Winter Adventures in The Southern French Alps

Lucy Grewcock    ash, New Adventure Travel Ideas     France, Husky sledding, ice climbing, Ski Trips, the Alps, The French Alps, Undiscovered Alps, Winter Activity Holidays, Winter Adventures

A winter in the Alps offers more opportunities for adventure than you can shake a ski pole at, but the majority of visitors experience just a tiny slice of the action, restricting themselves to skiing or snowboarding in the best known resorts.

Snow shoeing: A great alternative to skiing.

But it’s not until you leave the ski lifts behind and escape the big resorts, that you start to truly appreciate the full glory and rich diversity of one of the most magnificent mountain ranges on earth.

Winter activity holidays don’t just have to be all about skiing. From husky sledding to ice climbing, there’s much more to do in the mountains, for skiers and non-skiers alike, and alternative winter sports all over the Alps, with certain regions more geared-up than others. Take a look at how the multi-activity specialists Undiscovered Alps do it and you’ll see that with a little imagination, there’s another world of activities opened to you.

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Amazing Holidays: Destinations where the sun never sets

Lucy Grewcock    ash     adventure holidays, Adventure Travel, Alaska, Amazing Holidays, Antarctica, Argentina, Artic Circle, Biking, camping trips, Canada, Fairbanks, Hiking, ice climbing, Iceland, Island of Grimsey, Kayaking, Longyearbyen, Moscow, Mount Logan, Murmansk, north pole, Norway, Oslo, Patagonian Forest, Reykjavik, russia, South Pole, St. Petersburg, Tierra del Fuego National Park, Tromso, Ushuaia, Yukon

Venture inside the Arctic or Antarctic Circles there are amazing holidays to be had, and visiting you’ll enter a whole different realm of light and dark. With the sun hovering above the poles in mid-summer and abandoning them completely in mid-winter, visitors find themselves in either eternal daylight or darkness during certain months of the year.

Try some kayaking in Antarctica. Image: Flickr/ Polar Cruises

Summer in the northern hemisphere hits its peak around the 20^th of June, when the sun stays highest for longest for the summer solstice. The opposite happens down south; with June and July in near-darkness, and January and December enjoying extended days.

Ever lived where the sun never sets?

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Get Climbing!

Mark Pawlak    rockclimbingholidays     climbing, free climbing, ice climbing, mountain climbing, Rock Climbing

Just launched, we are on the lookout for climbers who are bloggers and bloggers who climb. So, pretty soon we hope to have roped together a team of writers who can advise on the best routes, the best gear, the accommodation and hostels to crash in when you go, and the most inspiring countries to visit.

Climbing: The ultimate confidence builder Image: Flickr/alexindigo

Don’t worry about it all getting really technical – while we’ll search out experts so they can share their years of experience, we are also looking for people new to the sport.

I’ve climbed maybe a dozen times, but always with someone belaying on the other end of the rope, and there’s so much to learn! Apart from getting ‘disco knee’ on just about every ascent, I used muscles that I never imagined I had: how is it possible to have muscles in your fingers?

Adventure sports build confidence, but having enjoyed all manner of pursuits, rockclimbing is the one that instantly helps you face fear. It also needs you to have an unwavering faith in both your equipment and the people climbing with you. So in one way it’s a very solo experience – almost entirely so when you look at the free climbers – but in another, it’s a team challenge.

And the rewards are instant. When you reach the top of your first climb, regardless of how high or which grade it was, the payback is immense. And you often get to abseil back down!

If you’ve got stories to share and the knowledge to bring great posts to our latest blog, drop us a line.

Top 10 Ontario Adventures

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts, Top 10s     Canada, canoeing, canopy walk, Competition, helicopter flight, Hiking, ice climbing, Kayaking, mountain biking, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Ontario Tourist Board, Scuba Diving, snowmobiling, trekking, whitewater rafting

By having real temperature shifts and heavy snowfalls in winter, and strong sunrays blaze through its clean skies during summer, Ontario is ready and waiting all year round. read more