This week, Adventure.com celebrates its first birthday since its relaunch in April 2017, so we’re highlighting a selection of our favorite features and photo stories from our first 12 months.
One year ago, we relaunched Adventure.com with a simple mission: To find the most interesting stories in the world, and tell them in a way that’s as clear, engaging and accessible to as many people as possible. This philosophy is built into everything we do—from our website design to the writers and photographers we work with, and everything in between.
We strive to be an antidote to our noisy world; a clutter-free corner of the internet where you can come to read a beautifully crafted story with stunning photography—minus the videos, pop-ups, surveys and anything else the internet is prone to throwing at you. From day one, our small, dedicated team has focused on quality over quantity. And we’ll continue to do just that.
Now, 12 months in, it seemed a good time to look back on the stories we’ve been lucky enough to work on—and the stories you, our readers, have read the most. Enjoy.
A woman takes photos of the busts of former US presidents on the land of Croaker farmer Howard Hankins in rural Virginia.
Photo: Laurie Collins
How 43 president heads ended up abandoned on Virginia farmland
In the most unsuspecting of places—a field in rural Virginia—43 American presidents stand in silence. In one of our most popular features, Washingtonian travel writer Kelly Paras set out to find out what this graveyard of former leaders is doing here.
Driving around Sri Lanka in a tuk-tuk is certainly a novel way to see the country—just ask Adventure.com’s Australia editor, Oliver Pelling.
Photo courtesy of Large Minority
The most fun on three wheels? Try driving a tuk-tuk through Sri Lanka
More tourists are visiting Sri Lanka than ever before. But if you want to dodge the crowds, you could sign up for a 10-day, 1000-mile self-drive tuk-tuk rally. In this feature, Adventure.com’s Australia editor Oliver Pelling recounted a journey he took with his brother through Sri Lanka—in a tuk-tuk.
A nomad poses with his eagle for Susan Portnoy’s epic photo essay.
Photo: Susan Portnoy
Inside the lives of Mongolia's last nomads
The Kazakhs of western Mongolia are one of the world’s last surviving nomadic cultures. From wrestlers as wedding entertainment to bona fide eagle hunters, photographer Susan Portnoy captured a world steeped in tradition and virtually untouched by modern times.
Photographer Nicola Zolin documented the Iranian youth who are putting their thumb to the road in search of liberty.
Photo: Nicola Zolin
Meet the defiant young Iranians hitchhiking their way to freedom
Determined not to have their dreams defined by a conservative government, a new generation of Iranians are hitchhiking and couchsurfing their way to freedom. In March 2018—exclusively for Adventure.com—Italian photographer Nicola Zolin documented his experiences traveling with a group of young wayfarers.
Adventure.com’s featured contributor Lola Akinmade Åkerström posed the question: When will the travel industry face up to its diversity problem?
Photo courtesy of Lola Akinmade Åkerström
The color of adventure: When will travel show more diversity?
The faces of adventure travel are just as diverse as the spirit of adventure itself, argues our featured contributor, Lola Akinmade Åkerström, a Nigerian-born travel photographer and author. So why hasn’t the travel industry caught up?
Lois Pryce and her beloved bike in the desert mountains of Iran.
Photo courtesy of Lois Pryce
Riding solo: One woman’s motorcycle adventures in Iran and beyond
From a bicycle trip around Cornwall as a teenager to motorcycling solo in Iran, that’s just how Lois Pryce—writer, filmmaker and co-founder of the Adventure Travel Film Festival—rolls. This fast-wheeling adventurer was hard to chase down, but Adventure.com’s UK editor Meera Dattani managed to catch up with her.
“Burning Man is the place to find out who you are, then take it a step further. It’s a community, a cultural movement and a temporary city.”
Photo: Nicola Bailey
These photos will transport you to the desert utopia of Burning Man
Adventure.com photo editor Nicola Bailey surfaced from the dust at Burning Man to show us what life’s really like at this annual desert gathering, a utopia of hedonistic human connection and mind-bending art installations.
