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With 581 experiences to choose from, our small group cultural tours offer you the chance to explore your destination in a small group of 4-20 fellow travellers. Whether you’re passionate about Petra and the Pyramids of Egypt or fancy polishing your photography skills in China, want to cycle around French vineyards or explore the remote villages and spot orang-utans in Borneo, we have a range of small group cultural tours that put you in touch with the sights and sounds of your destination.
These full and frank independent Small group cultural holidays reviews are from travellers who have booked directly through responsibletravel.com. They are not edited by us or any of the companies we work with. Find the real story, from real travellers below.
The whole trip was unforgettable - especially loved the rural parts we visited and stayed in and the various transport and accommodation - much fun and very unique! Every day waking up was like Christmas morning, so exciting.
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Most memorable was trekking in Chang Mai, without a doubt. The itinerary was amazing and we'll never forget the bamboo rafts being made right in front of us, the elephant trek and the hospitality of the hill tribes. (more)
I loved the whole process of gathering natural materials (lichen, fungus, nettles, birch bark, etc) to dye the wool, the dyeing itself and the amazing array of colours we created with single and secondary dyes. (more)
I loved the train journey, chatting to the locals, making food, using the hot
water urns at the end of the carriage and having the wheels changed on the
Mongolia/China border was a fantastic experience. (more)
Near Mari we had a tyre blow out on the bus and had to stop to get it fixed. Within minutes the whole village had turned out to see what was going on and wanted photos taking and to talk to us. We were only 10 miles from the Iraq boarder but the people could not have been any more friendly. In some ways it was the high spot of the holiday. (more)
The temples were amazing. I had an amazing time - the guides were great, really looked after me. I loved every minute...
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It was very memorable and exciting, and a good idea to go on a tour through a country that would be difficult to navigate alone.
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Most memorable was staying in a remote raft house in the middle of a lake surrounded by rainforest and gibbons!
(more)Most memorable? As I can’t swim it has to be floating in the Dead Sea. It was an unbelievable experience. I did not believe I would be able to as I did not think it would work if you cant relax to float but the sea just lifted me up and held me in the water. (more)Really enjoyable, very well organised, much higher standard of transport, guiding and food than I had expected. (more)
For me personally the walking in the high Tatra mountains was the highlight followed by the Adrspach rocky town area (more)
Many memorable and exciting experiences: The awesome caves, the jungle trekking in Sangklaburi, canoeing down the river Kwai for 3 hours. (more)
Excellent. The places are really worth seeing, people are all very kind, the guides were all absolutely wonderful. The young guide in Bhutan and the driver really did all that they could to get the most and the best out of the time we had.
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There were several memorable parts. Seeing Petra, climbing up to the Crusader's castle with just my son and feeling as if we owned the world: seeing the Milky way for the first time as we lay on a sand dune in the desert blackness while at Wadi Rum. (more)
The most memorable parts were... probably visiting ATM cave in Belize which was a great experience, and also snorkelling with nurse sharks and sting rays in Caye Caulker was incredible too. (more)From simply sitting on a sand bank on the side of Ganges watching the birdlife after enjoying a sumptuous meal prepared by a local man with nothing more than the ingredients and utensils that he had on his boat to dressing up and being treated like Kings in the Maharajas palace it was just all fantastic. (more)
Sailing around Halong bay, Motor cycling through the back streets of Hue, dancing with the children in the villages were the highlights. (more)
The most memorable parts were the fantastic views from the escarpments and a chance visit at a local school during the TESFA walk, the view over the twin of Ayers Rock from the Ghiralta lodge (more)We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
Few of us enjoy the feeling of sticking out like a sore thumb when we are on holiday. We giggle about the strange habits of overseas tourists here in the UK, but maybe it’s them laughing at us when we are away on holiday? However sometimes cultural faux pas are no laughing matter. Although our intentions might be good some of our behaviour can inadvertently cause great offence in destinations. For example, that little pink mini skirt which looks great in Brighton or Miami can, when worn away from the beach in Muslim countries, cause offence. The same types of culture clashes happen in conservative Christian communities in Polynesia, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. Beyond causing offence to individual people tourism can impact on the culture in entire destinations. The tourism industry packages up and sanitises religious rituals, dress, ethnic rites and festivals to conform to tourist expectations. Once a destination begins to see itself through the eyes of tourists it begins to lose its sense of itself and its identity (and pretty quickly the reason why tourists came in the first place). Read more about cultural holidays in this small group cultural holidays article.
