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There’s a set of islands in the middle of the chilly North Atlantic, some of which are so sparsely populated that the residents wouldn’t even fill a classroom.
A year ago, Brandon and LeAnn Morris decided to quit their jobs in Seattle and hit the road. Not an uncommon premise for anyone that follows any adventurous Instagram accounts, but they actually did it. Six months of passport stamps from Nepal, Thailand, New Zealand, Japan, Chile, and the list goes on. Through all of their adventures, Peru emerged as one of the couple’s favorites and particularly the Ausangate trek, which led them to the striated Vinicunca Mountains and eventually their next job. The duo has since started the travel business FlashpackerConnect, which leads trips out of Cusco, with the rainbow mountains being their featured trip. Five days of high altitude trekking and you are rewarded with this view. Here, a preview of what you might see along this relatively undiscovered trail.
We put together a bracket of our 64 favorite towns in the country. See how your pick stacked up.
Belgian photographer Johan Lolos spent a full year in New Zealand, posting pictures of his adventures on his Instagram account, @lebackpacker, working for the Lake Wanaka tourism department, and establishing a life where he gets paid to post. Here are his top shots from his year in New Zealand.
Three days, sixty rides, and as much beer as you can (safely) drink
The 10 best spots in Mammoth Lakes to capture epic photographs
With its high peaks and pristine forests, there are few places more beautiful for cycling than Rocky Mountain National Park
By European standards, Ireland’s County Donegal, tucked into the country’s far northwest corner, may as well be Mars. But for adventure travelers, it’s a hidden frontier packed with wind-bitten landscapes to mountain-bike, rowdy coastline to surf, and 500-foot sea stacks to climb. That is, if you’re brave enough.
You can’t drive to these backcountry lodges. This is a feature in our book, not a drawback.
Think you live in the best town in America? Prove it by entering your town in our Best Towns tournament. All you need is an Instagram account.
Mention Switzerland to any skier and their reaction is nearly universal. Their eyes widen as thoughts of huge vertical, fluffy powder, and quaint villages filled with fellow snow seekers enjoying après fill their collective imaginations. When the opportunity presented itself to tag along with a few stellar skiers to the Swiss Alps, I eagerly jumped on the team. Skiers Sven Brunso, John Trousdale, George Koch, and I travelled via rail to Adelboden, Andermatt, Disentis, and Engelberg. Deep snow, stinky cheese, new friends, cold beer, big climbs, and massive descents were never more than a walk, tram, or train away. Photographer Liam Doran shares some highlights of their trip.
Here’s what to bring, what to avoid, where to camp, and most importantly, expert advice on how to embrace the chaos.
You like the idea of sleeping in a tent on a frozen glacier midwinter. But you also really enjoy beds and hot showers.
I traveled to Samoa in late March for a week of exploratory fly fishing with Australian professional angler Jonathan Jones. Both of us were hopeful about the fishery—it looked promising on maps, with wide, sweeping flats dropping off steeply past the reef edge to cuts that just look fishy.
Bring your board across international borders to reach one of these legendary locales
Head to the desert, the mountains, or the coast to catch spring in all of its flowering glory.
Not ready to buy a campervan but still want to experience #vanlife? We’ve got you covered.
The city gets a bad rap: flat, boring, concrete. The flat part? That’s true. But the rest couldn’t be more wrong.
This summer, a Los Angeles cruise company is sending 1,500 passengers on a month-long voyage through the Arctic
The only commitment required on your part: a reservation
In this short video from Runaways Production House, four friends plunge deep into Australia's Blue Mountains to rig the first highline across Kanangra Falls, roughly 730 feet above the ground. The steps that help each man walk across the line differ, but as one slackliner tells himself: “Calm…
The 60 towns that will go head-to-head in a winner-takes-all contest to find the best place to live in 2016
Whether you’re after a tropical boat ride or an isolated hike through the mountains, now is the time to plan your ultimate 2016 trip and pack your bags.
"Take your worst turbulence experience in an airliner and make it three to five times worse. I wondered if I’d stay in one piece."
Addiction comes in many forms. For Jay Valley, it manifests itself by way of Atlantic salmon fishing on the Népisiguit River in New Brunswick, Canada. It means being on the river by the break of day to lay stake in the best pools and staying put until the sun sets.
Best Towns 2016: Prize Details and Official Rules
Hidden in the Jura Mountains, a sub-alpine mountain range along the France-Switzerland border, are stunning sections of singletrack. To share his experience of riding these trails, filmmaker Joonas Vinnari rigged up a camera and drone—the controller strapped to his chest—and self-captured the incredible footage seen in this…
You can hang in Cancun with the rest of the world, or head to one of these less well-known spots for a real ocean adventure.
Baja: The ultimate weekend escape. And it’s way easier than you think to get here.
Between Earth and Sky is an inspiring and visceral short film shot and directed by Australian filmmaker Benjamin Dowie in the French Alps while adventuring with his good friend and fellow filmmaker Mathieu Le Lay. During this same adventure, Le Lay produced Walk the Ridge, a short…
You’ll need fewer pints up here than you would at sea level
No, you don't need to be in Canada or Alaska to go cat skiing. And yes, it’s really good down here.
