When it comes to adventure, there are nearly as many different ways of getting around as there are places to go. Whether you prefer to travel across America or Europe in the lap of luxury or make strenuous traverses of far away mountain ranges and deserts under your own power, no matter what type of adventure you seek the way you move through the landscape is almost as important a decision as the landscape you move through.
Let's take a look at some of the ways you can move around the planet.
Bangkok Transportation
Mass Transit: This one is too easy really, just about everyone has flown commercial or booked a seat on the bus to get from point a to point b at some time in their life. But Mass Transit is useful for more than just big trips. Entire adventures can be built around exploring the world of hubs that exists around major transportation centers of the world. In just about any major city you could spend weeks or even months exploring the stops along their mass transit programs, but mass transit offers more than a unique vantage point. For travelers pressed for time and money, the public option remains one of the best ways of getting from the real world to your adventure quickly and efficiently - if you are lucky or have an open mind, the trip itself is often an unplanned part of that adventure.
Cars: Cars are a boon and a bane. On American roads cars are ubiquitous and gas is relatively cheap. Buying or renting a small car to zip around in offers incredible flexibility and plenty of "road trip" guides abound to help you get the most out of your trip. As a plus, a car can easily do extra duty as a camper - fold down the seats and sleep in the trunk! Traveling by car, you can buy food at the grocery store and prepare it picnic style at local parks saving money on eating out, and in the event of bad weather you can keep going snug and dry in your little can on wheels. The biggest downside of cars is the insulating aspect of them. Traveling in a car seals you off from the rest of the world - fewer people to meet and talk to, fewer places to stop and the easy temptation to hop on a highway and blitz past miles of undiscovered territory all put cars on a different level than other transportation options.
Boats: As long as you are traveling over water, boats offer a unique turn on the classic wanderer's journey. People have sailed makeshift rafts down major rivers and crossed oceans on everything from heavily modified rowboats to single-handed sailboats. Crossing large bodies of water in a boat alone takes years of practice to master but there are several places that offer sailing classes, and companies that hire crew to help move boats from one part of the world to another. A journey by boat is sure to give you a unique perspective on the way the world moves, and the people who inhabit the lands around its rivers and seas.
Bicycles: On my bike trip around the United States I said that bicycle travel was the perfect compromise between walking, which is often too slow and driving, which is often too fast. If you have the time and health traveling by bicycle can be a wonderful way to tour a country. Many places in Europe - Germany especially - are very bicycle friendly and even in the car-centric United States there are several great trail systems and long rides available for touring cyclists including 350 car free miles from Pittsburgh PA to downtown Washington DC.
Motorcycles: For my next trip, I really want to travel on motorcycle. It seems that no matter where you go in the world, if it's someplace cool or even remotely interesting, you'll arrive to find some biker sitting happily at a picnic table having lunch their motorcycle waiting curbside for the next leg of their adventure. I have zero experience on motorcycles other than talking to touring bikers every single chance I get, but man oh man, sometime soon I'm gonna have my bike trip.
Walking/Backpacking: One of the oldest forms of transportation known to mankind, and still one of the best. From mega trails like the Appalachian and Pacific Crest in the United States to Koras around ancient hills in the remote Asian plateau, when push comes to shove you can always get around on your own two feet. One nice advantage of walking is that it allows you the flexibility of choosing other forms of transportation at anytime without having to store, return, sell, or otherwise deal with your current mode. Want to go down a river? Hop a boat and go, want to get across town? Jump on a bus, hail a cab, or walk. There are plenty of roadblocks to heading out on an adventure, as long as you have your own two feet transportation never needs to be one of them.
On the Edge: Adventurers have circled the globe in balloons, swam the length of rivers, taken sleds to the poles, and crossed deserts of horses and camels and traveled thousands of miles by riding lawnmower. If there is a way of moving around - someone has probably tried it and if they haven't you get bet someone is planning a trip right now. How you get to where you are going is often as big a consideration as where you will go. The important thing is to create the journey that works for you, using whatever means you can to get where you need to go and see that part of the world that has been calling to you.
Of course this list is by no means exhaustive. People have found as many ways to roam the world as there are places to roam to. No matter where you want to go or how you choose to go, there is a good chance that with practice, skill, and a dash of travelers luck, you'll make it back to tell the story. So what's stopping you? Pick your ride, throw a dart at the map, and start traveling.
Transportation Choices for Independent Adventure TravelFriends Link : Menu Salads recipe
