Tailor-made travel specialist Audley Travel reports a 160 per cent rise in clients booking trips of over 30 days duration between 2010 and 2017. Typically, clients use their extended time away from home to explore several countries, although some will fully immerse themselves in one just chosen country and its culture.

Audley clients David and Helene Moore from Maidenhead in Berkshire are two of the rising number of clients choosing to travel in this way, with an epic 10 month journey around the world completed in 2017. Neither had backpacked in their youth, but they had the travel bug and wanted to see more of the world. On David's retirement, they booked their trip which saw them visit 15 countries across South America, Australasia, the Polynesian Triangle, Southeast Asia, China and Japan.

A highlight of their time away was in Peru - they stayed for five days in the Amazon in stilted lodges at Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica, taking them completely out of their comfort zone to experience excursions including a night hike looking for tarantulas.

Easter Island also stood out for the couple: “It was fantastic to be able to spend three days with a local guide whose ancestors had been there for hundreds of years. Not only did we see the Moai statutes but we learnt why they are there, why they were made and how they were moved. This level of insight and the personal stories we heard were far beyond anything we could have gained from a guidebook,” David explains.

Speaking about extended duration trips, Charlotte Maile, Concierge Team Leader for Audley Travel, says: “An extended trip is a great way for clients to tick off as many places from their bucket list as they can. However, we recommend that they avoid the temptation to try and squeeze too much – otherwise they will create a very busy itinerary with a lot of internal flights. Around three nights in each location is ideal – with two weeks in a country, we always recommend a client aims to explore no more than five different regions.”

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Notes to editors

For more information on Audley's extended tailor-made trips, visit www.audleytravel.com

or call 01993 838000.

David Moore has written a book about his 10 month trip. Turning Left Around the Worldwill be published by Mirador on 24 September and available on Amazon. More information is at www.davidcmoore-author.com