Health and wellness is highly personal. Sometimes our bodies want a challenging mountain trek and a big dose of carbs. Or, after I’ve adventured hard, I might crave a nourishing week of yoga or a few days of planted-based meals and mindfulness sessions, preferably on a beach somewhere. Other times, I long for the support of a like-minded community while exploring a new place.

Whatever your needs, what you’ll find below aren’t your typical . They’re for active people who like to travel in some of the most beautiful places in the world. I chose spots with a variety of price ranges that meet a number of different goals, from hiking in spectacular mountains to surfing perfect swells to chilling out at a zen center. Better yet, I鈥檝e been to many of them and share my personal take on why they鈥檙e the best places to recharge. Here’s to your health. Now get planning.

Aro Ha Wellness Retreat, Glenorchy, New Zealand

Best For: Hikers who want to explore the Southern Alps

The Experience: The Tolkien-worthy views are breathtaking听at this 21-acre, just outside of Queenstown on the South Island. Sparkling Lake Wakatipu and the snow-capped peaks of New Zealand鈥檚 Southern Alps are on full display from the 20 suites, yoga deck, and outdoor plunge pool of its minimalist lodge. Daily, guided hikes immerse guests in the beauty of the mountains. There are treks for all fitness levels, from mindful walks through towering beech and medicinal Manuka trees to quad-burning climbs of up to 10 miles, including a portion of the famed Routeburn Track. Six-to-eight-day retreats are designed around the concept of rewilding mind, body, and spirit.

A typical day starts with a sunrise vinyasa flow class, followed by a bowl of fennel coconut muesli, then a three- to-four hour hike and a well-earned plant-based lunch like veggie Pad Thai. Free time allows for a therapeutic massage or kayak outing before an afternoon workshop in fermentation or journaling. Dinner might be accompanied by a tart cherry and magnesium shot (alcohol and caffeine aren鈥檛 allowed) and all the fresh air and physical exercise guarantees you won鈥檛 have any trouble falling asleep. Aro-Ha虅 bills itself as a mind-body reboot, but it鈥檚 also great conditioning if you want to extend your stay three days and tackle the full 20-mile Routeburn Track.

The Cost: All-inclusive six-day retreats from $4,320

Ojo Caliente Spa and Resort, Ojo Caliente, New Mexico

Best For: Hot spring devotees who love the southwest

The Experience: This located halfway between Abiquiu and Taos is steeped in history and healing. For thousands of years, Northern Pueblo communities made pilgrimages to the area鈥檚 restorative thermal waters. When Ojo Caliente opened in 1868, it was considered the country鈥檚 first health spa. Today, the resort includes a farm-to-table restaurant, suites with kiva fireplaces and vintage trailers, and a spa. But the sulfur-free, therapeutic hot springs are why people come. You can devise a soaking circuit to soothe whatever ails you. A pool of iron-rich water provides an immune boost, while the arsenic spring may help achy muscles. The soda pool promises digestive relief and if you鈥檙e feeling down, the lithia pool is purportedly a natural mood enhancer. There鈥檚 also a mud pool where you can cover your body in purifying clay and new bathhouses with saunas and steam rooms. Drop in for a day soak or create a DIY wellness weekend and join vinyasa flow sessions in the yoga yurt and bike and hike the high-elevation trails right at the resort鈥檚 doorstep. The trailhead for the cottonwood-lined 1.8-mile Bosque Loop is steps from the lobby. Nearby, the Abiquiu Lake Vista Trail system offers sensational views of the 5,200-acre reservoir, Cerro Pedernal mesa, and Georgia O鈥橩eeffe鈥檚 beloved summer home, Ghost Ranch.

The Cost: Rooms from $239 + communal soaking from $45

Euphoria Retreat, Peloponnese, Greece

Best For: History buffs who want to sightsee while they sweat

The Experience: Programs at Euphoria combine the physical training of ancient Spartan warriors and the wellness wisdom of Hippocrates, with influences of Taoist philosophy, traditional Chinese medicine, and the latest science-based therapies mixed in. The resembles a medieval village on 90 acres of hills in Mystras, a 13th-century town outside of Sparta in the Peloponnese region of southern Greece. A sprawling four-story spa complex is built around a heated, sphere-shaped pool with an underwater soundtrack of whale songs. All guests have access to the Byzantine hammam (a type of steam bath), salt therapy room, infrared sauna, sensory deprivation pool, and gym. You can also customize your vacation with a la carte treatments, like a detox cupping massage or sign up for a retreat, like the Spartan Spirit of 国产吃瓜黑料. This multi-sport program doubles as a sightseeing tour over three, five, or seven days. Every day you鈥檒l be challenged with two to three hours of physical exercise. You might trek to the 7,890-foot peak of Mount Taygetus mountain or go rock climbing at Lagada, one of the best sports crags in Greece. Meals are customized for each guest based on a test that looks at metabolic markers such as glucose and glutathione, and can feel, well, a bit spartan. We won鈥檛 tell if you hit up one of the nearby tavernas.

The Cost: From $284 per night, including group activities

Blackberry Mountain, Walland, Tennessee

Best For: Active people who like good food and a tipple of whiskey after a hike

The Experience: Blackberry Mountain鈥檚 deep selection of Pappy Van Winkle bourbon was my first hint that this wasn鈥檛 your typical wellness retreat. The second: I was encouraged to work up an appetite. The spectacular setting makes that easy. Situated 20 minutes from the entrance of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, this 听feels like a private playground, laced with 36 miles of hiking trails and 8 miles of singletrack. You can get after it trail running, bouldering, and mountain biking, then revive your muscles with fascial flossing (a technique that simultaneously elongates and contracts the fascia) at the recovery lab.

Or slow things down with aerial forest yoga followed by spa treatments like candlelight sound bathing and crystal reiki. An on-site art studio encourages guests to flex their creative side with pottery and watercolors. Blackberry Mountain puts a lighter spin on the decadent seasonal Southern cooking of its sister property, culinary mecca Blackberry Farm. I fueled my days with sweet potato oatmeal cakes topped with honey creme fraiche, then rewarded my efforts at night with dishes like hanger steak, smoked carrots and oyster mushrooms, and a sip of whisky. I left feeling like I鈥檇 just spent an energizing weekend at adult summer camp.

The Cost: Rates start at $1,595 per night based on double occupancy and includes meals and unlimited morning fitness classes

Kamalaya, Koh Samui, Thailand

Best For: Ayurvedic-focussed healing on a stunning island

The Experience: Founded by a former yogi monk and a master of traditional Chinese medicine and Indian Ayurvedic philosophy, this sits on a dreamy slice of jungle shrouded sand. You could come to the island for a beach vacation and book a la carte therapies. But the majority of guests are drawn to the 20-plus programs Kamalaya offers that range from three to 21 days and address everything from gut health to burnout. A team of in-house experts鈥攊ncluding osteopaths and naturopaths, as well as visiting practitioners鈥� administer treatments like Chi Nei Tsang, a Taoist abdominal massage, in treehouse-inspired rooms.

If you鈥檝e come for the signature detox program, you鈥檒l dine on 鈥嬧�媐lavorful, yet portion-controlled plant-based, low-inflammatory, low-allergenic, and low-glycemic food. Otherwise you can indulge in Thai specialties, like thom kha gai (chicken and coconut soup). All programs have downtime to take advantage of activities, like a half-day cruise aboard a wooden Turkish Ketch along the southern coast.

The Cost: Three-night minimum. Three-night programs start at $1,400, including meals and treatments

Root 国产吃瓜黑料s, Peru + Puget Sound + Banff

Best For: Those seeking outdoor adventure and community

The Experience: A lot of wellness retreats cultivate mindfulness and push us physically, but also emphasizes the importance of being part of a diverse, inclusive community. Domestic and international itineraries combine the knowledge of local guides with the expertise of Root 国产吃瓜黑料s鈥� tour leaders, who include yoga instructors, wilderness therapists, justice advocates, and body positivity coaches. Most trips are capped at 12 people and pre-trip Zoom calls allow participants to bond while post-trip calls keep new friends connected and help reinforce new habits with supportive coaching.

Itinerary highlights for 2024 include:

• A four-day kayak and low-impact camping expedition around Puget Sound ($2,995) with daily yoga and meditation, locally-sourced food, and possible orca sightings.
• A challenging nine-day trek in the Andes of Peru ($4,595) that involves five to eight hours of hiking a day, journaling sessions, and camping in local communities.
• And a six-day backpacking and camping adventure in the rugged Canadian Rockies around Banff ($3,595), where you鈥檒l wild swim and forest bathe.

Mountain Trek Health Reset Retreat, Nelson, British Columbia

Best For: Mountain lovers who want to recharge in the Canadian Rockies

The Experience: A good wilderness 颅ramble can do wonders for our health. 听amplifies the benefits by complementing rigorous hikes with holistic healing therapies, lifestyle workshops, and a diet free of processed foods, caffeine, sugar, and alcohol. A team of 40 experts, including nutritionists, naturopaths, and certified forest bathing guides, take care of 15 guests each week. Based out of a timber lodge in B.C.鈥檚 gorgeous Kootenay Range, the daily schedule starts with sunrise yoga, followed by three to four hours of nordic hiking with a break for a picnic lunch. Groups are broken up based on fitness levels and depending on the season, you might trek past meadows of alpine wildflowers or patches of golden larch, and spot bear, moose, or marmots. Back at the lodge, you鈥檒l attend lectures on topics like the art of goal setting and have down time to soak in the hot tub or the natural mineral hot springs just a five-minute walk away. Dinner is at 5:15 p.m. and might feature cedar plank grilled salmon and baby spinach and arugula salad. A post-meal crystal singing bowl session ensures you鈥檒l wind down for a deep sleep.

