Rickshaw Travel highlights the top 5 New Year’s resolutions and how they can help keep them.

Rickshaw Travel are already helping people to ‘travel more’ and ‘live life to the fullest’ – two of the most common New Year aims – but they’d also like to help other resolutionists to fulfil their goals for 2016. They’ve picked out five of the most frequently promised and often failed New Year’s resolutions and provided some ideas on how to achieve them whilst travelling.

1. Learn a new skill

Learning something new features highly on the New Year’s resolution list with many looking to develop their language skills, learn how to cook or just generally try something new. For the ultimate ‘local’ experience Rickshaw Travel recommends travellers not only get a taste of local life but they live it through learning the traditional trades and skills of a culture. Many of the Rickshaw Travel trip options available provide the opportunity to learn a completely new skill directly from the local people who have mastered an art over generations. Travellers can learn archery in Bhutan, try their hand at traditional Batik paining in Malaysia, master the art of fishing the local way in Indonesia and even learn how to make chocolate on a new trip to Northern Peru.

Rickshaw Travel’s new ‘Going Loco with cocoa’ bite-size trip to Peru includes a chocolate-making workshop where guests will learn about the fascinating properties of the cocoa bean and the art of chocolate production. The 4-day excursion costs from £385 per person and includes accommodation with breakfast, transfers, train to and from Aguas Caliantes, the chocolate making workshop and Machu Piccu entrance fee.

2. Get fit and lose weight

Those looking to get fit and lose weight in the New Year may need a bit of extra incentive and inspiration to keep them going in the gym. Rickshaw Travel recommends travellers take their training outside and explore the planet by foot – trekking between towering snowy peaks, wandering through tropical rainforests and meeting minority mountain tribes. Not only is walking and trekking a great way to maintain fitness but it’s also a wonderful way to get out into the wilderness and glimpse the local lives of people living remotely around the world. Rickshaw offers a host of trekking options from exploring the dramatic Torres del Paine national park in Chile to trekking between tiny settlements in the Nepalese Himalayas, discovering lost kingdoms in Peru, tackling China’s ‘Tiger Leaping Gorge’ or conquering Borneo’s Mount Kinabalu – the highest in South East Asia. With so many new and interesting things to see on trek, travellers will forget they’re even exercising. Having a trekking holiday on the horizon is also a great incentive to work towards in the gym.

Rickshaw Travel’s 3-day ‘Tiger Leaping Gorge’ bite-size trekking trip in China costs from £165 per person and includes 2 nights accommodation in a hiking guesthouse, transport to and from the trek and an English-speaking guide.

3. Try different food and eat better

Food glorious food – as if there wasn’t enough of it over Christmas, people are still obsessed with it in the New Year. Rather than go on a crash diet Rickshaw recommends learning how to cook exciting new and healthier dishes from around the world directly from the local people that cook them every day. Travellers can explore a culture’s street food by Vespa in Vietnam or on a guided tour of Mumbai’s foodie back-streets, or learn to cook classic dishes themselves on a home-stay option. Guests will feel ‘at home in the curry kitchen’ in Sri Lanka where they will learn the secrets of traditional Sri Lankan cuisine and get a glimpse of daily life with a local family or they can get healthy in Peru and learn to cook a classic quinoa dish at home. Quinoa is South America’s super grain and is an ideal option for those looking for delicious and healthy meals. Rather than go on a diet there are so many ways to change a diet and explore new and healthy flavours.

Rickshaw Travel’s unique ‘Scooting through Saigon’ foodie Vespa adventure costs from £185 per person and includes 2 nights accommodation with breakfast, airport transfers to Saigon and evening Vespa tour with guide, meals, drinks and transfers.

4. Spend more time with the family

Many families resolve to spend more quality time with each other in the New Year and one of the best ways to do this is by travelling and learning about new cultures together. Rickshaw Travel’s home-stay options provide the opportunity for families to learn about other families and local life around the world. The range of home-stay options includes ‘At Home with the Headhunters’ in Borneo which provides a rare and unforgettable glimpse into the lives of the once feared Iban people and their longhouse homes; ‘At Home with the Nicos’ in Nicaragua where guests spend the night with a local Nico family in their modest San Ramon house and learn to make tortillas, ‘Village Life by the River’ in Thailand where travellers are warmly welcomed into the home of a Thai family in Surat Thani – Khlong Noi and can assist the villagers with shrimp fishing, palm leaf weaving, carpentry or any other of their daily activities. It’s also possible to experience ‘Life on the Tonle Sap’ in Cambodia where guests stay with a remote Cambodian Hill tribe and experience life with a Khmer family in a traditional, simple stilt house.

Most of Rickshaw Travel trips are suitable for older children (8+) but they can also advise and recommend destinations for those planning on travelling with younger children. Many of the homestay options are also part of community based projects, which put much needed funds back into the local area and encourage everyone to get involved in the community.

Homestay bite-size trip options cost from as little as £38 per person (based on ‘At Home with the Nicos’ in Nicaragua) and include accommodation (based on 2 people sharing), some meals and excursions

5. Do something for charity / volunteer

One of the top New Year’s resolutions is to ‘do something for charity’ or help others by volunteering and working towards a good cause. Rickshaw believes travel is a huge social and environmental benefit to the destinations they work with and they aim to maximise the benefit of tourism whilst minimising the impact and working as sustainably as possible. The company’s drive towards developing meaningful travel experiences was recognised this year when they were awarded the Travelife Better Places Partner by ABTA. Rickshaw Travel supports a local project in all of the destinations that they feature. These range from wildlife charities to non-government organisations supporting children in need. Travellers can visit and get involved in some of the projects during their journey – these vary from a sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica to visiting the ‘Elephant Nature Park’ in Thailand (part of the ‘Save the Elephant’ foundation), helping out at Casa de Santa Ana (Santa Ana’s House) – a home for the elderly in one of the poorest slums in Rio de Janeiro or visiting Emzini Tours in Kysna, South Africa, a project set up to help township children who are neglected or in danger.

Rickshaw Travel’s 3-day ‘Elephant Encounters in Chiang Mai’ bite-size trip costs from £158 per person and includes 2 nights accommodation with breakfast and excursion to Elephant Nature Park with lunch and return transfers.

To find out more about the local projects Rickshaw Travel support visit here

Travellers can choose from a series of short ‘bite-size’ two and three-day trip options and combine them to create their ideal adventure or select a ready-made itinerary that works for them in their chosen destination. Either way Rickshaw ensures they will be able to tick more than one New Year’s resolution off the list and have an enriching and life-enhancing holiday to boot.

For more information visit: www.rickshawtravel.co.uk, email hello@rickshawtravel.co.uk, or call +44 (0) 1273 322 399