Traveling to a country that doesn’t technically exist makes for pretty good travel story fodder, so found Bill Fink.
Photo: Bill Fink
A country that doesn’t exist: The twilight zone of Transnistria
A breakaway, ex-Soviet region that issues its own passports, prints its own money, has limited internet, and isn’t recognized by the rest of the world? That’s only half the appeal of visiting this nation in limbo, found travel writer Bill Fink.
“In a world that’s increasingly being pulled apart, with fears of ‘otherness’, walking puts people back in touch with one another.”
Photo courtesy of Leon McCarron
Is walking the most adventurous way to travel?
Walking has the power to connect people and cultures in a fast-paced world. In his first piece for us as a featured contributor, long-distance walker Leon McCarron, whose latest book charts his 1000-mile walk through the Middle East, explored this primal pursuit.
Tayle Gentle discovered that there’s much wonderment to be found in Uganda’s ‘secret’ mountain ranges.
Photo: Tayla Gentle
Why is nobody visiting Rwenzori, home of Africa’s spectacular secret summits?
Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains are home to six of Africa’s 10 tallest peaks. But where Kilimanjaro welcomes some 50,000 hikers every year, Rwenzori barely breaks 1,000. Tayla Gentle explored the home of Africa’s secret summits.
Ben Page managed to cycle around the world, across all five continents, on just $5 a day.
Photo courtesy of Ben Page
The man who cycled around the world on $5 a day
In December 2014, 22-year-old Ben Page set off on a round-the-world cycling adventure with no route, very little equipment, and just £9,000 ($13,000). In September 2017, after making it to all five continents, he made it home—and told Adventure.com’s Australia editor Oliver Pelling all about it.
Patagonia is an unbelievable place—but Salta is pretty epic in its own right.
Photo: Sebastian del Val
Forget Patagonia, could Salta be Argentina’s next adventure playground?
Year-round good weather and a host of unbelievable landscapes are turning Salta, in Argentina’s northwest, into the country’s next adventure frontier. But is the region ready for an influx of international tourists? Anja Mutic went exploring to find out.
What’s life like in the nuclear Explosion Zone of Chernobyl? Emma Thomson went to find out.
Photo: Emma Thomson
Life inside Chernobyl, one of the most polluted places on earth
Thirty-two years after an accidental nuclear explosion reduced Chernobyl to rubble, Emma Thomson explored the reality of life—and radiation—in this remote Ukrainian region as it begins to come alive again.
Food meets culture at Cine Tonalá Tijuana, a restaurant, cocktail bar, and art-house theater that’s become the go-to hangout for the culture kids of Tijuana.
Photo courtesy of Cine Tonalá Tijuana
How did Tijuana become Mexico’s go-to foodie city?
Drug wars weren’t the only thing to take their toll on the border town of Tijuana, but next-generation entrepreneurs who left are now returning to create Mexico’s new foodie mecca, as Eileen Guo discovered on a tasty trip to Mexico.
Travel writer David Farley hitchhikes with American film director John Waters in Baltimore, MD.
Photo: Jonathan Hanson/Redux
In search of stories: How to travel like a travel writer
He’s hitchhiked alongside eccentric filmmaker John Waters, spent time with the men who cremate bodies on the Ganges, and eaten a still-beating snake heart in Vietnam. In this piece for Adventure.com, veteran travel writer David Farley shares how anyone can come back from a trip with a tale to tell.
In search of surf: Train-hopping on an iron ore train in Mauritania. Africa
Photo: Jody MacDonald
This photographer hops freight trains through the Sahara
The only way for award-winning photographer Jody MacDonald to go in search of the Mauritania coast was on top of an enormous freight train. In this incredible photo feature, she shares scenes from her unforgettable journey through the Sahara.
––––
Here’s to the next 12 months. And the next. And the next. Thanks for reading.
And don’t forget, you can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
The Editors
Hailing from all across the globe, Adventure.com's team of editors are on the pulse of adventure news and travel trends, bringing you the latest developments and strange, interesting and peculiar happenings from around the world.
Related Articles
Eliza Gower
