The Very Rich Can Hop On Discovery Channel's New Hardcore Adventures

August 4, 2009 at 1:09 PM | by Omri | 0 Comments

Is this the recession or what? Guess not: Discovery Communications is teaming up with travel provider G.A.P Adventures to launch dozens of luxury trips based on Discovery Channel programming. With prices starting at $2,000 per person for trips ranging from 3 to 24 days, these are not for the faint of wallet.

Locations range from common tourist destinations like the USA and Mexico to places like Botswana, where you'll probably always need a guide. All of the packages come with their share of intriguingly esoteric Discovery Channel twists; one of the USA tours revolves around historic parks in the Southwest. What travelers will see on the 12 day tour, though, ranges from rock formations to deserts to dwellings abandoned thousands of years ago.

The other USA destination is even more nature-oriented, taking travelers all the way up north to Alaska. Adventurers spend 10 days observing wildlife in their habitat, which can be both mindblowingly fascinating and straightforward deadly.

If US wildlife isn't your thing, there are nature tours in every part of the globe. The Tanzania tour takes you to the Serengeti and looks for the Big 5: lions, elephants, buffaloes, leopards and rhinoceroses. For more cerebral nature lovers there are a series of Galapagos cruises of various lengths and costs.

Other tours focus on local cultures, like in the Mexico and Peru trips which seem to heavily emphasize the continuity between ancient civilizations and contemporary life, alternating between ancient ruins and nearby villages. The Peru trip is actually explicitly billed as an "Amazon and Incan adventure," taking you from the Uros Islands, where women still weave traditional textiles, and of course on to Machu Picchu.

We desperately want these tours to succeed and for the Discovery Channel to offer more branded vacation packages. Can you imagine how awesome a Shark Week tour would be? And failing that, they've got a promotional video where one of their experts gets to play and wrestle with a gigantic tiger. Yes please.

Booking for these trips opened up over the weekend and is now available via the Discovery Adventures website.

[Photo: Discovery Adventures]

Related Stories:
· Discovery Adventures [Official Site]
· Nature Travel Coverage [Jaunted]
· Safaris Coverage [Jaunted]

Jaunted

Select a Destination:

Tags: Adventure Travel / Safaris / Discovery Channel / Luxury Travel / Africa Travel / Peru Travel / Mexico Travel / Historical Travel / Tour Packages / → All Tags