Driving Tour Activities
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Boquete Mountain Cruisers
This expat-owned outfit offers two daily tours through some scenic back-country roads in its open-air trucks. The first leaves at 08:30 and makes a number of stops in and around Boquete - highlights include coffee, basalt formations and waterfalls. The second tour departs at 14:00 and heads straight for the Caldera hot springs. Both tours last four hours. There is no booking office, so call for reservations; trips include pickup at your hotel.
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Nemrut Tours
Based in Hotel Nemrut. A great way to approach Nemrut Dağı from Kahta. Expect to pay around €100 per group for the longer tours.
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Alpine Way
This spectacular route runs through dense forest, around the southern end of Kosciuszko National Park to Thredbo and on to Jindabyne. All vehicles have to carry chains. The fine for not carrying them is steep (about A$300). Motorbikes are not permitted along the Alpine Way from June to October. In winter, check conditions at Khancoban or Jindabyne. There's no fuel available between Khancoban and Thredbo (71km).
If you're driving between Khancoban and Jindabyne, you can get a free transit pass, but if you stop en route you must have a day pass.
South of Khancoban, Murray 1 Power Station has an informative visitors centre explaining the Snowy Mountains hydro-electric scheme…
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Guided tours
Visitors may not use their own vehicles on park roads; only contracted guides with pickup trucks offer tours of sandy canyons where aboriginal petroglyphs and mortars adorn streambed sites. Nesting condors scatter from cliffside nests as vehicles invade their otherwise undisturbed habitat. On the usual two-hour tour from the park's headquarters, vehicles pass the dunes of El Playón, leading to the Puerta de Talampaya (Gate of Talampaya) entrance to the canyon.
Back on the road, the vehicles enter the red sandstone canyon, whose eastern wall reveals a conspicuous fault. The next major stops are the Chimenea del Eco, an extraordinary echo chamber where your voice seems to…
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Driving the Dalton Highway
Though the Dalton is slowly being tamed - since 2000 around 130 miles have been paved - it's still not a road that suffers fools. In summer the 28ft-wide corridor is a dusty minefield of potholes, its embankments littered with blown tires. Paint scratches and window chips are inevitable, which is why most car-rental companies don't allow their vehicles here. There are few services, such as telephones, tire repair, fuel and restaurants, and none for the final 225 miles from Wiseman to Deadhorse.
The road is open year-round, but you should only tackle it between late May and early September, when there's virtually endless light and little snow and ice. Drive with headlights…
reviewed
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Jeep Safaris
All of the camps and shops offer jeep safaris, though prices vary considerably depending on the time of year, your destination and the size of your party - don't be afraid to shop around and bargain hard.
In addition to trips to the popular Coloured Canyon, other popular destinations are Ain al-Furtega, a palm-filled oasis 16km northwest of Nuweiba, and Mayat el-Wishwashi, a large cistern hidden between two boulders in a canyon - it used to be the largest cistern in Sinai, but now has only a trickle of water, except after floods. Nearby is Mayat Malkha, a palm grove fed by the waters of Mayat el-Wishwashi and set amid colourful sandstone.
Wadi Huweiyit is an impressive…
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Jeep Safaris
One of the most popular jeep safaris is a trip to Coloured Canyon, between St Katherine and Nuweiba. The canyon derives its name from the layers of bright, multicoloured stones that resemble paintings on its steep, narrow walls, and is magnificently beautiful. As the canyon is sheltered from the wind, the silence - assuming you aren't there with crowds of other visitors - is one of its most impressive features.
Unfortunately, the canyon has become overtouristed in recent years, and many operators have also begun offering trips to other sites, where the rock formations are equally impressive and the sense of wilderness more intact. All of the hotels, dive centres and…
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Around Furnace Creek Drive
Start by driving up to Dante's View (5475ft), where the view is absolutely brilliant at sunrise or sunset. En route, detour at Twenty Mule Team Canyon, a windy one-way loop through an ancient lakebed - it will make you feel like an ant. Heading back down toward the valley, it's a short walk out to Zabriskie Point, where you can scramble down into the eroded badlands. With a good sense of orientation, make the 4-mile round-trip hike over to Golden Canyon.
Take a break at Furnace Creek Ranch and sit in some shade. The Borax Museum, past the restaurants, will tell you all about the stuff, and there's a big collection of old coaches and wagons out back. The Furnace Creek…
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Arawa to Buin
The Arawa-Buin section (about three hours by vehicle) was still a bit tricky when we visited, due to the odd checkpoint controlled by so-called BRA diehards (locals prefer to call them raskols) south of Aropa. They sometimes turn foreigners back or ask them for whatever money they need. Don't panic: this 'checkpoint' is apparently very occasional, and by the time you read this, there should be no more checkpoints or roadblocks on the island. Monitor the news when you arrive in Buka.
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Helsinki Tour Expert
Organises city tours and specialises in travel around Finland and to Tallinn and St Petersburg. There's a desk at the city tourist office and the train station. It also runs worthwhile 1½-hour city bus tours in summer on the hour from 10:00 to 14:00 (11:00 and 13:00 in May & September, 11:00 in winter). Ask which tours are free with the Helsinki Card. They depart from the Esplanade Park, near the tourist office, and taped commentary (in 11 languages) comes via a headset.
