Posts written by: Laura Ridgers 
Unfortunately, 'social media geek' just happens to be Laura's middle name. She's the one who talks to you lovely lot over on the Real Gap Facebook and Twitter pages, and hearing about all of your amazing adventures has given her extremely itchy feet!
She's a big music fan with questionable taste, you'll often find her screaming her face off at gigs- especially during festival season. As expected she's a travel obsessive- with her favourite trips seeing her through the West Coast of the US and the South East of Asia. Kota Kinabalu (Borneo), Santa Barbara and Hong Kong are her ultimate favourites, but you'll always find her planning her next adventure!
Scuba pro Polly, the founder of our 'Dive and Marine' Conservation project in Belize, has dived over 5000 times (told you she was a pro!). We love scuba diving here at RG (but admittedly, it can be a little bit difficult at first!) so Polly's kindly given us a few tips on how we can perfect our diving skills. Cheers Polly!
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As a massive portion of you Real Gappers will already know, our very own Ben (Sales Manager) and Harriet (Travel Advisor) went on their own Thailand Experience trip back in March. As so many of you had been asking questions about one of our biggest trips over the last few weeks, we thought we’d ask them both to look back on their trip one month on and give you lot the insider goss...
Favourite activity? That’...
We love a good old festival here in the Real Gap office, but who could blame us? Between us Real Gappers we've pretty much done the lot (V Fest, Glastonbury, Isle of Wight... the list goes on!)- and so that got us thinking, where are the best festivals to hit outside of the UK?
What could be better... a big fat festival, the sunshine shining its little heart out and a new place to explore in your free time; BLISS. So festi-fans, here's our list of our best of the...
Over the past few weeks a few members of the RG team have been jetting off to some of our epic locations to check out our projects and experiences. Now's the time for Ben and Harriet to conquer Thailand- they're going to be travelling around and trying all things Thai for the next two weeks so expect updates galore from the troublesome twosome!
We're receiving LIVE email updates from Ben whilst they're over in Thailand; they landed on...
Over the last two weeks, RG's Charlie's been touring around South Africa- popping his head around the door of a number of our trips!
Now he's back in the office we thought we'd show you all a few of his photos! He had a fantastic time (...and he's got a tan, lucky thing!).
Keep your eyes peeled, we're going to be updating our Facebook and Twitter feeds over the next few weeks with all of his adventures. He's also going to be...
Something that makes our blood boil here at RG Towers is animal poaching. Luckily there are high profile individuals, such as Prince William, who are prepared to jump on board and stick up for what's right.
We're real animal lovers over at RG, so once we saw Prince Wills had made this campaign video to support CITES- which is the annual meeting of the 'Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species'-...
Real Gap's Charlie's been touring around South Africa visiting a load of our projects and experience trips over the last week, and we've received some awesome snaps from him!
The photos below are all from Charlie's time on our 'Lion Cub Experience' trip, where volunteers get to experience life as a South African ranger by working on a reserve for two weeks. Not only that, but you'll get to go on game walks (where you'll get the chance to check out the big 5!), feed...
Last Friday, the Rio Carnival kicked off in serious style. As travel geeks we’d absolutely love to be there: the partying, the weather, the food and drink, the music- what’s not to like? Luckily for you lot a load of our projects are in Rio, so if you time it just right you could book onto one of our trips in time to catch all of the action for yourself! So, what’s up for grabs? Here’s a selection of some of our sizzling Rio trips:
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Last year, Sophie Parker and Alice Wainwright's worlds were turned upside down when they won a trip RTW with Real Gap. They've been away with us for the past few months combatting the US and Australia, and we thought it was about time we heard the inside scoop on their epic adventures...
The girl's still have a hefty slice of their RTW win to go; they'll be heading off on our Thailand Experience from the middle of March, and then flying onto the stunning South Africa...
A student? Love travel, and want to get bucket loads of experience in the industry with the country's leading gap year specialist? If you've answered yes to the above, then you could be what we're looking for!
Here at Real Gap (and our sister brand i-to-i) we're looking for an enthusiastic, self motivated, ambitious student to join us on our placement program. You'll be working in Real Gap Towers for 40 weeks from August 2013, and you'll be helping the sales, marketing and...
