- Expert Guide Service – Natural history and story-telling woven within an adventure: sea kayaking, hiking, mountain biking, or canoeing.
- Day Trips
- Overnight and Weekend Excursions
- Sea Kayak Where You Are – We’ll bring the adventure to you!
- Try Maine Tri – Three sports (hike, bike, sea kayak) over two days!
- Natural History Classes – Immersive natural history learning opportunities, single to multi-day, on the topic of your choice, taught by Dr. Dave Santillo. Outdoor classroom, and integrated with light adventure (hiking, biking, or paddling).
- Birding/Ornithology
- Plant Identification and Ecology
- Reading the Landscape
- Wildlife Tracking (winter)
- Marine Ecology
With Venture Outside, your chariot for your Adventure may be a sea kayak, a mountain bike, a canoe, or your hiking shoes. Your practice may be yoga, nature awareness, wildflower identification, or meditation. Your tools will always include your senses, and also may include a musical instrument, binoculars, a field guide, or a sketch pad.
The overviews of the different Adventures offered by Venture Outside that are linked below present general descriptions, but also leave plenty of room for the discovery that we think is a critical aspect of VO trips. We won’t guarantee you’ll see seals on our kayaking trips – we will guarantee that you’ll have an amazing experience on the water during which nature will provide some type of surprise and reveal some mystery, and that we’ll do our best to make sure that you are awake and aware so that you don’t miss it!
Some examples of activities that will be mixed in with the physical activities of our excursions will include:
- Learn to see more in nature.
- Sing to snails – we’re not kidding!
- Games to heighten your “outdoor” senses – getting inside the head of wildlife.
- Learn about and forage for wild edible plants.
- Learn to roll in a sea kayak.
- Hiking where there’s no trails.
- Bang on a drum.
- Build and experience a sweat lodge.
- Learn and practice woods survival skills and camp crafts.
- Practice feeding off the energy of rocks and trees, streams, and the wind.
- Sing at the top of your lungs around a campfire – to yourself and others!
Choose camping or BnB options for accommodations for either established or custom itineraries, except when island camping is specified.
All scheduled itineraries are middle-of-the-road in terms of activity level, but VO offers customized tours for groups of 4 or more that can range from more relaxed (emphasis on mindfulness, interpretation, and restoration) to hardcore (“I’m shooting for the Olympics!!) intensity.
Our menu for any included meal will have a decidedly Maine flavor and will feature locally grown vegetables, locally harvested seafood, local wild edibles, and other locally produced foods. We’ll work to accommodate special diet requests.
