Our Top 10 Unique & Unusual Holidays

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You’ve been there and done that. You’ve travelled well and you’ve travelled far. And now you want to do things differently. Well, our unusual holidays take you off the beaten path – and they keep on going.

Unusual – for us – isn’t about being a voyeur. It’s about really getting to grips with a very different way of life. Let a Mongolian nomad teach you how the eagle soars. Build your own igloo in Greenland’s endless North. Batten down the hatches as you sail across the arctic. This is all about the weird and wonderful.

Our Top 10 Unusual Holidays List Includes:

  1. Live With The Bürtkitshi Of Western Mongolia
  2. Walk Face To Face With Gorillas In Rwanda
  3. Learn The Art Of The Ninja In Japan
  4. Explore Prehistoric Lakes From The Base Of Your Camp
  5. Receive A Blessing In The Floating Villages Of Lake Titicaca
  6. Ski Unnamed Peaks In Lofoten
  7. A Different Kind Of Safari
  8. Join The Dani Tribe In Papua New Guinea
  9. Go Back To The Beginning In Ethiopia
  10. When India Opens Its Doors In The Summer

With the help of our Travel Experts, is your next unusual story around the corner?

Psst if you’re looking for something truly unique and unusual for you and your family then follow us down the rabbit hole and explore our adventures inspired by classic children’s stories, Take me on a Story.

#1 Live with the Bürtkitshi of Western Mongolia

In the far corners of the Bayan-Olgii region, Kazakh nomads traverse the plateau as their ancestors did before them. Goats wander, gers are packed and unpacked, milk is served, eagles sore, communities move to fresh pasture. The cycle continues. This is one of the most remote and unchanged communities in the world.

Local legend says that whilst a man trains the eagle, the eagle trains the man. On this trip you’ll live the legend – learning the struggles and the euphoria of this way of life. The highlight will come when you ascend the Altai Mountains themselves, where your Great Eagle Hunter host – and guide – will show you how the community supports and sustains itself. You’ll become truly embedded in this alternative way of life.

Open your eyes – and your heart – and step inside an ancient tradition that’s still very much alive and kicking. And soaring, of course.

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See all Mongolia experiences

#2 Walk face to face with Gorillas in Rwanda

It’s an early morning start. You’ve eaten breakfast, sipped bleary-eyed at your coffee. A last check of your bag and you head north, passing local communities where farmers are harvesting coffee beans and children run alongside you whispering with excitement about your destination and the mythical hosts you’ll meet. 

There’s nothing usual, even to the locals here in Volcanoes National Park, about coming face to face with the region’s most unusual inhabitants. The jungle is dense and mysterious, everyone’s energy is high with anticipation. It’s one of those moments you can see coming but don’t know what to expect.

What does it feel like to look back 10 million years? How will you react once sitting within feet of the Great Apes as they peer back at you? You can’t be sure before you go. One thing that is for sure though: a single journey into the jungles of Virunga can change your life.

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See all Rwanda experiences

#3 Learn the art of the Ninja in Japan

You’re traditionally dressed, trained and educated in the way of one of Japan’s most ancient ways of life. There’s your moment, the story you’ll bring back. Born from half-man, half crow, the history and presence of the Ninja in Japan is mysterious and at times otherworldly. For over a thousand years the Ninja have been deployed for their espionage and strategy, to infiltrate, understand and – when needed – assassinate.*

Today, their descendants continue in this meditative, progressive way of life. Without the killing. But they do know their way around a sword. 

You’ll meet your Ninjutsu teacher at the sacred Dojo – a place of learning and peace. Here you’ll be taken on a journey through the history of the Ninja and learn to think, breathe and fight like these infamous warriors of ancient Japan.

* don’t worry, you won’t have to assassinate anyone. That costs extra.

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See all Japan experiences

#4 Explore prehistoric lakes from the base of your camp

40,000 years ago Lake Minchin in the Altiplano region of Bolivia began to recede. Year by year it receded, leaving behind a 10,000 square kilometre crust of salt. The extraordinary Salar De Uyuni salt flat is an adventurer’s playground, where the vast horizon and reflective salt create visual illusions that feel like being pulled into a new world.

