Tick It Before You Kick It

Why Chose Adventure Travel?

July 25, 2024 • Alexandra Lauren | The Bucket List Mermaid • Season 1 • Episode 7

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Ever wondered how adventure travel can transform your life? 😍

Check out the show notes 👉 here

🧜🏻‍♀️Join me, Alexandra, as I share my journey through adventure travel and the countless benefits it offers.

From moving abroad at the age of 18 to trekking solo across the globe, discover how these experiences helped me confront my fears, build resilience, and achieve a profound sense of accomplishment. 💪

👩‍🎓Beyond personal growth, adventure travel opens doors to cultural exchanges and acquiring new skills that traditional education often misses.

By immersing ourselves in new environments and interacting with locals, we gain unique insights and foster a deeper appreciation for the world around us.  🤝

📱This episode also touches on the importance of stepping away from technology for a mental detox, the stress relief nature provides, and the heightened environmental consciousness gained from adventure travel.

Whether you're an experienced traveler or a beginner, find motivation and practical tips to pursue your bucket list dreams. Follow along on bucketlistmermaid.com and my social media for ongoing support and inspiration in your adventures. ✈️

Let's Go Adventuring:
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Get in Touch:
alexandra@thebucketlistmermaid.com

Alexandra:

Because there's like no better way to say let's be friends than let's go hiking with a pickaxe through Mordor and New Zealand together. Hey there, adventurers, welcome to Ticket. Before you Kick it a podcast helping you conquer your adventure bucket list. I'm your host, alexandra, and I am a mermaid and a travel blogger, and in this episode we are going to be talking about the benefits of adventure travel, and this episode is going to be a little bit different than my normal episodes. So if you want one of my normal bucket list adventure episodes, you can go ahead and skip this one, but I just wanted to quick, just chat about some of the benefits of adventure travel so that if you do go on this type of travel, if you do choose to go on a bucket list trip, these are some of the benefits that you might come across, or maybe this is just what you need to push you into that bucket list trip. Now, this podcast does have a blog post that goes with it, and then I also have another blog post that talks about what adventure travel really is, and both of those will be linked on the show notes at thebucketlistmermaidcom, and don't forget to subscribe so that you can get more bucket list inspiration and travel resources. Now let's get started Now. I do have to say that I think that there are several types of travel and I do enjoy all travel. However, I do think that adventure travel is my favorite because it has such a dramatic impact on a person. I talked about this a little bit on my first episode of what adventure travel was, so that we were all on the same page, but now I'm going to really go into the benefits to you of doing this type of travel, and at the Bucket List Mermaid, I focused on adventure travel, so obviously I love it.

Alexandra:

Now, starting off, adventure travel really differs from normal travel because you have so much personal growth and you really do bust out of your comfort zones. Often, adventure travel and tourism involve us facing challenge, both mentally and physically. That encourage self-discovery. It forces you to confront your fears, get out of your comfort zone and then also teaches you resilience in the process. This can also lead to just a profound sense of accomplishment, which, in turn, boosts self-esteem. So one example of this I actually moved abroad when I was only 18. I was afraid to travel alone. I always had to have a travel buddy, but after going to college by myself in another country and then after college, I actually traveled by myself for seven months completely around the world. I grew every step of the way. Did this scare me Absolutely? But did it mean that I grew as a traveler and a person? Absolutely, and I'm sorry, like after being in a hospital in a foreign country that doesn't speak my language by myself. I feel like I could conquer anything at this point.

Alexandra:

Number two if you have listened to my previous episode about adventure travel, you might have heard all of my definitions of adventure travel and most of them did include some kind of physical aspect or an outdoor aspect. Now I went into this whole thing where I do think that this is depending on the traveler and that it doesn't have to be physical for it to be considered adventure travel. Although it's not always like that, I do think that adventure travel does have a heavy emphasis on physical fitness and the outdoors, and ever since I really started to embrace adventure travel, I think it's very fun for me to see the growth in my physical health that I've seen. Now. One example of this is I hiked the Andes in Peru. Now, I haven't really been a physical person my entire life, you know, I haven't been that gym girly I want to be, but I just haven't. It's just not natural for me. I'm a yogi, so that's really cool, but I haven't really found motivation for fitness. I've never really been proud of what my body could do until I started adventure traveling. So when I did hike Peru, I ended up hiking you know multiple peaks in a day that were over 14,000 feet. I made it to above 17,000 feet and this was really a cool sensation for me because I was truly proud of what my body could do. So this is another benefit of adventure travel is you really get to push your body to the limits and see what you're capable of. And it also requires you to train Like I had to train for that Peru trip months before I went, and it just further added to that sense of achievement and that sense of accomplishment that I felt when I got to Machu Picchu. I mean, granted, I didn't look like it because I hadn't showered in like eight days, but I felt great.

