This trip was sponsored by Tourism Calgary, but all opinions are my own.

In May Calgary Tourism offered me a challenge; to see how many adventure activities I could fit into 48-hours in the city. They’d send a film crew to document it and they’d foot the bill for the project.

Would I do it?

Hell yes I’d do it. I wasn’t going to turn down my third chance to be in a professional production (this was the first, and this was the second).

They asked what activities I wanted to try.

“Let me do some research and get back to you.” I replied. My fingers pecked my keyboard with hummingbird-like ferocity and my browser tabs multiplied like bunnies in the spring.

I’d heard there was a standing wave that you could surf somewhere in Calgary. I looked that up. I searched for a parkour club, because I’d always wanted to try it, and I figured I must also be able to kayak on the Bow River.

But then I ran out of ideas, still shy of 2-days worth of adventures.

What else could I do?

Mike, from Tourism Calgary suggested bobsledding and a trip down the fastest zipline in North America.

Perfect. The deal was sealed.

“Tell the editor who bleeps out words in the video that I’m sorry in advance, because this is going to be pretty bleeping rad and I will bleeping say so.”

In June, we executed the plan. You can get an idea of how it went from the video at the top of this blog post.

Below is the full story.

Day 1: Morning | Parkour Lessons at Breathe Parkour

I’ve always wanted to try parkour, also known as freerunning. The sport first entered popular culture when its founder was hired for the groundbreaking foot-chase scene at the beginning of the James Bond movie, Casino Royale. Parkour is basically applied gymnastics used for moving gracefully and acrobatically through urban landscapes.

The fellows at Breathe were very friendly and started me off with the basics. We did a quick round of lessons, including how to swing from a horizontal pole to leap and grab a building ledge, pole walking 12-feet in the air, and hucking flips into a foam pit.

I. Love. Foam pits.

The pinnacle of the lesson was reached when I tried to do the human flag, which is pictured below. What you don’t notice at first, is that my teacher is totally holding up my legs.

If you’re in Calgary and want to try it out, I highly recommend it. Lessons start at $25 for one and go down as you purchase more, while gym drop-ins are just $15.

Day 1: Afternoon | Ziplining and Bobsledding at the Canada Olympic Park

In 1988 Calgary hosted the Winter Olympics, and the Canada Olympic Park where they held ski jumping, bobsledding, and other gravity-assisted events, still sits on the western edge of town with many of the facilities open for use year-round.

Before this trip I had a vague idea that visitors could try bobsledding in the COP. I didn’t know, however, that it could be done in summer. And I had no idea that the COP was home to the fastest zipline in North America, on which you reach speeds over 120km per hour and drop 100m over a distance of just 500m.

The view from the top of the zipline, which was the top of the ski jump during the olympics, is amazing. During the descent, you go so fast that you have to throw out a parachute to slow yourself down and you’re strongly advised by staff to lean way back with your legs in the air when the you hit the end of the track.

The stop is rather abrupt.

The sign below says it all.

For video purposes, I got to do it twice, which I wasn’t complaining about at all.

Our bobsled ‘guide’ was a hefty Australian — one of their Olympic bobsledders.

The bobsled ride is pretty intense. The bobsled rattles manically and the g-force around the corners is powerful.

We got to do it three times, and each time it got a bit smoother as we learned how to brace for the corners.

Day 1: Dinner | The Palamino Smokehouse

This wasn’t exactly an adventure, but Palamino Smoke definitely deserves a nod. This place is a Calgary institution. It’s one of the grimier areas of downtown (not that Calgary really gets very grimy), which only adds to the the charm of what most Calgarians say is the best greasy rib house in the city.

And by many Calgarians I mean my sister’s husband and his friends, who were very jealous when they heard where I ate.

I’d have to agree. We had a dinner of beer and a enormous meat platter with ribs, chicken, and fries swimming in minced garlic. But I’d have to say my favorite was the bacon-wrapped corn on the cob.

Yes, you heard me right. Bacon. Wrapped. Corn.

You now have all the necessary information to decide if you want to eat there. Either you’re garlic slathered, bacon-wrapped [insert any food on the planet here] kind of person, or your not.

Day 2: Morning | Kayaking on the Bow River

I’ve had my share of kayaking adventures. Well, mishaps, actually. Six of one, half-dozen of the other I say.

But this was my first chance to take real kayaking lessons and learn some whitewater technique. To top it off, my friend Adam — the drummer for Open Sails who I first met in Taiwan — would be joining me.

We headed out to the tree-lined shores of the Bow River — an enormous river that runs through the city — in Bowness Park where we were met by Steve Wapple, our instructor from the University of Calgary Outdoor Center.

