One Life Adventures review: Are their tours worth it?

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My history with One Life Adventures had a bit of a false start to say the least, I jumped on their 10-day Philippines tour departing 9 March 2020 aaaaand two days later we were quarantined on a remote island with no phone reception or power, before total chaos ensued and the world started shutting down around us. We were all on flights heading home by the end of the week 🫠

But you know what they say: right person tour company, wrong time… or something like that!

I finally found time to fit in my first proper One Life Adventures tour in Sri Lanka in May 2024, and was immediately hooked. A year after that I reunited with some of that crew for the 14-day Japan tour, then 2026 was India with a Nepal add-on, and I’ve pencilled in South Korea for 2027.

Four (and a half) tours in five countries later, I’ve got a pretty clear picture of what these guys are great at and who they’re a good fit for, so here’s everything you need to know about One Life before you book your adventure.

Disclosure: I’m writing this review as part of a collaboration with One Life Adventures, but they have no editorial control over any of my content and (as always) this review is based entirely on my personal experience. I genuinely love these guys, I wouldn’t keep travelling with them if I didn’t!

One Life Adventures at a glance

Who are One Life Adventures? An award-winning small group tour operator running culture and adventure trips across Asia, Costa Rica and Morocco, built around bucket list moments and transformative experiences.

What sets them apart? Their major selling point is that they build the big experiences and fun group bonding opportunities into the tour price*, rather than stinging you with a pick’n’mix of expensive optional extras every few days, and they manage to do this without the sticker shock you might expect. Their guides are also legendary and One Life is always a top performer at TourRadar’s Guide of the Year and Tour of the Year Awards.

*The exception here is their Essentials tours which are cheaper with fewer inclusions and more free time by design to keep it budget-friendly.

Best for: Solo travellers, people in their 20s, 30s and early 40s who prefer thing-doing over just sightseeing, travellers who want the logistics and trip skeleton sorted for them without giving up all their independence, teachers or anyone else who needs to cram an adventure into two weeks or less, and anyone eyeing up a destination that feels intimidating or daunting.

Not so good for: Slow travellers who want four days in each place, anyone looking for top-tier luxury accommodation and private door-to-door transfers, relaxation-seekers who need sleep-ins and guaranteed downtime.

One Life Adventures tour styles:

• Classic: Their bread and butter, 10-15 days at a quick but manageable pace with your time split between organised orientations, included activities and free time to do your own thing.
• Snapshot: Short and sweet 4-7 day trips that are often a segment of a longer Classic itinerary, ideal if your time is limited.
• Essentials: The cheap and cheerful option tailored for backpacker-style social travel, with basic accommodation and the chance to customise your days with the activities you decide are worth your money.
• Expedition: Longer trips of 18-23 days that let you dig deeper into a region by combining two shorter tours.

Where they go: Eight countries across Asia (Indonesia, India, Japan, Nepal, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Vietnam) plus Costa Rica and Morocco so far.

Group size: Generally capped at 22 maximum but usually smaller, my four Classic tours have all been between 9-16 people and the Nepal Snapshot was 7 of us.

Group demographic: Aimed at 18-45 year olds with most travellers in their mid-20s to mid-30s, majority solo (woohoo 💃🏼) but each of my tours has also had one or two couples, duos or trios too.

The tours I’ve done with them: 12-day Sri Lanka Classic, 14-day Japan Classic and the 18-day India Nepal Expedition which is the India Classic + the Nepal Snapshot.

My honest One Life Adventures review after 4.5 tours

The overall One Life formula stays the same wherever you go, but the type of accommodation and the transport you use to get around totally depend on the destination, so here’s a summary of each tour I’ve taken (and you can click through to the full reviews for all the day-by-day details).

Sri Lanka

Tour style: Classic
Duration: 12 days
Itinerary: Negombo > Sigiriya > Kandy > Ella > Udawalawe > Mirissa > Galle > Colombo
TourRadar rating: 4.9/5 from 2190+ reviews
See the full tour info >>

I’d heard mixed things about solo female travel in Sri Lanka from friends who had been before. I’m certainly not one to buy into fearmongering or the idea that women should never visit certain places alone, but I also don’t mind erring on the side of caution if somewhere is difficult to organise independently or if it’d simply be more fun to explore with other people.

I knew that I wanted to do the Ella train ride (and get the photos, an occupational requirement 📸) and a safari which would be logistically tricky by myself, that I’d be more likely to step outside of my culinary comfort zone if I was with a group, and I also knew that I wouldn’t be willing to scramble up the rocks to the top of Pidurangala if I didn’t have anyone to go with, so the tour made perfect sense!

There were 13 of us with nine of us solo, one couple and two friends, and I was right in the middle of the age range at 32. Our local guide, Rihas, was a superstar and went out of his way to make sure we all had the time of our lives.

Our crew gelled quickly thanks to the expertly-planned itinerary (nothing like a sweaty sunset hike on day two to spark deep and meaningful chats between strangers), and by day seven we were already talking about a reunion tour.

We stayed at simple but decent hotels for the majority of the trip, with one night of jungle glamping and the final night at a fancier beachfront resort. All multi-storey stays had lifts, most of them had swimming pools and everywhere had air con except for the glamping which had fans, WiFi is spotty though (standard in Sri Lanka) so if you need a speedy connection you’ll want to grab a high-data eSIM.

Transport-wise we got around by private minibus except for the train to Ella, where we had third class unreserved tickets.

In the end I felt totally safe when I was wandering around Mirissa, Ella, Kandy and Colombo by myself so I wouldn’t say a tour is a necessity from that perspective, but my Sri Lanka experience was infinitely more memorable because of it.