Alexandra:

And next, cultural exchange and global understanding. Now, generally travel inherently helps us broaden our minds and see other cultures and meet new people. But I feel like adventure travel places a very special emphasis on this and I think that doing a cultural immersion or cultural exchange is adventure travel for sure. And ever since I have started adventure traveling and stepping out of my comfort zone, I have met so many interesting people. I've met so many locals. I've heard their stories. I love talking to people about. You know how they might have been raised differently than me and what their practices are, and I've even adopted some of their practices to my own life, and I just think this is beautiful. And next, you can learn new skills and knowledge. Now, in normal travel maybe you know you're laying on a beach with a nice Mai Tai. However, in adventure travel, you are actively going out there and you are learning. And since you are learning, there are opportunities everywhere, from science to culture, to wildlife, to nature you name it. Everything that you are doing on that adventure travel trip you can learn about and you can broaden your horizons and you can just learn something new. This is hands-on experiences that cannot be replicated in a classroom. It's funny when I was in Indonesia, I ended up buying this keychain from the airport that says the university of travel, the best education, and I just I bought it as a joke, but I think it's kind of true.

Alexandra:

Also technology detox and mindfulness. I was recently on a trip to Bermuda with my best friend and she said that the worst part about traveling with me is she always loses all of her streaks, like her Snapchat streaks and her Duolingo streaks and everything, because everywhere I take her has zero internet whatsoever. However, I just think it's a nice chance to unplug. I know that sounds horrible to some people, but it's kind of nice. It's just this break from technology, it's just this breath of fresh air in our hyper-connected lives. It just allows for more genuine moments of mindfulness and I just feel like when you're not distracted by all these devices, you can truly appreciate the beauty around you, you can find gratitude and it's just a more hidden benefit of adventure tourism that I don't think that most travelers think about, but I think it deserves to be talked about. Rip to my Snapchat streaks, but totally worth it.

Alexandra:

Also, stress reduction in the great outdoors. As I said, not all adventure travel has to be outside, but the majority of it does take place outside because it's adventurous. And there have been so many scientific journal research studies I mean from Harvard, cornell, the National Institutes of Health, even the National Forest Service did a research study on this and they all say the same exact thing that getting outdoors is very good medicine. All this research shows that spending time in nature lowers cortisol levels, it lowers blood pressure and it increases mood and focus. The outdoors are just natural stress and anxiety relievers and all of it is just extremely therapeutic. So this is one of the massive benefits of adventure travel is you are going to reduce stress and improve mood naturally from doing all of these activities. Except when I was at Peru and all of our oxygen levels were like below 80 and we all thought we were going to die, that was one of the rare cases where it was not stress reducing and leading into that.

Alexandra:

There are several mental health benefits. Adventure tourism and travel is not just invigorating for the body. Yes, you might have to train for a trip or you might be spending a lot of time outside, but it's also some great therapy for the mind. Most of the time, as I said, adventure travel pushes you past your boundaries and it pushes you out of your comfort zone and it gives you this sense of accomplishment, you know, and this gives you a sense of purpose, excitement, novelty. Taking a break for adventure isn't a suggestion, it's essential, and these kinds of things can do wonders for your mental health. Another emphasis on adventure tourism is the environmental awareness and the conservation. There is a very high focus on sustainable travel and leaving these beautiful places exactly as you find them and not leaving a trace, so that future generations can also experience this just like we are at this moment. And I feel like this connection to nature often extends past the trip and this can also influence your daily habits once you get home.

Alexandra:

I've always loved the world. I've always wanted to, you know, make sure that we preserve it. However, it wasn't until I actually experienced the world that I became truly passionate about protecting it, and I think there are some cases where I have been traveling and I have seen things where it's just broken my heart. One example that I can think of off the top of my head is I was in Ha Long Bay in Vietnam and it was just these gorgeous towering limestone rock formations that were jetting out of the water and we were just swimming on these beaches and then there were just like plastic bags and cigarettes and everything in the water. So when you do adventure travel, I think you do naturally become more passionate about this. I'm not saying that you need to drop everything and become a tree hugger. However, it's kind of nice to see these things and be like, hmm, I think it would be nice if you know my children can see that too. That would be kind of cool. And you know, not throw my cigarettes in the ocean. That'd be cool too.

