7 ms·

The new luxury vacation: being dumped in the middle of nowhere

53 points by preetamjinka 5y ago

bitxbitxbitcoin 5y ago
Had to look elsewhere to find the cost. Looks like a trip like described starts at 30k minimum. Anyone know of any competitors?
- ryanlol 5y ago
  Without fully reading the article, if you want to go somewhere really far out then Awasi Patagonia and White Desert are worth checking out. Antarctic Logistics offers some crazy multi-month expeditions too. Amankora in Bhutan is very cool, but also very different. Africa obviously has tons of options too, but everybody goes there. It really depends on what you are looking for. There are lots of expensive ways to climb a mountain if you want something more extreme (but still controlled). My suggestions are kind of all over the place because I don’t really know what exactly you’re looking for. I could list hundreds of options.
  - bitxbitxbitcoin 5y ago
    Thanks so much for your response. I will research Awasi Patagonia and White Desert. I am interested in seeing what curated adventures are out there, reading first hand accounts of the experience, and considering them for myself. Doesn’t necessarily have to involve a mountain and I do have a predisposition for wanting to try it DIY before relying on a guide but I recognize that that kind of thinking may need recalibrating outside of the US.
    - ryanlol 5y ago
      There are barely any useful public reviews for this kind of stuff*, if you’re looking for something at a similar price point you will need a good luxury travel agent to work with. I would suggest that you avoid the big ones like Black Tomato or Mr&Mrs Smith, you will have a much better experience working with a boutique where you can know all the staff, and more importantly the staff will know you. * FWIW this is something I intend to solve next year.
      - bitxbitxbitcoin 5y ago
        Duly noted. Thanks for the advice. I would love to hear more about how you plan to solve this need!
        ryanlol 5y ago
        Currently the gold standard for luxury travel reviews is the Gallivanter’s guide, it’s written by a rather old couple and reflects this. The subscription is 1000 GBP/year, this is what you get http://dolphincp.com/wp-content/uploads/GAL-100-JAN-2021-12pages-new-pdf-reduced.pdf http://dolphincp.com/wp-content/uploads/GAL-100-JAN-2021-12p... I don’t really have to explain why and how the current situation sucks, that’s self-explanatory after you see the PDF above. I want to offer the same (but better) for free, and make my money from the industry standard 10% that goes to travel agencies. If you want to talk high-end travel, or even just get a referral to a good luxury travel agent you can write me at travel@safe.im I’m more than happy to answer any questions, even if you’re just planning a trip :) (For user generated content the gold standard is the flyertalk luxury section, but this requires a lot of reading to get into. Tripadvisor is completely full of fake reviews)
- notahacker 5y ago
  Suspect any Marrakech travel agent can knock up the same walking itinerary for <$300 with a private guide (or $30 if you're happy for a shorter mountain walk on a group tour..) though you might stop at a few more gift shops on the way.
- pomian 5y ago
  If you want to go into the Canadian wilderness, a chance to go places where no 'man' has set foot before, for 30,000usd - I know a few guides.
- asymmetric 5y ago
  Not sure if this is similar to what you’re looking for, but I saved this “adventure travel agency”’s website in my bookmarks a while ago, thought it could be interesting. https://untamedborders.com/ https://untamedborders.com/
kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
I guess Fyre festival was just a way for trust fund babies to experience the vicissitudes of surviving on cheese sandwiches.
Overtonwindow 5y ago
https://archive.md/rrlu1 https://archive.md/rrlu1
NikolaeVarius 5y ago
I'm having a very hard time taking this seriously since its a extremely long article about a simple fully managed 2 day hiking trip to go 18 miles, which any healthy adult should be able to do in 1 day with a full pack. At first, I was willing to give the writer the benefit of the doubt, but when I realized that the writer was getting Wood/Food/Water dropoffs regularly, is when I realized this thing is definitely for sheltered rich people.
- bitxbitxbitcoin 5y ago
  I consider myself a healthy adult and I think 2 days for 18 miles sounds commendable. The amount of elevation change does matter, too. I am talking about both the difference between the trip elevation and his normal living elevation as well as the total elevation change within those 18 miles.
  - NikolaeVarius 5y ago
    The Atlas mountains doesn't even break 14k feet, and there is no mention of an attempt to summit. If you're not even carrying your own food/water 18 miles should be a piece of cake.
    - paganel 5y ago
      18 miles is ~30 km (for us, people who use the other measuring system), which, computed roughly, gives me a 6-7 hours walk. Yes, it's expected of a person who goes on trips regularly to see that as a piece of cake but for us, town folks, it might not be that easy, in any case, not a piece of cake.
      - gambiting 5y ago
        Agreed, I'd consider myself a very passionate walker but 10-15km a day in hilly terrain is pushing it for me. 30km....maybe on flat terrain.
        5y ago
djbusby 5y ago
Does anyone remember that movie "the game" with Douglass and Penn? (It wasnt that good). It's getting closer every day.
spchampion2 5y ago
This sounds like backpacking... which you can do for way less than $30k. A nicely equipped pack from scratch can be had for less than $1k. Add in a little more for food, airfare, and any accomodations before and after, and you can do a trip like this for a couple thousand dollars max. Of course prior wilderness experience is also essential, so I guess some people will want to spend extra for a special forces guide.
- dharmab 5y ago
  $1k is a pretty nice pack. You could probably scrounge something together for a few hundred by leveraging used and clearance stuff.
  - Scoundreller 5y ago
    Or find some ultra lighter offloading all their stuff because a 2gr lighter model came out.
