One topic that we get a lot of questions about is our role in the adventure travel world. There are a lot of different players within adventure travel and the travel market as a whole. Our niche is in travel planning for active adventure vacations, figuring out all the details and logistics of your trip. Not sure what separates us from travel agents and tour operators? Read on!
Travel agents
You can think of a travel agent as a general trip planner. They help with booking fights, hotels, and some activities, but they are relatively broad in scope. They normally book throughout the entire world, rather than focusing on one particular region, and have lists of general contacts in each location. They can get great deals on large-group packages, especially at particularly popular tourist attractions, but they won’t be personally familiar with each and every location you want to travel to.
What makes Untamed Path Adventures unique:
We are different in that we focus on one region—South America’s Andean region (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina)—and when we find an amazing adventure destination or activity, we stick to what we know. We have stayed in the hotels you will stay in, rafted the same rivers you will raft, and have fallen in love with some of the best places to travel in South America, just as we know you will too!
Flight booking agents
Flight booking agents do exactly what their title says, they book flights, and not much else, although they often work with travel agents and planners as well. A good flight booking agent will help you to not only book all your flights packaged together into one price, they will be able to help save you money, too!
What makes Untamed Path Adventures unique:
We are different in that we don’t work with any airlines to purchase your tickets. We can often tell you exactly which flight you should take and on which airline—TAME flight 211 to get to the Rainforest in Ecuador or Avianca 1632 to get to the Galápagos Islands—but we don’t book the actual ticket for you. The internet makes that quite simple these days! Or we can coordinate your flights with a flight-booking agency partner of ours, which charges no fees to our clients!
Tour operators
Tour operators are generally large companies that bundle all the components of travel into a package (hotel, transport, guide, activities) and sell to the masses. Most of them need larger groups to be viable, as their profit comes from economies of scale. But there are niche tour operators who work with smaller, private groups and share our philosophy of travel, including a focus on cultural interaction, conservation, and exploration of new, wild areas!
What makes Untamed Path Adventures unique:
What makes any trip memorable is not just the places visited, but the memories and emotions experienced along the way. We work tirelessly to find the best local operators to whom entrust our clients, and we continually invest in those relationships. Some we have worked with for over a decade, others are proving themselves as valuable new partners in our South America adventure tours.
Travel planners
That’s us!
Our role is to plan and arrange all the logistical details of your small group travel. We find the best hotels, the top guides, the most reliable drivers, and then we package it all together for you. We contact local partners who run some of the trips you are interested in, we arrange your transportation from point A to B to C to D and back to A again. We help you take your dream vacation, and make it a reality. Because we have so many individual contacts on the ground in South America, we can customize your experience and find the best fit for your particular group. Whether you are going with a group of friends to celebrate graduation or with your grandparents to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary, we can craft the perfect trip for you!
