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Especially if you didn’t see one of the Reel Rock adventure travel films during the 2012 tour, you won’t want to miss one of the Reel Rock shows that start tonight. Check out the film clip on Outside Television.

Emmy-winning adventure filmmakers Josh Lowell and Peter Mortimer circled the world capturing exhilarating sites and stories as top personalities in mountain adventure and rock climbing best the world’s most vertical terrain.  Eight TV shows during the next week bring the best of the 300-city Reel Rock Film Tour to television for the first time.

In yesterday’s special television program “Back to the Beginning”, Christiane Amanpour’s journey included views from the walls surrounding the Old City in Jerusalem.  Here are some of the views you’ll get while climbing on the ramparts around the vibrant Old City.

Photo: © Lois Friedland

Getting away during the weeks just before Christmas is a luxury travel secret. Tropical resorts are hushed and sedate. It’s the quiet before the storm.

One inspired getaway right now is The Ritz Carlton, Palm Beach. Luxury Travel’s Miami-based Guest Author Sara Liss visited with her young family. Her story communicates, basically, “get here soon.”

Among The Ritz-Carlton, Palm Beach’s charms:

• Eau Spa, “a fantasy playground for grownups,” says Sara
• A Club-Floor Lounge so caring and comfortable, “you could hang here all day, relaxing and snacking”



• A cool kids’ club with a rock-climbing wall and Glee stage
• A teen club whose guests can deejay or shoot a modeling portfolio

See what else Sara and her crew loved about The Ritz Carlton, Palm Beach >>

Photos: Pool, Eau Spa, Club Lounge martini, Aquanuts Kids’ Club ©The Ritz-Carlton, Palm Beach.

Here are six of the best resort playgrounds in the Alps for winter sports.  Whether you want to stay in Switzerland, Austria, France or Italy, to go skiing, snowboarding, climbing, or winter walking,  you’ll have a good time in any of these villages.

© OT Chamonix © David Ravanel

Epic Tomato, the UK-based adventure travel company that runs a variety of entertaining trips with unexpected twists has put together several Epic Weekends. If you like warmth, go gorilla trekking in Uganda or watch tree climbing lions in Tanzania or hike with a nomad family in Morocco. Prefer cold? Overnight in a private cabin facing a smoking volcano in Iceland, then go ice fishing. Epic Tomato, which has a U.S. office, has many longer trips, too.

Photo: Courtesy of Epic Tomato

Where can you bike through coffee country and stop at organic coffee fincas, go climbing in tumbled rocky terrain, and hiking among the towering Quindio wax palms? Colombia offers it all  to active travelers in a mix of gentle countryside and rugged terrain.

Photo courtesy of Sergio Caceres Sanchez/Bogotá Bike Tours

A crazy, crowded, messy melee — that’s La Tomatino, the annual tomato throwing festival jumping off in Bunol, Spain (near Valencia) August 29, 2012. Imagine a mosh pit with tomatoes added, plus some diversions like climbing a greased pole to capture a ham. Getting the picture? Check out some visual aids and the whole La Tomatina 101 from About.com’s Guide to Spain, Damian Corrigan, and enjoy!

• Tomatina Tomato Fight 2012
• Tomatina Calendar of Events
• Getting from Valencia to Bunol

Photo © Damian Corrigan | Student Travel blog home

Photo Description:
“Rosemount Camping Resort, 285 Valley Road, Tamaqua, Pennsylvania.
Playground photo’s were taken 06/21/12. Swings, pirate ship, and other
ground level rides are not seen in this photo. Rock face climbing wall is
attached to the other side of the slides, and is about 8 feet tall. Pool
is open from noon to around 8 p.m.”

Photos: Rosemount Camping Resort | © jerryandbarb8

From the Photographer:
“My wife and I have no connection to this or any campground, in any part of
the USA. We only tent camp, and we offer information and advice to campers
through our reviews.”

More: Where to Camp in Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania Campground Reviews

Denver’s Channel 9 has a cool video showing a group of Navy Seals working with members of several U.S. Olympic teams to toughen them up.  Training included everything from lifting 200-pound pipes several times in a row, to hundreds of pushups, climbing rope ladders and swimming in freezing-cold water. Watch the video and read the story.

The new Thunder Challenge, with three races this summer and fall, is the venue where non-Olympian extreme athletes and the super-fit can challenge an obstacle course designed to simulate the  training and challenges presented to U.S. Special Forces and Navy Seals.

Be ready for a some serious ups and downs when you take a Hummer ride on the famous slickrock in Moab, Utah.  Expect to ascend 45-degree pitches where you can only see the sky in front of you, then rocket down a 50-degree pitch. What an adrenaline rush!

Photo:© 2012 Dick Friedland