5 Extreme Travel Destinations For 2014

Adrenaline junkies looking for their next travel adventure may want to consider consulting a new list of extreme destinations for 2014 that includes bungee jumping into the belly of an active volcano in Chile and touring a war zone.

The adventure travel ideas proposed by Cheapflights aren’t for the faint-hearted. But they may set many a thrillseeker’s heart aflutter with trips that span Fiji, Mexico, Africa, Oman and Bolivia.

Here’s a selection of Cheapflights’ adventure travel idea hotspots for 2014:

Swim with the sharks in Fiji
On Beqa Island, divers plunge into the ocean and get to see sharks up close and personal — that is, without the protection of a cage. Divers can expect to meet largely harmless species like the Tawny Nurse Shark and Blacktip Reef Shark. But here’s where the dive description may lose a few people: “The Bull Sharks and the Tiger Sharks however are clearly a class in their own. They are Apex Predators who grow to an impressive size and have a notorious reputation for attacking humans.” Happy diving.

Volcano bungee jumping in Chile
This stunt involves jumping into the mouth of an active volcano from a helicopter, within 700 feet (213 meters) of molten lava, after which you stay suspended upside down traveling 130 km above the simmering crater.

Cycling the Death Road in La Paz, Bolivia
It’s been dubbed the world’s most dangerous road: a treacherous downhill stretch of 64 km that starts on snow-covered plains and descends to the Amazonian jungle. Oh, and it also includes a 3.6-km drop down a sheer cliff face.

Base jumping in Mexico
The Cave of Swallows is deep enough to house a high-rise building and has inspired kamikaze adrenaline junkies to jump into the belly of the earth with a parachute.

Sandboarding in Oman
Desert sand dunes in parts of Oman can run as high 100 meters. Instead of snow, travelers hit the desert slopes with their boards, toboggans or quad bikes.

10 Facts You Didn’t Know About the Eiffel Tower On Its 125th Birthday

It takes a lot of primping and priming to look good at 125 years old. Just ask the Eiffel Tower, arguably the most recognizable silhouette in the world. It marks the milestone on March 31.

When Gustave Eiffel built the latticed tower for the World Fair in 1889, it was supposed to be a temporary edifice, to be torn down in 20 years.

Today, the iconic French landmark is the most visited, paid monument in the world, attracting more than 7 million visitors a year. Seventy-five percent of them are foreign tourists.

Here are a few fun facts and figures about the Iron Lady:

1. Strange but true: In a commitment ceremony in 2007, an American woman ‘married’ the Eiffel Tower. Erika La Tour Eiffel (she changed her name) suffers from ‘Objectum-Sexual’ a condition in which people fall in love with inanimate objects.

2. Aging requires no small amount of cosmetic touch-ups: Every seven years, the Iron Lady undergoes a paint job that requires up to 60 tons of paint to protect her from rust.

3. The Eiffel Tower will shrink and grow by up to 15 cm (6 inches) with the fluctuating temperatures.

4. Every year, the combined distance traveled by the elevator lifts works out to be about 103,000 km a year — or 2.5 times the circumference of the Earth.

5. Technically, it’s illegal to publish photos of the illuminated tower at night. Permission and rights must be obtained from the “Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel.”

6. The tower is open every day. In a country that shuts down every Sunday, the tower is perhaps the only thing open 365 days a year including Christmas.

7. After the French, Italians, Spaniards and Americans make up the biggest visitors to the Eiffel Tower.

8. The tower has its own YouTube channel.

9. Eiffel paid homage to the great French men of science by engraving the names of 72 scientists, engineers and mathematicians on the four sides of the tower.

10. The nightly five-minute light show, which begins on the hour every hour from nightfall until 1 am, requires 20,000 light bulbs.