Leisure or adventure: how to pick the trip you will actually enjoy
The wrong trip is not a bad trip, it is just the wrong one. A short framework for working out which you want.
The most common complaint we get is not about hotels or food. It is that people booked a trip two hours harder than they wanted to be, then spent it wishing they were on a beach.
Count the early mornings, not the days
Take any itinerary and count how many days require you to be moving before seven. Four out of nine is an adventure trip. One out of nine is a leisure trip with an excursion. If that number does not match what you want your holiday to feel like, change the trip.
Honour your honest answer about stairs and altitude
Our Spiti and Ladakh trips are labelled moderate. That means 3,600 metres, some cobbles, some long days in a vehicle. It does not mean unfit. If you would not walk up four flights of stairs at home without thinking about it, those two trips are not for you and no amount of enthusiasm will change that on day three.
The best question to ask yourself
At the end of a holiday that went well, do you want to remember something you saw, or something you did? If you are not sure, err towards seeing. It is easier to add activity to a scenic trip than to find a scenic trip after you have spent four days in a jeep.
Key Highlights:
- Count early starts before anything else.
- Be honest about altitude, not just fitness.
- If unsure, choose the scenic version.
- Travel with people whose pace matches yours.
More Travel Guides
Spiti in nine days: what actually happens
Altitude, not distance, is what makes Spiti difficult. Here is the honest version of the route, including the day we tell you to do nothing.
Kerala, for somebody who has never been
Munnar, Thekkady, Fort Kochi and the backwaters — how to put them in an order that does not feel like a checklist.
Bali in the shoulder season, and why September is the answer
April to October is dry. That is the marketing. Here is the month that is actually better and the month that is genuinely bad.