The literal definition of travelling overland is ? Accomplished, traversing, or passing over the land instead of the ocean: an overland journey; an overland route?1.

However, today not only this definition has widened to include sea travel but it also, and more importantly, is used to describe adventure tourism as a whole.

?Overlanders? are people who are willing to spend more time whilst travelling, prefer buses to planes and to whom the journey is more important than the destination.

This type of travelling has been around for many years and there are many people before us who, being thirsty for adventure and with natural curiosity, ?made? way for future generations to be able to experience adventure in whatever time our holiday allowance permits. Travel writers have long now tantalised our travel taste buds and as borders open and foreign and exotic countries are easier to explore (and of course increased disposable income), we become more adventurous and brave with our travels. And by addressing this need, the overlanding industry has flourished.

Overlanding involves exploring remote areas (in addition to the usual places of interest), travelling either by public transport (in any form that is offered in each country) or in any odd vehicle, ranging from an old land rover to a large custom built truck. As a result of huge demand in this field, there has been a shift in trend to include any form of land based transport from donkeys and llamas to trains and tuk tuks.

Overlanding as an organised industry began in the 1960’s but has evolved over the years. The original pioneers, who did risk life and limb when starting, are still operating now offering years of expertise. Of course, as with any market, there have been ups and downs, take overs and all sorts of dramas, but one thing hasn?t changed: the drive to explore new places.

Commercial overlanding typically involves travelling by road through a country or across a continent visiting not only main attractions but also those hard to (conventionally) reach places and vary in duration from 2 weeks to several months. There are so many different routes and activities on offer, from travelling ancient trade routes to having the opportunity to do adventure sports, helping local environmental and community projects or just lounge around and put the world at right?All trips include a tour leader who represents the company and in some cases, a local guide is provided, i.e when travelling through Africa or Mongolia.

In recent times overlanding has been considered a more environmentally friendly way of travelling rather than flying but ultimately its green credentials are still debatable, as there are always two sides to a coin.

There are quite few overlanding companies around, some of them operating their own vehicles and some just facilitating public transport travel by escorting travellers. Each one has various options on offer based on the cost, the type of adventure you want to experience or how physical you want to get; accommodation type available varies from the most basic campsite to luxury hotels; inclusive or exclusive of additional activities and many, many, many other parameters ? which all have to be considered when deciding if and which company you are going to join.

For a list of overlanding companies, click here

1 http://www.thefreedictionary.com/overland