Consider going on anadventure vacation to truly lift yourself out of the rut of averageholidays and the roads well trodden. Vacations run the gamut from therelaxing to the exciting. Sometimes the excitement that you get outof an average vacation may lack the bite you'd expected. It's time tolook to new avenues to get more out of your vacation than the usualholiday belly and a handful of cheap souvenirs.

Wildlifesafaris top the list of adventure vacations. Though certainlyubiquitous in Africa, it is also available in many locations such asAlaska, Ecuador, Croatia, Costa Rica, Peru and a few others. Whatcould be more adventurous than spending the night in a tent under thesame sky as lions, leopards, and rhinos? The last thing you hearbefore you doze of would be the deep throated growls denoting afeeding frenzy and the first thing you see in the early dawn might bepug marks just outside your tent.

No adventure vacation iscomplete without a spot of bungee jumping or tandem skydiving.Conquering that extreme fear that paralyses, you go for it, and comeaway a stronger, more confident person than the erstwhile quiveringmass of nerves. This should surely spur you on to more excitingthings in life. Sometimes climbing a mountain gets you the sameecstatic feeling as falling off an aircraft while skydiving. As youeventually scale the heights and stand on a peak, you know you'veconquered more than a mountain. Adventure vacations have theirmoments.

Adventurevacations do not have to be confined to the land or air. You can takeit to the water as you go swimming with sharks, jet boating, or evendeep sea fishing with gritty real life fishermen for whom rough seasare simply a minor annoyance. For pure, unadulterated fright, there'snothing to beat whitewater rafting. This sport has its moments ofsheer panic that deliver quite an adrenalin surge to your adventurevacation. White water rafting vacations are quite the rage inAustralia, New Zealand, Canada, the US and many European countries.The Grand Canyon in the US is quite a popular venue for this activityand makes for a spectacular adventure vacation in combination withthe other attractions available at this natural wonder.

At least for some, anadventure vacation would be visiting a totally alien culture where noone speaks your language. Everything from the food, the weather,public transport, and the law of the land would be something you haveno idea about or had just read about. You are in for an adventurevacation of the senses that can deal lusty blows just as surely aswhiplash from a bad bungee dive.