Why ‘Problem Journey’ Is Trending Amongst Journey Lovers

“Individuals need daring and difficult journey experiences,” says Tom Marchant, cofounder of the clothes shop Black Tomato. The corporate debuted its Get Misplaced itineraries in 2017, giving a choose few purchasers the possibility to role-play survival conditions within the Peruvian Andes or Mongolian steppes. Vacationers on these journeys get dropped within the wilderness after which navigate their manner again to civilization. Marchant says curiosity within the journeys has spiked, with 2024 bookings up 40 % from the earlier 12 months.

Black Tomato is much from the one operator dreaming up next-level challenges, as journey advisors, tour firms, and even cruise strains are tailoring their choices to what some name Sort 2 enjoyable: experiences which might be troublesome within the second, however enriching in hindsight.

“Adventurers are looking for true problem and isolation,” says Pelorus Journey cofounder Jimmy Carroll. “These are journeys the place endurance, power, and flexibility are important.”

Listed here are six experiences assured to check your mettle.

HELI-SKIING IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

Based in 1965, CMH Heli-Snowboarding & Summer season Adventures has grown alongside curiosity in backcountry snowboarding, and the corporate now has greater than 150 licensed mountain guides who can safely lead fresh-track, deep-powder runs throughout some 3 million acres of the Canadian Cascades. CMH additionally has a community of snug backcountry lodges for multiday adventures among the many iconic granite spires of the Bugaboos.

OPEN-AIR CAMPING IN BOTSWANA

Many safari camps provide indoor-outdoor suites that permit within the sounds of nature. Then there’s Jack’s Camp, the storied Botswana lodge on the fringe of the Kalahari Desert. From Jack’s, company can embark on a two-night foray into the huge Makgadikgadi Pans in a convoy of ATVs earlier than making camp on Kubu Island, an outcropping of granite that rises from the arid plain. “They name it a ‘five-gazillion-star bed room,’” says Mark Lakin, a T+L Journey Advisory Board member who recommends the journey to his purchasers.

HUT-TO-HUT TREKKING IN UTAH

The Western Uinta Hut System is a set of strategically positioned yurts that open the door to greater than 100,000 acres of high-altitude terrain. The primary of their form within the state, these rustic lodgings afford adventurers snug (if not luxurious) locations to in a single day throughout mountain-biking, mountaineering, and fishing forays deep into the wilderness, says Shaun Deutschlander. She’s the founding father of Impressed Summit Adventures, which pioneered the rising community and presents guided journeys into the mountains.

IMPOSSIBLE MISSIONS IN MOROCCO

Scaling the outside of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa could also be out of attain, however doing your personal stunts is feasible. Working with crew members from the Mission: Unimaginable franchise, Pelorus Journey has put collectively an journey that entails trekking within the Atlas Mountains, racing throughout sand dunes in Predator X-18 buggies, and rappelling from a rooftop within the Marrakesh medina. “It is going to be a brilliant immersive and high-octane expertise,” says Carroll, the Pelorus cofounder.

SCUBA DIVING IN ANTARCTICA

If merely visiting the seventh continent isn’t sufficient, Aurora Expeditions has journeys that additionally go underneath it. The expedition cruise line was the primary mainstream operator to supply scuba diving within the frigid waters off Antarctica, the place the ocean life consists of spider crabs, tender corals, and partitions of big kelp. It’s additionally doable to identify penguins and seals, says Edwin Sargeant, an ice diver and information with Aurora Expeditions whose favourite factor to see is the undersides of icebergs.

GOING OFF THE GRID IN PERU

Black Tomato can coordinate wilderness-survival adventures that push individuals’ limits. After a security briefing led by a former officer within the Royal Marines, company are dropped within the Peruvian mountains with little greater than a map and a compass—and orders to get again to an extraction level a number of days’ hike away. For security, individuals are shadowed by a crew of professionals. “You gained’t see them, however they’ll at all times be there to assist at a second’s discover,” says Rob Murray-John, head of particular initiatives for Black Tomato.

A model of this story first appeared within the July 2025 concern of Journey + Leisure underneath the headline “Pushing the Limits.”