Why 'soft adventures' are making a comeback

With its pressed white tablecloths, expertly cooked steak and varied wine list, it bore all the hallmarks of a voguish city bistro. Yet through the porthole windows, tinged by the faint crimson of another protracted dusk, lay the perishingly cold, startlingly beautiful Antarctic Peninsula.

For someone with a well-worn copy of Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s The Worst Journey in the World never far from their bedside, I can’t say the juxtaposition didn’t grate. But would I have traded the comforts of this smart expedition ship for the 20th-century deprivations described in the book, chronicling Captain Scott’s fatal voyage to these parts? Not a chance.

And I wasn’t alone. The vessel, which we’d boarded in Tierra del Fuego on the southern tip of South America, for a 10-day exploration, was packed full of people who were all for embracing adventure as long as it wasn’t too, well, adventurous. Which meant spacious cabins, an on-board library and spa and a fleet of Zodiacs for probing the ice-locked fringes of the White Continent.

That voyage was more than a decade ago and, in the intervening years, such so-called soft adventure has exploded in popularity. A report by consultancy firm Grand View Research estimated the value of the adventure tourism market in 2025 at £345bn, and projected a quadrupling to nearly £1.4 trillion by 2033. The lion’s share of that increase? Soft adventure.

The term — and indeed concept — is nothing new. As far back as the fussily indulgent Grand Tours of the 17th and 18th centuries, travellers were expanding their horizons from well within their comfort zones. References to ‘soft’ adventures can be found in newspaper archives from the mid-1980s; today, it’s ubiquitous.

A precise definition is hard to come by. Both elements of this faintly oxymoronic term are simply too subjective: for a seasoned bushcrafter, luxury might be a Pot Noodle, while one person’s adventure of a lifetime might be another’s underwhelming day trip.

It’s also not a question of the activity per se. Alter the duration, distance or level of support, ramp up the comfort and pampering, and even the most rugged trip can take on a demographic-spanning accessibility.

In recent years, I’ve skidooed in the Arctic Circle; kayaked through the Norwegian fjords; trekked across the Congo; biked Spain’s Costa de la Luz; and ventured off-grid in the Namib. All sound frightfully intrepid, until you read the small print, which tends to detail luggage transport, luxurious places to stay, battery-assisted vehicles, air-conditioned transfers and — with a frequency that would bring Sir Ranulph Fiennes out in hives — sundowners by the pool.

Is this inferred adventurousness of spirit part of the appeal? In our performative, social media-dominated age, it certainly can’t be ruled out. The Grand View Research report points to social media as a catalyst in the rise of soft adventure. With its proliferation of impactful imagery, it ‘ignites wanderlust’, it states, inspiring even the most unadventurous to seek out similar experiences.

Paradoxically, an urge to escape our digital appendages may also be fuelling soft adventure’s rise, along with the post-pandemic pivot towards more active, outdoorsy, health-conscious lifestyles. A 2025 survey by Ernst & Young found 38% of UK consumers are concerned about their screen time and eager to take a digital detox, while Mastercard’s 2025 Travel Trends Report revealed European travellers are increasingly prioritising intentional travel centred on themes such as adventure and wellness.

Nature Travels is a specialist operator with 20 years’ experience offering adventurous trips in the Nordic region. Intrepid, multi-day holidays are its bread and butter, but it also offers soft adventures, promising a lower level of challenge ‘but certainly not a reduced level of fun and enjoyment’. “Covid was a time when many people really got a taste for the great outdoors,” says owner and director Bob Carter. “I think the market has responded to that by offering opportunities for people who don’t necessarily have the experience or physical fitness to do the activities as they might have been offered in the past.”

Liddy Pleasants, founder and managing director of family adventure specialist Stubborn Mule Travel, believes it’s this lower barrier of entry that’s really driving the boom. No specialised skillset or ability is needed, and there’s little risk of something not going to plan. The appeal is in being able to bring a ‘fly and flop’ mentality to something a little more active and meaningful, she says. “People often don’t want to have to think on their holiday. A true soft adventure isn’t arduous physically — but it also shouldn’t be arduous mentally.”

