Intrepid Travel

The clue is in the title. These holidays are far removed from your average family break and you won’t spot a packed resort or kids’ club on the horizon. The trips are tailored for families who want to discover the real world, far off the beaten track, with local guides to help you along the way. Intrepid Travel covers trips in The Americas, Europe and Turkey (but not as you know it), Asia & Himalaya, Africa and the Middle East.

Scroll down to read about our hand-picked Intrepid Travel trips. 

Groups are small, with an average of 10 people, so you and your kids will find it easy to make friends. Most of the trips are tailored for kids over five or 11 year and a 3-for-2 kids policy operates on all of them so you’re not penalised if you’ve got a large family. Get ready to meet incredible people and immerse yourselves in new cultures. The smallness of the groups means you can travel like the locals; jumping on buses, boats, rickshaws, trains and camels to get from A to B, a far better option than travelling en masse in a soulless coach. Fussy eaters will soon shed their inhibitions; food is always local, so no kids’ menus but the chance to learn new tastes along the way.

Intrepid trips are popular with solo parents, offering the chance to go to places you may not feel up to if travelling on your own with kids. They also provide ready-made playmates for children and adult company for you. Due to increasing demand, Intrepid has also introduced specially designed single-parent holidays exclusively for lone parents and their kids.

The list of trips is an extensive one but you might be sampling the delights of a market in Delhi, visiting a sumo wrestling school in Tokyo, cycling through the temples of Bagan (Angkor Wat’s rival), visiting tea plantations in Sri Lanka, hiking through the Peruvian jungle or visiting the ruins of Pompeii. Or perhaps you prefer to find out what the fuss is about in Nepal or explore the backwaters of Kerala on a houseboat. 

While there are hotels throughout the trip so your kids can plunge into a pool, they’re far more likely to be paddling in jungle streams or experiencing wild swimming at its best. Accommodation is always comfortable but basic and could be anything from a desert tent under the stars, overnight sleeper trains in Vietnam, a jungle eco-camp in Borneo or a cave hotel in Tunisia. 

While the itineraries are packed with adventures every day, everything is taken care of for you. No need to worry about transfers or any other irksome details – Intrepid Travel does it all for you.