2 min summary Top places to visit Top 10 Responsible Indigenous peoples vacations

Top 10 Indigenous Peoples vacations

Kayaking in Klahoose territory, staying in Maasai-run conservancies, driving a tuk tuk between Karen villages, watching for the Northern Lights from a Sámi camp… our top 10 Indigenous Peoples vacations showcase some of our best adventures, all forged by Indigenous people. Read on to find out more about our responsible trips to Indigenous lands – and how they benefit both people and the planet.

Home\Cultural\Indigenous peoples

Top 10 Indigenous Peoples vacations

We’ve picked out 10 of our favorite Indigenous Peoples vacations. These are trips that go beyond popping by a local market or two, threading Indigenous-led enterprises and experiences throughout the vacation, from accommodation and transport to activities and cuisine. Whether you fancy hiking, cruising, camping, safaris or overland epics, we’ve got an adventure for you.

See all our Indigenous Peoples Vacations

Give us a call

1. Atlas Mountain hiking with Berber/Amazigh guides

We’ve worked with our award-winning kasbah since the earliest years of Responsible Travel. Once a ruined home of a feudal lord, it was restored and opened as a hotel in partnership with local Berber/Amazigh people. These days, it offers guests a taste of classic Berber hospitality, from cosy lantern-lit rooms to slap-up picnics for mountain hikes. Our vacations at the kasbah include a five percent levy that goes straight back into projects chosen by the surrounding villages. So far, it’s helped fund a new ambulance, a village hammam, and school boarding houses that support girls from remote villages in continuing their education.

Our top trip: Atlas Mountains trekking and Marrakech
See all our trips: Morocco walking vacations
Read more: Kasbah du Toubkal in the Atlas Mountains

2. Camping, wildlife & auroras in Sápmi

“It’s very hard to pinpoint an exciting part, because from beginning to end we can say that it was our best vacation yet,” says our traveler Adirana Saldarriaga, “but if we had to choose it would be our stay at Lennart’s place, sleeping in the tents!” Lennart Pittja hosts guests at a camp in the heart of his family’s old reindeer herding lands. Our vacation takes you there to stay in cosy lavvu tents, track wildlife through snowy scenes, and relax in the on-site sauna. You’ll also visit a working farm before spending the evening cooking and sharing Sámi specialities like Arctic char and gáhkku bread over a campfire – always with the promise of the Northern Lights overhead.

Our top trip: Northern Lights and wildlife vacation in Sweden
See all our trips: Sapmi/Lapland vacations
Read more: Sami culture

3. Northern Thailand & Karen villages by tuk tuk

Imagine whizzing around the mountain roads of Northern Thailand in a bright orange tuk tuk – to the delight of you and pretty much every passerby. That’s exactly what you’ll do on our tuk tuk adventure, hopping off to visit Karen villages en route. Here, you’ll trek the forests with local guides, swim under waterfalls, and fire up barbecues amongst the rice fields for a real (and delicious) taste of northern rural life. Our partner has a close relationship with the Karen communities, so you’ll always know your presence is welcome, whether in homestays or while setting up camp.

Our top trips: Thailand self drive tuk tuk adventure and Karen culture and tuk tuk tour in Thailand
See all our trips: Northern Thailand vacations
Read more: Thailand self drive tuk tuk tours

4. Bear watching & kayaking from a Klahoose wilderness lodge

Welcome to Desolation Sound, which – as you’re flying in by seaplane, peering down at the rainforests, islands and mountains below – you’ll realise is a bit of a misnomer. The beauty of the place isn’t lost on the Klahoose Nation, who founded a lodge on their traditional territory to share and celebrate their home with guests. On our vacation, you can follow the original wilderness stewards along kayaking and walking routes to reveal wildlife wonders, from spawning salmon to bears and whales. Back at base, rooms come with private ocean-view decks and a shared lounge decorated by local artists. A fee is included in each booking – money that goes directly to local conservation and community ventures.

