Now that we’ve finally turned the page on 2015, I’d like to suggest you start thinking seriously about this year’s active holiday (or, perhaps – lucky you – holidays). Here’s why:
1) The brochures are all out, and the tours are all loaded into the operators’ respective websites for your research. Everyone is accepting reservations now.
2) Now is the season of Early Booking Bonuses with reductions of up to 20% on some of our favourite tour companies including Tucan and On the Go Tours.
3) It’s also not a bad idea to commit to your flights too. When you book them, you’re covered against nasty surprises such as currency surcharges, and the Canadian dollar has been looking a bit feeble over the past few months.
4) You’re probably familiar with the travel term “space availability”. When it comes to small group tours such as the ones we promote in our active travel division, there’s never a ton of space as groups tend to max out capacity-wise at 16 travellers (and expedition ships carry typically just 130 passengers). And the companies market throughout the English speaking world (though on my recent trip there were also a Romanian and a Pole). So that’s 16 spots on a departure that is available worldwide!
If you’re used to travelling with the mainstream package holiday companies you’re probably aware that they offer some serious discounts to last-minute travellers. That’s because they operate their own airlines too and empty air seats – and empty hotel rooms from their allocations – are expensive. But in the active travel sector there are not these risks, hence no last minute discounts – and therefore no point in delaying making your reservation now. As an added bonus: you get something to look forward to, and that’s a pretty nice thing!