New Year Bucket-List Adventure

Last week’s blog was about building a positive attitude and mental resilience to help achieve your goals and a sense of wellbeing. Armed with life-hacks to get you feeling good, January is a great time to blow out the winter cobwebs and get active, creating endorphins which boost your natural immune system (which, let’s face it, is probably due some love!)

After a couple of years when many activities had to be put on hold, surveys show people are dusting off their bucket lists and booking activities or holidays of a lifetime to dream destinations. So reach for the sky with our suggestions below, for activities that are all about seizing the day, not seizing up!

Zip World Penrhyn Quarry, Wales

If you want white-knuckle thrills slightly closer to the ground, head for North Wales. In what once was the world’s largest slate quarry, Penrhyn Quarry is now home to the fastest zip line in the world, Velocity 2, where you can fly at speeds of up to and over 100mph, 500m above the bright blue quarry lake. With over 1.5 kilometres of descent over 4 parallel zip lines, Velocity 2 allows you to enjoy the experience alongside your family and friends.

Or try Quarry Karts, the UK’s only mountain cart experience, starting 1,500 feet above sea level and hurtling through an intimidating course of obstacles and dizzying views to the quarry floor. With its own stunning views of Snowdonia, the Blondin restaurant is the perfect place to catch your breath and relax afterwards, or plot a visit to one of Zip World’s thrilling partner attractions across Wales, including Zip World Slate Caverns, Fforest, and Tower.

Active Skydiving, Crieff, Scotland

Rather than being just pie in the sky, let’s leap right in with an activity that gets you skydiving from heights of up to 15,000 feet! Active Skydiving’s fully accredited instructors take you through a comprehensive course teaching you the fundamental skills required to become a qualified skydiver in as little as 8 jumps. Run over a week to 10 days, courses are designed to qualify you for a British Skydiving A licence, allowing you to jump worldwide.

You can chose to complete the course in the UK or at locations in Spain, Florida and California, enabling you to jump in guaranteed sunny conditions and combine your high-adrenaline course with holiday relaxing! 5 times British Champion and former Red Devil, chief instructor Scotty Milne has over 30 years’ experience in the sport at the highest level- literally- and as he says, this is not a sport for choosing the second best!

Active Highs White Water Rafting, Fort William, Scotland

Active Highs, based in the heart of the Great Glen near Loch Oich and the Caledonian Canal, offer a great range of adrenaline pumping outdoor activities to satiate every thrill-seeker. However, for the ultimate in water-based adventure to leave you gasping, their white water rafting might just leave your bucket-list overflowing.

Active Highs are uniquely able to offer some of the best white water rafting in the whole of the UK, thanks to their location beneath the River Garry dam. Scheduled weekly water releases guarantee fun and exhilarating grade 3 & 4 white water rafting trip with big and bouncy rapids from late March until the end of October. All specialist equipment, clothing and professional river guides are included with every trip, all you need to bring is a pair of old trainers that can get wet, a towel and swimwear for underneath your wetsuit!

Learn to Surf, The Wave, Bristol

If you’d rather surf the wave than drive a donut, The Wave is for you. Based in Easter Compton, Bristol, it’s the first inland-surfing destination of its kind, where people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities can experience the joy of surfing and its many physical and mental health benefits. Groundbreaking technology generates up to 1,000 quality waves per hour across the 180m long surfing lake, ranging from 50cm to almost 2m in height.

Delivering an unrivalled inland surf experience suitable for everyone from beginner to seasoned professional, enjoy a lesson with friendly qualified coaches, or intermediate upwards surfers can immerse themselves in non-guided surf sessions. Importantly, the whole surfing experience has been designed to ensure each surfer has the space, time and serenity to enjoy their surf at The Wave without ever needing to battle crowds.

Drift Limits Driving Experience, Hertfordshire

Put the pedal to the metal and unleash your inner Stig at Drift Limits, where you can select from a fleet of track prepared cars and take it to the limit on a selection of incredible experience days. Whether you choose to slew it in a supercar, drift a Nissan 350z, or burn some serious rubber in a stunt driving experience, you’re guaranteed to leave with a smile on your face!

All experiences, including race car, supercar, single-seater F1000, drifting, stunt driving, police pursuit and under 17’s experiences, have been carefully designed to optimise your track experience and maximise driving time. Professional instructors and race veterans can also offer 1:1 tuition packages and bespoke driving experiences- because, let’s face it, this is a bug just waiting to be caught!

Coasteering, Cornish Wave Surf School, Newquay

The hottest ticket for multi-terrain, nature-immersive exploration, Coasteering in Cornwall is out of the ordinary adventure along the dramatic Cornish coastline. A mix of adrenaline, adventure and exploration that you can make as difficult or as easy as you like, it’s a great way to see the secluded, wild scenery Cornwall has to offer, which otherwise wouldn’t be possible. Fancy launching yourself off a cliff into deep waters? You can. Want to swim along the coast in some of Cornwall’s most beautiful water? That’s on the agenda, too.

Exploring the diverse terrain of the Cornish coast in small groups with qualified, friendly instructors, traverse along cliffs with the waves crashing below, then swap the land for the sea and explore caves, gullies and whirlpools up close by wild swimming. What are you waiting for? It’s time to jump in!