Going With the Right Operator of Adventure Travel Tours

So you are planning on an adventure vacation. Of course, it can be very difficult to pick an operator out of the dozens that show up on Google when you search. But there are a few things you can do to assess how good and operator of adventure travel to worse is.

The first thing you want to look for is how affiliated the operator is. They should have membership with the Adventure Travel Trade Association for at least a general-purpose travel association like the USTOA. When an operator is a member at one of these places, it shows that he has passed all their requirements, that he's posted a bond for at least a $1 million to make sure that you have protection against any bankruptcies or claims, and so on.

But affiliations can only go so far. There is quite a lot of homework that you need to do personally, to verify that an operator of adventure travel tours provides the kind of service you're looking for.

With an adventure travel vacation, often, you'll actually be placing your life in the hands of this operator. A so-so operator isn't just about not getting your money's worth. This is about your life. You want to exercise the highest standards possible.

For instance, you want to see if the very first call you make to the company is answered in a professional way. A professional, well-informed receptionist answering your call, everything done in a controlled and responsible way - all these are important indidicators. Anything that's improper - anyone who's rude for instance - and you don't want to trust your life to those people.

You want to go with an operator of adventure travel tours who appears to want to bend over backwards to please you. Not only do they need to be polite (that's only the bottom line) you want them to offer to help you make arrangements for your travel, insurance, gear and so on. These should be people who really love what they do. Such people will always be there trying to answer your questions and to make things comfortable. And oh, make sure that they give you references. You want to know what other travelers think of them.

Remember reading about how in January 2012, a bungee jumping Australian tourist in Africa had her bungee cord snap? She could have died, except that she lived and spent a long time in hospital. You have to make absolutely sure that the company you're going with keeps quality equipment in first class condition. You need ask for evidence of this, and they should be provided to you without a project that.