European cafe culture too tame? Try swimming in a volcano crater

Saturday September 2 2006

Taking the road less travelled is no easy feat these days, with hundreds of visitors climbing to base camp at Everest and trekking to the South Pole each year. Those really looking to get off the beaten path might want to travel instead with Pioneer Expeditions (www.pioneer expeditions.com; 44-845-004-7801), which offers what it says are one-of-a-kind adventures.

Pioneer was started this summer by two British adventure travel enthusiasts, Philip Beale and Adrian Gray, who said package trips had become too mainstream.

Four trips, with groups limited to 10 people, are offered this year, including a swim across a volcanic crater lake in the Philippines in November; a river safari in Tanzania in December; a trek across a remote reserve in Madagascar in March; and a 16-day trek across Liverpool Land in eastern Greenland in April. The company hopes to organize 10 trips next year. "We have organized it so that people can also, for instance, take a boat, rather than swim across the crater lake in the Philippines," Beale said.

"So far, Tanzania is the most popular because it involves four-wheel driving and a boat," he said. "I see our clients as professionals who don't have time to organize their own trips but, like us, are tired of doing what everyone else is doing. It is also for the person tired of going on beach vacations in the Caribbean, who is looking for a new experience."

Prices start at 2,450 pounds a person, or $4,634 US (international airfare not included) for the swim across the crater lake in Palawan, the Philippines, and go up to 4,350 pounds for the trek across Greenland.