Top 10 Bungee Jumps in the World

Tim B    Top 10s     AJ Hackett, Bloukrans, bungee jump, bungee jumping, victoria falls

Experience the thrill of jumping from a platform hundreds of metres in the air, while catching glimpses of amazing scenery: this is Bungee. Once the bungee cord reaches its limit and springs back, you repeat the fall, albeit at a slower pace. As the adrenalin rush starts to fade you are lowered to safety; now all that is left, is to think when and where your next jump will be.

The creation of the first permanent platform by A J Hackett at Kawarau Bridge in Queenstown, New Zealand in the late 1980’s saw bungee jumping take off as an extreme activity. Variations on fixed-platform jumps are now also popular, as are leaps from hot air balloons and helicopters. Listed below are ten top bungee jumping locations.

read more

Top 10 Snowboard Parks

Tim B    Top 10s     snowboard, Snowboarding

Snowboarding took off in the late 1960s when skateboarders and surfers combined their expertise to create a dynamic new sport. They added snow, removed wheels, removed the threat of sharks and took to the pistes. Over the last twenty years, skateboarders have helped the sport evolve by introducing rails, boxes, and assorted obstacles, so that thrill-seeking snowboarders can ‘get tricky.’ Snowboard and ‘Terrain Parks’ can now be found at most resorts, and vary in size and difficulty. Whether you’re an enthusiastic beginner or a seasoned professional, here are ten highly recommended snowboard parks to add to your list. read more

Top 10 Shark Dive Destinations

Tim B    Top 10s     Scuba Diving, shark dive, shark diving

Listen to the conversation of a group of divers when they’ve just surfaced, and they’ll be excitedly comparing notes on which fish they’ve seen during their dive. So, what better fish to spot than the largest and most notorious of them all? Those wanting to see great whites will have to do so in a cage, as these are the most dangerous for humans. The advantage of cage diving is that it’s open to those without a diving certificate; those with one can dive with various other gentler species, without being behind bars. This is our list of the best shark diving destinations worldwide.

read more

The 10 Best Downhill Mountain Bike Routes in the World

Tim B    mountainbikingholidays, Top 10s     Downhill, Mountain Bike, mountain biking

The mountain biking community has maintained a love, hate relationship with downhill riding. Seen as too recreational by serious cross-country riders, it actually requires a level of attention and skill that can sometimes be hard to appreciate.

Fear grips you as you hurtle down a mountain side; throwing yourself into corners, that, if misjudged, could see you fall down a cliff edge, helps create a sport like no other. As well as tackling jumps and technical challenges, riders need to be drawing on their  best skills, and will have their concentration and stamina tested to the max. It is the pumping adrenaline, that fear fuelled by speed and danger, which keeps the worldwide downhill community doing what it does best, racing down hills.

With such a following, good downhill tracks have developed across almost all countries – if the hills are large enough of course. And so here we have, what I consider to be, the top 10 downhill runs in the world. read more

Top 10 Off-Piste Ski Resorts

Tim B    Top 10s     chamonix, craigieburn, gressoney, jackson hole, kicking horse, la grave, Skiing, valdez, verbier, whistler

Once a skier has reached a certain level of expertise their whole appetite for the sport begins to change. The pistes become narrow and confining. Fellow skiers transform into irritating and cumbersome obstacles. The black and red poles become the bars of a prison of predictability. Thus, the off-piste skier is born.

Straying off the Piste-bashed track to embrace nature in its purest form has become a world-popular activity. Provided you’ve got all the safety gear, there’s a world of off-piste skiing out there to explore, whether it’s ski touring to find the best views or heliskiing in the most remote locations. Here are ten highly recommended off-piste skiing destinations to get you started: read more

Top 10 Travel Laptops for 2010

Mark Pawlak    Top 10s     lap tops, laptops, netbook, travel gadgets

Portability, networkability, and connectivity: with the latest laptops, it’s definitely about ability. Although, when it comes to travelling, there is still more to consider. Airlines are strict on weight limits and some of their baggage charges are stratospheric: so weight is also a factor. And there’s survivability, too. Not all the machines in this list are designed to survive the wildest of windstorms, still we have included a couple of purpose-built mud-pluggers for the explorers out there. As well as laptops, we feature three netbooks – diminutive, web-ready, micro-machines that have ditched their CD drives but are still packed with power- three laptops, a pair of custom heavyweights and of course, a ringer.

So if you can’t face being without Facebook and a larger screen, and your mobile just doesn’t have the processing power, look no further than our top ten travel laptops. read more

Top 10 Wreck Dives Worldwide

Tim B    Top 10s     coral reef, Scuba Diving, wreck dive, wreck diving

For many divers, wreck diving presents a tantalising challenge. Wrecks are ghosts of the past preserved on the seabed, which also connect the underwater world with life on solid ground. The majority of wrecks are military ships, offering divers a glimpse into a life that most know little of. Wrecks become artificial reefs, so can often be found covered in coral and teeming with fish. Wrecks tend to be in deep water, and so are sometimes only suitable for experienced and technical divers, but interesting wrecks are found at shallower depths, too.

1. Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands

Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands is home to a variety of wrecks, most are from the German High Seas Fleet of nearly 100 battleships, which was scuppered here after the First World War. Visibility can be up to thirty metres -very high for UK waters. read more