been a real explosion in the number of people taking part, so I decided to do a weekend course. The first day you just learn how to handle the kite, then you let it drag you through the water and finally you practise getting up on a board. I loved it: my next holiday is going to be to Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt so I can dive and kitesurf.

“Living here, I’ve definitely seen a rise in the number of people coming down for short activity breaks. There will always be the fish-and-chip brigade who lie on the beach going red, but more people seem to want experiences, to get more out of life, and they’ve started to realise that you don’t have to go halfway round the world for it—it’s right on your doorstep.”

How charities get a look in
Extreme breaks are just holidays for most people, but for some they’re a way of raising money for charities, either by joining an organised trip or by getting sponsorship for a personal venture.

Benja Hedley, 29, a London business consultant, did the Plymouth-Dakar rally in February 2005. “Taking a month off work to drive across a desert in a £100 car could have seemed like an extravagant adventure and I’m not sure I could have justified it. But because there was the charity element, it made the trip less self-indulgent. It goes without saying that it was amazing, but raising over £6,000 for Cancer Research really added to it.”

Anna McCaughley is a senior event fundraiser for Scope. In the last 10 years, the charity has raised over £21m through extreme overseas trips. “It’s a win-win situation,” she explains. “People have a life-changing adventure and, at the same time, are raising money that helps change the lives of people in the UK. They pay a registration fee and then commit to raising a minimum amount through sponsorship —on average, around £2,600. Then we do everything: flights, logistics, accommodation, food.  In the next 12 months, we’ve got treks in Namibia and Peru, a bike ride through Mexico, and the White Peaks ski and snow-board challenge, covering 130km of piste and 24 peaks
in 48 hours.”

And they’re not the only ones. Cancer Research offers the opportunity to climb Everest and cycle through India, while Oxfam can take you trekking along the Great Wall of China and cycling down the Nile.

Climbing Mount Kinabalu, in the East Malaysia state of Sabah on the Island of Borneo