Galloping across mountains and Europe
Equestrian tourism is gaining increasing popularity not only abroad but also in our country. Think it's extreme? According to experts, even a beginner can stay on and ride a well-trained horse after a few training sessions.
You can travel on horseback anywhere. Why not, say, explore Chilean Araucanía, French Provence, or Spanish Andalusia? Especially since there are specialized tours for those who wish to travel this way. They cannot be called cheap. For example, you can spend two wonderful weeks in Brazil, combining horseback riding with beach relaxation. Travel is intended on sturdy South American Criollo ponies, which have long been the most popular "means of transportation" through the mountains of South America.
The main highlight of the tour is to immerse yourself in the life of real cowboy shepherds who live in the southernmost state of Brazil. True, you will have to master a special style of horseback riding in a saddle with a sheepskin pad. As part of the tour on Criollos, treks are made through vast highlands and canyons. Overnight stays are at fazendas, mountain farms, and ranches. The offered national cuisine will not be without legendary churrasco - local barbecue.
The cost of such pleasure starts from €1,300 per person. Alas, you will have to pay separately for airfare, visa, insurance, drinks, lunch, as well as excursions and tips. As a result, the cost of such a tour will amount to all of €3,000, or even more.
Don't want to go to South America? There are plenty of other options - for instance, a trip through central Mongolia. Tourists are offered to visit Ulaanbaatar, the ancient capital Kharkhorin, the first Buddhist monastery Erdene Zuu, and, of course, the Gobi Desert. As part of a ten-day tour, you can get acquainted with the customs of the ancient nomadic Mongols, visit ancient shrines, and also take a camel ride through the world's largest Gobi Reserve. And don't be confused by the fact that good hotels are absent as a class in Mongolia. Tourists will have to spend the night in tents and yurts, if that is any consolation. Meals are also appropriate for hiking conditions - sandwiches, dried fruits, candies, chocolate, herbal tea.
But the cost of such a trip does not match the hiking romance - $1,500. And that is excluding airfare, medical insurance, Mongolian visa. If all this is taken into account, expenses will amount to about $4,000.
A saddle, as is known, can also be a bicycle saddle. Fortunately, such tours also exist. For example, in a week you can cycle through four countries - Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Liechtenstein. Two-wheeled transport can be rented at the starting point of the tour - the German city of Konstanz - for €50. You can also bring your own bicycle. The organizers will also provide you with a detailed information package with maps. Overnight stays are in small hotels, not luxurious, but with all amenities. It's Europe, after all.
For all these blessings of civilization, you need to pay from €1,300 per person. But you will have to purchase tickets to Konstanz and arrange visas on your own. Of course, almost any travel agency can take care of all these hassles, but in that case, the tour will cost at least €300 more.
Too expensive? There is a worthy alternative. For instance, you can cycle through Finland and explore the picturesque islands of the Åland archipelago in the heart of the Baltic Sea. The price of the trip, which includes accommodation in boarding houses with breakfast, two paid ferry crossings, route description and map, is €400. Additional expenses (visa fee, insurance, travel to the city of Turku, where the trip starts, bicycle rental) - €200.
In search of underwater treasures
Dive tours are not at all the primitive diving sessions that almost all tourists who have come to vacation in Egypt indulge in as an attraction. Here diving is the main and primary activity. Offers for such a vacation can be found on the websites of various travel agencies, but keep in mind that comfort is not a priority; diving is, and only diving. Of course, such trips do not tolerate beginners. Only those with good training should go on dive tours, although there are almost always qualified instructors.
Usually, tour companies charter special yachts that deliver tourists to favorite diving spots via charter flights. You will have to get to the vessel's home port on your own or purchase tickets and arrange other documents through the same agency.
So, what can you see through the thickness of the world's oceans? In the Cayman Islands, besides beautiful flora and fauna, you can find sunken ships. The uninhabited Cocos Island off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica is famous for its lush flora, as are the surrounding waters. The Fiji Islands are called the "coral capital of the world" - fantastic underwater interiors inhabited by unseen fish. The Galapagos Islands, Hawaii, Indonesia (where there are many soft corals and sunken ships) and so on are very interesting. The choice is vast. But the prices are also quite steep.
The cost of a five-day tour starts from $2,500. But that is the very minimum. The upper limit is limited only by your imagination.
