Planet Hoppers | August 2019

August 2019

California’s 2019 Travel Consultant of the Year - LUXlife Magazine

Bay Area’s 2019 Best International Bespoke Holiday Agency - LUXlife Magazine

When most people think of group tours, they think of a herd of people following a flag. G Adventures is different. This company, started nearly 30 years ago, creates tours led by local guides, catering to small groups of open-minded, adventurous, and curious travelers seeking unique and exclusive local insights, experiences, and interactions. Independent travelers would not get this on their own. Megan joined a G Adventures tour in her teens, loved her tour so much that she pursued a job with them, and continues to travel with G Adventures for her personal holidays. Megan and G Adventures exemplify everything we love in our partners. Here's her story.

Featured Trip Of The Month

MEGAN TAKES THE HIGH ROAD TO TIBET

Itinerary

Full Transcript

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Megan is a sales rep for G Adventures – a company that specializes in small group travel. She told me about her fascinating trip from Nepal to Tibet with her sister, along with 14 others, in September of 2017. She also shared the many benefits of group travel:

"A trip like this needs to be done in a group. You can’t just book a ticket and fly into Tibet and do it on your own, you must have a registered tour guide and that guide must be registered through a company. Small group trips are the best way to go. The local guide shows you where the best things are. It was like we were traveling with a friend. We got all the insider scoop and experiences without the headache of translation and getting lost. We just followed along. Your time is freed up enjoying the little things instead of hunting for it. You don’t have to search for the best restaurants, the guide will just take you there. You get the safety and security of a small group and you can still bunk alone if you want. You get a built-in community. It’s ideal for singles and for couples. I think there's a little bit of an ego thing about doing your own travel and knowing better, but you're missing out on so many experiences because you think you can do it better than a company that's done it for 30 years. You get to see and do things most people don't get to see and do. You get to see things like a local, it's very authentic."

"I’ve been to over 70 countries and what stood out to me the most about Tibet was the feeling that this was the furthest from home I’ve ever felt. I felt like I was on another planet.

We first landed in Kathmandu and immediately went to do a community homestay in Panauti, a small town in Nepal. For the homestays, we were all placed in different households, but in the same neighborhood. Usually, the people hosting speak English. For example, we stayed with two sisters who spoke English, but their parents did not. We all cooked dinner together."

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"Kathmandu is amazing. While walking down the streets we saw this cow that had a birth defect. It was like a fifth leg coming out of the cow’s back. When something like that happens in nature, they think it means they are special. The cow was placed in this decorated cage, like a circus animal. The cage was painted with different colors and gorgeous designs. The guy in the cart driving the cage was singing while people were running after it crying, trying to touch the cow.

Tibetans are expected to prostrate themselves 100,000 times a year, which works out to almost 300 times a day, every day. They prostrate themselves around temples and on roads. You see traditionally dressed Tibetans living in high mountain villages. It really is another world. It’s gorgeous with the Himalayas all around you.

We went to one of the palaces in Tibet where they had monks in training. If you go to their monastery around 1:00 pm, you’ll find them debating. They are paired up - one sits on the ground and one stands above him and they yell about philosophical ideas. They pitch ideas at each other. One says something and will clap when done. There are hundreds of monks yelling, then clapping at each other, like they are dropping the mic. It’s all in good spirit."

"When we flew, we could see Everest through the cloud cover. Our itinerary had us go to Rongbuk Monastery, which is the highest monastery in the world. One of the main highlights was staying at that monastery and staying at the base of Everest and you can’t get there without driving. The views while driving were gorgeous.

At the end when we flew back to Kathmandu and I then flew out and went to Pokhara - the active, hiking, adventure capital of Nepal. I went out kayaking and I went paragliding.

Language wasn’t a barrier here. It’s made clear before we leave that all our trips are in English and we have a lot of nationalities on these tours. This isn’t the easiest place to go, not really a place for people less traveled. This isn’t a luxury trip, this is an adventure."