Being able to travel is a privilege - experiencing new cultures, taking in extraordinary scenery and indulging in mouth-watering cuisine from all over the world. But never has this felt truer than now.
As our movements are restricted and we wait for the current situation to improve, we can’t help but dream about the places we’d like to visit when it’s safe to do so. We know that top of the agenda for many people will be the destinations where you can be at one with nature, with wide open spaces and few people to share your holiday with.
If you’ve signed up to our newsletter, you’ll know that we’ve recently launched some amazing prices for our 2021 holidays, with discounts of up to £600 per couple and a guaranteed refund or option to rebook if we can’t operate your trip.
Keep reading to find out our top five post-pandemic holidays in Latin America and Africa where you can escape the crowded beaches and chock-a-block cities to experience the world’s natural beauty.
Full of lush cloud forests, epic volcanoes and pristine coastlines, the world’s happiest place* is truly one of the best destinations to experience untouched wilderness. Costa Rica hosts 5% of the world’s biodiversity, with over a quarter of the country dedicated to national parks and reserves, enticing visitors with its exotic wildlife including sloths, monkeys and turtles. It’s also renowned for being one of the best bird-watching destinations in the world, with more than 800 recorded species.
Occupying a remote location on a peninsula accessed only by boat, Corcovado boasts raw, untouched rainforest and some of Costa Rica's most exotic wildlife such as scarlet macaws, tapirs and quetzals. Meanwhile, stepping onto the grounds of the Villa Blanca Cloud Forest is like being transported to a different world, with the sense of having the forest to yourself and feeling completely at one with nature.
Read our Top Ten Reasons to Visit Costa Rica here.
* Costa Rica has been named by the Happy Planet Index as the happiest place on earth for three separate years, and last year it won the Champions of the Earth award too.
A country of wide open spaces, untouched nature and very few people, Namibia is perfect for a post-pandemic escape. It’s a place where you can breathe in deeply and have time to step back and reflect. It’s a mind-blowingly beautiful corner of Africa where you can drive for miles through constantly changing landscapes without seeing another soul, with just a handful of charming lodges sharing the empty plains. The southwest African nation has received international praise for how it has dealt with the coronavirus outbreak, having recorded very few deaths.
Our 15-day Wildlife & Wilderness of Namibia trip is an epic road trip that takes you through the Kalahari Desert, up the Sossusvlei sand dunes, into Damaraland, along the Skeleton Coast and across Etosha National Park, home to four of the Big Five. Drive through mind-blowing landscapes and climb soaring dunes, sip sundowners in the desert, spot dolphins and whales from a catamaran near Walvis Bay, go on game drives and track rhinos on foot.
View our 2021 Namibia holidays here.
For responsible travellers and wildlife-lovers, the Galapagos Islands are perfect, with limited visitors and a huge emphasis on conserving one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. The fee that tourists have to pay to enter goes towards preserving the flora and fauna as well as benefitting the local community and facilities on the islands. One of the best way to enjoy the islands is on-board a spacious 16-passenger yacht or catamaran, as you get to discover more remote islands that can only be reached by overnight sailing.
Positioned 600 miles from the Ecuadorian coast, the world-famous islands are home to a staggering array of fearless wildlife including sea lions, turtles, penguins, tortoises, iguanas, boobies, cormorants and frigate birds. Time in the Galapagos is spent snorkelling side-by-side with turtles and white-tipped reef sharks, hiking through volcanic landscapes and lazing on the beach alongside curious sea lions.
Meanwhile on the lesser-visited mainland of Ecuador you'll find picturesque national parks with majestic volcanoes and lush cloud forests teeming with birdlife. Meet traditional Andean communities high up in the mountains and try delicious cuisine from the highlands. In the lush Amazon Jungle, spot sloths and caimans as you explore the narrow waterways by dugout canoe, follow trails through the forest, cross 30-metre-high canopy walkways and wake up in a remote lodge to the sounds of howler monkeys.
Find out more about our Galapagos & Ecuador trips.
If lockdown has left you dreaming of faraway lands where you can disconnect from the modern world (no emails, no social media, no contact with the outside world…) and be surrounded by vast open wilderness, look no further than Botswana. One of Africa's premier safari destinations, Botswana is blessed with some of the greatest wildlife viewing in the world.
A mobile tented safari provides an intimate experience of the Okavango Delta. Life is stripped back to basics with early mornings, daily game drives and traditional mokoro canoe rides, sundowners in the bush, delicious meals around the camp, stories around the campfire and starry night skies unspoiled by light pollution. In Chobe National Park, get close to Africa’s largest elephant population and stay in a beautiful lodge on the riverbanks, then travel across the border to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.
Have a look at our Botswana 2021 holidays here.
For people craving the outdoors and a chance to roam free among spellbinding scenery, the southernmost tip of South America offers an incredible adventure. At the heart of Chilean Patagonia, Torres del Paine National Park stretches over 500,000 acres of snow-capped peaks, granite pinnacles, glaciers, turquoise waters, lush forests and wildlife including guanacos (a type of llama), rheas, condors, foxes and pumas. Meanwhile on the Argentinian side, you can reach the ‘end of the world’ by journeying to the Tierra del Fuego archipelago.
Further north, Chile’s Lake District is a pristine land of volcanoes and lakes while the Atacama Desert is a vast land home to salt lakes, geysers, moon-like rock formations and fantastic stargazing opportunities.
We offer a range of holiday combinations in Argentina and Chile. Browse our website for some ideas.
We know that there's still a lot of uncertainty about future travel, but we want to let you know that we will be here for you when you're ready. Our flexible conditions mean that if something does happen, you can trust us to do the right thing.
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