7 Dangerous-But-Fun Vacation Spots

Alnwick Garden

Relaxing on a beach not for you? Try these more adventurous spots instead.

1. VISIT A POISON GARDEN

Jane Percy, the Duchess of Northumberland, was tired of botanical gardens. “I wondered why so many gardens around the world focused on the healing power of plants rather than their ability to kill,” she once said. So in 2005, Percy turned a 14-acre plot of Alnwick Garden into a patch for poisonous plants. The greenscape features 100 plants that could literally knock you dead.

2. DINE IN THE SKY

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Call up Dinner in the Sky, who will arrange to have you strapped to a special portable table and hoisted 160 feet into the air by a crane. A grand piano and some musicians can be brought up for some aerial entertainment too!

3. SWIM WITH CROCODILES

crocosauruscove.com

Plunge into a pool with 18-foot saltwater crocs at Crocosaurus Cove in Darwin, Australia. You’ll be protected by the Cage of Death, a transparent, acrylic enclosure pocked with teeth marks.

4. DRIVE A TANK

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At the aptly named Minnesota action park Drive a Tank, you can steer surplus Cold War tanks through a wooded 20-acre course. Crush cars, shoot machine guns, and even plow through a mobile home!

5. SWIM IN JELLYFISH LAKE

The Pacific island of Palau is like Manhattan for jellyfish. Millions of golden and moon jellies commute daily across one of the island’s lakes. The blobs have stingers, but they’re not strong enough to hurt humans, so snorkeling is safe.

6. JUMP THE U.S.–MEXICO BORDER

Sirens! Searchlights! Gunshots! Get a taste of what it’s like to hop the Rio Grande in El Alberto, Mexico, where participants are dropped in a 3000-acre desert and spend a night learning what it takes to cross the border illegally.

7. VISIT HELL

Tormod Sandtorv

In 1971, Soviet scientists drilled a Turkmenistan oil field. When a 230-foot-wide crater swallowed one of the rigs, tons of methane started to leak. Scientists burned off the gas, assuming it’d subside after a few weeks. Four decades later, the “Door to Hell” is still searing.