Jaunted

Tags: Adventure Travel / Package Tours / Amazing Race / Competitours / → All Tags

Pay to Play Global Scavenger Hunt's 'Amazing Race'-Like Contest

Update: We apologize for calling Global Scavenger Hunt a TAR clone. It actually debuted in 2000, one full year before Amazing Race.

The Amazing Race has spawned yet another clone. The Global Scavenger Hunt, similar to companies like Competitours, sends wannabe TAR contestants in a race all over the world. Thing is, instead of a million-dollar prize, you'll have to settle for a "World's Greatest Travelers" trophy and free race entry next year to defend your title. You'll also have to pay to play; the race costs $9,900. It's a lot of dough to play your favorite TV game, but it does include all international airfare, hotels, about 40 percent of meals and special event gear.

All the details and the little bit of charity, after the jump.

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Tags: Adventure Travel / Hawaii Travel / Quirky Travel / Water Sports / Ecotourism / Submarines / Boats / → All Tags

'Fly' Beneath The Hawaiian Waves On A Winged Submarine Jet

Adventure travel company Incredible Adventures has been letting customers pilot high-altitude fighter jets for years. Now the Florida-based company is going from soaring through the air to "flying" under the sea, teaming up with California's Sub Aviator Systems to let people navigate the oceans in company's winged submarine. The Super Aviator looks much more like a jet than it does a sub, and apparently it feels that way too. Per the website blurb, it's a "totally new dimension of flight."

To handle the unique sub you'll need to go to Hawaii this February and be able to hand over between $3,350 and $8,650. But if you're willing to do that they're willing to train you and take you beneath the waves. The Super Aviator runs on battery power but it runs fast—in contrast to a normal submersible where you can stand up and walk, zooming around in this jet requires Indy-500 style seat belts.

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Tags: Costa Rica Field Trip / Volcanoes / Adventure Travel / Ziplines / White Water Rafting / → All Tags

How to Rev Your Adrenaline in Arenal

All this week, Amanda Pressner will be bringing us reports from her recent trip to Costa Rica with her entire family. Any questions about traveling to Costa Rica or family-oriented activities to do while you're there? Let us know.

With just four days to spend in the Costa Rican jungle, my family and I wanted to pack in as much pulse pounding excitement as we possibly could—and what better way, we figured, than to set up base camp just down the slope from an active volcano?

Arenal (the name of the volcano, a lake and a region in Costa Rica) is one of the country’s popular destinations—and for very good reason. Not only is it possible to see the fiery red lava flow at the top of the cone on a clear night (usually from the comfort of your hotel room) but there’s no shortage of ways to experience the nearby rainforest and cloud forest and the rivers that cut through them.

In fact, according to Elaine Knight, owner of the Lost Iguana Resort & Spa, the biggest mistake people when planning their trip to Costa Rica rushing to hit too many different destinations and booking too few nights in Arenal.

In an email before the trip, she encouraged our group of six to spend four nights, and four days in the local area. If figured that she might be a tad partial, but in the end, I’m so glad we followed her advice.

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Tags: Adventure Travel / Hiking / Italy Travel / South Tirol Windsurfing / The Dolomites / → All Tags

Italy's South Tirol is Like an Outdoor Playground for Athletes

Travelers usually head to Italy to carbo-load on lip-smacking cuisine and swish tasty wines, to visit ancient sites like the Pantheon and the Colosseum, or to see amazing art like Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. But sporty types in the know venture north to the South Tirol, or Südtirol, a region that identifies more with its German roots than its Italian ones (you’ll hear most people speaking Deutsch and see signs in both Italian and German).

The South Tirol’s mountainous location—with the Alps towering overhead—makes it a prime spot for skiers and snowboarders in the cold months, with Swiss-like chalets dotted all over the area to complete the experience. In the warmer months, mountain climbers and hikers hit the slopes. You’ll also see many Nordic walkers taking to the trails. They are easy to spot; Nordic walkers hike at a brisk pace while carrying what looks like ski poles.

Originally designed as a cardiovascular summer training exercise for cross-country skiers, Nordic walking works your upper body while you hike. The sport, which is popular in Germany and Finland, is appropriate for all fitness levels.

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Tags: Adventure Travel / Safaris / Discovery Channel / Luxury Travel / Africa Travel / Peru Travel / Mexico Travel / Historical Travel / Tour Packages / → All Tags

The Very Rich Can Hop On Discovery Channel's New Hardcore Adventures

Is this the recession or what? Guess not: Discovery Communications is teaming up with travel provider G.A.P Adventures to launch dozens of luxury trips based on Discovery Channel programming. With prices starting at $2,000 per person for trips ranging from 3 to 24 days, these are not for the faint of wallet.

