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Top 10 extreme vacations
6. Shark diving
If "Jaws" didn't permanently scare you out of the water, pack your gear and go deep-sea diving with the sharks off the coast of Cape Point, South Africa. Apex Shark Expeditions runs day trips into False Bay (some 30 minutes from Cape Town) between November and June, inviting you to swim for over an hour with Mako and blue sharks without anything but your wet suit between you and their fins.
Low-adrenaline alternative: Check out the world's largest predatory shark — the great white — in the Pacific waters around Mexico's Isla Guadalupe; Shark Diver outings put you underwater — and safely behind bars — in a secure steel cage.
7. Space travel
The typical vacation will liberate you from the tedious orbit of the work day, but the 10-day space journey offered by Virginia-based Space Adventures blasts you from a launch pad in Kazakhstan into the actual orbit of the Earth, where gravity itself becomes obsolete as you circle the globe every 90 minutes. But if the thought of piggybacking on a Russian rocket for a cool $25 million grounds you, wait for a comfy chair on Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, set to launch as early as 2009 with suborbital flights that will set you back $200,000.
Low-adrenaline alternative: Zero-gravity thrills at an even less-astronomical price ($3,950) are available in Fort Lauderdale through Zero G, where you can simulate weightlessness via the same parabolic-flight maneuvers used to film a buoyant Tom Hanks in "Apollo 13".
8. Spelunking
Rappel down the side of a limestone cliff, squeeze through damp crevices covered with luminescent glow worms, leap from a subterranean waterfall, and go "black-water rafting" in the underground rapids at Ruakuri Cave, part of the otherworldly Waitomo cave system in New Zealand. The five-hour Black Abyss adventure offered by The Legendary Black Water Rafting Co. is the most challenging of the region's guided tours, with a mix of climbing, rappelling, and cave tubing.
Low-adrenaline alternative: For a less-demanding domestic descent, go to Carlsbad Caverns National Park in southern New Mexico. Rather than rivers and waterfalls, the 300 caves here were carved out by limestone-dissolving sulfuric acid, making for a much drier — yet still "deeply" satisfying — experience.
9. Stunt vacations
Making a living as a stunt person sounds crazy to most, but if you fancy yourself a daredevil, it probably sounds like a dream job. For a taste of the car chases, burning buildings, and free falls seen in high-octane action movies, head to Las Vegas. Thrillseekers Unlimited offers hear-pounding adventures taught by working SAG stunt professionals; book the five-day Stunt Experience and you'll stunt fight, set yourself on fire, and bungee jump from the AJ Hackett Tower on the Strip.
Low-adrenaline alternative: If you'd rather take it one adventure at a time, try a tandem skydive offered at hundreds of locations across the U.S.
10. Titanic dive
You've seen the movie, but nothing prepares you for seeing the RMS Titanic up close. You don't have to be an oceanographer to get a look at the shipwreck of all shipwrecks, either —head to Newfoundland, where The Great Canadian Adventure Company runs expeditions aboard the Akademik Keldysh, a Russian research vessel capable of descending nearly 2.5 miles underwater to reach the ship's resting place. The privilege of seeing the Titanic up close costs nearly $40,000 but, for fanatics, it's a small price to pay to be one of the first non-scientists to make the dive.
Low-adrenaline alternative: If your pockets aren't that deep, a snorkeling excursion in the Bahamas should satisfy some of your curiosity — minus the major expense. Bimini, Grand Bahama, Paradise, and Andros islands all have shipwrecks right offshore; all you need to explore them are your mask and fins.
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