Packaged and custom adventure travel trips with tour operators aren't free, of course, but there are lots of adventures you can enjoy and sample for free. Here are tips and ideas about where to hike or bike on public lands without paying park entrance fees, or ski or snowboard without buying a lift ticket. Looking for an event or store where you can demo sports equipment free? Would you like to know how to snag a free trip?
1. Get a Free Trip
There are two ways to get free trips. The first is by luck. If you want to try yours, visit Adventure Travel Contests, Sweepstakes and Giveaways.
If you're a lucky winner of a contest run by an adventure travel companies, you're golden. The rest of us adventure travelers will have to earn that free trip. Some companies will give you a free trip if you collect enough paying travelers. For example, Abercromibe & Kent, a company that offers creative and adventurous trips, has a special offer: Pay for 10 and Get 2 Free. So, collect your family or gather a group friends. If 10 of them pay for the trip, you and a 12th person go for free. The trips offered head to all parts of the globe.
2. Urban Parkour - James Bond Does It and You Can Too
Courtesy of Brendan Dudley
Parkour - the art of moving effectively through the environment using only the human body to overcome obstacles - is a growing activity in urban centers. All you need are the streets, fences, walls and other obstacles one finds in an urban environment. Here's where to find more information about parkour.
3. Get Hiking and Biking Trail Descriptions on Free & Local Web Sites
Colorado Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau
There are Web sites with excellent trail descriptions around the country, but they cost. But why pay? Many resort towns and even cities with extensive public park systems offer free detailed descriptions of hiking and biking trails on their Web sites. Many also have links to sites that tell you where to park your car, length of trails and often rate a trail's steepness and difficulty level.
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy has a free site that lists more than 30,000 miles of trails.
4. Free Language Lessons Can Help You When Visiting Remote Locales
Do you know how to say “Hello,” “Where’s the bathroom?” and “How much does that cost?” when talking to a street vendor in a remote Peruvian town or a bazaar in India? Sure you can pay a fee and learn from Berlitz, or grab a book and CD from the library, but why not stay right here at your computer and click to one of these sites that offer free language lessons. If you want to know where to find free lessons on French to Urdu, visit free language lessons
5. Find Free Events, Especially Ones With Demos Days
If you live in a big city, call the sports stores, such as REI, and ask if there are free clinics and demo days. If you live near resorts, or are visiting a resort, call or check the Web site for events. Breckenridge in Colorado, for example, has a Bike Week, when many of races are free and you can demo equipment.
6. Find Free Lodging Around the World
Say you want to go surfing in Hawaii or Australia, or ski off-piste in Austria but you only have enough money for a plane ticket and you don't want to sleep on a beach. Exchange homes or couchsurfing are your best bets.
7. Hike, Bike and Go Horseback Riding Free on Public Lands
© L Friedland
If you're looking for public lands where you can hike, bike and go horseback riding without paying an entrance free, there are millions of acres of land managed by the Federal and state governments waiting for you. On these lands, all you need is a pair of hiking shoes or a bike (or your own horse), a packed lunch and drinking water to enjoy a day exploring the wilderness.
8. Extreme Skiing and Snowboarding for Free
You'll have to walk uphill, but in the spring avid expert skiers and boarders in the East head to Tuckerman Ravine on Mount Washington. Skiing Tuckerman is a Rite of Spring for many.9. Locals Are Your Best Source of Knowledge
See a person riding a mountain bike? Stop him or her and ask for a local's view on where you should ride or hike.
