Expedition Style
There are several different factors that make up the style of on expedition.
Activity
Obviously, the main activity or mode of transport has a huge effect on the style of your expedition. Whether your hiking, biking, kayaking, touring or anything in-between, your main activity is a large focus of the expedition.
Trip leader
Will your expedition be led by an experienced local guide? Or will you have the support of one of our expert Australian expedition leaders that will be on call from the moment they pick you up at the airport, right until your departure.
Service level
Most of our expeditions are 'full service'. This means, you don't have to do a thing except what you came to do! Our teams will look after you, and depending on the expeditions, set camps, cook, clean, arrange rooms, and facilitate more or less everything. On these expeditions you will never be required to carry any group equipment or food. As our team will do all that too!
On a full service expedition, you may or may not be required to carry your own personal clothing and equipment. Some expeditions have full porter teams to carry these things for you, e.g. Nepal and Tanzania, while others have an option to hire a personal porter, e.g. Kokoda Track. There are some expeditions however that you will be required to carry your own equipment as there is no alternative!
The final service level is our "Extreme Expeditions". These are generally one off expeditions led by one of our Australian leaders, and generally involve a technical skill, or an extremely remote environment. Depending on the expedition, you are likely to be a fully functioning expedition member with roles and responsibilities. You will be helping make and break camps, assist in a share of the cooking and cleaning and even put to use any technical knowledge or experience you might have (or learn from those who do!). These expedition will generally have a certain amount of experience require to attend, or have traveled with us before.
Physical Difficulty
All our trips have a physical difficulty rating. Our expeditions range from relaxing to hardcore, requiring a lot of pre trip training. When grading an expedition, we take into account time per day moving, number of physically demanding days in a row, and any other influences such as altitude. You can see our trek grading system here.
Technical skill
Some of our expeditions require some experience to participate. The level of skill or experience required will be outlined in the expedition details and will generally be a specific skill related guide line, e.g. must be confident skiing intermediate runs inbounds. If you're concerned about any skill or experience requirements, don't hesitate to call us and chat about it! We can talk you through the expedition as there may be training/practice opportunities on the trip or, if required, can suggest a training pathway to get you ready in time!
Comfort level
The comfort level of our expeditions can vary wildly. From mostly staying in luxury hotels and guest houses, to dorm rooms, tents, or even no accomodation at all! Each expedition will will have a rating and number of nights in each style of accomodation.