From winter 2018, the trusted travel brand will be creating bespoke trips based on customers’ individual wants and needs. From now on, customers won’t only need to rely on the Rough Guides books, blog, and podcast to get great travel advice, but can have a holiday tailor-made for them too. A local expert will turn the customer’s preferred destination, budget, and activities into a dream trip.
Package holidays and group tours can be soulless and uninteresting, but organising your own unique trip where you really experience the true culture of a place can be time-consuming. Rough Guides is launching a service to solve this problem – an adventurous trip is planned by local experts, and because it’s completely unique to each traveller, it is not the typical package holiday (you know – those that involve predictable visits to top attractions frequented mainly by other tourists. Yawn).
Each Rough Guides trip will cater for those with an adventurous spirit and include quirky locations that are off-the-beaten-track. The trip is planned by a local expert who lives in the area and knows the destination incredibly well. This means that every holiday will give a real flavour of the area and contain visits to places that are not frequented by the general tourist crowd.
Because the trips are fully bespoke and customisable, they are suitable for travellers who want to spend less time planning and more time enjoying the perfect trip away. People who book a Rough Guides trips will get a trip that is:
- Independent and unique – we don’t sell pre-planned packages. Each trip is unique to the customer, so no two will be the same.
- Adventurous– an adventurous spirit has no age limit. We champion adventurous travel for all, and get to know each customer’s wants and needs before seeking out the best experiences in their destination.
- Authentic – we understand that travellers don’t just want the same old thing wherever they go. That’s why we make sure that each trip helps travellers ‘live like locals’ and gives them a chance to experience the true charm of a place.
- Planned by a destination expert – with their knowledge, the expert can create unique, authentic itineraries that are completely personalised. The expert knows what’s worth seeing and what isn’t, how to avoid the crowds, and how to stay safe.
Rough Guides CEO, René Frey, said: “As our readership has evolved over the years, we’re conscious that not everyone wants to travel the same way. Many people want to hand the time-consuming planning process to an expert and use the time saved to immerse themselves in the culture of a place. While many of our loyal readers would never travel without their Rough Guide, they perhaps want an itinerary that is a little less rough. And accommodation that’s not rough at all. So as part of our commitment to continue to serve adventurous travellers of all ages, we’re proud to launch our tailor-made trips.”