- 4oh9do 5y ago
  > This sounds like backpacking... which you can do for way less than $30k. I mean...you can do a lot of things for less than they are sold for. This should not be a revelation. People, however, pay extra money for convenience and hand-holding. This should also not be a revelation. You need look no further than bloated SLAs.
dane-pgp 5y ago
The idea of being dumped in the middle of nowhere seems like it has scope for much more vicarious entertainment. Imagine a challenge where a point on the Earth's land surface is chosen at random, and competitors are dropped there (at random times of the year) and told to reach the nearest airport. They could then sell the vlogs to a production company. Of course there would be rules about not starting in active warzones, or countries where you would be locked up as a spy, but I'm sure viewers would accept that. Also, it would be a bit unfair if a competitor had to start on a remote island, but I recently calculated that 99% of the Earth's land surface is accounted for by continents and islands no smaller than Sicily. The other edge case would be starting in Antarctica, but people do complete solo crossings of that.
- as1992 5y ago
  Not exactly the same, but maybe you'll find it interesting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlPCxI8eOnY&list=PLsplwj_Ee0IXpNJ4Sf520cmog1dZQmq3Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlPCxI8eOnY&list=PLsplwj_Ee0... Group of people get dropped in a field in Amsterdam and need to reach Monaco in 5 days to win a 5k prize, the catch is there have no money on them so they have to rely on the kindness of strangers.
- globalise83 5y ago
  I recall watching a TV series just like that 20 years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_(game_show)#UK_version https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_(game_show)#UK_version. Was very entertaining. I do think it has potential in the modern vlog world as well.
  - dane-pgp 5y ago
    I've also been thinking about a time-travel themed spin off to this idea. Imagine you were sent back in time some thousands of years, to a random location on Earth, and you had to communicate (via some fictional device) to a referee in the present day, telling them where you are, and when you are, in order to be "rescued"/win. Largely it would be the same challenge as the present day version, except you couldn't use vehicles (except riding horses/camels), and you'd have to navigate using only information that would have been visible at that time, like mountains, rivers, and long-lasting settlements. To enforce this fiction, the players could receive information from a team mate that had access to a 3D model of their location as it would have looked in the relevant historic time period. That team mate would then be able to instruct them which direction to walk in, and which geographical features to follow. Every night, players would try to observe the location of the moon and planets relative to constellations, in order to calculate which century, year, month and approximate day they are in. Of course, the players on the ground would know the answer, but would have to show how they worked it out, and their team mate would have to perform the same in a 3D model which uses a planetarium system for rendering the night sky of the intended period. To accurately determine their location without cheating, the player on the ground would have to find their way to a location which existed at the time, and whose exact position is known in the present day, such as the Parthenon or Stone Henge.
hogFeast 5y ago
Suffering for people who have never suffered. This comes up on here again and again (the last one was why rich people do triathlons). People who have done well in life need to justify themselves with some organised (and usually artificial) suffering. No-one does middle-class guilt like a Brit. Also, this guy lives in Manchester. He lives next two spectacular national parks (Lake District and the Dales), and he goes to Morocco. Could have gone to the Highlands if you wanted remote. Inexplicable. Smh. Embarrassment.
a1371 5y ago
From the title, I thought this is about people ending their romantic relationship in a strange place.
- radus 5y ago
  I’m sure they could work that out for you, for an added fee
Aspos 5y ago
There are companies which offer such tours to Kazakhstan. They drop you off in complete wilderness, no other living soul in the radius of 500km. They give you all the gear/food/ammo, a bunch of coordinates with supplies pre-cached, a Thuraya satellite phone in case you decide to give up midway. It costs a fortune, though.
- asymmetric 5y ago
  Got any links?
  - Aspos 5y ago
    No, I have no links unfortunately.
everyone 5y ago
If the goal is "eighteen miles away" (even if its rough mountainous terrain) Why cant you just walk there in a matter of hours?
pcmoney 5y ago
This is silly beyond belief. 18miles? Easily done in 6-8 hours. Sticking to the dumb managed schedule vs hanging out with the locals?! What a fool. What a dumb trade of potential experience. What story would his grandkids want to hear? “Dad spent a night with locals in a tent serendipitously” or “Dad did a Disney-fied hike by himself”. So silly. Disgusting.
HeyLaughingBoy 5y ago
University of Minnesota, Duluth campus has (used to have?) a winter survival class where the final test is to live on your own in the North Woods for a few days. Never done it, but I heard it's fun.
misschresser 5y ago
Comments here feel a bit rough. If you've got the time, I'd recommend a read here. Regardless of the "stats" here (absurd price point, 2 days / 18 miles, plenty of supervision), it feels the author is as self-aware as one would hope. The article, longer than necessary to be sure, is still well-written. His experience, his feelings throughout -- make any arguments you want about them, but it feels genuine. I learned a good amount about Black Tomato et al., and regardless of their merits, they do exist and people are using them.
4oh9do 5y ago
$15,000 for a glorified camping trip sounds absurdly expensive, sure. So does paying $1000 for a phone, and yet how many people in this thread critiquing the camping experience have one of those?

