Travel can be fun in almost any form. You could rent a Segway and explore a new city or visit a jungle while traveling by zip line. Being as I am from Boston, I'm quite fond of the duck boats. If you're looking to change things up I have three approaches that offer opportunities to make some adventures more accessible or help you experience a trip from a different angle.
Climb every mountain with help
In 1999, my parents announced that the family would be traveling together for their next anniversary. They then explained that we would need to put some work into it. Dad had hoped to go to Macchu Pichu in South America and he found a company that would guide us through the Andes for five days before we set foot in the famous Incan ruins.
I will admit that it was a lot harder than even our preparations anticipated. Altitude sickness was a beast and I discovered that I was having a hard time of it because of a high fever. On the other hand, we had a lot of help. Porters brought our camping equipment and backpacks to the next destination and took care of the food.
I still have my "I survived Dead Woman's Pass" tshirt from that trip, but I remember it being made possible by staff and fellow travelers alike. The best moments of that trip had to do with inside jokes about unfriendly llamas, memories of camping above the clouds, and finding connection in our small group.
Taking long walks between interesting places
In 2016, my dad described how people in Austria can walk from concert to concert in the summer and hear wonderful music. I've been a violinist since before I made it to kindergarten and have loved music ever since, so this idea appealed to me. A few hours of Googling later, I discovered that I could, in fact, walk through parts of Austria for fun. I used my year-end bonus as a down payment on a seven-day hiking trip in Germany and Austria and let my mother come along for company and moral support.
I'd done multi-day hikes before, such as the aforementioned Inca Trail and part of Vermont's Long Trail, but this Jakobsweg trek had a fun twist. We laced up our hiking boots, filled our water bottles and packed our food for the day, and then hiked to the next city on our itinerary. When we got there, we would check into a hotel that was pre-booked for us and enjoy a good night's sleep 3- or 4-star accommodations.
This trip not only let us retrace the steps of medieval pilgrims, but we also travel through towns we'd never heard of as well as a major city. A shorter-lived version of this experience was when a friend and I disembarked on Sicily and spent the entire day exploring a city by finding the nearest church spire on the horizon and finding our way to it. We returned to our comfortable ship's cabin in time for dinner, but still had an adventure.
Take a train going anywhere
I recently befriended a person whose creative path has led him to photograph the neighborhoods around every subway stop in Boston. It's been great fun recognizing places that I remember from years of exploring the city without ever getting in a car, but it reminded me of enjoyable trips I've taken on another continent.
Eurail passes are a great way to efficiently and fairly inexpensively get around Europe. My first time traveling the continent was made possible because I landed in Switzerland, then used my pass to explore Italy and France and then take the Chunnel train to London.
One of my most amusing experiences involved misinformation leading me to an express train in the wrong direction so that instead of going to Zurich, I revisited Salzburg and tspent four hours in Liechtenstein. There are companies who will help you plan train journeys with much more focus, which is how I'm planning to spend a week in the French countryside for my next vacation.