These are UK-based tour operators and specialist travel agencies featuring exploratory, adventure or expedition holidays. |
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| Adventure Company, The |
0870 794 1009 |
Small group tours 'off the beaten track'. They used to be called 'Travelbag Adventures'. They have a wide selection of tours all over the world and a programme of tours suitable for families too. |
| American Adventures |
01295 256777 |
Small group adventure tours in the USA for young travellers. Groups travel in large minibuses, mostly camping or sometimes staying in hotels. American Adventures has recently merged with Trek America. |
| Biosphere Expeditions |
01502 583085 |
The real thing. Non-profit conservation expeditions, often to truly remote places, to help scientists carry out conservation programmes and research, such as monitoring wolves in the Carpathian Mountains or counting macaws in Peru. It's usually hard work and there are few luxuries, but it can be enormously rewarding. Around two-thirds of the fee you pay to join an expedition goes directly to the project itself. |
| Dolma Ecotourism |
020 7449 9530 |
Cultural & spiritual tours to a remote part of Nepal close to the Tibetan border. An opportunity to live with locals, learn about their way of life, and put something back; each holiday reinvests in the community through the Dolma Development Fund which sponsors education, health care and cultural activity and crafts. |
| Elemental Adventure |
0870 7387838 |
Heli-skiing, Fishing and Sailing holidays in extreme locations off-the-beaten-track. |
| Exodus |
0870 240 5550 |
Comprehensive range of adventure, trekking, exploratory, wildlife & wilderness tours and overland journeys for small groups to Europe, Africa, the Americas, Australasia and Antarctica. |
| Explore Worldwide |
01252 760100 |
Explore's speciality is small group exploratory/adventure tours off the beaten track, many on foot but many also by boat, by train, by bicycle, by 4-WD, by minibus, by camel, or by any combination. Explore is an extraordinary travel company, not least for the number of countries it operates tours to. The exact number changes slightly each year as global current affairs change, but in most years Explore comes top of any list of UK tour operators. Back in the mid-nineties the number was as high as 141. This season (2005) it is 300+ tours to 120 countries. Astonishing when you consider there are only 193 countries in the world (191/2 if you don't recognise Taiwan or Vatican City)! |
| EWP |
01550 721319 |
Executive Wilderness Programmes offers wilderness treks and mountain climbs in remote locations in East Africa, Asia and Europe with a team of expert bush guides, mountaineers, and other specialists. |
| Footprint Adventures |
01522 804929 |
A large range of long-duration overland safaris/journeys in across Africa, the Middle East, the Himalayas and South America. Conservation and community-friendly, their mission statement is to leave places cleaner & better than they found them. |
| Guerba |
01373 858956 |
Guerba has been operating overland expeditions and safaris throughout Africa for a quarter of a century and these days offers active outdoor holidays to over 50 countries spanning five continents, including Antarctica, Asia, Europe, and South America. The company, which is based in Westbury, Wiltshire, is committed to responsible tourism - employing tour leaders from the regions it operates in to ensure that travellers see the destination with a local perspective. Their small group tours cater for a wide range of travellers (singles, couples, young travellers, retirees) In particular single travellers and women. Oover 50% of Guerba's clientele fits into either or both of these categories. They also offer special family itineraries. |
| High & Wild Adventure Travel |
01749 671777 |
High and Wild create bespoke holidays to unusual and exciting adventure destinations worldwide, from mountaineering expeditions, African safaris and Antarctic adventures to white water rafting, travel to India and climbs up Everest. They are committed to the ideals of sustainable tourism and travel and other activities include managing global conservation, cultural and travel-related conferences. They have first-hand experience of the Polar regions, Europe, the Middle East, the African continent, Tibet, Nepal and the major parts of the Indian sub continent, together with South East, Asia, Australasia and the Americas. |
| Himalayan Kingdoms |
01453 844400 |
Mountain treks and expeditions in the Himalayas |
| Hinterland Travel |
01883 743584 |
Middle East specialists undaunted by troublespots. Hinterland were still operating tours to Iraq in Feb 2003 up to the point when UN weapons inspectors departed and war became inevitable... and when US tanks entered Baghdad, started offering a programme of post-war tours to start in June! |
| Incredible Adventures |
001 941 346 2603 |
These are the other (see Wildwings) people you go to when you want to fly a Mig jet, try weightlessness on the edge of space, dive to the bottom of the ocean, or play soldiers. |
| Intrepid Travel |
0800 917 6456 |
Small group exploratory adventures mainly in Asia. Intrepid Travel were Highly Commended in the British Airways 'Tourism for Tomorrow' awards 2002. |
| Journey Latin America |
020 8747 8315 |
Small group escorted trips throughout Latin America with plenty of trekking, mountain biking, rafting, riding and other activities on offer. |
| KE Adventure Travel |
017687 73966 |
KE focus their activities - trekking, mountaineering, mountain biking - on the world's greatest mountain ranges. |