53 points by preetamjinka 5y ago

Had to look elsewhere to find the cost. Looks like a trip like described starts at 30k minimum. Anyone know of any competitors?

ryanlol 5y ago
Without fully reading the article, if you want to go somewhere really far out then Awasi Patagonia and White Desert are worth checking out. Antarctic Logistics offers some crazy multi-month expeditions too. Amankora in Bhutan is very cool, but also very different. Africa obviously has tons of options too, but everybody goes there. It really depends on what you are looking for. There are lots of expensive ways to climb a mountain if you want something more extreme (but still controlled). My suggestions are kind of all over the place because I don’t really know what exactly you’re looking for. I could list hundreds of options.
- bitxbitxbitcoin 5y ago
  Thanks so much for your response. I will research Awasi Patagonia and White Desert. I am interested in seeing what curated adventures are out there, reading first hand accounts of the experience, and considering them for myself. Doesn’t necessarily have to involve a mountain and I do have a predisposition for wanting to try it DIY before relying on a guide but I recognize that that kind of thinking may need recalibrating outside of the US.
  - ryanlol 5y ago
    There are barely any useful public reviews for this kind of stuff*, if you’re looking for something at a similar price point you will need a good luxury travel agent to work with. I would suggest that you avoid the big ones like Black Tomato or Mr&Mrs Smith, you will have a much better experience working with a boutique where you can know all the staff, and more importantly the staff will know you. * FWIW this is something I intend to solve next year.
    - bitxbitxbitcoin 5y ago
      Duly noted. Thanks for the advice. I would love to hear more about how you plan to solve this need!
      - ryanlol 5y ago
        Currently the gold standard for luxury travel reviews is the Gallivanter’s guide, it’s written by a rather old couple and reflects this. The subscription is 1000 GBP/year, this is what you get http://dolphincp.com/wp-content/uploads/GAL-100-JAN-2021-12pages-new-pdf-reduced.pdf http://dolphincp.com/wp-content/uploads/GAL-100-JAN-2021-12p... I don’t really have to explain why and how the current situation sucks, that’s self-explanatory after you see the PDF above. I want to offer the same (but better) for free, and make my money from the industry standard 10% that goes to travel agencies. If you want to talk high-end travel, or even just get a referral to a good luxury travel agent you can write me at travel@safe.im I’m more than happy to answer any questions, even if you’re just planning a trip :) (For user generated content the gold standard is the flyertalk luxury section, but this requires a lot of reading to get into. Tripadvisor is completely full of fake reviews)
notahacker 5y ago
Suspect any Marrakech travel agent can knock up the same walking itinerary for <$300 with a private guide (or $30 if you're happy for a shorter mountain walk on a group tour..) though you might stop at a few more gift shops on the way.
pomian 5y ago
If you want to go into the Canadian wilderness, a chance to go places where no 'man' has set foot before, for 30,000usd - I know a few guides.
asymmetric 5y ago
Not sure if this is similar to what you’re looking for, but I saved this “adventure travel agency”’s website in my bookmarks a while ago, thought it could be interesting. https://untamedborders.com/ https://untamedborders.com/

