Handmade and Handpicked Holidays

Handmade Holidays

At Pura we have always been very fussy about the way that our holidays are delivered. Most people only go somewhere once in their lives which gives us one chance to get it right. Every activity, hotel, restaurant, guide makes a difference.

We soon realised that the only way for us to deliver exactly what we wanted for our clients was to do it ourselves. Make it ourselves. We have always thought of our holidays as ‘artisan’, hence the label ‘handmade’.

Pura Aventura is not a normal tour operator. A normal tour operator buys in the services of a ‘ground agent’ in your destination country. That is to say that you buy a holiday from a UK tour operator but everything delivered to you overseas actually comes from a third party.

Our handmade holidays are therefore put together by us from scratch. What matters is that the core of your holiday experience is delivered by one of the Pura team.

In different countries this will mean subtly different things but in all cases, you will see Pura on the ground. It means that we know who is looking after you each step of the way.

In Spain we have our own guides and vehicles across the north of the country through the Pyrenees, Rioja and Picos de Europa.

In Chile we have our own guides in each major part of the country – Santiago, Atacama and Patagonia. Outside of these areas we have trusted connections who can look after you. Throughout Chile we book each hotel, restaurant and activity ourselves.

In Peru we have a permanent Pura member of staff in Lima who makes sure all is well. In Cusco/Machu Picchu we have a dedicated team of guides and porters. We only run Pura departures on the Inca Trail. This means that we can be sure that you get only first rate guides, the best food and the best equipment.

In other parts of Peru (such as the Amazon and Lake Titicaca) you are looked after by lodge guides. For these things we usually get a better price by using a ground agent. Since the quality of the experience is not affected, we get you the best possible price.

So, our handmade label is resolutely practical. We construct our holidays using our own people where it makes a major difference to your experience. Where other people are better placed to deliver an element of your holiday, we use them.

Handpicked

That brings us to our Handpicked range of holidays.

These are holidays not delivered by Pura Aventura people. They are holidays we think are delivered to our standards by people we trust. This being the case, there is no need for us to reinvent the wheel – we simply bring you these holidays for the same price you would pay if you went direct.

The most obvious examples of our handpicked range are cruises to the Galapagos Islands or Antarctica. Clearly we are not about to build boats so instead we go out there to find the best and deliver them to you.

These handpicked experiences are available elsewhere, in most cases you will find other tour operators selling them. We like to think that you will still travel with Pura for the following reasons:

1. You won’t pay any more to book with us.
2. You will be treated as well as all of our clients.
3. We have selected only holidays we think match our own high standards.
4. We know these holidays and these destinations so can advise you carefully.