Alexandra:

Also, development of outdoor and travel survival skills that are totally transferable once you get home. There are definitely things that I have done while adventure traveling that I never would have done on normal traveling, that I have taken with me back home and that have made me confident enough to go after the life that I want to do. I think that adventure tourism equips you with invaluable survival skills that can be applied to various life situations, you know, and I'm talking about the normal ones that you can think of, like starting a fire and building a shelter, but also resourcefulness, self-sufficiency and just generally being able to get through challenges. One time I got cellulitis in my foot in India and the first time that I tried to go get medical attention, I couldn't get seen because they were all on strike. And then the next time I couldn't get it because I was a woman and someone that I was traveling with had a broken leg and they were just like higher priority.

Alexandra:

So it's things like this where I can go back to my normal life and as I feel like I can navigate many healthcare systems just based on what I learned from that situation and also how to handle those challenges. You know, going through adversity, pushing through, challenging yourself those are skills that you are going to nourish and that you are going to transfer to your life back home. And also this encourages meaningful travel and experiential tourism. Now I I had to actually look that up what experiential tourism is, and it's just the importance of immersive experience that positively impact travelers and the destinations they visit. So you're making a good impact on where you are going and then they're also making a good impact on you, and I just feel like this type of travel really fosters a more personal and authentic connection with the environment, the people around you and then also different cultures, and it just ensures that each adventure has a greater purpose and you're actually finding meaning towards your travel. You're not just sticking a band-aid on your problems back home and then coming back and your problems are the exact same and you're the same exact person. You're actually going, you're actually learning about the world, you're actually becoming more open-minded. Well, this type of travel is designed to be transformative and it's designed to help you learn more about the world, help you learn more about yourself, designed to help you learn more about the world, help you learn more about yourself and help you learn more about the planet.

Alexandra:

Vacation is escapism. Travel is growth. Also another one. You build connections and expand social circles. There are so many opportunities for you to make new friendships on these trips, because there's like no better way to say let's be friends than let's go hiking with a pickaxe through Mordor and New Zealand together. This happened to me. I'm still friends with her to this day and I think that I don't want to say trauma bonding, but when you go through these experiences together, I think you really do form a special bond that you wouldn't get anywhere else.

Alexandra:

Next, enhanced problem solving and independence, because adventure does not always go as planned. I don't know if you heard me ramble on about my cellulitis in India, but there's so much. I had ear surgery in Vietnam. I got stung by a man of war in Bermuda. I've gotten lost. I've lost my passport. I've been in sketchy situations. However, I do think that, although it's scary at the time, it helps us kind of learn improvisation and quick thinking, and I think that adventure travelers are naturally more adept at problem solving, finding resourceful solutions without the conveniences sometimes of modern life like technology, and I just think that this makes you a very well-rounded, independent person. However quick plug, it's impossible to stay prepared for everything. So that's why I always recommend travel insurance.

Alexandra:

And next you get memorable experience and and Epic's travel stories. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. If you're an adventure traveler you will have travel stories. No good travel stories came from you just sitting on a beach somewhere, maybe they did, but generally my travel stories come from me adventuring and going out of my comfort zone. Some might be good, some might be not so good, but that's just the beauty of adventure tourism. I'm not saying to do it for the story, but the stories are really fun to tell.

Alexandra:

So, as you can see, the benefits of adventure tourism are literally endless. It just offers so many physical benefits, so many emotional benefits, so many mental benefits. It's just a way to grow, learn and connect with everything in the world around you in such a deep and meaningful way. And again, this varies from traveler to traveler. So you do not have to go on this grand, grand adventure to harness all of these benefits. It's simply just stepping out of your comfort zone and doing something that you wouldn't normally be doing in order to grow. You're still going to reap those sweet, sweet rewards of adventure travel.

Alexandra:

It is my hope that this podcast can maybe inspire you to maybe check some things off of your bucket list. Go on that adventure, step out of your comfort zone, grow as a person and live your life to the fullest. I thank you so so much for listening to this little quick tangent of adventure travel, but I just wanted to make sure that we were all on the same page for what this can actually do for a person. This is not just going on vacation on your PTO. This is you actually taking charge of your own life and bettering yourself and the world around you. If you do enjoy this, make sure to share it with your travel friend, who's maybe right on the cusp of becoming an adventure traveler and maybe that's you, you, or maybe you're already a seasoned adventurer but wherever you are in your journey, thank you guys, so much for watching and again, don't forget to check out the full blog post on the bucket list, mermaid calm, and I would love to cheer you on in all of your adventures. So if you want to just follow me on social media at the bucket list, mermaid, I would be happy to cheer you on as you live your adventurous life. Thank you, guys, so much for watching and we will see you next time.