First we paddled slowly around a calm eddy and Steve explained a few different strokes and techniques. After that, he showed us how to get into the fast water without tipping and how to navigate.

Soon we were cruising down the Bow River in the sun and dipping ourselves in the water just to cool off. Near the end of the trip we found a standing wave where we all took turns kayak surfing it — good practice for what was to come.

Day 2: Lunch | Containr Bar

We headed down to Calgary’s trendy Kensington neighborhood, to Contanr Bar a cool little spot built out of 100% found materials in the alley beside a posh bar/restaurant that gets so busy it can actually send people to sit on in the alley on chairs people threw away to eat off of recycled pallets…

…and like it.

It was a really chill little spot. Adam and I caught up, laughed about the old days, munched on duck fat popcorn and deep fried pig ears, as scratchy music from the vinyl on the vintage record player filled the alley.

Day 2: Afternoon | Surfing

I’ve done a bit of surfing here and there. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not that good. But I thought this was going to be really easy.

You see, the hardest part of learning surfing is knowing how to get in the exact right place to catch the wave. If you can do that, the rest is relatively straightforward.

The wave in Calgary is a standing wave in a river. It doesn’t move. You can see exactly where you’re going.

No problem, right?

As usual, I was astoundingly wrong.

What the wave gives away by being stationary, it makes up for by being fickle — especially on a day when the river is low, as it was when we visited.

Getting into the wave laying down is fairly easy, but standing up without causing the board to nosedive or be sucked back over the wave requires a quick and precise leap to your feet.

I have to thank the editors of the video for making it look as though I may have actually stood up. I came very close once or twice, but never actually did.

That really doesn’t matter though. The worst day of surfing is still better than the best day not surfing, so it was a win.

And it was one of the friendliest lineups I’ve ever been in — mainly because most of the surfers out there were able to bond based over the difficulty of simply standing up on that wave.

It’s not over for me and that wave. Not by a long shot. My sister lives in Calgary and I visit several times a year.

Round 2 is coming soon.

Day 2: Dinner | One18 Empire

Our last stop of the day was at Calgary’s new posh whiskey bar, One18 Empire. It’s an upscale place with a selection of whiskeys that would make Jack Daniels blush and bartenders that know their stuff.

We munched on maple-wrapped dates and a charcuterie of cured meats and cheeses while we tasted fine whiskeys from around the world to top off the 48-hour adventure.

If you liked my video, check out the full series on the Calgary Tourism website.

The post The 48-Hour Calgary Adventure appeared first on XpatMatt.

All I can think about is the girl on the fairground ride whose hair got caught in the mechanism.

While being strapped into a harness and encouraged to lean over an Alpine cliff-edge 1828m up, I am categorically told to keep my arms by my side but, suddenly, halfway along my high-speed 1,200m cable ride, I become paranoid that my long hair will get tangled in the runner system.

I spend the rest of the ride trying to work out which is more likely to kill me – my own flyaway hair or deviating from the recommended flight position, which I don’t dare to attempt, especially as I’m convinced any extra movement will result in the loss of a flip flop.

It takes two chair lift rides to reach the Fantasticable, a zip line at Pré-la-Joux in France’s famous Portes Du Soleil (Gates of the sun) region. The flight down is also a two-stage process, albeit a lot faster.

The second cable offers an even longer ride of 1325m, giving you a good few minutes to enjoy the view as you swoop over lush fields and the mountain village of Plaine-Dranse.

So, just like those people who spend hours trying to chicken-out of their bungee then want to do it all over again, I’m delighted to get another crack at the whip, the second with my hair firmly tied up in as neat a bun as I can manage with shaky adrenaline-fuelled hands.

Despite an innate distrust of the French which comes in-built to we Brits, I know this ultra-fast zip line is safe and scientific because I’ve been weighed to ensure the correct balance is set at the ‘breaking station’ at the end of the ride, meaning I come to a stop in the right place at the right time.

And I certainly feel reassured by the particularly geeky ensemble of helmet, apron and metal tray that makes up the outfit. If I look this bad it’s got to be for good reason.

To reach the Fantasticable I’ve criss-crossed the border between France and Switzerland.  We’re sandwiched between Lake Geneva and Mont Blanc in terrain most tourists see covered in a blanket of perfect white powder from the fast-moving vantage point of their skis or snowboards.

But as a winter sports novice even the gently-paced chair life ride up here has me gripping the bars, despite having my boyfriend – and today my fellow zip-liner – for company.

