Thoughts on "adventure" travel....

It sounds like he was very lucky in all respects...This sort of thing would not suit super-planner worry-wart me, though--I like to feel I have a pretty good idea about where I'm going to be and definitely know where I'll be sleeping at night before getting on the plane.

Thirty years ago, pre-internet world, that was totally common. Show up and hit the TI for local information. That really was the original purpose of TIs. Ten years ago our son and dil did a five month, around the world honeymoon pretty much that way. They had a rough idea of where they were going but frequently showed up at a location with no idea of what they were going to do or stay. They thought it was great. I think it can be done still today.

We have a lot of couchsurfers from Europe who are doing their gap year and then decide to see some of Canada. A lot of them don't seem to have much of a plan...hitchhiking, asking a few days ahead if they can couchsurf (and I guess staying in a hotel if they can't find someone - or camping as two totally unprepared girls did back when it was still wet and snowy!)...but nothing dangerous much about Nova Scotia. I think (for the ones staying with us) that not having a plan is the plan - just see where the world takes them...

Here is a link to a sight that advertises itself as adventure travel, http://www.bootsnall.com/ There is much written out there regarding Adventure Travel, Indie, whatever term you want to apply. Here is a link to a good movie that explains adventure travel, http://amapforsaturday.com/ Many countries encourage this type of travel for young people or older people. Unfortunately, the USA does not yet recognize this type of travel but it is slowly becoming more popular here. With only several weeks a year vacation, understandably US citizens would not be interested or unfamiliar with adventure travel. My husband and I plan to do long term travel once our pets have gone over the rainbow. We are not young but we are very well educated and understand this type of travel. Most of the people who do this type of travel do understand which neighborhoods to stay away from. Hostels and or hotels will tell them where to go and not to go. Many people who do this type of travel are well educated and do not need a canned tour to lite their candle. They want to explore the world and have made the time to do it.

I do not like to over plan my trips so I almost do adventure travel. I will research were I want to go; what I want to see; the best time of year to visit; but generally I will not reserve sleeping arrangements or things to do a head of time so I can go where I want as the opportunity offers.
I love not having to worry about being at the next destination or falling behind schedule or getting caught in traffic.
There are a lot of books written about adventure travel. You do hear on the news of something bad happening to people but not very often.
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I will make reservations if needed but only if I really want to participate something organized or need to be sleeping in a specific place.

That is just how I travelled in the early 70's. No plan meet someone new in a hostel, "where you headed?" "Cool, want company?" And I am off to Innsbruck, or Venice, or Amsterdam. I loved it. Stand and hitch hike, no rides, walk off the road and camp overnight. Love to be able to do that again.

JKC

No planning, winging it, etc may not be in style today in the digital age but it was, as pointed out above, done a lot in the 1970s and 1980s. I did some of that myself to a limited degree. Since no one reserved in advance those days by phone or letter, you could be certain that if you showed up at the HI hostel (no private, independent hostels back then) during registration hours, you could get a bed. You didn't need to rely on locals to look after you, except for asking their advice on directions, recommendations, etc. The best and most effective way in doing that, ie, eliciting recommendations, was to engage the locals in their language, otherwise trying to get the locals to speak English you ran the risk of their clamming up on you.

Even if the US tourist has no inkling of Paris at all, has done no homework, made no reservations, etc at all, (this all sounds like US backpackers in the '70s and '80s, some of I met in the hostels), there is no way s/he would wind up in an area basically unknown to US tourists, such as Clichy, or in Berlin, such as Moabit or Steglitz, or in the eastern part today , such as Köpenick

The initial image that came to mind is reading "adventure travel" in the title is mountaineering, trekking, hut to hut travel, multiday whitewater trips etc. Turned out that adventure travel is wondering about in an unstructured manner.

A good read about adventure travel is the Barbara Savage book "Miles From Nowhere". The couple pedaled bikes around the world with a starting point of knowing essentially nothing about bike touring learning as they pedaled.

http://www.mountaineersbooks.org/Miles-From-Nowhere-P3.aspx

Along the way, these near-neophyte cyclists encountered warm-hearted strangers eager to share food and shelter, bicycle-hating drivers who shoved them off the road, various wild animals (including a roof ape and an attack camel), sacred cows, rock-throwing Egyptians, overprotective Thai policeman, motherly New Zealanders, meteorological disasters, bodily indignities, and great personal joys. The stress of traveling together constantly for two years tested and ultimately strengthened the young couple's relationship.

