Boldly Go Solo

I may be sooo 20th century, but sometimes I prefer to pick up a magazine instead of heading for the Internet for trip ideas. I’m looking, as we speak, at a section I ripped out of my National Geographic Adventure from November 2007. It’s called Best Outfitters on Earth.

When you don’t exactly know where you want to go or what you want to do, a listing like this can be helpful. And inspiring. The section sorts outfitters into: Do-It-All, Biking, Hiking and Trekking, River and Sea, Safari and Luxury.

Five to 10 companies are listed under each category, along with each one’s "signature" trip and its price.

If you know you want to go to Greece and bike with Aegea Adventures, you don’t need listings like this. But if you’re wondering what you should do for vacation, it helps to have a lot of random ideas and companies all in one place.

That’s how I found the adventure company I took my first rafting trip with. It was listed in the back of Outside Magazine. This was before the Internet was an integral part of our lives, so I didn’t have the electronic choice.

All I knew was that I was looking for something adventurous. Holiday Expeditions jumped out at me. (I think it was called Holiday River Expeditions back then.)

I
wish I could link to the 2007 best outfitters story that I have in my
hot little hands. But I couldn’t find it online or on the National Geo
Adventure’s site. (If you find it, let me know and I’ll post it.)

What
I did find online was the magazine’s 25 best new adventure travel trips
for 2008. But I have to say, I didn’t feel like clicking all around to find written descriptions of each of the trips. 

Call me old school. Call me just
plain old. Charge me with trying to keep mags and newspapers in business by buying their product.

But I say try getting away from those pixels and keyboards and sit in a bookstore with a
stack of adventure and travel magazines. Flip to the back where the listings are. Being among the living can
lead to all sorts of adventures.

(If I don’t hear from anyone who has found a link to
the best outfitters story from 2007, I’ll post the outfitters here,
section by section over the next week.)