The Cost: $6,700 a week, all-inclusive

Crestone Mountain Zen Center, Crestone, Colorado

Best For: Those craving solitude and quiet

The Experience: When life gets overwhelming, this Zen Buddhist tucked sixty miles south of Salida between the jagged Sangre de Cristo Mountains and Colorado鈥檚 vast San Luis Valley, is the ultimate escape to still the mind and reset. And a visit doesn鈥檛 resign you to a monastic life of 4:30 a.m. wake up calls and marathon meditation sessions. You can create a custom retreat from four days to three months, be it solitude in the wilderness or a quiet, distraction-free space to read, breathe, hike, or regroup. Accommodation options range from a 10-site campground and a yurt to simple cabins and a five-room guest house. Stays include three garden-grown vegetarian meals per day and guests are welcome to join residents in group meditation. It鈥檚 also a great base if you鈥檙e craving some contemplative solo adventure time. The campus is surrounded by 240 trail-laced acres of pi帽on pine and juniper forest and is at the doorstep of some of Colorado鈥檚 most majestic hikes, like the Spanish Peak Trail and Kit Carson Peak, as well as natural hot springs.

The Cost: Starting at $75 a day for camping

SHA Wellness Clinic, Alicante, Spain + Riviera Maya, Mexico

Best For: Those looking for a total reboot

The Experience: This is in the middle of Spain鈥檚 Sierra Helada Natural Park. Of every 100 guests who arrive, more than half are repeat visitors who consider this a health check up that doubles as a vacation. SHA鈥檚 sleek, white-washed design and cabana-lined, rooftop infinity pool could be mistaken for a fancy seaside resort in the Mediterranean. But the real draw is a tried-and-true holistic approach to biomedicine backed by a team of 30-some full-time doctors and specialists who work in partnership with Harvard Medical School and NASA. Personalized health programs range from four to 21 days and address nine areas, including nutrition, cognitive stimulation, and physical performance. Diagnostic tests measure everything from nervous system activity to melatonin biorhythms. Based on results, you鈥檙e prescribed a routine that might include sound therapy with Tibetan singing bowls, a photobiomodulation session where you wear a helmet of LED infrared lights to stimulate cell repair, and a daily visit to the hydrotherapy circuit where you鈥檒l rotate through the sauna, cold plunge, Roman and Turkish baths, and therapeutic water jets. Customized meals are inspired by Japanese and Mediterranean culinary traditions, and SHA鈥檚 Healthy Living Academy offers cooking classes, as well as workshops on meditation and fitness coaching, to send you home with healthy habits. On January 26th, SHA will open its second outpost in the beach town of Costa Mujeres, Mexico, with a sea-to-table culinary concept and activities like swimming in cenotes and scuba diving in the large coral reef in the Americas.

The Cost: Four-day program, all-inclusive at SHA Wellness Clinic Spain from $7,796 and at SHA Wellness Mexico from $5,770

Eleven Deplar Farm Live Well Retreat, Troll Peninsula, Iceland

Best For: A bucket list splurge packed with adventure and relaxation

The Experience: 国产吃瓜黑料 collective Eleven is known for its high-thrill experiences. But the company鈥檚 new 听bring your body back to baseline with a float tank and yoga nidra sessions after the adrenaline. Deplar Farm, a remote 13-room lodge with floor-to-ceiling windows framing craggy peaks, is the perfect setting for transformation. At a visit here last winter, I braved the extreme elements on Icelandic horseback expeditions, Arctic surf missions, and cross-country ski outings to a silent lunch in a cozy cabin.

Back in the comfort of the lodge, I reset my nervous system with guided breathwork, sound baths, and a Viking sauna ritual that involved alternating between sweating in what looked like a hobbit house, then dunking in the cold plunge. Nourishing meals highlighted Icelandic ingredients in dishes like wolf fish with braised cauliflower puree and deconstructed skyr cake with almond crumble. At night, I鈥檇 watch for the Northern Lights from the geothermally-heated saltwater pool and would lull myself into a meditative state.

The Cost: Four-night retreat from $11,000

The Ultimate Costa Rica Wellness Retreats

A hotspot for wellness and longevity鈥攖he country’s Nicoya Peninsula is one of the world鈥檚 blue zones, a place people regularly live past the age of 100鈥擨 couldn’t leave Costa Rica off this list. Here are four more incredible trips that will leave you re-energized.

Surf Synergy

Best For: Surfers who crave personal instruction

The Experience: This in the beach town of Jac贸 was co-founded by Marcel Oliveira, Costa Rica鈥檚 reigning national SUP champ. Week-long one-on-one surf and SUP immersions include twice-weekly massages, ice baths, daily yoga, breathwork training, and healthy meals featuring ingredients from the on-site permaculture garden. With six beaches within easy reach, programs can be tailored to all experience levels and coaches provide video analysis that breaks down your technique.

The Cost: Seven nights, all-inclusive from $2,765

Hike Coast to Coast Along el Camino de Costa Rica

Best For: Hikers who like to explore

The Experience: I thought all of Costa Rica had been discovered until I trekked el Camino de Costa Rica, a 174-mile trail stretching between the Caribbean and the Pacific. Its 16 stages highlight rural communities, an Indigenous territory, and rarely visited parks and nature reserves. During my hike with I spotted an insane amount of wildlife, from glass-winged butterflies to two-toed sloth and racoon-like coati, dined in the homes of welcoming locals, and overnighted at simple hot springs hotels and low-frills eco-resorts. Be warned, this isn鈥檛 a walk in the park. Each stage averages four to 24 miles and the trail contains some serious elevation gain and requires a few river crossings.

The Cost: 16-day trips on the Camino de Costa Rica with Urri Trek from $1,950

Blue Osa Yoga Retreat, Osa Peninsula

Best For: Yogis who love the beach

This solar-powered in the southwest province of Punta Arenas is steps from a quiet stretch of sand. You can customize your own wellness vacation (beach yoga, a coconut body scrub at the spa, a day-trip to Corcovado National Park) or book a structured retreat. The Best of Costa Rica program is packed with yoga sessions but also takes groups off property on mangrove kayak tours, hikes to waterfalls, and birdwatching. Communal meals are a highlight (there鈥檚 even a Blue Osa cookbook) and showcase produce from the lodge鈥檚 on-site organic garden and local farmers. Start the day with Costa Rican coffee and tropical fruits, midday, refuel with a vegan chimichurri sweet potato bowl, and at night, feast on house-made rosemary focaccia and pesto pasta.

The Cost:听$1,440 for a four-night, all-inclusive retreat

Surf with Amigas

Best For: Solo surfers looking to make new friends

The Experience: This founded by former pro Holly Beck runs trips around the globe, but Costa Rica is hands down the most popular destination thanks to the variety of surf and pura vida vibes. The week-long, women鈥檚-only Northern Costa Rica Surf & Yoga itinerary is perfect for both beginners and shortboard shredders. Your hotel, located 40 minutes outside of Tamarindo, sits on a long sandy beach known for super consistent waves that break both right and left. Daily yoga classes help revive paddle-weary muscles and if the surf isn鈥檛 up, you鈥檒l tour local farms, go on horseback rides, and visit national parks.

The Cost: From $2,400, all-inclusive

国产吃瓜黑料 correspondent Jen Murphy is constantly on the road finding the best places to adventure. Her next stop? Surf Synergy in Costa Rica to work on her surfing skills.听

The post The 14 Best Wellness Retreats in the World for Active Travelers appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Any number of concerns are on our radar as we plan our next trip, from serious issues like how destinations are working to mitigate tourists鈥� environmental impact to inconveniences like months-long passport wait times. In this column, our travel expert addresses your questions about how to navigate the world.

I鈥檓 going to Mexico City and have heard that the food scene is incredible. But a friend of mine just went there and got a parasite, and she thinks it came from a meal at a food truck. I鈥檓 an adventurous eater, but I want to avoid getting sick. How can I protect myself when I鈥檓 traveling and eating out all the time? 鈥擜 Queasy Foodie

Whether you’re having carnitas from a roadside taco stand听in Mexico听or dumplings from a teahouse in Nepal, experiencing local food culture is one of the joys of travel, as it sounds like you well know. But contracting a foodborne illness far from home can be traumatic, dulling even the most adventurous palates and even scaring travelers from returning to a destination.

When Anne Driscoll told friends that she and her family would be visiting Punta Mita, Mexico, she received unanimous advice: be wary of what you eat and drink. At least a half听dozen friends who had already traveled to the small Pacific-coast surf town had experienced gastro disasters. Forewarned, she took every precaution, from increasing her normal probiotic doses before the听trip to avoiding fresh produce while there and only drinking bottled water throughout her stay. However, the听entire family still got听extremely ill. 鈥淚t was catastrophic,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 was violently expelling the contents of my stomach through both ends.鈥�

Driscoll was the first to fall ill. She thinks a hamburger she ate at the resort restaurant might have been the culprit. She听assumed it would be harmless if cooked well-done. Her husband and two teenage daughters relaxed their guard听the final day of vacation and had ice in their drinks. The ice potentially could have caused the 24 hours of intestinal agony that, unfortunately, overlapped with their flights home to New Mexico. 鈥淭hey used up all the barf bags on the plane, and my youngest got sick in four different places throughout the Dallas airport,鈥� she says. Driscoll has no plans to return to Mexico anytime soon. 鈥淚 know it鈥檚 not logical, but the experience was so bad that I can鈥檛 imagine going back and risking it again,鈥� she says.

Each year one in six Americans comes听down with food-related illnesses caused by bacteria, viruses, or parasites. Some countries, like Mexico, have a reputation for felling travelers with gastrointestinal bugs (who hasn鈥檛 heard of Montezuma鈥檚 revenge?). Developing countries, especially ones with humid climates where bacteria breed more easily, tend to be dicier, says Dr. Kyle Staller, director of the Gastrointestinal Motility Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. 鈥淏ut you can get sick from contaminated water or an improperly handled burger patty anywhere in the world, including the U.S.,鈥� he adds.

Causes of GI Distress

Food-related illnesses are caused by , including salmonella,听E. coli, norovirus, and giardia. They often fester on raw or undercooked meat, raw vegetables, food stored at unsafe temperatures, or food prepared in an unsanitary manner or with contaminated water.

