Intrepid Travel saves the world with Urban Adventures charity connection

Give and receive this holiday season. Instead of just booking your getaway, Intrepid Travel is upping the goodwill ante, donating 10 percent of all its new “Urban Adventures” sales to charity. This is a new collection of city-based experiences which is likely to appeal to a wide range — from backpackers to business travelers. If you have a long layover or even want to see your own city from a different perspective, this new program from Intrepid could be a good fit.

Ten percent of every sale made in December will be donated to The Intrepid Foundation, which supports 35 community projects around the world. And, Intrepid will match each of these donations fully, doubling the final amount that will be sent to the foundation.

Urban Adventures are not expensive. They start at around $15 and go up to around $144. So, there’s no reason not to check out this new experience, even if you are a local. This new experience was launched last month and is available in 26 locations around the world via 80 trips … with another 250 expected to be added by the middle of next year.

One-day sale from Intrepid Travel starts now!

Intrepid Travel puts together some amazing trips, and today’s deal will make them even more accessible than usual. For the next nine hours, trips will be discounted deeply … all Intrepid trips … more than 400 of them. Price cuts range from 15 percent to 60 percent in this rare opportunity.

Trips departing soonest, of course, come with the greatest price breaks. Book an excursion that leaves in July, and you can generally knock 60 percent off the price. Those taking off in August can net you a savings of 30 percent, with the rest of the year’s trips 15 percent off.

The sale starts now and runs until 7:30 PM this evening. Each includes all accommodations and land transportation, some meals and a guide.

After the jump, you’ll get a sense of how much you can save.

Inca Encounter: this nine-day jaunt from Lima to Cuzco in Peru is only $664, down from $1,660

Road to Budapest: spend 15 days going from Vienna to Budapest for $692 – instead of $1,730

Kenya Adventure: eight days in Kenya will cost only $604, rather than $1,510

Laid off? Take off! Intrepid extends deal

Layoffs may be slowing down a little, but they’re still coming. So, if you need to disappear to collect your thoughts for a while, Intrepid Travel is still willing to help. The company has extended its 15 percent discount for recent layoff victims, which are good on more than 400 Intrepid adventures in more than 90 countries. The catch? You need to book by the last day of 2009.

To take advantage of the “Laid Off Take Off” deal, all you need to do is show proof that you were laid off since 2008, and you’re in. Even without the discount, Intrepid’s trips tend to cost less than $100 a day, including accommodations, land transportation, local guides and some meals. Small groups, public transportation and local restaurant and hotel participants add a bit of authenticity to the experience.

According to Darrell Wade, co-founder of Intrepid Travel, “Our Thailand trips start from $45 a day and many people have told us they can’t live at home for that, so as strange as it sounds, they save money by traveling. We’ve been traveling to the region for 20 years and our trips are jam packed with the kind of experiences that will take people away from the every day and give them time to reassess and work out their next move.”

The “Laid Off Take Off” deal was kicked off last November, and since then, Asia has been the top destination, welcoming more than half of Intrepid’s guests under this program. Africa follows, with a bit over 27 percent of the bookings, and Latin American is next at 13.5 percent. Trips can stretch from eight to 60 days, with an average of 18.