There is something special about seeing a wild animal in its natural habitat. I have vivid memories of looking into the eye of a leopard, gorilla, lizards and countless other species.
When we first started looking for wildlife, to be honest I don’t even know if we realized we were looking for wildlife per say. Chris and I just liked being outdoors. And that’s where we went.
I bought my first backpacking pack for $25 at a gear swap in Flagstaff, AZ. We just began and then learned as we went along. Our year and half as wilderness therapy instructors in Utah greatly help us gain the skills and knowledge to be outdoors safely and comfortably. We were part of a team that oversaw youth on eight day shifts in the wilderness. We did this job in all weather camping outside with only a tarp. Our lowest temperatures were down to about -32F and highest well over 100F. Longer term instructors helped show us tricks and as months passed we soon were veteran instructors showing younger instructors the same tricks.
Fast forward over the years and we have traveled to six of the seven continents looking for wildlife. Sometimes it’s on our own and sometimes it’s with a group. It all depends on the situation. Sometimes it’s completely mandatory to have a guide and sometimes having a guide is optional.
For whatever way you seek to get out into nature there will be times you will go along with others and there will be times your on your own. In 2015, the same year the ebola crisis broke out, we had committed and took a three month overland camping safari from Kenya down to South Africa. It was our first introduction into group travel and it was one of the best trips of our lives.
Some major perks of group travel are:
- you don’t have to plan where you are going to sleep every night!
- many of you activities are already planned and you probably paid for a good portion of them
- we still keep in close contact with a lot of the friends we met on these trips
- if you are just starting out, it can give you a blue print for how to travel
- and especially for us – when we rented a car to go around South Africa on our own we had the confidence and knowledge how to safely self drive on wildlife safari’s. We then had weeks of observation watching how other professional guides drove.
Some major perks of independent travel are:
- you can alter your schedule to stay longer at the places you like
- you can sit for hours without holding up other people when you are the one that really wants to try and get another frog picture
- you have better control over noise levels (not everyone in a group is a quiet nature observer)
- having the ability to schedule sleep in days when you need them (getting up early every single day can really wear you down)
Here are some top notch tours that we recommend for wildlife viewing. Please note some of these are through other companies like Intrepid and some of them are trips we planned out and executed completely on our own. It all just depended on the circumstance. Either way we feel these trips provided great experiences and value and that’s why we are sharing them with you.
Africa
This is the trip we did although there has been some slight alterations. This was a great into trip into Africa.
A word of advice…this trip has a lot of early morning wake ups and long drives. It is a great trip but I wouldn’t categorize this as a relaxing vacation per say. You are really going at it to try squeeze in all the amazing wildlife and experiences you possibly can. Also for many people arriving to Africa there is a big time difference. Give yourself a day or two before the trip to adjust so you are not exhausted on the trip.
Gorillas & Chimps in Depth
Silver back mountain gorillas only live in one entire mountain range in the whole world in the Virunga Mountains. This range is shared between Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. Hiking with gorillas is a once in a life time event. This trip has actually changed since we went on it originally. We hiked with the gorillas in Rwanda and the permit fee at that time cost $750. Yes – I know. Steep. It’s more now. So don’t put off the things you really want to do. Almost always they get more expensive, not less expensive. At the time of writing this trip currently hikes with gorillas in Uganda.
We did a trip very similar to this itinerary. What spectacular places you get to see. People loved this trip. The only thing I would mention is if white water rafting is an option find out how big and rough the rapids are. Other members in our group went rafting and they got tossed around so much and were sore for days. That is the one down side to group travel is you can’t just schedule in a rest day when you need it.
Kenya to Cape Town
This is a longer version of the trip above, which we also did a very similar itinerary. All of these trips, oh my gosh, if you can swing it, just go!
Nepal
Walking Safari in Nepal to see Rhinos and other Wildlife in Chitwan National Park
This is an easy trip you can do completely by yourself. The exact lodge we stayed at was Chitwan Gaida Lodge. We stayed at this lodge because the guides had a reputation for be outstanding and they were! We went on a three day walking safari and had: multiple rhino sightings, lots of sloth bear sightings, a leopard in a tree, birds and lots more – it was incredible. I wrote another post detailing the experience here. The owners of this lodge were wonderful and showed a commitment to sustainability and conservation. Absolutely recommend going here if you can and it is an easy destination to reach from Kathmandu.
Hiking in the Annapurna Range of the Himalayan Mountains
To have hiked in the Himalayan Mountains was a dream trip for us. Aside from hiking near Everest there are so many wonderful opportunities to hike in Nepal. When we were there we felt like we could have easily just passed a month hiking around those impressive mountains.
If you are very experienced there are routes you can self hike. We did all our homework and had the experience to be able to go out and hike on our without a guide and it’s detailed HERE. If you would feel more comfortable with a guide there are loads of guides you can hire from the town of Pokhara. I cannot stress this enough – if you are in doubt – hire a guide. Mountains are unforgiving if you get up there and are not prepared or have the experience to hike alone. You can also have a look at booking a trip like this to complete a hike as well.
We did a four day hike of the Poon Hill circuit. Here is what some of the every day life was like. This a common route. However as such there is a lot of flexibility and it isn’t a super high stress hike to plan out and execute. For us time wise it was a great pairing to do with also to Chitwan National Park listed above. For a lot of travelers on a 2-ish week time frame you could reasonably do both of these.
Malaysia, Borneo
We spent two months traveling around Borneo, Malaysia. It was one of the best times of our lives. We found it very easy to self travel and the national parks are amazing. June, July and August are great months to go weather-wise for wildlife viewing. If you are ok with simple guest houses you can travel there on a great budget.
Here are a few highlights and trips you could replicate yourself. If you don’t have the time to plan it out yourself, all these trips cover similar areas and activities to those that we planned and executed on our own.
River Cruising in Borneo for Pygmy Elephants, Kinabatangan River
The exact lodge we stayed at was Sukau Greenview B&B. This lodge is right along the river and the dining area is situated along the river too. The guides there were excellent and we had many great sightings along the river. You can read this post with more how to details.
Kubah National Park – A Frog Lovers Dream
We wished we had stayed more nights in this park. If you are into photographing or observing frogs and herps this park is for you. In the actual park you book and stay directly with the park. The how to info is laid out in this post. The main town not far away is Kuching and the exact place we stayed was Marco Polo’s Guesthouse. We could store our extra luggage there no problem. Another great alternative that we also looked at was Siggahsana Lodge.
We have also traveled with GAdventures and were pleased with their quality. GAdventures and Intrepid Travel are two very similar companies. They both do a good job of spreading the money around and supporting local businesses and guides. If the dates for an Intrepid trip don’t fit your schedule, I wouldn’t hesitate to look at what GAdventure is offering to see if that fits your schedule and viceaversa.
Have other wildlife oriented trips your interested in? Let me know! I am still adding wildlife tours to this page about parks we went to in Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina and more. If you have an interest and need more information I will try to get those details up next!
