From everyone here at Gap Adventures we wish all our readers and travellers a safe and happy holiday season!

It has been another wild year to be part of the Gap Adventures team! Our blog The Travel Oasis has been capturing some of the essence of Gap Adventures spirit this year, but we thought a Top 5 Highlights list would be appropriate. We're also giving you an end of year opportunity to possibly get published in our blog!

What would a year end newsletter be without a year end offer? Visiting the Polar Bears in Spitsbergen has just gotten more affordable, with our "early booking bonus" that is available for a limited time only.

Want to travel elsewhere? We have another limited offer - our Boxing Week Sale is in effect as of right now until December 31! These tours are all 20% off for a short time only, with limited space. Check them out!

Staying in the holiday spirit, we have a heart warming update about helping out children in Cuzco, Peru from everyone at Planeterra!

All the best for the holidays! Watch for our first newsletter of 2010 in mid-january, where we will be announcing an exciting new contest that could have you and three friends travelling on your own personal dream tour anywhere in the world!

Happy travels...have your ordered your 2010 brochure yet?

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The early birds gets the worm...have you heard that saying? If the thought of waiting for a last-minute deal is too scary and you prefer planning your travels ahead of time, then our "Early Booking Bonuses" are for you! Last newsletter we mentioned that our Inca Trail early booking bonus had returned. This time we're happy to say that we have squeezed in some special year-end savings for anyone heading to the Arctic. Our Spitsbergen expeditions to spot Polar Bears are available for a discounted price for a limited time only!

Spitsbergen is part of the Svalbard Archipelago, belonging to Norway. It lies entirely north of the Arctic Circle and is one of the worlds greatest wildlife expedition destinations.

A voyage to this northern realm isn't your average vacation. This is a part of the world rich in whaling history, where the rugged coastline and landscape gained Spitsbergen its name which means "pointy peaks". Strangely the people that make a living here are colourful both in terms of their houses and their character. Perhaps it is easier to just enjoy life and be at peace with nature in such a remote place? Something that many travellers recollect as one of the best memories of their Arctic voyages.

For much of the year the waters here are impossible to navigate as they're blocked by ice, but each summer the seas and land warm up, creating pathways for exploration to where Polar Bears, Walrus and Seals roam the icy waters, and wild flowers burst into colour providing a backdrop for the Arctic Fox, Hare and Reindeer.

Over the course of our years venturing to this great destination our expedition team is always amazed by the new experiences that each voyage brings. A Polar Bear vs. Walrus duel, getting within reaching distance of feeding whales and watching multiple Polar Bears gorge on a beached whale carcass. There is always something exciting around the next fjord, mountain or bay...perhaps it's a good thing it's virtually perpetual daylight this far north, because you never want to sleep for fear of missing something special!

Visit our promotions page learn about our Spitsbergen Early Booking Bonus and how much money you can save by booking now!

Visit our new Spitsbergen information page to learn more about the wildlife and daily excursions experiences you'll enjoy in the land of the Polar Bear.

If you're still looking for a special gift that makes a difference why not check out Planeterra's projects and make a donation as a gift? 100% of donations go directly to our sustainable and responsible travel projects and are matched by Gap Adventures for double the impact!

Buy a gift now and personalize a card to send to that special someone. Just in time for the holidays!

Join Planeterra's online community or tweet us @PlaneterraCares and tell us why you donated!

Five years ago Gap Adventures and Planeterra embarked on a journey to raise $150,000 to purchase a house that would act as a safe haven for children that live in extreme poverty in Peru. On October 1st, thanks to many generous donations from our travellers and followers, the doors opened to a new house for the children of Cuzco!

Gap Adventures travellers and staff have been instrumental in fundraising efforts - participating in five annual skydives, a hike of dreams and a spectacular circus event. We've also had support from some extraordinary individuals including a Gap Adventures tour leader that organized a mountain climb and two young sisters that organized a Kids Helping Kids campaign. Countless donations from our travellers matched by Gap Adventures have enabled us to reach this ambitious goal. It is with an overwhelming sense of gratitude that we thank everyone who has contributed in every way to making this dream come true. Get out your tissues and watch a video on the new house in Peru now!

Check out our new Project Cuzco Kids tour where you can meet the special kids and volunteer with day-to-day activities at the home in Peru.

Got a fun story to share? We may just publish it on our blog! If you want to get blogged, then let us know. Our "Digital Socializer" is waiting to hear from you, just send an email to marketing@gap.ca with you funky photo or terrific tale.

Fun places to eat, cool things to do and general travel tips are always appreciated by our visitors, as are wacky photos! We always post a Photo of the Week, so you can send us something each week for consideration. Of course we'll give you credit if we decide to post your content at The Travel Oasis.

Visit travelblog.gapadventures.com to check out our latest posts.

Time flies when you're having fun and 2009 has flown by here at Gap Adventures!

Before we run full force into 2010, we thought we'd savour a few of the "inside" highlights of working at Gap Adventures. It seems every week there is something going on that gets the company fired up. Recently we've all been having fun coming up with cool titles for our business cards. Some of the best ones so far...

Let's take a look and see what else some Gappers came up with for our top company highlights of 2009.