Prepare to be amazed!
We've decided to go all Hollywood on you all by producing a trailer advertising our greatest trips- expect Thailand, South Africa, Peru, Australia and more.
Go Real Gap!
At Real Gap HQ, we're always getting asked about packing, the bain of a travellers life. It's SO easy to forget something, and seriously- we feel all of your pain! So, want some packing tips? Step this way travelling fiend...
1. Research the climate from top to bottom! Sometimes assumptions can overcome logic. 'It's going to be BOILING in Thailand, I'll take shorts!' (thought Bob). Well, Bob thought wrong! Yes, it may be absolutely scorching...
It's January. We're all a bit down; it's wet and it's grey and we want to get away. So, what should you do next? Book a big trip and escape the doom and gloom, that's what!
We've scoured through our best trips for this time of year to show you where you could be! Ditch the UK and say 'HELLO' to the world!
1) Thailand- I don't think we even need to explain why Thailand is completely awesome. It's scorching hot, exotic, there's cheap...
As you may have seen on Twitter, Real Gap travelled around Asia just after Christmas. We had a FANTASTIC time! But what's it like coming back from adventures galore to the daily 9/5 afterwards? Hard!
Stewing on a sunbed on the last day of your summer holiday is the worst thing ever. 'I have to go back to normal life now' we all think as we relax in the last of our 30 degree spree and sup on our tropical cocktail. Times that by ten and that's what it's like...
We reckon booking a trip of a lifetime at the start of the year is the best time to do so. Why, we hear you cry? Well…
- You can get really, really excited for months- and then be fit to burst before you go!
- There’s something to look forward to early on; we like having a drive to power us through
- The Real Gap sale is on, so things are as cheap as chips!
So, what do you reckon Real Gappers? Do you like booking your trips at the start of the year too?...
As you’re all well aware, our sale has been up and running for the past 10 days and it’s full of bargains galore! We’ve slashed the prices of loads of our trips, and a lot of them have a healthy 25% percent discount, result! To get involved with our amazing deals, hop, skip and jump over to the Real Gap website, here: http://www.realgap.co.uk/
Oh, and if you book by the 12th Jan then you’ll be entered into a competition to...
Some of you will already know how much Real Gap ROCKS! But for those of you who don’t – check out our Real Gap trailer NOW: www.youtube.com/user/RealGapExperience.
Impressed? We knew it! We're not the cocky type, but we aren't half good at organising trips of a lifetime!
Adventures, Internships, Volunteering, Round the World trips the list goes on....
We hope our trailer has tickled your taste buds for...
Known as the home of the most iconic opera house in the world, that incredible bridge and the 2000 Olympics- Sydney is one awesome city, and the queen of Aus has a special place in our hearts! To celebrate all that Sydney has to offer, we thought we’d give you the lowdown of the things we love best about Sydney. After all, who’s never dreamt of living with all of this for a year?!
In Sydney, you need to:
S is for seeing the sights- Sydney is...
Real Gappers, this is a serious one. We’ve always found New Year’s resolutions really tricky, as frankly we never keep them, and this year we’ve asked around the office to see what all of our New Year’s resolutions are…
- Drink less tea and more water
- Bring packed lunch instead of buying it (to save those all-important pennies for travelling!)
- Lose weight/get fitter (although we say this every year :-/)
- Rachel's personal resolution - hit "30 countries...
Our Social Media Real Gapper, Laura, is jetting off on a trip around Asia from the 27th and we're going to be following along over to Twitter to see what she gets up to!
Laura is going to be heading to Hong Kong, Borneo, Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo over two and a half weeks, and following the hashtag: #RealGapDoesAsia, you'll be able to see all things Asia on the Real Gap Twitter page!
Hong Kong is the starting and finishing point of our China Ultimate Adventure (...
Brace yourselves guys; our sale kicks off in a weeks time! From the 27th of December, you’ll be able to pick up some massive bargains on some of our top trips, and to get you all prepared for going away to brighter climes, we thought we’d go through what we do when we plan a trip of a lifetime...
The Steps to Star-Travel-Dom
1. Know where you want to go. Sounds easy, but considering there is a whole world out there, there’s an...
We've just been sent some fantastic snaps from our Real Gappers in Namibia, and we couldn't NOT share these beauties with you all! (It would've been the crime of '12!)