What’s different about our trip to this otherworldly place? Well, whilst others visit, you’ll be staying on the salt flats themselves. After all, a few hours isn’t enough to really immerse yourself in somewhere so ethereal. Whilst everyone else heads back to the world’s highest capital, La Paz, you’ll be sitting outside your custom dome camp, staring up at an infinite galaxy of stars. 

Welcome to Bolivia. This isn’t another planet. Even if it looks that way.

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#5 Receive a blessing in the floating villages of Lake Titicaca

This isn’t the capital. It’s not the beach town everyone goes to. This is the home of the Uros, a community that predates even the Incans. They say they’ve been here longer than the sun itself when the earth was dark and cold. They live high in the Andean mountains, on the shores of Lake Titicaca where Totora reeds are bedded down one atop the other until they’re stable enough to build entire communities on.

That’s what you’ll find here: an ancient tribe of people, relatively unchanged in a millennia, who have made reed beds the foundation of their community, one that floats on the surface of the spectacular Lake Titicaca.

If you want to find out more, the shaman here will take you into his shelter and tell you the stories of his people and how they outlasted the Spanish, the Incan’s and even the sun itself.

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See all Peru experiences


LOOKING FOR SOMETHING ELSE?

Had a read of the above but still looking for something else? We have some more options for you below or why not have a look at our unusual beach holidays here if sunshine and waves are on your wish list.

Skiing in Lofoten: an unusual holiday

#6 Ski unnamed peaks in Lofoten

You’re in the Arctic Circle. Yesterday you were sailing through a wintery archipelago. Today you’re skiing unnamed slopes (go on, name one). Tomorrow you’re setting out in search of the Aurora Borealis. Welcome to Lofoten, not your usual adventure. Not your usual story.

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See all Norway experiences

 

Elephants in the Congo

#7 A different kind of Safari

This is not Kenya, Botswana or South Africa. This is the Congo. And very different. Our eight day adventure through Odzala-Kokua National Park will take you into a new world. One of the most mysterious on earth. Lowland Gorillas, African grey parrots and forest elephants await.

 

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An unusual holiday: meet members of the Dani Tribe

#8 Join the Dani Tribe in Papua New Guinea

The world is getting smaller, the blank space on the map are all but filled in. Papua New Guinea however, is one of those wild untamed wildernesses where remote tribal communities continue today as they did 10,000 years ago. Ready to step back in time and join the tribe?

 

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See all Papa New Guinea experiences

Visit a World Heritage Site on an Ethiopia holiday

#9 Go back to the beginning in Ethiopia

Not many people consider Ethiopia, simply because of the challenge of travelling there. We’ve unpicked this enigmatic destination however and will take you completely off the grid into the hidden monasteries in the Simien Mountains, the castles of Gondar and rock-cut monolithic churches of Lalibela.

 

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Ladakh: an unusual holiday destination in India

#10 When India opens its doors in the summer

It can only mean one place – Ladakh. High in the north western region of India, hidden in Jammu and Kashmir you’ll find yourself in an ancient kingdom, impassible but for a few short summer months, when the place lets a few visitors sneak in to marvel at a region untouched, undiscovered and full of adventure to be had.

 

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NOT WHAT YOU WERE LOOKING FOR?

Whilst there are some unusual destinations and events happening around the world that we tap into to create our experiences. We also take our own approach to travel, creating exclusive unique experiences from the ground up, ones that can only be enjoyed with Black Tomato. From wilderness survival to glamping on unconquered mountains, these are our unique services.

Get Lost by Black Tomato

Designed for those looking for a once-in-a-lifetime challenge. Train with elite survival experts before traversing a polar, jungle, coastal, mountain or desert region in your mission back to civilisation. Ready for the challenge?

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Blink by Black Tomato

The ultimate luxury camping retreat. From the Sahara desert to the Andean Mountains, with Blink anywhere you can envisage it, we will create it. Stay where no one has ever stayed before and where no one will ever stay again. An experience exclusively for you.

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Bring It Back by Black Tomato

Some people talk about ‘culture shock.’ We’re talking about embedding yourself in an entirely different way of thinking, and of learning directly from experts on the ground; people who know their culture back to front. You may be surprised by what you discover.

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