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ATTA New Member Profile - 4WD Adventure Tours, LLC

4WD Adventure Tours, LLC
www.4wdAdventureTours.com

Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 56136
Portland, OR  97238-6136  

Contact:
Desmond Caravella, Owner/Member
4wheeling@4wdAdventureTours
(541) 490-6263  

Come explore the back country for 1, 2, or 3 days while vacationing in the western United States!  We provide awesome guided, self-drive, off-road Jeep adventure tours.  

Learn more about our Environmental & Educational Aspects...

Our standard tours are 2- and 3-day camping and off-road driving adventures in central Washington.  They are all-inclusive, providing our clients with vehicles, tents, sleeping bags, pillows, towels, and all meals and beverages.  

These are soft adventure tours, with challenges and learning experiences.  They are multi-faceted, combining sight-seeing, wildlife viewing, local history and geology with driver training, which has minimal risk.  We also have a very low guide-to-client Jeep ratio for more personalized experiences.  

All of our tours provide an adventure, giving clients shared experiences and memories to take home with them:

• Gasp at the grandeur of Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams!
• Marvel at the panoramic vistas!
• Photograph the wildlife.
• Develop new driving skills (you want me to do what?).
• Swim (or wade) in the river on a hot day.
• Enjoy the aroma of gourmet coffee brewing at daybreak.
• Tell stories (scary ones?) around the campfire.  

So don’t take an ordinary vacation.  Spend it with us, for the adventure of a lifetime!  Even experienced 4-wheelers love our trips.  Just show up.  We provide everything else!    

Or you might want to use our other services:

• Custom, client-selected, tour itinerary for multi-day expeditions, even 1-2 weeks.
  
  
• Extreme off-road adventures using our Toyota mini-monster truck, for a one-day excursion in Oregon.  Fly into PDX; we’ll pick you up and return you to the airport.
  
  
• Integration with other, traditional packaged tours and tourist attractions, such as white-water rafting, tours of Mt. Rainier National Park, or wine country tours in Oregon and Washington.
  
  
• Custom off-road training for client-specific requirements, including terrain, mud, snow and ice, rocks, vehicle recovery, and navigation.  Used by police, fire, or search-and-rescue organizations, or by individuals who want to hone specific driving techniques.
  
  
• Corporate events, including team-building, corporate rewards, and fun days for best performers.  A blind driver’s obstacle course is great for team-building!  

The company is run by Desmond Caravella, who is also the guide and trainer.  He has over 25 years of 4-wheeling experience, and 10 years of experience in guiding groups throughout our forests and public lands.  His wife, Gayle, maintains the base camp and is “chief cook and bottle washer”.  

We have no direct competitors in the United States, except for a couple in California.  Unlike other tour operators, we supply all the vehicles, camping equipment, and food.  Other operators either give customers a tour by driving themselves, or rent a vehicle and give the customer a map.  We let customers drive our vehicles, follow our lead (no maps necessary), and train them how to conquer different off-road obstacles.  

We also provide personal and, in some instances, custom, services that other competitors probably could not provide if they were to enter our market.      

We are targeting several audiences:  

• Foreign tourists visiting the Pacific Northwest, particularly from Germany, Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Great Britain, South Africa, Korea, Venezuela, Canada and Mexico; tourists from these countries are frequent visitors to our part of the country
  
  
• Women, men, and families, looking for new experiences in the soft adventure travel market: all-women tours, father/son, father/daughter, friends
  
  
• Tourists from other regions of the United States, particularly from the Northeast, since the west coast is usually too far to drive their own off-road vehicle
  
  
• Household income of US $75,000 and higher
  
  
• Age range of 35 to 55

We are particularly interested in networking with other organizations, and following the trends, in the adventure travel industry.

Environmental & Educational Aspects

Our company uses “tread lightly” practices in all our activities: camping, walking and driving

• Travel & vacation with minimum impact
• Respect the environment and the rights of others
• Educate our clients, with proper planning and preparation before our adventures
• Allow for future use of the outdoors, by leaving it better than we found it
• Discover the rewards of responsible recreation    

Ways We Directly Mitigate Our Impact:

• Use existing, managed, trails and campsites; not create new ones
• Comply fully with our U.S. Forest Service special use permit
• Directly supervise our clients’ use of vehicles; we control where they go and what they do at all times
• Assist with trail restoration and maintenance/work parties; 4wd vehicles can carry more equipment and material than individuals
• Pick up trash; leave it better than when we found it
• Pack it in, pack it out, for all our activities, and recycle when possible
• Educate our clients about responsible off-road vehicle use
• Partner with local forest ranger in land stewardship and demonstrating responsible use of 4-wheel drive vehicles
• Educate our clients about indigenous peoples, geology, plant life
• Identify and report people who abuse the land    

Other Byproducts of Our Services:

• We teach or refresh our clients’ 4-wheel driving skills for personal safety (for example, those techniques that are learned on our tours are transferable to the use of a family vehicle in bad weather)
• 4-wheel drive vehicles help keep trails open for other users.  Open trails also allow access for fire suppression and other emergency responses
• We educate our clients about trail etiquette for multiple user access (for example, many people not informed about appropriate interactions with hikers, horses and bicyclists)
• Our clients’ enjoyment of nature and adventure in the back country will enhance their support of the environment and access to it in the future
• We provide water as necessary to other users, such as hikers and bicyclists, who don’t have the ability to carry a large amount of water in remote areas (replenish their supply)
• Our adventures allow people who have time constraints, are less physically fit, or disabled, to enjoy the back country
• We encourage others to respect the environment and use it  responsibly; it affects their mind-set when clients travel to other vacation locations
• Our adventures lend themselves to shared experiences and teamwork, which provide memories that will last for a lifetime