What I loved: How much ground we covered with no stress or logistics to organise ourselves, the bond our group and guide forged in such a short space of time, and I know it’s cheesy but the genuinely transformative moments we had along the way (like the tsunami museum, dog sanctuary, discussions around passport privilege and inequality in the tourism industry). Oh and also discovering Highland Chocolate Milk 😍

What I’d flag: Some of the best bits of this trip were so good because it was the low season (like the Ella train where we had plenty of space to take photos and enjoy the views) but that also meant we couldn’t make the most of the coast because the ocean was too rough for swimming or snorkelling, so choose your timing carefully.

Best for: Anyone hoping to experience Sri Lanka’s highlights in two weeks with minimal planning, solo female travellers who’d like to explore with new friends, an affordable Asia travel option beyond the typical Bali beach break or Thailand island hopping.

Japan

Tour style: Classic
Duration: I did the 14-day one but there’s a 10-day option of the same tour which ends in Osaka
Itinerary: Tokyo > Hakone > Takayama > Kyoto > Osaka > Koyasan > Hiroshima
TourRadar rating: 4.9/5 from 980+ reviews (and it won #1 Japan tour in 2025!)
See the full tour info >>

The reunion we discussed in Sri Lanka actually materialised (!!!) and a year later five of us met up in Japan, joined by six others and our guide Billy, who expertly herded us through giant train stations and kept us energised with two-hourly konbini stops on 25,000-step days. Phew.

For the first time in all my travels there were more guys than gals on tour, seven to four! This is SO uncommon, I’ve done more than 20 group tours with different companies around the globe and on every single one women have outnumbered men. It wasn’t an issue at all, it meant that us girls had way more space in our pod hostel dorm and the Buddhist temple shukubō so it was a net win, just want to make it clear that this gender split was a bit of an anomaly in my experience.

Ages ranged from early 20s to early 40s and between us we represented eight countries in Europe, North America and Australasia.

One Life came through again with an itinerary built for bonding over bucket list experiences, like sushi making, a food crawl in Osaka, a karaoke night (one included, a few more we chose to do in free time) and even a Kendo class with the descendent of a samurai, who lovingly appointed us “Team Hangover” because of one of the aforementioned karaoke nights.

Accommodation was totally different to Sri Lanka, we swapped swimming pools and glamping tents for tatami mats at Buddhist temples, a pod hostel, a mountain guesthouse and a couple of shoebox hotel rooms, all quintessentially Japan. Most Classic tours have an option to upgrade to a private room if you’re happy to pay extra, but Japan has too many multi-share stays so it’s not possible unfortunately.

We got from A to B exclusively using public transport, from the Shinkansen to local trains, buses, funiculars and streetcars, and one of my personal highlights was learning how to navigate Japan’s extremely efficient yet equally mind-boggling transport network from Billy, a consummate professional. If I’d tried to follow this exact itinerary independently I probably would’ve ended up crying in the middle of Shibuya station out of pure logistical overwhelm.

What I loved: So many things but the variety of experiences in two weeks was next level, early morning shrine visits and late night karaoke rooms, the chaos of Osaka and the tranquillity of Koyasan, budget-friendly izakaya bars and wagyu skewers that cost me a day’s food budget for four bites, and having a crack at everything from martial arts to cooking classes to arcade games.

What I’d flag: Public transport means having to lug your own bag around so only pack what you can carry, this trip is busyyyyy so don’t expect a relaxing holiday, and this is a me problem but I went too hard on the karaoke nights, lost my voice, that turned into a chest infection and a few days after the tour I ended up at an emergency doctor in Osaka needing a steroid inhaler for weeks afterwards 🫠 still worth it though. Also the 14-day tour is just the longer version of the 10-day, so the 10-dayers and 14-dayers travel together until Osaka where the 10-dayers end, which sucks for them! If you’ve got the time and money I’d highly highly recommend booking on the longer trip, because I guarantee you’ll be gutted having to say goodbye when other people are continuing the fun.

Best for: First-timers to Japan (it’s the perfect initiation), high-energy travellers, anyone whose idea of living a good life is saying yes to everything, solo travellers who want to just turn up and enjoy themselves with no prior planning required.

India

Tour style: Classic
Duration: When I did it it was 14 days, but right afterwards they dropped one destination and reduced the itinerary to 12 days (for the better)
Itinerary: Delhi > Agra > Jaipur > Pushkar > Udaipur > Jodhpur > overnight train to Delhi
TourRadar rating: 4.8/5 from 245+ reviews
See the full tour info >>

I visited India back in 2019 during my first year of full-time solo travel and had a stress-free but very sanitised trip, with a private driver carting me around and local guides I booked in each city. They were all lovely and I know they had the best of intentions, but their insistence that I never ever walk anywhere alone definitely didn’t help any underlying anxiety, so I’ll admit that a return visit wasn’t thaaaat high on my priority list.

But before we’d even finished the Japan tour, the idea of a reunion in India the following year was floated, and who am I to say no to an adventure? The difference between my first time in India and my experience with One Life Adventures was chalk and cheese plaster and paneer.

On this trip there were 14 of us until day six (the end of the shorter India Snapshot tour) and then nine for the remainder, aged 24 to 42, again from Europe, North America and Aus/NZ, and it was everyone’s first time in India apart from me (but my first time properly immersed in the culture) so we were all in it together.

Our local guide Abhi also acted as our translator, traffic-stopper, street vendor liaison and human encyclopaedia, and he was exceptionally skilled at managing dietary requirements, knock-on effects of transport delays and our group’s varying levels of tolerance for sensory overload.

