Two short years ago we created Coleman Concierge, a travel website dedicated to using activity-based travel to create transformative experiences. We believe in finding amazing adventures for ordinary people.
Somewhere in this wide world is the perfect adventure for you and we are here to help you find it. From our tips, tricks, narrative writing, and reviews we help people find adventures and activities that will expand their comfort zone, rejuvenate their sense of adventure, and inspire their imagination.
Over the last two years, we have written hundreds of articles about our worldwide adventures that have reached thousands of readers. We are home based in sunny Florida with writing teams located in Southern California as well. Here are some of our favorite articles that capture the essence of Coleman Concierge and activity-driven travel.
Nine Tips for Hiking Havasu Falls
If you were going to pick one bucket list hike for the desert southwest, this is it. The colors of Havasu Falls will leave you breathless as blue-green water cascades down red rock cliffs. It’s one of the most beautiful sites of the Grand Canyon. It’s also in one of the remote parts of the Continental United States. The falls must be accessed through Supai, which is an actual Native American village with no roads or rail access. Your only choice is to fly in by helicopter, take a mule, or hike it yourself. Not only that, the permits to enter and camp in the canyon are one of very difficult to obtain. They are granted by a first come / first serve system that sold out within 6 minutes last year. Timing is critical to getting a permit. Once you get the permit, there is still have the logistics of reaching camp as well what to do at the falls themselves. There is one waterfall called Havasu Falls, but along Havasu Creek, there are many falls that are worth visiting such as Mooney Falls, Beaver Falls, and Navajo Falls. The logistics are formidable, but this adventure is within reach of many people if they follow our Nine Tips for Hiking Havasu Falls.
Wet and Wild in Tijuana
This article was a surprise hit for us. Tijuana Mexico is the sister city to San Diego California. The border wall runs between them but you can easily take the trolley from downtown San Diego and walk into Tijuana. Once there, there is a vibrant scene that is distinctively different from what you find on the US side. The food, culture, shopping, and activities make this a surprising tourist destination. Just across the border is a Mexican water park that offers an experience uniquely different than any US Theme Park. Instead of cliché cartoons characters, you’re greeted with an altar to the Virgin Mary. You could come for just the fabulous authentic Mexican food and generous frozen drinks that are offered without the usual theme park markup, but you really should experience the attractions. These rides would never pass the muster of the lawyer happy United States. Some are as simple as Tarzan swings into the pool but others are only for the brave. The Slip and Fly must be over a 100’ tall slide that launches you high into the air before splashing into the pool. I learned first hand that there is a right way and a wrong way to Slip-and-fly. Our readers learned just how funny I look doing the running man through the air. It was a win-win(ish) situation but a good time was had by all. Click to learn more about the most extreme waterpark just south of San Diego.
Cloudland Canyon Hiking and Photography Guide
The Appalachian Mountains are where people in the eastern United States go for a taste of nature when they can’t make it to the wild wild west. Cloudland Canyon State Park is one of the southernmost parks in the Appalachian Mountains making it the perfect gateway for mountain adventures for Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. Here bubbling brooks tumble down lush green sandstone mountains creating stunning visuals you will want to take home and treasure. We offer photographic tricks for capturing the flowing water, enhancing shadowy lowlights, and feature focal objects like blooming mountain laurel. Following our Cloudland Canyon Hiking and Photography Guide you will not only have an amazing adventure, but the pictures to prove it.
How to Find the Best Ayurveda in Sri Lanka
We traveled across the globe to the faraway country of Sri Lanka to learn about a two-thousand-year-old system for health and wellness – Ayurveda. In a nutshell, Ayurveda looks to identify your constitution and finds ways brings it into balance through diet, meditation, exercise, and treatments. What we found most interesting about Ayurveda was that everything could be poison or medicine. It all depends on what you need to find balance. We went to Mahagadera Wellness Retreat which is surrounded by the natural jungle. Almost all of the food we ate came directly from the gardens on the retreat. We were visited by local ayurvedic practitioners and monks from the local temple. It was the most authentic experience we found in Sri Lanka and laid a foundation for wellness that we intend to follow for a lifetime. Perhaps the best endorsement we could give to Mahagadera is that we sent our only daughter there to study yoga for the summer and find herself. She is on a plane flying to Sri Lanka as I am writing this article. I don’t know what specifically she will find but I trust the process of Ayurveda to be what she needs for her constitution. In our article, we share our tips with you about How to Find the Best Ayurveda in Sri Lanka.
Glamping: The New Wave of Eco-Tourism
We went to the most remote National Park in Thailand, Khao Sok, to share an extraordinary glamping adventure. For those of you who don’t know what glamping is, it’s a combination of two words: glamorous camping. What made this camping so glamorous? Their beds were the most comfortable we slept on in all of Thailand and each tent had its own shower and bathroom. More than that, it was a comprehensive, all-inclusive tour of the Thai jungle and Khao Sok. Our three-day, two-night adventure included one night in the rainforest camp and one night in the lake camp. At the rainforest camp, we fed and washed elephants on an ethical encounter that was a finalist for the National Geographic World Legacy Award for conserving the natural world. We also had a hill tribe guide us down a karst river in canoes and visited a local market. At the lake camp, we slept on floating tents with our personal kayak moored out front. We took a long tail boat tour through the karst towers of Cheow Lan Lake and a guided nature hike to a high mountain cave. Not only were the beds comfortable, but there were even more glamorous adventures to be had in Glamping: the New Wave of Eco-Tourism.
Angels Landing the Best Hike in Zion?
Zion National Park in Utah is known for its steep towers and deep canyons. Adventure is waiting around every turn. Angel’s Landing is the type of trail you can’t believe was ever built and have to see for yourself to believe. It’s relatively short but features a final half mile that will take your breath away. This trail section is known as the Hog’s Back. There are sections where a thousand-foot cliff drops off on either side of you, but at least there is a chain bolted in for you to hang on to. The exposure is intense. The views are epic, and all it’s a very doable half-day hike. For these reasons, we wrote – Angels Landing: the Best Hike in Zion.
Scuba Diving in Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale is the culmination of our Florida dreams. We knew moving here that there would be romantic getaways, warm water, and that Florida Joie de Vie. We partnered with a fabulous dive shop there – Pompano Beach Dive Center to do all the diving we could and let the world know all about it. What’s diving in Fort Lauderdale like? Amazing! 23 miles of reef and over 100 shipwrecks means that we will be planning many more visits. Already we explored the SS Copenhagen, a coal transport that ran into the reef 100 years ago while cruising down to Cuba. It didn’t go all the way underwater until WWII when the pilots used it for bombing practice. Natural coral reefs, brightly colored tropical fish and so many shipwrecks to explore has us more than excited to be diving in Florida.Wrapping up our first two years of blogging
It’s been a wild ride these last two years. We are learning so much about the world, ourselves, and what it’s like to be a travel professional. We have already had some amazing adventures and we have set our intentions to have many more. Most importantly, we realize that simply showing up isn’t good enough. We need to live it, love it, and pass that feeling on to our readers. We are striving to continually cultivate our sense of amazement, so we never stop recognizing the beauty that surrounds us.
Hi! We are Jenn and Ed Coleman aka Coleman Concierge. In a nutshell, we are a Huntsville-based Gen X couple sharing our stories of amazing adventures through activity-driven transformational and experiential travel.
Hi! We are Jenn and Ed Coleman, and together we are Coleman Concierge. It is our goal to inspire you to get out, expand your world, and to seek adventure, even in your own backyard.
