Trek from one golden-sand, turquoise-watered beach to another in New Zealand’s Abel Tasman National Park; walk around the Mont Blanc mountain range from France to Italy to Switzerland; or ride a bike through orchards and olive groves in Catalonia while indulging in locally produced food. These multi-day, human-powered adventures from Macs Adventure are all designed to satisfy the needs of folks who can’t get enough time spent riding or hiking. Read: Basically everybody with an area code of 303 or 720. Understandably, the adventure travel firm with its headquarters in Scotland choose Colorado as its North American headquarters. Regarding Denver’s abundance of outdoor enthusiasts, Macs founder Neil Lapping said, “These are the people who share our value system.” “They understand life is about experiences rather than possessions.”
With the intention of introducing that spirit of adventure to the tourism industry, Lapping launched Macs in 2003. Before deciding to follow his passion and go to Scotland, he had made ends meet working as a sailing, windsurfing, and waterskiing guide in the Mediterranean. There, he winced at how people saw his new home’s castles, lochs, and highlands—or rather, how they didn’t—through the window of a Greyhound. He states, “It didn’t matter if they were eighty or eighty.” “When the bus passed by, everyone would pause at the same spot, snap the same photo, and board it again.”
He and Macs set out to provide self-guided tours that would allow visitors to experience Scotland according to their own schedule. Macs organizes all accomodation, much like any other typical adventure tour operator; their hotel partners have traditionally been virtually solely smaller, local businesses. In contrast to other operators, Macs gives visitors the hiking or bike route—rather than a guide—so that they can begin their day whenever they’d like and stop for breaks whenever they’d like, rather than being instructed to. Unlike traditional adventure travel programs, where guests are compelled to travel in groups and spend days on end together as a herd, Macs visitors are free to arrange their own itinerary.
Self-guided travel is “a very different experience,” according to Lapping. “You’re forced to interact and muddle through” because there isn’t a big group or a tour leader to mediate a language barrier between the visitor and the hotel or restaurant staff. Then there are these exchanges where the individuals seated across from you bend over and ask, “Where are you from?” Nobody ever leans over in your group of fifteen or twenty since you’re all occupied with yourselves.
Self-guided travel allows one to experience a destination more authentically, rather than merely hearing a tour operator’s version of its highlights. Even now, Macs maintains its self-guided philosophy while enhancing its product with new features including a helpful smartphone app (instead of paper maps) and round-the-clock assistance for visitors. Lapping states, “We’re basically an enabler for people to have their own experiences, in safety and comfort.” “The trip will be fantastic, and we’re here to support you if something goes wrong.”
Success wasn’t instantaneous—”it was a complete disaster at first,” Lapping laughs—but with estimates for 2024 showing that almost 40,000 individuals will embark on one of their 550 distinct tours through 40 countries, it’s clear that Macs have arrived. According to Graham Horner, chief growth officer at Macs, “people want more from their vacations than sitting, whether that’s on a coach or a cruise.” “They want to feel better and have accomplished something at the end of that vacation. We provide that feeling of accomplishment.
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