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Bucket List Adventure Ideas
Trips worth planning around, with the best months where sources give them.
A real, editable checklist below — tick, tap a line to rewrite, drag to reorder.
Tick the circles, tap any line to change it, drag the dots to reorder.
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Timing runs this list. Family Traveller puts the Great Migration's peak between July and October, recommends the same months for the Inca Trail, and December to March for the Abisko northern lights. Check your dates against those windows before you book. Family Traveller also calls altitude acclimatisation before the Inca Trail non-negotiable, so plan your days around it. The picks mix family-friendly wildlife trips with dirt-road routes from a riders' forum and one Antarctic season. It assumes you'll book your own flights and leaves out costs, visas and gear.
Why these items are on the list
- Watch the Great Migration. Peak is normally July to October, says Family Traveller. Millions of zebra and wildebeest cross the Mara River.
- Trek the Inca Trail. Family Traveller: best July to October. Three days, guided treks only. Acclimatise to the altitude first.
- Breakfast with giraffes in Nairobi. Family Traveller: open all year; best Kenyan safari with kids June to October. Manor is 30 minutes from the airport.
- See northern lights in Abisko. Activity peaks in winter; Family Traveller advises December to March. Aurora Sky Station is an hour-plus drive from Kiruna.
- Hike Iguaçu Falls. Family Traveller says go March to September. The Poço Preto Trail takes at least four hours and needs stamina.
- Zipline Monteverde Cloud Forest. Family Traveller: December is dry but busy. July to September is good too, and generally quieter in Costa Rica.
- Kayak with beluga whales. Family Traveller: Churchill, Manitoba, July to August. Tours run daily, weather permitting; Churchill is a two-hour flight from Winnipeg.
- Walk the Siq into Petra. Family Traveller says Petra, the Nabataean capital, lay abandoned for over 11 centuries before European explorers found it in 1812.
- Sail Patagonia to Antarctica. EYOS listed the 2026-27 season as open for bookings in December 2025. Expect icebergs and penguin rookeries.
- Ride the Great Divide route. New Mexico border to Banff, mostly Forest Service dirt roads. Strong Bad calls it pretty much a classic.
- Try the Trans America Trail. Very popular, and a bit harder in places, Strong Bad says, though it's secondhand.
- Loop the Heart of the West. Strong Bad on Adventure Rider says it's a loop, so start and stop wherever makes getting home easiest.
- Descend the Moki Dugway. Utah. Fun, but paved above and below, one rider points out.
- Ride the Burr Trail. Named, with Moki Dugway, as a Utah highlight by one forum rider.
- Detour to Valley of the Gods. Just off the bottom end of Moki. One rider enjoyed it more.
- Take Smokey Mountain Road. Adventure Rider's wbbnm: runs west of Page, Arizona, up to Escalante, Utah. A relatively easy dirt alternative to Moki.
Tick what you've done and flag the ones you're planning around a season. Easy to share with whoever's coming along, and easy to reorder once you've picked a window.
When to use it
Use it once you have a rough year in mind, since several of these come with recommended months.