Cultural tours are often the best way to see the the main highlights of a country & immerse yourself in it's culture. All our cultural tours & vacations are run by responsible operators who will also ensure that your vacation benefits the destination & local people.
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These full and frank independent cultural tours vacations reviews are from travelers who have booked directly through responsibletravel.com. They are not edited by us or any of the companies we work with. Find the real story, from real travelers below.
Most memorable werer the Jungle walks, sleeping in a temple on a sacred mountain and traveling by boat past floating villages...
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The trek in the Simien Mountains was truly memorable. It felt like we had the whole Mountain range, a world heritage site, to ourselves. (more)
There were several highlights. The Golden Temple at Amritsar, Jairpur's Amber Fort & Palace, the backwaters of Kerala and our homestay in the Nilgiri Hills. (more)
Excellent - the country lived up to expectations, we had some terrific wildlife sightings, the organised activities were great fun - but what really made it special were the friendships we all - adults and children - made. (more)
On leaving our room at Serendip which led out straight onto the front veranda... we saw that the garden was full of fireflies. We were then led to our table out the back by the plunge pool where we would be eating dinner. The manager had arranged and lit dozens of tea lights around the garden. Priceless.
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Bhopal Singh is undoubtedly the best guide I have had on trips to India. He actually knows the history as well as the culture, habits, etc...Excellent.
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So many highlights it is difficult to seperate out just one.... it was a great trip all around ! 10 out of 10 (more)
We were really impressed with the genuine warmth of greeting from this Bedouin based community project, the welcome tea drink, the sunset walk with more tea around a camp fire! The candle light, with candle made by local Bedouin women was enchanting. (more)The desert camp and seeing the turtles were amazing...A fantastic family adventure with great contrasts. (more)The most memorable part was to meet the friendly Burmese people in the street and talk with them. Shwedagon pagoda and Inle lake were highlights as well.
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The highlights were coming across a flock of Sri Lanka Blue Magpies feeding noisily in the Sinharaja Rain Forest and seeing the nesting Painted Storks with chicks in Yala National Park. (more)
I had such a good time, the size of the group was just right and the age band was not too wide. Our guide was very competent and really made the trip work, it was so stress free.
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Excellent. The places are really worth seeing, people are all very kind, the guides were all absolutely wonderful. The young guide in Bhutan and the driver really did all that they could to get the most and the best out of the time we had.
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Jerash was incredible as was the site of the Baptism of Christ. The countryside of Jordan an all its aspects.
(more)The vacation was full of memorable experiences from our first day when we met our fantastic driver/guide, Kapila. He seemed to really enjoy sharing his knowledge of the history, culture, flora and fauna of Sri Lanka. He was also really good fun and so caring about our enjoyment and welfare - he became a real friend and we will keep in touch. (more)
The most memorable parts were... probably visiting ATM cave in Belize which was a great experience, and also snorkelling with nurse sharks and sting rays in Caye Caulker was incredible too. (more)
Most memorable was our Shaman host at the jungle homestay. He glided around, playfully and skilfully making leaf hats etc and happily sharing with us his knowledge and Chechan philosophy. A wise man and free spirit in a beautiful place. (more)We thoroughly enjoyed our two weeks... The knowledge and hospitality of the tour leaders, Suraj and Ravindra, made this a particularly memorable trip - by the end, we really felt more like we were with friends than on a 'tour'. (more)We invite every traveler who books a vacation via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the vacations they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same vacation can have different views!
Few of us enjoy the feeling of sticking out like a sore thumb when we are on vacation. We giggle about the strange habits of overseas tourists here in the UK, but maybe it’s them laughing at us when we are away on vacation? However sometimes cultural faux pas are no laughing matter. Although our intentions might be good some of our behaviour can inadvertently cause great offence in destinations. For example, that little pink mini skirt which looks great in Brighton or Miami can, when worn away from the beach in Muslim countries, cause offence. The same types of culture clashes happen in conservative Christian communities in Polynesia, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. Beyond causing offence to individual people tourism can impact on the culture in entire destinations. The tourism industry packages up and sanitises religious rituals, dress, ethnic rites and festivals to conform to tourist expectations. Once a destination begins to see itself through the eyes of tourists it begins to lose its sense of itself and its identity (and pretty quickly the reason why tourists came in the first place). Read more about cultural vacations in this cultural vacations article.
