Intrepid Travel has become a well-respected name in the world of small group adventure tours. For years, they’ve offered diverse travel styles, catering to different budgets and comfort levels. But as travel preferences evolve, many are asking: are Intrepid Travel’s Premium tours truly worth the extra investment? If you’re seeking Intrepid Travel Reviews specifically focused on their premium offerings, you’ve come to the right place.
Like many seasoned travelers, my own travel style has shifted over time. Hostel dorms and strictly budget-conscious choices have given way to a desire for more comfort, unique experiences, and seamless travel. Perhaps you can relate – the appeal of premium economy flights, curated itineraries, and exceptional accommodations grows stronger as we seek deeper, more enriching journeys.
My history with Intrepid Travel spans over a decade, starting with their budget-friendly “Basix” tours. Gradually, I explored their “Original” and “Comfort” styles, appreciating the step-up in amenities and pace. When Intrepid launched their “Premium” tour range, my curiosity was piqued. Were these tours just a marginal upgrade, or did they represent a significant leap in travel experience? To find out, I embarked on a Premium Intrepid tour to experience the difference firsthand and bring you this intrepid travel review.
Exploring Morocco with Intrepid Premium Tours | Intrepid Travel Reviews
Understanding Intrepid Travel Tour Styles: A Range of Choices
Intrepid Travel thoughtfully categorizes its tours into four distinct “travel styles,” each designed to meet different needs and expectations. Understanding these categories is key when considering intrepid travel reviews and choosing the right tour for you.
- Basix: These are Intrepid’s most budget-friendly tours. Accommodation is simple, often utilizing hostels or basic guesthouses. Public transport is the norm, and included extras are minimized to allow for greater flexibility and free time. Some Basix tours are specifically designed for younger travelers aged 18-29.
- Original: The classic Intrepid experience. Original tours strike a balance, using locally owned 2-3 star accommodations and a mix of public and private transport. They include a reasonable number of activities and some meals, offering a good blend of structure and independent exploration.
- Comfort: Stepping up in comfort, these tours feature 3-4 star accommodations and often utilize private vans or minibuses for transportation. The pace is generally more relaxed, and more activities and meals are included compared to Original tours.
- Premium: Intrepid’s newest and most luxurious tour style. Premium tours boast the finest accommodation options, private transportation, and the most comprehensive inclusions, often encompassing most meals and activities.
Across all styles, Intrepid emphasizes cultural immersion and authentic local experiences, always accompanied by a knowledgeable local tour leader. Having experienced each style myself, I can attest to the consistent quality and value Intrepid delivers across its range. However, the question remains: what specifically differentiates the Premium tours and justifies their higher price point? Let’s delve deeper into this intrepid travel review to uncover the specifics.
Defining the Premium Experience with Intrepid Travel
As highlighted in many intrepid travel reviews, Premium tours represent the pinnacle of Intrepid Travel’s offerings. Available in some of their most sought-after destinations, these tours prioritize exceptional and distinctive accommodations, alongside the most extensive inclusions. Essentially, with a Premium tour, many aspects of your trip are seamlessly handled, allowing for a more relaxed and immersive experience.
Intrepid further elevates the Premium experience by assigning their most experienced and highly-rated tour leaders. This ensures you are in the hands of incredibly capable and insightful guides, enriching your journey with local knowledge and expertise. My own experience across numerous Intrepid tours confirms the consistently high caliber of their guides, with only a rare exception in over a decade of travel.
Moreover, Premium tours often unlock itineraries and activities not available in other Intrepid styles. A signature element of each Premium tour is the inclusion of a “Feature Stay” – an accommodation choice that is specifically selected for its unique character and memorability. This could range from a boutique hotel with historical significance to an eco-lodge in a stunning natural setting, adding an extra layer of specialness to your trip.
It’s important to clarify, as noted in various intrepid travel reviews, that “Premium accommodation” doesn’t automatically equate to generic 5-star luxury. Intrepid retains its commitment to supporting local economies by often choosing locally-owned properties. These accommodations are carefully selected for their unique charm and authentic character, sometimes prioritizing memorable experiences over conventional luxury amenities.
