Active

The world is Marc's playground

This is Marc. He’s 27, from the UK, and doesn’t mind working up a bit of a sweat if it gets him a little further away from the ordinary. He’s hiked the Inca Trail and paddled the cayes of Belize – and now he's taking on the backroads of China. His philosophy: If getting there is only half the fun, you’re doing it wrong.

Watch Marc's story

The world is Marc's playground

This is Marc. He’s 27, from the UK, and doesn’t mind working up a bit of a sweat if it gets him a little further away from the ordinary. He’s hiked the Inca Trail and paddled the cayes of Belize – and now he's taking on the backroads of China. His philosophy: If getting there is only half the fun, you’re doing it wrong.

Watch Marc's story

young man climbing a vertical rock wall

“A challenge, whether it’s climbing a mountain or meeting people who don’t speak your language, is an opportunity to change yourself. The more things you try, the more interesting your life gets.”

Rock climbing in Guilin

“A challenge, whether it’s climbing a mountain or meeting people who don’t speak your language, is an opportunity to change yourself. The more things you try, the more interesting your life gets.”

Rock climbing in Guilin

Go big or stay home

Active types like Marc travel for experiences that engage the muscles as much as the mind or the heart. Whether that’s a leisurely bike ride through remote villages, a trek to the top of Kilimanjaro, or physical pursuits like rock-climbing, ziplining, or dogsledding, Active tours deliver as much or as little action as you need.

a daring angle of cyclists racing down a pathway

“Seeing the world from the saddle of a bike adds depth to where you are. You get to smell and hear things that you never would from a tour bus.”

Enjoying a bike ride
group of travellers cycling

“Seeing the world from the saddle of a bike adds depth to where you are. You get to smell and hear things that you never would from a tour bus.”

Local transport powered by you

Marc doesn’t travel to merely see the world; he wants to get out and meet it. He knew he’d never get that kind of deep, personal access to China from a tour bus. By biking between cities, he got a glimpse of how rural China lives every day that he’d never have seen from the expressway. 

“Our group was a mixed bag in terms of skill, but our CEO set the pace and nobody felt like they were being left behind or holding us up.”

Cooling off in the Yangtze

“Our group was a mixed bag in terms of skill, but our CEO set the pace and nobody felt like they were being left behind or holding us up.”

Cooling off in the Yangtze

Your world, your terms

Marc’s been to 22 countries on five different continents, and he’s learned that going with a small group opens up the world in a way going solo doesn’t. All the stuff you don’t want to do – reservations, train tickets, logistics – are done, which means more time to do what you came to do.

See it through Marc's eyes

We kept Marc busy for 15 action-packed days in China, and we could’ve kept him occupied for several weeks more. Take a look at some of the highlights of his adventure here. (Don’t be surprised if you work up a sweat just looking at them.)

Let’s do this

Biking, hiking, whitewater rafting, and other so-amazing-they-need-a-hyphen activities await. Come and get ‘em.