Discover Adventure | Blog

Six challenges we think deserve more attention than they get

Every January, the same handful of countries top every "where to go next" list. We wanted to write the opposite one.

Not the loudest places; the ones worth the detour. The quieter route over the obvious one. The trail that still runs through someone's home village rather than past a coach park. None of these six are the easy option, and that's rather the point: the effort is part of what makes them worth it, and so is what your being there puts back into the places you pass through.

We watched it too: our thoughts on Aitch: Don't Be Afraid

Over the weekend, along with plenty of other households, the DA team sat down to watch Aitch: Don't Be Afraid. We knew this trip. We ran this trip. We still weren't quite ready for how emotional and cinematic it would feel to watch it back.

Our brilliant leader Vic and his lovely partner Zara (a Discover Adventure veteran of ten challenges and counting!), who's climbed Kilimanjaro herself, were at the London premiere of Aitch: Don't Be Afraid last night. On her way home, she wrote this. We're even more excited to see the film now! It lands on Netflix on Sunday. 

In January 2025, we took a group up Kilimanjaro that included a chart-topping rapper, his dad, a reality TV star, and a team climbing for the Down's Syndrome Association. On 26 July, their story arrives on Netflix — Aitch: Don't Be Afraid. Here's the bit the cameras don't linger on: how a trip like this actually gets made.

There's a line we use a lot at Discover Adventure: everyone's summit is different.

We mean it genuinely. Over 32 years of running challenges, we've watched people cross finish lines they never expected to cross. People carrying injuries, illness, grief, doubt. People who signed up before they felt ready and figured it out on the way.

But it's one thing to say that from the outside. It's quite another when it's your own start-line that moves without warning.

Hannah has worked at DA for over 25 years. She knows our trips, our values and our ethos better than almost anyone. And three years ago, Long Covid quietly redefined what was possible for her. What follows is her story, in her own words.

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week. And after 32 years of enabling people to do hard things, we've noticed something worth talking about.

Nobody signs up for a Discover Adventure challenge to fix their mental health.

They sign up because a friend did it a few years back and came home changed in some way they couldn't quite explain. Because a charity they care about needed fundraisers. Because something in them wanted to find out what they were made of. Because they needed a reason to get outside more. Because they said yes before they could talk themselves out of it.

But something happens out there that isn't in the itinerary.