One of the most sought after activities for those who travel is to perform sports in different environments. In fact, there is a whole industry, Sports Tourism, which generates millions of dollars a year.
From surfers looking for extreme waves, to motocross fans looking for greater challenges, to triathletes, these international athletes soon have their place of origin small and are tempted to seek new experiences around the world.
Extremes from Hollywood
The 2015 film Break Point starring Luke Bracey and Venezuelan Edgar Ramírez catapulted a new frenzy for these sports lovers – in this case, extremes – to get to know new places.
Surfing huge waves, climbing the wall of Angel Falls or snowboarding from an alpine summit are some scenes that can be seen in the film. Although strongly exaggerated, the truth is that adventure and sports tourism had an increase since the year of the film’s release of 12%.
More conventional sports
But it’s not just the most reckless sports that have their place in sports tourism. Also the more traditional activities have their place, and long-standing.
Among the marathoner community, participating in famous competitions on all five continents (in all six, if you take America into account as two continents) is a fairly recurring goal. And even the most modest, such as hikers and recreational bike enthusiasts, often make plans to carry out their activities in every mass emerged in the world.
In our case, we have experimented with the bike, but we have friends in the community of marathoners who we know are raving about competing in the big marathons of Boston, London, Paris, New York or San Silvestre in Brazil, among others.
Great Marathons
There are countries that have long been the venue for marathons and that, in addition, have a high number of fans among their citizens.
This has led to the development of an entire infrastructure and, above all, a tradition of organizing marathons. This added to the fact of the large number of participants and sponsors has made it possible to offer very attractive prizes.
Such marathons are considered a must for the marathoner community. There are six in this category and they are known as the World Marathon Majors.
The venues for these marathons are New York, Boston, Chicago, Tokyo, Berlin and London. They are considered the highest level and valid to crown world champions.
Other Marathons
But every major city wants to organize its own marathon and make it a tradition.
In Canada, for example, they are committed to combining nature, infrastructure and organization. The most important are those based in Vancouver, Toronto, Ontario and Quebec.
In European countries many marathons are held, many of them world famous, although they do not belong to the World Marathon Majors.
In the old continent there is a commitment to a cultural, gastronomic and artistic offer, as well as first-class organizations.
The Amsterdam Marathon is a beautiful walk between bridges, canals and houseboats. It is ideal for beginners because of the low altitude and flat topography of the city.
Paris, to give yourself an opipara meal courtesy of its famous gastronomy and then burn the calories with a marathon. You can also visit the countless attractions of the City of Light.
Prague, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, is a pleasure to run among its streets full of history.
Vienna for music lovers. The Vienna Marathon is enlivened by bands and ensembles of music, from classical and baroque to pop and rock, outdoors.
The marathons in Italy, especially the one in Rome and Tuscany, allow us to eat the succulent pastas and pizzas without risk of getting fat.
For the Brussels marathon there is nothing better than getting that fast-burning energy from the delicious, world-famous Belgian chocolates.
Cycling
Well, yes. Marathons are extreme for us. It is that you have to see the face of 42 kilometers of uninterrupted race!
We are more than eating chocolates, pizza … well, we burn calories with dancing and cycling.
Recreational cycling is one of our favorite activities and we practice it whenever we can on our trips.
In Italy, in the beautiful region of Tuscany, there is the L’Eroica cycleruta. There, since 1997 a non-competitive race is held whose theme is vintagebikes, although you can participate with any model.
The race honors italy’s last gravel trails and is a very panoramic race of global interest.
In Bolivia the Salar de Uyuní, a huge desalted salt lake, is home to world-famous cycle laycats.
It is an old lake covered by a thick crust of salt, on which even 4×4 cars can roll.
It is a flat area, surrounded by volcanoes, some active in the Bolivian highlands. Sunscreen and sunglasses should be used, as salt is like a mirror that one receives solar radiation from above and below. 
Amsterdam is one of the most pedestrian and bike-friendly cities in the world. The bike culture here is very long-standing and practically the whole city can be toured by bike. Plus it’s a city show. The same is true of Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark.
In the Balearic Islands, specifically in Mayorca, there are cycling routes for all levels.
The routes could not be more varied, given the rich landscape and topography of the island. In addition to the excellent infrastructure that exists for the practice of this activity. Apart from the excellent climate that reigns there almost all year round.
And for the most extreme (or for those who want to get started in the most challenging aspect of cycling) in Canada there is the Whistler Mountain Bike Park in the Whistler Mountains in the province of British Columbia.
There are 70 bike routes, of different difficulty levels. It remains open between mid-April and mid-October.
It is without a doubt the most famous bike park in the world and here you can practice such an activity among forests and snowy mountains, all perfectly signposted.
Conclusions
There’s nothing like practicing your favorite sport or physical activity in exotic places to take you to the next level.
We do not know if one seeks as an excuse to do sport to travel or travel to do sports. The truth is that both activities are inseparable for many people. And it is that traveling as that motivates you to extend your limits And what better way to do it (and to know even more about our destination) than doing a good physical activity?