Behind the camera
As Sharik, the hero of the famous cartoon "Vacation in Prostokvashino," said: "We open the season for photo hunting!" Indeed, it is not at all necessary to kill animals. You can capture them. For photo hunting enthusiasts, there are also specialized tours. Of course, for a photo safari, you should go primarily to Africa. There is exoticism, unique corners of untouched wildlife, and colorful local population.
For example, here is how you can spend ten days in Botswana in the south of the Black Continent: photo hunters get to the Okavango Delta by jeep, and then through the delta channels - two in a mokoro, a dugout canoe. You must always keep your camera, like a gun, at the ready, because in addition to traditional safari, the tour includes daily evening and morning photo sessions in the Moremi Game Reserve, on the Chobe and Zambezi rivers, Victoria Falls, etc.
As for living conditions, they are extremely modest. Overnight stays are in tent camps, meals are three times a day, but "camping style". And all this will cost from €800 plus airfare (from €1,000 without fuel surcharges). Drinks at campsites, tips for staff, etc. are also not included in the price.
If it's too hot in Africa, you can go to Greenland and hunt humpback whales. With a camera, of course. From the harbor of Nuuk, which is located on the southwestern coast of Greenland, at the mouth of Good Hope Bay, tourists go out to sea on a ship. They say that in the summer months it's easy to see whales. In the heat of the hunt, you can also photograph fjords, icebergs, and glaciers. True, such entertainment is only accessible to those who have at least €3,000 lying around.
Holy Place
Do you want to rest not only your body but also your soul, immerse yourself in the deep mysteries of religions and feel your own spiritual growth? Then a trip to holy places is for you. By the way, they are offered by both religious organizations and secular ones - regular travel agencies. Destinations - for every taste and religion.
Tours to holy places have their own features. The main one is cost-effectiveness: inexpensive hotels, cheap transfers, simple food. Those who go on such a trip must be prepared for considerable physical exertion - early morning rises, long walks, lengthy church services. But that is what pilgrimage tours are for - to subdue the flesh and elevate the spirit.
One of the most popular destinations for Christians is a trip to the Holy Land. In a week, for example, you can see Nazareth, Netanya, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Jaffa, visiting many biblical sites and attending church services. Such a tour from agencies will cost from $500 plus a round-trip ticket to Tel Aviv (about $550).
For those who practice Buddhism or are simply interested in it, a two-week tour to northern India, to the Valley of the Gods, is offered. You can visit temples, Roerich sites, the capitals of the Mughal Empire, sacred lakes, and possibly the residence of the Dalai Lama. The cost of such a tour is from $1,200. This amount includes hotel accommodation, breakfasts, all transfers within the country, excursions and entrance fees to museums, medical insurance, and visa. For international flights, you will have to pay separately about $700. When planning to travel in mountainous India, you must keep in mind that the service there is so unobtrusive that it is almost completely absent. And the concept of hygiene there is, to put it mildly, peculiar.
Delicious Journey
Do you prefer material food to spiritual food? Then go on a gastronomic tour. The basis of each such trip is getting acquainted with traditional local cuisine and drinks. Often, cooking turns into a real show for tourists.
You can taste local delicacies on almost any continent. Among our compatriots, tours to Italy, Spain, and France are most popular. For example, you can go on a car tour of Italy: visit many places and get acquainted with the diverse culinary traditions of the country. Cheeses, ham, fish, seafood, the inevitable pasta and pizza, wines. So that tourists don't get too "heavy", restaurant visits are interspersed with museum excursions and visits to picturesque natural landscapes. A week-long trip to Italy will cost €1,700.
Connoisseurs of fine drinks will enjoy wine tours with numerous tastings, visits to vineyards and cellars. The best route is, of course, France! Within the framework of a week-long classic tour of Paris-Burgundy-Champagne, you can visit the cities famous for their wines: Reims, Dijon, Épernay, and Troyes, learn about history and architecture, and taste legendary French wines and champagne. Of course, tasting does not involve heavy drinking measured in bottles and liters. But even a dozen sips of different wines can put you in a state of heightened alertness. Wine tasting, so to speak, at the place of production will cost at least €1,300.
There are also tour options for gastronomic extremists. For example, a week-long tour in Peru. You can learn the secrets of local cuisine by moving from city to city and from restaurant to restaurant. The main feature of the trip is guinea pig meat (as is known, these cute animals have long served as food for the local Indians). But this pleasure is not only questionable but also not cheap - the tour will cost at least $4,000.
Tatiana TERNOVSKAYA.
"Financial News"