| Kumuka |
0800 092 9595 |
A huge range of soft & hard expedition tours throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and the Middle East. |
| Langdale Walking & Adventure Holidays |
01539 735 108 |
Adventure walks in the Pyrenees, the Alps, Corsica, Crete & Mallorca, and further afield they have small group adventure walks in Chile, Jordan, the Galapagos Islands, China, New Zealand, Seychelles, Borneo and other exotic locations. |
| Live Travel |
020 8894 6104 |
Personalised travel arrangements by Phil Haines to the most off-the-beaten-track destinations in the world. There is also a programme of group tours, which in 2004 includes destinations such as Iraq, North Korea, Afghanistan, Mali, Burkino Fasa, Ghana, Haiti, Bhutan, Tibet, Mongolia and the Yemani island of Soqotra. |
| Mountain Company, The |
020 7498 0953 |
Adventure travel company specialising in small group trips to the Himalayas and Kilimanjaro, ranging from Everest climbs to gentle trekking holidays. |
| Mustgo.com |
n/a |
Online adventure holiday portal partnering many of the companies listed here. |
| Oasis Overland |
01963 363 400 |
Overland truck specialist but with a small groups tours programme to Egypt & Peru |
| Peregrine Adventures |
01635 872 300 |
Small group adventure tours to Africa, South East Asia, Himalayas, China, Antarctica & the Arctic, Europe, South America. |
| Responsible Travel.com |
087000 52836 |
Online portal/agency for conservational, environmental and community-friendly holidays of all types but with a leaning towards small group exploratory and encounter holidays. Holidays priced in pounds & dollars. |
| Steppes East |
01285 651010 |
Excellent range of small group exploratory tours to really out-of-the-way places mainly in Asia and the Far East, but they also have their Steppes Africa and Steppes Latin America brands which cover those two continents juest as comprehensively. |
| Suntrek |
n/a |
Suntrek specialise in small group adventure tours in the USA, Canada & Mexico, typically travelling in minivans and camping, but there are soft options too. |
| Symbiosis Travel |
0845 123 2844 |
Tailor-made and small group expedition holidays in South East Asia with the emphasis on environmental & community-friendly tourism. |
| Top Deck |
020 7244 8000 |
Well-known adventure travel company specialising in group tours for 18-30s market. Started back in the early seventies running converted London double-decker buses through Europe and beyond. Now has a worlwide programme of exploratory holidays. |
| Trek America |
01295 256777 |
Trekking & adventure holidays for 18-38 yr olds throughout North America. (Used to be 18-35 yrs. They're obviously tracking the demographic bulge as they get older!) They have a sub-brand called Footloose which caters for groups outside that range, particularly family adventure tours. TrekAmerica is part of First Choice's 'Adventure Division' which includes Exodus (above). |
| Undiscovered Destinations |
0191 206 4038 |
Specialist adventure tour company offering some unique small group tours and tailor-made adventure travel to some of the least visited countries in the world including: Bangladesh, East Timor, Angola, São Tomé and Príncipe, Uganda, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Panama, Sudan and Nicaragua. |
| Voyage Concepts |
020 8399 9090 |
Voyage specialise in adventure experiences for groups (as well as expedition training for medics and expedition staff) from trekking in the arctic, through jungles and through deserts. |
| Why Don't You... |
0845 838 6262 |
Special interest holidays division of WEXAS, the longstanding and well-known holiday club. WDY has a selection of trekking, exploration and wildlife holidays in its programme each year. |
| Wild Frontiers |
020 7736 3968 |
 Small adventure operator with an interesting and innovative range of destinations and holiday ideas - not least their Reel Adventures to remote film locations. |
| Wilderness Adventure |
0845 458 4440 |
Treks, walks, kayaking, mountaineering in remote destinations worldwide. |
| Wildlife & Wilderness |
01625 530035 |
Independent and small group holidays to remote and dramatic landscapes worldwide with an emphasis on wildlife and scenery. Wildlife & Wilderness were formerly known as Oksana Tours. |
| Wildwings |
0117 9658 333 |
Wildwings are the tour operator equivalent of Superman! For the most part they are a Bristol-based tour operator specialising in wildlife holidays, especially bird-watching. They are well recognised among 'twitchers' for the range of trips they operate all over the world to see bird migrations and exotic species. That's the 'mild-mannered Clarke Kent' side of the business! Flip a page in their brochure and you'll come across the 'Superman' adventures. They are the UK agent for Deep Ocean Expeditions who run trips to the wreck of the Bismark, the Titanic, HMS Breadalbane under the arctic ice, and the seabed at the North Pole. They also offer a range of extraordinary experiences such as supersonic Mig flights and zero-gravity flights because they are also the UK agents for Space Adventures who were resonsible for putting Dennis Tito - the first space tourist - into orbit. |
| Windows on the Wild |
0208 742 1556 |
Rafting, snowmobiling, canoeing, hiking, etc in spectacular scenery around the world. |
| Worldwide Journeys & Expeditions |
020 7386 4646 |
The luxury end of soft adventure. Wilderness tours by vehicle, by foot, by aeroplane, in Africa, India (the Himalayas), and South America |
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