Most people come to Florida for a casual vacation on the beach and in the sun, but thousands visit to engage in extreme sports thrills like skydiving, hang-gliding, or competing in weekly triathlons.  These sports are just the introduction to the many different experiences you can find in Florida.

In fact, other than tall mountains and snow, we have all the ingredients here in Florida for a wild and unusual educational vacation.

You’ve seen automobiles moving sideways around curves and spinning around in dozens of action movies.  You too can be trained like a movie stunt man by attending Miami’s Drift Academy .      Drifting is a riveting driving technique where the driver intentionally over-steers, causing a loss of traction in the rear wheels or more.

The best drifting professionals will teach you how to maintain control from entry to exit to executive terrific moves.  And the good news you won’t have to bring your own car since the academy utilizes modified vehicles designed for performance and safety.

For a complete change of pace – how would you like to be a Florida Cracker cowboy?  The Spanish introduced cattle into Florida in the 1520’s and Forever Florida’s Crescent J Ranch, south of Orlando, not only maintains the tradition, but will make you a cowboy for a day on the 1,500 acre spread.

This is not a tourist attraction where they give you a cowboy hat and let you watch real cowboys at work.  You will be given a lesson of riding a Florida cow pony and then sent out with the staff to round up strays, check fences, locate lost calves, ear tag newborns, and endure the natural elements of the open range.

Forever Florida  is a huge natural outdoor adventure park, but the Crescent J Ranch is a fully operational cattle ranch.  You’ll pay $299 for the privilege of joining the herd.

The people at Sarasota’s Incredible Adventures always has exciting vacations – driving speedboats to Miami, training you to be a spy, flying MIG fighters   This summer, they have a great training adventure if you ever dreamed of being a covert op or a counter terrorist or maybe develop the James Bond in you.

Mission Immokalee is a 48 hour extreme adventure in the South Florida Everglades where you will be trained by Garret Machine, a veteran of the Israeli elite Duvdevan unit.  What’s more amazing they have obtained for civilian usage the amazing ALTAIR Regional Training Facility outside Immokalee.

This 1150 acre complex was once the high security  Hendry County Correctional Institute and has been strictly used by military and special law enforcement groups for anti-terrorist training.  Now you as a civilian can use the facility to learn hostage rescue tactics, combat weapons shooting, Krav Maga, and covert operations.

This adventure comes with one price for once you enter the world of Covert Ops training; you will eat and sleep on-site.  I suspect you won’t be allowed to get on your LinkedIn account.