Reserve a trip by region from Kansas City, and take the month from the board

Twenty six departures run through the year at this counter, and they fall into six parts of the world. Use this page to reserve a trip by region from Kansas City when you already know roughly where you want to be and have not settled on when. all twenty-six departures at once runs in date order, and the year laid out month by month cuts the same twenty six into twelve months.

What this office places is the ground half of a trip: the rooms, the guide, the vehicle, the permits a route needs, and the passage between islands where a route crosses water. The company that operates the departure holds those licences, bills you directly once it has confirmed, and pays this office a commission after you are home. Your own flights into and out of the region are yours to arrange, and no figure on the board contains air.

Northern Europe, January to September

Six departures. Senja in January while the sun stays under the horizon, Saaremaa in March through the thaw, the path along the Pembrokeshire cliffs in May, Orkney in June among the neolithic sites, Hoga Kusten on one fixed date at midsummer, and Kuusamo in September for the colour turn. These are the routes where this office can place family houses and guest houses of six or eight rooms rather than anything with a lobby, and where the water crossing between islands is already inside the operating company's own permit.

The gap here is the north Atlantic. Iceland, the Faroes and Greenland are absent, and so is anything on the western fjords of Norway. The few companies running those weeks fill their season with European wholesalers a year out, and this office would be quoting a space it cannot hold.

The Mediterranean and the Danube, April to November

Eight departures. Cappadocia in April, the Danube delta at Tulcea in April on a single date timed to the migration, the Minho in May, Boka Bay in June before the water warms, the Wachau in July for the apricot harvest, Aspromonte above the Ionian shore in October, Pirin in October when the larch turns, and the Lycian route, which runs March to November and can be reserved for almost any week inside it.

Two of the eight stand on a river rather than salt water. They are grouped here because they belong to the same run of summers and the same small family lodging, not because anyone would call the Wachau a Mediterranean valley.

The gap is Spain, the Greek islands and the north African shore. This office places people only with an operating company it has used before and can name to you in writing, and in those three places it has nobody worth naming.

The Caucasus and the high passes, July and August

Two departures. Upper Svaneti in August, several starts inside one week, and Ladakh in July, also a week of starts. Both are held by companies that keep their own guides and pack animals instead of hiring them in, which is why the windows are a week long and not a season.

Central Asia is empty. Nothing in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan or Tajikistan, and nothing in Armenia or Azerbaijan either. An office this size carries working relationships with a handful of companies per region, and beyond Georgia the steppe is a place to reach, not a place to reserve today.

East Asia, September

One departure. Hokkaido in September, any week of the month, walking in Daisetsuzan while the colour comes down off the plateau and the huts are still open.

One route is thin cover for a region that size, and this office will say so before you ask. Nothing on the Japanese main island, nothing in Korea or Taiwan, nothing on the Chinese mainland or in Vietnam. It comes down to who answers this office's mail in the working week, and in east Asia that is one company in one prefecture.

Tropical islands and the Indian Ocean, most of the year

Four departures. Zanzibar with Pemba, Palawan, the Madagascar highlands from April to November, and the cirques of Reunion. All four run through most of the year, so the price moves with the season rather than with the date, and the reservation is built around the week you can get free. Where these routes cross water between islands, it is the operating company that carries you over, under its own licence, and invoices it as part of the ground arrangement.

The gap is the Caribbean, the Maldives, the Seychelles, Mauritius and the Pacific. Those weeks are built around one property and a transfer to it, and this counter is set up for routes with several moves, a guide for part of the time, and a bed that changes.

The Americas, and one week that stays inside Missouri

Four departures. Salento in February for the coffee slopes, the Vercors plateau in August, the Assam grasslands in December on one fixed date, and Ozark river days, which run April to November and start about four hours from Kansas City. The Ozark week is reserved by people who want a river, a paddle and four nights without a highway, and it is the one departure that needs no airport at either end.

The gap in the Americas is Peru, Patagonia, Mexico and Canada. Peru and Patagonia both want a domestic flight inside the itinerary, this office arranges no air of any kind, and a route that breaks where this office cannot hold it is not one to put on the board.

The one departure that fits none of the six

Tasmania in November, a week of starts on the Tasman peninsula. The board makes no attempt to file it under a heading. It is there because the company that runs it also runs two of the northern European weeks, and it earned its row.

Send the region and the weeks you can get free rather than a trip name, and this office will come back with the two or three departures that fit and what each leaves for you to arrange. the working method here sets out the sequence from request to reservation, how a cancellation actually works is worth reading before you commit, and answers to the usual questions covers what this office declines to touch. the page on requesting a figure takes a longer request than the form below, and either way the answer comes within one business day.