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Written by  Jessica Pitman 26 July 2024
Keep up with Discover Adventure and check out our latest Newsletters here!

Vote for Us in The British Travel Awards

Written by  Jessica Pitman 17 January 2024

We've been nominated as Best Travel Company for Adventure Holidays in the british travel awards

We're thrilled to be nominated, once again, in The British Travel Awards!

The last time we entered these awards was our 25th Birthday year and we won gold! We're hoping, in our 30th Birthday year, we can do the same again.

The British Travel Awards is the industry’s largest consumer voted awards programme, with over 400,000 registered voters annually. It is one of the biggest accolades in the Travel Industry and one of the most important to us, as it is voted for by you.

bta24 vote for us online

 

Our previous British Travel Awards are:

  • 2015 - Silver for Best Small Escorted Holiday Adventure Company
  • 2016 – Gold for Best Small Escorted Holiday Adventure Company
  • 2018 – Silver for Best Small Escorted Holiday Adventure Company
  • 2019 – Gold for Best Small Escorted Holiday Adventure Company – this was in our 25th Birthday year, so it really topped off the celebration.

It should only take a couple of minutes to vote, and as a thank you for taking the time to vote, The British Travel Awards has compiled a Prize Chest with over £40,000 of holiday prizes to give away. You will be entered into the prize draw upon voting in the awards.

 

bta24 vote to enter prize draw

 

We're keeping our fingers crossed and saying a huge thank you in advance for taking the time to vote for us - let's go for gold!

We've helped to plant 67,000 trees in Peru

Written by  Steph 03 February 2017

 Since 2007, the Vilcanota Project has succeeded in planting over 500,000 trees in the Cuzco area of Peru.

Discover Adventure has supported this project to re-plant trees in the Polylepis forests of the Vilcanota mountain range in Peru since 2010. The project is a collaborative effort involving 21 rural communities in the Lares watershed, near Cuzco, Peru. It was pioneered by Paul Cripps of Amazonas Explorer together with NGO ECOAN and organisation One Percent for the Planet, and it is a project we have passionately supported for many years through our own donations and that of many of our challengers.

These forests are home to a wide biodiversity of endemic species including the Royal Cinclodes, a critically endangered bird as well as the endangered White Browed Tit-Spinetail and Ash Breasted Tit-Tyrant. Aswell as carefully preserving the home of these birds, the forests are also critical to providing erosion control, provide essential microhabitats for a plethora of species and help to balance the oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

 

Sustainable & Responsible Travel: How we do it

Written by  Jessica Pitman 16 January 2017

Discover Adventure have always been passionate about our planet; understanding the importance of exploring countries and educating people through the medium of adventure, as well as reinforcing the need to protect the land that we discover. We understand that encouraging others to experience the world involves flights, ferries and other sources of pollution and that’s why we are upping the stakes. We’ll be launching our sustainability mission very soon, which will include exciting ways in which we are combating our carbon footprint, as well as adopting more planet-friendly ways to live the adventure. 


Since DA first began we have consistently considered local operators in the communities we visit to ensure we are contributing to local economies. We’ve fought to limit single-use plastic on trips around the globe, including partnering with Water-to-Go to get our participants a 15% discount on their travel water bottle. We’ve long donated to a range of causes, which have aided projects that benefit the locations we visit around the world. Looking after our planet is, and will always be, at the forefront of our travel plans, and as the importance of sustainability is more urgent than ever before, it is our mission to do everything we can to protect our planet. And we’re bringing you along for the ride. Watch this space!


Jonathan, Discover Adventure MD, says, ‘we are really thrilled to be working on so many forward-thinking projects to help enhance the sustainability of our challenges, changing the way we encourage people to travel with us and helping the people and land we come into contact with around the world. Even on a smaller scale, seeing what can be achieved right here in the UK at DA HQ. Responsible travel is central to DA’s identity and the team and business’ core beliefs, so we will not only continue, but work harder to reach new levels of sustainability. Now, more than ever, it is vital for the travel industry to do their bit in the fight for our planet and Discover Adventure are absolutely going to be a part of this.’

 

“Take only photos, leave only footprints”


We really believe that. We care and we know you do too but we know we aren’t perfect, and we imagine that you might not be either. But whether we’re thousands of miles apart or living next door, we together share this blue and green planet and we want to make sure that what we do whilst we are living on it, benefits future generations of all species for years to come - human, animal, plant or otherwise!