The tour itself ran super smoothly (late trains aside) and as usual there were activities included that I’d never have done if I was solo, like seeing a Bollywood movie at a famous theatre and getting a (genuine) Brahmin blessing in Pushkar, plus some inexpensive optional extras that were a no-brainer, like a leopard safari, fort zipline tour and Bollywood dance class 💃🏼

The first six days are full on so the India Snapshot crew can squeeze the most out of their limited time, but from Pushkar onwards the pace eased and we had a few free hours most days to get a massage, hit the shops, head out on a side quest or just catch up on sleep.

Accommodation is functional and no-frills, a mix of simple but modern hotels and traditional havelis with firm mattresses, wet room bathrooms (no shower divider) and temperamental hot water and WiFi. This is how mid-range hotels work across India, they’re not fancy but they’re safe, the service was always fantastic and most of them were in quiet areas away from main thoroughfares so they felt like havens from the chaos.

I opted to upgrade to a private room just to have the space to myself, at the time of my trip it was less than 20% of the tour cost and absolutely worth it.

To say that transport was a mix would be an understatement. We took every possible land transport option with three or more wheels (a pedalled rickshaw, loads of tuktuks, open-top jeeps, a private minibus, public buses and more) as well as the metro in Delhi, intercity trains and even an overnight sleeper train which I never would’ve done if I was by myself, and I slept better than I have in many European night trains.

Compared to my first trip where I visited almost all of the same places, the tour truly felt like an entirely different country. I saw the same forts and took the same photos but there were so many more layers of cultural context, Abhi’s gentle guidance helped me build my confidence instead of terrifying me into never stepping beyond my hotel gates, and I spent more time wandering cities solo during one free afternoon than I did the entire time on my 2019 visit when I was actually by myself!

What I loved: Being amongst the chaos with the safety blanket of a local guide and my tourmates, getting my first ever henna done by Shabnam at Sheroes Cafe which is run by acid attack survivors, how much we laughed doing the dance class, seeing everyone’s reactions to the Taj Mahal, and being told by a Vedic astrologer that I’ll be able to relax and enjoy a peaceful life once I turn 63 😂

What I’d flag: I cannot emphasise enough the sheer sensory intensity of Indian cities, and I felt it a lot more on the tour because we were walking through the middle of the hectic markets, trying to have conversations with tuktuk horns blaring around us, and dealing with early morning wake ups for long and inefficient public transport journeys. All part of the adventure of course, but best to know what you’re signing up for!

Best for: Anyone who’s tempted by India’s magic but keeps putting it off, travellers who want more than just a camera roll full of fort photos, solo female travellers or groups of girlfriends, anyone who hasn’t travelled to a developing country before.

Nepal

Tour style: Snapshot
Duration: 7 days
Itinerary: Kathmandu > Chitwan National Park > Pokhara > Kathmandu
TourRadar rating: 4.8/5 from 22 reviews (new tour)
See the full tour info >>

I’m all about efficiency when I travel, so from a time, money and carbon footprint perspective it made sense to tack on Nepal after the India tour.

One Life Adventures makes this as easy as possible with the India Nepal Expedition, an 18-day two-tours-in-one option that includes your Delhi to Kathmandu flight (and transfer to Delhi Airport) so you say goodbye to one tour guide, and the other one picks you up from the next airport. Like an international custody changeover!

Ram (our Nepalese guide) was definitely the parent who has to deal with exhausted, burnt out children because the other household let the kids run wild 😂 He quickly picked up that the five of us coming in from India were running on fumes after two weeks of early starts, polluted air, sensory overload, a few nights out and a sleeper train, and his cool-as-a-cucumber vibe did wonders for our collective emotional regulation.

Our five from the India tour (two guys, three girls) were joined by two solo female travellers starting fresh in Nepal, both from the UK and both living in Asia with a week off work so this trip suited them perfectly, and the age range was 25-38.

The itinerary differed from the other tours in that each of the three stops had its own unique specialty, with Kathmandu being the culture stop (temple visits and social enterprise cooking class), Chitwan for wildlife (canoe and jeep safari) and Pokhara as the gateway to the Australian Camp day hike. Free time was limited but that’s to be expected on a short trip.

Accommodation was a step above India which felt like such a treat, with comfy beds, heating/air con and hot water in all three hotels (thank god because it was chilly in Kathmandu). This reflects the difference between the two countries’ tourism infrastructure more than operational choices, and for this reason I would also say to always do India first and Nepal second rather than the other way round.

Our private minibus shuttled us from place to place, the only note here is that there’s an 8-9 hour drive from Pokhara back to Kathmandu along precarious roads on the final day, so all but one of us chose to say goodbye to Ram and our driver as they left that morning, and instead we bought our own flights to make it back to the capital ($100-125USD and 25 minutes).

What I loved: Getting a taste of Nepal’s mountains and scenery without committing to a multi-month training schedule, every minute of wildlife spotting in Chitwan, the serenity of Pokhara, and just how CHILL everything felt after two weeks in India (even though Kathmandu is one of the most densely populated cities in the world haha).

What I’d flag: As the tour name suggests, it really is just a snapshot of Nepal! Three destinations with two bumpy drives between them, it packs in the top tier highlights at a calm pace, but you do get the feeling there’s much more to discover here. I wish I’d extended my trip to spend a few days in Pokhara after the tour, so if you’ve got the time I’d recommend it for sure.

Best for: Wildlife lovers, anyone who loves a low-effort high-reward ratio of physical exercise (🙋🏼‍♀️), hobby hikers who might want to do Basecamp one day but are keen to test the waters first, travellers already decided on the India tour who want to make the most of being in this part of the world.

