Enjoy gobsmacking beauty along these five hot new adventure trails
By Andrew Bain
Derring-do types who thrive on challenging experiences in far-flung places, look no further.
Pedal road-free across Otago
- Start Queenstown, New Zealand
- Finish Dunedin, New Zealand
- Duration 5–7 days, 250 kilometres
Lake Dunstan Trail is part of a grand scheme to connect Queenstown to Dunedin by bike path.
Long lauded for its Great Walks network, New Zealand is now also a favourite of the cycling world with its 23 Great Rides that crisscross the country. Newest in the portfolio, and perhaps the most audacious addition, is Otago’s Lake Dunstan Trail, a 41-kilometre route from Cromwell to Clyde, running so tightly against the shores of its namesake lake that much of the ride is on boardwalks clipped to the cliffs.
Overhanging the lake, it’s a journey among wineries, across cliff faces, past a floating cafe and across a finely poised suspension bridge, but the most exciting thing about the Lake Dunstan Trail is that it’s a key piece of a grander plan to connect Queenstown to Dunedin by bike paths.
The full route is expected to be completed next year when a 32-kilometre trail through the rugged and currently trackless Kawarau Gorge is completed, linking the Otago Central Rail Trail, Lake Dunstan Trail and Queenstown Trail into an unbroken 250-kilometre ride.
Pedal road-free across Otago Lake Dunstan Trail.Credit: Tourism Central Otago/Ross Mackay
Lake Dunstan sits at the heart of the emerging journey, and the trail along its western shore, which opened in 2021, was used by more than 80,000 cyclists in its first year alone. Setting out from Cromwell, 60 kilometres from Queenstown, the trail doesn’t immediately enter the gorge that encases Lake Dunstan but instead meanders around the lake’s more open Kawarau Arm to the vineyards of Bannockburn. Among them, at the top of a climb, is Carrick Winery, the site of the trail-focused Carrick Pizza Trailer and Wine Bar, with outdoor seating overlooking the lake.
By the time the trail turns into the cliff-lined gorge, you’ve pedalled 13 kilometres and yet you’re just 300 metres across the river from where you began in Cromwell. From here, there are long stretches that hover above the water on the trail’s ingenious clip-on boardwalks before the ride squiggles up the slopes through the aptly named Cairnmuir Ladder and onto the 85-metre-long Hugo suspension bridge. Plan on delaying the climb with an obligatory stop at Coffee Afloat, a boat-cum-cafe serving up coffee and burgers at the base of the Cairnmuir Ladder.
It’s a spectacular day in the saddle, but think of it as just one day in a weeklong ride from Queenstown to Dunedin, and there’s a lot to look forward to. See nzcycletrail.com
Scale the Dolomites on a via ferrata
- Start Niederdorf or Toblach, Italy
- Finish Niederdorf or Toblach, Italy
- Duration Seven days
The Dolomites are stitched with more than 600 via ferratas.Credit: Alamy
Across the mountains of the world, via ferratas have become a modern fashion, now clipped onto cliffs in the likes of Wanaka, Whistler, Mount Kinabalu and, most recently, Mount Buller. But the historic heartland of these ‘iron ways’, which involve climbing or traversing exposed mountains and cliffs on metal rungs, cables, suspension bridges, ladders and even rickety wooden walkways, is the Dolomites of northern Italy, where via ferratas were first established in World War I to move troops and equipment across the craggy peaks.
Today, the Dolomites are stitched with more than 600 via ferratas, which can be combined into multi-day routes, suspended in an airy realm somewhere between hiking and rock climbing. UTracks runs a seven-day Via Ferrata Guided Walk, clipping into via ferratas each day, including routes on Monte Paterno that peer directly onto the Tre Cime, the pin-up peaks of the Dolomites. See utracks.com
Discover Africa’s largest national park
- Start Algiers, Algeria
- Finish Algiers, Algeria
- Duration 11 days
Tassili N’Ajjer National Park has a surreal Star Wars-like landscape.Credit: iStock
You might expect Africa’s largest national park to be in safari country – perhaps Kruger, Serengeti or Chobe – but it’s actually tucked into the south-east corner of Algeria and is finally appearing on travel radars.
Blanketed by the Sahara Desert, Tassili N’Ajjer National Park covers an area larger than Tasmania and is a surreal Star Wars-like landscape of red desert dunes and abstract rocky peaks, towers and arches – there are said to be more than 300 rock arches in the park.
The gobsmacking beauty is just one half of Tassili’s appeal. Across its cliffs and rocks are more than 15,000 engravings and paintings dated at up to 10,000 years of age, some depicting the elephants, giraffes and rhinos that once roamed here. UNESCO describes the World Heritage-listed park as “one of the most important groupings of prehistoric cave art in the world”.
