We are pleased to announce a new partnership with Explora, the leading provider of luxury adventure travel in Chile. As a leading European travel commentator remarked, "I never hear of anyone dissatisfied with Explora." People go and send back glowing reports. The Explora concept is unique in that while it features luxury accommodations, the emphasis is on the activities and locations outside the hotels.  We are featuring the excellent, and often challenging horseback riding, but Explora is really a multi-adventure provider, offering equally challenging trekking, hiking, cycling, high-mountain climbing and 4X4 excursions. In all, we have three new trips to Patagonia and the Atacama Desert areas of Chile featuring Explora. 
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The Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia is one of the world's outstanding regions of natural beauty. And the good news is that while it is certainly a tourist destination, most visitors stick to the beaten paths. Those of us willing to go on horseback into the back country will see very few other people and have hundreds of thousands of acres of gorgeous scenery to savor. To offer our clients this incredible opportunity, Rannoch has partnered with Patagonia-based Blue Green Adventures to develop a selection of spectacular horseback and estancia-based adventures in Torres del Paine Park. MORE >>

For some time, Rannoch Adventures has offered clients cruises to Antarctica aboard the Bark Europa. These have proven very popular, so we are now presenting Bark Europa's summer program in the North Atlantic. For those of you not familiar with Bark Europa, it is one of the world's famous tall ships, a real square-rigged windjammer. This summer's program features ocean cruising along interesting European ports as well as several legs of tall-ship racing. This is an outstanding way for sailors and would-be sailors of all ages to join the crew of an historic vessel for a few days or a few weeks.    MORE >>

I think most of us are reasonably comfortable tipping in our home environment.  We generally know whom to tip and approximately how much. But, when we travel to another country, especially one we have not visited before, many of us feel a little uncertain about whether we are dispensing gratuities fairly and according to local expectations. One of the services we provide with Rannoch Adventures programs is a trip kit that includes a lot of useful information, including guidance about tips and gratuities, especially those you might not think about. The one universal suggestion we can make is, when in doubt, just ask someone locally, even the recipient if necessary. After going through the usual polite disclaimer about "it's really up to you," he or she will usually suggest a number that is not too unreasonable.

In our last newsletter, we mentioned that we were making a scouting trip to Argentina to check out a number of exciting adventures. The results were even more spectacular than we had expected, and we are working with our partners in Argentina to tailor several of the best programs, including terrific new estancia visits, 4X4 trips across high Andean passes, ultimately vertical mountain horseback rides and many more. We will also have new sailing adventures to the Arctic Circle and equestrian and 4X4 adventures in Iceland. We hope to have several of these adventures ready by the time our next newsletter appears. Stay tuned!

photo credit Rinie van Meurs