Philippines West

Tour style: Classic
Duration: Meant to be 10 days
Itinerary: Manila > Puerto Princesa > Port Barton > Island Camp (or what we lovingly call ‘Quarantine Island’) > El Nido
TourRadar rating: 4.8/5 from 3,430+ reviews
See the full tour info >>

My One Life Adventures debut was rudely interrupted by a global pandemic sooo I can’t actually give you much tour-related information, but I can tell you a bloody good story.

*Cue harp ripple sound effect*

In 2019 I had a wild idea to visit a new country every week for a year (yes it was insane, you can read about that here), and week #39 had me heading to the beautiful Philippines for the first time.

At this stage One Life Adventures was an Asia specialist, the Philippines was the first ever destination when they launched in 2016 and three years later it was named Best Tour in Asia by TourRadar (their Japan tour won the award for best tour globally and they won best tour in Sri Lanka too, a trifecta!) so I couldn’t wait to live out my island hopping dreams.

By the end of February 2020 there had already been a fair few disruptions with my Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau segments all cancelled, but when I flew from Vietnam to Manila on March 9 there was no travel alert in place and only a handful of cases in the entire country (out of 113 million people). Things were operating pretty much as normal, just with temperature checks every time you entered shopping malls, tourist attractions and some hotels/restaurants.

The group definitely skewed younger than the One Life Adventures tours I’ve done since, with quite a few gap year backpackers and some people in their early 20s who were abroad without their parents for the first time. At 28 I was in the upper quarter age-wise and definitely one of the more experienced travellers (not a humble brag, just something that materially impacted how things went when the drama started).

Our first night was in a Manila hostel before we flew to the island of Palawan on day two, where we had an afternoon in the hotel pool drinking happy hour cocktails and then a jeepney ride to dinner. Our guide Tommy suggested we stock up on snacks here as we were heading to the remote coast and an island camp in the next few days.

On day three we visited Puerto Princesa’s Underground River, and on arrival we were temperature checked, with one of our tourmates showing a very slightly elevated temp so she was kept out and both Tommy and a local One Life guy, Dan, stayed with her to sort that out while the rest of us did the river cruise unaware that this little boat trip was literally the turning point of our lives 👀

Everything that came next is a bit of a blur but basically she was taken to a local hospital for further tests with Dan alongside her to translate and liaise with Tommy, while Tommy and the rest of us waited in the bus in the carpark with air con on full blast. Her temperature was back to normal and she had no other symptoms or risk factors, but (understandably in hindsight) they took it very seriously and had to transfer her back to Puerto Princesa to a bigger hospital until they could get a proper test done, which took days at this stage.

We were told to continue to our planned overnight stop, but when our bus pulled up, the authorities were there to tell us that we weren’t allowed to disembark because of risk to the community (again understandable, but this was when we all started freaking out haha).

The lovely lady who ran the hotel got her restaurant to whip us all up some dinner and brought it out to us in takeaway containers while we waited for Tommy and the One Life team to discuss options with community leaders, and in the end we were allowed into hotel rooms for a shower and a quick recharge of our devices, because we were going to be catching the boat to the Island Camp (which was meant to be our Day 4 stop) for quarantine until our tourmate tested negative. Oh, and it was 11pm by this stage.

Looking back now, I feel like we had the best quarantine location in the world. We drank rum around the bonfire, snorkelled in the bay, climbed coconut trees and played volleyball, and ate freshly-caught fish and tropical fruit that was delivered to the other end of the beach, and we were entirely unaware that while we were sleeping in our tents on the sand with no cellphone reception, the WHO had declared a global pandemic and the entire world was shutting down.

We were off the grid for a couple of days but the OLA operations team and big bosses had been working in the background with the officials, and when it became clear the Philippines was most likely going to close their borders, we were signed off to come back to the mainland and (try to) depart. We had a medical check as soon as we got off the boat and then hopped in the van back to Puerto Princesa where One Life had organised a night in the hotel we’d stayed at the few days before, and we all had to get back to Manila the next day because they’d announced the airport was going to close to domestic arrivals at midnight… for a month 🫠

Flights back to Manila weren’t part of the tour in the first place because it was meant to end in El Nido, and departures were literally being cancelled by the minute with travel insurers basically unreachable, so it was about six hours of intense panic where we all booked flights > those ones got cancelled > we had to try again > and repeat.

Thankfully everyone made it, including our tourmate who had been released from hospital, with some of the group landing at the literal eleventh hour before Duterte’s hard lockdown began. One Life sorted rooms at the hostel from the first night for us, we all had a ‘what the fuck was that’ drink or five at the rooftop bar, and the next day we boarded our extortionately expensive flights to our respective home countries. CRAZY.

Obviously this isn’t a review of the Philippines tour, but there were two key things from this experience which cemented my respect and trust in One Life Adventures as a company:

• Tommy had only just started tour guiding, I think it was only his second or third tour that he was running solo. Despite this he was absolutely incredible, he kept things calm and clear when people were panicking, he made sure the island stay was enjoyable despite the shitshow we were all in, and he and I teamed up as the more experienced travellers to help the others sort their travel back home, all while he was acutely aware that a global shutdown also meant the indefinite pause of his career and his life in the Philippines, and he urgently had to find a way back to Australia. He’s no longer a tour guide but clearly One Life has fantastic hiring and/or training processes, and every other guide I’ve had since then has been equally reliable (though admittedly none of them have had to be tested to those extremes haha).
• We also had a local liaison, Dan, who went above and beyond, particularly for our tourmate who was taken to hospital and her girlfriend. I assume his role was meant to be logistics/translation/that kind of stuff, but when things went south Dan organised for the girlfriend to stay at his family home with his wife and kids so she could be close to the hospital 🥺 From what I could gather from watching his interactions with local authorities, he was instrumental in us being allowed off the tiny island to be able to get back to Manila, and I will be endlessly grateful for that. I’m pretty sure he still works for One Life so if you see him on your Philippines tour, say hi from me 🥰

Also our Quarantine Island is still on the tour itinerary! They’ve rightly classified it as an ‘Impact Moment’, a transformative experience that’ll leave a lasting impression, I just hope for your sake it’s a less stressful type of ‘transformative’ than what I had 😂

I am so keen to go back and do the full tour, see what Quarantine Island is like without the cortisol, hopefully say thank you to Dan in person, and make some Philippines memories that don’t involve unexpected midnight boat rides, half a day in a hospital carpark or maxing out my credit card with flights that kept getting cancelled.