On our desert Elephant conservation project in Namibia, travellers get the opportunity to track the elephants so working within close promixity to one of our favourite animals is a given! We've become particularly smitten with the photo of the littlen on the left too; he's a serious cutie!
It's...
We like treating our travel obsessed Real Gappers- especially at Christmas, so we've decided to give one of you the opportunity to intern in either Argentina or Colombia! Amazing or what?
As it's so important to boost your CV with work experience and Internships galore nowadays, we've decided to expand our range of 'Real Internships' to give all of you job hunters a massive choice. We're pretty stoked about the final result- our new selection covers the world over...
We love showing the world a little bit of lovin' on a Friday, and this week we've decided to show you all how FANTASTIC our Tanzania Experience is.
As actions/images speak louder than words, we've created a nifty little slideshow of our fantastic Tanzania Experience, which takes you around this fascinating country in four weeks of adventure. The snaps were taken by Caecilia Lahner, a Real Gapper who came away with us on the experience in September. I'm sure you'd...
Sitting at the base of the gorgeous Table Mountain, Cape Town couldn’t possibly fail to shape up to its mountainously impressive nature. With penguin colonies, gorgeous beaches, a harbour and fantastic shopping under its African belt, Cape Town is one almighty destination- and the first in our ‘Place Profile’ series!
The top five things we LOVE about Cape Town are:
1. You’ve guessed it, Table Mountain! The top dog of Western Cape, Table Mountain sits...
Silly question, right? As we're staring out the window of our Tunbridge Wells office, it's grey, wet and pretty damn miserable. However, on the other side of the world in our Melbourne office we're hearing all about blue skies, scorching weather, and tan lines galore... (Jealous, us? Never!)
Not only that, but we've heard on the grapevine that the Aussie working visas are going up in price from the 1st January 2013- and not just by a measly smidgen, but by 30%. Crikey! To...
Unbelievably, it's come around to 'that' time of year again. The packed out Oxford Streets, the manic mums and the incessant Christmas music- it's 'Mariah' this and 'I'm Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree' that, and we're thinking this year, us Real Gappers are going to get Real-ly prepared! Hoorah!
To kick off the Christmas season with a smash in the baubly Tree, we wanted to put together a Christmas list full of all things Real Gap so if any of you lovely lot want...
Black Friday is the biggest sale shopping day in the US, and to round off our week of US lovin', we thought we'd give all of our American customers some lovin' too! Fancy a discount guys? (Yeah yeah, we here you cry!)
To swipe yourself a discount to our Black Friday discount bonanza, aka- 10% off our Thai and Costa Rican trips, then please insert or quote 'RGBLACKFRIDAY'* at the check out process.
*Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer, and the...
As a celebration of all things Thanksgiving, we're knocking 10% off of our USA Experience for today only... (and because we think we're clever, we've renamed the day Thanksgifting too! Go us!)
Want to get these codes for yourself? We've plastered them all over our Facebook wall and Twitter feed, so head your way over to our accounts to snap up the prize for yourselves!
We'...
Seeing as though Americans across the board will be getting their Thanksgiving on tomorrow, we thought we'd tell all of you Real Gappers why we're thankful for the USA!
Fast Food, Drive Thrus and Starbucks: Here at Real Gap, our lives seem to constantly revolve around searching for our next meal. The thought of not having McDonalds, KFC and Burger King on the menu sends us into a cold state of shock (although admittedly, we don't have them too often...
To celebrate our all American week over here on the Real Gap blog, we’re going to be teaching the world about the US of A, and where better to start than LA? The home of the rich and famous, the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Mickey Mouse, Los Angeles has it all and with our USA Experience you’ll be able to explore LA from top to bottom. We’ve been to LA before and we loved it, but where were the best places we visited along the way?
Best Bits...
Thanksgiving is one of the biggest celebrations in the US, and most people in the UK know diddly squat about the occasion. Apart from the fact that we should be ‘thankful’ our knowledge didn’t stretch much further... until today that is! To celebrate in style we’ve decided to declare this week as ‘Thanksgiving Week’ on the Real Gap blog- expect place profiles, US facts and tonnes of good ole US goodness, Real Gappers!
