Top 10 Extreme Vacations ( PART 1 )

Day 1,647, 10:37 • Published in USA Croatia • by Apress

Before packing a novel and namby-pamby sunscreen for that Caribbean all-inclusive from the brochure your girlfriend strategically left on the nightstand, may we suggest, instead, that you consider spending this summer’s precious vacation days crushing cars with a vintage tank? Or how about bulldozing concrete for an afternoon? Pulling Gs in a military fighter jet? Rappelling down a burning building, grabbing the Jaws of Life, and ripping open a car to save trapped motorists?
Trust me, your girlfriend will approve of these ten adventures involving heavy equipment, cool machines and high-tech vehicles, sure as they are to boost your quotient of manliness. And come on, who wouldn’t want to wield assorted power tools while on holiday? We bet she’ll want to join you. 😛
Start with No.10

No.10 Fly A MiG Over Russia

Sarasota-based extreme tour operator Incredible Adventures has you pulling Gs in a multimillion-dollar MiG-29 -- the kind Tom Cruise battled in Top Gun -- during a five-day trip to Moscow and nearby Nizhny Novgorod Aircraft building plant Sokol. After alighting in Moscow for sightseeing and a stay at Metropol, the classic hotel looking onto Red Square where Dr. Zhivago was filmed, you travel by train to the military airstrip where the inimitable Russian fighter was born. Then it’s your choice between soaring 70,000 feet to the edge of space or performing 45 gut-punching minutes of aerobatics. Sokol’s MiG pilots, who will accompany you, say to "eat f-ing breakfast!" before flying at Mach speeds, since acids churning on an empty stomach will make you more likely to heave. We think it’s friendly advice.

No.9 Take A Stuntcation

You know your Vegas trip is in capable hands when the tour guide is a Hollywood stunt guy who performed the world’s first bungee jump on fire, has coordinated stunts for Sir Richard Branson and Criss Angel, and lists expertise in "high falls, air rams, explosives, heavy weapons, and bullet hits." Rich Hopkins, founder of Thrillseekers Unlimited, lends you a veritable arsenal of badass gear for adventures in and around the city. During a new five-day, small-group "Stunt Experience Vacation," safely supervised by Thrillseekers' SAG-member team, you and up to nine buddies will harness in to try high-falling, stunt-fighting and stunt-driving, and may even be (briefly) set aflame.

No.8 Drive A Tank

Drive A Tank knows every guy’s secret desire is to crush vehicles with even bigger vehicles. Which is why the Kasota, Minnesota-headquartered extreme adventure operator organizes awesome afternoons, teaching you to navigate two British army tanks -- the FV433 Abbot and the FV432 Armored Personnel Carrier -- through an obstacle course. Choose the “crush package,” and -- hell yeah! -- you get to obliterate anything lying in the path of “Larry,” an affectionately named 60-ton Chieftain Main Battle Tank. We hope the victim was a Pinto.

No.7 Go Street-Luging

If you don’t have five free days or five buddies to take a group stuntcation, you could try the getaway version: a customizable "weekend warrior" deal that gives you a menu of extreme sports and events to choose from in and around Las Vegas. Options range from relatively tame activities like hovercraft, motocross, ATV or Sea-Doo rides, to gimmicky fire-walking, to adventures involving machines that hardly sound street legal (bonus!). One of our favorites is "street luge": a homemade sled you grab hold of to hurtle down mountain roads at up to 60 miles per hour.

No.6 Bulldoze Something
[url=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lNUft5-0l1A[/url]

You played with big yellow trucks as a kid; now you can get down and dirty learning to drive actual megaton equipment around a 21-acre construction site in Bradenton, a town between Sarasota and Tampa. This daylong Construction Adventure has you eventually tossing around old tires and bowling balls on the site using a CAT 315 Excavator, CAT 257B Skid Steer Loader or CAT D3 Bulldozer. Hard hat, lunch, souvenir photo, and written evaluation are included (because we all should aspire to be better excavator operators). And not that you’d intentionally linger, but there’s also timely use of a "tricked-out port-o-potty" with a flat-screen TV fitted inside.


No.5 Wield The Jaws Of Life

Does the end-of-workday beer taste sweeter after you’ve rappelled down three stories of a burning building, inched through smoke-filled darkness, and doused the flames? We bet it does. If you don’t have the good fortune or guts to call this a day’s wage, you can still sample the vocation of fire fighting at one of North America’s finest training schools: Central Florida Fire Academy in Orlando. You’ll use the Jaws of Life to rescue a faux victim from a burning car, test-drive that big, red, shiny truck, and finish the day with a real firehouse dinner (uh, yum?).



By Apress on May 24, 2012 ®