Adventure travel tours are gaining popularity, as well-travelled tourists seek different ways of exploring a country or region they might have visited.
The internet and travel forums have fuelled the growth of boutique specialist operators who are launching innovative tours spanning the gamut of interests from rock climbing to trekking, kayaking and cycling.
'With the ability of smaller companies to market through the internet, there will be growth in small specialist companies that will compete easily with the larger, more general tour companies that try to offer specialist tours,' says Jason Williams, managing director of Grasshopper Adventures.
One of its most popular tours is its four-hour Bangkok bike ride at night, an easy excursion for children and adults. The tour allows tourists to experience the capital in a uniquely different way by visiting ancient temples that are lit up at night and free of daytime crowds.
For those looking to pick up the adrenalin level, the operator also runs plenty of other action-packed adventure tours.
Options include a 16-day tour of the Silk Road, from Xian to the Pamir Mountains bordering Pakistan, which has travellers hiking parts of China's Great Wall; riding camels through dunes; cycling along dusty lanes; and trekking in giant desert chasms before finishing with a horse ride in the mountains.
There is also a cycling pilgrimage around the Tibetan plateau that begins in Lhasa and includes cycling to the base camp of Mount Everest before ending in Kathmandu.
