What is an adventure holiday? To different people it will mean a different thing, whatever it means to you we think we'll have something you'll enjoy as responsibletravel.com has 1000's amazing unusual adventure holidays.
We have a huge choice of activity & adventure holidays. If you are a water lover you can go diving, or sailing, try your hand at a sea kayaking or river kayaking, swimming, surfing windsurfing, or white water rafting
If you prefer a land based adventure holiday we have cycling holidays, walking or more strenuous trekking holidays, horse riding and volunteering holidays. If you like the views from up high you can climb to the dizzy heights of Mount Kilimanjaro, Everest or Machu Picchu amongst other peaks.
If you like multi activity adventure holidays then whether it's on land or in the water, summer or winter we have a fantastic range.
To a lot of people just going to a particular destination is an adventure holiday, an off the beaten track country far removed from the beaches of the med. Although on most soft adventure holidays you'll be staying in 3 or 4 star hotels with nothing too physically demanding in the itinerary there is no denying that going to Burma or Georgia or Botswana for example is not an adventure and a different holiday from the norm.
For the adrenaline junkies we have an extreme adventure holidays section, if you want to really push yourself you can by either climbing the highest mountains, rafting the toughest rivers, or dog sledging in the Yukon and diving in Antarctica.
Small group adventure holidays are aimed at those who want a little more action out of their holiday. They are not aimed at fitness fanatics or the hard core action adventurer. If you want to try new activities, have new experiences and discover new places, but are not really sure how to go about it then this is the type of adventure holiday for you. It's an easy way to have the experience of a lifetime. Experts arrange activities and accommodation leaving the only thing for you to do, is to have a good time.
You'll be travelling in a small group - typically between 6 and 20 people although this will vary from trip to trip. Smaller groups are less intrusive and minimise impact on local cultures and the environment. Travelling in a smaller group also allows more flexibility and a great chance for you to really get to know your travelling companions.
On a small group adventure holiday your group will accompanied by a tour leader who will travel alongside you for the majority of the trip. Many companies use local guides who will be able to give you a unique insight into the country and area that you'll be visiting. The age range of the group could be anything between 18 and 60 and may contain a mix of novices, experienced travellers, single travellers or travelling with a partner. What everyone will share however, will be an open outlook and a desire for adventure!
Accommodation is mainly chosen for its character as well as its convenience rather than forming the main emphasis of the holiday so you may find yourself in anything from a castle to a tent - it'll all add to the adventure holiday experience!
Travelling in a small group is not for everyone so we also offer tailor made adventure holidays where the people in the group are only those traveling with you, either you partner, or family or friends. Our tailor made adventure holidays can be adapted to suit your requirements, sometimes you'll have a guide with you and on others you'll be left to enjoy the adventure holiday on your own
The vast majority of our adventure holidays are off the beaten track, we don't have much on the Costa Brava or French Riviera. Some of the adventure holidays are not only off the beaten track but are almost off the track altogether.
Enjoy a holiday with the whole family, on responsibletravel there are trips for the all the family whatever age they are. Just because you are a family doesn't mean a boring run of the mill holiday, you can get off the beaten track and explore with activity, adventure and small group trips that take you all over the world.
We have a huge choice of family activity & adventure holidays. For those water lovers you can go diving, or sailing, try your hand at a sea kayaking or river kayaking, swimming, surfing windsurfing, or white water rafting.
If you prefer a land based adventure holiday we have cycling holidays, walking or more strenuous trekking holidays, horse riding and volunteering holidays. If you like the views from up high you can climb to the dizzy heights of Mount Kilimanjaro, Everest or Machu Picchu amongst other peaks.
To a lot of people just going to a particular destination is an adventure holiday, an off the beaten track country far removed from the beaches of the med. Although on most soft adventure holidays you'll stay in 3 or 4 star hotels with nothing too physically demanding in the itinerary there is no denying that going to Burma or Georgia or Botswana for example is an adventure and a different holiday from the norm. Have the adventure of a lifetime.
Small group family adventure holidays are for those who want little more action out of their holiday, the group is made up of families so that the kids have others to play with. They are not aimed at fitness fanatics or the hard core action adventurer. If you all want to try new activities, have new experiences and discover new places, but are not really sure how to go about it then this is the type of adventure holiday for your family. It's an easy way to have the experience of a lifetime. Experts arrange activities and accommodation leaving the only thing for you to do, is to have a good time.
You'll be travelling in a small group made up of different families - typically between 6 and 20 people although this will vary from trip to trip. Smaller groups are less intrusive and minimise impact on local cultures and the environment. Travelling in a smaller group also allows more flexibility and a great chance for you to spend time as a family, but also make new friends.
There are some important differences in the various concepts around responsible tourism. Perhaps the best way to understand this is to tell the story of their evolution...
About 30 years across wildlife tourists and wildlife tourism operators began to be concerned that their visits to watch wildlife might be actively contributing to its decline through negative environmental impacts. This wasn't a great thought for them, and they began to advocate the idea of 'leaving no trace or not footprints.' This became better known as ecotourism. Although some people have laid claim to coining the term ecotourism it emerged from different parts of the world around the same time.
Over the next decade one group of people began to get quite angry about this concept. These people were local communities living alongside the wildlife. They felt that if they were to set aside some of the best areas in their local area for (often) overseas visitors then they too should benefit. These local communities face the 'opportunity cost' of not, for example, using these areas themselves or chopping down trees and taking firewood if an area is to be conserved for wildlife. These, sometimes, poor people cannot afford to do this without some from of compensation from tourism. Lord Marshall, then Chairman of British Airways said the 'we must remember that tourism is essentially the renting out of other people's environments.'
As the years went by ecotourism became an increasingly popular from of marketing and sadly abused by green washers, who exploited its marketing potential without addressing any of the conservation or community issues. In short, there was insufficient focus on the impacts of tourism.
Responsible tourism emerged as a solution to both this problem, and the belief that the idea that solutions needed to be found across the wider tourism industry and not just the nature based tourism sector through ecotourism. Responsible travel and tourism acknowledges two important things. Firstly, that the impacts of tourism are cultural and economic as well as environmental. Secondly, that the tourists and the tourism industry must take responsibility for their impacts. Initial responsible tourism definitions tended to focus around maximising the positive social, economic and environmental impacts and minimising the negative ones. A better one comes from the Cape Town Declaration which described responsible tourism as 'creating better places to live in and to visit.' Note how the benefits to local people are central to this idea. I'd perhaps add the word 'authentic' to responsible tourism definitions.
Sustainable travel and tourism are terms that sometimes used, however far less so by the industry than responsible travel and tourism. Sustainability is (an often vague) aspiration, whereas responsible tourism (taking responsibility for the impacts of tourism) is more of a strategy to achieve ambitions of sustainability. Others feel that true sustainability is never achievable, not least due to the CO2 impacts of aviation, and that responsibility for tourism's impacts is more appropriate. It's certainly easier to talk to tourists about acting responsibly.
