Over 30 Years' Experience in Adventure Travel
Tucan was founded over 30 years ago in 1987. Our first group tour departed in Colombia and we have expanded to a variety of destinations across the globe since.
Why Choose us?
At Tucan Travel, our mission is to help you experience the world in an authentic and exciting way. Whether you’re a seasoned overseas traveller or making your ‘international debut’, our tours offer a social and safe way to explore far-flung destinations. Our friendly, approachable staff and local guides have extensive regional knowledge and expertise and will help thrust your experience out of the realms of the ordinary.
We’re an established tour operator you can trust
Whether you are a first-time adventure seeker or a seasoned independent traveller, we can help you to discover the world's most amazing people and places, cultures and landscapes. Whether you choose to travel on one of our small group tours or design your own Tailor-made adventure with Tucan Travel you will always experience the world in an authentic and exciting way. You can choose from over 200 adventures to 70 countries so there's bound to be an option to suit you.
And don’t just take our word for it, we’re an award winning company, having won 6 awards this year! You can also have a look at our clients’ feedback on Trustpilot. These are independently verified reviews from our customers: https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.tucan.travel
When you are booking the adventure tour of a lifetime, you need to know your holiday is safe. We can proudly guarantee the quality of our tours because we operate 95% of them ourselves and very few of our holidays are operated by third parties. We have been independently owned and operated by the same partnership of Australian founders since 1987 and for your financial protection, we are bonded with AITO Trust (UK) and Travel Compensation Fund (Australia). We’re also members of the main leading travel associations.
Travel with like-minded people
Our travellers come in all shapes and sizes, from a wide variety of cultures, nations and backgrounds, and they all share an adventurous spirit, a strong sense of fun and a desire to see the world as it really is. Our Worldwide Adventures have a recommended age range of 18 - 65 and many Tucan Travellers are on average, between the ages of 25 and 45. And our Tailor-made Tours can be adapted for people of any age! If you want to know more about people who travel with us, why not check out our online community on Facebook.
Solo Traveller? No Problem!
Travelling solo doesn’t have to be lonely! While many people travel as a couple or with friends, over half of our passengers travel solo. as they know they will meet friendly, like minded people along the way. Over the years, many of our passengers have told us that they have made lifelong friends on their Tucan Travel tour. There’s no such thing as a solo traveller when you're on a journey with us because you won't be travelling with strangers, just friends you haven't met yet! The majority of our tours don't have a compulsory single supplement, meaning you can share with another fellow traveller of the same gender
Amazing adventures at amazing prices
We believe that everyone is entitled to have amazing adventures at affordable prices. The majority of our tours include a Local Payment which keeps the total tour price low.We take great care to ensure that our tours are the best value for money in the business, and we know that outstanding value means ensuring that all of the ingredients are right, not just the price. Many of the inclusions in our tours are the result of years of careful research to get the right balance of quality and adventure that is best suited to our travellers.
Our friendly and approachable staff have extensive regional knowledge and their expertise will help to lift your experience out of the ordinary. For example, our popular Inca Trail programme utilises carefully selected and educated local guides, cooks, and porters with top equipment, to ensure your trek will be of the highest quality with minimal discomfort. Our attention to detail and high level of service ensures our happy customers come back to us year after year.
Inclusive prices and included excursions
If you are travelling to distant destinations, you certainly don't want any expensive surprises or extra costs that you weren't told about before you booked your tour. Tucan Travel is one of few up-front travel companies that tell you what is included and excluded on our website, rather than after you have booked your tour. You will find that many included excursions on our tours are chosen for their quality, not their price. On each trip you may find there are some excursions that are not included. This might be because they are not to everyone's taste or there may be various options of differing value to choose from and we want you to have the choice. There is generally enough time allowed for you to do the options offered, but if you prefer you can always spend some time exploring, sight-seeing or simply relaxing.
Responsible & Sustainable
Apart from hitting the major highlights of a destination, we also take you to those out-of-the-way local sights that guidebooks don’t know of and many tourists never have the chance to see. We like to encourage our travellers to have a fully interactive experience, all the while respecting local cultures and customs. We ensure that local economies benefit from our business by using locally owned and managed accommodation, employing local people as expert guides, employing local agencies and mechanics, sourcing our food and equipment from locally owned stores where possible and eating in locally owned restaurants.
See our responsible travel policy for more information about how we care for the people we visit and work with. The Local Payment on our tours goes straight back into the local communities and we are committed to the welfare of wildlife in the regions we visit.
Combinable Tours
Most of our tours are short sections of longer trips and can be combined to form an extended adventure through the region of your choice.
Travel styles
We have two main travel styles. Our most popular trips are our worldwide tours. Group sizes vary per trip, but on average you can expect around 10 people on your tour, plus a tour leader. One of the most important ingredients to any successful tour is its leadership; particularly in countries where the language and culture is very different from those of the clients. Our tours use a combination of different styles of leadership in order that your adventure runs as smoothly as possible.
Our tour leaders are genuine travel addicts and will share their passion for their destination with you. A tour leader will accompany you on your tour and will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the tour. Our own drivers on our tours in Africa and Patagonia are also an integral part of the group. Used to varied road conditions, for them safe driving is a priority. Local representatives own and operate their own local businesses and on occasion they are responsible for transfers. Local guides accompany many of our excursions.
Our group tours have set departure dates to choose from.
Tailor-made tours on the other hand offer you the flexibility to choose your own itinerary. With the help or our Tailor-made department, you can decide where and how you would like to travel, what should be included in the trip and what type of accommodation you would prefer.
So whether you want to travel on local transport with chickens or hightail it across the rugged countryside on a powerful, modern and mighty overland truck, or choose your own personalised itinerary,
Tucan Travel has a travel style for you. We also give you the choice of travelling with a group size that suits your travel personality.
Whether you want to meet as many people as possible along the way, or just keep it small intimate to give you that 'friends on tour' feeling, you will be able to see the world your way. We aim to cater to the wide range of wants and needs of ALL the different kinds of adventure travellers out there. We also have the largest selection of departure dates available to fit in with your holidays so you can be sure to find the right tour at a time that suits you.
How to Book
We are very pleased you have chosen to book your next adventure travel holiday with us. Our friendly, experienced reservations teams will be able to provide you with everything you need before you jet off for the adventure of a lifetime! Further information about what currencies we accept and our booking conditions can be found here.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have a question? You may find the answer here... What is adventure travel? How is group travel different from independent travel? Can I travel solo on a group tour? What will it be like on an adventure tour? Will I have to pay a single supplement? What are guaranteed departures? What is seasickness? The answers to all this and more can be found in the frequently asked questions.
