Would you like to sail down the Nile, go trekking in the Himilayas, or go white-water rafting through gorges in the Andes Mountains? Have you dreamed of riding a camel through the desert , island-hopping by boat in the tropics, or climbing to the top of a volcano?
“Yes,” you sigh, “but I can’t afford it.”
Well, if you’re going by the prices in one of those glossy adventure travel brochures, you’re probably right. You’ll need to have a very fat bank account indeed. But if follow in the footsteps of long-term travelers and book locally, all of these adventures are easily within your grasp. So are boat rides down the Amazon, African safaris, and cycling through Patagonia.
Booking Here, Booking There
The difference if what you can afford often boils down to where your money is going. In general, the more people that are involved in a transaction, the more a service is going to cost you. So if you book an adventure trip through an agency in your own country, you’re paying the agency owners their profit, you’re paying the employees who will accompany you on the trip (and covering their expenses), and you’re paying the local tour company at your destination who will be doing the guiding and supplying the equipment, with their margin built in as well. Add that all together and a typical “adventure tour” of two or three weeks can easily run $3,000 to $4,000 per person, not including airfare. With airfare the trip might top ten grand for two. If you’re flying somewhere especially far or difficult to get to, it’ll be much higher. Pull out the first few transaction points, however, and you’ll pay a fraction of that.
Let’s take a fairly typical example that I’ve experienced first-hand, which is a three-week trip trekking the Himalayas on the Annapurna Circuit of Nepal. This trip is exhilirating, breathtaking, and inspiring. It’s also dirt cheap or ungodly expensive, depending on how you go. Like first class airline passengers, two people walking side by side are sometimes paying thousands of dollars difference in price.
What would it cost you to do this on your own?
When I did my Annapurna trek, I had come over to Nepal on a cheap flight from India. Us three guys carried our own packs and stayed in the lodges that are scattered all along the trail. We usually got an early start and consequently got one or two of the best lodge rooms in each village (less than $1 each). We ate our fill at each meal ($1 – $2), bought the odd Snickers bar or beer here and there, and always got dessert after dinner. After three weeks of trekking, we had spent less than $200 each, including the bus to and from Pokhara. There’s no need for a guide, but had we hired one, it would have cost us another $50 or so each. Add another $50 each if we’d wanted a porter. Let’s say we paid all their meals and gave them a fat tip at the end. We still couldn’t have spent more than $500 each if we had tried.
Along the way, we met many travelers who had booked with a tour company in Europe, Canada, or the US and paid anywhere from US$1,200 to $3,900. That included a few hotel nights in Kathmandu and Pokhara, but otherwise they were experiencing much the same thing as we were. Their loads were lighter, but the ones who paid the most were sleeping in tents, not lodges, and it got pretty cold at night. A few of the French groups had a gourmet chef along, but that meant set meals prepared at one time, not the “whatever, whenever” choices we were getting off a menu. On this trek, there wasn’t much point in a guide, but they had someone to ask questions of if they wanted. The downside was that the pace of the group was the pace of the group—no going off on their own, following their personal rhythm or speed.
A few days after finishing my trek, I joined up with a whitewater rafting trip. I asked around to find out who was the best operator in Kathmandu, with the best guides and the best equipment. After I found out, I booked a two-day trip with Ultimate Descents , traveling down the steepest, fastest river open to the public. My price? $80, including meals, transportation, and one night’s lodging in a riverside guesthouse with a bar. (No, I didn’t bargain.) By now, you probably know the rest of the story. Beside me were many people who had booked overseas, with this side trip part of a very expensive package.
I’ve seen this same scene play out around the world, whether it was hiking up volcanoes in Indonesia and the Philippines, taking a weeklong tour through the hilltribe areas of Vietnam, or touring the Mayan ruins in Mexico. Same experience, very different price tag.
Who Should Book Ahead?
So does this mean you’re automatically a sucker if you book your adventure trip from home? No, because there are certainly good reasons for doing that. If your schedule is very tight and you need to get back to work, it makes lots of sense to let someone else work out all the travel details. You’ll get around faster if you’re on charter buses as a group. If you’re somewhere like rural China or Uzbekistan, where the language barrier is an issue, having good guides or translators can be a huge help. And if you’re the type who likes to let others make the decisions or prefers to travel with a built-in group of companions, an organized tour makes sense.
If you book with a reputable agency, the food will probably be good and hygenic, your guides will speak English well, and your hotel rooms will be comfortable–some will even have character. If something goes wrong, you have someone at home to complain to afterwards.
Also, a group tour can sometimes make your flight cheaper. There are some bargains out there, if you find agencies like Traveland. As I wrote this, they were offering a 7-day Peru package for under $1,000, with airfare. The flight portion alone would be at least $500 on your own. Plenty of other agencies offer good values, including Canada-based G Adventures . Check web sites like Travelzoo for specials and check the ads in magazines like Frommer’s Budget Travel and Outside (US), Outpost (Canada) and Wanderlust (UK).
However, if you have some time to nose around after you arrive somewhere, and you’re wise in the ways of travel, think about waiting until arrival and putting all your money into the local coffers. You just might save enough to pay for your plane ticket home…
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