Browsing: Outdoor Adventures

I was perfectly content with the idea of roadtripping, camping, and trekking around Iceland for two weeks – aka “roughing it” on the cheap – but I knew I wanted to splurge on at least ONE uniquely Icelandic activity or attraction.

I recently spent 8 days driving around Iceland. Or, more accurately, being driven around Iceland by my friends whose driving skills are far superior to mine. No, instead of driving, I bring a random smattering of other useful skills to roadtrips: researching awesome and preferably offbeat stops along the way, negotiating discounts, frantically phoning guesthouses late at night to inquire whether they have an available room at an affordable price, crafting playlists of the cheesy pop and/or classic rock persuasion, getting un-lost after a wrong turn or three, finding backcountry campsites.

waimanu valley hike

I don’t know about you, but the trips I take tend to be planned around one particular thing I’ve been aching to see or do. In the case of my 2012 road trip around the Big Island of Hawaii, the one thing I just HAD to do was the Waimanu Valley hike, on the Muliwai Trail.

cape cod rail trail

What does your ideal Cape Cod vacation look like?

If it’s anything like mine, it’ll involve beach hopping from bay side to ocean side, sampling as much clam chowder as you can stomach, making a trip up to Provincetown for shopping and general merriment, and perhaps a night at the Wellfleet drive-in.

During my mid-year break at Sydney Uni in 2006, I traveled for 3+ weeks in Western Australia and the Kimberley. The most economical and safe way for a solo female traveler to take on the rugged backcountry in Australia is to join a tour group, so I threw a few G’s at Western Xposure to take me from Perth to Darwin during the Aussie winter.

I feel like there’s a lot of pressure in visiting Arches National Park. It’s seemingly not enough just to go and take skillfully-composed pictures of the arches – no, you’ve got to go to the right arches at the right time.