鈥淒on鈥檛 drink the water鈥� is a common travel precaution, especially when visiting third-world countries. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 180 countries, including popular vacation spots like Mexico, Thailand, and Belize, have tap water considered unsafe for consumption. Even if it is potable, drinking water听in a far-flung locale can still cause GI distress, cautions Dr. Lynne Ahn, an integrative gastroenterologist in Boston. 鈥淓veryone鈥檚 gut biome is unique,鈥� she explains. 鈥淚f the mineral or salt content of the water in a destination is different from what you鈥檙e used to at home, you could experience discomfort or worse.鈥�

Traveler鈥檚 diarrhea is a common illness, affecting between 30 percent and 70 percent of people on the road, according to the CDC. Depending on the bacteria, parasite, or virus, you could end up suffering a few hours or even a week, and experience vomiting, stomach cramps, body aches, and a fever. People who have irritable bowel syndrome or a compromised immune system are often at greater risk of more serious side effects,听says Staller.

Best Practices

No one wants to spend vacation sitting on or hovering over a toilet. A good rule of thumb is to drink filtered or bottled water (although try to avoid single-use plastics, opting instead for glass bottles or cans) when traveling to a destination with questionable water quality. Ahn also recommends making sure all beverages arrive sealed, and wiping off the container before taking a sip. Even small quantities of dirty water can have serious repercussions, so it鈥檚 smart to avoid ice and use filtered or bottled water to brush your teeth, she says.

If you really want to play it safe, stick to familiar foods, says Kendra Weekley, a gastrointestinal specialist at the Cleveland Clinic. Different diets create different gut flora, which is why locals in Kerala, India, are able to handle a fiery curry but that same dish, even if the ingredients are uncontaminated, may leave an听American traveler with an upset stomach. In high-risk gastro-disaster destinations like India and Nepal, travelers may find it鈥檚 wise to carry听a stash of snacks like protein bars and instant oatmeal, especially if they鈥檙e undertaking an adventure like trekking or mountaineering.

Unfortunately for healthy eaters and vegetarians, fresh, unprocessed, and highly nutritious foods like vegetables and fruits will most likely get you sick in a country without rigorous sanitation standards, says Staller, who advises avoiding lettuce as well as produce that doesn鈥檛 have peelable skin. And like at home, travelers should be wary of raw and undercooked seafood and meat, he adds.

If you鈥檝e been justifying an extra glass of cabernet or vodka and soda, thinking it can help ward off germs, think again. While some studies have suggested that drinking alcohol with a meal can reduce the chance of food poisoning, due to increased acidic content in the stomach, Staller says alcohol cannot kill foodborne pathogens and will most likely just leave you dehydrated.

Where You Can Safely Eat

It may sound like you have to live off packaged snacks, but avoiding gastro issues doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean sacrificing culinary pleasures. Food is one of the best vehicles to explore a culture and can typically be enjoyed without incident if you take proper precautions, says Staller.

In general, eating from street-food vendors is riskier than dining at a restaurant. That鈥檚 because in many developing countries, hawker carts and food trucks aren鈥檛 held to the same food-safety standards. If you do choose to eat street food, however, try to catch听a glimpse of the preparation area. Does the kitchen look clean? Are food handlers wearing gloves? Are raw meat and raw vegetables being听handled separately to prevent cross听contamination?

A long line is often a sign of good quality, says Staller. This tenet applies to restaurants, too. 鈥淲hen there鈥檚 a high degree of turnover with diners, ingredients are being used versus sitting in a refrigerator that might have an unreliable power supply,鈥� he says. Foods left out for long periods, especially in humid environments, are more likely to put the eater at risk of developing food poisoning. Which is why experts always suggest skipping the buffet.

Ed and Christy Rossi learned this lesson the hard way on a trip to Marrakech, Morocco. The weeklong conference they attended provided a daily lunch buffet, with dishes heated by warming trays and salads kept fresh with misters. But it wasn’t long before听the couple succumbed to vomiting and bloody diarrhea. 鈥淚 thought we were dying,鈥� recalls Ed. Upon returning home to Colorado,听they immediately went to their doctor for antibiotics and discovered they鈥檇 contracted shigella, a gastro superbug. The experience hasn鈥檛 prevented them from returning to Morocco, but they鈥檝e sworn off buffets in general.

Avoiding fresh fruits and vegetables extends to condiments, something even cautious eaters may overlook, says Staller. A bowl of salsa looks inviting when you鈥檙e noshing nachos, but anything made from raw vegetables or fruits can be trouble. And it doesn鈥檛 hurt to wipe off the opening of that bottle of hot sauce or ketchup before use.

Preventative Measures

Some evidence suggests that taking probiotics two weeks prior to travel, and while traveling, can reduce the rate of traveler鈥檚 diarrhea, says Weekley听of the Cleveland Clinic. However, different strains of 鈥済ood鈥� bacteria affect people differently, so find what works for you and take an effective dose (ask your doctor or pharmacist). Side effects can include bloating or gas. If the thought of getting sick is causing you stress, probiotic pills are a low-risk, potentially high-reward precaution, she says.

But also: travel anxiety can often unsettle your stomach before you even reach your destination.听Says Weekley, 鈥淚f your mind is stressing over packing and getting to the airport, your gut will feel it.鈥澨鼴reathing techniques and free meditation apps like Breethe or Headspace can help calm your nervous system ahead of travel or while on the plane.

And be sure to stay hydrated on the flight. 鈥淧eople don鈥檛 want to get up to use the bathroom and end up dehydrated and constipated,鈥� says Weekley. If you鈥檙e prone to getting backed up from flying or an atypical diet, she suggests traveling with soluble fiber supplements or a stool softener like MiraLax.

Staller regularly works in developing countries and says he has a tendency听to suffer from GI problems. His go-to? That tried-and-true recommendation: Barbie-pink Pepto Bismol. A of students traveling to Mexico showed that those who took two tablets of Pepto Bismol听four times a day were 60 percent less likely to experience traveler鈥檚 diarrhea. Staller says that鈥檚 his regimen the minute he hits the ground and throughout a trip. He notes, though, that Pepto Bismol鈥檚 active ingredient, bismuth subsalicylate, can cause alarming but harmless symptoms such as black stools or a black tongue.

What to Do if You Get Sick

If you contract a foodborne illness, symptoms such as stomach cramps, chills, vomiting, and diarrhea typically start within hours but can also occur several days after ingesting听tainted food or drink. When you鈥檙e ill, your body tends听to lose a lot of liquid, so staying hydrated is crucial. 鈥淚t鈥檚 often dehydration that makes you feel more sick,鈥� says Staller. He recommends traveling with oral rehydration salts, which are absorbed more effectively by the body than water alone. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like the equivalent of an IV,鈥� he says.

Traveler鈥檚 diarrhea is largely resistant to antibiotics, he says, so your best plan is to be close to a bathroom, stay hydrated, and ride it out. If you have severe symptoms, like a fever or blood in your stool, seek out medical care.

If you鈥檙e an omnivore and an intrepid traveler, chances are you鈥檒l be hit with a gastro catastrophe at some point in your journeys. Often disaster strikes when you let your guard down or simply don鈥檛 trust your gut. I tend to have a stomach of steel. The听two times I have gotten food poisoning I questioned what I was consuming yet听proceeded anyway to be polite to my hosts. All it took was the smallest sip of a lassi that had been sitting out in the sun in Varanasi, India, and a tiny bite of goat stew in the Omo Valley of Ethiopia to cause me 24 hours of anguish. Lesson learned: table manners don鈥檛 always apply on the road.

Have a question of your own? Drop us a line at Traveladvice@outsideinc.com.听

国产吃瓜黑料 correspondent Jen Murphy became an omnivore after an eight-year stint working at Food and Wine magazine. She鈥檚 since eaten everything from guinea pig to grasshoppers to fried cod sperm sacs and has remarkably only been hit with two major gastro disasters in all of her world travels.听

The post How to Avoid Food Sickness While Traveling appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Netflix seems to be all in on the outdoors and survival lately. The streaming platform has released a flurry of new shows that look at what happens when humans and nature collide, from a docuseries about the earthquake that devastated Nepal and Everest in 2015, to a dramatized retelling of the 2018 rescue of a Thai soccer team in a flooded cave. We can鈥檛 resist stories of the human spirit prevailing in the face of nature鈥檚 fury, but we know your time is precious and you can only binge so many shows before your loved ones start to worry. So we watched the latest batch of Netflix鈥檚 adventure-minded shows to determine if they鈥檙e worth your time. Here鈥檚 what we thought.

Aftershock: Everest and the Nepal Earthquake听

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In 2015, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake shook Nepal from Everest down to Kathmandu, killing almost 9,000 people. is a three-part documentary that takes a look at the earthquake and the devastating toll it took by weaving together the stories of climbers on Mount Everest, a hotel-owner and his family in Kathmandu, and trekkers in the remote Langtang Valley. A phenomenon of natural disasters in the modern age is that everyone has a camera in their pocket to document what鈥檚 happening in real time. The filmmakers make use of this, splicing actual footage from the three locations with interviews of survivors to tell the story of the earthquake from a variety of perspectives. The series opens with headcam footage at Everest Basecamp from a climber getting enveloped by an avalanche. It gets more disturbing from there. You see buildings crumbling in Kathmandu, and people panicking in the streets amid falling debris. You watch headcam footage from Everest as climbers navigate the ladders up and around the Khumbu ice fall as the earth shakes. There are still photos shown of the complete decimation of a remote village high in the Langtang Valley.

Aftershock gets even darker while exploring the period after the earthquake, when the threat shifts from an unstable physical environment to unstable humans. Villagers and trekkers turn on each other in the Langtang village, climbers stuck on Everest go head-to-head, and international teams of rescuers jockey for power in the rubble of Kathmandu.

And yet, Aftershock transcends mere doom and gloom territory. The filmmakers take their time with the event, building narratives around several victims so that the series is more than just a collection of disaster footage. It鈥檚 the tale of human nature in the most dire of circumstances.

Watch It If: You need another reason not to climb Everest.

