This inspirational offering from Rough Guides really hits the spot. Every time I open it up, it’s got me hooked with the big glossy pictures and snappy descriptions of places to go and, most importantly, cool stuff to do there.

The book is divided into seven geographic chapters with an index of activities, countries and times at the back. North America picks up around 110 pages; Africa gets 54 pages as does Latin America and the Caribbean; Europe has 50 pages; Asia, 46; and Australasia, New Zealand and the polar regions only 35 pages between them all.

Each activity has an “is this for me?” section which rates activities in four categories: physical, psychological, skill and wow factor. Each category is ranked with between one and five stars along with a sentence fragment explaining the types of challenges one would face.

Starting with an area I know well, New Zealand, I was pleased with the suggested activities. Unsurprisingly, there were quite a few adventures to be had. They focussed on hiking and watersports and were all good choices to showcase the country’s natural beauty.

I moved from there to Western Australia; where I am as I write. Nothing. No sports fishing where salt-water crocodiles can snatch the catch from your rod, no swimming with whale sharks off the coast, no outback adventure on the Bibbulmun track. What was I to do? My next Pacific stop is Tonga and, surprisingly, there was no entry there either. For information, a good online travel guide would be a much better bet.

Those disappointments aside, this is the book I’d keep on my coffee table, if I ever settled down long enough to have one. Opening a page at random will give you half a dozen ideas for further travel and motivate you to explore your backyard and learn some new skills, whether that’s basic climbing or working on your swimming skills. I’ve already been motivated to have a decent go at windsurfing this year and there’s a picture on page 173 which has me looking longingly at kayaks.

Mmm. Kayaks.

The Rough Guide to Ultimate Adventures 1 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) by Greg Witt is published by Rough Guides, this edition 2008. It was supplied for review and is available to buy from Amazon.com.

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This article was written by Craig Martin

Podcaster and writer Craig Martin has been living on the road since leaving Auckland, New Zealand in February 2006. With a degree in Media Studies and English plus a penchant for Coleridge, he's still travelling. Craig podcasts at the Indie Travel Podcast and has penned several travel books for Indie Travel Media Ltd.