Family Adventure with G Adventures

Families with young adult children who wouldn’t be caught dead on a bus tour can see the sights their style via G Adventures’ new fleet of custom-built adventure vehicles, designed for travel on more than 20 itineraries across the United States and Canada. The journeys, which range from six-day outings to 43-day guided road trips, ditch traditional bus transportation for the new millennial-friendly vehicles, which offer state-of-the art connectivity and oversized viewing windows. And did we mention the vehicles are purple?

The large adventure vehicles will be used for G Adventures’ National Geographic Journeys North America tours, and can hold up to 15 passengers, as well as the 18-to-30something tours, which can accommodate 22 passengers plus two G Adventures chief experience officer guides who also do the driving on a range of North America journeys.

Three smaller transit vehicles, also wrapped in purple G Adventures colors, carry up to 14 passengers during each of the operator’s Classic trips across Canada and the United States.

Each of the vehicles has its own nickname — they all start with the letter “G” — along with dedicated social media hashtags designed to encourage young travelers to share and tag their photos online. The idea here is to make the vehicles eye-catching and Instagram-worthy rather than the embarrassing generic bus of previous generations.

Each seat provides a USB charging port, built-in WiFi and eight 120-volt AC outlets for recharging mobile devices, as well as a rear stereo system with USB ports, a CD player and Bluetooth capability for playing music or streaming audio from mobile devices. There are four television screens throughout, all designed to foster snaps, tweets, grams and stories on the go.

Will this next-level transportation make a difference when it comes to luring younger travelers? G Adventures is betting it will, given each of the larger vehicles cost nearly $205,000 apiece.

Ben Perlo, U.S. managing director, G Adventures, said, “There is huge potential for growth in guided, small-group tourism in the United States, both among North American travelers and especially from our key source markets of Europe, the United Kingdom and Australasia. Our expanded partnership with Bus Fleet will help us change the way people discover the awesome variety of culture and adventure that the United States offers; that is, together with fellow explorers from around the world.”

The inaugural tour for 2018 rolled out March 25 with G Adventures’ six-day San Diego, Grand Canyon & Las Vegas tour for 18-to-30somethings.

More than 20 different U.S. itineraries are on sale this season for up to 20 percent off, including six-day departures in the American Southwest, priced from $682 per person, and a 43-day guided road trip all around the States from $5,199 per person.