The Adventure Company

I asked for the Adventure Company to be added onto Ciao a good few months ago and they only recently got around to doing it. Before writing my review I thought to myself “that logo doesn’t look right” and lo and behold I checked and the Adventure Company to which this logo refers is actually “Colorado’s Premier Outfitter in River Rafting Vacations and Trips”. D’oh! As this is being posted on the Ciao UK site and I am not sure how many people are ...
...minds if I review the company I originally intended, which is the one in the UK….phew.

Anyway, onto more important things – the Adventure Company is a UK based holiday company based in Hampshire. As the name would suggest they concentrate more on the “out of the ordinary” trips. I have travelled twice with them, once to Africa and once to Nepal and both times I have had no complaints. The company is a member of FTO, ATOL etc so you ... more

I asked for the Adventure Company to be added onto Ciao a good few months ago and they only recently got around to doing it. Before writing my review I thought to myself “that logo doesn’t look right” and lo and behold I checked and the Adventure Company to which this logo refers is actually “Colorado’s Premier Outfitter in River Rafting Vacations and Trips”. D’oh! As this is being posted on the Ciao UK site and I am not sure how many people are planning to go rafting in Colorado I hope no one minds if I review the company I originally intended, which is the one in the UK….phew.

Anyway, onto more important things – the Adventure Company is a UK based holiday company based in Hampshire. As the name would suggest they concentrate more on the “out of the ordinary” trips. I have travelled twice with them, once to Africa and once to Nepal and both times I have had no complaints. The company is a member of FTO, ATOL etc so you are fully covered in the event of the company going under whilst you are away.

Booking trips
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All of the holidays can be booked via the website http://www.adventurecompany.co.uk The website has recently been completely remade and is a good example of how a website should be. All of the available holidays can be selected by a series of drop-down boxes on the left-hand side and this can be filtered by such parameters as Country/Area, type of activity etc. You can also specify what budget you have. Once you have selected all your details the website will search through all of the available trips and dates and display what is available.

In addition the website also features a last-minute deal section where, if you just want to get away, don’t care when but just has to be now then you can see what trips are leaving in the near future. Generally the late availability trips are not discounted, but you can easily find a trip that is leaving in your timescale.

Another feature that has been added is “Live chat” This is an Instant Messenger type application that allows you to chat in real-time with a consultant about your travel plans. I have never used this personally, but it certainly seems like a good idea.

If you prefer the personal touch then the company can be contacted by telephone. I have spoken to the office there several times to discuss points about a forthcoming trip and have always found them helpful and knowledgeable. All the staff have travelled extensively and you can usually find someone who has already done the trip you are about to do and is willing to talk over any aspect of it. The company is still fairly small as well, so they have an excellent level of customer service.

After a trip has been booked then the next trip you book through them has a £50 discount applied. I am not sure how long this offer lasts for, but it has applied for at least the last two years.

What trips are available?
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Pretty much anything you can think of to be honest apart from beach holidays and actual mountaineering trips. A fair few of the holidays are trekking/walking based, including the two I have done but there are other trips that are far more gentle, visiting places like South America, Mongolia and (if you are incredibly rich) the Antarctic or Arctic (I wish I was incredibly rich!). I think that I could book a holiday through this company every year and never run out of places to visit or things to (possible future marriage/kids notwithstanding :) ).

There are also a large number of family suitable trips, for families who wish to experience something different in a variety of locations around the world.

Most of the trips will mean that you will be in the company of other people, often for extended periods of time. In my experience the type of people who go on particular trips will be there for the same reason as you so there is generally quite a lot of cohesion in the groups. It sounds dull, but some of the best evenings are spent doing very little, no alcohol, playing cards or chess or just talking and this is one of the best aspects of this type of travel.

Price wise they are actually quite reasonable. A lot of the trips last for quite a while – up to 25 days in some cases, so they are obviously more expensive that package holidays, but in the majority of cases some or most of your food is included meaning that you usually have to spend very little on the actual trip. When you compare them against the competition as well they also seem good value for money. On the Annapurna trip we were in the same village most evenings as a trip from Exodus. They visited the same places, stayed in the same or comparable lodges and yet they paid a considerable amount more. I am not sure what they got for their extra money.

My experiences with them
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As stated at the start of this review I cannot praise them highly enough. Both of the trips I have been on have been superbly well organised, with a high emphasis on safety which is vital if travelling in remote areas. There is also an emphasis on using local guides wherever possible – on both trips the guide was local as were the support staff. This means that you get people guiding you who know more about the country and plus you get to integrate with people from other countries and cultures. This adds immensely to the experience in my opinion.

As with any travel company you would expect to have a couple of niggles and I did, but nothing that would put me off them in any way. Generally any problems that people has were sorted very quickly (including the enormous first aid kit in Nepal, from which came a magic pill that quickly cured my sickness from the night before!).

The flights can be a bit of a pain at times. One of the ways that costs are cut is obviously on the airlines, meaning long waits in airports but it is not a problem and does not detract from the holiday in any way.

Overall
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In conclusion I would recommend this company to anyone who fancies something a bit different. It is no exaggeration to say that you will be able to find a holiday to suit you 99% of the time if an adventurous type holiday is what you are looking for.

Contact details
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Website: http://www.adventurecompany.co.uk
Telephone: 0845 4505316

Incidentally, I checked and they don’t do any rafting in Colorado! 

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