Austin Adventures Launches "Rugged Luxury" Collection

By Newsroom Jul 13, 2018 10:35am

Austin Adventures has selected the first eight properties of what will be known as The Austin Collection, a series of all-inclusive accommodations in remote settings around the world. The collection includes properties in the United States (Alaska, Arizona and Montana), Canada (British Columbia), Chile and Peru. Vacation packages will be available for booking through the vacation specialists at Austin Adventures

The collection’s inaugural properties are:

Alaska - Sheldon Chalet

After arriving by helicopter, Denali National Park is the playground for up to 10 guests in a five-bedroom chalet engineered on a nunatak (a glacier outcropping) at nearly 6,000 feet. Guests can sled, ski tour and trek, star gaze, engage in a guided mountaineering ropes course, explore crevasses or relax in a sauna at this hotel.

Arizona - Tanque Verde Ranch

Surrounding this Tucson ranch are 60,000 acres of Sonoran Desert. Outside the Rincon Mountains, Saguaro National Park and Coronado National Forest offer adventurers including horseback riding, mountain biking and hiking. Guests can enjoy leatherwork and silversmith workshops that harken back to the Old West, programs just for kids, and the La Sonora Spa.

Montana - The Resort at Paws Up

On this 37,000-acre ranch, guests lodge in private homes or in a luxurious tented camp. Activities include exploring by ATV, horseback riding on 100 miles of trails, fly fishing on 10 river miles, learning to shoot sporting clays, hiking, mountain biking, rafting, rappelling, hot air ballooning and paintball; and in winter, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, dogsledding and snowmobiling.

British Columbia - The Chilko Experience

Guests arrive by chartered plane to this private estate with seven log homes accommodating just 12 guests weekly. Surrounded by five million acres of wilderness, Chilko River and Chilko Lake, couples and families canoe and kayak, fly fish, whitewater raft, pilot ATVs, horseback ride and hike. Come fall, brown bear watching is popular on land and water. Guests can also pursue axe throwing and blacksmithing. A crew of guides, private chef, and on-site masseuse complete the experience.

British Columbia - Nimmo Bay Wilderness Resort

Located in the Great Bear Rainforest, accessible only by floatplane or helicopter, are 18 cabins, some built on stilts over the water, at the base of 5,000-foot Mt. Stephens. A waterfall runs through resort, suppling clean drinking water and green energy. Guests kayak on the lookout for black bear, heli-hike mountain ridges, whale watch on the Broughton Archipelago and fish for wild Pacific salmon.

Chile - Explora Atacama

The sand dunes of the Atacama Desert and volcanoes of the Andes highlands are at the doorstep of this hotel where guests lodge and dine between mountain hikes to summits over 16,000 feet high, horseback ride through red soil esplanades, hike, and cycle on the hills. They can also dip in the Puritama hot springs or sneak a peek at the stars through the telescope in a private observatory - after a traditional barbeque, music and dancing.

Peru - Explora Valle Sagrado (Sacred Valley)

A visit here is an immersion in cultures of the past and present, with more than 20 possibilities for exploring Inca ruins and a chance to enjoy a spa located in a 17th century colonial dwelling. Guests dine on traditional Peruvian cuisine, meet with local Quechua weavers, walk on glaciers outside of Cusco, pedal along the Urubamba River and visit the Machu Picchu.

Peru - Hotel Sol y Luna (Urubamba)

In the Valley of the Incas, guests stay in casitas built of indigenous stone and appointed with local textiles and artifacts and Spanish colonial furniture, all of which are surrounded by terraces and gardens, pre-Colombian ruins and Spanish colonial churches. Before enjoying a private 10-course dinner, guests trek or paraglide, kayak or horseback ride on a Peruvian Paso horse. A tour of an organic garden is available as well, followed by a cooking class.