If you want lots of vacation time for kayaking or hiking in India or Indiana, try to win a job at Great Harvest Bread, Clif Bar or New Belgium Brewery. After a year, their lucky workers earn 24 days or more of paid time off, according to Outside magazine.

Better yet, land at Livestrong, which encourages those with cancer to live well. and you’ll have unlimited paid vacation as long as you don’t abuse the privilege.

These companies make Outside magazine’s third annual best places to work list – 50 employers that understand work-life balance provides time for mountain climbing, extreme sports or travel to see untouched beaches or bayous.

The No. 1 company this year is Natural Habitat Adventures in Boulder, Colo., which grants 15 vacation days and profit sharing among other perks.  The company hires field staff and adventure travel guides who the company boasts, bring guests “face-to-face with a giant polar bear, reach out and pet a friendly gray whale, and sit amongst a family of mountain gorillas.”

Natural Habitat offers staffers free “site inspection travel,” Outside reports, and discounts of up to 80 percent for family members who want to see “wild and ancient China” or the shrines and elephants of Nepal. Neither staff nor customers are expected to rough it; they stay at hotels and lodges the company says are “specially chosen to bring you closer to nature and offer you an intimate look at the area without sacrificing comfort.”

Travel is a perk and a reward at several top companies. Staffers went whale watching days (at MindBody) or on a team-building white water rafting trip (Dominion Digital) while Realeflow took its crew on an all-expense paid cruise to the Bahamas last year.

If you’re thinking a vacation is just what you need, remember that one-quarter of American workers do not get paid vacations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Vacation time for a worker with one year’s tenure varies from nothing to 19 days, with four in ten receiving 10 to 14 paid leisure days, the BLS reported.

Unlike most other best places to work lists, almost two-thirds of the Outside employers are small – fewer than 100 total workers. Many have 20 or fewer total staffers – enough to field a really good soccer team with a few colleagues to cheer from the sidelines. Only a handful qualify as big businesses with thousands of crew members- they are W.L. Gore and Associates, Eddie Bauer, Cheaseapeake Energy and Aspen Skiing Co.

Many of the best employers are clustered in Colorado, California or Oregon, and only a smattering are found in my home region of the Midwest. (Minneapolis has two – advertising/PR firm Carmichael Lynch and Quality Bicycle Products.)

Nearly two-thirds of the employers are in the outdoors industry, and many sound like fabulous places with great practices and values. Yet I could really see myself working at Paradigm Group, a Nashville, Tenn., employee benefits consultancy, or The Dream Program, a nonprofit youth mentoring organization, and at Natural Habitat, when they’re ready to have a full-time writer / blogger aboard.

The article and list are not posted yet, but eventually you’ll be able to see all 50 workplaces on Outside’s website.

For now, I’ll share this list of the top 10 best employers from Outside:

1. Natural Habitat Adventures Boulder, CO, travel  tour operator

2. NewBelgium Brewing Fort Collins, CO, brewery

3. Clif Bar & Company Berkeley, CA, organic food manufacturer

4. Smith Optics Ketchum, ID, sunglass manufacturer and goggles

5. Amer Sports Winter & Outdoor Co. Ogden, UT, outdoor gear and apparel

6. Rally Software Boulder, CO, project-management-software developer

7. Tabar, Inc. Bethel, CT, glove manufacturer

8.  LeBoot Camp Dover, DE, online diet and weight-loss program

9.  Seventh Generation Burlington, VT, earth-friendly household products

10. Paradigm Group Nashville, TN, employee-benefits consulting

Outside’s third annual list of best places is chosen using confidential employee-satisfaction surveys and other materials chosen and analyzed by Best Companies Group of Harrisburg, Pa. The companies were ranked based on their ability to balance worker productivity with an active, eco-friendly lifestyle.

And if you don’t see a company on the list that suits you or is in your geographic boundaries,  you still can find a potential employer with high quality of worker life. A while ago, I wrote a piece about ways to scope out workplaces for the Washington Post.

And I wrote about an array of employers who make Fortune magazine’s best places to work list year after year in a blog post in January. I’m reposting it here (after a web hacker took out all my earlier posts).