Each one of our Hands on Journeys tours has been carefully pieced together around our three key beliefs of what any travel experience should be: Incredible Sights, Cultural Immersion, Empowering Communities.
Incredible Sights
The world is an astonishing place, and each country contributes a multitude of different attractions and sights. Some may be under the radar and harder to find, but it’s our mission to continually find those hidden gems and couple them in with the most famous stops on our itineraries.
Our promise to you is to not just take you to these world-famous attractions, but with the help of our local experience leaders and expert guides, to immerse you in their stories by sharing the history and facts behind them.
Cultural Immersion
Without interaction, travel is no different from seeing star-studded attractions on the big screen. The people we meet, stories we share and moments we treasure on our travels can usually be attributed to the locals we have met. Cultural immersion is at the forefront of what we do because we believe in it. The best way to understand a destination is through the eyes of the locals, and our small group tours do just that.
We promise to introduce you to new communities as strangers and to leave as friends. To show you the day-to-day life, the inside scoop and to immerse you in the destination beyond the pages of a guide-book.
Empowering Communities
Through our #EmpowermentTourism concept, you might be helping a community open a cooking school, providing an underdeveloped college with clean water or empowering a small group to finally open a business. When we say our tours are life-changing, we mean for the locals as much as you. The communities we work with trust us because we have opened up two-way conversations, shared countless ups and downs, overnight stays on dusty floors and most importantly human connection. We’ve made friends around the world, and we can’t wait to introduce you to our extended family.
At its core Empowerment Tourism is about lifting a community up, not passing down handouts. Through new skills and investment, we want people around the world to thrive, on their terms, and not be reliant on any external sources.
We promise our projects are sustainable, well thought out and leave a lasting impact. Our cultural immersion programme offers a benefit for both locals and travellers alike. We aim to never remove jobs from locals, and most of your time on the ground will be seeing first hand and meeting those your funds have supported and impacted rather than trying to achieve all the actions in the relatively short space of your visit.
1. WE TAKE YOU BEYOND THE GUIDEBOOK
At Hands on Journeys, we want to show you more than the show-stealing attractions. We want to immerse you in the local culture, help you create new friendships in far-flung lands and come home with a new appreciation and passion for exploring our incredible planet. It is our mission to leave you with countless memories that will last a lifetime.
2. TRAVEL IS YOUR PASSION? SAME HERE!
Hands on Journeys was formed by passionate travellers for travellers. At the very core of everything we do is the desire to explore new places and meet new faces on the way. A country is as much about the people you encounter, the stories you share with your companions and the memories you take and leave behind, as it is about famous attractions and mind-blowing landscapes. We get that, and each one of our itineraries is a testimony to the fact we want to take you on that journey (read more about our tour inclusions here).
3. WE PROMISE GREAT VALUE AND THE BEST AUTHENTIC EXPERIENCES
We have personally tried and tested every hotel, restaurant dish and activity that we provide to ensure we are delivering nothing less than our promise of ‘Great Value and the Best Authentic Experiences’ every time (read more about our promise here).
4. YOU MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE
Through our #EmpowermentTourism concept, you might be helping a community open a cooking school, providing an underdeveloped college with clean water or empowering a small group to finally open a business. When we say our tours are life-changing, we mean for the locals as much as you. The communities we work with trust us because we have opened up two-way conversations, shared countless ups and downs, overnight stays on dusty floors and most importantly human connection. We’ve made friends around the world and we can’t wait to introduce you to our extended family. (read more about empowerment tourism here).