Inside the 'darecation': Why travellers are choosing holidays that hurt

Forget relaxing on holiday; more travellers opting for physically punishing adventures in some of the world’s toughest places.

For Sara Storey, the World's Highest Marathon offered a chance to do something nobody had attempted before.

"I've done quite a few ultramarathons and multi-day races, some of them quite tough, but I'd never experienced an event where so much effort was required even to get to the start," she said.

She was one of 16 runners who signed up for the World's Highest Marathon in Chile earlier this year. The 26.2-mile (42.195km) race began on Ojos del Salado, the highest volcano in the world, at an elevation of 6,893m (22,615ft). In extremely low oxygen, temperatures of -30C and winds up to 100km/h (62mph), participants first had to climb for around 11 hours just to reach the start line. Only five made it there – and then came the small matter of completing a marathon at altitude.

"Altogether, I was moving for nearly 30 hours," she said. "It took so much out of me. I feel that in the battle between the volcano and me, it was a draw, because I've never been so close to my physical limits as I was then. Having said that, would I do it again? Absolutely. I want people to see what an ordinary 47-year-old woman can do when she puts her mind to it."

Storey is one of a growing number of people seeking not just thrills on holiday, but trips that test them. It's an increasingly visible theme in travel. Earlier this year, Pinterest identified "darecations" as one of their top trends for 2026, reporting a 75% increase in searches for adventure tourism and forecasting a boom in "full-throttle, adrenaline-inspired tourism" among Gen Z and Millennials. Sports insurance provider SportsCover Direct, meanwhile, has seen an 182% increase in travellers taking out sports travel insurance over the past two years, with particularly strong growth in trekking, mountaineering and marathon-related travel.

What is an ultramarathon?

An ultramarathon is a foot race with a distance longer than a traditional marathon (26.2 miles or 42.195km). While 50km (31-mile) races are often seen as the gateway to the sport, distances vary hugely, as do terrain and setting.

At UTMB World Series, one of the world's leading organisers of trail running and mountain races, business is booming. Since launching with a single race around the Mont Blanc Massif in 2003, it expanded to 25 ultramarathon events in 2022 and now hosts more than 60 races globally. Annual participation has risen from 50,000 in 2022 to 170,000, most of whom aren't elite athletes but highly committed amateurs.

"People become engineers of themselves for these races," said Florian Lamblin, executive director of UTMB International and an ultrarunner himself. "They are trying to achieve something complex and, at the end, deliver something extraordinary, which is running up to 30 hours in nature."

British mountaineer Gavin Bate, founder of specialist adventure travel firm Adventure Alternative,........

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