by Bonnie Tsui, National Geographic Adventure Magazine

Trips that will set you heart pounding, open your eyes, and force you to look again at what surrounds you. Because, in the end, a trip of a lifetime isn't about thread counts, umbrella cocktails, or bragging rights.  It's about discovering that there's more to the world - and yourself - than you knew.

"Not long after the Romans starting making maps, the first peregrinatores ("tourists") began exploring the ancient world.  Plutarch called these earlier travelers "globe-trotters who...traverse unknown cities, sail new seas, but are at home everywherer" and their journeys took them first to the shores of Italy's Amalfi Coast.  Next Spring, Maine-based H2Outfitters offers modern day peregrinatores a chance to explore this same southern Mediterranean coastline by sea kayak in what is now Parco Nazionale del Cilento e Vallo di Diano, a UNESCO World Heritage site.  "though sea kayaking is a major part of the trip, we want to show people that there's more to visiting Amalfi than the paddling," says H2Outfitters co-founder and "Director of Fun", Jeff Cooper, who holds a degree in Classical Archaeology.  "These are places that Ulysses and Cicero vistied, places that are loaded with history, and we'll be staying at local Inns nestled right in thier midst."

The Cilento Park features hidden grottoes, protected coves, and well=preserved Greek and Roman ruins.  You'll explore them all by both sea and land as you cruise the cerulean coast, moving between the villages of Casal Velino and Pioppi and stopping along the way to hike up old shepard trails into the dramtaic volcano landscape.  Every intriguing geological feature along the coast has its own backstory: Rocky cliffs recall the mermaid Leucosia's dive into the deep blue for Odysseus and a hike up Mount Vecchio affords sun-drenched mountaintop panoramas of Paestum, an ancient Greek city.  In the honeycombed caves of Castelcivita, you'll also see evidence that Amalfi's status as a cultural hub extends even further back, to prehistoric times, when early humnas carved snug passageways as part of their subterranean lifestyle.  Apparently, before Plutarch, the ancient Italians didn't get out much.  Pick this if: Your idela Roman Holiday includes oars and Vibram soles."

As described in National Geographic Adventure Magazine's, November 2005 issue, "25 Best New Adventure Trips for 2006" by Bonnie Tsui.