kevin_thibedeau 5y ago

I guess Fyre festival was just a way for trust fund babies to experience the vicissitudes of surviving on cheese sandwiches.

Overtonwindow 5y ago

https://archive.md/rrlu1 https://archive.md/rrlu1

NikolaeVarius 5y ago

I'm having a very hard time taking this seriously since its a extremely long article about a simple fully managed 2 day hiking trip to go 18 miles, which any healthy adult should be able to do in 1 day with a full pack. At first, I was willing to give the writer the benefit of the doubt, but when I realized that the writer was getting Wood/Food/Water dropoffs regularly, is when I realized this thing is definitely for sheltered rich people.

bitxbitxbitcoin 5y ago
I consider myself a healthy adult and I think 2 days for 18 miles sounds commendable. The amount of elevation change does matter, too. I am talking about both the difference between the trip elevation and his normal living elevation as well as the total elevation change within those 18 miles.
- NikolaeVarius 5y ago
  The Atlas mountains doesn't even break 14k feet, and there is no mention of an attempt to summit. If you're not even carrying your own food/water 18 miles should be a piece of cake.
  - paganel 5y ago
    18 miles is ~30 km (for us, people who use the other measuring system), which, computed roughly, gives me a 6-7 hours walk. Yes, it's expected of a person who goes on trips regularly to see that as a piece of cake but for us, town folks, it might not be that easy, in any case, not a piece of cake.
    - gambiting 5y ago
      Agreed, I'd consider myself a very passionate walker but 10-15km a day in hilly terrain is pushing it for me. 30km....maybe on flat terrain.
      - 5y ago

djbusby 5y ago

Does anyone remember that movie "the game" with Douglass and Penn? (It wasnt that good). It's getting closer every day.

spchampion2 5y ago

This sounds like backpacking... which you can do for way less than $30k. A nicely equipped pack from scratch can be had for less than $1k. Add in a little more for food, airfare, and any accomodations before and after, and you can do a trip like this for a couple thousand dollars max. Of course prior wilderness experience is also essential, so I guess some people will want to spend extra for a special forces guide.

dharmab 5y ago
$1k is a pretty nice pack. You could probably scrounge something together for a few hundred by leveraging used and clearance stuff.
- Scoundreller 5y ago
  Or find some ultra lighter offloading all their stuff because a 2gr lighter model came out.
4oh9do 5y ago
> This sounds like backpacking... which you can do for way less than $30k. I mean...you can do a lot of things for less than they are sold for. This should not be a revelation. People, however, pay extra money for convenience and hand-holding. This should also not be a revelation. You need look no further than bloated SLAs.

dane-pgp 5y ago

The idea of being dumped in the middle of nowhere seems like it has scope for much more vicarious entertainment. Imagine a challenge where a point on the Earth's land surface is chosen at random, and competitors are dropped there (at random times of the year) and told to reach the nearest airport. They could then sell the vlogs to a production company. Of course there would be rules about not starting in active warzones, or countries where you would be locked up as a spy, but I'm sure viewers would accept that. Also, it would be a bit unfair if a competitor had to start on a remote island, but I recently calculated that 99% of the Earth's land surface is accounted for by continents and islands no smaller than Sicily. The other edge case would be starting in Antarctica, but people do complete solo crossings of that.

