Encounters Travel
Tours in Cape Town

Our tours are designed to give our travellers the best possible experience in each country, and to be good value without making compromises to save time or money. Our guaranteed departure group sizes are kept small, with a maximum of eighteen, to ensure that everyone in the group has a good experience and doesn’t feel left out. At peak seasons we may run se.
We are a UK and South Africa registered company, with full bonding and financial protection through ATOL and IPP. Our owners and directors have over 50 years of experience between them of arranging this type of travel, from driving overland expeditions and running travel companies both here in the UK and on the ground. We also try very hard to keep our holiday style and inclusions/exclusions as consistent as possible from country to country. This gives us an unbeatable knowledge of all aspects of running our holidays safely and responsibly, and means we can guarantee excellent and consistent customer service from start to finish.

You will be given the opportunity on every communication to opt-out of this personalisation. Encounters Travel is an adventure tour operator, based in the UK but with representatives in Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. We run a wide selection of cultural and adventurous tours around the world, each carefully designed to help you get the most out of the country you're visiting. Our tours range from historical sightseeing and Nile cruises in Egypt, through to long strenuous treks and white water rafting in Nepal or swimming with whales in Tonga. You can join other travellers on a small group departure, or personalise and tailor-make an itinerary for you to enjoy privately. Whatever your preference, we have a team of experienced travel consultants ready to advise you and help arrange your next great adventure tour! Our travellers have a passion to experience the vast diversity of our planet's scenery, wildlife, history and culture. Those joining our group tours love the experience and peace of mind that comes with travelling with other like minded people. They are ideal for solo travellers, and are a cost effective way to explore some of the world's most exciting and interesting destinations. Those booking tailor-made tours are looking for a more private and personalised experience, perhaps focusing on a particular interest. These tours can be customised to suit any budget, style of travel and duration. Our Small Group adventure tours give you the chance to explore the world with fellow like-minded travellers. Similar in style, our lower budget Shoestring tours use slightly lower accommodation levels and larger maximum group sizes. In Africa our Overland camping and accommodated adventures cover larger distances and multiple countries in comfortable expedition vehicles. We've also designed special family tours that you can enjoy with other families or just take your own family on an exciting and rewarding holiday. Finally, we run a wide range of Tailor-made tours for people who would like our help in designing their own holiday. These include a popular range of Day Tours in Egypt. We want you to feel confident when booking your tour with us so you can look forward to your upcoming adventure in a relaxed frame of mind. You can be reassured that your money is safe as we provide all our travellers with comprehensive financial protection either through ATOL (covers flight inclusive packages for UK bookers) or through International Passenger Protection (IPP). We are also members of ABTA, the UK's largest travel association, representing travel agents and tour operators. The growth in global tourism inevitably impacts upon the fragile environments and cultures that travellers seek to experience. We understand the impacts of our operations, and pro-actively seek to ensure that they are as locally sustainable as possible. We try to cause as little negative impact as possible during our tours and where possible to act in such a way to benefit the local communities and environment. We use local guides on the vast majority of our tours, as we feel that a resident of the destination you're visiting can give you a better insight into their country, and many of our travellers find our guides a real highlight of their tour. Our video features aim to bring our adventure tours to life in a way that no photo can, giving you a great taste of the destination. From travel tips and tour updates to country guides, packing lists to little known things to do, you'll find it all in our travel blog. Nepal offers some of the best trekking to be found anywhere in the world.