Wilderness Travel

Wilderness Travel is an adventure travel company based at 1102 Ninth Street in Berkeley, California, and its Why Us page says it has designed and run trips "since our founding in 1978". It organizes its own itineraries, which are led by its own trip leaders with the help of local hosts, vendors and partners in each country, so it is a tour operator rather than a marketplace. The homepage says it has "more than 200 trips in over 80 countries throughout the world", sold as Small Group Adventures and Private Journeys. Prices on the site are in US dollars, and the main contact is a US toll-free number, 1-800-368-2794.

Where the trips go

The destination menu is split into Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, North America, Pacific and Polar. In Africa it lists Botswana, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Kilimanjaro, Madagascar, Morocco, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Asia covers Bhutan, Cambodia, Central Asia, the Himalayas, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. Europe runs from the Alps, Croatia and the Czech Republic to England, France, Georgia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey. Latin America includes the Amazon, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands, Mexico, Patagonia and Peru. The Middle East menu lists Egypt, Jordan, Oman and Turkey; North America lists Alaska, Canada and the USA; the Pacific runs from Australia and New Zealand to Fiji, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Raja Ampat and Tonga; and Polar covers Antarctica, the Arctic, Finland, Greenland, Iceland and Norway. The trip finder adds more, including Albania, Borneo, the Faroe Islands, Kosovo, Senegal, South Korea, Taiwan and Tibet.

The range of trips

Trips are browsable by type (Small Group Adventures, Private Journeys, Cruise Collection, Special Events, Family Trips and Solo Travel), by activity (cultural, hiking and trekking, safaris, small ship cruising, snorkeling and kayaking, walking, wildlife and natural history, plus rail journeys and river cruising in the trip finder) and by month. The Best Sellers menu names Hike the Camino de Santiago, Experience the Great Migration, Cruise the Galapagos Islands and Trek the Inca Trail.

The homepage features give a sense of length, level and price. Trekking to Everest Base Camp runs 19 days at Level 6 and is listed from $5,595. Ultimate Patagonia, in Argentina and Chile, runs 14 days at Level 4/5 from $12,895. Tanzania: The Great Migration Safari is 13 days at Level 2 from $12,195, and Hiking Tuscany and the Cinque Terre is 10 days at Level 3 from $7,095. Destination blurbs mention climbing Kilimanjaro, hiking the Alps with "world-class mountain guides", trekking the Cordillera Blanca in Peru and a Nile cruise in Egypt. On Private Journeys, the site says travelers can customize the trip to fit their vision, and any adventure can be run privately for an existing small group.

Leaders, groups and the style of travel

The site gives its trip leaders a lot of weight, calling them "simply the best in the business" and noting they "may be authors, archaeologists, photographers, or mountaineers". Leader pages carry biographies and show which upcoming trips each will guide, so travelers can follow a favorite leader. Local partners get the same emphasis: the site calls "nurturing these intimate relationships in all corners of the world" its greatest strength, and says the aim is for travelers to have someone in each country "who knows just what to share and where to take you", giving examples such as tea with a Maasai elder in Tanzania and a welcome at a private estancia in Patagonia.

On group size, the site states "an average group size of just 10 travelers on our Small Group Adventures". It says it favors boutique, locally owned hotels over chain hotels, that many of its African safari camps are "exclusive for just our groups", and that its mountain treks use a "celebrated WT camping style" with coffee brought to the tent in the morning. Trips carry a numbered activity level, from Level 2 for the Tanzania safari to Level 6 for Everest Base Camp, which is the site's own guide to how demanding each trip is.

Booking and support

Booking runs through people rather than a checkout cart: the site says each traveler gets an Area Specialist as "single point of contact" while planning ("no sales call centers here"), and it invites calls to 1-800-368-2794 or email. It offers references from past travelers on request, a free print or digital 2026-2027 Catalog of Adventures, a Special Offers page, a travel insurance resource and a travel agents page. On the ground, trip leaders and local support staff handle logistics.

Awards and sustainability

The Why Us page lists "13-Time Winner of World's Best Tour Operator", "6-Time Winner of Top Travel Specialist in the World" and "12-Time Trip of The Year Award Winner", and names Travel + Leisure, Conde Nast, AFAR, National Geographic, Outside and USA Today among the bodies that have recognized it, without giving years on that page. It says it offsets all carbon emissions from its land-based trips, is a founding member of the Adventure Travel Conservation Fund, and supports "dozens of grassroots organizations across every continent".

What the site leaves open

The site does not give deposit amounts, payment dates or cancellation terms. The average group size of 10 is not a maximum, and the site does not state a cap. The activity levels are shown as numbers without a scale explanation on these pages, and prices appear only for featured trips, so most costs sit on individual trip pages. The site also does not say how many trips run on fixed departures versus as Private Journeys only.

For travelers who want a long-established, leader-driven operator for treks, safaris and walking trips, and who like planning with one named specialist rather than a booking engine, Wilderness Travel's range and small average groups are its clear strengths. Travelers on a tight budget should compare the trip prices first, since the featured departures start at $5,595, and anyone who wants to book instantly online will find the process built around a phone call with a specialist.