50+ travelers fuel market for adventure tourism

There is a reason that the market for adventure travel is exploding, and it has nothing to do with youth.

The Baby Boomers have no intention of retiring from life, or work for that matter. Rather, the population that has arrived at the half-century mark (to be greeted by the inevitable welcome packet from the American Association of Retired Persons) seems to be interested in simply reversing the proportions of work and active leisure.

So far, the supply of adventure trips seems to be keeping up with the demand, with the Internet giving adventure seekers from Northern Colorado the freedom to sign on with any travel operator in the world.

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However, two of the most experienced, highly regarded companies specializing in hiking and biking trips are located in Fort Collins. Walking the World and Experience Plus both offer an array of trips along back roads and hiking trails, at a level of comfort befitting those whose hostel days are behind them.

“We saw this ‘explosion’ coming 25 years ago,´ said Ward Luthi, founder of Walking the World and a member of the President’s Commission on Americans Outdoors, established by Ronald Reagan in 1985. “The Commission recognized that the demand for outdoor recreational opportunities might overwhelm supply as the Baby Boom generation matured and had more leisure time to spend.”

Tired of wearing a suit in D.C., Luthi returned to Colorado and started Walking the World, which now features organized hiking trips in North America, Europe from Iceland to Spain, New Zealand, the Galapagos Islands and Costa Rica.

Developments over two decades

At about the same time Luthi was working with the Commission, Paola and Rick Price arrived in Fort Collins as new hires at Colorado State University, she to teach Italian, he to run the study abroad program. Staying in touch with Europe and the rest of the world seemed a reasonable extension of their job descriptions, and so in 1983, they incorporated their adventure cycling company as Experience Plus.

“It wasn’t the first time we had done bicycle tours,´ said Rick Price. “Paola is Italian, and when we were students at the University of Oregon, we had no idea how we would get back to Italy. So we advertised a cycling trip in a student magazine for $245. We got 25 people for a two-week trip that included camping and staying in hostels.”

As the latest catalog for Experience Plus indicates, a lot has changed since then. Just as an example, in the summer and fall of 2006, Jacki and Jay Witlen, owners of Jay’s Bistro, will be leading a gastronomic cycling trip though the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy.

While Experience Plus designs and runs trips for all ages, Julie Horton, director of operations, said that most of the company’s clients are in their mid-50s and “down to earth.”

“The people who take our tours run the gamut of professions,” she said. “We focus on trips with good food and good wine, with three- or four-star accommodations in the middle of towns. People like to wander after dinner, and if you are staying in a chateau in the countryside, you really can’t do that.”

Horton said that the most popular trips were the Venice-to-Pisa and the Venice-to-Florence rides.

“My next-door neighbor had talked to me about the trips,´ said Cindy Vanderheiden, who teaches at Preston Junior High in Fort Collins. “I had always wanted to go to Lucca where my grandparents came from, and this seemed like a good way to see the countryside. I went with my sister-in-law.”

Vanderheiden acknowledged that she is not much of a cyclist, but the routes chalked out each day by the guides were easy to follow.

“My first trip was eight days, and the second one was two weeks,” she said. “They take such good care of you. They make it so easy to enjoy family-owned restaurants.”

Experience Plus also offers more rigorous trips for the more daring.

“We are selling out trips in Eastern Europe,´ said Ian Wells, information specialist for Experience Plus. “We announced a six-week trip from St. Petersburg, Russia, to Istanbul, Turkey, and had to turn people away. That trip is 2,300 miles long and will run in June.”

Joe Friel, who has trained endurance athletes since 1980, has created a special training program for the trip, which will run in three, two-week stages

“It’s a rather torturous trip that goes on for weeks,” he said. “We have created two different training plans, one for under 50 and one for over 50.”

For travelers 50 and better

While Experience Plus offers a variety of trips, including those for families with children, Luthi concentrates his business on outdoor adventures for “people 50 and better.” He offers opportunities to walk and camp or to walk and stay in three- and four-star inns, hotels and lodges.

“One of the findings that is coming out in research on wellness and aging is that people adjust better to aging when they do things outside,” Luthi said. “As a result, organizations like the International Council on Active Aging have recognized walking as a means to wellness.”

Ann and Dave Healy, retired university professors from Wisconsin, moved to Fort Collins in 1998. That first fall, they went on their first Walking the World trip.

“Many of the people we met on the trip had been on two or three of Ward’s trips,” Dave Healy said. “We like the trips that involve tenting, which means the staff has to be top notch to take care of everything an inn might. The trips we have taken to Canada with other operators have made us appreciate what a good leader Ward is. He is extremely concerned with the environment.”

Luthi has quite a bit to say about ecotourism and the impact it has had on the economics of the host countries.

“We want to do more with local partnerships in the countries where we walk,” he said. “That way more of the money stays in those countries, and we can keep the costs of our trips down, making it possible for more people to travel.”

Luthi noted that as adventure travel has matured, moving from the offbeat to the mainstream, there seems to be less and less interaction with the local culture. Some high-end operators include stays at luxury hotels like the Villa d’Este, “the crown jewel of Italy’s Lake Como,” but not a place to mingle with the locals. Likewise, even well-intentioned new entries in a burgeoning market may not have the experience to find the less-traveled walking trails though European vineyards or the Costa Rican countryside. And absolutely no other cycling tour in the world can offer the Experience Plus option of a picnic lunch at the family farm of Paola Malpezzi Price on the way from Venice to Pisa.