Meaningful Travel

What is meaningful travel? In part, it’s about giving back.

So, if “meaningful travel” means that your trip has a deeper “meaning”, a ‘point’, then who decides that meaning exactly? Easy. It’s you. You want to see the world, but you don’t want to skim the surface. You might learn about crafts in a Moroccan medina. But you’ll also spend time with the artists and share their stories. You want to travel to precious ecosystems, but you also want to contribute to their survival.

With meaningful travel, you might give back. Contributing, actively, to a tortoise conversation program in Costa Rica. Or a gorilla conservation program in Rwanda. But you won’t be there for a moment. You’ll spend time, slowly. Taking things in. And it’s for this reason that many of our travellers choose to keep in touch and even go back.

But meaningful travel is also about learning.

Seeing is believing. But with meaningful travel, it’s also about learning. For our travellers, it’s not enough to watch the horse breeders of Mongolia. No. We set them up with a local family. You’ll share dinner. Share the work. You’ll learn about their way of life, and you’ll come away with new skills.

Here’s an opportunity to get involved but also to evolve yourself. When we go away, it’s so easy to pick up and move on. But when the trip is planned around meaningful travel, there will be countless opportunities to participate and learn. These are the things you’ll bring back home.

With meaningful travel, you might change your mind.

Everyone gets stuck in a rut. But with meaningful travel, we’ll help you find your way out. We love setting up opportunities to share and learn. That might be among tastemakers in Copenhagen, or nomads in Mongolia. You might travel with a meaningful objective. You might figure it out as you go along.

In Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, our travellers don’t simply pass through. They stop. And they talk. They’ll pause for dinner with a local family. They’ll share music and song around a Bedouin campfire. It’s a chance to contribute, to take part. To make your travel memorable and impactful, while away and when you’ve returned home. In Bhutan, you might spend time visiting His Eminence Gangteng Tulku Rinpoche in Bhutan, spending time in a temple, and meditating at the Gangtey Monastery. Here, meaningful travel is literally a process of seeking meaning and of finding repose.

But you might also change your life.

Health. Wellness. Family and relationships. With meaningful travel, you can learn new things to bring back to your everyday life. You might foster a special relationship with a particular destination. You might deepen your understanding of a part of your life and personality. You’ll forge relationships, and you’ll learn from them.

In Spain’s Balearic Islands, travellers learn the life-long art of sustainable and healthy cooking. In Cuba, our travellers have attended performances at local avant-garde venues, learning firsthand from artists and performers how to reinvigorate their creative practice. So, meditation. Yoga. Health. Self-understanding. The tools and instruments you can draw on to lead a different way of life.

Meaningful travel puts landscapes, communities, and wildlife first.

You’ll learn, and you’ll give. With meaningful travel, it’s a two-way street. In Costa Rica, you might spend time with scientists at Proyecto Assist and contribute to research on sloth conservation, as well participating in coral reef regeneration through Bahia Culebra’s Coral Reef Propagation Project at the Four Seasons Papagayo. And you’ll also get to feel good about yourself.

Ultimately, you’ll see the world. But not through a sheet of glass or a pair of binoculars. Meaningful travel gets you close. Learn practices and traditions first-hand from the people who live them.

And – with us – meaningful travel isn’t about empty feel-good moments.

We’ve never been big on fleeting moments and shallow experiences. We want to take you deep into the world, beyond tourist traps and empty gestures. That’s what our travellers love, and it’s the kind of meaningful travel that we love to plan.

So when you come with us, ask about how we can transform your trip into a meaningful travel experience. Something tailored just for you.

Six examples of meaningful travel experiences

And they’re folded inside of wider journeys and itineraries.

1. Conservation in Costa Rica

During this adventurous Costa Rican escape, you’ll learn about and take part in conservation activities at Proyecto Asis, an animal rescue centre specialising in the sloth.

2. Culture, wellness, and cuisine in Peru with Vergilio Martinez

On this ten-night trip, world-renowned chef Virgilio Martinez will introduce you to the tastes and cultures of Peru. You’ll spend plenty of time dining with local cooks in the Sacred Valley, taking part in an earth-blessing ceremony, and learning about the interweaving of land, food, and culture in the history of Peru.

3. Bring it Back

From Denmark to Mongolia, this series of trips are designed to help you take part and give back, while learning something new about yourself.

4. A spiritual odyssey through Bhutan and Nepal

Here, you’ll reconnect with your own spirituality. But you’ll also spend time with the village elders of Laya and Gasa villages. The views from Gangtey Lodge are meditative enough, but you’ll also spend time reflecting and meditating around the temples of the region.

5. Gorilla trekking and conservation in the mountains of Rwanda

On this spellbinding journey, you’ll visit the conservation centres of Volcanoes National Park, spending time and learning from the conservationists responsible for caring for the region’s endangered mountain gorillas.

6. Learn the lifeways of the Altai mountains

The soaring pinnacle of this Mongolian trip will see you finding meaningful travel moments with the nomadic eagle hunters of the Altai Mountains. Setting off by horseback and foot, you’ll learn firsthand about a practice that has been passed down over centuries.