Tours with Wild Frontiers begin with a two-hour flight from Algiers to Djanet before joining a Tuareg guide for a journey into this lunar landscape of nature and art. See wildfrontierstravel.com
Get gravel biking across Jordan
- Start Amman, Jordan
- Finish Amman, Jordan
- Duration Eight days, 200 kilometres
The Jordan Bike Trail takes in the Umm Qais ruins.Credit: iStock
One of the biggest buzzwords in cycle touring right now is gravel biking, a form of cycling – rougher than road cycling, less technical than mountain biking – that takes travellers off the main routes and onto unsealed roads and tracks.
A prime new gravel ride with a distinct goal – crossing an entire country – is the Jordan Bike Trail, running 730 kilometres north to south through Jordan, taking in features such as the Umm Qais ruins, Petra and Wadi Rum before finishing on the shores of the Red Sea.
The trail was conceived by local tour operator Experience Jordan Adventures, which now runs a cycling tour of its southern highlights – its most spectacular and famous moments – pedalling 200 kilometres past Petra and across the desert sands of Wadi Rum to Aqaba. Cycling days are between 37 and 70 kilometres, and nights are spent in Bedouin camps before the Lawrence of Arabia-like arrival into Aqaba. See experiencejordan.com
Paddle into Glacier Bay
- Start Gustavus, Alaska, US
- Finish Gustavus, Alaska, US
- Duration Seven to eight days
Glacier Bay looks incredible from a kayak.Credit: iStock
A year ago, I had the privilege of admiring Alaska’s most famous national park from the deck of a cruise ship. Glaciers nosed through the mountains to reach the sea, icebergs and sea otters bobbed about the waters, and my foremost thought was how incredible it all must look from a kayak, weaving among icebergs with glacial walls of blue ice towering overhead.
This new way to see this park that celebrates a century of protection in 2025 has twin paddling options: Glacier Bay’s West Arm or East Arm. The East Arm is off-limits to cruise ships and other motorised vessels, making it a private hideaway for kayakers as they paddle its shores. The West Arm doesn’t have the same exclusivity (though with only two cruise ships allowed into Glacier Bay each day, it’s hardly a crowd), but it does have the park’s big-name glaciers – Margerie, Grand Pacific, Johns Hopkins – as its paddling companions.
Nights are spent camped along the shores in perfect solitude. See alaskamountainguides.com
Q&A: DARRELL WADE, THE TOUR COMPANY CO-FOUNDER, INTREPID TRAVEL
Intrepid’s Darrell Wade.
My job involves... chairing the board, and the Intrepid Foundation, after being the company’s chief executive for about 25 years. My latest role allows me time to travel more and develop strategies on how Intrepid can have a positive impact on the planet and its people.
My definition of a great journey is... one that allows time to get under the skin of the destination. Too often, travel experiences involve rushing from place to place ticking off items in the bucket list – an awful way to travel. The best journeys go to places you’ve never heard of, where you do things you never expected to do. For that to happen you have to build in time and allow for serendipity.
My greatest journey ever was... a six-month trip across Asia from Bali to London. I was 22 at the time and it was genuinely life-changing. Also, a six-month trip across Africa a few years later. This trip was when Anna (my wife), Manch (my friend and later business partner) and I sowed the seeds of Intrepid – so that was life changing, too.
The most amazing thing I’ve ever seen on a journey is… a week on a riverboat travelling up the Congo River in what was then called Zaire in the 1980s. This was no ordinary riverboat – 5000 people were crammed on a series of barges that were tied together by cables, with shops, bars, drugs and booze along with live monkeys and crocodiles. The monkeys were for lunch, the crocodiles were for trade upriver. It was intrepid.
The great journey I still really want to do one day is... spending a month travelling through all five of the Stans, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. I’ve been wanting to do this since I travelled through Pakistan and Iran three decades ago and now I’m going in September.
The world’s next great journey destination is... who knows and, to a certain extent, who cares? There are so many amazing places waiting to be discovered. To be honest, the best destinations are ones that aren’t on anyone’s destination list; they’ll be less crowded, more authentic, probably more affordable and you’ll also be able to make your own discoveries which are infinitely more rewarding than some else’s Instagram feed.
My best tip for getting the most from a great journey is... travelling light (hand luggage), and travelling local. I haven’t checked my luggage for 15 years and it allows me to travel in a fast and flexible way. Last year, my wife and I travelled from the Article Circle to southern Europe over a four-month period with just hand luggage and we never wanted for anything. And by local I mean just that – local public transport: trains, buses, ferries. It’s a far more interesting way of getting around and seeing the destination you’ve travelled to, meeting the people and experiencing the culture. Plus it’s far less carbon intensive than flying. See intrepidtravel.com
Interview by Sue Williams
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