If you happen to be travelling in the areas where we operate, or if you are an expatriate posted in one of the places where we work, or if you are a business visitor with some time to spare – then enrich your experience of the destination by doing a short trip to one of our special locations. Some of these brief tours – which we call Days & Detours – are introduced below. We also do other side-trips that may not be featured on this website: contact us to see if we have something in your locale.
Starting in Chengdu, travel with us on a detour of two or three days to see a steam train that continues to run commercially along a rail that penetrates subtropical mountains and terminates at a historical town. The town is full of unique buildings and tenements dating back to the early heady years of post-war China; there are no cars in the town and no roads (only alleys and staircase-streets) and the town reveals an old way of life that has disappeared elsewhere.
Visit a hidden valley shrouded in fog in the Min Mountains near the border of Sichuan and Gansu provinces. You will find lush forests in evocative mountains, isolated villages of old wooden houses and outlandish peasants, and plantations of tea that thrive in the rich soil and misty climate. Starting in Chengdu, the area signifies an inspiring side-trip that will reveal the old China of rural peasantry that you might otherwise overlook.
In Gozo – Malta’s sister island in the Mediterranean where Pepper Mountains creators maintain a base – we can take you on an authentic fishing trip with a fisherman who fishes from the quintessential traditional wooden boats. Fishing is by home-made traps or other ingenious contraptions, and you get the chance to see traditional and sustainable fishing up-close, and then after even eat some of the catch.
Hike up to 3,000 metres for great views over the mountains south of Chengdu in Ya’an, and then stay on top at a Tao monastery. There is no tourism infrastructure in the area, but we are able to take guests to stay in the temple – living as the monks do and eating with them in the kitchen – by special arrangement. The trek also takes us through rich subtropical forests where pandas live, and then eventually top out at the summit where the vista reveals a sea of peaks tumbling into every direction.
Itineraries that go into the back regions, beyond the tourist circuits
Light adventures, cultural immersion, interactive holidays
Experience, sensitivity and passion 
Pockets 
Craft Asian accessories or implements from bamboo, rattan, and other natural materials
