Naturalist Journeys

Welcome to Naturalist Journeys! We are a top nature and birding tour company that also offers exciting walking and hiking tours worldwide. Join expert guides for small group tours that focus on nature, birding, wildlife and geology. We welcome new travelers. Click “Choose a Tour” for our full schedule of upcoming nature and birding tours to top-rated destinations like Arizona, Alaska, Montana, Costa Rica, Panama, Africa, the Galapagos and more. Ask about our active nature adventure tours that showcase impressive national parks of the USA.

Naturalist Journeys is a top birding and nature tour company that puts people, places and remarkable experiences together. Our journeys focus on nature – specifically birding, natural history, geology and geography. Beyond that focus both our birding and nature tours, walking and hiking tours have a life of their own: creative, dynamic, and enduring. They have meant a great deal to many travelers and this is our inspiration.

Naturalist Journeys is owned and managed by Peg Abbott, who guides many of the birding and nature tours, as well as several of the company’s line of walking and hiking tours. Abbott created Naturalist Journeys to continue the work that she has enjoyed for over 30 years; 15 years with the National Audubon Society, and later with a variety of conservation organizations and small travel companies.

Naturalist Journeys’ expert guides, Peg Abbott’s co-leaders, are trusted friends and gifted naturalists. They help design itineraries for this top birding and nature tour company with the benefit of local communities and the conservation of natural ecosystems in mind. Wherever possible, Naturalist Journeys employs local people, uses environmentally sound lodgings, and visits places not on the standard tour path. Groups are small, typically 6-12, and many are repeat travelers. People comment on the flexible and caring style of Naturalist Journeys. This characteristic comes easily because so many of the clients traveling with us are also flexible and fascinated by travel and learning.

Peg Abbott says, “I started in the birding and nature tour realm as a bit of a vagabond, working in remote places: from seabird islands to wildlife refuges and western ranches. Through travel I developed the eye of an old-time naturalist. Later, I pursued a bachelor's degree in biology and then a master's degree in forestry and wildlife to give structure to field-gained knowledge. I've worked in wild places from Alaska to Argentina, and every mile I've tread has offered its lessons. I value the years of experience as I take groups into new and exciting places.”

The keystone of this company is to offer highly organized birding and nature tours and walking and hiking tours as ecotourism experiences that preserve the element of the spontaneous so rare in group travel today. At every level of the company, it is adventure travel itself that is mentor, teacher, a way of life and a profession. The respect of responsible and sustainable travel is well expressed in the pace and style of a Naturalist Journeys tours.