Thai Cave Rescue

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At this point, you know the story: a Thai soccer team of 12 kids and their coach get trapped in a cave when an unexpected monsoon floods the entrance. You know it because we were all engrossed in the wall-to-wall media coverage during the 18-day ordeal in 2018. And you know it because it鈥檚 been the subject of at least two documentaries (one by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi) and a feature film directed by Ron Howard. But those films told the story from the rescuer鈥檚 perspective. is a six-part dramatization of the event from the perspective of the soccer players, their families, and the local authorities. Netflix negotiated the rights to the story with the Thai government and used Thai and Thai-American directors, executive producers, and actors to give us the local鈥檚 perspective. The series was even shot on location in the actual cave where the soccer team was trapped.

It鈥檚 an inspirational story,听and I鈥檓 glad the human beings at the heart of it are getting their due. Go Wild Boars! But don鈥檛 go into this series thinking it鈥檚 a slick Hollywood production. First of all, Netflix automatically defaults to running the dubbed-in-English version of the show. The dubbing is terrible鈥攍ike old school Kung Fu movie stereotype terrible鈥攁nd cuts the legs completely out of the story as it unfolds. That鈥檚 not the filmmakers鈥� or actors鈥� fault, though, and you can opt to watch the series in its original Thai language with English subtitles. I urge you to do that. Yet even watching it in Thai doesn鈥檛 make up for the fact that the writing is often bad, leaning into melodrama more often than not.

But the relationship between the coach and the players is interesting, and how they managed to survive inside that cave for so long largely because of that bond is something worth seeing, even if the writers had a heavy hand with the dialogue. Personally, I was fascinated by the details of the Thai kids鈥� lives鈥攈ow religion is woven into their day-to-day and听how diverse their socioeconomic backgrounds were. The show gives us a look at another culture on the other side of the world that many of us know nothing about. That alone makes Thai Cave Rescue worth the watch.

Watch It If: You ever wondered how those kids got into the cave in the first place.

Human Playground

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Here鈥檚 how I know this series is good: both of my 13-year-old children got sucked into it and watched three episodes in a row with me. They didn鈥檛 even look at their phones. Do you know how hard it is to hold a 13-year-old鈥檚 attention in 2022? When there are cat videos on Insta and hand-dances on TikTok? But has the magic sauce of Hollywood A-lister Idris Elba鈥檚 soothing-but-authoritative voice, stunning scenery, wild athletic feats, and cultural intrigue. Each of the six episodes explores how different people 鈥減lay鈥� in the outdoors. Sometimes that play is running the Marathon de Sables in Morocco鈥檚 Sahara desert. Sometimes it鈥檚 sumo wrestling in Japan or hunting with eagles in Kurdistan or using really tall sticks to jump over creeks and ponds in the Netherlands.

We travel to Ethiopia and learn how the notion of play evolved from the need to survive when ancient tribes were at war with each other, while watching two families play a 鈥済ame鈥� where the men strip naked and hit each other with sticks. In Madagascar, we learn that play can be a rite of passage as young men try to hold onto a raging bull鈥檚 hump for as long as they can, mostly to show how tough they are to the women in their village.

All the while, Elba is discussing the cultural significance of these mesmerizing athletic feats and trying to discern how different forms of play help define us as humans. It鈥檚 a lofty task, but Elba and the filmmakers succeed by focusing on the details and largely leaving the answers to the big questions up to the viewers. Along the way, we get gems from the subjects of each segment. Kiki Bosch is a young woman who dives beneath the ice in sub-20-degree lakes to cope with听the trauma of sexual assault. She tells us that 鈥減hysical pain is stress leaving the body.鈥� And Talgar, a middle-aged man in Kurdistan who hunts with eagles for fun, muses, 鈥淚f a person doesn鈥檛 play, he ages quickly.鈥�

The Human Playground is absolutely mesmerizing. It had me questioning the sanity of humans in general and being envious of their bravery and skill, often in the same breath. It鈥檚 inspiring and confounding at the same time. And after watching it, I really, really wanted to try jumping over creeks with a very long stick and racing behind a reindeer while wearing skis.

Watch It If: You want to find new ways to push yourself.

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On June 23, 2018, twelve members of the Wild Boars, a youth soccer team based in the jungled mountains of northern Thailand, and their young assistant coach parked their bikes in the mouth of Tham Luang Cave after practice. The cave network was dry when they entered, but as they traveled more than a mile on foot into its dark, dank limestone recesses, a monsoon descended. It was the first major storm of the wet season, and it caught everyone on the ground by surprise. There was no time for officials to close the cave, and by the time they found the boys鈥� bikes, Tham Luang was already flooded.

The subsequent 18-day search and rescue operation was an unprecedented collaboration involving Thai government officials, Thai Navy SEALs, members of the U.S. Air Force, local farmers, Thai hydrologists and engineers, and, most famously of all, . The entire country of Thailand tuned into this story from day one. Although it appeared the boys were almost certainly dead, the nation held out hope. Once the boys were found alive, hundreds of reporters and thousands of volunteers from around the world joined the scrum outside the cave, and millions of people across the globe became invested in the boys鈥� fate. So it was exhilarating when, despite the stacked odds and the many ever-shifting perils, every last one of the Wild Boars was pulled out of the cave alive.

Talk about a Hollywood ending.

The day after the coach and the last of the boys were rescued, filmmaker Jon Chu, whose film Crazy Rich Asians would soon become a global hit, that put his industry on notice: 鈥淚 refuse to let Hollywood the Thai Cave rescue story! No way. Not on our watch. That won鈥檛 happen or we鈥檒l give them hell. There鈥檚 a beautiful story abt human beings saving other human beings. So anyone thinking abt the story better approach it right & respectfully.鈥�

Four years later, those Hollywood offerings are finally streaming. , a National Geographic documentary by Free Solo directors Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi, hit theaters in September 2021 and is now on Disney+. , a feature film directed by Ron Howard and starring Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell, dropped on Amazon Prime on August 5. And now , a limited series executive produced by Chu, is being released by Netflix on September 22. Finally, rumors are circulating that the streaming giant is also working on a documentary about the events.

While it remains to be seen if the public has an appetite for this much Thai cave content four years after the fact, I found it fascinating that so many top writers, filmmakers, and stars were attracted to the material. What was it about this story that captivated them, despite all the competition? And did any of them get it right?

William Nicholson, the two-time Oscar-nominated screenwriter, was following the rescue from a distance like everybody else in the summer of 2018, but when he was first approached to write Thirteen Lives he didn鈥檛 see drama in the happy ending. Then he dug into the details of what happened and realized how improbable the rescue was, and saw there was a very compelling movie to be made.

Thirteen Lives centers on two middle-aged English cave divers involved in the effort: retired firefighter Rick Stanton (Mortensen) and technology consultant John Volanthen (Farrell). They take over the underwater search and rescue operation from the Thai Navy SEALs, who lacked the relevant cave diving chops required to find the kids. That鈥檚 not a knock on the Thai navy鈥擴.S. Navy SEALs don鈥檛 have that capability either.

鈥淗ere鈥檚 these divers,鈥� Nicholson says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e old, they鈥檙e amateurs, nobody pays them, they鈥檙e grumpy, and yet they are the only people who can do this particular job. And they go in, and they finally find the kids and make videos of them. And they come out and everybody cheers, and everybody鈥檚 happy. But these guys know the truth that all these kids are dead.鈥� Navigating Tham Luang鈥攚ith its many hazards, currents, and low visibility was difficult for even the accomplished cave divers, and they knew that diving those kids out of that cave would be exceedingly dangerous and perhaps impossible.

Stanton and Volanthen possess the dry humor and brazen lack of fashion sense found in most tech dive shops, and the dialogue is appropriately spare, too. It鈥檚 an intense yet understated film. Nothing is over-explained. You get the sense that Howard and Nicholson, and even Farrell and Mortensen鈥攚ho deliver captivating but restrained performances鈥攚ere content to stay out of the way.

鈥淚t kind of fell into a dramatic structure by itself,鈥� Nicholson says. While the divers were busy trying to find the kids and devise a workable rescue plan, rain was still falling, and the water was rising. The only way to bring down the water levels was to flood and ruin the rice crop of local family farmers. 鈥淭hen in the three days of the actual rescue, they鈥檙e racing the return of the rain. They get out most of the kids, and literally on the night before the end, down comes the rain. You couldn’t create a more ticking clock than that.鈥�

In scope, Thirteen Lives closely mirrors National Geographic鈥檚 documentary The Rescue which also mostly focuses on the divers. Because P.J. van Sandwijk, an accomplished documentary producer turned Hollywood player, produced both films after successfully negotiating for the rights to Stanton鈥檚 and Volanthen鈥檚 stories.

In previous projects, Chin and Vasarhelyi have leaned on their most unique selling point: that Chin can physically get to places that are well beyond the abilities of other cinematographers, and then return with jaw-dropping material. The Rescue is more of a straight-ahead documentary. It blends archival footage, revealing interviews, and well-made underwater reenactments. Chin and Vasarhelyi sifted through hundreds of hours of news coverage to pin their story together.

However, in both Thirteen Lives and The Rescue, the kids and their coach, who was orphaned as a young boy and raised in a Buddhist monastery, are relegated to the background. This is despite the fact that they all maintained an incredible amount of faith and composure through the most harrowing of experiences鈥攊n part, by leaning on meditations and chants led by the coach. If that鈥檚 what Chu was worried about when he sent his Tweet鈥攜et another movie succumbing to the tired white savior trope鈥攊t has a lot more to do with access than interest or awareness on the part of the filmmakers.

In the aftermath of the actual event, one of the trapped boy鈥檚 parents set up a trust to represent the Wild Boars and their families in future film rights negotiations. That mattered because most of these kids were 13 and 14 at the time, and in Thailand you remain a minor until you鈥檙e 20 years old. SK Global, the company that produced Crazy Rich Asians, secured those rights, tapped Chu to executive produce their series, and then . As a result, Chin, Vasarhelyi, Howard, and Nicholson were boxed out.

