546 stories
The rickety bus from Quito to Otavalo in Ecuador was bursting with a rich cacophony of Otavaleños women chattering in Quechua, yellow chickens clucking nervously from small bamboo cages, and the bus radio filling the coach with the popular song of “El Condor Pas” in Spanish.
By Kate Willingham, Destination Manager at Natural Habitat Adventures I’ve always loved butterflies. Growing up, I would tromp around our backyard looking for Eastern tiger swallowtails or their caterpillar counterpart, catching them with my bare hands, housing them in butterfly terrariums, and every now and then bringing them to my kindergarten show-and-tell.
To celebrate his son Finlay’s graduation from high school, Ben Bressler, founder and president of Natural Habitat Adventures, planned a trip a little out of the ordinary for most 18-year-olds and their 54-year-old dads. They went to Tanzania to climb Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa.
In late August 2015, I was able to take a trip with Natural Habitat Adventures on its Ultimate Alaska Wildlife Photo Safari. During this photography tour, we had many incredible wildlife viewings.
I’ve traveled throughout the Caribbean, so I before I left for Cuba, I kept wondering if it would be like the other places I’ve been in the region or like no place I’d ever been. Turns out it’s both. Cuba has a very Caribbean vibe as soon as you step off the plane.
The quietest place you may ever experience is next to a little pond off the Forest Trail in Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska. Hiking there just a couple of weeks ago, I found myself feeling a little unsettled without quite knowing why.
I have wanted to travel to Madagascar ever since I first learned about it in third grade. In July 2015, I finally had my chance to tour this large island off the southeast coast of Africa.
During the spring of 1995, I joined a Natural Habitat Adventures kayaking trip in search of Pacific gray whales in Baja’s Sea of Cortez. We zigzagged from one end of the Baja peninsula to the other in hopes of sighting one of these magnificent whales.
There are a variety of categories on one’s bucket list — things you know you will experience this year (“the low-hanging fruit”), things you might get to within the next five years (“sooner rather than later”), things you will definitely do, but might get to much later in life (“one day”), and things you…
Last August, I was fortunate enough to spend an entire week cruising Alaska’s famed “Inside Passage” aboard the Safari Quest. This was my first visit to the incredible state of Alaska, and it certainly didn’t disappoint! Alaska is truly an incredible destination for awe-inspiring landscapes and abundant wildlife.
A muscular straw-yellow lioness suddenly appeared in the headlights of the old Peugeot, forcing us to a halt. She nonchalantly glanced over her shoulders with an expression of, “This is my road—not to be shared!” and snarled back at us. No lion’s share here.
I’m one of those people who tends to travel with zero expectations. This isn’t because I have some overly pessimistic worldview or have had some unfortunate litany of bad travel experiences. On the contrary: I’m optimistic to a fault and all of my “top ten” life moments have occurred while traveling.
