Natural History & Wildlife holidays

There are plenty of escorted natural history tours to choose from covering everything from Birdwatching to Botany and lots of wildlife options too.  If you prefer to have me tailor a holiday just for you, either travelling independently or with a private guide, that’s not a problem.  With a zoology background and experience working for natural history holiday operators, let me tailor make the perfect wildlife holiday to suit what you want to see and when you want to see it, anywhere in the world!

I am in a unique position as a travel agent as this gives me the freedom to use many different operators to tailor make your own natural history holiday, not just book one from a brochure!  If you contact an operator, you will only get the option of their own product, so give me a call and I will do the searching for you and find the right operator to fit your requirements.

Do you have a particular TV hero that inspires you to travel?  For many, myself included it’s got to be David Attenborough who has taught us all so much about natural history over decades on our screens.  These days the worldwide travels of Simon Reeve, Bruce Parry and others have inspired many to get on those hiking boots and trip off round the planet!  There has been some amazing photography in programmes like Earthflight, giving us a birds eye view of the world and some incredible migration journeys of birds.

Natural History Holidays are often dictated by the weather and animal movements around the globe.  You may have only a certain time of year you can travel or the natural phenomenon that you would like to witness only happens once a year, such as the Sardine Run in South Africa the Bat Migration in Zambia or the Monarch butterfly migration in Mexico, so ask me for the best time to travel.  Even flowers have their seasons, the carpets of spring flowers in Namaqualand for example, are only at their best for a few weeks after the rains each year and certain rainforest orchids only flower every few years!

Throughout Europe, the spring offers plenty of opportunity for walking and botany holidays with spring alpine flowers making destinations such as Switzerland, Austria or Italy or Mediterranean islands popular in May or June. Birdwatching holidays have hot spots all around the world, some favourites include Costa Rica, Gambia and Senegal, the Amazon rainforest or Malaysia, to name a few. Not too far from the UK a destination you may not have considered with fantastic natural history is the Azores.  Sitting in the Atlantic, belonging to Portugal, these mountainous islands are a hot spot for whales, diving and flowers.

Jungles and Rainforests are havens for spectacular, unique and colourful wildlife around the world.  Try exotic Costa Rica for fabulous birding and butterflies, the jungles of Asia for tigers and monkeys and the forests of Madagascar for the weird and wonderful world of lemurs! Holidays to the Amazon are a must do for nature lovers but remember it covers a vast area so consider how long it takes you to get there!  In Brazil you can take a river cruise deep into the Amazon or fly in.  More easilly accessible with some really good eco-lodges is the Ecuadorian Amazon and you can even visit the Amazon in Peru or Venezuela.

The great apes are one of the most popular wildlife holiday must see choices, with a background including primatology, I can advise you on the best places to see your choice of apes and primates, including the Gorillas and Chimpanzees of Africa and the Orang Utan of Malaysia.  Other destinations that are great for primates include the rainforests of South America and again the lemurs in Madagascar.

A favourite wildlife holiday has to be the African Safari.  This is my specialist area with years of experience working in Africa, so there is a whole section of this website dedicated to safaris and the huge variety of natural history holidays to be enjoyed there. Following the great migration around the Masai Mara and Serengeti, sitting round the camp fire with a G&T listening to the noises of the African night … there’s nothing like it in the world! Take a look at the African Safari pages for details.

Penguins and other Antarctic wildlife have very short breeding seasons and the spectacle of hundreds of thousands of penguins in a breeding colony must surely be right up there on the wish list of any wildlife enthusiast!  The islands of the Falklands and South Georgia are best visited at certain times of the year, so let me find the perfect Antarctic cruise itinerary for you to get the best out of your journey to these remote locations.

The polar regions are really the ultimate challenge for a natural history holiday, ask me about the variety of wildlife holidays available here including watching polar bears, walruses and fabulous sea bird colonies around the Arctic regions.  One of the best places to see Polar Bears is Spitsbergen in Norway.

Take a look at The Natural World section of this website for inspiration on the different eco-systems of our planet and through the experiences section for detail about particular wildlife encounters (filter to natural world), such as gorilla trekking or whale watching.  Talk to me about what you really want to see, with my background in zoology and experience of working for nature tour operators I can give you independent advice on the best Natural History holiday options for you.  There are specialist Natural History operators in many different countries and I’ll make sure you are matched with the best group, operator or guide to fit with your requirements. If you are particularly interested in wildlife photography then I can find the best holidays for you and match you with likeminded people or specialist photography guides.

Get in touch and let me plan your tailor made wildlife holiday!