GAP or Discovery Adventures?

[noroots]

Hi all,

In general, what's the relationship and differences between gap advetures and discovery adventures? (I've noticed the discovery trips include more options, but that couldn't be it?!)

I'm new to both and trying to decide which trip to take in Peru.

Thanks for your input,

g

[IncaTrail50]

I have not been on a Discovery Adventures trip but I did go to Peru with GAP. It was awesome. I looked now at the Discovery website and their trips seem more expensive and they have only two service levels, Comfort and Superior Comfort? I think the price sometimes depends on the accommodations and transportation. I did the Inca Discovery with GAP which included hiking the Inca Trail. It is a relatively inexpensive trip but I found the hotels were wonderful. They were basic but very clean and the staff were great. Also good food for the included breakfasts. The night before we hiked the trail the hotel had only beds and a lamp (also private bath), no radio, no TV, no phone. If those things matter then maybe you want a more expensive trip. The trip details kind of put us off with the warning but I loved the GAP hotels in Peru!
I tagged an Egyptian tour onto a conference in Cairo a couple of years ago. My 10-day tour (not GAP because the dates didn't mesh with the conference unfortunately) was $1300 and another company I considered was $6000, same itinerary. The expensive company stayed in higher class hotels, had sleeper cars for the overnight train rides, flights to the further destinations rather than long bus rides, and included a few more lavish buffet meals (how much food can you eat anyway?). I didn't consider the additional $4700 worth a softer mattress, 500 TV channels where I couldn't understand most of the languages, free local calls where I didn't know anyone to call, in-room alarm clock in a time zone where I am bug-eyed awake at 3:00AM, buffet breakfast that covered a small football stadium, or 30 minute flight OVER the countryside I wanted to see rather than train ride through the urban areas (where I saw a majestic flock of storks flying along the Nile).
Well, you get the idea! My vote is for the smaller companies that nestle themselves in with the locals!

[noroots]

Thanks for your response IncaTrail50. Good point about accommodation and transportation. The trips I'm considering are both comfort level (perhaps becuase they don't include the Inca trail hike). The price difference is only $100 (Discovery Adventure is more expensive). So cost is not a big factor. I'm looking for the best experience in terms of education, knowledgeable guides (CEO's) and mingling with the locals.

[Zuleika]

we all love GAP on this website - you'll be hard to get an unbiased answer to be honest!

[thorlitzer]

I just got back from the Serengetti Discovery trip and wanted to share what I learned, as I had similar questions between the two. GAP recently purchased Discovery Adventures and thus it is a joint venture. In order to help the merger, in most locations they've put the most experianced (which usually means more 'in the know') GAP guides on the Discovery tours.

Also learned that while GAP and Discovery both try to be 'off the beaten path', Discovery usually are smaller groups in size (in our case 15 people on GAP, 6 on discovery) and thus Discovery is able to go even farther off the beaten path, which is what we were looking for.

Hope that helps.