Posts Tagged ‘Boundless Journeys’

From their new book, Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2011, the editors at this renowned publication have compiled the best in atmosphere, cuisine, culture, and adventure into a list of the Top 10 Countries to visit in the upcoming year. As always, we like to highlight destinations in our collection that are included in these coveted lists, so take a look below to see how you can make a spectacular travel choice in 2011 with Boundless Journeys.

ITALY

“Italy is a beguiling, beautiful, charismatic mess…one of the world’s most magnificent places to be. The food is delicious, sunshine is plentiful, scenery and towns are sublime, and there is millennia-worth of art to look at. There are 44 Unesco World Heritage Sites here, more than in any other country.”

To join Boundless Journeys on an exploration of Italy that will exercise the soul as well as the soles, check out:

Italy: A Taste of Tuscany & Umbria

Italy: Ancient Sicily

TANZANIA

“It’s true, Tanzania is a place of great marvels – Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Kilimanjaro, Zanzibar… But that’s not all. It also has great herds of elephants in Ruaha, tree-climbing lions around Lake Manyara, chimpanzee sanctuaries in Gombe and Mahale and packs of wild dogs in Selous. There are also sunsets on the Rufiji River, when the water boils with hippos and crocodiles. In fact, the country has the whole panoply of east Africa’s wildlife – including such rarities as the red colobus monkey, black rhino, hawksbill and leatherback turtles and Pemba flying foxes – concentrated in an unrivalled collection of parks and reserves. So you think you’ve seen it all? We’re betting Tanzania still has a surprise or two for you.”

A trip to East Africa is indeed an adventure that changes your outlook on life – let Boundless Journeys assist you in your experience by choosing one of the following itineraries:

Tanzania: Migration Safari

Tanzania: Beyond the Serengeti

Tanzania: Beyond the Serengeti Private Safari

About Boundless Journeys

Boundless Journeys is an award-winning small group adventure tour operator, selected as one of the “Best Adventure Travel Companies on Earth” by National Geographic ADVENTURE, February 2009; and a “World’s Best” tour operator by Travel + Leisure, August 2009.

With a diverse collection of locally guided, small group itineraries and Private Collection trips around the world, Boundless Journeys offers “The World’s Great Adventures.” The adventure trips for 2-16 guests are active, ranging from leisurely cultural explorations and wildlife safaris to challenging trekking in remote regions ― with plenty of easy to moderate walking and sea kayaking in between.

Preparing a first-aid kit for your adventure travel vacation

Adventure Travel First Aid

All travelers should carry one, without exception. A first-aid kit can be tailored to each trip, and varies in size and contents depending on a number of factors. Professional travel companies have well-established routines to follow, should they need to help with more serious events. But when trekking into the heartlands of any country, hikers and independent travelers should come prepared.

When packing your kit remember: A personal first-aid kit contains all the things you might need to look after yourself, not the group. Ideally, everyone carries an identical kit, and when needed uses it on themselves or gets a fellow traveler to help out. In reality, things are different. But even so, there are some generic first-aid supplies that should always be part of your pack regardless of destination.

The following list was compiled with the help of Mr Stuart Halliday, a Medic Safety Advisor, and former British Army Combat Medical Technician.

The Basics:

Personal prescription meds – Ensure that before you leave you have enough to last your stay, and at least a few days extra in case flights are delayed. If you suffer from hay fever, check the season – you may not need your medication at home, but could be sniffling and sneezing on arrival.

Dressings and cleaning solutions – Cuts and grazes are inevitable, so take waterproof Band-Aids and some form of larger, more absorbent dressing. Gauze pads are good for cleaning and dressing small wounds, and with some surgical tape, they can be used instead of off-the-shelf dressings. To clean cuts use soap and water, but pack a few antiseptic skin wipes or perhaps some saline solution. Iodine is a further option as it helps sterilise wounds.

Basic analgesia (painkillers) – Don’t be packing Morphine! It’s not necessary. You should take basic pain relief, such as Tylenol or Advil, but leave carrying the strongest medication to the medics – otherwise you may find yourselves answering questions at customs.

Blister kit – Blisters are par for the course. Hopefully, you know your feet and can look after them properly, even so it is advised to carry commercial ‘blister kits’, such as Compeed (branded under Band-Aid) or make up your own. A roll of sports tape (Zinc Oxide) and small sterile pads is all you need.

Preparing your feet is also vital; try wearing two pairs of socks; make sure your boots fit, are broken in, and you have taped over areas that commonly blister. And pack some foot talc, perhaps the medicated variety, which helps combat athlete’s foot.

Burn dressings – these are sterile, pre-packed dressings designed to help draw heat from smaller burns. Ever burnt yourself on a camping stove you thought had cooled? It’s easily done.

Creams and lotions – Sunblock we will deal with separately, but it goes without saying they are essential. The two creams I would recommend are a simple anti-septic cream and an anti-fungal cream (also good for athlete’s foot).

Tweezers, needles, scissors and clippers: Again, take care with packing anything that may excite over-eager customs officials. Tweezers always prove useful and a couple of sterile needles are great to help drain blisters. Scissors you need to cut dressings and tape. Nail scissors and an emery stick help maintain those tired feed – look after them, and they’ll look after you!

