FAQ

Everything you'd ask

Bookings

Of course. In fact, most people do.

You don’t need to wait for your friends to make up their minds, or for that one mate who says “I’m in” every year and never means it. On many Altervan trips people meet for the first time at departure. We get in the van as strangers, and somewhere along the road it turns into a crew. That’s a big part of what Altervan is.

Find the road trip that clicks, pick a departure and press “Book your place”. Fill in your details and we send you the next steps. Your place is confirmed once the deposit is paid and the Terms of Participation are accepted.

The earlier, the calmer your head.

Our groups are small and several departures fill up months ahead. There’s no single rule for every trip, though: if you see a free place on a departure, you can claim it.

Yes, and the earlier the better. The exact cancellation terms are always in the Terms of Participation.

A small group. That doesn’t change.

The exact number differs by destination, but we’re usually 8 to 16. We’re not the “coach, 52 people, follow the umbrella” kind of trip. The van and the crew are part of the experience.

Quite, and we’d rather tell you now. Days are full, we start early (sometimes at four, for a sunrise), we walk, we travel light and space in the van is tight. The nights often carry on and sleep is short. You don’t need to be an athlete. You need to enjoy that pace.

If you like small groups, full days, the road, nature, unplanned stops and the idea of meeting people you didn’t know yesterday, you’re on the right track.

But let’s be clear: Altervan doesn’t mean a relaxing holiday. We want to live a place as fully as we can. That can mean early starts, long hours on the road, walking, tiredness and getting back late. If we have to choose between a two-hour sit-down lunch and one more place worth seeing, we’ll usually pick the place. We eat on the road, make quick stops and keep going.

We don’t chase hardship for its own sake, we chase the experience. We want to come back tired because the day was full, not because we checked into a nice hotel. If you want long hours of rest, fixed meal times, complete privacy and a plan that never changes, this probably isn’t your thing. And that’s fine. If, though, you think “I’ve come all this way, I want to see and live as much as I can”, we’ll get on very well.

On the trip

An Altervan crew leader travels with you, and depending on the road trip there may be more people from our team. They’re there for the flow of the trip, the group, the transport and all the small and big things that come up when you’re thousands of kilometres from home.

The itinerary is the plan for the trip, not a contract with the universe. Weather, roads, flights, traffic, opening hours or something unexpected can change the order or timing of an activity.

If a change is needed, the goal is always the same: to keep the experience as good as it can be, not just to tick boxes. Our Terms of Participation say the same.

It depends on the day.

Some days have short drives and on others we cover a lot of kilometres. The name does say Roadtrips. 😄 But the van isn’t just transport from A to B. It’s music, conversations, stops, coffee in the middle of nowhere and a big part of the experience.

This needs a bit of care, because it differs by trip.

On many road trips we travel in 9-seat vans and storage is limited. The airline allowing 23 kg doesn’t mean we can load 18 huge suitcases and play Tetris every morning. And honestly, it’s part of how we think: the less you carry, the easier you travel. Less lugging, faster transfers, easier check-ins and less weighing you down every day.

You don’t need to bring the whole house. Bring what you’ll actually use and leave some room for what you’ll pick up on the way.

On each trip’s page we say exactly what luggage to bring, because it changes with the vans, internal flights and destination.

Our days are usually full to the brim. Having come to the other side of the world, we want to see and live as much as we can, so you won’t necessarily find big gaps in the day just to “rest”.

When we’re in cities, though, we always try to leave free time. Exploring is magic, and sometimes the best thing you can do is get lost on your own in a side street, walk into a small shop that wasn’t on the plan, have a coffee or just wander with no destination.

We don’t have to be together 24 hours a day. If you want to take your own walk, no problem. There’s only one rule: be in the right place at the right time when we move on.

Where you sleep & how you pay

Wherever makes the most sense for the trip.

It could be a hotel, a lodge, a guesthouse, a cabin, a flat or even a whole house shared by the crew. We don’t just count stars. We care about location, cleanliness, practicality and how deep it takes us into each place.

In most stays the rooms are twin and solo travellers share with someone of the same sex. There are exceptions: on some road trips we may have triple or quad rooms, houses, shared spaces or more unusual stays, especially in jungles, remote areas or places where we want something more authentic. In Colombia, for example, we stay in local homes and wooden lodges in the Amazon, with far simpler facilities than a standard hotel.

And sometimes we prefer to stay all together in houses. That’s usually where a big part of the Altervan magic happens: cooking, late-night talks, music, silliness and the kind of bonding that rarely happens in a hotel corridor. Besides, to count as properly initiated into Altervan, at some point you have to try the legendary field pasta. It isn’t in the Terms of Participation, but it should be.

Yes.

After the deposit you can pay the rest gradually, up to the final payment date for that departure. You don’t have to pay everything in one go.

It varies by trip. The official list is always the “Included / Not included” section on each trip’s page.

Not always.

On most trips the rooms are twin, with two separate beds. In small or remote places, such as some nights in Patagonia, there may be one large double bed or a different layout. We say so in the trip’s itinerary when it happens.

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