Unsurprisingly, Intrepid’s Premium tours are positioned as their most expensive option, sometimes reaching double the price of a comparable Comfort tour in the same region. This price difference naturally leads to the crucial question: What tangible benefits do you actually receive for the Premium price, and does it genuinely translate to a worthwhile upgrade? To answer this definitively for this intrepid travel review, let’s compare two similar Morocco tours, one Comfort and one Premium.
Morocco Tour Comparison: Comfort vs. Premium Intrepid Travel
To provide a clear and unbiased intrepid travel review, I’m drawing upon my personal experience taking near-identical Intrepid tours in Morocco. Having completed both a Comfort and a Premium Morocco tour, I am uniquely positioned to offer a direct comparison, highlighting the key differences and assessing the value proposition of the Premium option.
The specific tours I undertook were the 13-day Morocco Uncovered Comfort trip (of which I’ve written a detailed review), and the 15-day Premium Morocco In Depth trip. I experienced the Comfort tour in 2019 and the Premium tour in 2023, providing a recent and relevant comparison.
Side-by-side comparison of Intrepid Comfort and Premium Morocco tours | Intrepid Travel Reviews
My Comfort Morocco trip was priced slightly over $2000 (with a single supplement for my own room, the standard price being around $1700 at the time), while the Premium Morocco trip cost approximately $4000 when booked. While prices may have adjusted slightly since then, this provides a clear indication of the price differential. Let’s examine the core similarities and differences between these two tour styles in this intrepid travel review.
Itinerary: Similar Foundations, Minor Enhancements
A significant advantage for this comparison is the near-identical itineraries of the two tours. Both journeys commenced in Casablanca and concluded in Marrakech, encompassing key Moroccan destinations such as Meknes, Fes, Chefchaouen, the Sahara Desert, the High Atlas Mountains, and Ait Benhaddou.
While a few smaller stops varied, the primary itinerary difference on the Premium tour was its two-day longer duration. One extra night was spent in Ouirgane, and another in Chefchaouen, extending our stay in the latter to two nights – a welcome improvement.
Worth it? Beyond the additional night in Chefchaouen, which was indeed preferable to a single night, the Premium tour itinerary didn’t present drastically different sightseeing opportunities. For itinerary alone, the Premium upgrade might not be fully justified.
Tour Guide: Expertise Guaranteed
Intrepid emphasizes that their Premium tours are led by their “best” guides. While Intrepid consistently employs excellent local guides across all tour styles, both of my Morocco guides were exceptional. However, it’s undeniable that Mohammed, my guide on the Premium tour, was truly outstanding – ranking among the very best tour guides I’ve ever encountered.
Worth it? While quality is generally high across Intrepid tours, booking Premium offers a stronger assurance of an exceptionally skilled and dedicated guide who can significantly elevate your travel experience. For some, this alone could justify the premium.
Group Size: Intimate and Small
Intrepid specializes in small group tours, with a typical maximum of around 16 passengers. For both the Comfort and Premium Morocco tours I experienced, the maximum group size was further reduced to 12, ensuring a more intimate and personalized experience.
Worth it? In this specific Morocco comparison, group size wasn’t a differentiator. However, when comparing other tours, a guaranteed smaller group size on a Premium tour might be a significant advantage, particularly for those valuing a more intimate travel setting.
Transportation: Comfortable and Consistent
Both the Comfort and Premium tours included airport arrival transfers and dedicated private minibuses for group transportation throughout Morocco. These buses were reasonably comfortable for the long drives inherent in Moroccan itineraries.
Worth it? Transportation was essentially identical between the Comfort and Premium tours in Morocco. However, I must commend Sayid, our driver on the Premium tour, who was also exceptional.
Accommodation: A Step Up in Style and Memorability
Here lies a more noticeable distinction between the Comfort and Premium tour experiences in Morocco, as highlighted in many intrepid travel reviews.
The Comfort tour utilized a diverse range of accommodations, from standard hotels and traditional riads to local guesthouses (gites). A desert camp stay on the edge of the Sahara was also included. These accommodations were generally equivalent to 3-star standards – perfectly adequate but not particularly luxurious or memorable. The desert camp, while more upscale than basic camping, leaned towards “glamping-lite,” with mattresses on the ground in tents and shared Western toilet facilities.
The Premium tour also featured varied accommodation types, but with a clear emphasis on more upscale and memorable options. Examples included a palatial riad in Fes and a stylish desert hotel. These generally aligned with a 4-star standard, although variations are common in Morocco.
The “Feature Stay” on the Premium Morocco tour was the Sahara desert camp. This was a significant upgrade to a luxury Sahara camp, featuring proper beds in tents and en-suite bathrooms with toilets and even hot showers – a decidedly more comfortable desert experience.
Worth it? Accommodation was the most tangible upgrade on the Premium tour. While a few properties didn’t feel overtly “Premium,” the overall standard was higher, and the “Feature Stay” was a definite highlight. Intrepid actively refines their accommodation choices based on guest feedback, suggesting continuous improvement in this area.
Inclusions: Elevated Experiences and Added Convenience
Another key differentiator, and a frequent point in intrepid travel reviews, is the enhanced level of inclusions on Premium tours. Even compared to the already generous inclusions of Comfort tours, Premium tours offer significantly more.
For instance, the Comfort Morocco tour currently includes 12 breakfasts and 5 dinners. The Premium tour expands this to 14 breakfasts, 4 lunches, and 8 dinners – and the quality of these meals was consistently high.
Both tours include comprehensive guided walking tours in each city, visits to iconic sites like the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Volubilis ruins, a full day in the Fes medina, an optional Sahara camel ride, Todra Gorge walk, and Ait Benhaddou ksar visit.
The Premium tour further enriched the experience with memorable additions such as a visit to Khemliya village for Gnawa music and culture immersion, and a hands-on Moroccan tagine cooking class in Tahnaout.
A practical perk of the Premium tour was the inclusion of small tips for luggage porters, local guides, and other service staff. This eliminated the need to constantly handle small change, adding a touch of seamlessness to the experience.
Worth it? While the Comfort tour already offers substantial inclusions, the Premium tour elevates this further with more meals, unique cultural experiences, and added conveniences. The extra inclusions, particularly the meals and cultural activities, contributed significantly to the overall value.
Why Choose an Intrepid Premium Tour? Key Advantages
Based on this intrepid travel review, and considering various intrepid travel reviews online, several compelling reasons emerge for choosing an Intrepid Premium tour over their other tour styles:
- Exceptional and Unique Accommodation: Premium tours prioritize distinctive and memorable accommodations, often featuring “Feature Stays” that are bucket-list worthy. While not always conventional luxury, they are carefully chosen for their character and location.
- Top-Tier Tour Guides: Booking a Premium tour provides a higher likelihood of being led by one of Intrepid’s most experienced and highly-rated tour leaders, enhancing your journey with expert local insights.
- Comprehensive Inclusions: Premium tours offer the most extensive inclusions – more meals, guided experiences, and activities. This minimizes out-of-pocket expenses and creates a more seamless travel experience.
- Potentially Enhanced Itineraries: While not dramatically different in the Morocco comparison, Premium tours in some destinations may offer unique itineraries or access to experiences not available on other Intrepid tour styles. For travelers with specific interests or bucket-list destinations, Premium itineraries might be more aligned with their desires.
Final Verdict: Are Intrepid Premium Tours Worth the Investment?
To reiterate a crucial point from this intrepid travel review, “Premium” in the Intrepid context doesn’t automatically translate to 5-star, ultra-luxury travel. You may still encounter charmingly quirky hotels, experience long drives on varied road conditions, and enjoy meals in local homes rather than Michelin-starred establishments.
However, with that understanding, the question of “worth it?” becomes more nuanced and subjective.
For the specific Morocco Intrepid tours compared, the Premium upgrade may not be essential unless exceptional hotels are a top priority for you. The Comfort tour provided an equally incredible overall experience, albeit with less luxurious accommodations. However, the Premium “Feature Stay” desert camp and some of the enhanced local meals were genuinely special.
In other regions and for different itineraries, the value proposition of Premium tours might be more compelling. For instance, if a Premium itinerary unlocks unique destinations or experiences that are significantly different from other Intrepid offerings, the higher price point could be more easily justified.
Ultimately, the best advice when considering intrepid travel reviews and choosing between Intrepid tour styles is to carefully compare the specific tour options you are considering. Assess the itinerary, accommodation details, inclusions, and price difference, and then make a decision that aligns with your personal travel priorities and budget.
Have you experienced an Intrepid Premium tour? Or are you considering one? Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below!