Everything you need to know about One Life Adventures

Who are One Life Adventures?

One Life Adventures (OLA for short) is an award-winning small group tour operator that builds itineraries around the famous stuff you know about as well as experiences you’d never have been able to organise (or at least wouldn’t be as fun) on your own, and they have an uncanny knack for getting strangers to click fast enough that you’re planning the next trip together before this one has finished.

The company was set up back in 2016 by two British guys in Australia, and ten years later they’ve got an average 4.9/5 rating on TourRadar from more than 12,000 verified travellers, which is nearly impossible to hold past a few thousand reviews.

Where do they have tours?

They’re Asia specialists first and foremost, with tours in the Philippines, Bali (Indonesia), Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, India, Sri Lanka and Nepal, and their first step outside Asia was launching Morocco in 2023 and then Costa Rica in 2025.

They tend to focus on places that might be intimidating or complicated to organise independently, and I hope they expand their range soon!

Tour styles

Classic tours

• Their original style and biggest range
• Great balance of organised sightseeing, included activities and free time
• Mid-length tours of 10-15 days
• Available everywhere except Nepal

Snapshot tours

• High energy and immersive from the get-go to make the most of a short trip
• 4-7 days for people looking for a taster of a destination or limited on time
• Available in Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, India and Nepal
• Usually they’re cut from a Classic tour so you might join an existing crew or others might continue when you leave

Expedition tours

• Two back-to-back shorter tours with your flight between them covered
• 18-23 days for in-depth exploration
• Available in the Philippines (East + West Classic tours) and South Asia (India Classic + Nepal Snapshot)

Essentials tours

• Cheaper tours that follow a similar route to the Classics but with multi-share stays, fewer included activities, more free time and more optional extras, so you can tailor your trip to fit your budget and priorities
• 9-13 days
• Available in Japan and South Korea
• Maximum age of 40

Accommodation

The types of properties you stay at on a One Life tour vary a lot depending on the country, so please keep in mind that all of this is a generalisation of my experience across the 4.5 trips I’ve done and might not be representative of the exact one you choose. The OLA website does list their typical accommodation for each stop so you can check them out on booking.com to know what to expect, this can always change based on availability but if it does it’ll be to something of a similar standard.

Overall I’d say that most properties on Classic/Snapshot/Expedition tours would fall into the ‘in-between travel’ category, beyond backpacker hostels but not quite premium, with a focus on convenience and character rather than luxe décor or fancy amenities.

They’re generally pretty representative of the local accommodation scene, like traditional Indian havelis, Japanese pod hostels and Philippines beach cottages, and the reliability of things like WiFi, hot water and air con is determined by the infrastructure of the country you’re visiting rather than the specific tour.

Some itineraries also include experiential accommodation (which I adore!) like Buddhist temples in Japan, jungle glamping in Sri Lanka, the Philippines island camp or the sleeper train in India.

Some of these might not have the modern features you’d expect of a hotel room (like four walls and a roof in terms of the island camp haha) but they’re all part of the adventure, and these kinds of stays are almost always one of my top highlights.

Twin-share is the default for most trips and solo travellers will get paired with someone of the same gender with no additional cost, but most tours* have a private room upgrade if you’re happy to pay for your own space. Some Classics have the odd multi-share night but these are listed on the tour info page, I think I’ve had five in my 50-ish nights with OLA and the only mixed gender one was the India night train (there’s no women’s carriage).

*I know Japan doesn’t offer a private upgrade because there’s two temple stays and a pod hostel which don’t have single rooms, all my other tours did but check the details of the one you’re looking at to make sure it’s an option.

Essentials tours are a little different accommodation-wise, they mostly use multi-share hostels and you might be in mixed gender dorms, so if this is a dealbreaker for you then go Classic instead.

Transport

This is another aspect of a One Life itinerary that’s matched to the place you’re visiting, so I’ve travelled by private minibus in Sri Lanka and Nepal, exclusively public transport in Japan, and a mix of both in India.

Public transport is typically used in countries where it’s more efficient than driving and/or a vital part of the experience, and it might be the way you get around for the whole trip (Japan) or just certain legs (like the Ella train in Sri Lanka).

It goes without saying that the standard of public transport varies drastically between the countries, so read the tour info or my full reviews to get a better idea of what to expect. In India we were always in carriages with plush seats and AC but we had one hellish ride where the air con died for a couple of hours 🫠 the alternative would’ve been an equally (if not more) painful 6+ hour drive on bumpy roads with constant horns honking us to death though, so not being comfortable 100% of the time is just a fact of travelling in that part of the world.

Long intercity journeys can require early wakeups but are usually offset with downtime to recuperate afterwards. I would recommend using this downtime wisely as it’s intended (do as I say, not as I do!).

