Slow Travel
This post is dedicated to highlighting a few select travel companies both higher end and budget minded where Sustainability, Nature & Community are at their Core and your tastes, budget, goals, interests and imagination at the helm. So take it a little slower and get inspired. This is for people who are independent and curious yet willing to let creative choreographers of worldly experience lead you to your edge. I am kicking off this travel series beginning with the guided trip that transforms, challenges, contributes and makes you and the places you visit a little better by offering enticing global exchanges.
The Travel Companies- I have been in the travel journalism/marketing communications world for over fifteen years and worked with some of them. Many of these companies offer hiking, kayaking, climbing, cycling, trekking, diving, climbing, cultural immersion and customized activities on myriad continents and oceans so have a good look. This is a top list and the trip designs are often the secret sauce. Let's face it, the people make it too so there is a bit of alchemy in these guided situations.
The Gap site is a portal and has very well organized customizable trips in terms of level of service and prices. It reads like the ultimate adventure travel filter with a buffet of trips and social media supportive blogs and communities to go along with the offerings. It requires imagination and a little time to sift through the prolific possibilities. It's a good first landing and will overwhelm you with the sheer diversity of travel possibilities. Be sure to click on the inspire me tab and go from there. Get inspired
This is for the English Patient set with high powered creative globe trotting choreography and steep prices. It's the more expensive tour company on my offering but so over the top, you might not ever think to pull together such lush and exotic fare. See Sufis in action as Whirling Dervishes spin out in Turkey, listen to world leaders speak in Russia, travel like an eccentric aristocrat with a conscience. It's decadent but cerebral and who would have thought of it? They have so look and look again.
Snippet from one creative itinerary:
Here is an opportunity to discover some of the region's most fascinating people and places—in the company of those who know it best. A rare chance to explore Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, and Turkey through the lenses of politics, history, economics, and culture.
We do so in the company of our keynote speakers, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry, and former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev. Other featured speakers round out the symposium: Librarian of Congress James Hadley Billington; Coit Blacker, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; Vinton G. Cerf, father of the Internet and V.P. of Google; journalist Marvin Kalb; John Edwin Mroz, CEO and president of the EastWest Institute; Michael Shara, museum curator and expert on the U.S.-Russia space race; and Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center and a Russian military expert.
Mt Travel Sobek is one of the first adventure travel companies ever founded by Richard Bangs a river runner and adventure travel rock star, author and roving industry celebrity expert. The company is a very comprehensive adventure focused stand out. Amazing longevity, consistency and diverse destinations not luxe at all, but authentic, family friendly, like most, and very close to the bone in a great way. They have been around for forty years. Check out their giving back link to see how they contribute to several environmental and cultural causes. So turn a globe, point your finger at some obscure spot and get your hiking boots out of storage.
Slow lifers will like this one where you can move about the back roads on various continents, stay at stylish authentic places and get your chance to experience the people, places and food. High end inns and hotels in places like Tuscany, Costa Rica, Peru, Wyoming with guides that will pamper you make this a very diverse and multi-sporty favorite. No stone is unturned in the active luxury or not so luxury categories you can even Berber tent camp in Morocco. The company was born in wine country and the adventures launched from there. They use sustainable equipment, do climate rides, know how to party, hang out, ride, hike paddle and wine taste and get kids to travel responsibly too. Look at these helpful trip clips. http://www.backroads.com/videos/destination/
Lindblad - Awaken Your Inner Explorer, very National Geographic with a dash of Darwin
Expedition Travel
This company started by Swedish explorer Lars Lindblad, has teamed up with National Geographic for serious expedition options where you can have access to sensitive places because they are so trusted. They are the only passenger ship permitted to overnight during their Panama Canal transit to explore Barro Colorado Nature Monument. If jaunts to Antarctica and Darwinian discoveries float your boat, get on board and consider this one. Don't think you could venture to these places alone unless you want to write a survival book. The commitment to nature, preservation, exploration and yes vacation will take a bit of time. Can you handle it? Probably a good thing for milestone birthdays, reinventing yourself or just seeing if you can do it. So by all means do go for it and check out this classic National Geographic style company.
