Outdoor travel has always been such a great experience for those who love staying active and exploring nature. With the coronavirus pandemic continuing to affect the globe, outdoor travel becomes even more essential for those who are desperate to get out in the world again.
Being in nature and doing activities such as hiking, kayaking or trekking is a great way to fill your eager heart with travel experiences while also staying safe. These types of trips keep you away from crowded places and also give you a bit of peace away from all the madness.
However, trying to find the best outdoor tour company can be intimidating. How physically active do you need to be to enjoy yourself? What kind activities are included? Does the tour company even have trips in your dream destination?
Travelers can rest assured that there is a perfect tour company out there for them. All of their boxes can be checked including destination, activities and physical level with great experiences awaiting them in the great outdoors.
Below are the top 8 tour companies for outdoor travelers.
REI Adventures
For 25 years REI Adventures has been offering active outdoor adventures all over the world. Their trips are designed to immerse travelers in nature with easy outdoor activities to intense experiences like white water rafting and trekking up mountains.
Specialized Activities: REI Adventures is best known for their outdoor gear which makes it no surprise that their speciality is intense physical activity in nature. The common experiences that travelers can expect when traveling with REI Adventures include backpacking, climbing, cycling, mountain biking, hiking, kayaking, safaris and trekking to name only a few.
Fitness Level: It may sound like REI Adventures is only for the most experienced, most fit traveler that loves adventure. However, any level of active traveler can find the right trip for them.
REI Adventures trips are rated 1 through 5 for activity level. Level 1 trips are designed to be more relaxed with activities such as hiking and safaris. The rating system works up in intensity up to Level 5 which indicates strenuous activities. Level 5 trips often require a doctor’s note to ensure that you are fit for the physical challenge.
This system is perfect to allow all different types of travelers to find the trip that’s best for them. Whether you are an active outdoor traveler guru or if you simply enjoy the outdoors, you can find a trip with REI Adventures.
Group Style: REI Adventures offer small groups experiences to give travelers the opportunity to grow closer with their other like minded companions. Group sizes are typically around 16 individuals with a minimum of 4.
Destinations: Trips cover all seven continents and are sorted by region. These regions include Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia & New Zealand, Central America, Europe, North America and South America. This gives travelers a great opportunity to find their dream trip in their dream destination. This doesn’t restrict tours to travelers who only like one region of the globe, there are ample destinations to choose from.
Reviews: Travelers have rated this tour company as 4.4 stars out of 5 and 100% recommend traveling with them. One traveler writes, “Exceeded our expectations”. To read more about what people are saying about REI Adventures, visit the REI Adventures review page.
ROW Adventures
ROW Adventures began as a whitewater rafting company and now offers many different types of active adventure travel to destinations across the globe. Their trips are designed to connect adventure minded people with unforgettable experiences in nature.
Specialized Activities: ROW Adventures offers many trips that involve water as their origin is in white water rafting. The most common activities include different types of rafting, kayakingand canoeing. While this is their speciality, they do offer other activities such as safaris, biking, and hiking.
Fitness Level: These trips aren’t just for the experienced adventure traveler. ROW Adventures strives to create active tours that will appeal to a wide range of travelers. Even if you’ve never taken an active adventure tip before and just enjoy the outdoors, ROW Adventures has trips for you.
However, many of these trips do include physically active experiences outdoors so it’s best to look at the itinerary and activities to see if the trip is a good fit for your fitness level and travel style.
Group Style: ROW Adventures caters heavily to families, couples and retired-aged adults. No matter the group size, ROW Adventures keeps a ratio of one guided to every three travelers for their multi-day trips and one guided to every six guests for their one or two day trips. This allows travelers more one-on-one time with their expert guides who have amazing knowledge of the region and activities as well as great stories to tell.
Destinations: Row offers trips on five continents, including North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Antarctica. This gives travelers a large list of destinations to choose from to find the perfect trip for them.
Reviews: Travelers have rated the tour operator 5 out of 5 stars with 100% recommendation. One review says, “Great trips - great company.” To read more about what people are saying about ROW Adventures, visit the ROW Adventures reviews page.
ROW Sea Kayak Adventures
ROW Sea Kayak Adventures creates wilderness trips for active, outdoor-minded travelers. These trips are designed to immerse travelers in nature so they can experience the beauty of wilderness and wildlife.
