50 Ways to Have an Adventure Without Leaving Town.

Travel is something so many of us crave more of, but time and budget constraints mean that most of us can’t jet off on holiday whenever we want to.

‘Adventure’ is one of my core desired feelings, so I’ve been trying to infuse my life with it, even when I’m stuck within the confines of my 9-5.

We get to choose what our life looks and feels like, so instead of letting it get dull or mundane just because there isn’t an epic vacation on your horizon, commit to spicing up your day to day with endless mini adventures Here are 50 ways you can go on an adventure without even leaving town.

1. Download the Drift app and get lost on purpose.
2. Read a piece of completely escapist fiction.
3. Take a transit line you’ve never been on before and see where you end up.
4. Recreate a dish you ate on your favourite holiday.
5. Camp out in your backyard (or living room!)
6. Go for a hike.
7. Organize a dinner party where you cook food from a different country each month.
8. Find out where serves the best [insert country of choice] food in your city and try it.
9. Visit the closest body of water.
10. Go on a walking tour and see another side of your city.
11. Visit a part of town you’ve never been to.
12. Go to the most touristy attraction close by that you haven’t been to yet.
13. Find a pen pal in another part of the world.
14. Write a story where you’re the heroine of your own action adventure fantasy.
15. Read all about the history of the place you’d most like to visit.
16. Leave a message in a bottle and hide it for someone to find.
17. Try a type of cuisine you’ve never eaten before.
18. Challenge yourself to notice something new about your surroundings every day for a month and take a picture of it.
19. Invite your friends to a picnic where everyone brings a dish from their favourite place.
20. Create a self-guided walking tour of your favourite neighbourhood and post it on your blog.

21. Browse Meetup and join a group that sounds interesting. Attend their next event.
22. Spend a week saying yes to every new opportunity that comes your way.
23. Create a costume from clothes you never way and then build a character around it. Act it out for the afternoon.
24. Take a look on Opacity and find out whether there are any abandoned buildings nearby that you can safely explore.
25. Go ziplining, go-karting, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, or some other kind of outdoor adventure you’ve never tried before.
26. Organise a flash mob.
27. Go geocaching.
28. Or letterboxing.
29. Take language lessons. Or if you know another language, find someone to practice speaking it to.
30. Create a treasure hunt for your favourite kiddos (or kidults!)
31. Learn about urban foraging and find your own food.
32. Or see if there’s an urban fruit harvesting project in your city.
33. Rent a boat and paddle along the river or local lake.
34. Build a tree fort.
35. Visit a different coffee shop every week for a year.
36. Try your hand at creating street art.
37. Grab your girl gang and go for a midnight stroll.
38. Dance into the morning at a morning rave.
39. See how far you can walk in one day.
40. Create your own holiday and organise a celebration.
41. Visit a conversation centre.
42. Kick it old school and read a Choose Your Own Adventure novel.
43. Consume a type of culture you’ve never experienced before. What about spoken word, silent film, or conceptual art? Browse your local listings for something that will push you out of your comfort zone.
44. Learn a word from another language each week and practice dropping it awkwardly into conversation.
45. Plant a flower or vegetable garden in your backyard.
46. Have a Planet Earth marathon.
47. Create your travel wanderlist.
48. Draw a map of your city, only reimagined for a fantasy adventure novel.
49. Swap houses with your best friend for a week.
50. Walk backwards to work (but be careful!)

How do you add more adventure to your life? I’d love to hear!

Love, sidewalk chalk, and ruffled dresses,

Photographs via Ruffled Blog and Green Wedding Shoes.