Other Essentials: In case of stomach upsets, take Loperamide (Diamode, Imodium, Imotil) and Prochlorperazine (Compazine), as well as a few packets of Dioralyte or similar rehydration powder.

There are a number of first-aid travel kits on the market, take a look around. And be sure to check with your doctor if you are already taking medication.

Before you leave, you should also inform your adventure travel tour operator of any medical conditions you have.

Happy Walking!

About Boundless Journeys

Boundless Journeys is an award-winning small group adventure tour operator, selected as one of the “Best Adventure Travel Companies on Earth” by National Geographic ADVENTURE; and a “World’s Best” tour operator by Travel + Leisure.

With a diverse collection of locally guided, small group itineraries and Private Collection trips around the world, Boundless Journeys offers “The World’s Great Adventures.” The adventure trips for 2-16 guests are active, ranging from leisurely cultural explorations and wildlife safaris to challenging trekking in remote regions ― with plenty of easy to moderate walking and sea kayaking in between.

Boundless Journeys’ Annual Charity Event, An Ideal Way to Help Those in Need

At a time when many avid travelers are scaling back due to guilt brought on by the impression that adventure travel is indulgent and insensitive to others who may be struggling to get by, Boundless Journeys’ annual charity event offers the ideal solution: incorporating meaningful community service into an amazing travel adventure.

Boundless Journeys is offering its August 2-9, 2009 Peru: The Sacred Valley & Machu Picchu trip as a special charity event to benefit the Instituto Machu Picchu and a community school in the village of Huanca. This 2009 event follows our successful 2008 event, a Tanzanian safari benefitting the Foundation for African Medicine and Education (FAME). The 2008 charity event trip resulted in a donation of $6,000 to FAME and the participation of 10 Boundless Journeys clients in a well-child check at a Karatu, Tanzania orphanage.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of people visit Peru and its iconic archeological site, Machu Picchu. Peru is truly one of the world’s great travel destinations, but very few visitors get off the beaten path and truly connect with the people and places they are there to experience. As Karen Cleary, Peru Trip Manager notes, “It is part of Boundless Journeys’ mission to plan an annual charity event trip as one aspect of our commitment to sustainable tourism. The Huanca community school is in need of renovation and restoration. Our donation to the project of approximately $4,900 USD, plus the time our guests will spend working, will allow the community to accomplish this important goal.”

Along with the popular walking and hiking tour including important sites in the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu, Boundless Journeys guests who participate in the August 2-9 charity event will have the opportunity to:

• Spend a day working side by side with Huanca villagers, assisting electricians, carpenters, painters, and masons to complete the community school renovation project (no construction experience is necessary, just a desire to help out and a willingness to get a little dirt under your nails).
• Spend the night camping in the Huanca community, giving participants time to get to know the villagers better, and enjoying a traditional party to celebrate the completion of the project.

Group size is limited to 16, and reservations are currently being taken for Boundless Journeys’ Peru: The Sacred Valley & Machu Picchu charity event. The August 2-9, 2009 trip cost is $4295 per person (not including international airfare).

For more information please call toll-free 1-800-941-8010, or e-mail Peru destination manager Karen Cleary.

On the Adventure Travel Trail in Morocco

After having received many requests for a Boundless Journeys’ (http://www.boundlessjourneys.com) trip to Morocco, the time has come to develop one of our signature journeys to this intriguing country. Morocco has always been a mysterious destination. Indiana Jones movies come to mind, with Indie running through narrow, smoke-clouded alleys, dodging snake charmers and donkey carts, just barely eluding the evil pursuers on his trail. However, the reality of the Morocco that I experience was part old-world Indiana Jones, and part new world 21st-century. Snake charmers now share space with mobile phone dealers, and the donkey carts share the streets with scooters. But there is still much that harkens back to the Morocco of the movies. Ancient alleyways in the medina of modern cities such as Fez and Marrakesh lead to hidden doorways that open to beautiful courtyards of newly refurbished riads. These riads are all the rage, as many of these traditional homes have been converted into stylish, deluxe accommodations. Our guests will enjoy the excellent location and peaceful oasis these riads now offer. The many shopkeepers within the medina peddle anything from camel’s meat, to magic health potions, to satellite dishes, to the ubiquitous carpets.

The countryside of Morocco revealed a landscape that was much more dramatic and varied than I had imagined. There were vast arid canyons and plateaus that reminded me of Arizona. High peaks and ski areas in the Atlas Mountains looked much like Colorado. The parched, forbidding landscape of the world’s largest desert, the Sahara. And beautiful coastline with expansive beaches that seemed to go on forever. Dotted throughout the otherwise harsh landscape were the oasises which seemingly produced fruit or vegetables from every plant that was lucky enough to share the precious water.

During my time in Morocco, I was greeted with handshakes and smiles everywhere I went. The food was wonderful, the accommodations unique and charming, and the Moroccan people are truly very warm and welcoming hosts. In the end I found Morocco lived up to the exotic images I had conjured up from too many old movies. Part exotic, part modern, part familiar, part foreign, but all very good!

Learn more about Boundless Journeys’ Morocco: Imperial Cities and Desert Oases.