Before You Build: How to Plan Your Next Adventure Activity
Adding a new challenge course, zipline, aerial adventure element, climbing activity, or other adventure experience can be an exciting opportunity for your organization. A thoughtfully designed activity can create memorable experiences for guests, expand your programming, support organizational goals, and become a valuable part of your camp or facility for years to come.
But before selecting activities, requesting bids, or breaking ground, it is important to take a step back and start with a plan.
The most successful adventure projects do not begin with the question, “What should we build?” Instead, they begin with a better question:
“What experience are we trying to create, and who are we creating it for?”
Here are some of the most important considerations to work through before beginning your next adventure project.
1. Understand Your Guests and the Experience They Want
Every camp, retreat center, school, and adventure operation serves a unique audience. Before beginning the design process, consider who will actually be using the activity.
Are your guests young campers experiencing an adventure activity for the first time? Teenagers looking for a greater challenge? Families participating together? Adult retreat groups? School groups? Staff members in a leadership development program?
Different guests have different needs, abilities, expectations, and motivations.
The right activity for a group of 8-year-old summer campers may look very different from the right activity for a high school leadership program or an adult retreat. Understanding your participants helps determine important aspects of the project, including activity selection, height and challenge level, throughput, supervision needs, accessibility considerations, and the overall experience you want to create.
Start by defining your guests first. The activities should follow.
2. Consider How Much Time You Actually Have
Time is one of the most important—and sometimes overlooked—factors in adventure activity design.
How long does each group have to participate? Is the activity intended to fill a 30-minute program block, a 90-minute afternoon activity, or a half-day experience? How much time will be required for introductions, safety briefings, outfitting, transitions, and returning equipment?
For camps, the answer is often tied directly to the daily schedule.
A fantastic activity that requires three hours to complete may not be the right solution if your campers only have a 60-minute activity period. On the other hand, an activity designed to move participants through too quickly may not provide the depth of experience your program is hoping to achieve.
Understanding the available time helps determine not only what activities make sense, but also how the entire experience should be designed.
3. Look at the Bigger Picture of Your Program
A new adventure activity should not exist in isolation. Consider how it fits into the larger flow of your camp or program.
Where will participants come from before arriving at the activity? Where do they go next? Will groups rotate through the experience? How many participants need to be accommodated each day? How does the activity affect staffing, transportation, meal schedules, or other programming?
It is also important to consider the experience from the participant's perspective.
A challenge course, zipline, climbing activity, or aerial adventure can be part of a much larger journey. The best designs consider the full guest experience—from arrival and orientation through participation, transitions, and departure.
By understanding how the activity fits within your overall schedule and program flow, you can design something that works with your operation rather than creating new challenges for your staff to solve every day.
4. Let Your Site Help Guide the Design
The location of your new activity can have a significant impact on what you build and how it is constructed.
Every site is different. You may have a beautiful stand of mature trees, an open field, a steep hillside, or an existing facility that could be incorporated into the experience. Each of these conditions presents different opportunities.
Depending on the site and the goals of the project, your activity may be supported by:
Trees, which can create a natural and immersive experience.
Poles, which can provide flexibility when trees are unavailable or unsuitable.
Steel structures, which can support highly customized experiences and specific operational needs.
Hybrid systems, combining multiple structure types to take advantage of the unique characteristics of a site.
The best solution is not always the one that looks the most exciting on paper. It is the one that fits your site, supports your programming goals, and can be maintained and operated successfully over time.
Early site evaluation can help identify opportunities and limitations before significant time and money are invested in a design.
5. Identify Your Stakeholders Early
Adventure projects often involve more people than you might initially expect.
Depending on the size and nature of the project, stakeholders may include organizational leadership, board members, donors or funders, camp staff, program directors, maintenance teams, guests, neighboring property owners, permitting agencies, land managers, engineers, and other regulatory authorities.
Each group may have different priorities.
A program director may be focused on the participant experience. A funder may want to understand the long-term value of the investment. Maintenance staff may have important insight into site access and ongoing upkeep. Permitting agencies may need to review the project before construction can begin.
Bringing the right people into the conversation early can help identify concerns, answer important questions, and avoid surprises later in the process.
6. Work With a Qualified Organization to Develop the Design and Budget
Once you have a clear understanding of your guests, programming needs, schedule, site, and project goals, it is time to begin developing the concept.
Working with a qualified organization during this stage can help turn a general idea into a practical design that meets your specific needs.
The design process should help answer important questions:
What activities are the right fit for your participants?
How will guests move through the experience?
What structure type makes sense for the site?
How will the activity be operated?
What staffing and equipment will be required?
And, of course, what will the project cost?
A realistic budget should look beyond the cost of the physical structures alone. Depending on the project, additional costs may include:
Site preparation and construction
Permitting and agency requirements
Site surveys
Engineering and structural design
Participant and operational equipment
Documentation and operational manuals
Staff training and certification
Inspection and commissioning requirements
Understanding what is—and is not—included in your project budget is critical. A clear, comprehensive budget allows you to plan appropriately, communicate effectively with stakeholders and funders, and avoid unexpected costs once the project is underway.
7. Once the Plan Is in Place, You Can Move Forward With Confidence
Once your needs have been defined and you have a thoughtful design and realistic project budget, you are in a much better position to move forward.
At that point, you can use the design and project scope to collect bids, evaluate options, secure funding, and begin preparing for construction.
Starting with a clear plan also makes it easier to compare proposals. Rather than receiving dramatically different ideas and prices based on a general request for “a new challenge course,” you can evaluate solutions against a defined set of goals and expectations.
Good planning helps turn an exciting idea into a project that is practical, fundable, and ready to build.
From the First Idea to the Finished Experience
At Synergo, we specialize in helping camps, retreat centers, schools, and other organizations develop adventure experiences that fit their unique participants, programs, sites, and goals.
We understand that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to adventure activity design. The right solution begins with understanding how your organization operates and what you want your guests to experience.
From early planning and site evaluation through design, budgeting, engineering coordination, installation, documentation, training, and project commissioning, Synergo can help guide your project through the entire process.
Whether you are considering a new challenge course, zipline, aerial adventure experience, climbing activity, or a completely custom concept, our team can help you move from “What could we build?” to “Let’s get started.”
Thinking about adding a new adventure activity to your camp or program? Start the conversation with Synergo today and let’s explore what is possible.