I’m not saying I’m a total girl but my heart beats pretty damn fast when I get to the top of the average waterslide, so you can imagine the Olympic-level somersaults my ticker is doing when my life is placed in the hands of a suspiciously laissez-faire French girl, who bids me to ‘ave a nice flight as I’m launched horizontally and head first into the mountain scenery.

These are the same mountains I usually visit in summer to indulge in sedate local pastimes like eating Abondance cheese and endless baguettes and going for walks in the verdant, manicured scenery, all blooming flowers and wooden chalets, my peace shattered only by the tinkling of cowbells.

So it’s disconcerting yet totally magical to see this chocolate box scenery and hear this bovine percussion from a bird’s eye view. By the time I screech to a halt on the second leg of my superman-style journey I’m thrilled that I’ve done something so adventurous and I realise it was actually a proverbial walk in the park.

I’m no longer scared – my worries about tangled hair or losing a flip flop have melted away and I’m just about ready to be jump on the chair lift to do it all over again.

My Fantasticable Zip Line Videos

The Take Off

The Landing

More Info

Fantasticable has locations in Portugal, Italy and Canada and three in France, including the one at Chatel described above.

Flights cost €34

For more information and seasonal opening timetable see the Fantasticable website or the Chatel area website

About The Guest Blogger

Jaillan Yehia aka Savoir There is a London-based travel writer, editor and blogger who is obsessed with stylish, quirky and cultured travel. You can usually find her eating and drinking her way around the world, but every so often her adventurous side sneaks out and makes her try water skiing in Cyprus, zip lining in the Alps or reverse bungees in Bali. She scares easy so doesn’t combine the eating with the adventure, although a stiff drink has been known to help. 

The post The Fantasticable: Zip Lining Like You’ve Never Seen appeared first on XpatMatt.

It’s no secret that I’m a big advocate of environmentally-friendly travel that encourages people to appreciate the outdoors and supports local economies. Ziplining does all of those things. Since you spend most of the activity suspended above the ecosystem that you’re viewing you have very little impact on it. It’s an exceptional way to appreciate nature. It’s adventurous. It can be done by people of all physical abilities and ages.

Perhaps best of all, it requires a relatively small investment to set up, which means that even people in less-developed countries are able to set up these eco-friendly tour businesses and increase their earnings through responsible and somewhat educational tourism.

As far as I’m concerned it’s an all-round winning prospect.  So, I was pretty excited when I found out that ziplining was on the agenda while visiting Mazatlan with Go Mazatlan.

Safety

Since ziplines are often hung hundreds of feet above the ground safety is a very serious concern. Your equipment is the only thing separating you from a plunge into the fields of agave plants below.

When ziplining you’re  strapped into a harness that is attached to two lines (in case one breaks) by two pulleys (in case one breaks) so that if any one part of the system breaks there’s always going to be a fail safe.

We were given a twenty-minute safety brief that discussed the safety features of the zipline and harness, how to slow down when approaching the platform, how to keep yourself facing forwards, and how to pull yourself hand-over-hand to the platform if you slow yourself too much and accidentally stop in the middle of the line.

The Green Beast

The first part of the adventure was the ride to the top of the mountain in a six-wheeled military-looking beast of a truck called a Pinzgauer Swiss Army Vehicle, an all-terrain vehicle made to climb slopes of up to 70 degrees. The road was extremely steep and bumpy — and fun. The ride up was almost as exciting as the ziplines we were about to ride back down.

Zipping Above Fields of Agave

Huana Coa has nine lines that total 1.6km in length. They vary in distance and height.

The landscape was dry and desert-like. Dry brown bushes and trees and cacti contrasted by a deep blue sky was most of what we saw. Only the last one actually crosses a field of agave.

After a couple of zips we all got the hang of controlling our speed and stopping at the platform and everything went very smoothly.

One of the funnest parts of the day was rappelling about 30 feet from the last platform to the ground. The sinking feeling during the fast drop was awesome.

The Zipline Company: Huana Coa Canopy Adventure

The canopy tour is only one of several that Huana Coa offers. They also have horseback riding, ATV tours, and are just up the road from the Los Osena distillery, which offers tours of its own (and are a great way to wrap up a day of adventure).

The Huana Coa canopy tour is a short drive from Mazatlan in the Vinata of Osuna, near the village of La Noria.

You contact them at:

Phone: 0052 (669) 9901100

Address: Av. del Mar 1111 Local 10

Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico

Hotel Don Pelayo

Website: www.HuanaCoa.com

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I was just doing some lazy Sunday googling around the interweb, reading about the unfortunate premature death of Adam Yauch and his influence on his hometown, and I ended up finding three really sweet-looking adventures all in New York. Two are in the city, and one is just a few hours away.

