The Ultimate Round the World Trip

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts, ash, New Adventure Travel Ideas     Adventure Sports, Adventure Travel, everest, extreme sports, gap year, kitesurfing, Overlanding, round the world, rtw trip, Scuba Diving, skydiving, Surfing, trekking

When booking a round the world trip we all have a budget. But what if price was no object? What if you could sample the most extreme adventure sports, in the world’s most stimulating environments?

Just where would you go and what would you do? You can tell us in a minute, but for now here it is: our absolute, ultimate, round the world, extreme sports holiday wish list.

Let’s begin in the Indian Ocean, scuba diving in the Maldives, finding our way among the corals and atolls of some of the world’s most impressive dive sites.

From here it’s onwards and upwards, and time for a bit of hard work (we never said it would be easy!). We’re off to trek Kilimanjaro, the highest freestanding mountain in the world…. As the oxygen thins and we push way above the cloud level, it’s soon time for the view of a lifetime. read more

Site re-launch keeps AdventureSportsHolidays.com on top

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts, ash, New Site Features on ASH     Adventure Sports, Adventure Travel, Overlanding, Travel, Travel News

Adventure Sports Holidays (ASH) has re-launched its network of 18 sites. By improving their look, feel, and functionality while integrating the latest social media, the company is guaranteeing a better experience for the sites’ 140,000+ monthly visitors. Having dedicated individual activity sites is key to the success as these provide visitors with a site dedicated to their interests.

Despite the economic downturn and difficulties experienced by the travel industry, the Hove-based travel portal has seen a 12% growth in traffic, a 29% growth in enquiries and a 31% increase in bookings. Most of the growth is attributed to great SEO, with the network of sites appearing top of google for 100’s of high-traffic keywords.

ASH works with around 400 suppliers worldwide, promoting their holidays, courses, day trips and accommodation to the growing number of people looking for active holidays. It works with both small and large companies, providing exposure to customers that would otherwise be difficult to reach.

Recently interviewed by BBC Essex and featured in TravelMole, Managing Director Luke Rees explained that customers are increasingly interested in booking ‘activity-based’ holidays and that ASH provides them with the widest choice on the internet.

“The new look sites are a lot faster, are easier to use, and help potential customers easily get in touch with companies that provide what they are looking for,” Luke added.

Kitesurfing, Multi-Activity, Snowboarding, Surfing, Scuba Diving, Windsurfing and Skiing holidays have seen at least a 50% increase in bookings in the last 12 months. ASH dedicates a website to each of these sports, as well as to Trekking, Mountainbiking, Rafting, Kayaking, Paragliding, Skydiving, Overlanding, Snow Kiting, Wakeboarding and Rock Climbing.

“We’ve pulled out all the stops to make our sites easy to use and full of useful information and of course great trips,” Luke continued, “and we are getting fantastic feedback from people using the re-launched sites! We have other single activity sites soon to be launched as customer feedback has been very positive as people love to use a website dedicated to their chosen activity.”

ASH offers over 6000 adventures, serves more than 15,000 locations in over 200 countries offering over 80 different activities.

The new site is visible here: http://www.adventuresportsholidays.com/

View all 18 of the sites here: http://www.adventuresportsholidays.com/about/sites.php

Skiing & snowboarding holidays by train

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts, ash     euro star, Europe, Skiing, Snowboarding, train, winter sports

There are skiing and snowboarding holidays to be had the world over, but flying abroad with a board or skis of your own has never been fun. So, as the new generation of high-speed trains roll out, could this herald a new era in sports travel?

The current rail network in Europe is extensive; it reaches into every corner of the continent. But only a few trains are actually fast enough to compete with the airlines when it comes to journey times.

Take the new German train, which is set to come into service. The Inter City Express (ICE) 3 can top 200mph and will put central Europe and the skiing and snowboarding centres easily within reach. read more

Forces Fitness: Have we found the ultimate challenge?

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     Challenge, charity, Competition, Exmoor, fitness, Royal British Legion, united kingdom

If there’s one group of people who push themselves well beyond the usual boundaries of fitness, it’s the military. The closest civilian extreme sports events get to military fitness is in overlanding, or outrageous ultra-distance events such as the Marathon des Sables.

Well, the Royal British Legion has laid down a challenge: Get a team together and test your fitness in the Exmoor 30:30.

It’s not for the fainthearted or the phoney brave; the event gets its name from the distance involved (30 miles) and the weight each competitor needs to carry (30lb/ 13.6kg). read more

Who needs borders anyway?

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     adventure sports holiday, border, borders, countries, EU, Europe, geography, map, physical features, Travel, Zugspitze

A quick glance at the map of the world quickly reveals how we carved it up. And while each country loves its sovereignty (probably won after a war about borders) it seems odd that we remain so compartmentalised.

Anyone who travels always returns feeling the world is a smaller place. And it’s not because international travel recently got much faster, it hasn’t. It’s because travellers notice the human similarities along with the cultural differences.

So, on one hand we love the anomalies, but on the other, see little need for rigid dividing lines – after all, for most of history all they have succeeded in doing is divide. read more

Top 10 Travel Photography Tips

Mark Pawlak    ash, Top 10 Adventure Sports Travel Lists     andalucia, Egypt, germany, greece, kitesurfing, photograph, Photography, postcard, Scuba Diving, Snowboarding, social networking, Spain, tips, top ten tips, travel photography

Every holiday is an opportunity. Every day you’ve a chance to discover something new, even if it is found in the next chapter of that long-overdue read. But it’s out and about; immersed in the sights and sounds of somewhere you’ve never visited where the true discoveries are waiting to be found.

Photography is about the moment. Even though it’s a fleeting moment, with a half-decent digital camera and a few tips and tricks, you can return with a lot more than just burned out sunsets and badly cropped coasts.
read more

The ultimate urban adventure sports challenge?

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     Adventure Sports, adventure sports community, Challenge, city, Competition, Event, events, extreme sports, parkour, pole dancing, racing, Snowdon, team activity, team sport, united kingdom, urban, urban sports, Wales

There’s a belief that adventure sports belong in the hills, on top of mountains or offshore. Well, a new breed of urban adventurer is running, jumping and riding through our streets. While others opt out, these adventure sports people are getting in on the latest urban challenge: the Rat Race.

And they take part in teams, as well. So much for adventure sports events being solo events; the Rat Race is as much about teamwork, as it is personal endurance. And you’ll need plenty of endurance and stamina to make it through; expect to run, bike, kayak, climb and abseil against the clock, all day!

If you still can’t imagine it, think team orienteering, just without the trees and torrent-driven streams.

So, how does it work? read more