鈥淚t normally doesn’t work like that in nonfiction because it鈥檚 journalism,鈥� says Chin. 鈥淏ut we navigated it as best we could.鈥� In the end, he and Vasarhelyi zoomed in on the cave divers鈥攖aking pains to make sure that all the gear and techniques were dialed in to the last detail for their reenactments鈥攁nd their risky plan to retrieve the Wild Boars. They are gifted adventure filmmakers, after all, and The Rescue is yet another banger.

There鈥檚 a maxim in journalism: the later you are, the smarter you have to be. I wouldn鈥檛 go so far as to call Netflix鈥檚 Thai Cave Rescue smarter than The Rescue or Thirteen Lives, but it does benefit from being able to feature the perspective of the 12 boys (Titan, Tee, Phong, Adul, Biw, Dom, Night, Nick, Mix, Note, Pim, Namhom) and their beloved Coach Ek. 鈥淛ohn Chu wanted to be true to the story and start where the story started, which was with the boys,鈥� says Dana Ledoux Miller, an American screenwriter who has worked in television writers rooms for ten years. Miller was called in by Michael Russell Gunn, a writer and producer on Billions, to write and create the series together. 鈥淚t started with local officials who were doing their best under extraordinary circumstances and it grew from there. We really tried to capture the magic that is northern Thailand.鈥�

I鈥檝e reported from Northern Thailand several times. In fact, I reported on this very rescue, and in my opinion, Gunn and Miller鈥檚 series successfully bottled the magic. This was thanks in no small part to their all-Thai crew, including director Baz Poonpriya, and the deep level of research that went into creating the series. Gunn and Miller, neither of whom are Thai or Asian for that matter (Miller is part Samoan), interviewed the boys and their families extensively with the help of translators, and delved into the Thai government鈥檚 archives. They shot the series in Thailand, and some scenes were even filmed in the first two chambers of the real Tham Luang cave and the boys鈥� actual homes. They cast local people in lieu of professional actors to fill the roles of some of the boys and their parents. To decorate the shrine outside the cave for a pivotal scene, one of the mothers turned up with the same offerings they鈥檇 prepared when their boys were trapped inside.

In the first episode alone, five different ethnic dialects are used, and throughout the series the local Buddhist-Animist culture is featured prominently. Some episodes have the look and feel of a foreign film. However, aside from standout performances by Papangkorn Lerchaleampote (Coach Ek)鈥攁 rising star in Thailand who tragically died during the editing process鈥攁nd renowned Thai actor Thaneth Warakulnukroh (Governor Narongsak), the acting is spotty.

The action is too. The team behind the Netflix series made a deal with Dr. Richard Harris, the cave diving anesthetist known as Doc Harry who is the only person alive with the combination of skills that could have made the rescue possible, and who put his medical license on the line to do it. But he doesn鈥檛 turn up until the second to last episode. Even then, Thirteen Lives鈥�in which Harris is played by Joel Edgerton鈥攕erves that slice of the story better. The Rescue includes interviews with the man himself, which is even more compelling. That鈥檚 the trouble with focusing on so many scenes where the divers are not. Although time with Coach Ek and the boys is always well-spent in Thai Cave Rescue, there are a few too many logistics meetings where the threat of expository dialogue hovers like so many storm clouds. (A side note for Netflix: scuba and tech divers use air tanks, not oxygen tanks.)

And yet, in the final act of each of these three projects, when the rain is falling harder than ever, the dams and diversions are failing, and the last of the boys is carried out from the cave alive, it鈥檚 hard not to be moved. Because no matter which way you examine it from, or where the story is centered, the lessons of this improbable rescue come through.

鈥淭o be honest, I was worried that if this story was told from an eye of an outsider, the story will change in its essence,鈥� says Poonpriya, who directed two episodes of the Netflix series including the pilot, and is known as one of Thailand鈥檚 best filmmakers. 鈥淗owever, I came to understand that the richness of the story has encouraged all the productions鈥攚hether it be the documentary, the series, or other treatments of the rescue鈥攖o be done with heart and attention to detail.鈥�

In other words, here was an irresistible adventure tale that could have easily been sensationalized, or mishandled in a way that was offensive to the Thai people, and yet all three treatments produced compelling and thoughtful entertainment that actually complement one another. That couldn鈥檛 have happened without the sensitivity and skill of the filmmakers and the power of the rescue itself. 鈥淚t stands for something,鈥� Nicholson says. 鈥淲hy did 10,000 people descend on those caves, saying, 鈥業 will do anything? What do you want me to do? Clean the latrine, cook, sweep, push water around? Whatever you want, I鈥檒l come and do it.鈥� I truly believe that people鈥檚 deepest instinct is to cooperate, to work together to make things better for everybody. And it鈥檚 not a message we鈥檙e given enough.鈥�

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In June 2018, the rescue of twelve boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in Northern Thailand captivated the world. Over the course of 18 days, thousands of volunteers, including more than 100 divers, helped in the effort to extricate the soccer team amid monsoon rains. Not surprisingly, Hollywood was enthralled too: Tinseltown鈥檚 best screenwriter couldn鈥檛 have dreamt up such a miraculous series of events with high stakes and a plot thicker than boxed mashed potatoes. Plus it had unexpected heroes at the center of it: a bunch of geeky, middle-aged dudes from England who spend their weekends cave diving.

Five years later, Ron Howard, the famed director of Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind, is releasing , a big-budget account of the rescue鈥攊t hit theaters on July 29 and will on August 5. The movie鈥檚 star? Aragorn, er, Viggo Mortensen, the Hollywood A-lister with three Oscar nominations. He plays a retired firefighter from Coventry, England, named Rick Stanton, who led who carried out the rescue. 鈥淭hese guys are the biggest nerds in the world and, at the same time, they鈥檙e all like Evil Knievel. It鈥檚 kind of a weird combination,鈥� Mortensen told me over a press junket Zoom call. Mortensen鈥檚 career is dog-eared with daring, quietly strong characters, all of whom he spends months exhaustively researching. But transforming into Stanton was one of his biggest acting challenges yet.

Before he was at the center of one of the most publicized news stories of the decade, Stanton was already one of the world鈥檚 best cave divers. At the time of the rescue in 2018, he was 57 years old, had plunged to record-setting depths in the world鈥檚 largest caves, and had made multiple successful rescues and body retrievals in Mexico and around Europe with his diving partners, including John Volanthen (who is played by Colin Farrell in the film), Jason Mallinson (played by Paul Gleeson), Dr. Richard Harris (played by Joel Edgerton), and Chris Jewell (played by Tom Bateman). 鈥淔rom the cave diving community, there is such respect for Rick,鈥� Mortensen says. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a Zen master of this discipline. Nobody is more focused and more well-prepared to deal with the unknown than he is.鈥�

Mortensen first learned about Stanton and his heroism when听the rest of us did, glued to his television set watching in 2018. When he first read the script, he was eager to portray a complex, brash man at the center of such an astonishing endeavor. And Mortensen knows how to fully commit to truthful portrayals of his characters. To become a Russian mobster in David Cronenberg鈥檚 , he traveled to Russia to read Russian novels听and stayed in prison-gang-tattoo make-up while on set in London (and while frequenting a neighboring Russian restaurant, which, of course, completely freaked out all the diners). He got his open water scuba diving certification because of a single underwater scene in , which eventually ended up on the cutting room floor. And he studied sword fighting so intently for that legendary stunt coordinator (and former Olympic fencer) said he was the best swordsmen he鈥檇 ever trained.

After he got the role, the actor applied his rigorous research methods to Stanton. Before shooting began, he spent close to five months talking to Stanton, building a rapport, and uncovering his quirks, including the slight variations of his speech. 鈥淗e鈥檚 from Essex originally,鈥� Mortensen says. 鈥淏ut he鈥檚 been living in Coventry for years, so it鈥檚 this sort of blended accent.鈥� He read an advanced copy of Stanton鈥檚 2022 book, , in which Stanton describes himself as a grumpy old man with a life designed to avoid children and meaningless professional work. In the process, Mortensen started to grasp Stanton鈥檚 personality: gruff and confident, but devoid of hubris. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a certain curtness,鈥� Mortensen says of Stanton. 鈥淗e鈥檚 not a man of a lot of words. He does things rather than talks about them.鈥�

Those qualities were exactly what was needed during the chaos of the 2018 cave rescue. The Tham Luang cave in Northern Thailand is nearly six and a half miles of narrow tunnels and chambers that weave into the Doi Nang Non mountains. After the twelve boys and their soccer coach entered the cave to explore in mid-June 2018, unexpected monsoon rains fell without warning and flooded the cave with millions of gallons of water. When it was discovered that the boys and their coach never came out of the cave, officials called the Thai Navy SEALs to coordinate a rescue. Thousands of volunteers from all over Thailand (and a handful of other countries) arrived to help. They set up pumps, constructed dams, and tried to divert water any way they could. But it seemed hopeless. The water was so murky and fast-moving that the SEAL divers, who had little-to-no experience navigating flooded caves, couldn鈥檛 see more than a few inches in front of them. Thai Navy SEAL Saman Kunan (played by Weir Sukollawat Kanarot) died in an effort to reach the kids, and time was running out. So the Thai government contacted the only people who could possibly help: Stanton and his scruffy team of divers.

