DETOUR

Overview

Description

DETOUR Travel & Culture is an in-bound tour operator dedicated to providing sustainable tourist services for stays or expeditions throughout Nicaragua and Costa Rica. We offer five specialties, or "experience modes":

• Nature, birding, and safari tourism in forests and wetlands.
• Rural community tourism, which involves true cultural adventures and solidarity travel.
• Trail hiking and trekking with various itineraries at different levels of intensity or difficulty.
• Long expeditions for cycling, kayaking, and horseback riding.
• Multiactivities, adapted for active families. This combines trail hiking and safaris with biking, kayaking, and horseback riding specialties, chosen for the type of environment for the trip. To add even more fun, aquatic hikes in canyons and crater lakes plus canopy tours are included.

All these modalities can be combined. In addition, to all itineraries we add some tours in colonial cities and visits to workshops and plants with great artistic wealth and originality, including those of painters, sculptors, fishermen, miners, cowboys, horticulturists, and manufacturers of cigars, sweets, calabash gourd cups, shoes, hammocks, or guitars. Our tours have no shortage of authentic cultural ingredients essential for sustainability. You'll have direct contact with the local population through various local activities such as dances, parties, and local music.

Since DETOUR is a company based in Granada, it offers the most fun and original tours of this city called the Great Sultana.

In its 12 years of work, the company has positioned itself as a leader in Nicaragua for trail hiking and trekking. With the goal of expanding its offers for groups, DETOUR has become the only in-bound tour operator to offer tours to all of the remote destinations Nicaragua and the only specialist in cycle tourism and horseback riding expeditions.

Since 2010, at the request of European travel agencies, DETOUR has also been developing sustainable, custom-made individual and family travel, focusing on interpretation that is perfectly adapted to the wishes of its customers.

We have a French-Nicaraguan team that will help you enjoy quality adventures at our volcanoes, lakes, mythical rivers, and emerald forests. Contact us and you will enjoy Nicaragua and experience the warmth of its people through sustainable, responsible tourism.

Learn more about DETOUR's exciting tour itineraries in Nicaragua by visiting the "Additional Information" section below.

Making a Difference

• Through a variety of projects beginning in 2001, we have helped local families in six different rural areas in Nicaragua develop sustainable services. We give them opportunities to learn about the tourism industry and environmental protection and small loans of equipment (e.g., mattresses, dishes, filters). We also bring them visitors interested in learning about their indigenous way of life.
• We offer short visits and full-week volunteering expeditions to endangered sea turtle conservation projects at La Flor and Chacocente. In collaboration with a local NGO, we also offer volunteers the opportunity to work in the remote areas of the Atlantic Coast, helping families to better their daily life by installing solar panels and water supply systems and training local people to maintain them.
• We support tourism in rural communities and households and are helping to rescue popular crafting knowledge and incorporate it into tourism businesses.
• DETOUR promotes the cleanup of trails and tourist sites in order to protect environmental and cultural heritage and benefit communities over the long term.
• We are a member of Tour Operators Promoting Sustainability (TOPS), a group that seeks to promote and build an image of sustainability for Nicaragua.
• We support private initiatives in primary education on the Islets of Granada, as well as arts education projects (school of mime) and the employment of young people with hearing problems.

DETOUR is a member of Tour Operators Promoting Sustainability (TOPS), a specialized global platform of tour operators dedicated to promoting and supporting sustainable tourism in their respective markets.

Getting There

Nearest international airport: Managua (MGA)

Additional Information

Awards or Recognitions

DETOUR received the Güegüense Award in 2008 from CANATUR for "Excellence in Tourism Innovation." This was primarily for our support of the Rama indigenous group.

Files

• DETOUR Sample Itinerary - In English and Spanish.

Date This Information Was Provided

April 2013.

Photos courtesy of DETOUR, Nicaragua, for SustainableTrip.org.