Locations range from common tourist destinations like the USA and Mexico to places like Botswana, where you'll probably always need a guide. All of the packages come with their share of intriguingly esoteric Discovery Channel twists; one of the USA tours revolves around historic parks in the Southwest. What travelers will see on the 12 day tour, though, ranges from rock formations to deserts to dwellings abandoned thousands of years ago.

The other USA destination is even more nature-oriented, taking travelers all the way up north to Alaska. Adventurers spend 10 days observing wildlife in their habitat, which can be both mindblowingly fascinating and straightforward deadly.

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Tags: Gold-Mining / Gold Mines / Treasure Hunting / Adventure Travel / Pioneer Travel / Arkansas Travel / → All Tags

Pining For Gold Mining: Diamonds Are Arkansas' Best Friend

It's a whole new type of laid-off travel; gold mining is back with a vengeance and oftentimes, the richest veins are closer than you think. All this week we'll be digging deep into the USA's dirt to uncover the best spots for sifting your way into a small fortune, or at least one month's rent. Any suggestions or questions? Let us know.

Gold prices may be hovering around the very tempting $900 an ounce, but diamonds are still very much in demand, and we figured that you'd need something to set into your newly-wrought gold jewelry. Take some business away from DeBeers and go hunting for your own gems outside of Murfreesboro, Arkansas at the Crater of Diamonds State Park.

Armed with a campsite, the Park attracts people from all over the south for days at a time as they try their hand at digging for the rough stuff—keep in mind that they won't be perfectly-cut, clear stones just lying there in wait for you. Nonetheless, the park's website lists daily finds which include a 1-carat find on May 30.

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Tags: Gold-Mining / Gold Mines / Treasure Hunting / Adventure Travel / Pioneer Travel / Georgia Travel / → All Tags

Pining For Gold Mining: Some Real Peaches in Georgia

It's a whole new type of laid-off travel; gold mining is back with a vengeance and oftentimes, the richest veins are closer than you think. All this week we'll be digging deep into the USA's dirt to uncover the best spots for sifting your way into a small fortune, or at least one month's rent. Any suggestions or questions? Let us know.

As any visitor to Tennessee tourist towns will know, gold mining isn't just an activity left to the Southwest states. In fact, the first major US gold rush happened in Dahlonega, Georgia in 1828— the town's name even means "yellow money" in Cherokee. Although most of the big stakes were cleaned out by the US Treasury back in the day, the rebranding of the area as a wine country has reinvigorated tourist gold mining as a secondary activity.

The king of mining in Dahlonega is undoubtably the Crisson Gold Mine, which offers treasure hunting activities for every level of fortune-seeker. From metal detectors and panning to using a trommel—machines that effectively pan for you, and at a faster pace— Crisson offers some of the most tourist-friendly gold hunting around. The quarry out back even boasts old mine machinery and a quartz stamp mill for the the historically curious.

Gold ore is available in two ways at Crisson: fresh from the earth and ready to be panned or trommelled, or "salted," which is essentially more expensive ore as it has been purposefully peppered with possible finds. And if you can't make it down to Georgia anytime soon but want to try your hand at panning, the mine offers 1 gallon of the "super high grade gold ore concentrates" for $125, shippable to your house. What an idea for a summer backyard BBQ party!

Related Stories:
· Crisson Gold Mine [Official Site]
· Panning For Gold Makes a Comback [Jaunted]
· Gold Mining Coverage [Jaunted]

[Quarry photo: Crisson Mine; Gold photo: aresauburn]

Tags: Gold-Mining / Gold Mines / Treasure Hunting / Adventure Travel / Pioneer Travel / Phoenix / Arizona Travel / → All Tags

Pining for Gold Mining: Heli Between Prospects in Arizona

It's a whole new type of laid-off travel; gold mining is back with a vengeance and oftentimes, the richest veins are closer than you think. All this week we'll be digging deep into the USA's dirt to uncover the best spots for sifting your way into a small fortune, or at least one month's rent. Any suggestions or questions? Let us know.

We've covered gold mining the old fashioned way, of panning beside a river, and even a more current version involving Hummers out of Las Vegas, but what about the future of prospecting?

If the streams all get picked over during this recession, we may see more and more helicopter tours departing to harder-to-reach areas, ever in search of a record find. For $4,000 per couple, you can hop such a chopper at Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport for a 5-day vacation of flying over mesas and setting down for a little private claim digging—after instruction on the best methods, of course.