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Mt Washington Summit Road Company
The Mt Washington Summit Road Company operates an 8-mile-long alpine toll road from Pinkham Notch to the summit of Mt Washington. The entrance is off NH 16, 2.5 miles north of Pinkham Notch Camp. The toll includes an audio tour on CD. If you'd rather not drive, you can take a 1½-hour guided tour (adult/child/senior around US$26/around US$11/around US$23; 08:30-17:00), which allows you 30 minutes on the summit. In severe weather the road may be closed (even in summer).
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Mudumalai Day Trip
The tourist office in the town centre can put you in touch with agencies that run day trips to Mudumalai National Park via the Pykhara Dam (minimum 15 people) starting at 09:30 and returning at 19:00, with just a quick spin through the park. Trips to Coonoor and surrounds are also possible.
A better alternative is to hire a taxi for the day and go as you please. The rates are set at around Rs450 for a four-hour trip around Ooty, or around Rs1100 for a full day.
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Cars & Ferry
For those bringing a car to the island, avoid huge lines at the ferry by booking in advance. The ferry arrives from the mainland in Perequê. About 4km north along the straight lies the historic town of Vila Ilhabela. Good roads run along the western coast of the island; however, the south and east coasts are reachable only by boat or foot except for a rough road accessible by 4WD that reaches Praia dos Castelhanos on the west coast.
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Road to La Quiaca
The road to La Quiaca is intriguing. After leaving the Quebrada de Humahuaca, paved RN 9 passes through Abra Pampa, a forlornly windy town 90km north of Humahuaca, and climbs through picturesque and typical altiplano landscapes. Nightly frosts make agriculture precarious, so people focus subsistence efforts on livestock (llamas, sheep, goats) that can survive on the sparse ichu grass. Look for the endangered vicuña off main routes.
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Ferrari City Tour
From mid-July to the end of August speed fiends can put their foot down in a cherry-red Ferrari during a Ferrari City Tour around the Monaco Grand Prix circuit. A lap takes 15 to 20 minutes and costs around €35 in the passenger seat or around €70 if you drive (someone comes with you to tell you when to accelerate, change gear etc). Look for the red Ferrari parked near the Rascasse bend at the port.
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Canyon Adventures Guest Farm
This friendly place, near Fish River Canyon, is situated on a ranch cradled in the confluence of the Löwen and Fish River Canyons amid some of the most amazing geology imaginable - don't just take our word for it! Highlights include the 4WD trip (around US$10) into the canyon to swim in the river pools, a 'garnet crawl', and seeing the bizarre petroglyphs in the rippled black dolerite.
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Vulcania Tour bus
The Vulcania Tour bus transports passengers up and down the steep curves of Gelso (20 minutes). If you are going to either of Gelso's beaches, ask the driver to let you off at the dirt track. Buses from Gelso leave at 11:00, 12:10 and 17:00, picking up passengers from the pier. Boat tours of the island also call in here and are happy to take passengers on a tour.
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4WD Tours
Most hotels and guesthouses in town can arrange day trips by car or 4WD to Horton Plains National Park and World's End. The standard price for up to five passengers is Rs 1700. One of the better-run 4WD tours is based at Single Tree Hotel. The road is better than it used to be and the trip takes about 1½ hours one way. It costs about the same from Haputale.
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Munduz Travel
Professional company that organises group and individual tours. It also operates an upmarket guesthouse in town and can arrange transport to Irkeshtam (overnighting in their yurt camp near Sary Tash, US$10 per person), Batken, Pik Lenin base camp, Tashkent (Uzbekistan) and Tajikistan. GBAO permits for Tajikistan cost US$25 and take a day to organise.
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Taxi Trips
Taxis in front of the bus terminal offer return taxi trips around the sights surrounding Villa de Leyva. The standard routes include El Fósil, El Infiernito and Convento del Santo Ecce Homo, and Ráquira and La Candelaria. Prices are per taxi for up to four people and include stops at the sights.
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DVS-Tour
The helpful English-speaking staff at DVS-Tour can arrange bay cruises (from US$100 for one day) for bird-watching, fishing or relaxing trips in bear country, staying at their two remote wilderness lodges, or trips to Dneprovsky Gulag including 6WD transport (from US$1000).
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Menningarfylgd Birnu
Menningarfylgd Birnu aims to show visitors round Reykjavík 'the cat's way'! But rather than yowling on a dustbin, Birna leads people on 1½-hour cultural tours, dropping in on artists' studios, local characters and places of culinary interest, as well as mainstream sights.
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Ower's Corner
After WWII the rough Kokoda Track road was pushed further through to Ower's Corner, and you can drive here too … if your poor car hasn't suffered enough! Be careful out here. There are no road signs so ask villagers, and if it rains you'll be stuck good and proper.
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Nome Discovery Tours
The most intimate, highly recommended tours run by local raconteur Richard Beneville offer everything from two-hour evening tundra-exploration drives to full-day excursions to Teller, where you'll drop in on an Inupiat family, or to Council, with fishing along the way.
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Jungle Tours
Some hostels organise tours for their guests, but make sure you have a qualified and competent guide if you're going anywhere off the beaten track. Azhar, runs three day/two night 4WD trips to the jungle. Visits to an Orang Asli village and Gua Musang are included.
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