Cycling, with the opportunity to vary distance, terrain and battery assistance, is the ultimate scalable activity — and thus a mainstay of the soft adventure movement. Explore, which has 45 years’ experience as a tour operator and offers more than 350 trips to nearly 100 countries, has seen demand for its cycling programmes rise by a fifth over the past year alone. The most popular trips, to the likes of Portugal and Croatia, are badged ‘leisurely’ or ‘moderate’.

Saddle Skedaddle reports a similar pattern. Around 75% of the cycling holiday specialist’s trips fall into the soft adventure bracket, estimates head of customer experience Adam Walker, with the advent of e-bikes and GPS navigation vastly expanding the target market. Over the company’s 30-year lifespan, it’s seen its client base grow from solely those identifying as cyclists or mountain bikers to “pretty much everybody”, he says.

Given the cross-demographic appeal, it’s little surprise that holiday companies are clambering over one another to secure a perch on this well-upholstered bandwagon. River cruises, glamping, safaris, even culture-focused city breaks — you’ll find all, with a little creative licence, badged as soft adventure.

Often, it’s not a case of laying on new trips so much as softening existing ones. Tour operator Explore recently launched Upgraded — small-group adventures with the option to elevate the accommodation, perhaps to a Rajasthani palace or a houseboat on the Okavango Delta. Much Better Adventures, which specialises in immersive and sustainable getaways, has its Premium collection, sloganed ‘Wild days, seriously good stays’. This might mean overnights in boutique hotels or bedding down in an ancient kasbah between hikes in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains.

The latter trip includes expert local guides and gourmet trail-side picnics. Bear Grylls would be appalled, but it illustrates an important point: the tendency for soft adventure trips to embrace local accommodation and services. According to the Adventure Travel Trade Association’s 2025 insights report, three-quarters of the (not-inconsiderable) expenditure of such holidays is ploughed directly into destinations’ economies.

In our age of overtourism, soft adventurers’ inclination towards less-visited countries and regions is surely no bad thing, either. The same report has Scandinavia and Antarctica among the most sought-after destinations — neither traditional tourism hotspots. Explore, meanwhile, has witnessed a 68% rise in demand for the embryonic destination of Albania, with walking and cycling itineraries particularly coveted. West Africa is another surprise big seller, with Benin and Senegal making up two of its five fastest-growing destinations over recent years. All the trips are for small groups and offer the comfort and safety net that are characteristic of soft adventure.

Does this suggest that, for some, the ‘adventurous’ element begins and ends with the choice of destination? Liddy certainly thinks so. “Even just being somewhere like Namibia, Bolivia or China, particularly as a family, can feel like an adventure,” she says. “So [travellers] don’t need to up the ante and do anything particularly hardcore while they’re there. Gentle exploration can be enough.”

And she has no time for any soft adventure naysayers. Dismissing this style of travel as little more than a watered-down version of the real thing completely misses the point, she believes. “In soft adventure, the activity isn’t incidental but it’s also not everything,” she says. “It’s about immersing yourself in a place and, most importantly, having fun. If you want a hardcore challenge, fine — but that’s a very different thing.”

Five adventures with added comfort

1. Spot wild cats in Sri Lanka

Looking for leopards in Yala National Park is the biggest draw of an adventure that’s elevated by luxury accommodation. Ten nights from £2,345, B&B.

2. Island-hop in Sweden

Hike across the Stockholm archipelago; local boats zip you between islands, while luggage transfers deal with your bags. Six nights from £860, B&B.

3. Pedal through Piedmont

This leisurely Italian tour is about vineyards and vistas, with e-bikes, luggage transfers and regular wine- and truffle-tastings. Seven nights from £1,495, B&B.

4. Trek through the Faroes

On this loop of one of Europe’s most captivating archipelagos, the daily walks are manageable in length and terrain. Seven nights from £3,670, B&B.

5. Take the kids to Namibia

Sleep under the stars, ride Sossusvlei’s dunes and see Etosha’s wildlife on this family itinerary. Fourteen nights from £3,750pp, B&B.