鈥淔our middle-aged men wandering around with all this equipment and being the heroes of the day. How preposterous it must have looked from the outsiders looking into the rescue,鈥� Stanton jokingly told me over another press junket call. 鈥淗ow preposterous was it that there was a 57-year-old man flown out from England to take part in this rescue. It does seem a bit far-fetched.鈥�

During their Zoom calls, Stanton showed Mortensen photos and diagrams of the cave, the rescue, and his equipment, most of which Stanton had built and fabricated for years on his at-home lathe. 鈥淭he equipment we use is very bespoke. It鈥檚 often homemade. It鈥檚 very esoteric,鈥� Stanton tells me. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a British phrase 鈥榤en in sheds鈥欌�攑eople who spend their time in sheds making things or inventing things. We are all geeky men in sheds who came forward and saved the day.鈥�

Mortensen spent the winter before shooting began for Thirteen Lives at his home in Spain. To get a leg up on preparation, Stanton told Mortensen he could arrange a mountain cave exploration with some Spanish friends. Mortensen immediately agreed. He can鈥檛 recall how many watery miles into the earth they waded but far enough that he nervously wondered if anyone else was concerned about the cave crumbling atop them. 鈥淭hen we get to this rock wall,鈥� Mortensen recalls. 鈥淚 said, 鈥楽o, this is the end of the line.鈥� And my guide goes, 鈥楴o, this is just the beginning.鈥欌�� The guide asked if Mortensen was game to continue the dive. 鈥淚 said, 鈥楴o, absolutely not.鈥欌�� But, the next day, Mortensen followed the guide into a longer underwater tunnel. 鈥淚t gave me a taste for what we were going to do for the movie,鈥� Mortensen says. 鈥淭hat was really helpful. The rock was the same, the conditions, the tight spots, the current, all that.鈥�

When they finally met in-person on the film鈥檚 set in Australia, Mortensen learned Stanton鈥檚 physical movements. 鈥淚 studied the way he walks, the way he puts on his equipment, the way he presents himself to others,鈥� says Mortensen. 鈥淭he way he sort of stands back and doesn鈥檛 offer his opinion unless it鈥檚 absolutely necessary.鈥� Mortensen was even able to perfectly replicate Stanton鈥檚 slow, precise underwater swimming and breathing techniques, including his specialized frog kick in which his legs push water out rather than back and down so that no sediment is disturbed.

I couldn鈥檛 help but ask Stanton what it felt like to be portrayed by such a beloved actor, who just so happens to be stupidly good-looking. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not going to do me any harm, is it?鈥� he replied. All jokes aside, Stanton said he and Mortensen became friends over the months of calls and shooting, and he was impressed by Mortensen鈥檚 commitment to researching the role.

When it came time to film, Stanton was on set as technical advisor, working with designers, cinematographers, and the film鈥檚 dive supervisor, Andrew Allen, to ensure the cave and the rescue were depicted as accurately as if it had been filmed in Tham Luang (which wasn鈥檛 possible due to the pandemic). Though the set had to accommodate space for underwater cinematographers, director Ron Howard and his crew perfectly recreated the cave sections Stanton and his fellow rescuers said were the most difficult. Even the unshakable Stanton was in awe of the movie-making magic. 鈥淭hat is their craft, to be able to mimic what they see with uncanny accuracy,鈥� he tells me. 鈥淭he diving scenes, they do look like professional cave divers.鈥�

However, for Mortensen, the set was a little too realistic. 鈥淭here were times where it was so narrow, I said, 鈥楻ick, I can鈥檛 get through there,鈥欌�� Mortensen says of shooting in the cave recreations. 鈥淎nd he鈥檇 say, 鈥榊es, you can. Think about it. How would you do it?鈥欌�� The answer: Mortensen would have to take the air cylinder off his back while keeping the rebreather in his mouth, push the tank through the tight hole first, and follow it, squeezing and wriggling his body through the rocky opening. Yikes.

It is this granular attention to detail that makes Thirteen Lives, and particularly Mortensen鈥檚 portrayal of Stanton, a triumph. Mortensen becomes Rick Stanton, one of the world鈥檚 greatest cave divers, a man who feels the hefty yoke of moral obligation and the burden of responsibility to save thirteen souls stranded in a cave chamber miles under a mountain.

At the end of our interview, I jokingly ask Mortensen if he鈥檒l quit acting and become a full-time cave diver. 鈥淣o,鈥� he laughs. 鈥淚 like being in the water, but I鈥檇 rather have the sky above when I come to the surface.鈥�

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A pivotal moment in Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin鈥檚 documentary The Rescue is a shot . A small beam of light travels over 13 boys who are huddled together on a ledge in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Thailand. A听soccer team and their coach have just been discovered in a chamber more than two miles from the cave entrance. The rescuers ask the group how many boys are present, and the boys ask what day it is. Behind the camera is cave diver John Volanthan, who keeps repeating the word 鈥渂elieve鈥� over and over. He explains in the documentary that he was actually saying the word for his own sake, so incredible did it seem that the entire team had survived the sudden flooding that trapped them in the cave鈥攏ot to mention almost two weeks in a cold enclosure with limited oxygen and no food or potable water. He had to remind himself that they actually had found the team, and every single member was still alive.

It was a euphoric moment to watch on the news in real time, and it鈥檚 just as affecting on the big screen. But it was only the beginning of a nerve-racking rescue. With more than 10,000 people on the scene, no one could imagine how they would safely extract everyone and deliver them through cramped, submerged tunnels amid continued flooding.

Filmmakers Vasarhelyi and Chin have directed two enormously successful climbing documentaries together, Meru and Free Solo, and won an Oscar for the latter. In The Rescue, they take on a new challenge: bringing viewers into a complicated, high-stakes rescue effort in a film that draws from interviews with many key members of the operation, recreated scenes, and 87 hours of newly found footage from the Royal Thai Navy. They manage to fully convey just how astounding the success of that massive effort was (all 13 people made it out of the cave alive, in case you somehow haven鈥檛 read the news in the last several years). But they also draw out some emotional individual stories behind the rescue that didn鈥檛 originally get much airtime.

At the center of the story is a ragtag group of cave divers from Europe and Australia, considered the A-team of their oddly specific hobby鈥攖hough all of them still have day jobs like anesthesiologist and IT consultant. They鈥檙e called in when organizers realize that there is essentially no one else with the skills and equipment to find the boys, let alone get them out of the cave alive. 鈥淚 think the idea that they鈥檙e volunteers was always something completely stunning,鈥� Vasarhelyi says听in an interview. 鈥淚 mean, these guys are weekend warriors. They鈥檙e the only people in the world who could actually affect the rescue, like all the most elite special forces could not do it.鈥� Once the divers discover the team, of course, they鈥檙e in much more unfamiliar territory. The rescuers must navigate dark, muddy water in a complex system of tunnels for hours to reach the chamber, with each one carrying sufficient oxygen for themself and one boy per trip. They also discover early on that they鈥檒l probably have to sedate the boys in order to keep them calm enough to evacuate them. 鈥淭hey have to make impossible decisions in this impossible situation, and they have everything to lose,鈥� Chin says. 鈥淭hey thought if they got one person out, it would be a success.鈥�

The Chiang Rai Province and the locals involved in the effort might have faded into the background with all of these cave diving details, but Chin and Vasarhelyi don鈥檛 let viewers forget about the massive number of rescue volunteers who made the operation possible. 鈥淥ne of the reasons why we wanted to make the film was that we are Asian filmmakers and there are very few positive nonfiction depictions of Asians,鈥� Vasarhelyi says. 鈥淎nd we are in a unique position to listen.鈥� They include animations explaining the mythology of the cave, the name of which invokes a myth about a princess from an ancient kingdom, and news footage of a visit from the Buddhist monk Kruba Boonchum, who accurately predicts that the team will be found alive within two days. There are also the impressive contributions of the Royal Thai Navy, members of which attempted to help with the cave diving operations even though they did not have the proper equipment or specialized training. The documentary follows the story of retired Thai Navy SEAL Saman Gunan, an experienced diver who died on a mission to deliver oxygen tanks.

The Rescue is in obvious ways the polar opposite of Free Solo: instead of a professional athlete ascending to unthinkable heights for the sake of his own ambitions, we follow weekend warriors deep into the earth for a mission that they feel is their only option in a dire situation. But as in Free Solo, Vasarhelyi is just as interested in exploring athletes鈥� interior lives as she is in documenting exceptional physical feats. The cave divers all seem to fit a certain type: a history of being bullied, not involved in a lot of long-term relationships, not big team players. One quips, 鈥淭he last one picked on the cricket team, the first one called to help with the rescue.鈥� In exploring the psychological underpinnings of a niche sport, The Rescue attempts to answer the biggest question raised by the story: 鈥淗ow did these people come to be, who are able to make such a stunning, absolutely moral decision?鈥� Vasarhelyi says. 鈥淲hen the time came, they were their best selves.鈥�

The Rescue is now playing in theaters.

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When it comes to your time and money, signing up for an in-depth skills course shouldn鈥檛 preclude going on a dream trip. By traveling to one of the countries below, you can get world-class certification in anything from scuba diving to mountaineering, often for less听than you would pay in the United States. Plus, these classes offer the opportunity to connect with a destination on a much deeper level by interacting with local guides and participants听and to see parts of an area听you may not听have otherwise.听If you鈥檙e taking this time to reassess your career path or set some new outdoor听goals, here are four affordable course options听to consider for your next work-play adventure.听

Scuba Diving in Honduras

Having time at home is actually a great opportunity to begin working toward听your introductory open-water diver certification. Both the (PADI) and (SSI)听offer eight-to-15-hour online classes starting from $150, which knock days and dollars off your on-the-ground training.听

Once the textbook learning is out of the way, it鈥檚 just a matter of finding the best place to get in the water once it鈥檚 safe to travel. SSI and PADI have thousands of dive centers around the world. PADI even sells its own to popular locations, such as the听Indonesian island of Gili Trawangan or the Red Sea town of Dahab听in Egypt, for less than $1,000 a week听before plane fare.

While Koh Tao, Thailand, is known as the budget dive factory of the world, it may not guarantee the best value for money. The听small听island houses about 70 dive schools, most offering one-听or two-day courses (from $350) in the shallow, crystalline waters.听Despite its range of outfitters, the sheer number of newbies the听area听attracts means you may not听get the personalized instruction you need at an affordable price.

For high-quality and affordable instruction, we recommend听Central America. The Honduran islands of Utila and Roatan are inexpensive and听short flights听from the United States听(from $350 round-trip from major U.S. cities) and boast some of the healthiest coral in the Caribbean. Expect to pay around $300 for your open-water certification at听any of the local dive shops.听

, a PADI five-star dive center in Roatan鈥檚 southwestern tip, maintains a small student-to-instructor ratio and charges only $230 for those looking to complete the open-water portion of their certification, compared to $350 for the whole course. And just because you鈥檙e learning doesn鈥檛 mean you can鈥檛 have a bucket-list experience: the center is located near some of the island鈥檚 famous wall dives, which, in addition to an abundance of coral, offer the chance to see manta rays and hammerhead sharks.听

Mountaineering in South听Asia

Typically over a minimum of five to seven days, a good mountaineering course will cover rope work, scrambling, orienteering, crevasse rescues, route and risk assessment, snow and glacier traverses, and group communication. In the United States, you can expect to pay between $1,500 and $3,000 to complete the certification with a reputable outfitter.听

However,听budget-minded peakbaggers can learn the basics among some of the tallest mountains in the world. Our pick: the Himalayas in northern India. Permit fees听are low or nonexistent, and the area offers plenty of accessible peaks.

