Unique/Different Vacation Ideas

For many, the idea of a vacation is one spent lazing around in the sun, sand and sea with a cocktail in hand or one used to get an adrenaline rush skiing down snow-capped mountains. In short, it is your typical vacation in a typical place doing typical things.

Well, why be tied to such boring typicality when you can try the following unique/different vacation ideas? You will be able to enjoy the elements of the typical vacation but with added benefits like learning new skills and knowledge, helping other people and discovering our planet in surprising ways. Now, that’s what we call the vacation of a lifetime!

Volunteer Tourism

A growing niche in the travel industry, volunteer tourism involves spending your vacation to serve charitable causes in the interest of the environment as well as animals and people. It is often called vacation for do-gooders although the term voluntourism (a combination of the words “volunteer” and “tourism” as well as a play on “volunteerism”) is the increasingly accepted term for the whole idea.

The types of do-gooder activities involved in the most unique/different vacation ideas ever invented by the travel industry are diverse. You can volunteer your services in the following projects:

The HandsOn New Orleans program offers board and lodging to volunteers participating in their community service programs that range from community readings to building houses for low-income communities in the city.

For people interested in Ecuadorian culture and the Amazon rainforest combined with a passion for community development, you will like the volunteer travel opportunity offered by Volunteer. You will be spending 2-12 weeks assisting Santa Ana residents on various tasks from reforestation to house construction.

The world-famous Habitat for Humanity also offers volunteer travel in the form of building houses for low-income families. Your vacation package will often include lodging, food, ground transportation, cultural tours and a donation to the organization’s local chapter.

Adventure Travel

For adrenaline junkies who want a taste of the great outdoors, you can enjoy the following unique/different vacation ideas:

Go on a guided tour of the Grand Canyon with its colored rock formations, winding rivers and magnificent vistas as far as the eye can see. And then hop on to white water rafting experience in the Colorado River before heading to your hotel for more fun and entertainment.

Discover the beauty of largest and yet least populated state of the United States – Alaska. You will travel by dog sled to various destinations and, along the way, encounter Mother Nature in all her glory from the awe-inspiring landscapes to the local animals like moose, caribou and minks of the South River Mountains.

Hike the Pacific Northwest with a llama in tow and discover magnificent mountain views, abundant rivers and relaxing solitude for 5 days in late summer.

There are many more of these unique/different vacation ideas that answer the need for more action, more thrills and more adventure. Ask your travel agent about them and soon you will be jumping off cliffs, climbing mountains and diving under the sea.

Historic Vacations

If you want something a little tamer but still very fulfilling, you can take historic vacations. Basically, you visit the sites or recreate the lives of our forefathers beginning from the last 300 years or so. This is a vacation that combines the thrill of discovering our great history with the relaxation of sipping cocktail drinks later on in the rustic hotel.

Relive the lives of the pioneers on the covered wagon train. You will pass through the old trails of the Wyoming wilderness and experience the lives of the pioneers during the settlement of the west. Of course, sleeping inside the wagon and sleeping in tents are given in these vacations coupled with eating biscuits from old-fashioned Dutch ovens. It’s rustic living with a touch of luxury.

Uncover the mysteries and mystique of the American Indian past with a vacation in the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center on Colorado. You will be working with archaeologists on various projects like the study of artifacts and then look forward to staying in one the comfortable log cabins ala Navajo hogans.

With these unique/different vacation ideas, who needs to lie under the sun, sipping margaritas and letting your mind and body go to waste, so to speak, when there is so much to learn, so much to do and so many people to help? Get off your high horse now and do something for the environment, animals and people.