CREATING YOUR JOURNEY Activity & Service Levels

Whether you want action-packed adventure or in-depth discovery, something leisurely or world-class luxury, Sundowners Overland can create the standard and pace of journey to meet your needs.

Activity Levels

Sundowners Overland’s journeys are suitable for almost anyone with a reasonable level of fitness and a sense of adventure, regardless of age. Journeys are graded on a scale of 1–5, where 1 is leisurely, and 5 is more demanding.

Our most popular activity level (3) is well suited to anyone in good health with a passion for travel. Journeys offer a full and exciting schedule of sightseeing and travel, so when you put your feet up at the end of the day, it is with a satisfied sense of accomplishment. For those wanting something more challenging we can take you into the beautiful mountains of the Caucasus or Central Asia for some hiking, let your imagination take you as far as you wish to venture

Service Levels

We can tailor the service level associated with your journey to find the appropriate level of accommodation and inclusions. You can also mix and match; upgrade your choice of hotels at the start or end of the journey, upgrade on the trains for certain sectors. Everything is customisable.

Traveller

When planning a custom journey, a more economical range of accommodation and transfers are available.

Classic

Our benchmark service level. Centrally located 3-4 star hotels with private facilities and transfers. Train travel in 4-berth compartments, optional 2-berth upgrades (or twin use of a 4-berth) may be available. Gers and yurts are multi-share with shared bathrooms, as may some guesthouses.

Premium

Centrally located 4-star hotels with superior facilities, 2-berth train travel (or twin use of 4-berth), twin share ger and yurt accommodation, transfers and porterage are included.

Private Groups Manager

Plan your journey under the expert guidance of Sandi, who has been part of Sundowners Overland since 1993. As our Private Groups Manager Sandi Hoggan will help you to curate the experience of a lifetime.

"Family camping holidays when I was a child were followed by hiking, kayaking and rock-climbing exploits as a teenager. My love of adventure was ingrained in me and has directed my work and life ever since.

After realising that working in a big city law firm was not suited to my nature, I began studying an Associate Diploma of Business (Travel and Tourism) and my first role was a Junior Travel consultant in a local independent Travel Agency where I first became aware of adventure travel - I was intrigued.

Over the next few years I worked at some high profile wholesale tour companies and travelled at every opportunity. Trekking in Kashmir, cycling in Rajasthan and visiting the Mountain Gorillas in Rwanda were some of my favourite experiences.

In 1993 I found my way to Sundowners Overland where I joined a small team and began learning about overland travel, the Trans Siberian Railway and the Silk Road.

I enjoyed working in a small team where we all shared a passion for the region and a personal love of overland travel. Initially I spent most of my time as a Travel Advisor and looked after bookings for all of Sundowners Overland‘s journeys, dealing with both Travel Agents as well as the individual travellers directly.

After a number of years working in this role I reduced my hours in order to spend more time at home to raise my family. During my part time tenure I moved to a support role, working with a variety of teams including the Travel Advisors, administration and finance.

Working across the various areas of the business gave me a complete understanding of the tour creation and operation process, from the initial concept and planning, marketing and promotion, processing reservations and providing visa support through to arranging Tour Leaders, booking accommodation and organising a variety of transport services on the ground for each tour. Eventually the needs of my family increased and after fifteen enjoyable years I reluctantly departed Sundowners Overland for part-time work closer to home.

My passion for travel never wavered and when my children had grown I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to rejoin Sundowners Overland, returning to the industry I love and continuing to work for a company who provide journeys through some of the most captivating regions of the world.

The breadth of my prior experience gives me a complete understanding of all aspects of designing and operating a tour so looking after Private Group projects is a perfect fit. I have personally travelled on the Trans Siberian Railway via Mongolia, visited Irkutsk and Lake Baikal, Moscow and St Petersburg as well as many popular locations in China. I have also had the good-fortune to explore Georgia and Armenia and I have attended the Golden Eagle Festival in North-Western Mongolia.

One of my greatest pleasures working with Private Group Tours is that no two projects are ever the same; I have worked with a small party of friends sharing the adventure of the Trans Siberian Railway with a retired tour leader, created many exclusive tours for Travel Agents to promote to their own client base as well as coordinated a bespoke tour for a large group of travellers inspired to explore the history of their faith in the lesser known regions of the world. Whether your Private Group idea is big, small or anywhere in between, I look forward to working with you to design the journey that is just right fit for you."

“When in the initial planning process for our upcoming private, women-only ‘5 Golden Stans’ tour it was critical for us to work with a team of experts who have intimate knowledge of the destinations that we wanted to include. Having not yet travelled to these parts I had lots of questions and it was the fact that Jaymz from Sundowners Overland was willing to travel and sit down across a table, one on one and answer all of my questions that sealed the deal. After making the decision to book with them I have been extremely happy with the prompt and thorough service provided by Sandi and the rest of the team. I’m very excited to be travelling to these ancient lands in such good hands.”

Judy Polkinghorne, Founder Girls On Tour Australia