as1992 5y ago
Not exactly the same, but maybe you'll find it interesting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlPCxI8eOnY&list=PLsplwj_Ee0IXpNJ4Sf520cmog1dZQmq3Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlPCxI8eOnY&list=PLsplwj_Ee0... Group of people get dropped in a field in Amsterdam and need to reach Monaco in 5 days to win a 5k prize, the catch is there have no money on them so they have to rely on the kindness of strangers.
globalise83 5y ago
I recall watching a TV series just like that 20 years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_(game_show)#UK_version https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_(game_show)#UK_version. Was very entertaining. I do think it has potential in the modern vlog world as well.
- dane-pgp 5y ago
  I've also been thinking about a time-travel themed spin off to this idea. Imagine you were sent back in time some thousands of years, to a random location on Earth, and you had to communicate (via some fictional device) to a referee in the present day, telling them where you are, and when you are, in order to be "rescued"/win. Largely it would be the same challenge as the present day version, except you couldn't use vehicles (except riding horses/camels), and you'd have to navigate using only information that would have been visible at that time, like mountains, rivers, and long-lasting settlements. To enforce this fiction, the players could receive information from a team mate that had access to a 3D model of their location as it would have looked in the relevant historic time period. That team mate would then be able to instruct them which direction to walk in, and which geographical features to follow. Every night, players would try to observe the location of the moon and planets relative to constellations, in order to calculate which century, year, month and approximate day they are in. Of course, the players on the ground would know the answer, but would have to show how they worked it out, and their team mate would have to perform the same in a 3D model which uses a planetarium system for rendering the night sky of the intended period. To accurately determine their location without cheating, the player on the ground would have to find their way to a location which existed at the time, and whose exact position is known in the present day, such as the Parthenon or Stone Henge.

hogFeast 5y ago

Suffering for people who have never suffered. This comes up on here again and again (the last one was why rich people do triathlons). People who have done well in life need to justify themselves with some organised (and usually artificial) suffering. No-one does middle-class guilt like a Brit. Also, this guy lives in Manchester. He lives next two spectacular national parks (Lake District and the Dales), and he goes to Morocco. Could have gone to the Highlands if you wanted remote. Inexplicable. Smh. Embarrassment.

a1371 5y ago

From the title, I thought this is about people ending their romantic relationship in a strange place.

radus 5y ago
I’m sure they could work that out for you, for an added fee

Aspos 5y ago

There are companies which offer such tours to Kazakhstan. They drop you off in complete wilderness, no other living soul in the radius of 500km. They give you all the gear/food/ammo, a bunch of coordinates with supplies pre-cached, a Thuraya satellite phone in case you decide to give up midway. It costs a fortune, though.

asymmetric 5y ago
Got any links?
- Aspos 5y ago
  No, I have no links unfortunately.

everyone 5y ago

If the goal is "eighteen miles away" (even if its rough mountainous terrain) Why cant you just walk there in a matter of hours?

pcmoney 5y ago

This is silly beyond belief. 18miles? Easily done in 6-8 hours. Sticking to the dumb managed schedule vs hanging out with the locals?! What a fool. What a dumb trade of potential experience. What story would his grandkids want to hear? “Dad spent a night with locals in a tent serendipitously” or “Dad did a Disney-fied hike by himself”. So silly. Disgusting.

HeyLaughingBoy 5y ago

University of Minnesota, Duluth campus has (used to have?) a winter survival class where the final test is to live on your own in the North Woods for a few days. Never done it, but I heard it's fun.

misschresser 5y ago

Comments here feel a bit rough. If you've got the time, I'd recommend a read here. Regardless of the "stats" here (absurd price point, 2 days / 18 miles, plenty of supervision), it feels the author is as self-aware as one would hope. The article, longer than necessary to be sure, is still well-written. His experience, his feelings throughout -- make any arguments you want about them, but it feels genuine. I learned a good amount about Black Tomato et al., and regardless of their merits, they do exist and people are using them.

4oh9do 5y ago

$15,000 for a glorified camping trip sounds absurdly expensive, sure. So does paying $1000 for a phone, and yet how many people in this thread critiquing the camping experience have one of those?