“GT” Organised Travel

Here are all the “GT” Travel posts for those who appre­ci­ate the deep know­ledge of a qual­ity tour guide, and the access to mutu­ally-bene­fi­cial exper­i­ences with loc­al com­munit­ies that the best organ­ised tour pack­ages offer.

Postcard from Vietnam: Guided by young people through Hanoi’s Old Quarter

and November 16, 2023

Postcard from Vietnam: Guided by young people through Hanoi’s Old Quarter. The authors and their guides. Background image by Frida Aguilar Estrada (CC0) via Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/woman-carrying-woven-tray-and-white-pail-while-walking-on-wet-market-PEgu_IdF1BM

Arriv­ing in a new des­tin­a­tion, trav­el­lers often scramble to get their bear­ings. One can read a map, identi­fy key land­marks, get a vant­age from some­place high such as a moun­tain or tall build­ing or, if one is for­tu­nate enough, meet a loc­al who will help them. Ori­ent­ing one­self is most chal­len­ging in large cit­ies, par­tic­u­larly those […]

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Posted in "GT" Travel World, "GT" Travel in Asia, "GT" Travel in Vietnam
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Postcard from Rwanda: Ubumuntu

September 1, 2023

Postcard from Rwanda: Ubumuntu

The Kigali Gen­o­cide Memori­al is … … affect­ing. Today was the first day of a 10-day famil­i­ar­isa­tion tour of the coun­try hos­ted by the Rwanda Devel­op­ment Board (RDB). I am in Rwanda at the invit­a­tion of RDB, as well as “GT” Part­ners Red Rocks Rwanda and Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ive for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment. I will try to reg­u­larly post travel impressions […]

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Posted in "GT" Travel World, "GT" Travel in Africa, "GT" Travel in Rwanda
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Planning a trip to Colombia? Here’s why you should visit the coffee region

September 29, 2022

The wax palms of Cocora Valley in the Colombian Andes. Image by Makalu (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/colombia-palm-trees-3631740/

The vari­ous regions of Colom­bia are vastly dif­fer­ent from each oth­er.  Trav­el­lers look­ing to avoid ‘over­tour­ism’ and embrace ‘authen­ti­city’ should con­sider explor­ing the nation’s cof­fee-grow­ing region in the Andes Moun­tains.  Dur­ing my two and a half weeks in Colom­bia, August 2022, I vis­ited that region, as well as the cit­ies of Medel­lin and Cart­agena.  Here are […]

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Posted in "GT" Travel in Colombia, "GT" Travel in South America, "GT" Travel World
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From New Delhi to Leh on the old Hindustan-Tibet Road

August 18, 2022
2 Comments

Lamayuru Monastery from the road by Meridius27 (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lamayuru_monastery_from_the_road.JPG

After not being able to travel for two and a half years, in June this year I was for­tu­nate to go on a 23-day tour from Del­hi to Ladakh via the old Hindus­tan-Tibet Road.  The road, which the Brit­ish Raj built in 1850, is still con­sidered ‘off the beaten track’ by trav­el­lers, des­pite the magnificent […]

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Posted in "GT" Travel World, "GT" Travel in Asia, "GT" Travel in India
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Memories of Jordan (and celebrating the ‘bucket list’)

February 17, 2022

Memories of Petra and Jordan by Melanie Kay Smith

I was at a tour­ism industry con­fer­ence a few months ago listen­ing to a talk on the dev­ast­at­ing effects of COV­­ID-related travel bans on her­it­age des­tin­a­tions.  Pro­fess­or Mike Robin­son, the speak­er, cited Jordan as a prime example.  Amidst my sym­pathy for the des­tin­a­tion and its people, my ‘buck­et list’ quest react­iv­ated instantly in my mind.  It […]

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Posted in "GT" Travel World, "GT" Travel in Asia, "GT" Travel in Jordan
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Busting the borderland’s bad rap

August 18, 2021

The Sonora, Mexico landscape at El Aribabi. Picture supplied by author via the El Aribabi Conservation Ranch Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/ElAribabi

I enjoy sup­port­ing the ‘under­dog’ des­tin­a­tions of the world. They are often unique and beau­ti­ful in their own right, yet are under-vis­ited for one reas­on or anoth­er. An example I’ve already writ­ten about for “GT” Travel is the Amer­ic­an Prair­ie Reserve in Montana. Anoth­er place worth vis­it­ing by any­one seek­ing adven­ture is Ran­cho El Aribabi […]

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Posted in "GT" Travel World, "GT" Travel in Mexico, "GT" Travel in North America
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