Planning an adventure? There's no shortage of organizations, nonprofit groups and companies that provide guided services and assistance in planning your trip. Here's a sampling:
Sierra Club Outings (www.sierraclub.org/outings) include local and national destinations led by volunteers.
Earthwatch Institute (www.earthwatch.org) is a nonprofit advocacy group that offers excursions worldwide.
Wildnerness Inquiry (www.wildernessinquiry.org) is a Minneapolis-based nonprofit that offers excursions for people of all abilities.
REI Adventures (www.rei.com/adventures) is the travel planning side of the popular outdoors store. The site includes trip and equipment reviews.
Lindblad Expeditions (www.expeditions.com) is a high-end outfitter that focuses on cruises in small ships, to very exotic locales.
gorp.away.com is a website for those interested in adventure travel. It includes destination guides, activity guides and information about camping, gear and national parks.
National Geographic Expeditions (www.nationalgeographicexpeditions.com) offers trips focused on education.
World Wildlife Fund (www.worldwildlife.org/travel) is a conservation group with destinations around the world.
BLOGS
The Adventure Life (www.theadventurelife.org) is a blog on outdoors and adventure-travel news written by Steve Casimiro, an editor at National Geographic Adventure magazine.
The Gear Junkie (www.gearjunkie.com) has hundreds of outdoor-product reviews and a section on adventure travel. It is edited by Stephen Regenold, a Minneapolis writer who writes the Ultrafit column for the Star Tribune and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times Travel and Escapes sections.
Social networking for the outdoors set. Outdoorzy.com is a Facebook-like site where members add trip photos and share blogs on their excursions around the globe.
The Adventure Blog (theadventureblog.blogspot.com/) is a daily source of news from the outdoors and adventure world.
Sources: Jim Buchta, Stephen Regenold
