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Friday, February 11, 2005
Coming up: Chris Ronneseth -
Adventure Travel Expert!
I just got back a little while ago from a meeting with Chris Ronneseth
who works for Trek Holidays,
which happens to be the largest adventure travel company in Canada.
Chris has traveled every continent except Antarctica, which I am
sure he is planning to travel to in the near future.
Chris Ronneseth
Adventure travel actually runs in Chris’ family. His father
originally worked as a travel writer, then went on to crew overland
Africa expeditions. His love of adventure and his desire to share
the experience with other like minded travelers led to the opening
of his first office at the University of Alberta in 1972. Today
Trek Holidays is a whole family enterprise of adventure travel specialists
that collectively have traveled to more than 100 countries in the
world.
I have to admit one category of travel I haven’t been exposed
to personally is adventure travel and I have been wanting to explore
it for a while now. I never had an opportunity to do the “backpacking
through Europe” thing, and quite frankly, I don’t know
if I would be up to sleeping in public on hard benches in various
railway stations around the globe at this stage of my life.
Statues at Angkor Wat.
In our conversation, Chris told me that the tours that Trek Holidays
actually provide comfortable hotel or guesthouse accommodation,
some of it more upscale and unique, while other places are more
basic, but clean and comfortable. Either way you get to stay in
a local establishment, with most of the travel dollars going back
into the local economy, rather than promoting big multi-national
hotel chains.
About 80 percent of tours involve sightseeing in small groups in
unique places while about 20 percent have an activity component,
such as biking, hiking or wild water rafting, built in. So there
are different levels of exertion that you can shoot for, from comfortable
sightseeing tours in minivans to strenuous Himalaya trekking tours
that demand a high level of physical fitness.
Sunset at Angkor Wat, Cambodia.
Chris also talked to me about the “ethos” of adventure
travel, that one of the key things is to leave as small a “footprint”
as possible, to prevent a disruption of local wildlife and cultures
while appreciating the beauty and diversity of our planet. Many
of the tours involve cycling or hiking, so they end up being very
eco-friendly.
In his interview, Chris will tell us about his own travel experiences,
the destinations and activities covered in adventure travel, about
who goes on adventure travel tours and why, practical adventure
travel considerations and much more.
Get ready for a virtual adventure around the globe……
Related articles:
Here is the completed interview with Chris
Ronneseth.
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