Intrepid tours

hulahooper66

Hey, Just wondering if anyone has used Intrepid tours and how they found them? I'm thinking of booking a trip over Christmas in SE Asia and wanted to get an idea of what they're like before I book anything!

mel.b

I've done two Intrepid trips and have found them great.

The first was in egypt and was an 'original' style trip. What I really liked was at each town our guide gave us an orientation walk of maybe an hour and then the rest of the time was basically our own, except for scheduled activities which would be listed in the trip outline. So you could go where you wanted, eat where you wanted etc. This is in comparision to a tour I did with another group where every minute was scheduled, even down to which shops we would visit and which resturants we would eat at. Didn't enjoy that one bit.

The other was a 'basix' style trip in Kenya and Tanzania which involved camping and helping out with the cooking, cleaning etc. It was actually a lot of fun and didn't take much time each day (your group is assigned one chore each day). You soon see who are the slackers though!

The accomodation on the original style trip was fine - budget basic as you'd expect in Egypt. However the rooms and bathrooms were always clean, even if the beds weren't that comfy.

Groups are mixed with the majority normally being Aussies, as Intrepid is an Australian company. On the Egypt tour I think there were about 14 or 15 of us - there was one from canada, one from Japan and two from the UK. The rest were Australian. In Africa, there were 21 (the safaris are bigger tours) and there were a few americans, an irish couple, a kiwi, a canadian couple and the rest were Aussies. On the first tour there was only one couple and the others travelling solo, but the Africa safari was majority couples or friends and only 6 people travelling solo. Age range from late 20's onwards. In Egypt we had one person in her 50's and in Africa a couple also in their 50s and another couple in their 40's. The two tours I have done have not been 'piss up, get drunk' type of tours.

Overall I would highly recommend them - I really like them and have more to do on my wish list. Subscribe to their newsletter and also check the website and the departing soon section as you can get great discounts. I got 40% off my africa tour.

hulahooper66

Thanks for the all the info Mel , I like the sound of the more relaxed type of tour, where you get to choose where you want to eat and go, don't think I'd like to be shepherded around all day!

And cheers for the tip about the departing soon discount, definitely think I'll do it that way. I'd heard that if the tours don't sell out they don't go ahead, so I think I'll book it closer to the time to make sure the trip is definitely on, even better if I get a discount too!

mel.b

I think intrepid are pretty good about running all tours listed or having a small minimum number for it to be guarenteed - was just looking at their FAQ's and couldn't see anything.

It's a bit of a trade off with booking late if you don't already have an airfare booked. If you book late your airfare may cost you much more than you have saved, especially travelling around Xmas time. If you're a bit more flexible though and aren't fussed about which tour you do you could take a chance and book your flight now taking into consideration the depature dates for your preferred trip and then see what you can get.

Also floating around on the internet on banners on a lot of websites is a 150E voucher for intrepid trips. If you visit the intrepid website a few times it should then pop up on other websites, especially travel related ones. However you cant combine that discount then with other discounts. The 40% discount I got on my Africa trip was just in one of their regular newsletters but I had to pay the full price within a few weeks of booking, rather than normal 60 days before depature. Fortunately the trip wasn't that expensive with the discount so I was able to take advantage of it and then had plenty of time to book flights.

ahh, you're making me jealous! I want to go away for Christmas again this year (have been away the past 2 out of 3 - on those two Intrepid trips!!) but I'm saving for a house deposit instead

hulahooper66

I didn't know about the E150 voucher, I'll keep an eye out for that... And its good to know that the trips you went on were at Christmas time too, sounds like the trips are just as busy then as at any other time of the year.
I'm starting to get pretty excited about it now! even though its ages away... Thanks again for your advice and good luck with the house hunting!

Zebra3

Intrepid are also an agent so some tours they sell are actually run by other companies such as Dragoman.

The Black Oil

mel, good to hear your experiences, thanks for sharing them.

I've done 2 trips with Trek America. First one was great, second one was alright - great country, but a somewhat lazy and incompetent leader. Possibly just bad luck, but I'm pondering moving away from them for now. I've no issues with camping for a few weeks or the practicalities around that (van, trailer and tents), or even dealing with the cold! I don't think I'd like every manage being schedule, you need to wander around the city and towns.

I didn't realise Intrepid were Australian, I thought it, Trek and Grand American were all the one company? Not that it's the main factor.

I'm interested in doing something like a trip on the Grand Canyon, but it seems rather expensive. Even Trek America's prices seem to have gone up since I last checked - across many trips. They have this one, but it looks a bit pricey considering that it's fairly short. Mind you, a quick web search shows that other providers of this sort of trip are also expensive. Maybe it's because they're on the river, it's inherently more expensive.

Has anyone done anything like this, if so, any recommendations? Maybe a week is enough time to spend on a river - I don't know.

Intrepid offer this, which looks pretty interesting and might be an alternative if I can't find something cheaper than the Trek link above. Don't know if I'll be able to take 2+ weeks off, though.

mel.b

The Black Oil wrote: »

I didn't realise Intrepid were Australian, I thought it, Trek and Grand American were all the one company? Not that it's the main factor.

Interesting - i never knew that! Maybe they were bought out at some stage? Intrepid was started by a couple of aussies... from the website - http://www.intrepidtravel.com/about-intrepid

What on earth possessed two uni mates to drive an ex-council tip truck across Africa? A harebrained idea that got out of hand? A thirst for real adventure and a heap of fun? The reality is probably a little of both. But there are now thousands of travellers the world over who - 20 years later - are mighty glad that Darrell and Manch were full of ideas and crazy about travel back then. For it was this half-baked trip which led to the creation of a totally new way to travel and one of the world's most innovative adventure travel companies.
The year was 1989, and the place, the inner suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. Darrell and Manch had no travel industry experience but big ideas about how to make the 'organised backpacker' experience a reality. Both had travelled extensively in their early twenties, overpaid for organised tours run on military timing and experienced the frustration of not knowing the ins and outs of a new country. There had to be a better way.

Caprica

I booked my trip to Kyrgyzstan with Intrepid but I discovered closer to departure that it was actually being ran by Dragoman. I was told by our tour leaders that a lot of the tours are shared between the different companies. I travelled solo (very nervous leaving Dublin) but it was a brilliant tour and I would highly recommend it. A mix of nationalities, ages, solo and couple travellers. Accomodation was a mix of camping, yurts, home stay and basic hotels. We had a few beers most nights but theres was no hangovers bar the final night.

One thing you need to watch when departing at short notice is that you have enough time to apply for visas. South east asian countries are problably a lot easier to get than one from bureaucratic former soviet republics though so you should probably be ok.

The Black Oil

Out of interest, how were your leaders, good?