Choosing a trip
Intrepid adventures are for travellers with a yearning to get off the beaten track. Whether you’re travelling solo, with a group of friends, or are aged 18 or 70, there is an Intrepid adventure to suit your interests and comfort level. Each Intrepid adventure has a physical and cultural grading to help you decide if the trip is right for you. No special skills are required for most adventures, just a sense of adventure and a curiosity about the world. Even on our camping adventures no previous experience is required; our tents are easy to set up, even for first-time campers.
Good things come in small packages, which is why we keep our group sizes down. This means we’re small enough to remain flexible as we thread our way through communities without intimidating the locals. On most of our trips you’ll be part of an intimate group of 12-16 people, though our group sizes are on average 10 people. Our Overland trips are in purpose-built vehicles that can carry up to 24 travellers. Group sizes are displayed on each trip’s overview page on our website.
For the majority of our trips the minimum age is 15. An adult must accompany all children under the age of 18. Our Overland Adventures have a minimum age of 18. Younger children can join us on our Family trips and Short Break Adventures, but check each trip for its minimum age, which is located on the trip’s overview page on the website. Most of our trips don’t have a maximum age limit, but a Self-Assessment Form is required for all passengers 70 years and over.
While we can’t tell you who your leader is prior to departure, we can tell you they will be awesome. Our leaders are experts in their regions, some because they’ve been travelling there for years, others because they’re local to the region and can’t wait to show you around. On longer journeys, or ones that travel through more than one country, you may change leaders part way through – but this just means double the awesomeness.
Before you depart
Make sure you bring these with you. Every trip has a set of Essential Trip Information, accessible on our website, that gives you in-depth information about all aspects of your trip. To access your Essential Trip Information, please visit your trip’s specific facts page on our website. The Essential Trip Information are accessible at the top of this page.
While we do include information in our Essential Trip Information about visa requirements, we always recommend that passengers check with their local embassy as visa rules can change without warning. Embassy websites in your home country will always have information about requirements, visa costs and will provide the required forms. If you are uncomfortable with the visa process, you can visit a travel agent who can arrange these for you at a cost.
The safety of our passengers, leaders and operators is a major priority for Intrepid. With this in mind, we monitor world events very closely and Intrepid makes operational decisions based on informed advice from a number of sources, in particular the level of the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade (DFAT) travel advisory. If this advisory is at Level 4 ‘Do Not Travel’ then Intrepid will either cancel the Intrepid Travel operated trip or reroute the itinerary to avoid the areas concerned. Visit intrepidtravel.com/contact-us/safety for further details.
Our Essential Trip Information include a section on ‘Spending money’. Please refer to this for an idea on budgets. Travellers’ cheques are not common practice anymore so it is a good idea to travel with a credit card and ATM card, or a bank issued ‘cash card’ specifically for travel. Having a couple of options will assure that you are covered if one doesn’t work. In certain countries it comes down to potluck if you can withdraw money. One day it’ll work, the next it won’t, but it will work for your friend… Go figure! Visa cards are more widely accepted than Mastercard, particularly in Cuba where only Visa cards are accepted.