Many tours include airport transfers if you arrive on day one which is especially ideal for solo travellers or any travel newbies, and if you arrive earlier the One Life team can either book a transfer for you at extra cost or advise you on how to sort it out for yourself.

Make sure your luggage choice aligns with the type of transport your tour uses, because some trips have strict weight limits (if there are internal flights), size limits (like the Japan bullet trains) and some require you to be able to carry your own bag for the walk from your hotel to the nearest train station.

Activities

For Classic, Snapshot and Expedition tours, looooads of the fun stuff is already included in the price you pay, so you’re not having to splash out every morning for another $80 add-on that your tour buddies are peer pressuring you into doing.

Generally you’ll get an orientation in each place by foot, tuktuk or public transport, entrance to major landmarks, and then a range of culture, nature, culinary and active adventures like cooking classes, craft workshops, in-depth city tours with local experts, kayak trips, village visits and wildlife safaris.

This sets One Life apart from lots of other travel companies who target the same 20s-40s age bracket with similarly-priced trips, because when you dig into the details you’ll notice many itineraries are trimmed back to just hotels, transport and orientation walks, and then they’ll present a buffet of optional extras once you’re in the place with Monopoly money and no willpower to say no.

Most Classic tours follow a similar structure, with a welcome dinner to break the ice and then something hands-on or comfort-zone-testing in the first few days that’ll get everyone out of their shells.

There are still optional extras in some places but in my experience they really are extras, if you choose not to do them for budget reasons you won’t feel like you’ve been short-changed. In Sri Lanka we had an extra safari (one was already included), in Japan there was a kimono rental opportunity which might not be to everyone’s taste, and in India there was a fort visit available for anyone who wasn’t already all-forted-out.

The Essentials tour range is the exception and has fewer activities to make them more affordable for budget travellers, so you’re not paying for a cooking class if you hate cooking or a cable car if you’re terrified of heights.

Meals

Most One Life tours include a welcome dinner on the first night, a gastronomic activity or two (food tours, cooking classes etc.) and then some additional breakfasts, lunches and dinners where they’re required logistically.

When meals aren’t covered the guide will always have suggestions for options nearby, and you could all go together, split off into smaller groups, take yourself on a solo date or download the local delivery app for a pizza and milkshake in bed (guilty 🙋🏼‍♀️).

If you’ve got dietary requirements you’ll need to check the FAQ under the specific trip you’re considering, they can usually cater to most restrictions if you let them know in advance. Japan and South Korea are super tricky though, they’re heavy on fish stock and very light on allergy training haha.

Guides

I’ve already raved about my tour guides in the mini reviews so I won’t get into that again, but I can tell you that I’m not the only one who’s been impressed: in TourRadar’s 2024 Guide of the Year Awards, six of the top 20 were One Life guides 🏆 For a relatively young company that runs tours in just 10 countries, that’s an extraordinary achievement!

Snapshot, Classic and Essentials tours typically have the same tour guide the whole way through, and some tours also have local and specialised day guides in certain destinations like national parks or heritage areas.

Expedition tours are two trips joined together, so you’ll have a different guide for each segment.

Responsible tourism

There are three main ways a tour operator has an impact from a responsible tourism perspective:

• Company-wide initiatives like reducing plastic and planting trees
• What they put on each itinerary and who gets paid for it
• How your guide steers what you understand and how you behave

Starting at the top, One Life has an admirable (though fairly standard) policy of planting a tree for every traveller through the reforestation non-profit One Tree Planted, but their most impressive eco-warrior accolade is that they’ve worked with their suppliers on the ground to make their Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Philippines tours plastic-free.

The latter two of those three countries contribute a horrendously disproportionate share of the ocean’s plastic pollution (partly due to shitty infrastructure, partly due to multinational corporations creating societal reliance on single-use sachets), so this is no small feat!

The next one is something many travellers probably don’t think about, but I’ve worked in the travel industry my entire adult life and I nerd out over operations so it’s always top of mind for me, and that’s how much of what you pay for a trip actually stays in the local economy.

One Life make a huge effort to keep your money circulating in the communities you’ll visit, by staying at locally-owned accommodation and eating at local restaurants wherever possible, as well as including social enterprises and community projects as tour highlights in themselves.

I’ve witnessed this on all of my tours with them, from the family-owned Sri Lankan restaurant that became financially sustainable thanks to regular One Life bookings, to the cooking class in Kathmandu where the fees fund training and employment for disabled women, to Sheroes Café in Agra which is run by acid attack survivors.

Some operational choices are more subtle, like scheduling shrine visits in Japan for first thing in the morning so we’re not another group of tourists adding to the insane crowds that roll in at 9am.

And finally there are the guides, who have an impossibly thin line to walk between letting a gaggle of overexcited travellers tick off everything on their bucket list aaand making sure everyone gets the cultural context and nuance required to make their own informed decisions about how they spend their free time, without sounding preachy, bossy or like they’re judging the paying customer. I could never be that diplomatic 🙃

Every One Life guide I’ve had has tackled tricky convos with incredible patience and grace, about things like why you shouldn’t buy things off kid vendors in developing countries (and what you should do instead), why the teacup pig cafes aren’t worth it for the Instagram photo, the difference between respecting a dress code and endorsing it, and how what we post about our trips can either reinforce stereotypes about misunderstood places or totally reshape how our friends and family see them.

One Life Adventures pros and cons

Benefits of travelling with One Life Adventures

• A bunch of headline experiences are already included in the price so you’re not constantly going over budget or having to sit out of whatever your new friends have all decided to say yes to
• Their itineraries are sequenced to ✨perfection✨, enabling everyone to get over the small talk pretty quickly and build deeper connections that’ll last well beyond the tour
• No two days feel the same, you’ll bounce between city walks, food crawls, cultural immersion and getting amongst nature
• Solo travel is the default rather than the exception, so you’re not going to end up being the token single person surrounded by couples (and if you’re a couple, you’ll be able to hang out with people other than your partner!)