Gold at the British Travel Awards

Written by  Steph 24 November 2016

In 2015 we were very pleased to take home Silver, but this year, we fully embraced our 'Know No Limits' spirit to go for Gold! And thanks to all our customers and clients who voted we were both proud and humbled to walk away as winners of Best Small Escorted Adventure Travel Company at the prestigious 2016 British Travel Awards.

Jonathan Bryan, our Founder and Managing Director said of the award, ' Wow - what an endorsement. The British Travel Awards are fantastic in recognising companies across the travel British Travel Award Goldindustry and are one that I am pleased Discover Adventure is a part of. I am exceptionally proud of our team - both in the office and our wider team of crew and medics who work with us across the globe to deliver the trips of a lifetime for our customers. The fact we have won this award based on votes from our clients alone means a great deal to us and will continue to motivate us to provide the best adventure challenge experiences to all customers for many years to come. Thank you to everyone who has supported Discover Adventure!"

Together, we're re-building Nepal

Written by  Steph 08 April 2016

YOUR SUPPORT

Together, we have donated over £4,500 to our friends in Nepal. Following the devastating earthquakes that struck last April, Discover Adventure made a pledge to donate £150.00 for every booking made on one of our challenges based in Nepal.

Your desire to help and motivation to take on a challenge has helped to raise much needed funds that will now contribute to the purchase of raw materials required to rebuild homes in some of the affected districts.

Our donation will help to fund the raw materials for the rebuild of Nuwakot Bazaar. Nuwakot is set between the sub tropical lowlands and the upper regions of the Himalayas and was severly affected by the earthquake. More than 3000 homes were rendered un-inhabitable following the quake and as a result a huge rebuild effort has begun, spearheaded by Niraj Shrestha.

"The biggest failure in life is the failure to try”

How do you spend an hour of your spare time? Shopping, surfing the web and buried in Facebook? Walking the dog, meeting up with friends, doing the ironing or chilling in front of the TV? So many ways so spend an hour. So, how about donating an hour of your time?

I heard about the charity ‘Inspiring the Future’ on the BBC Breakfast news; I can’t remember exactly when but it peaked an interest in me about showing the next generation that there are options out there which are slightly different to the norm. The news piece was about promoting the initiative to a wider audience and about trying to recruit more women to sign up and take part.

We all live busy lives, trying to fill every minute with one thing or another. I too live a busy life, by choice, but not so busy that I can’t give up an hour of my time and go and chat with teenagers about what is out there for them. All the initiative asks for is one hour a year.

I registered on the website – www.inspiringthefuture.org – not expecting to be overwhelmed by requests to talk and no, I didn’t hear anything straight away. However, I was eventually invited to a school to talk as part of their careers day. Unfortunately I couldn’t make the day so I had to decline. That’s the beauty of this initiative, you are not obliged to say yes and as a volunteer, it must fit in with your schedule.

This summer I was contacted by All Saints School in Weymouth. They wanted someone to speak to their Year 11s, on their first day of their final year at school (pressure!) and to kick start the day with something a little different. Unfortunately I was away on a trip when Miss Hegarty’s request initially came through but we kept in contact. Then, towards the end of August, she contacted me again to say that her speaker had dropped and would I be able to step in – ‘Yes!’ I said.

Julio Ludago: Kilimanjaro World Record attempt

Written by  Steph 24 September 2015

You could say that you’re either one of two people in life; one who has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro or one who has it firmly on their bucket list.

For those of you who have climbed this iconic Mountain with DA (or indeed have it booked in the diary for the coming months!) you will know how important the crew are to keeping you motivated, and our local crew are especially important in supplying boundless enthusiasm, motivation and songs to keep you going during those tough moments.

The climb to Uhuru Peak (5896m) will usually take you between 5 and 7 days and its no mean feat!

So, how about making it up AND back in under 7 hours? Impossible you say?

Not for Professional Mountaineer Julio Ludago.

Julio is one of our Ground Crew based in Tanzania with Ahsante Tours, who has worked with us for many years, supporting and encouraging many of you to Kilimanjaro’s summit.

He is now taking on his own personal challenge, by attempting a new World Record for the fastest ascent and descent of Africa’s highest mountain. The existing World Record is held by Swiss-Ecuadorian Mountaineer Karl Egloff who complete the challenge in a mere 6 hours and 42 minutes in August 2014.

This is the time Julio is preparing to beat.

Motivated by the desire to keep the record for the climb to the roof of Africa in Tanzania and by the mentality of ‘why not me?’ Julio will embark on this immense challenge on 27th September 2015 and we will be supporting him all the way – we hope you will too!

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