Adventure travel: need ideas!

It looks like I’m going to have a chance to take a few weeks to travel later this year, probably in October. I’m really interested in doing an off-the-beaten path adventure tour sort of thing. The only real ideas I’ve come up with so far are a safari in Namibia or a week-long horse trek the the mountains of Kyrgyzstan (though I think those trips are probably only offered in the summer).

The general idea is that I have enough frequent flier miles on enough different airlines that odds are I can pretty much go to any country I want. I’m totally able to drop a couple grand on a good adventure. I don’t think I’d be prepared for anything more than a moderately strenuous workout: I’m fit but no marathon runner/high altitude mountain climber. I’d like to go with a group, but avoiding coach travel as much as humanly possible.

So, the question is, where do I look to get other ideas for adventure travel? I’ve been googling a fair bit this morning, and I really haven’t come up with many travel websites that give a good cross-section of activities in different geographical regions.

Anyone have any suggestions for a cool adventure, or some places to look for new ideas?

National Geographic has some tours that look interesting: National Geographic Traveler Vacation Packages | National Geographic Expeditions

but I don’t think you can use your ff miles.

Visit one of the Poles. If I ever have the money, I want to visit the North Pole. (It was about $20,000 last I checked.)

OK, more affordable: we spent 8 days in Costa Rica in 2004. We used AdventureLife.com as the travel agency. They were fantastic, and I’d use them again if I wanted to make another trip to one of the other Americas. We did whitewater rafting, hiking in the jungle at a ecotourism ranch called Selva Bananito, horseback riding, and even rappelled a waterfall. I want to go back, because they have a waterfall rappelling tour.