Travel Advice How Far in Advance do You Need to Book an Adventure Holiday 3rd September, 2024

Each member of the Kandoo team heads out on a trip every year, so we have first hand knowledge of preparing for treks of varying lengths. We are more than happy to advise our intrepid travellers on when is best to book a holiday and how long you’ll need to prepare. Give us a call or drop us an email and we’ll get back to you promptly.

Trips that have a difficulty rating of 1 or 2 mean they are very easy or easy. To give an indication of what this looks like, we rate our African safari trips as a 1. The hardest thing you’ll have to do on one of these adventures is set your alarm for 5.30am to catch a glimpse of the local wildlife.

For a slightly more challenging, but still pretty laid back, adventure you will usually be active for between 2-5 hours of the day. An example of this would be our Northern Lights Norway trip where you might be trekking for 2-3 hours a day or our Finland Multiactivity trip where you might be snowshoeing or dogsledding for 4-5 hours. We would say you need to be physically fit for both of these adventures, but you don’t need to be an athlete.

In terms of booking in advance for easy trips, dates are available for up to 2 years in advance, so you can book early and give yourself plenty of time to get excited or you can leave it until 2-3 months before.

We say that a moderate rating of 3 needs a good level of fitness. A moderately challenging trip would be trekking to Everest Base Camp, hiking the Inca Trail or kayaking in Norway as examples. You will be physically active for 3-9 hours a day on consecutive days, whether trekking or paddling or a mixture of both. These kinds of adventures need preparation and training. We would suggest that a minimum of 3-6 months of fitness training will ensure you can keep up with the itinerary, depending on how fit you are already. Training must include walking or running for long distances, ideally over concurrent days. Strength training, such as weights, yoga and Pilates or HITT workouts will help with the physicality of our moderate adventures and we have plenty of training suggestions in our Trip Guides which advise on how best to prepare for your adventure.

Moderately challenging trips ideally need booking at least 6-12 months in advance, depending on your fitness level. When planning an awesome adventure such as hiking in the Dolomites, exploring Chile or trekking in Nepal you want to be able to enjoy every moment and preparing appropriately is vital.

Our most challenging trips are rated either 4 or 5 for difficulty. A 4 rated trip would be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Mount Toubkal in Morocco, trekking the Classic Tour du Mont Blanc route or kayaking in Svalbard. A 5 rated trip includes climbing Aconcagua, several of our longer Arctic expeditions and the Snowman Trek in Bhutan. These are serious adventures and incredible experiences but extremely, physically demanding and need a lot of training. You might be walking or paddling all day for multiple days. For trips of this calibre, we would recommend booking a year in advance ideally, unless you are very fit already, but even then plenty of regular cardio and strength training will ensure you get the most out of your adventure.

• Pay this year’s prices - every year inflation rises, wages rise and the cost of supplies increase. Booking in advance is a good way to get the best price for your trip, saving you money and giving you plenty of time to start looking forward to your adventure.
  
• Plenty of time to prepare – as mentioned above, different trips will need different amounts of training. Give yourself a head start by booking for next year and get out in the hills now. You will be more likely to enjoy your trip if you are physically and mentally prepared for your adventure.
  
• Better chance of your trip being confirmed – all our trips require a minimum of people to book in order to confirm your departure. Booking in advance will reduce available spaces, encouraging others to book which will make your trip more likely to be confirmed sooner, minimising the risk of having to change your departure date.
  
• Get the best price for your flights – scheduled airlines release flights approximately 9 months in advance. By booking at the point scheduled flights are released you pay the lowest price for that seat, so get your trip date booked and confirmed and save yourself money on flights.
  
• Something to look forward to – this is probably the most important reason to book well in advance! There is nothing more exciting than having something awesome in the diary to look forward to. It’ll get you through short days in winter, bad days at the office, annoying family events and the boredom of daily chores. So don’t delay!!!!
  

1. Finland Multi Activity Adventure

Our new Finland holiday is a great winter trip in a lesser-visited destination with lots of fantastic activities to try from dogsledding to ice fishing, riding a snowmobile and spotting the Northern Lights. This is an easy 8 day trip and perfect to dispel those winter blues during the dark winter months.

Another winter trip, our Norway adventure takes you to snowy wilderness where you can properly get off the beaten trek, look for the aurora borealis and have some fun in the snow. This 8 day trip includes snowshoeing, exploring the Norwegian coastline and immersing yourself in the Northern Lights.

If you’re a cold-blooded sun-seeker then Jordan is probably more suited to you. This 14 day trip includes snorkelling, trekking in the Wadi Rum desert and visiting some incredible castles and ancient architecture. Explore Aqaba and Amman, soak up the sun amidst the ochre hues of the desert and experience the explosion of colour beneath the Red Sea.