Flight of Fancy podcast: Getting outside your comfort zone - travel experiences you have to try once

There's a feeling you get when you step outside your comfort zone. It's excitement, but it's also fear. It's pleasure, but it's tinged with trepidation. What if it all goes wrong? What if your worst fears are realised and this all ends in disaster?

Of course, different people have different ideas of what a comfort zone is. For some, staying in a resort that only has four stars would be considered an adventure. For others, a trek through the Congolese jungle in search of mountain gorillas would barely even register as a thrill.

It actually doesn't matter how hardcore you are. The common thread that runs through all of these experiences is that stepping outside your comfort zone when you travel, forcing yourself to do things that scare you or even just make you feel a little edgy, is a very good thing. This is what travel is all about: taking chances, having new experiences, discovering things about yourself and the world that you never knew were possible.

On this episode of Flight of Fancy: the Traveller.com.au podcast, I chat to travel writers Ute Junker and Rob McFarland about the concept of adventure – but a specific type of adventure. These are the risks that push you that little bit further than you thought you would ever go.

Maybe that's just going to a restaurant to eat by yourself. Maybe it's introducing yourself to a group of strangers. Maybe it's throwing yourself off a bridge with an elastic band tied to your ankles. Everyone has a different comfort zone, and stepping outside of it is always worth it.