Zephyr Blog

We want to bring you along with us on an active tour of Colorado’s craft beer scene! Zephyr Adventures partnered up with Draft Magazine, New Belgium Brewing, and Untappd to give away two places in our active beer tour adventures and World Class Beer is providing the airfare for the two lucky beer lovers. The two lucky winners - including one US beer blogger - will join Zephyr Adventure’s Colorado Hike, Bike, Beer and Brewpubs Adventures (value $2200) on Oct 8-12, 2012, including roundtrip airfare to Denver from anywhere in the US.  This active beer adventure includes lodging, activities and transportation. Each morning will start out with a hike or bike through some of Colorado’s most beloved landscapes such as Rocky Mountain National Park and the Flat Irons of Boulder. ...

Today is April 4, 2012.  Fifteen years ago today, Allan Wright quit his corporate job with food company Cargill, and Zephyr Adventures (formerly called Zephyr Inline Skate Tours) was born.  “Rolling” is a great metaphor to describe Zephyr’s journey, as we have certainly done our share of rolling with the punches in the past 15 years.  Back in 1997, we ran three very small inline skating tours in the Netherlands (above is a photo of Zephyr alum, and one of our first customers, Rick Otis skating there in 1997).  Inline skating was popular, it was growing as a sport, and skate travel was in its infancy – we were the first skate tour company in the world! (There are still only a handful and no others in the hemisphere.)  After running the company by himself – with the help...

We recently conducted a "Two-Minute Survey" and asked potential travelers for their opinions about traveling to Peru.  Our intent was to not only find out how and where people were interested in traveling to and in Peru, but also to find out if we had the information on our Inca Trail Hiking website that people needed to make a decision about their travels.  I was somewhat surprised by some common misconceptions that people had about traveling to Peru and trekking on the Inca Trail. 1. I can't go by myself. Not having a travel partner was the most popular reason listed for why somebody hadn't yet traveled to Peru.  The truth is you can go alone!  Sure, it might be a little daunting to fly to Peru by yourself, but on our Peru treks (both private and group trips) we meet you at the...

Yellowstone National Park celebrates its 140th birthday on March 1st, 2012. To celebrate, we have partnered with the Montana Office of Tourism, distributor World Class Beer, All About Beer magazine, and Pintley.com to give away one free tour including airfare to our July 20-25 Yellowstone & Grand Tetons Beer Adventure. See below for details on how to enter. Some people call the National Park System, “America’s Best Idea”. As usual, good ideas don’t always come easy. For years John Muir’s devote activism helped convince people the environment was something worth saving. His efforts eventually helped save the Yosemite Valley and resulted in California’s designation of Yosemite as state parkland in 1864. The first of its kind. Eight years later the federal government took...

Gone are the days of projector slideshow recaps of your summer vacation.  Yet in a digital age, there’s even more to share with your friends and family!  I have been sharing my photos, videos and thoughts from my travels on my Facebook for years, but it doesn’t offer the organization or presentation I’m really looking for  - only a travel blog can do that. The idea of starting your own blog may seem overwhelming, but I can assure you it’s very simple.  As the community director for our Wine Bloggers, Beer Bloggers and Fitness & Health Bloggers Conferences, I’ve picked up a few tips that I’m happy to pass on, in hopes it will inspire you to start your own travel blog! Choose a platform.  Wordpress and Blogspot are just two examples of websites that offer you free...

If you want to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa's highest point, one of the first decisions you have to make is which tour operator to use. Base your decision on the climbing route, advance service, guides, and price. Climbing Route You are required to use a tour operator to climb Kilimanjaro and all tour operators are required to stay on one of the established routes. There are six established routes up the mountain (Marangu, Umbwe, Machame, Lemosho, Shira, and Rongai), only three eventual paths to the summit (Western Breach, Stella Point via Barafu, and Gilman's Point via the Marangu route), and only two ways down (Mweka and the Marangu, which has both up and down foot traffic). Perhaps selecting the route will be another post but, for now, just realize the route you take...

It was a busy day today, so I decided to walk the mile to the Apple Store since I was not going to have time for my workout. I always approach the Apple Store with some trepidation, since it is so busy, and my expectations were met by the large crowd inside. None of the iPad-toting Apple minions who serve as greeters were looking up from their electronic gadgets, so I continued to the back of the store, looking for a power cord I could use to replace the faulty one I had. Finally, a manager approached and asked if I needed help. I explained my Mac power cord was faulty and that I understood there was a recall on these Apple items, since they had the ability to go kaput. The nice young guy told me he couldn't help me and that I had to see a "Genius" at the back of the store but that...

As I prepared for our staff retreat last month, I was asked to do an analysis of some of our competitors, both the larger well-known ones and the smaller ones (similar to us). The intention was to try to give us a sense of where we are positioned in terms of tour offerings, price, etc. Are we on track by focusing on active wine, beer, and food tours? Should we be continuing to focus on treks? Where do we fit in the world of adventure travel? These are the kinds of questions I found myself asking. The Best Adventure For Your Money While I did make some unique discoveries in my research, the biggest factor I found was that our tours cost significantly less than our competitors. Yet, we provide the same (and often more immersive) experiences as larger adventure touring companies. When...

Hiking the Inca Trail and visiting Machu Picchu in Peru is on many an adventure traveler's bucket list, and for good reason.  Trekking the Classic Inca Trail is not easy, but is within reach of even casual athletes who take the time to mentally and physically prepare themselves. And the rewards?  Astounding!  Can you imagine hiking on the very stones placed by Incan workers over 500 years ago to create this vast trail network, or walking through a cloud forest, or seeing the sun rise over the steep Andes Mountains from the comfort of your warm tent and sleeping bag?   With a limit of only 500 Inca Trail passes issued for each day, and two-thirds of those taken up by staff (such as porters, guides and cooks) who accompany the trekkers, passes always sell out.  As an example, for our...

The more time I spend amongst the beer blogging community, the more I begin to realize that destination travel to indulge in fine adult beverages is no longer limited to Napa, Burgandy and Tuscany for wine or the Caribbean for fruity rum drinks in coconuts with tiny umbrellas.  With the craft beer industry growing at incredible rates, the desire to travel and discover another perfect pint makes beer tourism a whole new way to adventure. Why is Beer Tourism so cool? Support local communities. While a great deal of the country is struggling with unemployment issues, the craft beer industry is exactly the opposite.  Over the past three years, big beer sales have gone down about 5%, while craft beer sales have gone up 21%.  In fact, it is estimated that last year craft beer created...