Exploring the wild side

Toronto-based ElderTreks offers more than five dozen exotic trips for the active older traveler

MARCY KATZ is definitely not an armchair traveler. Over the past 20 years, the 61-year-old Waialae resident and her husband Bob, 63, have visited Africa, Israel, Italy, Turkey, Greece, Vietnam, Cambodia, Tahiti, Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, England, France, Russia, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, and Central and South America. She would love to go to Antarctica one day. "Bob and I don't like tours that herd people around like sheep," says Katz. "We like doing research and traveling on our own to exotic places. We like being active and discovering things that usually aren't on the itineraries of big tour groups."

That made them a perfect fit for Toronto-based ElderTreks, which bills itself as "the world's first adventure travel company designed exclusively for people 50 and over." The Katzes heard about ElderTreks from their close friends Lou and Joan Rose, who had lived on Oahu for 30 years. When the Roses retired in 1999 (Lou as a professor of economics at the University of Hawaii and Joan as an artist and art critic), they sold their house and furniture, put the rest of their possessions in storage, bought backpacks and went off to see the world. Says Katz, "Lou and Joan are primarily independent travelers, but they decided to go with ElderTreks to Irian Jaya and the Silk Road. They had a great time and encouraged us do an ElderTreks trip. We couldn't resist. Lou and Joan are good friends, they also don't like going on the usual tours, they're at least five years older than we are and they were able to do their trips with no problems. We trust them implicitly and didn't need any other recommendations."

THE KATZES signed up for ElderTreks' excursions to Patagonia (the region straddling Chile and Argentina) in 2001 and to Vietnam last December. Their activities ran the gamut, from scenic bus rides to wilderness hikes that covered 12 miles in a day.

"Both trips were incredible!" says Katz. "They were reasonably priced, the groups were small, our escort and the local guides were knowledgeable and experienced, and they took extremely good care of us." Katz appreciated the fact that there were no unpleasant surprises; every detail about the trips was explained beforehand. Most of the accommodations were pensiones and inns -- "not deluxe, but comfortable, which was perfectly fine with us," she says.

The local or "national" guides the ElderTrekkers met overseas welcomed them like family. "In Vietnam, our guide Thuy would go into the kitchen at our rest stops to make sure they weren't going to serve us instant coffee -- that they were going to brew coffee fresh for us," Katz says. "For our meals, she made it a point to order dishes that were yin and yang -- balanced in terms of taste, seasonings, color, texture and nutrition." That care is reflected even before you board a plane; if you have questions about any aspect of a tour, you can call ElderTreks and talk to a person who specializes in that area.

Before the Patagonia trip, Katz wanted to find out as much as she could about the hikes that were planned. She recalls, "I asked them about walking sticks; would we need one or two? How much weight would we be carrying each day? How far would we be hiking? Were the trails steep? What would be the elevation gain?" ElderTreks' staffers knew all the answers. "That's another reason why I felt very comfortable booking with them," says Katz.

PASSAGES EXOTIC Expeditions, ElderTreks' parent company, was founded in 1987 "when adventure travel was just in its infancy," according to sales manager Christine Bossence. After five years of catering to all ages, executives noticed there was a big demand from mature travelers seeking active vacations in far-flung destinations without hassles such as arranging for local transportation and accommodations on the spot.

Thus, ElderTreks was born as a division of Passages Exotic Expeditions in 1992. It now offers over five dozen adventures in 90 countries, including Libya, Morocco, Madagascar, Hungary/Romania, Sri Lanka, India, Myanmar, Borneo and Bhutan. Available next year are new programs to Malta, Egypt, Iceland, Papua New Guinea, Belize/Tikal and the Czech Republic/Slovakia/Poland. "Today's seniors are active and inquisitive, and they want to explore the world," says Bossence. "The thought of sitting in a motor coach with 40 other people makes some of them cringe. ElderTreks offers them the opportunity to get off the beaten path and really experience a different culture by getting involved with it and meeting and conversing with local people."

Limited to 16 people, land tours emphasize culture, nature and hands-on learning "in the field." Go crocodile and hippo watching in Ethiopia, study stalactites and stalagmites up close in the storied caves of Slovenia, view dinosaur eggshells in the Gobi Desert, hike to Incan ruins in the mountains of Machu Picchu -- these are all part of ElderTreks' memorable adventures. "No sitting on your behind for eight hours a day with us," says Bossence. "Transportation ranges from camels, bicycles and hot-air balloons to trains, wooden canoes and 4x4 vehicles. Accommodations include ranches, tents, bungalows, yachts, houseboats, hotels and private homes. In the village of Gia in Papua New Guinea, our groups overnight in bush houses built by villagers just for them." Many trips provide once-ina-lifetime experiences, facilitated by the national guides, that aren't promoted in the published itineraries. For example, ElderTrek groups often enjoy dinner, coffee or tea with the guides' families, and visit orphanages, schools and hospitals.

"Our national guide in Vietnam is a fashionista, so she always takes anyone that wants to have clothing made to her tailor," says Bossence. "Our guide in Italy personally knows the prince of the Duino region; if the prince is at his castle when our group is there, our guide arranges for them to meet him. On our Kingdoms of Southern Africa trip, the group gets a behindthe-scenes look at an animal orphanage, which is organized through our guide."

BOSSENCE NOTEStraveling enriches people's lives and increases their knowledge and understanding about places and people far beyond their back yard. ElderTreks enhances the opportunity by bringing together adventurers in the same age bracket who have similar interests, educational backgrounds and a penchant for discovering new things. "Many people have met on our trips and become great friends," says Bossence. "Some even have gotten married. Over 200 people have done five or more trips with us. Our most frequent client has gone on 23 of our adventures. She's now 83, but she's in amazing shape; she runs a farm in Tennessee."

Bossence describes the typical ElderTrekker as an educated, active, flexible, open-minded traveler who has an insatiable curiosity about exotic, remote places -- someone exactly like Oahu resident Marcy Katz, who says, "My philosophy is: As long as you can walk, you should see the world!"

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