So I am a very adventurous person and have been looking for crazy opportunities in Europe to scuba or bungee or do whatever fun things are offered. I haven't had too much luck in finding these types of activities and would love some help!
I will be starting my trip on June 22nd in Italy and will be traveling around Europe for 2 months so tips in any country are welcome!
Hey Bonny,
I am a student studying in Norway for a few months. Next week I am going to do a day of kayaking in Nærøyfjord (a small arm of Sognefjord, the biggest in Norway), which isn't too extreme, but very beautiful. The company I am doing that with also does parasailing, hang gliding, and a thing called para-bungy, which is a crazy combination of parasailing and bungee jumping.
The website is www.nordicventures.com
I can let you know how it goes after a couple weeks (I'm planning to do the hang gliding). BTW, Norway is quite expensive, so keep that in mind if you're limited to a budget. Oddly enough, you can find very reasonably priced long-distance transportation here on buses and trains. The public transit system here is a well-oiled machine and things run on time, which is nice.
Geoff
Bonny, head up to the Swizz Alps, and Slovenia. In the Alsp you can base jump and paraglide constantly from many places. In Slovenia, they've really embraced adventure travel, and you can do some hard core caving, and DIVE caving via private tours - literally scuba diving in some unimproved, pretty hard core caves.
Best of all, they are both right next door to Northern Italy (which I would suggest as one place to base for a little while.), and Slovenia is still somewhat cheaper than the rest of the EU.
The Adriatic is also right there, so if you like windsurfing, etc. That might be fun too.
Bonny, have you just googled some stuff, like " bungee jumping in Italy" and see what comes up?
I know in Switzerland some people on our RS Family tour were hooked up with a company that took them tandem wind gliding.. that looked very very fun( but was expensive of course) . They all had a blast doing it.
Perhaps if you contact RS travel office they can tell you the name of the company they used.
I vividly recall seeing a lot of wind gliders jumping off sides of Mountains in the Lauterbrunen Valley and I saw others gliding above Neuschwanstein castle too. Looked like fun, but no WAY would I jump off the side of anything like that.
The Amazing Race showed one of the highest bungee jumps in the world at a stop in Switzerland this season. Not too far from the Italian border if I recall correctly. Oh, and the James Bond "Goldeneye" has a scene from there as well.
Bonny, I haven't checked but as Pat mentioned, a Google search would probably turn up lots of possibilities for adventure travel in Europe. Also, you didn't indicate which countries you'd be visiting (except for Italy), so it's hard to offer any specific suggestions.
If you're interested in Paragliding or Sky Diving in the Lauterbrunnen Valley, those activities are fairly popular. There are firms offering these activities both from Interlaken and other locations in the area. I believe river rafting is offered near Lauterbrunnen as well, but I don't have any details.
Amy, Tandem Paragliding is a great way to view the scenery from a different perspective, and I actually didn't find it too "scary" at all. I noticed Paragliders departing from a hill just outside Murren, and also from the Schilthorn (from 10K feet that's a good LONG ride!).
One caveat though for anyone considering this type of travel - engaging in travel of this type may contravene the terms of your travel medical insurance policy, unless you have "exclusions" for this. Something to think about.....
Cheers!
In the Netherlands you can take a Wadden Sea walk from the mainland to one of the islands or go between islands (you need an experienced guide). My husband and I did a shorter version and it was a lot of fun and very different. Let me know if you want more information about this.
There is also kite surfing and skydiving on Ameland Island.
In the Netherlands and Germany there are "fun forests" that a filled with ropes courses and obstacles. Here is a link to an examples: http://www.funforest.nl/
Bonny - my husband and daughter went scuba diving while we were in Ireland. We were staying in Dingle and there was info at our B&B. And our last trip to Austria we were near Salsburg on the Wolfgansee and there were lots of people who were scuba diving there and also saw info for diving in Halstatt. Guess what I'm saying is if there is water you're sure to find diving.
Years ago I went white water rafting in Austria.
SCUBA is available some places but I would probably avoid the cold Northern waters.
Paragliding, rock/mountain climbing and white water rafting are available in the Alps.
Some of the automakers have racetracks where you can see how fast you can drive.
For real adventure, however, I suggest:
Driving in the left lane on the autobahn.
Renting a scooter in Rome.
Being a pedestrian in London and not looking both ways.
Take a ferry or gondola on a bad weather day.
We went white water rafting in Austria too and had a blast. I would do this again in a heartbeat. They even gave us a chance to get out of the rafts and go through some teeny rapids floating on our backs. What a rush that was!!! I was scared to death, but, figured, ya only go around once in life, gotta grab for the gusto. Nearby they had some great rock climbing combined with jumping off of waterfalls and going down these narrow rapids without benef of a raft or boat. It all looked very exciting. This wasn't really far away from Salzburg, but darn if I can remember the name. Sorry. I am sure that there are tons of places there offering the same sort of thing.
Lets see off the top of my head...bungee jumping is outside of Innsburck, Austria. here is thier German website: http://www.europabruecke.at
You can do paragliding and some other wacky mountain things in Garmish, Germany. My friend went skydiving in Northern Italy...but I don't know where she went to.
RUNNING OF THE BULLS!!
Starts July 6th. I'm going! I hope to see you there. lol
Thanks to all of you who responded, I think I found the place for me. It's called feel free outdoor professionals. They are based in Austria and offer rafting, bungee, parasailing and much more. I think the canyoning will be the thing for me!! Happy travels to everyone else!
Recommend highly tandem paragliding from above the Lauterbrunnen Valley. You launch mainly just above Muerren and glide down to Stechelberg. You have choice of pilot giving you a sedate trip down or one with some excitement. I did it last summer and well worth the experience. Just please don't try BASE jumping which is also extremely popular from the cliffs surrounding the Lauterbrunnen Valley, and I guess fortunately there is no such thing as tandem BASE jumping at this time. It is exciting to watch the BASE jumpers though especially now that some are doing it with the winged suits that gives them somewhate of a gliding ability.
Oh I forgot to mention that canyoning is also available from Lauterbrunnen and Interlaken. That is also an exciting activity.
Another option is bungee jumping off a bridge over the Corinth canal (near Athens).
If you are in Interlaken, Switzerland, there are outfitters that will take you paragliding--i.e., jumping off a cliff and riding the thermals under a parasail. Go to Grindelwald in the mountains below Interlaken, and you can rent a "scooter" up high and ride it down a wild asphalt trail to the village. Or, there is an outfitter there that has large inflatable balls you actually crawl into and ride down the mountain. One more possibility--take the train up to Jungfraujoch and you can go dog-sledding on the glacier. These are activities you won't find in the US, even in California! If you Google Interlaken and Grindelwald you will be directed to sites that offer these adventures. As you've already learned from the other replies, there are endless adventure possibilities.
Riding down a mountain in an inflatable ball?! That sounds kind of amazing... Thanks for the tip I might have to change my plans!