To kick off Thanksgiving week, we’re going to be...
If you're a regular reader of the Real Gap blog (and if you're not, you're positively crazy...) we've been dishing out discounts galore over the last few weeks. Not only have we slashed the prices on trips to Asia and the Americas, but it's now time to add the third A to the crazy sale team- Africa!
One of our star Real Gappers, Danielle (as pictured in the photos) is an African obsessive, and for good reason too. She toured all over the continent for three months in...
We have our Ultimate Year Out Winners...
In true X Factor style-y, we thought we'd make our UYO competition a tad dramatic (just a tad, mind. We're no Dermot O' Leary!).
After being whittled down from 13 to three, we had a fantastic selection of videos to choose from. After all, the winner was guaranteed to win the 'ultimate year out' with us- exploring the highs and lows of Australia, the US, Thailand and Fiji... basically one hell of an adventure!...
We like offering a discount or three here at Real Gap, so we've decided to add the Americas along to our offer-ranks. Cheers! #YOLO
Rio de Janiero’s middle name is ‘party’ (trust us- we know him well; it’s what the Brazilians do best!). Want to party away the festive season? Join our ‘Best of Argentina and Brazil’ tour and you’ll be able to conquer Rio, explore the beauty that is Brazil and tango your way along the cosmopolitan streets of ...
We all love an occasion here at Real Gap, and today is one of our personal favourite's- Bonfire Night! To match the fiery nature of the big day, we wanted to show you a city with bags of passion and attitude; a place that could hardly be referred to as the 'shy and retiring' type...
Just as Guy attempted to blow the Houses Parliament up all those years ago, Bangkok does one better as the party capital of Thailand- it’ll blow your mind! As a part of...
This role has now closed!
So, you want to work in travel? With cool, interesting, globe trotting people? Well your luck is in my friend, as we have an internship vacancy here with Real Gap/i to i! Wahay!
The lucky intern will be working around the office taking on a variety of jobs, from outbound brochure call out, to customer support to marketing. You'll become a jack of all trades, and during your time with us you'll learn absolutely...
Real Gap, aka, the home of a (Real) bunch of wimps- would like to wish all of you, braver, travel lovin' folk out there, a very happy Halloween!
What will you be doing to celebrate the big occasion this year? We think we'll be 'treat'-ing ourselves with sweets galore, whilst blasting out the horror tunes: Ghostbusters, Better the Devil You Know, Thriller- you get the jist...
Comment down below to make us insanely jeealous about your Halloween plans!...
As a part of our Real Gap spooky spectacular, we're talking about things that have scared the pants off of us Real Gappers. In this particular chapter, we're going back to school and putting on our bilingual hats...
We all remember it well. School, lessons, taking a language. Becoming terrified of *said* language. Revising our bums off to achieve a half decent grade in *that* language. Chewing our pen lids to pieces in *those* classes. It felt difficult. We...
Nerves of steel? Brave beyond belief? If the thought of ghosts and ghouls sends you into a laughing fit (cheers, Casper...) then it’s time you became acquainted with Real Gap’s activity list of doom*. Ditch the Halloween costumes, and have a look at our terrifying trips. Swimming with white sharks, anyone?
Mozambique Whale Shark Conservation
If the thought of Jaws sent shivers down your spine as a wee nipper, then (duh-na, duh-na, duh-na) this is the...
Today's post marks the start of our ever so spooky Halloween week here at the Real Gap office. Ooooooo!
Remember those parties you used to go to when you were five? You donned the witch’s hat, ate too much candy, and probably ran around screaming ‘TRICK OR TREAT’ in people’s ear holes whilst gasping through vampire teeth? Well scrap that (those memories scar us anyway…) and have a look at these freaky festivals from around the world. But beware; if you’re a wuss then this is...
Hundreds entered, but only a handful succeeded! We don't like to blow our own trumpets here at UYO, but our prize is one heck of a prize, and as expected we had video applications galore begging to be taken on a whirlwind of an adventure around the world. Aus, America, Asia, South Africa- what's not to like?!
The UYO team have now selected the final thirteen (unlucky for some, but extremely so for them!) and it's now the time that we ask you, our adoring public, to submit your vote...