Explore Adventure Holidays

And now there is an interesting Sahara audio slide show up on the Guardian Unlimited site. Some very good photos – particularly like the sunrise and the pot in a corner.

A while ago we ran a competition with the Guardian, for 6 places on a trip to Morocco – our Short breaks Saharan Escape tour. The people who won and the Guardian Unlimited’s Anna Pickard are blogging about the trip at the Guardian’s travel blog: Travelog.

Most of the people, including Anna, are new to small group travel and adventure holidays. It is very interesting to read their perspectives, which are similar to my own before going on an Explore trip. Gerald Wills comments (emphasis is mine):

It’s not the kind of holiday we normally go on at all. Normally we go away about three, four times a year, but it’s always the beach. We’re realising now, we never really see the other side of the country, outside the resorts. This year, we’ll have the city breaks during the winter but again that’s just people-watching, and that’s brilliant. But this? This is awesome.

Anna Pickard talks about group travel in a similar vein:

Group travel – something I’d never even considered before, fearing it would be non-stop small talk and enforced jollity, impatience with people wanting to move at different speeds, wanting to see different things, and seeing the very same things in different ways.

But it’s amazing how fast the sense of camaraderie builds up, you are, after all, a set of excited people, all seeing something new for the first time. Information feeds through the group – “Did you see THAT?!”, “Oh! I’ve read about this!” And because no one’s having to concentrate on what we have to do next – which way, which meal, which camp – it seems that everyone relaxes quicker.

It’s a fascinating read about the tour from different perspectives – I’d highly recommend going and reading it.