About Us > How We Work

HOW WE WORK

We work with a network of travel specialists and established tour operators to create three types of journeys: Special Interest Private Tours, Mainstream Private Tours, or Scheduled Tours. The distinction between the three is not so much in flavour of the travel experience, but in the mode of travel – take time to understand the fine differences between the three so that you can travel in a way that is best suited for your situation, preferences, temperament and budget. 

Special Interest Private Tours

These are our signature tours and our speciality – all journeys or routes featured in this website under the sections of Themed Routes, Days & Detours, and Geography & Arts fall under the category of special-interest tours. These are constituted of private-group tours that take place beyond the main tourist circuits; virtually all involve adventure activities and maximise cultural immersion, and some of these travels are exploratory and inimitable.

What distinguishes the special interest private tours from the others is the collaborative nature of the setup: in these tours Pepper Mountains simply functions as a travel consultancy, and the tour leader or travel specialist is engaged by the private group as a freelance consultant. Think of these travels as your travels, and the tour leader as your specialist appointee – or broker, to use another analogy.

In a way you will be using our local knowledge and business-networks to create your own unique journey or itinerary. Once the itinerary is set, we will work on your behalf to arrange the travel logistics and fix all third-party service-providers (find vehicle and driver to work for you, fix places to stay, find local guides and porters, and so on), and then itemise all the separate costs and present it to you. (Only cost of food in restaurants would not be listed in advance, as the cost depends on what you would choose to eat and where you would choose to eat as we travel along, so we can only give you an idea of food-budget from our experience.)

One advantage of working in this manner is that you pay for what you get. The expenses are itemised and transparent, and you know what you are paying for what at every stage of the way. And, just as you pay directly for what you get, you also pay us directly for the work we do: initially, you would have to pay us a consultancy fee for the work involved in preparing the itinerary and arranging the logistics and local services, and then you would have to pay a daily fee to the specialist or travel consultant who joins you on your travels. Another advenatage of working in this way is that it is more rewarding and involving to travel in a way where you feel you can make your own choices and have the flexibility to change some things along the way – instead of being herded in standard tours. So you would be travelling in a quasi-independent fashion, yet still visiting special places that you cannot get to by yourself, and also travelling without hassle because we will take care of the logistics and ensure that the trips goes smoothly. You will certainly be in capable hands with us: the travel consultant or specialist who will lead you would be someone who has intimate knowledge of the region where the travel will play out and be an expert in the activities you will do during your trip. 

Mainstream Private Tours

These are also tours for private groups, but in these cases a small or large part of the itinerary runs along more mainstream or established circuits – these could include visits to historical attractions, famous national parks or mountains, ethnic villages that have tourist infrastructure, routes along classical road-trips, and so on – or places, in other words, that offer a high degree of constants and predictability. Mind you, the mainstream or established circuits we speak off are still far-out, or require logistical arrangements that are largely beyond the capabilities of independent travellers, but places where the visitor infrastructure is established - for example, trekking to Everest base camp is an established and popular activity, but still something you cannot accomplish by backpacking by yourself and travelling with public transport. Anyway, you get the idea; these are tours that are run by professional guides and drivers who would have extensive experience in the region where the tour will play out, and who are able to implement your itinerary with professional competence. We team up with established tour operators to run these tours.  

Scheduled Tours

These are tours that take place along pre-set routes or itineraries that are tied to specific travel dates. We bring you these tours by teaming up with tour operators that we know and trust - operators that run the tours according to our values and that are specialists in the region where the given tour takes place. For these travels you simply join a larger group of travellers, and cannot change anything in the itinerary – price, dates, and logistics are all immutable. Normally, individuals or couples or even a band of friends or colleagues join scheduled tours for reasons of affordability, simply because it is cheaper for groups of less than five to join a scheduled tour than forge their own private tour (in groups of five or more, it is unlikely to make any savings per person by joining a scheduled tour, and you may be better off creating a personalised itinerary for your group). We only run a few of these tours every year: upcoming tours are featured on our Scheduled Tours pages.