- Intrepid Travel is an adventure travel agency founded in 1989
- Fully escorted tours for small groups
- Helps travelers experience travel at the grassroots level, where travelers meet local people, try local food and have real life cultural experiences. Intrepid carries core values of maintaining responsible and sustainable travel
- Top 20 Must-do Trips list, as voted by Intrepid Travel customers
- Popular destinations include: Australia, Cambodia, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, France, Greece, India, Italy, Machu Picchu, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Spain, Thailand, United States, Vietnam
Our Editor’s Review:
The small group tours that Intrepid offers are typically limited to about 12 travelers, with 3 different “styles” of trips to choose from: Basix, Original, Comfort. We liked that we could search by “style” and “theme” to truly find the type of package that would suit our interests. The basix style offers the least amenities in budget and shared accommodations. The original style steps it up a bit with private accommodations and more inclusions, while the comfort style packages are the most luxurious tour packages offered by Intrepid. We were shocked to find 5-day comfort tour packages for only $450 (HINT: sort results by price to see these deals).
If you’re up for adventure but not sure where to go, check out Intrepid’s Top 20 Must-do Trips list. Here we found excellent information about the best rated tours all on one page. They also list the price of the tour including airfare from either NYC or LAX, so you can instantly see whether it is within your budget. Click on the package inclusions button to see what’s included. Many travel tours include meals, but not all of them do.
If you want to stay close to home, they’ve got some amazing adventure packages within the U.S., such as the 21-day American Experience where travelers hike the Mojave Desert and tour the Grand Canyon, Zion, and relax in Napa Valley with the local wine. For the more adventurous passport-carrying traveler, we can think of nothing better than the 15-day Best of Morocco tour package complete with a camel ride and a night of camping under the stars in the Sahara.
Intrepid provides an absolute plethora of information about each trip, which you can view in the “Trip Notes” section. This several page document is a very valuable read, and will tell you all you need to know from the daily itinerary, to tipping guidelines, to where to do your laundry. Of interest is the “Physical Rating”, which lets you know on a scale of 1-5 how physically demanding the tour is expected to be. For instance, a level 3 requires you to be in good physical condition, while a level 5 requires you to be ready for extreme conditions.
We like that Intrepid doesn’t censor their customer’s feedback comments, which are posted prominently throughout their website. Intrepid Travel wants feedback from their customers, which they’ve proven with their feedback discount. When you return home from your Intrepid Travel trip and leave online feedback at IntrepidTravel.com within 4 weeks, you may qualify for a 5% discount off your next trip. Another way to get a discount is to book one of their last-minute trips that hasn’t sold out at a 20% discount, which you can find under their Specials tab.
With such an extensive website, we kept getting lost and forgetting where to find information, which was a bit of a challenge. For families that travel with their children, be aware that Intrepid’s age policy often only allows for children age 12 and over to take part in their tours. While we assume this is for safety reasons and many children under the age of 12 may not be physically ready for an adventure travel tour, Intrepid is excluding a large customer base of families that wish to take their children on learning adventures. That being said, we did find about 37 family-themed tours that allowed children (we saw one for children over the age of 6). A link to these family tours can be found here, or under their Styles tab.
Read the extensive package details page (aka. Trip Notes) carefully, and read it twice if you need to. You don’t want to be caught off-guard if something is not included in your trip that you thought should be. Airfare and airport transfers are typically not included in an Intrepid Travel package, but may be added at the time of booking.
You should be aware that prices do not include travel insurance and all Intrepid Travel packages require you to obtain travel insurance prior to departure. When traveling overseas, this is always something you should look into obtaining anyway. Intrepid offers insurance by Travel Guard, but you may purchase your insurance elsewhere as long as it covers medical expenses including emergency repatriation. Some policies will also cover personal liability, cancellation, and loss of property. So, choose this wisely. You must provide proof of your travel insurance on the first day of your trip.
Intrepid Travel Fees & Policies*:
- Cancellations 60+ days before departure, traveler will forfeit deposit amount (typically $250) + airline fees
- Cancellations 30 – 59 days before departure, traveler will either forfeit deposit or 50% of the total booking cost (whichever is greater) + airline fees
- Cancellations less than 30 days before departure, traveler will forfeit total booking cost paid to Intrepid + airline fees
- $50 Administrative Fee for last-minute bookings made within 15 days of departure
- $125 Change/Transfer Fee for traveler to transfer from one package to another, at least 60 days before departure
*Based solely on research done by TravelSiteCritic.com, these figures may be inaccurate and are subject to change.Verify policies with Intrepid Travel before you book. Please be aware of airfare taxes & fees, applicable to any booking that includes airfare.
Intrepid Travel Coupon Codes & Deals:
20% OFF these last-minute adventure tours on Intrepid Travel
May expire at any time
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Please be aware of airfare taxes & fees. TravelSiteCritic.com is a marketing affiliate of IntrepidTravel.com. Read our review disclosure.
Best of Italy offered by Intrepid (an Australian company)
Beware travelers from US, I found out that I had paid 80% more than non-US based travelers. I certainly expect the US company make some money selling this package, but 10 to 15% seems to be a lot more reasonable.
The scheduled itinerary was fine, however there was too much hustling to catch a train from one location to next. Hotels were sub-standard, just to have them close to train stations.
The tour leader was too arrogant and not much concerned with the travelers’ needs.
In spite of the Intrepid poor arrangements, I enjoyed my trip as I am travel savvy and independent and can find the things of my interest, figure out my way around, and do as I prefer.
I do not think the cost of the trip was right for the service I received. I could have done the trip on my own, with a few days longer and a lot cheaper. I will not travel with Intrepid ever again.