Travelers' Philanthropy Handbook - Center for Responsible Travel

Myths and Mountains and READ GlobalBy Antonia Neubauer, Ph.D.Founder, READ Global and President, Myths and MountainsMyths and Mountains (www.mythsandmountains.com), located in Incline Village, Nevada, is aneducational adventure travel company, designing programs that feature the cultures and crafts,religions and pilgrimage sites, traditional medicines, and environment and natural history of thecountries they visit. Thecompany specializes in Asia,Southeast Asia and SouthAmerica and has been inbusiness since 1988. Smallgroup departures, customizedtrips and outstanding customerservice for discerning travelersare Myths and Mountains'specialties. Every detail ishandled professionally by skilledstaff and coordinated with localpartners in the field. Qualifiedand experienced in-countryguides are used wheneverpossible.Myths & Mountains Trekkers, Nepal. Credit: Toni NeubauerMyths And Mountains has been recognized by The Robb Report, Condé Nast TravelerMagazine, Travel & Leisure, The New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, and NationalPublic Radio, among many other guidebooks, media sources and publications.Most recently, the company was named one of “Travel & Leisure” magazine’s “2010 UltimateAdventure Outfitters From Around the Globe" and also won their 2010 Travel Vision Award fortheir contribution to literacy in Nepal and now India and Bhutan. Dr. Antonia (Toni) Neubauer,president of Myths and Mountains, is the 2010Condé Nast Nepal Travel Specialist.• When and Why Did You Begin aTraveler’s Philanthropy Program?Because Myths and Mountains was offeringtheir guests intimate glimpses of how peoplelived, worked, and worshipped in their farawayworlds, the company wanted to givesomething back to the local people – helpingto make their villages a viable place for themto live, learn and prosper.When a trek leader in Nepal mentioned hewould like a library in his village, Toni thought that was a brilliant way to leverage scarceresources, build a library community center in a village, and provide materials in the local37READ Global Library, Nepal. Credit: Toni Neubauer