On the Augustow Canal you can experience nature without the hustle and bustle. And the nature will impress you with its quiet, discreet perfection.
The travel industry is developing so rapidly that vacationers do not always keep up with it. Tour operators are constantly coming up with new formats of entertainment to please picky tourists with different temperaments: extreme, beach, wellness, recreation tourism, quests, and educational trips. A creative, or new, program usually requires extra charges, and many tourists might decide that it is too expensive. But the truth is something else. In this article, we will tell you how to diversify your vacation experience and not to spend a fortune on it.
What is the purpose of sport eco-tourism?
Have you ever tried sport eco-tourism? Probably, you have not. Or maybe you have tried it outside Belarus. Eco-tourism involves relaxation in harmony with nature: maximum benefits to human health and minimum damage to the environment. Clean air, healthy balanced nutrition, and accommodation made from environmentally friendly materials work wonders — stress is released, a sense of peace emerges, body and soul rest.
The sporting component diversifies your leisure time: movement makes you more energetic and fresher. Sport tourists independently move between their places of interest: you can use bicycles, scooters, boats, catamarans, or horses. Try samurai's tactics: there is no goal, only the path. Choose your own path: hiking trails in nature, trim trails, recreational relay races, outdoor quests, or river rafting. Such relaxation is good because it allows your body and mind to be lazy (like a beach vacation or spa treatments). Moreover, the movement provides you with alternative sources of energy.
In Belarus, the sport eco-tourism is still new and unusual trend. But our nature has all the conditions for such a pursuit: a moderate comfortable climate, plenty of forests and water sources. When you take the popular tourist route along the Augustow Canal, you can see the true value of these advantages.
What is the Augustow Canal?
The Augustow Canal is a 19th-century artificial structure, outstanding for that era. It was built by military engineers under the leadership of Ignatius Prondzinsky to connect the basins of the Vistula and Neman rivers and to provide a link with the Baltic and Black Seas. Stanislaw August Poniatowski, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, came up with this idea in the distant 1770s.
What can you do on the Augustow Canal?
- First of all, admire the views. Along the entire length of the canal, the shores look like perfect scenery for a landscape painter: quiet backwaters, shady thickets of old trees, and plenty of living creatures — ducks, swans, hares, beavers. It is the embodiment of peace and harmony.
- Take a ride on a motor ship or boat. You can choose whether to go through the locks or not (the lock is used to lower or raise the ship between stretches of water of different levels).
- Kayak and have extreme fun. The kayak tours usually start in Grodno. Do not miss a chance to stroll through the historical center and admire the architecture of the city. Plunge into the resort atmosphere which is unusual for Belarus.
- Walk along the natural trails or ride a bike quick as the wind.
On the Augustow Canal you can experience nature without the hustle and bustle. And the nature will impress you with its quiet, discreet perfection. There will be no noisy restaurants and cafes, nightclubs and festive embankments on your way (so you should take food with you, and don't forget to pick up your trash!). There is no wi-fi, but we can assure you that you will find a better connection here. The main thing is to feel the unity with nature and relax!