From epic skiing in Antarctica to a lazy beer-fueled canoe trip in North Carolina, these are the best places to visit this year
You don’t need to be in a big city to drink quality, locally-sourced booze. More and more craft distilleries are popping up in mountain towns.
It's the perfect time of year for the quintessential American road trip
Whether you’re refueling after a dawn patrol or heading out for a day of on the snow, here’s where to dig into some of the best breakfasts in the mountains
A hotel should be more than just a place to sleep. These new ski-town lodges go above and beyond.
Sedona, Arizona, is known for some seriously technical mountain bike trails like Highline, Hangover and White Line. There are also a few hiking trails that most people consider unrideable, like Cathedral Rock trail. Watch as rider Simon Bosman proves them wrong. …
There's a lot more to mountain biking than hardcore shredding, nailing jumps, and drifting around corners. Quality Time, from OneUP Components, was filmed in the Monashee Mountains near Revelstoke, British Columbia, and proves that simply spending some time riding through the wilderness is all you really need. …
All the exhilaration of a good old-fashioned adventure, without the risk of having to eat your tripmates
Need to thaw out? Here are beaches worth visiting this winter.
No sense driving to the ski hill when you can take a train instead.
Ski or snowshoe by moonlight, and you’ll deserve the gourmet feast that follows
Not many places can blend a Wild West sensibility with ski-town chic, but Steamboat Springs is successful on both fronts. The mountain of Steamboat dominates the horizon with almost 3,000 acres of skiing, while working ranches consume the valley. As for the town itself, you can still find a bit…
Tahoe is a sprawling place that encompasses ten resorts and chunks of two states, but the scene is centralized within South Lake Tahoe, where dive bars feed casinos that lead to nightclubs that empty back out into the casinos.
Jackson Hole Resort is billed as the hardest inbounds skiing in the United States, and the après-ski scene can get just as rowdy as Corbets Couloir.
Unless you’ve been under a rock, you know that Canyons is now part of Park City, and a new gondola connects the two ski areas, making it the single largest resort in the country—7,300 acres, but who’s counting?—and Deer Valley is still here, too.
Sure, Aspen was founded for silver mining in the late 1800s, but you could argue that the town was really founded for post-ski partying.
Don’t let the church steeples and quaint New England vibes fool you: Stowe can party. The town serves up some of the best skiing on the East Coast, including Vermont’s highest peak, Mount Mansfield, which pulls down 314 inches of fresh a year. And the après cene is just as…
This hilarious video from MeUndies tells the story of climber-turned-tree-house-builder Django Kroner. Kroner moved to Kentucky's Red River Gorge to pursue climbing, where he also began building tree houses. Yes, this is clearly branded content. But we're not getting paid to post it—and we think Kroner and his tree…
North Coast 500: A Pure Highlands Adventure is a short film from Calling Brands about the North Coast 500, a 500-mile loop around the whole north of Scotland. The route was designed by the North Highlands Initiative as a way to increase tourism for small businesses in the area, and gained a reputation…
We're big fans of all the films from the folks at More Than Just Parks, a filmmaking duo in the process of creating videos on all 59 of the U.S.'s National Parks. For their latest effort, the crew spent 15 days shooting more than 15,000 photos and videos…
Action-oriented alternatives to get you through the winter
A small team of mountain bikers went on an expedition to the Simien Mountains of northern Ethiopia. The stated goal was to summit the country’s highest peak, 14,928-foot Ras Deshan, and ride back down.
The 21-year-old stumbled on photography just a few years ago through his mom’s 1990’s DSLR. Since then, he’s developed a speciality in capturing simplistic, outdoor scenes around much of the American South.
Capital is venturing out of Silicon Valley to the nation's coolest towns
It’s no secret what you’re getting into when you run across Cabin Porn on the bookshelf: unadulterated, glorious cabins.
Travel south and stay warm for a long walk on these worthy winter trails
Once a year, Johannesburg-based Wilderness Safaris organizes its Tour de Tuli, a 300-kilometer (186-mile), four-day MTB ride through the Tuli Block of southern Africa, connecting Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.
Want to find the crowd-free surf of yesteryear? Drive from Los Angeles to Baja, load five days of gear onto a SUP, and haul ass through thick fog, screaming seagulls, and open ocean to the rocky, big-wave coast of Todos Santos.
Unlimited access for big-tired bikes
Not visiting the in-laws? Have an adventurous Turkey Day in one of these destinations.
North Face co-founder Doug Tompkins has an ambitious goal: to donate 12 national parks in Chile and Argentina
No matter how you like to ski or how long you can take off work, we've got the perfect trip in our guide to the best alpine escapes of the season
Park ranger Kelly Carroll turned the Great Basin into Nevada’s biggest show of stars
Even if you don't believe in campfire stories about ghosts and aliens, you can get your fill of fright with a haunted pre-trick-or-treat hike this Halloween.
Presenting the best trips in one of the hemisphere's hottest travel regions.