Adventure Travel tips

Whale!” Mark shouted at breakfast. The rest of us passengers, the ship’s captain, and the naturalist guides stood up at once. We lifted the binoculars strapped around our necks and scanned the horizon from the sundeck. The Bolivar Channel is the best place to see whales around the Galápagos Islands, and eagle-eyed Mark, with his patience and determination, had spotted a splash nearby. A fin appeared and we all gasped and whooped.

G Adventures launched a new brand on this week, targeting solo travelers interested in group tours and looking to connect with others.

Luxury travel is no longer confined to high-end shopping sprees, spa days, lavish dining, and multiple opportunities to splurge. 

UPDATED WITH ACQUISITION PRICE AND OTHER M&A DETAILS:

Expedition travel leader Lindblad Expeditions announced this week the acquisition of Wineland-Thomson Adventures, an award-winning adventure travel group, through its subsidiary Natural Habitat Adventures.

A unique hospitality and adventure experience is set to open 40km from the coastline in the Arabian Gulf. 

What are the preferences and behaviors of Millennials and Gen Z travelers across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany?

Iceland has reinstated the tax tourists pay for hotel and alternative accommodation rooms this year. In another change, the tax will also apply to cruises.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, January 4. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Operators of adventure travel tours expect 2024 to bring more demand for private group trips and more bookings during shoulder seasons.

WeRoad, a European-based tour operator, has secured €18 million ($19.6 million) in a Series-B funding round led by H14, bringing its total raised capital to €36 million ($39.3 million).

European small-group tour operator WeRoad, whose tours are typically run by travelers who have never visited the destination they’re leading a tour to, has doubled its traveler numbers by 50,000 in its fiscal year ending September 2023. 

The amber, auburn and crimson colours of autumn cosy up on top of one another, each layer dotted with patches of green, waving gently in the wind. This description is not one of the Lake District landscape before me, though it does match those views. Rather, it’s of the cabbage and butternut squash sabzi that’s just been handed to me by Harrison Ward on the summit of Black Fell – cooked on a camping stove with red onion, diced garlic and ginger, ½ teaspoon nutmeg, ½ teaspoon turmeric, accompanied by a freshly made flatbread and topped with coriander.

One British childhood winter experience remains the same, despite all the changes of the past century. It’s the one where you gaze out of the window, mesmerised by the falling snow, and start fantasising about building an igloo or a snow cave, then sleeping in it overnight. A few fortunate kids get to follow that up, but for most the fantasy is quickly quashed. The blizzard stops, the snow melts, you lob some slush at your mates then go inside to watch Ski Sunday.

Research from World Travel Market London 2023, the world’s most influential travel & tourism event, has revealed that more holidaymakers are abandoning their sun loungers in favour of nature, foodie and wellness experiences.

Riga’s Kronvalda Park had taken on a Christmas-card look with icicles hanging from trees and the canal frozen solid. It was minus 14C so I’d lost the feeling in my hands but I ran on, crunching through the snow, avoiding black-ice patches and taking corners slowly.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, September 13. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Sometimes you have to travel far to understand what you’ve left behind. Fifteen years ago, on a granite slab in the Rockies, a local climbing guide turned to me and said, “Ever heard of a place called Anglesey?”

South America’s Guyana, one of the most densely forested areas in the world, has piqued the interest of U.S. adventure seekers with its remote expedition appeal. 

Are super-rich travelers pushing the boundaries for extreme luxury adventure too far? This was one of the questions I posed to the founder of boutique travel company Insider Expeditions.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, June 23. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.