Specialized Activities: ROW Sea Kayak Adventures specializes in providing unbeatable nature immersion experiences through kayaking. Kayaking is a very un-intrusive activity that allows travelers to see animals up close and personal without disturbing them.
While kayaking is the activity they are most known for, ROW Sea Kayak Adventures also offers activities such as snorkeling, hiking and swimming.
Fitness Level: While ROW Sea Kayak Adventures trips include many active, outdoor experiences, these trips do not require prior experience. However, a certain level of fitness will make these activities, ranging from kayaking to hiking, more enjoyable. It’s best to look at the trip itinerary first to see if the activities and travel style are a good fit for your fitness level and preferred travel experience.
Group Style: Group size is always small when traveling with ROW Sea Kayak Adventures. This ensures that travelers have an intimate experience both with nature and other travelers. This also gives them necessary one-on-one time and attention from their guide.
Destinations: ROW Sea Kayak Adventures offers a wide range of destinations for travelers to choose from. These include places in North America, Mexico, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Africa and Antarctica.
Reviews: Travelers have rated this tour operator 5 stars out of 5 stars with 97% recommendation. One traveler’s review says, “Thank you for the best adventures of my life”. To read more about what people are saying about ROW Sea Kayak Adventures visit the ROW Sea Kayak Adventures reviews page.
Exodus
Exodus offers outdoor trips with more than 600 itineraries across more than 100 countries. These trips are great for travelers who love being in nature as well as learning about culture and staying active.
Specialized Activities: Exodus specializes in active cultural, walking & trekking, cycling and responsible wildlife tours and experiences. Walking and cycling are the biggest categories for active experiences with Exodus. They also offer a mixed activity trip for the traveler who wants to try a little bit of everything.
Fitness Level: These trips are great for those who are already active and enjoy traveling experiences that are packed full of challenging activities. Exodus provides physical fitness guides to show how much training you should expect to do prior to departure.
These ratings range from 1 to 7. A rating of 1 indicates that the trip is more leisure based on activities fit for travelers who are healthy and want a relaxing travel experience outdoors. The level of difficulty increases to level 7 which is seen as a tough trip. These trips are recommended to travelers who have previous experiences doing that activity involved.
Group Style: There are many different types of groups that travelers can choose from which allows them the opportunity to pick the one that is right for them. These include guided groups, private groups, self guided tours or even solo traveling.
Destinations: Exodus leads 600 + trips spanning all seven continents. Travelers have a multitude of places to choose from which gives them the freedom to find the perfect destination that’s right for them.
Maybe you want to travel to Botswana, Laos or Greece. Within each continent there are several countries that are bound to include your bucket list destination.
Reviews: Travelers have rated this tour company 4.7 stars out of 5 with 98% recommendation. One traveler writes, “Fantastic experience in India 5 star”. To read more of what people are saying about Exodus, visit the Exodus reviews page.
Explore
Explore offers outdoor active trips that range across many different activities and travel styles. They have 30+ years of delivering high-quality active adventure trips and all of their guides are locals.
Specialized Activities: Explore isn’t known for one thing but they have a selection of active experiences that travelers can choose from. These include activities such as trekking and cycling.
However, wildlife and nature are a big part of almost every trip. From safaris to whale watching, travelers can expect an immersive travel experience into the beautiful nature of a destination.
Fitness Level: Explore offers a scale, known as 'Tour Pace', for travelers to understand how hands-on a trip may be. This ranges from 'Relaxed' to 'Full On,' with most trips falling in between as 'Moderate' or 'Busy.'
With such a wide selection of fitness levels, it’s best to look at a trip and it’s rating and activities to decide if it is the right travel style for you. This is great because it allows many different types of travelers from the very active to the ones who simply enjoy nature to find the perfect trip for them.
Group Style: Explore is known for their small group size. This type of group style allows travelers to become more immersed in their natural surroundings and grow closer with the other like-minded travelers.
However, small groups are not the only group style that Explore offers. They also have private tours, solo tours and family adventures.
Destinations: Explore sends travelers to all seven continents with over 120 countries.
Go bird watching in Mongolia, walk through the Atakora Mountain range in Benin or even take a scenic boat ride in Malta. The options for travelers are endless and each destination offers unique active experiences specific to the nature and culture of the region.
Reviews: Travelers rated Explore 4.7 stars out of 5 and 99% recommendation. One traveler said, “I cannot praise Explore highly enough”. To read more of what people are saying about Explore, visit the Explore reviews page.
