Intrepid Travel launches second ‘mystery’ trip

Intrepid Travel is inviting clients to sign up for an 18-day trip at a cost of £2,495 without telling them the itinerary.

Its one-off ‘Uncharted Expedition’ will take 12 clients on a 3,500 kilometre trip across three borders and four countries from Tehran, above, to Istanbul.

"We have seen an appetite from travellers to be completely surprised. They put their faith in Intrepid delivering the best travel experience, as everything is an unknown on these trips, aside from adventure," said Intrepid Travel co-founder Darrell Wade.

The launch of the new tour follows the success of the inaugural ‘Uncharted Expedition’ launched last year from Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia which sold out within 36 hours, despite offering no itinerary to travellers until the day of arrival.

Wade said the ‘mystery’ trip harks back to the early days of Intrepid Travel where classified ads offered no details, just a call to explore a destination.

"This is our way of returning to the roots of travel, and how our company began 30 years ago, by being on the frontier of destinations and experiences. Some of the best travel experiences are unplanned. In this case, all the planning has been done by our expert team," Wade said.

The 2020 Uncharted Expedition doesn’t give too much away, but one day you could be exploring a 3000-year old village, the next day learning an ancient language that doesn’t involve speech.

"Travellers have the rare chance to abandon expectations. While we can’t tell you where you’re going, we can tell you that it will be eye-opening. You’ll sleep in factories and rock caves, and eat boiled cow hoof soup," Wade said.

"You will bear witness to spiritual, archaeological, religious and political history. Humanity will come to light in a way you’d never expect."

Given the success of the inaugural Uncharted Expedition last year, the application window will be open for four weeks to give clients a chance to apply.

Travellers can register their contact details from today until 9 July and clients will be randomly selected and notified by email in the second week of July.

The expedition will depart in April 2020 and is part of Intrepid’s Expeditions range, a style of trips that the adventure travel operator uses to discover new destinations and test new trip ideas.

Travellers on the expedition will be asked to provide feedback, which will determine if the trip is added to Intrepid’s 2021 Expeditions offering.