If you are in New York, these are all convenient, reasonably priced, and fully worth checking out.

1) Take a Zipline Adventure Tour

Photo by youngrocky

I think ziplines are great. They’re accessible to everyone, even those who aren’t in super shape. They’re very environmentally friendly. They provide a nice little adrenaline boost to go with an epic view. And, they’re the cheapest flights you’re ever going to find (unless, that is, you check out my flight hacking tips).

New York Zipline Adventure Tours, about a 2.5 – 3 hour drive from the city in the Catskill Mountains, offers two zipline packages. Their Mid-Mountain Tour is a light family-friendly tour that includes six zippiness, four rope bridges, nine aerial tree platforms, and one rappel. The tour lasts about three hours and costs $89 USD per person.

Their more exciting tour is called the SkyRider, and they market it as the “longest, fastest, and highest zipline tour in the North America.”  It includes over 4.6 miles of zippiness, which they require you attend a training school to ride. This includes one cable that spans 3200 feet 600 feet above the valley floor. This tour is also three hours, and costs $119 USD per person.

2) Check Out Discover Outdoors Adventures

Photo by slagheap

If you want to get out, get fit, and get into some new adventure activities in New York, Discover Outdoors is definitely a company you should check out.  They have a variety of programs from backpacking lessons (free), to sunrise photography ($59 USD), to multi-sport adventures ($39 USD). They even have extreme indoor rock wall climbing ($29 USD). It’s not exactly Wharepapa, New Zealand, but hey, what did you expect.

The most gruesome looking calss is their mountain fitness training class ($39 USD). These classes are “non-traditional, fitness-oriented adventures,” but from the looks of the pictures they are seriously taxing. There is no specific training routine given, but its implied that the instructor chooses terrain and activities with a mind to wrenching your muscles in ways they’ve never experienced. Yes, they even lift logs. They have pictures of it on the website (though the one I have above is not of an actual class. I just picked it to scare you).

3) The Annual Adventures NYC Event

Photo by Ed Yourdon

Every summer the City of New York Parks and Rec team board teams up with sponsors like Backpacker Magazine, The North Face, and Pentax to put on Adventures NYC, a free outdoors event in Central Park. This year (2012) it will be held on June 25th and will include free bicycle rentals, climbing walls, health and fitness clinics, gear exhibits, yoga, and live entertainment. The price is right, and so are the activities.

Lead photo by Stuck in Customs

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Ziplining Beside the Chompoo Wildlife Sanctuary

Image by arwcheek

I’ve never gone ziplining (soon to be remedied) but I am in love with them. They are one of the most low-impact and exciting forms of eco-tourism out there. They require few materials, prevent people from disturbing the surrounding environment (after they’re set up) and look like an amazing way to the nature.

Flight of the Gibbon is a pretty class act. They run a well-constructed 3km system of ziplines that connect 24 tree platforms beside the Compoo Wildlife Sancturary, about two hours outside of Bangkok. They will pick you up in Bangkok, hurl you across lines as long as 300m, then take you for a trek through the jungle, and drop you off for around $110 USD per person. Or, if ziplining isn’t your style, you can monkey around in their treetop obstacle course for $65 USD.

Biking from City to Shore

Image by Irvine-

This tour by Grasshopper Adventures, a well-known bicycle tour company in Asia, will take you by ferry and train out of the city cycle along the Gulf of Thailand in fishing communities. You will see mangroves, salt pans, fish farms, and, if you’re lucky, a water monitor or two. At the least,  you’re likely to encounter some mudskippers, those little cuties. The tour has received rave reviews on Trip Advisor.

This tour costs $200 USD for one rider, $100 USD each for two riders, and $85 USD each for 3 or more riders. Be warned, the 52km bike ride does require some physical ability.

Rafting Beneath the Bridge on the River Kwai

Image by FelixR

Surprisingly, the infamous bridge from the 1957 movie is very close to Bangkok. Although many companies like this one offer tours that will transport visitors to Kanchanaburi and then allow them descend the river by canoe, kayak, or bamboo raft, most of the tours are bundled with elephant rides. Many people feel that the elephants used on such tours are not treated well, and they encourage visitors not to partake in them. So, if you would rather take the trip on your own, you can catch the bus to Kanchanaburi from Bangkok’s Southern Bus Terminal. Busses depart every 30 minutes and tickets for seats on air-conditioned busses run about $3 USD each. Once in Kanchanaburi  you can rent your preferred mode of river transport from one of several local shops.

If you’re in Asia and looking for flights to Bangkok then be sure to check out my travel hacker’s guide to finding cheap flights.

Lead image by arwcheek

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