Naturetrek Traveller Reviews

I have travelled many times with Naturetrek over the years and their service has been excellent. A considerable increase in the number of trips offered by the company has not led to a deterioration in quality of service or personal attention to queries or problems from their clients. Honduras was an example of this. Pre- and post-tour extensions were arranged without fuss, as well as different routes to our destinations at different times, Apart from unavoidable weather-affected plans (capably handled by the company), events proceeded very smoothly with no unwelcome surprises for the group. Tour guides were excellent and knowledgeable in the many aspects of interest to the clients in addition to the main feature of the trip - ornithology. Accommodation, transport and food was the best available and helped make a strenuous trip as comfortable as it could be. In order to make these tours as valuable as clients desire, there is a cost implication that cannot be denied. However, these costs were not jaw-dropping and I believe the trip was excellent value for money.

Naturetrek has operated for more that 30 years, providing tours which, as their name suggests, focus on all things natural. They have expanded into the private/family/tailormade tour industries effortlessly and a dramatic increase in staff level has not deteriorated the service offered. Staff at Naturetrek are without exception experienced in the travel industry as well as being experts in their fields of interest in the natural world. Their overseas agents are of the highest available standard and tour prices compare very favourably with other equivalent operators.

a week in Extremadura Spain, spent in a lovely homely hotel with great hosts. Good choice of leaders who were knowledgeable and organised our days so that a variety of habitat & birds were seen. Good company & great choice.

well organised & good info on their website. always able to offer advice & to organise personal requests if possible. good & timely information about the holiday & joining instructions.

Like entering a different world, we took time to listen and look and enjoy the world around us. Guided to many different birds, their habits in flight and choice of trees or other habitat were clearly explained so our knowledge base grew.Travelling as a small group to wooded glades, lakes, a meandering stream and much more , our guide gave us the space to explore and the direction needed to make the most of each moment. Combined with being amply fed and rested in ideal hotel accommodation when we returned home we felt very blessed to have enjoyed such a special week-end away. Memories of the song thrush and siskin we saw and heard are especially precious.

Everything slot in just right ... our guide was very accomplished in seeking out and sharing wildlife moments, paperwork was good with a well thought out tick list.

Our 19 day trip included the Simien and Bale Mts regions as well as the lakes of the Great Rift Valley. We saw many endemic mammals and birds thanks in great part to our outstanding Naturetrek Ethiopian and British guides whose knowledge and expertise was superb. I really feel as though I got to know the country and its people and I thoroughly enjoyed the variety of landscape, walking in the mountains as well as the parks and living in the peaceful, rustic accomodation. All my wildlife hopes were fulfilled!

Naturetrek are friendly, informative and responsive to all communication made and to individual needs. This was my eighth trip with them and I continue to be very impressed with their research (which gets us to the right places to see the wildlife,) genuine wildlife interest and knowledge. The expertise, knowledge and enthusiasm of the tour leaders is second to none.

This was a 5 day holiday in mid-February 2017 which blended outings to see Iceland's scarce resident and overwintering birds with wonderful viewing of the lava landscapes, geothermal waters, boiling and steaming mud pools and snow covered craters. One night permitted extended viewing of the Northern Lights during a period of clear sky as pseudopodia fingers of atomised dust particles rose up and metamorphosed into larger curtains sweeping the sky. Time and the cold night (between midnight and 3.00 a.m) seem to stand still during this breathtaking experience that made the holiday more than worth every penny spent. The 2 hotels we stayed in at Kriunes and Myvatn offered very sufficient warmth both in terms of room temperatures and personable hospitality with very good quality food and clean facilities and the entire holiday was very well organised, superby led by our group leader, Marcus, and ticked along very smoothly and enjoyable. What a pity we had to leave so soon!

Naturetrek have immense experience in organising wildlife holidays and I have travelled with them 2 years ago in Spain. As then, the overall standards of organisation, attention to travel detail (information, advice, suggestions) were of a very high standard and the group leader selected to lead this holiday, Marcus John, really knew his stuff and communicated very well his enthusiastic & positive impressions of Iceland, its history, wildlife and geology. I can only say that in all aspects of the holiday Naturetrek excelled and I would not hesitate to travel with them again to any suitable place of wildlife interest.

Active and enjoyable short break in the Forest of Dean, bird and wildlife watching, and learning about the area as a whole. Excellent and knowledgeable guide, very comfortable accommodation, and lovely woodland walks.

Naturetrek had everything very well organised and thought out.

bird watching tour Columbia went really well vast amount of birds seen thanks to a very good leader johnnier im really glad I choose Columbia a fascinating country to visit

all went smoothly from start to finnish

This trip was really fantastic, with exceptional tour guides. We were able to see far more bird species than we would have spotted on our own. The experience of the starling murmuration was really spectacular! The food was great too.

Naturetrek gave us plenty of information before and a brilliant tour write up after. Questions were answered promptly and in a friendly manner, would definitely use again.

I got home just last week from Naturetrek's 10-day "Bargain Mammal Tour - South Africa" (birding version). I'm still not finished sorting through my photos. The trip was fantastic! Even though the region was just emerging from a 5-year drought, and even though on two days of our trip we saw somewhat fewer birds and mammals due to the passing of Tropical Storm Dineo, we managed to rack up about 300 species of birds in those 10 days - most of them lifers for me. Our guide, driver and general tour manager for the trip - Gavin Simms - was impressively knowledgeable, especially about birds. He knew all the local species (some 400 at least) by sight, sound and behaviors even from great distances. He had nothing short of incredible skills at driving-while-birding and birding-while-driving, even while threading us around foot-deep ruts and potholes. And he was cheerful, informative, helpful, patient - you name it. For every quality that might help bring a bus-load of strangers together in good spirits for a week of variable weather, he had that quality. Of course, I it probably helped that those strangers were nice folks for their own part, but even so a gang of strangers can easily get on one another's nerves in the course of a week. We didn't, and that further enhanced the trip as a whole. The scenery and wildlife were fantastic, of course. The accomodations were charmingly and comfortably rustic, though I worry for their state if maintenance slips over the next few years. The food ranged from adequate to excellent and was always healthful and hygienically prepared. As a person with chronic stomach issues, I am happy to report that I didn't have a single bad day on the trip or after getting home. So even with a lesser guide, I'm sure the trip would have been a positive experience. But with Gavin as our guide it was superb!

The Naturetrek home office was very helpful with information at the booking stages. Personable service over the phone. I've come to rely on them for affordable, relaxed, safe, comfortable but at the same time exciting and inspiring wildlife tours. I'm already thinking about where to go next.

We were aboard the Searcher, a mahogany hulled ketch, normally used for sport fishing, but which takes 4 or 5 wildlife trips every year as well. The captain was hugely committed to the wildlife, and the crew (7 in all) were knowledgeable and worked extraordinarily hard to make sure we had all the opportunities we wanted to see the whales, swim with the shark, interact with the grey whales, go snorkelling safely and so on. The Natjretrek guide was just excellent. it was fun.

Naturetrek runs wildlife holidays for groups, not too large, and only when the wildlife you want to see will actually be there (e.g. grey whales at the time they are breeding, grizzly bears during the salmon season). Their guides are extremely knowledgable, often involved in their own research into the subject. There need be no wasted time. If there is a gap between flights, for example, they will organise a brief birding tour of the area close by.