Intrepid Travel has unveiled a batch of new trips and experiences for 2027, and the common thread is local impact. Rather than just ticking off sights, these itineraries plug travellers into social enterprises, women-led cooperatives and conservation projects — from Indonesian weaving workshops to a rainforest saved by school kids.
In Indonesia, the new Sumba Island Discovery stops in Letehakapuna village, where social enterprise Karaja Sumba helps women escape domestic abuse by building financial independence through ikat weaving — a centuries-old craft of hand-dyeing and hand-weaving thread. Travellers can join a workshop and see the technique up close. In Sri Lanka, the Women's Expedition puts women in charge as leaders, hosts and storytellers, including a visit to artisans keeping palmyra weaving alive, plus homecooked meals, a henna ceremony and a stint on the Pekoe Trail.
Families get options too. The Cambodia Holiday with Teenagers includes a day in the country's largest elephant sanctuary — a 1500-hectare forest where former working elephants are rehabilitated — alongside Irrawaddy dolphin spotting on the Mekong and lunch cooked by Indigenous Bunong hosts. In Costa Rica, the Family Holiday adds a guided walk in Monteverde's Children's Eternal Rain Forest, a private reserve famously funded by schoolchildren worldwide in the 1980s, with sloths, howler monkeys and a treasure hunt for younger travellers.
Elsewhere, the Kenya Safari Adventure adds a visit to women-led Yatta Beekeepers, where you tour apiaries and taste the honey after learning sustainable practices — all in a trip that also chases the 'Samburu Special Five' (think Grevy's zebra and gerenuk) plus lions and rhino. The Classic Azerbaijan, Georgia & Armenia trip gains a rug-weaving workshop at an Armenian ethnographic house, with proceeds supporting artisan livelihoods. On the Classic Turkey route, a women-run cooperative in Demirciler village — converted from an old school — serves traditional food including gozleme, creating local jobs in the process.
There are hands-on conservation moments too: a South Rim walking tour with a Grand Canyon Conservancy Field Institute instructor on the Southwest USA Canyons & Cultures trip, and a few hours spent regenerating native forest with the Okarito Plant Project on New Zealand's Premium South Island itinerary, balanced with glaciers, fjords and wine.
Why does it matter? These aren't box-ticking add-ons — the experiences direct money and attention to grassroots organisations, whether that's women rebuilding their lives through craft or communities protecting wildlife. If your 2027 holiday should leave somewhere better than you found it, there's likely a trip here that fits. Full details are on Intrepid's site, and several of these experiences slot into existing itineraries if you'd rather not book a whole new route.