• Solo travellers also don’t have to pay anything extra, they get paired with a same-gender roomie or most tours have an option to upgrade to a private room for around 10-20% of the tour cost
• Free time is built into each trip exactly where you need it, whether it’s for relaxing after a long travel journey or to let you take a side quest before moving on to the next spot
• Their guides are some of the best on the planet (according to TourRadar and also according to me)
• Most (but not all) tours include an airport pickup on the first day so you don’t have to stress about navigating hordes of taxi drivers or finding your way to the hotel
• Every trip kicks off with a welcome dinner that’s bundled into the price so there’s no excuse to bail, and then you can learn everyone’s names while also learning to use chopsticks properly or testing your spice tolerance

• Most tours have at least one unique stay that’ll take your trip to the next level, whether it’s a beachfront resort, Buddhist temple, lush jungle camp or secluded tropical island
• You can lock in your spot with a deposit ($300-500AUD) and the balance isn’t due until 60 days before departure
• There’s no strict age limit for Classic/Snapshot/Expedition tours, they’re tailored for 18-45s but if you’re older than that and like the look of the pace and activities then you’ll fit right in (Essentials tours have a hard cap of 40 though)
• They’re not party-every-night tours like some more backpacker-y brands offer, but if you’re up for a night out there’s almost certainly going to be other tourmates who’ll be keen to join you, and your guide can help you pick when to do it and where to go (and might want to join!). In Sri Lanka and India we had a couple of cocktail-fuelled dancefloor sessions, and in Japan our group was partial to all-you-can-drink karaoke sessions, but if anyone wasn’t interested they just headed home or did their own thing with no guilt or pressure.

What to be aware of

• These trips are busyyyy because they zip you between all the best bits of a destination in a limited timeframe. There’s free time scheduled in but if you’re anything like me you’ll be squeezing more into it anyway, so if you’re the same then maybe give yourself a buffer day or two after the trip for actual relaxation and recuperation before getting back to work.
• Some early morning starts can be brutal, particularly on the India tour to get public transport journeys out of the way before the afternoon heat

• You need to be able to carry your own bag! This is particularly important for public transport itineraries where there might be a 10-15 minute walk between a metro station and the accommodation.
• Some tours are modular which means they’re made up of different shorter-length tours, e.g. the 18-day India Nepal Expedition might have some people there for the 6-day India Snapshot at the start, then some people will continue for the full 12-day India Classic, then some will fly to Kathmandu and there might be new people joining for the 7-day Nepal Snapshot. This is great for letting people choose the tour length that suits their time and budget, but it does mean the group dynamic can change each time and anyone finishing up when other people are continuing always feels a bit bummed out that they didn’t book the whole thing!

Are One Life Adventures tours good value for money?

As a full-time solo female traveller who’s visited more than 60 countries alone, many of those independently without a tour, and who usually spends not hours, not days but weeks architecting my own impeccable itineraries and still has constant logistical niggles on the ground, I can tell you hand on heart that One Life Adventures tours offer brilliant value for money.

Not to go all Mastercard on you, but from a maths perspective it’s impossible to compare a tour like this with doing the same trip by yourself, because going it alone wouldn’t give you priceless perks of a legendary guide who keeps things running smoothly and can solve any problems that arise, and friends to share all the epic moments with.

If you’re happy to waste an hour in Shibuya station because you can’t find your way out, miss out on your Delhi food tour because your bus was delayed and it started without you, or lose a day on the Sri Lankan coast because the weather packed in and you didn’t have a rainy day plan B, then you might find a tour isn’t a good use of your money and that’s totally fine.

But if you’re the kind of traveller who believes time is money, who would rather travel without stress or friction, or who’s keen to watch and learn from an expert so they can build up the skills and confidence to do it alone next time, then a One Life tour is money well spent.

For solo travellers in particular there are invaluable benefits that would be complex, wildly expensive or just not as fun by yourself:

• Single rooms are rare in lots of these countries so you’d either have to cover the cost of a double yourself or stay in hostel dorms/capsule hotels to keep costs down
• Your options for getting around India, Nepal and Sri Lanka are either cheap but inefficient and sometimes-not-that-nice public transport, or private transfers which can be pricey with no one to share them with and require thorough vetting to make sure you’re booking a trustworthy company
• Places like Japan on the other hand might have ultra-efficient public transport but maze-like stations and ticketing systems that can be overwhelming for first-timers and often end up eating a chunk of your precious exploring time
• You could hire a guide for a day hike in Nepal but it’d be pricey, you could book a Bollywood dance or kendo class through Klook but it just wouldn’t be the same with strangers, and structuring a Sri Lanka travel day to fit in the Nine Arches Bridge, Little Adam’s Peak, three hour drive with a local lunch on the way, an afternoon safari and then glamping stay would require air-traffic-controller levels of precision.

Does One Life Adventures do discounts?

Yep, you can get 10% off your tour when you book directly through their website and use the promocode FINDINGALEXX 💃🏼

The promocode doesn’t work on TourRadar but you can read all 12,000+ One Life reviews on TourRadar and then switch back to the direct site to lock in your spot with the discount.

They also have sales on and off throughout the year, sometimes for specific tours or departures, sometimes site-wide, I’d recommend joining their mailing list to be the first to know when something is coming.

Who are One Life Adventures tours best for?