Having done some variations on adventure touring I can say that the one aspect that differentiates it is the necessity of depending on the local population for information, directions, hospitality, etc. You are forced by your own ignorance to open yourself up to people you don't know and trust them. It requires a degree of flexibility and trust that, Americans in particular, are not accustomed to. Yes, it does come with some risks, but also with great rewards.

I wish that, upon graduating college 35 years ago, I had struck out & done the 1980 version of European 'adventure travel'. I had no money, no wife (I was engaged), no job. Footloose & fancy-free. Probably could've hit the folks up for a few hundred to get started. Frankly, I didn't have the cojones to do it. The shame is, it took me another 30 years to finally take my first trip abroad, with the second one just a few months ago.

Now, the prospect of adventure travel intrigues me more than ever. But the counterpoint of this is that I have turned into a planner, almost to a fault. Example--for this last trip, I Google Earthed the European neighborhoods where we'd be, so I'd have some visual familiarity upon arrival. I suspect many posters on the RS travel forum are the same way. I have come to realize how comfortable I am with 'adventure travel lite' --it could be called 'spontaneous travel'. It really requires more planning actually, but with ultimate flexibility. Plan on staying here, with possible side trips to there, there & there, but if the mood strikes you, just stay put. It's worked well so far.

Still...I have a definite hankering to fly into Amsterdam off-season and just wing it for a couple weeks with a booked return flight from somewhere, armed only with a Smartphone, a chip and pin card, and a backpack. One day maybe, if I can talk my wife into it (good luck with that!).

If you really want to do the trip to Amsterdam as if you had done it 35 years ago, don't rely on the Smartphone. In 1980 I was in the same predicament, the same fix as you...no job, very little money, certainly no disposable income to be spent even on a shoe string budget trip to Europe, no prospects for a steady job or stability

Fred, go and do the "adventure" travel of the 70's and 80's! You can still do it. I did it 1 week after graduating college in '78 and it still my most favorite way to travel. It was great to get off the train, go to the TI in the train station, tell them the price range you wanted to spend and we always asked for within walking distance to the train station. We always got pretty much what we wanted. Sometimes we'd walk around town and look for "Zimmer Frei" signs or "Gasthous" or the equivalent word for each language in the different countries. The most freeing feeling is to know you can leave a place early if you don't like it, or plan to stay longer than you ever thought you would. As mentioned above, meet a friend and travel on. Total independence. The only place I absolutely had to be was London on Aug. 23 to return home, other than that, it was go where you want to go, when you want to go!

@ Ilse...That way of traveling as you accurately described I've done since the early '70s and into the '80s, when one used travellers checks, rail passes, stayed exclusively in hostels, made no reservations at Pensionen or hotels, taking night trains, etc. etc. To some extent I still travel like that, no problems, except having a cell phone, I don't carry or use any other electronic tech stuff...don't know how, primarily, I reserve in advance now since I don't have the energy to waste looking for a place to stay, and I've gotten more picky too. It all depends on basically one's travel style, ie, your level of comfort, tolerance/coping, what you can't or are unwilling to do without.

I used to take space available flights (Space A) with the military and go anywhere I could get a seat. It wasn't completely random - I had an idea where I wanted to go - but you didn't know flights, schedules or exactly where/when you were going to be. If a flight to my preferred destination wasn't going to open, I'd go somewhere else.

One of these trips changed my approach to travel. I arrived Space A in Okinawa and hired a taxi driver to show me around. Since I was military, he pointed out bars, casinos and massage parlors - the things he thought I'd be interested in (but the furthest thing from my interests).

After the trip, I found out about a 15th century Shogun castle/palace ruin on the island. If I had known, it would have been the first thing on my list to see. Since then, I study the locations I'll be visiting. I want to know all my options so I can use my time to do the things I'll enjoy the most.