While travel slowed to a standstill for much of 2020, we here at Discover Corps continued to dream about the future. The elusive question that dominates the mind of any discerning, dedicated world traveler is “Where To Next?”. This question also circulated our conversations for months as we pondered the post-pandemic travel landscape. And what we kept coming back to time after time were those once-in-a-lifetime, bucket list destinations. You know, those places that sit at the top of your endless list of travel destinations often with the note “one day” mentally scribbled next to them. 

This is the question that we are hearing over and over here in the Discover Corps HQ. With travel picking up and vaccine distribution increasing, summer travel is proving to be the reprieve from the, let’s be honest, monotonous year that many of us experienced in 2020. Summer is also when most families get out into the world and use the time to bond, grow and discover.

If you haven’t heard already, Discover Corps started the new year on a positive note with our first departures since the pandemic took hold last Spring. One group took to the tropical Caribbean island of the Dominican Republic and the other to the South American chain of the Galapagos Islands. It took months of preparation, but in the end, both groups received a safe & meaningful experience and we are excited to continue gradually getting back out in the world through the Spring and Summer months.

Since Discover Corps was founded in 2011, we have gone against the grain of the larger travel industry by evangelizing the benefits of small group travel. Why? Well, it’s quite simple, not only is it part of our DNA but leads to a much better experience for the group, guides & communities we partner with. Small groups are more nimble and allow us to access some very unique locales and properties. Think small jungle lodges tucked in the Amazonian Rainforest or boutique luxury tented camps in Kenya’s Maasai Mara. And that personal community connection that the guide is able to facilitate? Well, we can only do that with small groups.

As we close out 2020 and look forward to a hopefully more normal world in 2021, we here at Discover Corps thought it would be fun to take a look around the world at some of the more interesting ways to celebrate the holiday season. Both in countries that we visit and others we hope to visit one day, the holidays highlight just how interesting and diverse our world is. A demon-like creature that terrorizes kids in Austria, Germany & Hungary? Yes, that’s a thing. Celebrating under the candlelight with a KFC dinner? Only in Japan. Below are some of the more fascinating (and occasionally questionable) holiday traditions in this big, wide beautiful world of ours: