Adventure Travel

Adventure travel guides for active explorers — trekking routes, dive sites, climbing destinations, and bucket-list expeditions, ranked and reviewed by the ViaTravelers team after first-hand visits.

  • alt=Ad Hoc Italy travel guide and map

    Portofino Harbor

    The half-moon bay at the heart of Italy’s most exclusive village — pastel houses and luxury yachts on the Ligurian Riviera, with the Piazzetta, San Giorgio church, and Castello Brown above.

  • a closer look at the Prague Astronomical Clock

    Mal Strana Prague

    Prague’s Baroque Lesser Town below the Castle — orange-roofed palaces, the domed St. Nicholas Church, hidden gardens, and the John Lennon Wall just off Charles Bridge.

  • California State Railroad Museum Exhibit

    Shadyside Pittsburgh

    Pittsburgh’s tree-lined, walkable shopping neighborhood — Walnut Street’s mix of local boutiques and national brands among historic homes and distinctive restaurants.

  • Shops in Mexico

    Centro Playa Del Carmen

    The walkable downtown heart of Playa del Carmen — built around the pedestrian Quinta Avenida, steps from the beach and the ferry to Cozumel, dense with hotels, dining, and nightlife.

  • Aerial view of Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia, Bulgaria

    Kapana Plovdiv

    Plovdiv’s creative quarter — ‘the Trap,’ a labyrinth of old craftsmen’s lanes reborn as Bulgaria’s first creative district, full of galleries, studios, cafés, and street art.

  • A bizarre cocktail featuring an animal eyeball submerged in a drink.

    Ton Sai Village

    The car-free commercial heart of Phi Phi Don, set on a sandy isthmus between Ton Sai and Loh Dalum bays, with pedestrian lanes of shops, tavernas, dive shops and bars.

  • Phoenix Symphony Hall Building

    Downtown Phoenix Phoenix

    Arizona’s capital core, anchored by the Roosevelt Row arts district — a mural-covered, walkable hub of galleries, boutiques, and restaurants behind the monthly First Friday art walk.

  • A bizarre cocktail featuring an animal eyeball submerged in a drink.

    Old Phuket Town Phuket

    Phuket’s historic quarter — restored Sino-Portuguese shophouses along Thalang Road, with cafés, boutiques, street art, and a lively Sunday walking-street market.

  • Tranquil Memorial Park with Historical Significance in Paris, France - Deportation Martyrs Memorial

    Belleville

    A hilly, multicultural quarter straddling Paris’s 19th and 20th arrondissements, known for successive immigrant communities, a leading street-art scene around Rue Denoyez, and city views from Parc de Belleville.

  • Beautiful Deer Valley Ski Resort in Park City, Utah

    Old Town Park City

    The historic core of Utah’s former silver-mining town, where Main Street — a National Register district since 1978 — lines a 19th-century streetscape now home to over 200 shops, restaurants and galleries.

  • Statue in front of the Royal castle in Oslo in Norway

    Grünerløkka

    A former working-class district along the Akerselva river, now one of Oslo’s hippest quarters, lined with vintage shops, coffee roasteries and lively cafes on Thorvald Meyers gate.

  • Buena Vista Suites Orlando

    Lake Eola Heights Orlando

    Orlando’s first designated historic district (1989), a leafy residential neighborhood just north of Lake Eola Park with craftsman bungalows and revival-style homes built mostly 1905-1925 on brick streets.

  • Touristic boat on open sea at beautiful golden sunset.

    Old Town Omis

    A Dalmatian old town at the mouth of the Cetina River, once a notorious medieval pirate stronghold, its stone lanes watched over by the clifftop Mirabella (Peovica) fortress.

  • Prambanan Temple Ruins Java Indonesia

    Nusa Dua Nusa Dua

    A gated luxury resort enclave on Bali’s southeastern tip, developed from the 1970s by the BTDC/ITDC, with over twenty five-star resorts on a reef-protected white-sand beach.

  • Prambanan Temple Ruins Java Indonesia

    Jungut Batu Nusa Lembongan

    The main beach village of Nusa Lembongan, a white-sand arc with surf breaks, beach warungs and dive operators, looking across the strait to Bali’s Mount Agung.

  • Bali, Indonesia, traveler on tree house at Diamond Beach in Nusa Penida Island.

    Kelingking Beach Nusa Penida

    Nusa Penida’s most iconic site, a dinosaur-shaped limestone headland nicknamed the T-Rex cliff, with a steep ridge trail descending to a white-sand cove above turquoise water.

  • Gorgeous Hawaii sunset on Oahu's North Shore

    Waikiki Honolulu

    Honolulu’s famed beachfront neighborhood on Oahu’s south shore, birthplace of modern surfing, lined with historic resorts along Kalakaua Avenue beneath the Diamond Head crater.

  • Berlin Cathedral in Berlin, Germany

    Altstadt Oberwesel

    A medieval town on the UNESCO Upper Middle Rhine, known as the town of towers and wine for its well-preserved walls with 16 defensive towers, red Liebfrauenkirche and Riesling vineyards.

  • Aerial view of Omaha Nebraska skyline on summer day

    Old Market Omaha

    A historic warehouse district in downtown Omaha where 1880s brick jobbing houses on cobblestone streets now hold restaurants, art galleries, shops and loft apartments.

  • Monument in Omaha Beach, Normandy

    Honfleur Normandy

    A Normandy port town on the Seine estuary, centered on the Vieux Bassin harbour ringed by tall slate-fronted houses and the timber-built Sainte-Catherine church, France’s largest wooden church.