After all the hours at the office glaring at your computer or sitting in endless meetings, the idea of passively gazing out the window on a tour bus or eating your way through a cruise ship's buffet five times a day may not seem like the perfect vacation. You're not alone. A growing number of people are vacationing to expand their minds, hone a skill or gain in-depth understanding of another culture. The travel industry has even coined a term for such travel: experiential.

"Experiential travel is the hot ticket these days, and 'authentic' is the prevailing buzzword," says Gary Mansour, who created the Boomer Project, a division of the Southeastern Institute of Research in Richmond, Va., that studies 50-plus boomer travel. These global wanderers are not the typical retiree who has waited for decades to take the trip of a lifetime. These are currently employed, are demanding "real" experiences and are willing and able to spend the time and money to enjoy them.

Jay Toberman, author of Don't Quit Your Day Job! Adventures for the Working Stiff, says, "Businesspeople often hit their 40s and 50s and begin to question why they're not trying something new. A nine-to-five job isn't inconsistent with adventure. It merely means that travelers need to find adventures that fit within whatever parameters they have."

For some, like Bradenton property manager and investor Amanda Edge of Edge Sharff Properties, adventure meant a safari in the African wilderness last summer with three friends who were also career women. "You see how the people in these countries live, go through the villages and you realize how lucky we are. You don't get that lying on a beach."

That said, Edge didn't suffer in the wilds. "The tents were on stilts and had air conditioning and their own private baths. But at night you could hear the roar of lions, trumpet of elephants and hippos playing in the river. The first night we heard swishing sounds and suddenly this great big elephant was eating leaves right in front of our tent. You realize how small you are and where you are in the food chain. Pretty low down," she says with a laugh.

For other travelers, like Steve Lawson of St. Armands Travel, an adventure of a lifetime was a trip to Tahiti, where he hiked, drove four-wheel vehicles and attended a wedding hosted by a local family. "It was unbelievable," he says. "The whole key is the culture. Why go to a place where the tourists eat? Go where the locals go."

For these travelers, the experience is the reward and the secret is to avoid traveling in a pack and staying at Americanized hotels. Linda Defina of Palmer Ranch Travel says she's helped local businesspeople arrange a cooking course in Tuscany, a film class in Paris, a safari in Africa and kayaking in Turkey. "Villa rentals are very, very popular," says Defina. "Also, river cruising in Europe on the Danube or from Prague to Budapest. They put bicycles on the boat and you can bike or walk into the little villages so you get more of the flavor of the country."

But experiential travel also can encompass tamer off-the-beaten-path luxury experiences, such as private access to museums, events or celebrities normally not available on the average tour. Ed Rudd of Adventure Travel of Sarasota cites examples of highly customized trips that entail VIP access to museums, trips to artists' studios to see how prints are made, and clients who attend a Broadway musical with a backstage visit that includes learning one of the songs and singing it with a cast member.

Rudd's personal favorite? "I did a cooking school in Italy with a very small group of people. We stayed at an agri-turismo, a working farm, and the grandmother taught us how to make spaghetti from scratch. We had our own rolling pins.kneaded, rolled and attempted to cut it into strips, then cooked it. It was great fun."

Other executives choose a vacation that involves perfecting a sport or hobby. "They're going to a week-long tennis academy to brush up on their skills," explains Jennifer Carnam, VP project development director for the Boomer Project. IMG Academies in Bradenton, for example, caters to executives who want to improve their tennis or golf game, or perhaps just want to take an intense break to improve their fitness and mental edge with the same trainers elite athletes use.

We've gone through countless travel guides and Web sites, and talked to our local expert travel agents about the best dream trips. The choices are endless, ranging from walking, hiking and kayaking to study tours of all types, with costs ranging from basic to princely. Here are a few that intrigued us. Note that the prices quoted are based on the land tour. Tour operators will help you get air travel to the destination, or you can arrange your own.