Rustic Pathways bans 15 activities on every student travel program in all 38 countries where Rustic Pathways operates. The banned list covers ATVs and motorbikes, paragliding and hang gliding, speed boats and jet boats, contact with wildlife outside an approved conservation activity, tattoos and piercings, riding on vehicle roofs, and two bans that name a single country.
Rustic Pathways does not offer, organize, or permit any activity on this list, and Rustic Pathways staff do not join these activities while on payroll.
What are the 15 banned activities?
Rustic Pathways bans the 15 activities in the table below across every program and every destination, with three narrow exceptions stated in the exception column. The conservation exception on ban 2 depends on how Rustic Pathways vets the vendors behind every activity.
| # | Banned activity | Applies | Exception |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Visiting wet markets, meaning markets that sell live animals | All programs | None |
| 2 | Feeding, petting, or physical contact with wildlife, meaning non-domestic animals | All programs | Permitted inside a vendor-led conservation or animal-care activity approved in advance |
| 3 | Swimming, wading, or non-approved water activity where dangerous animals are present in the water or along the shore | All programs | None |
| 4 | ATVs, motorcycles, and mopeds | All programs | None |
| 5 | Speed boats and jet boats | All programs | None |
| 6 | Flyboarding | All programs | None |
| 7 | Hang gliding | All programs | None |
| 8 | Paragliding | All programs | None |
| 9 | Kitesurfing and kite sailing | All programs | None |
| 10 | Flights on single-engine aircraft | All programs | Permitted with approval from the Leader of Global Operations |
| 11 | Horseback riding | Mongolia | None |
| 12 | Whitewater rafting | Dominican Republic | None |
| 13 | Paintball | All programs | None |
| 14 | Tattoos and piercings | All programs | None |
| 15 | Riding on the roof of a transport vehicle | All programs | Permitted on a boat with a dedicated roof deck enclosed by fencing or guardrails |
Market and bazaar visits are a normal part of Rustic Pathways programs, and students shop local markets in Thailand, Vietnam, and other destinations. Ban 1 is specific to markets that sell live animals.
Four criteria put an activity on this table, and each criterion is applied case by case.
Why does an activity get banned?
Rustic Pathways bans an activity when the activity meets one of four criteria.
The activity adds nothing to the program or to the cultural and student experience. Enjoyment alone does not justify running an activity on a student program.
The risk of participation is not offset by the benefit of the experience. Most adventure activities that reach the banned list fail on this criterion.
A past incident involving the same activity or a similar one triggered an outright ban. Motorbike tours are the clearest case, eliminated across every program in 2018 after an injury risk assessment.
Incidents that drive a ban sit inside the incident data Rustic Pathways publishes every quarter.
No industry safety standard exists yet. Where no current standard defines adequate precautions, Rustic Pathways has no defensible basis for judging the activity, so the activity waits.
Two entries on the table are narrower than the other 13, because two name a single country.
Which bans apply to only one country?
Two of the 15 bans name one country, and the remaining 13 apply everywhere Rustic Pathways operates.
Horseback riding runs on Rustic Pathways programs in several countries under the horseback riding activity standard, which requires helmets, a slow trot with no galloping or cantering, and vendor-led skills training. In Mongolia, horseback riding is banned.
Whitewater rafting runs on Rustic Pathways programs through licensed and insured vendors. In the Dominican Republic, whitewater rafting is banned.
The ban applies to the activity, not the destination, and the programs Rustic Pathways runs in the Dominican Republic operate normally.
A banned list carries meaning only alongside the rule that governs every activity the list does not name.
What happens to activities that are not on the banned list?
An activity that is absent from the banned list still cannot run unless a written Rustic Pathways activity standard covers the activity first.
Rustic Pathways maintains a library of written activity standards, each carrying a risk rating and its own requirements for vendors, equipment, briefings, and supervision. Adding a new activity requires writing a standard before students participate.
That closed catalog is why the banned list is short. The list names activities specifically excluded, while the far larger set of activities Rustic Pathways has never approved never enters programming at all.
Those standards sit underneath what Rustic Pathways takes responsibility for during a program.
A written standard states what Rustic Pathways permits. Cancelled contracts show what Rustic Pathways enforces.
How does Rustic Pathways enforce the banned list?
Rustic Pathways enforces the banned list and the activity standards by cancelling activities and terminating vendor contracts, including profitable ones.
In Thailand, zipline vendors that could not deliver safety briefings in English lost their contracts with Rustic Pathways. In Costa Rica, a whitewater rafting vendor failed a safety audit and the activity was cancelled, a separate matter from the standing Dominican Republic ban.
In 2018, an injury risk assessment ended every motorbike tour across every Rustic Pathways program, which is ban 4 in the table above. In 2025 Rustic Pathways terminated contracts with three vendors for safety violations.
A failed audit is judged against the nine categories Rustic Pathways uses to evaluate an activity provider.
Frequently asked questions
Does Rustic Pathways allow ATV riding?
Rustic Pathways does not offer ATV riding on any program. ATVs, motorcycles, and mopeds are banned as a single entry on the banned activities list, and Rustic Pathways staff do not ride them while on payroll.
Can students get a tattoo or piercing on a Rustic Pathways program?
Rustic Pathways does not arrange or permit tattoos or piercings on any program. Both appear on the banned activities list as ban 14, and what Rustic Pathways expects from students during a program covers student conduct more broadly.
Does Rustic Pathways allow students to touch or feed wild animals?
Rustic Pathways permits students to feed, bathe, or handle wildlife only inside a conservation or animal-care activity run by a licensed vendor under qualified supervision and approved in advance.
Rustic Pathways does not offer elephant rides, rides on any wild animal, or staged photo opportunities with wildlife. Riding a non-domestic animal is contact with wildlife outside an approved conservation activity, which ban 2 covers.
Are there activities Rustic Pathways bans in some countries but not others?
Rustic Pathways bans two activities by country. Horseback riding is banned in Mongolia and runs in other destinations under the horseback riding activity standard.
Whitewater rafting is banned in the Dominican Republic and runs in other destinations through licensed and insured vendors.
What happens if an activity is not on the banned list?
An activity that is not on the banned list still cannot run unless a written Rustic Pathways activity standard covers the activity. The banned list names specific exclusions, and the activity standards define what Rustic Pathways offers.