UTracks
UTracks offers active trips all over Europe with over 450 itineraries to choose from. These trips are focused on getting active outdoors but they also have other interests such as food, history and culture woven in.
Specialized Activities: UTracks is most known for their cycling activities and focused trips. These cycling trips cover nearly every destination and many different travel groups and styles.
Cycling may be their main offered activity, but UTracks has other active experiences such as hiking, walking, trekking and boating that travelers can choose from.
Fitness Level: Every trip is graded on the type of fitness that is needed for the included activities and experiences. It ranges from introductory (1) to challenging (5). It is best to understand what each rating entails to find the best trip for your fitness level and preferred travel style.
Group Style: UTracks specializes in self guided tours. This means travelers don’t join a group or have a guide but instead, they navigate their destination and scheduled activities on their own. Self guided tours cover nearly every destination and activity.
Destinations: Europe is the only continent that UTracks sends travelers but this includes several countries that span the entire region. France, Croatia and Turkey are among some of the more popular destinations chosen by travelers. If Europe is where your dream trip rests, UTracks would be great for you.
Reviews: Travelers rated UTracks 4.9 stars out of 5 with 98% recommendation. One rating reads, “Our trip exceeded our expectations”. To read more of what people are saying about UTracks, visit the UTracks reviews page.
Wild Frontiers
Wild Frontiers strives to connect travelers with unforgettable destinations filled with stunning nature, wildlife and culture. Many tours are focused on exploration to allow travelers the most immersive and intimate experience possible.
Specialized Activities: Most trips with Wild Frontiers include a lot of trekking, hiking and walking. These tours are meant to give travelers a hands-on and in depth experience which results in a lot of movement from place to place.
Fitness Level: All trips are rated for the level of intensity that travelers can expect. This range goes from one (most relaxed trip) to ten (very intense trip). Each type of rating suggests a different level of required physical fitness to not only be able to complete the activities but to enjoy them.
Browse the trips and their ratings to decide which fitness level and travel style is right for you.
Group Style: Wild Frontiers is best known for their small group tours. The average group size is 9 with a maximum of 12 travelers. With these small groups, travelers have better access to local communities where they can better learn and experience the culture and surrounding nature.
Destinations: Wild Frontiers sends travelers all over the world, including to Antarctica, Asia, Europe, India, Latin America, Africa, Middle East and Scandinavia & Arctic.
Visit a local village in Chile, visit a cathedral in Armenia which is one of the oldest churches in the world or even take a boat ride on the Nile in Egypt. The possibilities are endless and all activities are active and unique to each destination.
Reviews: Travelers rated Wild Frontiers 4.8 out of 5 stars with 98% recommendation. One traveler wrote, "Great service and great adventures". To read more of what people are saying about Wild Frontiers, visit the Wild Frontiers reviews page.
MT Sobek
MT Sobek offers outdoor adventure travel all over the world. They are one of the pioneers of the active, adventure tourism industry and believe these experiences are an important part of life.
Specialized Activities: Some common activities and trip focuses that travelers can expect from MT Sobek include hiking & trekking, rafting & kayaking as well as wildlife & safari. There isn’t one specific activity that MT Sobek is known for the most but they are well known for their overall adventure and outdoors activities that include many different kinds of experiences.
Fitness Level: MT Sobek trips are graded on how easy they would be to complete. The ratings range from 1 (easiest) which is often focused more on wildlife and culture to 5 (most intense) which often includes longer distance hiking or kayaking.
It’s best to look at the rating of each trip and the activities included to find the perfect trip that matches your fitness level as well as how active you want to be on your trip.
Group Style: Small groups make up a big part of the tours offered by MT Sobek. Travelers will benefit from the smaller group size as it will only better their cultural and nature immersion.
Destinations: Travelers can find trips on all seven continents with MT Sobek.
Go on a flying safari in Botswana, walk on a suspension bridge in Nepal’s Namche Bazaar or learn about the art of hunting mushrooms in Croatia. Travelers have the opportunity to find their perfect destination that includes all the best places and sites to match their travel style and interests.
Reviews: Travelers rated MT Sobek 4.8 stars out of 5 with 96% recommendation. One traveler wrote, “A trip of a lifetime”. To read more of what people are saying about MT Sobek, visit the MT Sobek reviews page.
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