Check out the highly reputable Uttarkashi-based听 (NIM).听Its Basic Mountaineering Course costs $800 for 28 days of instruction, which includes food, accommodation, and equipment. The last is important鈥攊f you鈥檙e a beginner, you鈥檒l likely want to avoid the up-front investment of buying your own gear so you can use the training as a chance to learn what works for you. The course begins with training on equipment and听techniques at about 4,200 feet听and ends with a two-week trip to between听14,000 to 16,000 feet into the Himalayas for hands-on experience with techniques like self-arresting, belaying, and using ice axes and crampons. The school also offers special women-only courses. While class sizes are bigger than many similar courses in the United States鈥攂etween six and听eight people versus four鈥攖he quality of instruction is solid: NIM is funded by and trains the Indian military, which is known for its mountaineering prowess.听

Yoga Teaching Training in India

Most immersive yoga teacher training courses (or YTTC) include lodging听and food, which makes countries with a low cost of living more affordable places to听study. While there are a number of affordable locales that specialize in YTTC, from Thailand and Indonesia to Costa Rica, the most coveted classes tend to听be more expensive because听they often fly in instructors from abroad. So why not go straight to yoga鈥檚听birthplace in India, where a saturated market has resulted in competitive pricing? It鈥檚 easy to find a 200-hour YTTC for $1,000 or less. Compare that to Bali, where the same course听can cost upwards of $5,000, or the United States, where monthlong programs start at around $2,500.听

If you want to study in the actual birthplace of the practice, head to the northern city of Rishikesh, the yoga capital of the world. Situated in the Himalayan foothills along the Ganges River, the town is home to the top-rated ($1,000 for 29 days), which includes lessons in vinyasa, ashtanga, hatha, and meditation. Or try听, which听has brand-new student dorms ($1,059 for 26 days).听Both programs lead to a Yoga Alliance Certification, an internationally recognized ticket to teach.

Canyoning in France

Even if you have no aspirations of guiding, there鈥檚 a strong argument to be made for taking a comprehensive canyoning听skills course. (See听the film 127 Hours, starring James Franco as Aron Ralston, who is forced to cut off his own arm after becoming trapped in a canyon.)听

鈥淐anyoning is not like rock climbing, where you can buy a harness and a chalk bag and go to a gym and start,鈥� says Andrew Humphreys, an international canyoning instructor and owner of . A highly technical sport, canyoning requires a variety of baseline skills and gear just to get started.听

The first thing to note is the difference between canyoning and canyoneering: the former involves water, such as听rappelling听through waterfalls, while the latter generally refers to dry canyons.听Check the of the听skills you need to acquire to be a proficient canyoneer, including basic knots and setting up rope anchors, as well as听a list of听certified instructors around the world. Programs in the United States听range from $130 to $220 per day听but often don鈥檛 cover water skills.听

For an affordable course abroad,听Humphreys recommends France. At , an center in the commune of听Niaux in the south of France, about 500 miles from Paris, you鈥檒l join the ranks of more than 100 independent canyoneers听and 35,000 beginners who have learned under the tutelage of expert Rod Strum. Its eight-day Autonomous Canyoneer听training is priced at $950 (less than $120 per day)听and includes all the basics recommended by the American Canyoneering Association, plus additional听techniques like rappelling through waterfalls.

Prepare for your trip with an online training program from . Developed by Humphreys and other instructors, it offers free modules to teach the basics of canyoning through instructional videos and interactive video coaching.

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As a neurotic 27-year-old New Yorker with a cocktail of mental-health issues鈥攁苍虫颈别迟测, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and hypochondriasis鈥攖ravel seemed impossible for most of my life. I grew up desperately wanting to see the world, but any time I鈥檇 get close to planning a trip, I鈥檇 chicken out before booking the flight. I soon grew tired of letting my anxiety confine me to an increasingly small comfort zone, and knew I had to make a drastic change. So at 23, I quit my job and took a two-month trip to Southeast Asia.

When I first set foot on the plane, I was convinced that everything bad that could happen to me would happen. I thought I鈥檇 get kidnapped, mugged, or trapped in a foreign country, that a single mosquito bite would mean a malaria diagnosis. Four years later, I鈥檝e been to 21 countries and don鈥檛 plan to stop traveling any time soon. Along the way, my perspective was听completely rewired to the point that anxiety no longer dictates my life at home. I鈥檝e learned that I鈥檓 far more daring and independent than I ever thought possible.

Last year听I started the听website听听as a way to show others with mental-health issues that travel is not only accessible听but far less intimidating than you think. Here are my five go-to methods to听managing my anxiety on the road.

Plan鈥擝ut Don鈥檛 Overplan

When you have anxiety, heading into an unknown environment means your brain works overtime to prepare for the worst-case scenario. It鈥檚 important to remember that this isn鈥檛 inherently bad听but an evolutionary skill meant to help you avoid danger. Unfortunately, this means pre-trip anxiety wants to stop you from leaving, because your brain equates the uncertainty inherent in going to a new place with an imminent threat. While there鈥檚 no cure-all for preventing this, I find that plenty of preparation eases the fear of the unfamiliar.

Start with your route. I always plan a rough itinerary ahead of time that includes my entry and exit points for the trip and the sites I want to see along the way. This is based on my time frame, with a breakdown of approximately how long I plan to spend in each place. I also make a budget using the average costs听of one night of accommodation, three meals, and one activity per day. In addition to researching what to see and do, I look into smaller but important items such as the currency-exchange rate, visa requirements, and health information. Despite having the details nailed down, I usually only book my flights in and out and my first hostel, so I have the option to change course. Having a solid point A and point B gives me a sense of control and direction, while the overall flexibility removes the pressure of sticking too closely to a plan and the stress that comes when it inevitably goes off course. It鈥檚 usually easy enough to find domestic flights or hostels at the last minute.

Over the years, I鈥檝e learned that the best advice comes from fellow travelers, not the internet. Talking to others who have been where I鈥檓 going offers me peace of mind, knowing that they came back in one piece, along with valuable recommendations on what to see, do, and eat. Whether they鈥檙e friends, family, friends of friends, or a friend鈥檚 ex-girlfriend鈥檚 brother, personal accounts always get me much further than any Google search.

Once on the ground, I use a select few travel apps to make communication and planning easy. My must-haves usually include for easy and reliable accommodation booking, for international calling and texting via the internet, and for offline directions.

Pack Your Essentials and Don鈥檛 Worry About the Rest

Packing gives me a lot of anxiety, and for good reason. The items in my backpack represent the familiar things I can bring with me from home, sort of like a child鈥檚 teddy bear. For most people, this leads to a tendency to overpack. But keeping track of too many things can be more of a burden than the risk of not having something you need, especially when most things鈥攆rom clothes to toiletries to earbuds鈥攚ill be easy enough to find听regardless of where you go. The things that are more difficult to replace that听I always听keep on me are my contact lenses, passport, wallet, and phone.

Of all my essentials, my contact lenses are what cause me a comical amount of stress when I travel, because I鈥檓 functionally blind without them. I always pack at least ten听extra pairs of contacts as well as my backup glasses, just in case I happen to rub my eye and lose one along the way. Give yourself more space for a听few extras of the important things,听even if you likely won鈥檛 need all of your supply. This is especially the case with medication鈥攖alk to your doctor about getting enough to last you for your trip and then some.

Believe It or Not: Socialize

I was surprised to discover that social interaction is paramount to keeping my anxiety in check while I鈥檓 on the road. Making friends with other travelers is a great way to create a makeshift comfort zone when I鈥檓 so far outside mine. It鈥檚 also an excellent grounding tool, because it forces me to step outside my ruminating mind and be in the present.

Some of you are probably thinking, But I have social anxiety!听Well, so do I. However, I鈥檝e found tremendous camaraderie with other travelers after finally getting听the courage to break the ice. In fact, during听my 61-day solo trip to South America, I spent less than one day by myself because I took the initiative to chat up strangers every step of the way, starting with my first听hostel. I鈥檝e found that the benefits of these friendships are worth the five minutes of discomfort at the outset. Never underestimate the power of a simple hello; it can change the whole trajectory of your trip.

It helps to remember that the standard rules of socializing don鈥檛 always apply during travel. People are friendlier because they often don鈥檛 want to do things alone and welcome the company. Hostels, group tours, and hiking trips are built around fostering this sort of interaction.听Despite what your brain might tell you, people want to talk to you. Because you are all in similar circumstances and will likely share experiences, you have preprogrammed icebreakers. They can be as simple as 鈥淲here are you from?鈥� or 鈥淲here have you been so far?鈥� to asking for local recommendations.

Be Your Own Therapist

On your trip, you won鈥檛 have your usual support system on speed dial. It鈥檚 easy to get overwhelmed in moments of stress, and it鈥檚 just as easy to get mad at yourself for feeling that way. Instead of crumbling, use this opportunity to practice some of the techniques you鈥檝e learned in therapy. For me, that takes the form of daily meditation, sitting quietly by myself and listening to a five-minute guided recording. While doing your usual full-on meditation, workouts, or yoga to decompress would be ideal, it鈥檚 not always possible on the move. So make mini models of your typical coping techniques, and don鈥檛 beat yourself up when you can鈥檛 stick to your routine.

Occasionally, however, these practices may not feel like enough. For those moments of panic, I keep these reminders听in the notes app on听my phone to听help me reframe my perspective when the stresses of travel start to feel like too much:

Travel in today鈥檚 world is not a complete cutoff from your life at home.