5 - Culture Club - We've started up some fun programs this past year, including Big Shout Outs, our way of recognizing employee contributions worldwide. Fostering this company culture has become such a passion at Gap Adventures that we even started up a new department in the company, the Culture Club. Yes, there are people here whoseentire job is to ensure we're all having fun and living the Gap Adventures lifestyle. Our own internal police kind of, but they're much more fun. They're also involved in hiring new employees and often hang out with our World's Coolest Travel Interns!

4 - Potluck Parties - Food, glorious food. When we visit one of our local offices around the world somehow food becomes a hot topic. The best ceviche in Peru? Top eating spots in Bangkok? Best biltong from South Africa? This passion for food boils over in our head office and there have been recent rumours of some impending cook-offs to crown some new champions. On almost a weekly basis as there are frequent potlucks and themed lunches. We're talking serious food here too, not just chips and doughnuts.

3 - New Website - Do you remember our old website? Wow things have changed! After many months of running ideas by our travellers, including in-persons sessiosn at our Concept Store and Base Camp in Toronto, we launched our bright, new site in July along with a new logo! More ways to search for trips, a simpler way to book a trip online, more useful personal account settings and a big list of fany destinations and landing pages about our trips have had many people sending us positive comments. More timely information on our homepage and plenty of surprises are in store for 2010!

2 - Multiple Victories - Not only has our company been recognized by numerous magazines and organizations this year (visit our news page for details if you're curious!) but our dedicated sports teams have come out on fire in 2009 as well. Each of our Volleyball and Softball teams has pushed through to the playoffs and championships, with the spring Softball team bringing home the Championship! It's nice to win, but it's the friendly vibe that happens amongst us both during and after work hours that makes such victories extra sweet. When was the last time you WANTED to spend time with people you work with? That's just the way it is at Gap Adventures.

1 - Social Media Madness - A dark day dawned once earlier this year. That travel friendly and fun website Facebook became the first website banned in our offices. But with the emergence of our Culture Club, the dark days didn't last long and everyone at Gap Adventures, including our hundreds of CEOs (ex-Tour Leaders and Sales staff) around the world are now encouraged to not only use Facebook, but Twitter has become a mandatory, daily ritual at work too!

What's this about CEOs? In case you didn't hear, our former CEO relinquished his title and bestowed it upon our sales and tour leader staff around the globe, essentially creating a company of CEOs - Chief Experience Officers. Just another day at Gap Adventures, where we embrace he bizarre and forge forward into 2010 with a passion to provide the most amazing life changing tours possible!

By no means is this a complete list of cool things here at Gap Adventures. Over the past 12 months we've launched an exciting line up of tours with The Discovvery Channel, launched an exciting new Superior level yacht in the Galapagos (plus sailing trips in Belize and Thailand!) and created another awesome lineup of brochures for 2010. It's been a great year and we're already working on making next year even more exciting for us...and for you!

Be in the know - follow @GapAdventuresHR on Twitter for information on all our career openings.

The place to view all the nitty gritty details on position descriptions and requirements is www.gapadventures.com/careers so check it often as new positions pop up frequently. We're currently looking for fun, enthusiastic people to fill the following positions:

Special Ops Team:
General Manager, East Africa - Nairobi, Kenya
Director of Sales and Marketing - London, UK
European Sales Manager - London, UK

Code Tinker:
Systems Developer - Base Camp, Toronto

CEOs:
Travel Consultant - Inside Sales - Base Camp, Toronto
Bilingual Travel Consultants - Base Camp, Toronto

It seems Belgians have a strong sense of national pride as we had a record-breaking Belgian response last newsletter! From all the correct entries around the world, the randomly drawn winner was Martin Wuthrich, from Switzerland (sorry Belgians!)

Congratulations Martin! You've won a discount voucher towards future travel with Gap Adventures, simply for knowing that image #1 was from El Chalten, Argentina (with Cerro Fitz Roy in the background) and image #2 was from the grand place in Brussels, Belgium.

Correctly identify where our two new images are from and you could win your own Gap Adventures discount voucher. Simply email your guess to editor@gap.ca for a chance to win. Don't forget to include your mailing address along with your submission, or you won't get your prizes.

More deals than you can imagine, it's a year end blowout! These adventure travel deals and discounts are all subject to limited space, so act fast as these offers won't last long!

Deal #1 - Last-Minute Specials. Check our specials page for last-minute departures around the world at up to 25% off!

Deal #2 - Affordable Tours. Our Affordable Tours page is a permanent fixture on our website and offers up a quick view of the most affordable adventure tours. If you're on a budget and there is nothing on sale...this is THE page to check out!

Deal #3 - Inca trail - Early Booking Bonus. Book a high-season Inca Trail trip for 2010, before February 28th and save money! Don't wait for higher prices, lock in your discount and Trail Permit today!

Deal #4 - Spitsbergen - Early Booking Bonus. Save big bucks for departures in July and August 2010, if you book before the end of February!

Deal #5 - Boxing Week Sale. Get 20% off some of our hottest tours if you book by December 31st!

Note: These offers can not be combined, and are subject to limited availability. Additional restrictions may apply. Full details are online. Bookings must be made online at www.gapadventures.com or through your travel agent.

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