There are particular types of travellers who finish these tours already planning the next one, and they tend to be:

• Solo travellers who want to meet and travel with other solo travellers. Us lone rangers are overrepresented in One Life’s traveller base which I LOVE, it makes it so much easier to start convos with your fellow tourmates at the welcome dinner and find friends to join you for side quests during free time.
• Anyone fresh to a developing country, to somewhere with a language barrier, to that part of the world or just to travel overall! Everything is handled from the daily plans to the tiny details, most trips include an airport pickup, things are less scary with a crew around you, and your guide is always on call to help with any mishaps.
• People who want to get amongst a destination rather than just travel around it, you’ll come home with recipes, new skills and loads of stories as well as a full camera roll

• Travellers short on time, mental capacity for planning, or both. If you’ve only got two weeks of leave and no energy to stitch together seven places with public transport routes, hotels and activities, a One Life Adventures tour is a fantastically efficient option that requires minimal effort from your side.
• Anyone in a rut who could do with a gentle nudge, I can promise you that on tour you’ll say yes to things you’d probably talk yourself out of (or never even consider) alone, and these are the travel moments that are truly transformative!
• Multi-passionates who’d prefer changing it up each day instead of committing to a full week or more of just active adventures or nature escapes or city breaks. OLA trips give you real variety so you can experience a destination through so many different lenses.

• Gap year or career break travellers who want to kick off a longer trip with a soft landing. You’ll learn how the country and region works, pick up essential etiquette from your guide that you might miss otherwise, and boost your confidence with metaphorical training wheels before you’re let loose on your own.
• Conscious travellers who care about where their money goes and want to support a travel company that operates responsibly in the communities they visit on tour.

Who should skip a One Life Adventures tour?

But if any of these sound like you, you’ll probably want to look elsewhere:

• Anyone who likes to unpack once and settle in, you’ll need to repack your bags every couple of days on most trips so if this sounds like torture then it would be best to look for a slow travel tour instead.
• People who’d rather not spend a week or two in a group of mostly 20-somethings and 30-somethings
• Luxury travellers that need a concierge, pillow menus and room service
• Vacation-seekers who are looking for a restful holiday 🙃

One Life Adventures FAQs

The final verdict: Is One Life Adventures worth it?

To sum up 9,400+ words in one quick verdict, after four (and a half) One Life Adventures tours in five countries, they are absolutely worth it.

I’ve had some of my all-time favourite travel moments on their tours, met lifelong adventure buddies that I honestly reckon I’ll continue travelling with until we’re old and grey, gained an insight into cultures I knew nothing about, challenged myself with the support of the people around me, expanded my culinary palate, and done things that would’ve been too risky or uncomfortable if I was solo.

My only complaint about them is that they aren’t in enough places, I need them to launch some more destinations! Pretty please One Life team 🙏🏼

FULL TOUR REVIEWS YOU MIGHT WANT TO CHECK OUT:

• Japan Classic with One Life Adventures
• Sri Lanka Classic with One Life Adventures
• India Classic with One Life Adventures
• Nepal Snapshot with One Life Adventures
• Borneo: East Sabah Adventure with G Adventures
• Morocco: Deserts & Beaches with G Adventures
• Sailing the Greek Islands with Medsailors
• Bangkok to Singapore with Contiki
• Amazing Balkans & Transylvania with Travel Talk Tours

MORE GUIDES FOR THESE DESTINATIONS:

• Solo travel in Japan
• Solo female travel in Sri Lanka
• Solo female travel in India
• All my group tour reviews

MY GO-TO TRAVEL PLANNING RESOURCES

Flights ✈️ I use Skyscanner to find the best flights for my trip and then I’ll always book direct with the airline to protect myself from having to deal with dodgy third parties if anything goes wrong.

Trains 🚂 If I’m travelling through Europe, I try to travel by train wherever possible! For an extended trip (2+ weeks) I’ll calculate if a Eurail Pass is worth it, or I’ll book point-to-point tickets through RailEurope or the local train operator.

Accommodation 🛎️ I book almost all of my accommodation through booking.com, they have a user-friendly website + app and many of their options are free cancellation, easily cancelled with a simple click of a button.

Activities 🗽I use GetYourGuide, Klook and Viator to look for activities in the places I visit, or I just Google ‘things to do in [city]’! P.S. If you book anything on Klook you can use the promocode FINDINGALEXXKLOOK to get 10% off

Travel cards 💳 I’m a Wise gal through and through, they’ve been my chosen travel card for more than five years now. You can easily top up your card from your bank account or through Apple Pay, convert your money to local currency, and spend money with minimal fees and the best exchange rates around.

Travel insurance 🩺 I use Cover-More NZ travel insurance for my own trips, I have a comprehensive policy and I’ve only had good experiences with them. Cover-More also has an Australian company, but if you’re from elsewhere then two popular insurance options for global travellers are SafetyWing (cheaper policy, lower coverage) and World Nomads (more expensive but significantly better coverage).

Luggage 💼 I travel with Samsonite Cosmolite suitcases, one 75cm check in bag and a 55cm carry on bag, and I absolutely adore them and will never travel with anything else! They are SUPER lightweight (2.8kg and 1.9kg respectively) so I have much more space for my actual stuff.

Camera gear 📸 I use a iPhone 15 Pro Max for phone photos/videos, and my camera kit includes a Lumix S9 (incredible lightweight full-frame camera, a game changer for travel creators!) with a 20-60mm lens, a Lumix G9 with an 8-18mm and 12-60mm lens, a DJI Mini 3 Pro drone and a GoPro Hero 10. I do all my writing and editing on my ASUS Zenbook 14, it’s lightweight but powerful enough for photo editing and intense blogging sessions.