Outside MagazineOutside magazine has announced its annual travel awards, and guess who nabbed the top adventure travel company spot?

We did! Outside named Natural Habitat Adventures the world’s best outfitter for 2013. And we couldn’t be prouder!

Here’s an excerpt from Outside’s report:

“Natural Habitat Adventures rose above the rest. For the past 28 years, the Boulder, Colorado, company’s goal has been to immerse clients in wilderness and employ naturalists to show them the world’s most charismatic megafauna in 40 countries, from polar bears in Manitoba to tigers in India. Much of the world’s wildlife is going the way of the brontosaurus, and NHA is making valiant efforts to do something about it: it’s the official travel partner of the World Wildlife Fund, and since 2003 it has donated more than $1.4 million to the non-profit. In 2006, NHA started paying to offset its trips’ carbon emissions.”

The recent creation of Natural Habitat Expeditions, our higher-adrenaline slate of active adventures, also caught the eye of the editors, who called our Antarctica: Ultimate Polar Nature Expedition “the best trip this year.”

S/V Australis

The S/V Australis, cruising the Lemaire Channel on the Antarctic Peninsula

This 18-day private sailing expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula and South Shetland Islands features an exhilarating crossing of the Drake Passage aboard a 75-foot sailboat; 9 days exploring the peninsula’s channels, bays, islands and icebergs by sailboat, kayak and on foot; camping on the ice among myriad wildlife; and a return flight to Punta Arenas, Chile. Two departures are planned for December/January 2013-2014, accommodating just 8 qualified guests on each.

The Outside Travel Awards roundup also highlights five “remote countries on the rise.” Among the latter is Greenland, site of one of our most exciting Natural Habitat Expeditions offerings, Kayaking Greenland’s Arctic Riviera. This exclusive trip – run solely by Nat Hab – was also recognized by National Geographic Traveler as a Trip of a Lifetime.

Greenland kayaking

Utterdal Sound, East Greenland

Outside’s description is compelling enough to entice you to get to Greenland immediately:

“With hundreds of virgin summits, empty rivers, and staggering ice-curdled fjords, Greenland has long been a blue-ribbon destination for adventurers willing to wrestle logistical whales… The entire 836,000-square-mile country has just 75 miles of roads and a population that could fit inside Dodger Stadium. Despite the limited infrastructure, the frosty playground is changing fast. Last summer, according to NASA researchers, a record 137 cubic miles of Greenland’s prehistoric ice sheet melted away for good.”

All that melting has meant new paddling frontiers that our CEO (Chief Exploratory Officer) Olaf Malver has been pioneering routes into. His blog, Olaf’s Corner, includes a firsthand account of one of his most recent expeditions, a first-ever commercial paddling trip into the Skjoldungen fjord complex.

We’d love for you to join us in Antarctica, Greenland, or any of the other exciting nature and wildlife destinations we explore with small groups around the world.  To see our entire slate of offerings, including our Photo Tours and African safaris, visit our website.

And thanks to Outside for encouraging us all to spend more time there.

Wendy