Our top trip: Klahoose Nation wilderness lodge in Canada
See all our trips: British Columbia vacations
Read more: British Columbia travel guide

5. Maasai & Samburu safari camps in Kenya

Community and conservation are at the heart of things on our safari vacation based at camps and lodges founded in partnership with the Maasai and Samburu. With Indigenous people in decision-making and managerial roles, it’s all run on their terms – which means itineraries that share the joys and challenges of protecting their home. That love for the land resulted in the creation of the community-owned Naboisho Conservancy – an easy highlight of hills and woodlands that shelter a healthy population of lions, leopards, zebras, wildebeests, elephants, giraffes and African wild dogs.

Our top trip: Kenya safari in the Masai Mara
See all our trips: Kenya tours and safaris
Read more: Maasai culture guide

6. Hiking the Bedouin Trail

The Bedouin Trail is a 1,200km walking route linking millennia-old paths between Petra and Luxor. It’s all created and managed by a collective of Bedouins, including Sabbah Eid (Anaza tribe; Zalabia clan), who was a pioneer in transforming Jordan into a renowned rock climbing destination. Our hiking tour focuses on the Wadi Rum section – which means you get the pleasure of walking through Petra, into yawning sandstone canyons, across rock bridges, and up mountains for eagle-eye views of the desert. Bedouin guides lead the way, getting you to campsites in time for sunset and pointing out oft-overlooked details like the Thamudic and Nabataen petroglyphs scored into the rocks.

Our top trip: Hike the Bedouin Trail in Jordan
See all our trips: Jordan vacations
Read more: Petra and Wadi Rum travel guide

7. Quechua cultural tour in Peru & Bolivia

Llama care and weaving workshops, talks on prehispanic religion, coffee and chocolate tastings, mountain trekking, farmstays and homestays – our Bolivia and Peru tour is a journey through the diversity of Quechua culture. Throughout, you’ll travel with Quechua guides to places often reliant on alpaca and subsistence farming – and where tourism is a sought-after extra arm of income. Our partner is based in Cusco and ensures that money stays locally, working with Indigenous community members who set their own pricing and are paid directly for their expertise.

Our top trip: Peru and Bolivia grand tour
See all our trips: Peru vacations and Bolivia vacations
Read more: Bolivia and Peru travel guide

8. Hiking & homestays in Vietnam

Get off the beaten track with a mixture of hiking and homestays in rural Vietnam. This is a tour honed by hyperlocal expertise, offering you the chance to walk with local guides through the Sapa rice terraces, pausing in Hmong and Dao villages along the way. Each trip works with a different homestay so that no one gets weary of visitors and different families get a chance to host. The food is hyperlocal too, usually heaped with rice harvested from the surrounding paddies. Your adventure starts in Hanoi with a night train to Lao Cai, on the Chinese border.

Our top trip: Vietnam trekking and homestays
See all our trips: Northern Vietnam vacations
Read more: Vietnam travel guide

9. North & West Africa overland adventure

Our month-long overland adventure celebrates the cultural diversity of six countries, from Morocco to Mauritania. You’ll meet Indigenous people throughout, trekking through the dunes of the Western Sahara with a Sahrawi guide, learning about the dance culture of Senegal, and sailing through the Bijagos Archipelago to meet the matriarchal Bijagó people. Thanks to our partner, who works closely with village elders, you’ll be welcomed as guests on tours that are careful not to disrupt everyday life. Don’t have a month to spare for adventuring? We also have shorter tours that focus on one or two countries in West Africa.

Our top trip: Marrakech to Bissau overland tour
See all our trips: West Africa tours
Read more: West Africa travel guide

10. Lakeside ecolodge in the Bolivian Amazon

This ecolodge is off-grid in every sense of the word – powered by solar panels and reached via a seven-hour boat trip along the Amazon. It’s owned by the Quechua-Tacana people of San José de Uchupiamonas, who live in the heart of Madidi National Park. Local guides will share the best of the river and rainforest trails, plus lake canoe routes, giving you the chance to observe spider monkeys, toucans, caimans, bats and tapirs in their undisturbed element.

Our top trip: Bolivia Amazon tour
See all our trips: Amazon rainforest vacations
Read more: Chalalan Ecolodge: a community tourism case study