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Why choose Tucan Travel?
We can think of at least 10 good reasons
1. Choose an established tour operator you can trust
We want you to have the adventure of a lifetime and it's our mission to make sure that happens.
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Whether you are a first-time adventure seeker or a seasoned independent traveller, we can help you to discover the world's most amazing people and places, cultures and landscapes. Whether you choose to travel on one of our comfortable overland expedition vehicles or take an adventure on public transport or take to the water on an Expedition Cruise, with Tucan Travel you will always experience the world in an authentic and exciting way.
- Tucan Travel has been independently owned and operated by the same partnership of UK/Australian founders since 1987
- Winner of Small Tour Operator of the Year award in the British Travel 2009 and highly recommended in the Wanderlust Travel Awards 2010
- We can proudly guarantee the quality of our tours because we operate 95% of them ourselves
- We own, operate and maintain our own fleet of modern expedition vehicles
- We offer 450+ tours, 72 countries, 6 travel styles - plenty of destinations to choose from and an adventure for everyone on any budget
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2. Who travels with Tucan Travel?
Choose a Tucan Travel tour and you will travel with like-minded adventure seekers from all walks of life.
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Tucan travellers come in all shapes and sizes, from a wide variety of cultures, nations and backgrounds, and they all share an adventurous spirit, a strong sense of fun and a desire to see the world as it really is. Many Tucan travellers are aged between 25 and 45, but passengers of all ages are welcome on most of our tours as long as they are willing to integrate with the group and are enthusiastic. The fact that you are already reading this page means that you are already a Tucan traveller you just don't know it yet! If you want to know more about people who travel with us, why not check out our Online Community.
Solo travellers
While many people travel as a couple or with friends, around half of our travellers come on their own as they know they will meet friendly, likeminded people along the way. Over the years, many of our passengers have told us that they have made lifelong friends on their Tucan Travel tour. There’s no such thing as a solo traveller when you're on a journey with us - you won’t be travelling with strangers, just friends you haven’t met yet!
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3. See the world your way
We can offer you the adventure of a lifetime in a travel style to suit your needs.
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Whether you want to travel on local transport with chickens or hightail it across the rugged countryside on a powerful, modern and mighty overland truck, or choose your own personalised itinerary, Tucan Travel has a travel style for you. We also give you the choice of travelling with a group size that suits your travel personality. Whether you want to meet as many people as possible along the way, or just keep it small intimate to give you that ‘friends on tour’ feeling, you will be able to see the world your way with our five distinctly different styles. We aim to cater to the wide range of wants and needs of ALL the different kinds of adventure travellers out there. We also have the largest selection of departure dates available to fit in with your holidays so you can be sure to find the right tour at a time that suits you. Browse through our travel styles page for more information.
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4. Relax... we'll deal with the logistics
Many travellers choose Tucan Travel adventure travel tours over independent backpacking because it makes life so much easier.
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On our tours you are completely free from the hassle of booking your own accommodation, organising your own transport, finding your own excursions with quality guides. We employ only the best staff with the most extensive local knowledge, so you can rely upon them to find the best places to go for dinner and drinks, according to your needs and budgets. Most Tucan Travel tour leaders speak some of the local language so they will be able to navigate through every situation smoothly and comfortably. In many places, you’ll have the choice to explore with new friends or discover the destination independently if you wish. We aim to provide you with all the essentials to make your adventure travel trip as relaxing and easygoing as possible - the rest is up to you.
The first and last day of each tour are free days for you to arrive or depart. Many clients like to spend extra time exploring the joining cities as there are many sights to see and do which you there may not be time to visit during your tour. Please bear this in mind when reserving your international flights and if you would like to book pre and post tour accommodation or airport transfers (if available), you can book through us.
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5. Quality and value
We are proud of the high standards we achieve and the value for money we offer.
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We take great care to ensure that our tours are the best value for money in the business, and we know that outstanding value means ensuring that all of the ingredients are right, not just the price. Many of the inclusions in our tours are the result of years of careful research to get the right balance of quality and adventure that is best suited to our travellers. Our friendly and approachable staff have extensive regional knowledge and their expertise will help to lift your experience out of the ordinary. For example, our popular Inca Trail programme utilises carefully selected and educated local guides, cooks, and porters with top equipment, to ensure your trek will be of the highest quality with minimal discomfort. Our value for money and excellent reputation results in many travellers returning to us year after year.
Inclusive Prices
If you are travelling to distant destinations, you certainly don't want any expensive surprises or extra costs that you weren't told about before you booked your tour. Tucan Travel is one of few up-front travel companies that tell you what is included and excluded in our brochure (rather than after you have booked your tour). You will find that many included excursions on our tours are chosen for their quality, not their price. On each trip you may find there are some excursions that are not included. This might be because they are not to everyone's taste or there may be various options of differing value to choose from and we want you to have the choice. There is generally enough time allowed for you to do the options offered, but if you prefer you can always spend some time exploring, sight-seeing or simply relaxing.
