Meet the travellers who've taken astounding land-based tours

Land tours are a great way to dive deeper into a destination. Explore with a guide on foot or by rail, bus or car, and your guide will reveal hidden spots you wouldn’t find by yourself.

Here we meet five people who’ve travelled alone and with their partner, friends or family on escorted land tours to discover what they love about them – then we suggest tours to suit people like them.

Rebecca Crowe, a solo traveller from Liverpool, says...

“As I usually travel alone, I mostly look for land-based experiences that make more sense to do as part of a group, for tours I can’t do on my own, or tours that take me off the beaten path.

“I’ve been on three land tours. I did a trip around Eastern Canada and the US with G Adventures, travelled with Kiwi Experience around New Zealand, and took a Ticket to Ride tour around Sri Lanka.

“The ability to see a lot in a short amount of time without spending a fortune attracted me to the first two. They were still expensive but getting from all the places on my own would have been tricky, and I wasn’t a confident solo traveller back then.

“Hiking Adam’s Peak in Sri Lanka on the last weekend of a month-long trip was a highlight. Starting at 3am, we climbed so many stairs as elderly locals passed by us with ease. We got to the top for sunrise and experienced the magic of a drum ceremony around the sacred site.”

Make it happen

G Adventures’ seven-night Canadian Rockies Eastbound Express tour from Vancouver to Calgary via Whistler, Kelowna, Revelstoke, Lake Louise and Banff departs on 15 June 2025, from £1,999. gadventures.com

Claire Robinson, the founder of UK travel company Weekend Candy, usually travels with friends. She says,

“I like shorter tours – ideally just a long weekend – so I’m not stuck with people for too long if we don’t get along, and because they fit in around my life better.

“I’ve done three land tours so far. Scarangar was my first; the other two were with Discover Adventure.

“I chose Scarangar because, being a converted double-decker bus, it’s unique and sustainable. I also love the fact that it’s all-inclusive and that you can create your own itinerary to suit your tastes. Our Scarangar tour host, Tim, was brilliant because not only did he drive the bus, he also cooked all our meals, made sure we got where we needed to be on time and kept everything ship-shape.

“When the bus got a puncture at the end of the tour, Tim was as cool as a cucumber and arranged lifts so that we could get back to our cars without any hassle.

“The highlights of our Scarangar trip were wild swimming on Cornwall’s south coast, seeing seals and pups on a beach and a fiery yoga session where we had to release our inner ‘fire’.”

Make it happen

Scarangar’s three-night Coastal Tour from Porthtowan, Cornwall, to Bedruthan via Perranporth, departs on 4 October 2024, from £1,750 for private hire. scarangar.com

Olein Webster travels with her husband John. She says,

“I look for experiences that I can only get if booked as part of a tour, something exclusive or with fast-track entry. Tours can get you round a country quicker and are less tiring and less stressful than if you do it yourself.

“John and I travelled with Great Rail Journeys on a rail tour to Salzburg and Vienna, and with Newmarket Holidays on a music tour in the US. We started in Detroit, then visited Cleveland, Chicago, Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans.

“Our tour manager on the Salzburg and Vienna trip was excellent, so calm and organised. Our tour manager on the US trip was the same, but also kept us entertained on long coach journeys with films and information.

“There were so many highlights on these land tours, so many things that I’ll always remember – for example, we attended a concert at Schnonbrunn Palace in Vienna and toured Detroit’s Motown Museum.”

Make it happen

Great Rail Journeys’ 13-night Grand Alpine Explorer tour, return from London via Munich, Salzburg, Austrian Alps, St Moritz and Interlaken, departs on 25 April 2025 from £4,395. greatrail.com

Csilla Kiss, from Hungary, likes travelling solo. She says,

“I look for destinations that are off the beaten path, so accessibility and risk factors determine whether I travel with a company or organise a trip by myself. A great land tour must offer something unique – a new landscape, animals, colours, textures or experiences, for example.

“Recently I travelled with Secret Atlas to Svalbard and South Georgia because they’re so unique and remote. I wanted to get the most out of the Arctic wilderness, so choosing a small group was non-negotiable.

“We had two tour guides, Christian Bruttel and Celina Fester. Christian was the expedition guide, while Celina was a master at spotting wildlife. She pointed out Arctic foxes and knew everything there was to know about birdlife. Each day she wrote a summary of where we had visited and which animals we had seen. I loved that we had a male and female guide. Being a female solo traveller, it’s great to have female members in the crew.”

Make it happen

Secret Atlas’s 12-night Svalbard Pioneer aboard Vikingfjord, return from Longyearbyen via Prins Karls Forland, Ny-Alesund and Kongsfjord, Nordaustlandet and Hinlopen Strait, South-East Spitsbergen and Hornsund & Isfjord, departs on 26 July 2025, from £14,307. secretatlas.com

Carol Deveney, from Glasgow, travels with her mum and aunt. She says,

“I chose Leger Holidays’ The Sound of Music coach tour around Austria because they had Silver Service coaches which looked comfortable. I also liked how Leger gave us examples of which hotels they might use. While they weren’t guaranteed, it did give you an insight into quality which other tour operators we looked at didn’t offer. I was taking my aunt on holiday for her 70th birthday, so having professional tour guides to plan our outings, drop us close to our excursions and pick us up from them was ideal.

“What makes a great tour is when the driver and guide understand the demographic of the group. There were quite a number of elderly people on our tour and I felt our guides, Peter and Gordon, were really sensitive to that.

“Peter and Gordon knew the locations really well. They also arranged some extra treats for us too, such as a horse-drawn sleigh ride into the Tyrol Alps. They gave us big, furry blankets and schnapps and, of course, a sing-along of The Hills are Alive.”

Make it happen

Leger’s six-night Austrian Gems tour, return from the UK, via Alpbach, Rattenberg, Kitzbuhel and Salzburg, departs on 2 June 2025, from £899. leger.co.uk