There are longer and further trips available for the hardcore treasure hunters, but we'd think that 5 days working hard for the money (er, gold) in the hot Arizona sun should be plenty to satisfy your curiosity about heli-gold-digging. -

Related Stories:
· Arizona Gold Adventures [Official Site]
· Panning For Gold Makes a Comback [Jaunted]
· Gold Mining Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: wharman]

Tags: Gold-Mining / Gold Mines / Treasure Hunting / Adventure Travel / Pioneer Travel / Las Vegas / Nevada Travel / → All Tags

Pining for Gold Mining: Take a Hummer Out of Las Vegas

It's a whole new type of laid-off travel; gold mining is back with a vengeance and oftentimes, the richest veins are closer than you think. All this week we'll be digging deep into the USA's dirt to uncover the best spots for sifting your way into a small fortune, or at least one month's rent. Any suggestions or questions? Let us know.

Usually folks don't head to Las Vegas anticipating a weekend of sitting quietly by a stream, panning for bits of gold. So that's why, if you do opt to step away from the slots long enough to indulge fantasies of treasure hunting, an LV-based tour company will take out out for it in sufficiently flashy style.

Smack down $200 and pack your Timberlands for the "Off Road Hummer Gold Rush Adventure Tour" from Grand Canyon Tour Company. They'll pick you up at your Vegas hotel in a rough-and-ready Hummer, before driving you out into the middle of nowhere for a 4x4 experience, a visit to the Eldorado canyon, and some panning of your own outside of Savage Mine.

Keep whatever you find, even though you know that it'll end up on the craps table later that evening. And since this is only a day-long tour, no commitment to pioneer living with outdoor toilets and baked beans cooked over a fire needed.

Related Stories:
· Hummer Gold Rush Adventure Tour [Grand Canyon Tours]
· Panning For Gold Makes a Comback [Jaunted]
· Gold Mining Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: customsnow162]

Tags: Gold-Mining / Gold Mines / Treasure Hunting / Adventure Travel / Pioneer Travel / Los Angeles / California Travel / → All Tags

Pining For Gold Mining: Angeles National Forest

It's a whole new type of laid-off travel; gold mining is back with a vengeance and oftentimes, the richest veins are closer than you think. All this week we'll be digging deep into the USA's dirt to uncover the best spots for sifting your way into a small fortune, or at least one month's rent. Any suggestions or questions? Let us know.

In an effort to perhaps lift the spirits of those with pink slips in the LA-area, USA Today reported in April that the Angeles National Forest was THE place to be for old-school pioneer gold mining. Now that the price of gold is high enough—at nearly $900 an ounce—to convince people to squat next to streams for hours, it seems that the proximity of the Forest's natural (and sparkling) resources to Los Angeles is drawing the crowds.

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Tags: Gold Mines / Angeles National Forest / Adventure Travel / Treasure Hunting / Pioneer Travel / → All Tags

Panning for Gold Makes a Comeback

Desperate times call for desperate measures and with more and more people finding themselves out of work, panning for gold is now once again in fashion. USA Today reports:

Gold, which is selling for more than $900 an ounce, has been found all over California, from near the Oregon border to the Mother Lode near Yosemite to the deserts of Arizona and Mexico. Seasonal rains and snowmelt erode minerals, including gold, at higher altitudes and wash them down streams and rivers.

At the Angeles National Forest, about an hour outside of Los Angeles, folks have been panning for gold in larger numbers. California now has 24,583 active gold-mining claims (cost to file a claim: $170) And it's not just old retired people who also skulk around the beaches with metal detectors. No, young and old are hiking up forest trails and sifting through dirt along the rivers.

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Tags: Animals / Aquariums / Sharks / Adventure Travel / Swimming / Scuba / Snorkeling / → All Tags

Where to Swim with Whale Sharks and Downward Dog with The Fishes

When the Animal Overlords take over, we can rest assured that our own Shira Levine will be safe from persecution.

We're going to try to be more thoughtful the next time we eat sushi and just stick with the faux crabmeat after indulging in peaceful day at the Georgia Aquarium. This the only place in the world where you can swim in a giant fish tank with a couple of 23-foot long whale sharks.

The Atlanta fish farm hosts "Swim with Gentle Giants," swimming and diving tours in their football field-sized, eight-million gallon Ocean Voyager tank. To say the underwater experience is thrilling is an understatement.

These fish (which include massive manta rays and sting rays, guitarfish, zebra sharks, cownose rays and wobbegong sharks) are as friendly as puppies and kitties. They like to swim up really close and skim along your body before darting off into the faux deep blue.

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