Why You Should Travel with Geckos Adventures

Geckos Adventures is for the young, the fun, the budget-conscious and the adventure-ready. Travelling with Geckos means hanging with 18 to 29 year-olds, getting to know a destination in the company of a local, and enjoying loads of free time en route. Where group tours for many mean zooming from city to city aboard 40-seater coaches, staying in Western-style hotels and trying to piece together what happened the night previous, the Geckos way of doing things couldn’t be more different. Here’s why.

Geckos groups travel with an average of nine travellers and a maximum of 16. They find this keeps things more intimate, more relaxed and less overwhelming for the small communities that sometimes host Geckos groups. Travelling in small groups also gets people chatting and making new friends quickly, which is especially great for solo or first-time travellers. It’s hard not to bond with someone when you’ve eaten guinea pig, drunk corn beer and danced together at a Peruvian fiesta. Basically, if you’ve got an open mind, a sense of adventure and are willing to step outside of your comfort zone, you’ll fit right in.

Locals know best, it’s as simple as that. So all of Geckos Adventures leaders are local – and it’s as simple as that. Born and raised in the regions Geckos travel through, they’re the ultimate authorities on all things local; from traditional customs and tasty delicacies to language tips and historical tidbits. Need advice on trekking the Inca Trail? That’s Renaldi’s forte. Curious what that Hindu inscription says? Ask Arsaya. Geckos leaders aren’t just tour guides. They’re your new friends, lucky charms and walking, talking Wikipedias.

Simply put, Geckos trips are cheap. Not in a ‘cutting corners’ kind of way, but in a ‘they won’t charge you for what you don’t want to do’ kind of way. Don’t want go zip-lining in Siem Reap? No problem – they don’t include it in the trip price. In the interests of keeping things both economical and adventurous, Geckos uses public transport and locally owned accommodation wherever possible. This could mean a home-stay in Vietnam, a jungle lodge in Peru or trundling through Thailand in a tuk-tuk. You’ll never catch a Guatemalan chicken bus or an overnight train through India and emerge story-less and friend-free. It just doesn’t happen.

Geckos Adventures travels in more than 50 countries across Asia, the Americas, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. That’s a lot of world to choose from. Like each destination they go to, their itineraries are one-of-a-kind, balancing the unmissable highlights with tons of local encounters and visits to off-the-beaten-track locations. So while you’ll shop up a storm in the souks of Marrakech, you’ll also meet Berber nomads tending to their sheep in the middle of rural Morocco. Geckos trips combine plenty of included and optional activities with loads of free time, so you’ll get to see what you want to see, when you want to see it. It’s your adventure, after all.

The term does tend to get bandied about a fair bit these days, but Geckos Adventures truly believe in treading lightly. Employing local guides and staying in locally owned places means the money spent and skills employed stay in the communities Geckos visit. They also offset the main carbon emissions from their trips by investing in carbon credits. It’s only right. Basically, they see sustainable travel as travelling with a conscience. Or as someone wise probably once said: ‘he who runneth wild, acteth not like a jerk’.

So then, how about it? Got an open mind? A sense of adventure? A craving to see the world for real? Run wild with Geckos. To learn more, speak to us or to make a booking, call us at 1866 317 0964, email us or visit your nearest Flight Centre store location.