Off The Grid Excursions Not your parents' vacation

Group travel tours have their benefits, but they're usually pretty vanilla... unless of course you're headed to Hersheypark. That Sooperdooperlooper is straight crazy. For a vacation ride so wildly authentic that even abnormally tall pre-teens won't be able to get involved, look up Off The Grid Excursions.

Launched by a posse of friends who wanted an out from their 9-to-5s, OTG plans 10-day trips to exotic locales (Belize, Morocco, Thailand, Peru, and more to come), setting up groups of 4 to 16 at boutique hotels & guesthouses, coordinating meals in the kitchens of locals, and locating a guide who's guaranteed to provide access to stuff you'd never see otherwise, none of which is hopefully in his pants.

The itinerary for each destination was developed during a month-long scouting visit, and blends can't-miss attractions (Machu Picchu, the souks of Marrakech...) with more obscure cultural experiences. You can swim with elephants in the Thai jungle, take a trip to Atlas Mountains to visit a film studio (the world's largest) littered with defunct sets, and spend the night in a Saharan oasis accessed via camel, which'll make you feel like a jolly rancher, indeed.