Water tourism
Water tourism is classified as an extreme vacation or even a sport dangerous to health and life. Nevertheless, water tourism is one of the most popular varieties of modern travel. As a rule, it is based on overcoming various water routes, both river and sea, on all kinds of watercraft. Water tourism is strongly associated with deep positive emotions, thrills, overcoming difficult routes and, as a result, pride in the journey. It is also important that water tourism allows you to combine the pleasure of adventure with a healthy lifestyle. Water tourism is an extremely broad concept, which includes a large number of its types. Often it is combined with educational tourism, when rafting along the river, vacationers get acquainted with the wonders of local nature, the sights of cities and historical and cultural monuments. The most popular types of water tourism are cruises, river rafting, rafting, sailing trips, kayaking and diving. All of them require travelers to be fit.
River Rafting
This is a dynamically developing type of outdoor activity, involving the movement of rubber inflatable boats, kayaks, rafts and catamarans downstream. Such trips can be carried out both on quiet wide rivers and on stormy mountain streams. Depending on the speed of the current and the complexity of the routes, there are six levels of their complexity. The higher it is, the greater the risk to tourists. For example, the sixth category of complexity implies the presence of rapids on the river, and only experienced athletes can take such a route.
Rafting
It is an extreme modification of river rafting on special inflatable boats called rafts. As a rule, they are designed for 6-8 people and, unlike kayaks or catamarans, they are extremely high-passability and stable. Rafting is carried out on stormy mountain rivers and is a team kind of travel. Each person in the carriage has its own function, and not only the safety of the alloy, but also the life of the comrades depends on the coordinated efforts of all team members.
Yachting
Sailing is considered the most romantic form of water travel. It can be carried out on virtually any fairly extensive reservoirs, ranging from wide rivers to marine open spaces. In addition to the excitement of the trip itself, yachting gives tourists a fascinating acquaintance with distant cities and countries or allows you to enjoy untouched nature.
Kayaking
It is one of the most extreme and difficult types of water tourism, which requires great skill from athletes. The names of the main varieties of kayaking speak for themselves – alloy, rowing slalom and rodeo. Travels are carried out on small single or less often double small boats – kayaks. As a rule, kayaking is water tourism for singles who are not afraid to challenge a turbulent mountain river and stay with more than one on one.
Diving
Thanks to the invention of scuba diving, scuba diving has become a fairly widespread form of boating. Modern diving equipment and effective training systems have made it accessible to almost all people with normal health. Today it is a completely safe, comfortable and affordable form of recreation. People with a tendency to spend time actively will surely prefer diving into uncharted depths of the sea to a banal beach holiday. The main diving center in Ukraine is the southern coast of Crimea, where you can not just dive, but explore the ships that sank in the twentieth and even XIX century. The best conditions for diving on a global scale are in the Red Sea, waters washing Australia and atolls of the Pacific Ocean.
There are different types of water tourism – from the most comfortable and safe to the most extreme, accessible only to well-trained athletes. A water tourist must not only be good at swimming, he must know, be able to distinguish and overcome obstacles encountered on the river. Even in the simplest trips, accidents of boats, people falling into the water, various injuries are possible. Since unforeseen situations on water are much more dangerous than on land, organizers of water tours, especially with extreme sports, should take care of experienced instructors in groups.
Depending on the chosen route, even a boat trip can become extreme if you take a tour of the northern Siberian rivers. The simplest extreme water sports can be multi-day trips on oars or kayaks without motors, in the style of Stenka Razin’s hikes or merchant caravans. For greater effect, such trips can be combined with theatricalization, where experienced instructors will play the role of Cossacks or merchants.
The basis of water tourism is travel on various swimming facilities. One of the most common and simple among them are rafts.
