Avanti Destinations is offering travel recommendations for advisors with independent clients focused on sustainable nature-focused escapes to remote, yet accessible locations in Costa Rica, Belize, Ecuador and Peru. Most Central and South American countries have been open to U.S. tourists without quarantine for many months.
“With record-setting heat, severe drought, massive wildfires and catastrophic flooding happening in so many parts of the world, it is clear that sustainability is one of the biggest challenges facing us today—and the travel industry can be part of the solution,” said Paul Barry, CEO of Avanti Destinations, in a press release.
Avanti is offering tailor-made independent travel itineraries exclusively through travel advisors—not directly to consumers. Advisors can modify basic itineraries with other destinations, additional overnights, transfers, and activities to suit client preferences and interests. Sustainable vacations are focused on Belize, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru, although advisors can find sustainable accommodations throughout Central and South America in the tour operator’s portfolio.
In Belize, accommodation options for clients include a private island retreat, an all-inclusive resort with over-the-water bungalows and cabanas. Part of the price of each night’s stay here goes toward local charity. Cayo District Escape features an eco-resort with its own 400-acre nature reserve, organic farm, and natural history center, where 10 percent of accommodation revenue is offered to environmental and community projects.
Clients opting for the “Costa Rica Rafting Adventure” can go whitewater rafting on Class I and II rapids on the Pacuare River. They will also be provided gourmet food and accommodations in a luxury eco-lodge. Other activities include a visit to an indigenous home, hiking to waterfalls, zip lining, birdwatching tours and “canyoning” (combining hiking, rock climbing and rappelling).
On the “Lost River” itinerary, clients can stay at an eco-resort in Bagaces, with two ecosystems—a tropical dry forest and a dwarf forest in a canyon filled with geothermal waters. Bungalows are connected by elevated pathways and food is locally sourced. Outdoor experiences include horseback riding, whitewater tubing, mountain biking, hiking and zip lining. Spa treatments and yoga classes are also available.
For clients traveling to Ecuador, the “Highlands Retreat” itinerary will take them to a five-star eco-lodge within its own rainforest reserve, teeming with flora and fauna. Visits to an archeological museum, hikes with university-trained naturalists, canopy tours in a cablecar, and night walks are also included.
The “Yasuni National Park” itinerary includes accommodation in an Amazon rainforest luxury eco-lodge in the two-and-a-half-million-acre national park, a designated UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The Kichwa Anangu community within the park has created sustainable systems to process wastewater to keep the wetlands clean; and energy is supplied by solar panels, silent generators and industrial batteries. Activities include bird-watching, hiking, canoeing, canopy tours, visiting the indigenous community and sharing lunch with them.
“Arequipa and Colca Canyon,”an itinerary in the southern part of Peru, combines sightseeing in the “white city” of Arequipa, with its historic Spanish colonial center, a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Colca Canyon, one of the deepest canyons in the world, which is home to the endangered Andean condor. Accompanied throughout by a private driver, clients will see a volcano, pre-Inca ruins, and the Aguada Blanca National Reserve, where all four species of South American camelids can be seen—vicunas, alpacas, llamas and wild guanacos. Clients can stay overnight in Colca Canyon at a rural lodge designed to blend the surrounding natural setting with modern comforts, such as floors with radiant heat provided by geothermal energy.
Clients opting for the “Madre de Dios River Stay” will be offered accommodation in a luxury eco-lodge next to the 680,000-acre Tambopata National Reserve. Nearly 600 bird species have been recorded there, 540 on the grounds of the lodge, designed to resemble the indigenous culture’s houses. This eco-lodge was the first Peruvian enterprise to be declared carbon neutral in 1989.
The best months for a vacation in Costa Rica and Belize are November through April, during the dry season. For Peru, it is advisable to avoid the rainy season of January and February. Ecuador is on the equator and there is little variation in climate throughout the year, and rain lasts only a few hours a day.
For more information, visit book.avantidestinations.com. (https://www.travelagentcentral.com/tours/avanti-offering-sustainable-itineraries-through-advisors)