Regardless of how remote a place might seem, odds are that it鈥檚 possible to find an internet connection that will allow you to stay in touch through apps and social media.

Your trip isn鈥檛 permanent.听

Any time I start to feel overwhelmed, my obsessive brain tries to make me think that my trip is a lifelong adventure that will certainly end in disaster. It鈥檚 important to keep in mind that your trip is a temporary discomfort, and that you will be back home again soon.

The point of a trip is to enjoy it.听

While it might not always feel like it, your trip is meant to be fun and exciting. If you find yourself hating it, it鈥檚 not fulfilling its purpose and you鈥檙e not obligated to continue. If that means going back to a city where you felt more comfortable, you shouldn鈥檛 feel guilty about doing so. Remember that the only one forcing you to stay is you.

There is no shame in feeling scared.

There鈥檚 this misconception that being听scared while abroad is in some way a negative reflection on you. If you ever begin to feel shame about that fear, remind yourself that you鈥檙e doing something that many people are too afraid to do. You鈥檝e already done the hardest part鈥攇etting on the plane in the first place.

Have an Exit Strategy听

Whenever I travel, I make sure that I have enough money in my bank account to book a flight home at a moment鈥檚 notice. I鈥檝e never actually had to return before my planned departure date, but it鈥檚 extremely comforting to know that I have a panic button I can push听at any time. Yes, it鈥檚 an expensive safety net, but at the end of the day, your mental health should always take precedence.

Despite that, I implore you to try to stick around. I can鈥檛 tell you how many times I鈥檝e almost booked a flight home. But I always give it a few more days and find that the patterns of my mind change with time. Force yourself to talk to one new person and explore one new place each day. Single, small steps out of your comfort zone eventually add up. In my opinion, travel is immensely worth all this fuss, because as someone with anxiety, I鈥檓 going to worry anyway. Why not do it on a beach in Thailand?

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Starting on June 17, Brazil will join the ranks of countries that don鈥檛 require a tourist visa from Americans. This will save travelers from having to track down one of only ten Brazilian consulates in the U.S. and pay the听$40 fee (which we recommend putting toward post-swim caipirinhas, the country鈥檚 tart national cocktail).

The change in policy has been a long time coming. For the past several years, Brazil has experimented with streamlining entry requirements for citizens of the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Japan, four countries deemed a significant source of tourism revenue.

Brazil鈥檚 Ministry of Tourism听first tested the waters with visa waivers during the 2016 Rio Games. Then in January 2018, it introduced an electronic visa program for the four countries mentioned above and slashed the fee to a quarter of its original cost, from $160 to $40. The move paid off, helping contribute to a听 in travelers compared to 2017. Now听you鈥檒l be able to enter and stay for up to 90 days鈥攚ith the possibility to extend to 180 days total鈥攚ithout having to do any paperwork.

鈥淭his is one of the most important achievements of the Brazilian tourism industry in the last 15 years,鈥� said Marcelo Alvaro Ant么nio, the country鈥檚 minister of tourism, in a听. 鈥淲e are confident that it will be extremely beneficial to the country.鈥�

Meanwhile, if you鈥檙e looking for this kind of hassle-free international adventure, you鈥檙e not limited to Brazil. Americans have long been able to visit our closest allies, like Canada and the European Union, with only a valid passport, and globally there鈥檚 a fairly even split between nations that require visas听and ones that don鈥檛. Here are six听other outdoor meccas for Americans that don鈥檛 require a visa in advance. 听

Thailand

Want to deep-water solo this Southeast Asian nation鈥檚听? You鈥檙e in luck. You can vacation in Thailand for up to 30 days without a visa鈥攑lenty of time to climb in the famed Railay Beach area, then hightail it to the country鈥檚 southern islands to dive world-class coral gardens among angelfish, manta rays, and whale sharks. Just ensure you have a passport that鈥檚 valid for at least six months past your date of entry, as recommended by the U.S. State Department. 听

Guatemala

While this is not the only Central American country that lets you duck the red tape鈥攖he whole region is pretty much fair game鈥攊t鈥檚 a rising听hub for mountain biking and a longtime surf mecca. As long as you have a return ticket booked, you鈥檙e free to ride its jungle singletrack and catch consistent surf at at El Pared贸n for up to 90 days.

New Zealand

It may take 12 hours or more on a plane to get there, but trust us鈥攊t鈥檚 worth it. New Zealand鈥檚听jaw-dropping scenery provides an epic backdrop for hiking, biking, and backpacking, and from the听famous Milford Track in the South Island鈥檚 Fiordland National Park to the rugged Tongariro Alpine Crossing up north, adventuring in Kiwi country is unlike anywhere else. And you鈥檒l have 90 days to play as long as your passport is valid for three months after your date of departure.

Morocco

This North African nation is famous for its Atlantic coast, which is lined with year-round surf spots in places like Taghazout and Imsouane. Morocco has great climbing, too. Head inland to the听, a 1,300-foot-tall rift between the High Atlas Mountains and the Sahara, to send听. There鈥檚 a 90-day limit on your stay, and you鈥檒l need a passport that鈥檚 valid for six months and has one empty page.

Japan

If you get depressed scrolling through the proliferation of posts on Instagram every winter, know that a quick trip to Hokkaido is actually pretty easy鈥攅xcluding the international flight. Lift tickets often cost less than elsewhere in the world, too. Once you鈥檙e there, you can stay for three months sans visa. Just make sure there鈥檚 at least one blank page in your passport for the entry stamp before packing your bags.

Tahiti

Voyaging to French Polynesia may seem like a pipe dream, but it鈥檚 relatively easy to get there these days. Not only is there the standard 90 days of visa-free travel, but with the introduction of a new direct route to Tahiti from San Francisco, courtesy of the budget airline听 (from $329 one-way), a direct last-minute trip is within the realm of possibility.

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Did听you know that 52 percent of American workers听? Maybe we鈥檙e not using all that PTO because we tend to think of vacations as grand听endeavors that are often too expensive to be worth it. And sure, a tropical-island getaway sounds pricey and hard to pull off, but what if we said听you could stay in a low-key, off-the-radar beach town for less than $100 a night? And we鈥檙e not talking about bunk beds in backpackers鈥� hostels. These are sweet accommodations听where you can swim in the ocean, hike a volcano, and read a book in a hammock. Don鈥檛 wait. It鈥檚 time to actually use those vacation days.

Lanzarote, Spain

On Lanzarote, in Spain鈥檚 Canary Islands, you can cycle scenic roadways, hike the craters of Timanfaya National Park, windsurf, and kiteboard. The island has plenty of upscale hotels, or you can find affordable, low-fuss guesthouses and bungalows. At the family-owned听 (from $97), you鈥檒l have views of inland vineyards and volcanic peaks from your cottage or yurt. There are also yoga classes, surf lessons, and bike rentals, or stay put and enjoy the saltwater pool and home-cooked breakfasts.

Saint听Lucia, Caribbean

People don鈥檛 typically look to the Caribbean for budget-friendly destinations. But you can do Saint听Lucia, in the Lesser Antilles, on the cheap if you know where to look. Lounge on the volcanic island鈥檚 golden sands, paint yourself in mud at听, and ride eight miles of rainforest singletrack at听. At听, cottages start at just $90 a night during the low season if you stay for a week. Tag along on one of the guided hikes to the top of 2,619-foot Gros Piton, one of the Caribbean鈥檚 most iconic peaks, then stretch out in the yoga barn or on the estate鈥檚 secluded beaches. 听

Pahoa, Hawaii

This laid-back town on the Big Island is back up and running after the 2018 volcanic eruption of Kilauea, but tourism has been slow to return. Which means you can score empty beaches and good deals on lodging. The听, which closed during the eruption due to its location within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, is now fully operational, and you can stay in a refurbished camper cabin for $80 a night or rent camping gear and a tent site for $55 a night. Want to be closer to the ocean? Book听this听 (from $61), which is听walking distance to a black-sand beach near Pahoa.

Koh Mak, Thailand

Many of Thailand鈥檚 bustling southern islands are filled with full-moon partiers and tour busses. Not Koh Mak, a small, six-square-mile isle in the Gulf of Thailand听that鈥檚 reached by a one-hour speedboat ride from Trat, on the mainland. The place feels untouched, friendly, and blissfully peaceful. Sleep in a bungalow on the beach for $37 a night at听, and watch the most stunning sunset of your life from your porch or the on-site and aptly named Sunset Bar. From there, rent bikes to pedal village to village, snorkel through turquoise waters, or take a Thai cooking class.

Anna Maria Island, Florida

Slow, old-fashioned charm permeates this seven-mile-long barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico, just an hour south of Tampa. You鈥檒l get about by bicycle, sea kayak, or the free island trolley, and beach time is the main activity here.听Gear-rental company听 will deliver cruiser bikes, paddleboards, and kayaks to听your vacation rental, but there鈥檚 also sailing and fishing charters. Most of the island鈥檚 hotels are on the pricier side, but you can find an听 just a block and a half from the ocean听with a shared pool for $99.

Isla Holbox, Mexico

Separated from the mainland by a sandbar and shallow lagoon that鈥檚 part of the Yum Balam Nature Reserve, Isla Holbox is only accessible by airplane or ferry, meaning there鈥檚 little in the way of development. There are, however, small fishing villages filled with colorful homes and one of the of the planet鈥檚 largest concentrations of whale sharks just offshore. Snorkel the reef听Cabo Catoche, fish for sea trout, and swim with sharks while you鈥檙e there.听 (from $86) has a pool, garden, and rooms ten听minutes from the beach.

Culebra, Puerto Rico

Culebra, 18 miles east of Puerto Rico鈥檚 mainland, was hit hard by Hurricane Maria in 2017. The island听is still recovering, but most of the guesthouses and听restaurants are back open, and the beaches are as pristine as ever. Don鈥檛 expect Wi-Fi or hotel chains here鈥攖his is a tranquil, low-tech escape.听,听a mile from the beach, has rooms from $80 and will outfit you with听chairs and towels. Be sure to hike a mile to Carlos Rosario Beach and snorkel the amazing the coral.

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