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6. Get in touch with the locals
A journey with Tucan Travel means getting out there, meeting people and having fun!
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Our itineraries are designed to allow you to become as involved as possible with the local countries and communities we travel to. Whether you’re staying overnight in a traditional Mongolian ger, taking your first Tai Chi lesson from a local expert in Thailand or discussing weaving and dying methods with a craftswoman in a market in Guatemala, you will have plenty of opportunity to learn about the real lives of local people. We also take you to those out-of-the-way local sights that guidebooks don’t know of and many tourists never have the chance to see. We like to encourage our travellers to have a fully interactive experience, all the while respecting local cultures and customs. See our responsible tourism policy for more information about how we care for the people we visit and work with.
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7. Enjoy an authentic experience, not just a tour
If you really want to immerse yourself in a culture, the first step is to learn something about the people – and what better way to start than to learn their language?
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In Latin America, Tucan Travel offers language schools in five of our popular joining cities as Independent Travel options. You can take a week or two of intensive Spanish classes in a Spanish speaking country before your tour and live with local people in homestays. When you embark on your tour you'll have new language skills, new friends, more confidence, a deeper understanding of the people and fantastic new insights into the culture of the destinations you'll be visiting.
On many of our tours you will have opportunities to learn to cook authentic local cuisine in cooking classes. There are also optional dance classes such as salsa, and other activities like tai chi on offer, depending on the destination.
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8. Adventure activities and excursions
Our tours include a range of outdoor adventure activities, but you don’t have to be super-fit to get involved.
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All you need is an adventurous spirit and the willingness to participate and have fun! Few other companies can boast as many included excursions as Tucan Travel - we visit national parks all over the world, from the Pantanal to Patagonia, Costa Rica to Kenya.. There are also many extra options available on our tours – for example you can take a zip line through a jungle canopy in Costa Rica, or go snorkelling in Thailand. Ride the tallest indoor roller coaster in the world in Kuala Lumpur or take a camel ride in Morocco. You can also try white water rafting, scuba diving, active volcano climbing, horse riding and trekking.
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9. Flexibility
Tucan travel tours allow you to take your time and see the best a country as to offer.
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The modular nature of our tours means you choose can see as much or as little of a particular destination as you like, based on the time you have available. We have carefully chosen departure dates that compliment a wide range of our tours to allow you to combine itineraries in various parts of the continent if you want to see as much as possible while you’re there.
Once you're underway, if you decide that you'd like to stay an extra day in a particularly interesting place, or skip a section of the tour, it is possible to do that and then join your group later on. See the FAQs for more information.
Something to bear in mind - Tucan Travel overland adventure tours are designed to let you enjoy the very best that each country has to offer. As such, they cannot always be rigidly adhered to and will occasionally be improved and amended according to local conditions such as climatic reasons and political changes. In general, we try to keep to the published route, but occasionally we may have to replace one sight with another, according to local conditions. We will always do our best to make sure the sight is equal to or better than the one published on the itinerary. So try to keep a smile on your face and go with the flow and it all just adds to the adventure!
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10. Leadership, experience and knowledge
One of the most important ingredients for a successful adventure is the right kind of leadership.
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This is especially important in countries where the language and culture is very different from our own. Tucan Travel tour leaders know our destinations very well, and are adept at getting the very best out of the destinations we visit. This means everything from back street restaurants serving delicious, cheap local food, to pointing out interesting sites to see and places to visit along the way. Our adventures use a combination of different styles of leadership in order to maximise your enjoyment and experiences. All of our staff are carefully selected and trained to ensure that you are in the best hands, leaving you free to sit back, relax and enjoy your adventure travel holiday. They are friendly people chosen for their great personalities, passion for adventure travel, invaluable local knowledge and resourcefulness to overcome the occasional setback - probably without you noticing there even was one.
Tucan Travel tour leaders are adventure travel addicts from all over the world. A Tucan tour leader accompanies you on your tour and is responsible for the day-to-day running of the tour, leaving you free to sit back, relax and enjoy your holiday.
Tucan Travel local representatives will assist you at times when your Tucan Travel tour leader may not be available. Tucan Travel local representatives are full-time employees of Tucan Travel and local experts. You will meet them in Lima and Cuzco.
Tucan Travel drivers are an integral part of the group and are of varied nationalities. They are used to the traffic and rugged roads of Latin America and Africa, and hold international licenses. Safe driving is their priority and they are experienced in vehicle maintenance.
Local Reps own and operate their own local businesses, and on occasion they are responsible for meet and greet and transfers.
Local Guides accompany many of our excursions, such as the Inca Trail trek. Their knowledge of the local area and familiarity with its customs and history will enhance your experiences and lift your adventure travel trip out of the ordinary.
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