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We finish our Summer Series on Purposeful Travel with two of our longest-running trips: the Dominican Republic and Peru. Both trips share nearly decade-long partnerships as well as extremely strong ties to the local communities. These are also experiences that are located in some of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, but truly take you to a different side of the country that few people see. 

We continue our Summer Series on Purposeful Travel with a spotlight on two of our personal favorites: Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands. These Latin American locales are some of the most biodiverse areas on the planet. Costa Rica holds 6% of the world’s biodiversity and even abolished its military to contribute to the country’s stated goal of focusing its tax dollars on conservation and sustainability. To the south, the Galapagos Islands are home to over 2,900 known species of fish, invertebrates and marine mammals. 

We’ll begin our series on purposeful travel with a focus on two of our most popular destinations this summer – Alaska and Kenya. While in literally polar opposite geographic parts of the globe, these two destinations share a common thread of pristine natural environments that are under constant threat. Whether it’s human development or climate change, a proactive approach is necessary to ensure that these unique ecosystems & their native species last generations to come.

This summer, we’ll be doing deep dives into a selection of our trips to uncover some of the amazing partnerships we have across the globe. These partnerships are at the heart of our trips and are what truly create the Discover Corps Difference in each one of our hand-crafted itineraries. From the Alaska Sealife Center to Kenya’s Maa Trust, we scour the globe to develop the most unique, impactful partnerships that benefit the communities we serve and travelers alike.

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:

As we close out November, we here at Discover Corps are reflecting, like many of you, on what we are grateful for. Despite the challenges this year has brought, we cannot help but express gratitude to everyone that brings our travel programs to life. From our guides to each and every one of our travelers, a tremendous amount of work, dedication and trust goes into making each and every one of these experiences.

Below are just a few of the many pieces that all link together to make a Discover Corps Vacation with Purpose: