Website: http://www.wildland.com/
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1986. They are actively at its helm and continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. Wild Style is homegrown to help break down barriers and boundaries that separate people from people, from the environment and from other living things. Wild Style builds lasting intercultural, interpersonal and environmental bonds to enhance instead of exploit by impressing with each step along a journey sincerity, compassion and understanding. The results are lasting bonds -- intercultural, interpersonal and environmental -- wherever Wildland Adventures travels as well as their family-like community of enlightened, passionate travelers who have experienced how to focus on what matters most. Intrinsic to Wildland Adventures are strong personal connections with guests, especially the relationships Kurt, Anne and the Program directors have with alumni.
“We value experiencing daily life wherever you are… It may be alongside migrant farm workers harvesting potatoes and singing songs. The guides love dong it; clients realize it’s totally spontaneous.” ~Kurt Kutay, Founder
The design of each itinerary necessitates deep destination knowledge along with the connections and the savvy to locate and involve the correct experts and personnel, whether they be specialized guides, academics, lecturers or other specialized experts. Today the company offers more than 150 unique itineraries in 37 countries. Destinations include, among many others, Costa Rica, Peru, Patagonia, the Galapagos, Belize, Africa, Turkey, SE Asia and the Indian sub-continent.
“We have developed such close working relationships with the people we collaborate with in each of our destinations. Local families who have come to know us will open their homes to receive our guests for lunch.” ~Kurt Kutay, Founder
For nearly three decades, they have been leading the way in adventure travel and ecotourism, not just to new destinations, but pioneering new approaches to travel that guarantee your experience with Wildland Adventures will be qualitatively superior.
They are personally involved in the design of your trip in coordination with local field staff. When you call their USA staff you will be speaking with another traveler with firsthand experience in your destination who will help you choose the right trip and craft an itinerary that meets your personal interests and style.
Cross-cultural interaction is not only having respect for local customs, but is genuine, honest, personal interaction stimulated by sensitive introductions from respectful guides who introduce you to their home like a friend and treat you as a personal traveling companion.
Prepare for total immersion, secure in your health and safety. Relax and enjoy the experiences of native cultures and pristine wilderness environments confident of exceptional accommodations, transportation, hygiene and security, and the support of professional in-country outfitters.
Wildland Adventures seeks out small, boutique hotels and lodges and even home stays where native culture is strong and travelers can enjoy regional cuisine and experience traditional lifestyle. Designed in indigenous style that fit into their environs naturally, chosen accommodations deliver charm, amenities and native warmth.
The direct involvement of professional indigenous guides in organizing and leading each Wildland Adventure assures guests will have an exceptionally informative, well-executed, and authentic experience.
By creating more personal, in-depth and meaningful life enhancing travel experiences the company consistently attracts active and inquisitive travelers of all ages who discover that Wildland Adventures are not the stereotypical group experience. Participants on their very small group trips are frequently experienced world travelers who request Wildland’s services for efficiency, economy, reliability, security and superior leadership.
Wildland Adventures are physical, intellectual and spiritual adventures--more a state of mind than a risky or arduous challenge. The real adventure is new insights, the awe found in nature, encounters with new cultures, and the excitement of personal discovery.
Guests rest easy with an established record of professionalism and safety. Prestigious travel writers, guidebooks and travel industry media, recognize Wildland Adventures as a leading ecotourism company. The company was a founding member of The International Ecotourism Society, the Galapagos Tour Operators Association, and the Maasai Environmental Resource Coalition, and retains corporate membership in other professional tourism associations and the Better Business Bureau.
Most all departures are guaranteed for two or more participants. Tiered group pricing makes this possible. Group size usually does not exceed 12 people.
An adventure vacation with Wildland Adventures will be a world of difference because they design specialized itineraries that match guests with their personal interests and style of travel. Wildland’s specialty travel programs include multi-generational Family Travel, Honeymoon and Romantic Adventures, cutting edge Exploratory Trips, expedition Small Ship Cruises, Custom and Private travel, and Specialized Group travel planning services for museums, clubs and nonprofits.
“A Program Director who is also a seasoned destination expert, is THE primary point of contact with every guest from start to finish.” ~Kurt Kutay, Founder
Wildland Adventures was founded on the principle that culturally and environmentally responsible travel can be a powerful force for change. Tourism should contribute to conservation and benefit local communities. The Travelers Conservation Trust (TCT) was founded in 1986 by Kurt Kutay as a non-profit, affiliate program of Wildland Adventures to foster means by which travelers can support local conservation initiatives and small-scale community development projects. By forming and strengthening links between environmentally conscientious travelers and host-country grassroots conservation groups, natural areas and cultural heritage can be preserved. This link between adventure travel, conservation and sustainable development enhances a vacation experience by creating more meaningful and authentic cultural encounters through learning, sharing and giving something back. See: http://www.wildland.com/about/giving-back
Memberships
Officers
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President
Anne Kutay, Vice-President
Executive Team
Rachael Garrett, VP of Operations
Tim Hocking, VP of Communications
Address
Wildland Adventures
3516 NE 155th St
Seattle, WA 98155-7412
Phone: 1-800-345-4453
Website: http://www.wildland.com/
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Social Media
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Media Contacts
Jonathan Burnham, Marketing Director / 206.365.0686 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
For photos, interviews, press trips and more information:
Widness & Wiggins PR
Sara Widness / 802-234-6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 303-554-8821 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SEATTLE, WA, Feb. 19, 2020 – Where there’s water there’s life. One travel company, Wildland Adventures, engages its guests in the miracles that come with securing reliable and safe water for wildlife and villages in one arid region of sub-Saharan Africa.
Wildland Adventures’ 11-day Zimbabwe 2020 Water for Hwange Conservation Safari immerses visitors into a symbiosis of wildlife viewing, village life, community development and hands-on conservation efforts. This is the second year for what is becoming the company’s best-selling safari. It doubled the number of departures for the 2020 season.
“Wildland travelers on this safari make an enormous difference and are agents for positive change in Africa. With water comes life, there’s a better quality of life for villagers and an exponential increase in the numbers of elephants and other wildlife that people travel so far to see,” said Kurt Kutay, Wildland Adventures’ founding CEO/President.
In 2019, Kutay’s company made investments and led a GoFundMe campaign to purchase, install and maintain solar-hybrid water pumps that are becoming game changers in and around Hwange National Park. “The fact that guests get to see the pumps in action, along with the herds of elephants that congregate to the waterholes, and then meet the rangers who protect them, and the communities who benefit from tourism, is incredibly gratifying to us and our travelers,” Kutay concludes.
A guest on Wildland Adventures’ inaugural 2019 conservation safari said: "I chose this trip because I love elephants and the opportunity to contribute to the local community while on safari was the deciding factor. But my best memories will be of the children in the schools and the visit to the headman's home, along with eating meals with our guides, watching elephants in the blinds, and pump visits.”
Wildland Adventures and its partners have been instrumental in installing and maintaining a growing inventory of solar-hybrid water pumps that assist the conservation of elephants and other wildlife. These pumps are also making life easier for villagers bordering Hwange National Park in western Zimbabwe. They no longer have to spend hours pumping water by hand or walking long distances to carry it home. Replacing two old diesel pumps with solar-hybrid water pumps has impacted 10,000 elephants and 3,500 Cape buffalo. The same strategy replaced hand pumps in two villages, impacting over 350 households and close to 4,000 livestock.
There are two departures of this life-altering conservation safari in 2020: June 10-20 and July 27-Aug. 6. The departure in 2021 is July 4-21. Guests meet teachers and children in village schools, sit with community leaders and spend a night in the field with anti-poaching patrols. On mountain bikes they pedal by creatures drinking at solar-diesel-pump-driven water holes and help monitor the pumps. Riding the colonial-era, 24-passenger Elephant Express rail car with an eye out for cavorting wildlife; canoeing on the Zambezi River; participating in game drives and in the excitement of viewing wildlife from underground blinds are part of the adventure that begins at Gorges Lodge at Victoria Falls.
Accommodations are pioneering lodges built on community land. Guest stays help improve schools, provide clean domestic water supplies and health clinics in local villages. Historically tribal communities received little direct benefit from Zimbabwe’s booming tourism industry. For the rural village living next to a national park, wildlife was by no means an attraction. Elephants ate crops and lions killed livestock. These animals were problematic and to the locals something neither to encourage nor to protect. With the benefits from tourism providing income, water, food and medical care, today ex-poachers are working as guides and helping staff the camp.
The park is just an hour southof Victoria Falls, the first stop on this itinerary. From the bountiful falls of the Zambezi River, guestswitness the arid realities within the park that has no major rivers. Year-round water supplies (including an aging infrastructure of diesel pumps and bore holes) are, therefore, unreliable for villagers and some 45,000 elephants. This region of grasslands and mopane woodland supports over 100 species of mammals including lion, leopard, cheetah, African wild dog and the rare sable antelope.
The Wildland Adventures safari is led by resident guru safari guide Mark Butcher, a native Zimbabwean and visionary conservationist who directswildlife conservation and community development in and around Hwange. Mark leads guests on walks in the bush toexperience firsthand the impact that renewed water resources haveon the wildlife and communities of Hwange.
Included in the $7,180 per person double rate is a $500 tax-deductible donation to Wildland Adventures’ non-profit Travelers Conservation Trust Foundation that dedicates 100 percent of contributions directly to support the communities guests visit. Last year was a severe drought year in Zimbabwe. Wildland contributed $4,000 to its partner’s school feeding program which in 2019 provided 425,000 meals to children in the region.
For more information on Wildland Adventures’ worldwide offerings, availability and reservations call 1-800-345-4453 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Visit http://www.wildland.com/.
About Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1986. As active managing directors, they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google +: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Contact Widness & Wiggins PR for photos, interviews and more information:
Sara Widness / 802.234.6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 720.301.3822 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SEATTLE, WA, Oct. 23 2019 – Certain places on our planet are getting loved to death.
Why?
Not long ago, international travel was the priviledge of the rich and worldly. Today, however, the middle class enthusiastically travels the globe with bucket lists that concentrate attention on the most popular places in the world (and rightly so). Unfortunately, the byproduct of this increase in travel means that If the original character of these places is not in jeopardy now, it soon will be.
Kurt Kutay is founder and president of Wildland Adventures, a travel company that for over 30 years has created opportunities for guests to experience destinations from the inside out. Utilizing the Wild Style of travel, Wildland trips build lasting intercultural, interpersonal and environmental bonds. By impressing sincerity, compassion and understanding at each step of the journey, the aim is to enhance rather than exploit the place and people we’ve come to visit. To this end, Kurt offers 6 Ways to Travel Responsibly in an Age of Over-Tourism.
1. Manage Your Expectations and Emotions
As with much of life, aligning expectations with reality is half of the road to happiness. Planning travel is no different in this regard, as you anticipate what you will experience. If we allow preconceived notions of the Taj Mahal or Machu Picchu – without crowds -- drive our desire to travel halfway around the world to experience these iconic destinations first hand, we may indeed leave disappointed.
The proper research will help you to align expectations with reality. Ask many questions, but ask the right questions and don’t be afraid of the answers. Most importantly, stay open to the experience before you. It is unknown what lies ahead and that is the magic of travel. Be diligent in letting go of preconceived expectations, they are persistent. Refuse to let them as well as annoyances like crowds distract you from what drew you there in the first place. That's when the true joy of discovery flows -- no matter what it looks like.
2. Find a Local Connection
Hire a passionate, local guide help to deepen the travel experience while avoiding the 'group think' impact of large tour groups. A good local guide can help skirt the crowds at popular sites and even introduce less-known sites for a unique perspective.
For example, a good guide will take you to the Taj Mahal twice, once to get in line before it opens and later in the afternoon before it closes to experience variable lighting. Kutay remembers his last visit, “Instead of passing through the main gates twice, our local guide took us to the Mehatab Bagh (Moonlight Garden) across the Yamuna River, far from the tourist hordes, where we stood arm-in-arm, standing alone and moved to tears by the beautiful silhouette.”
3. Rethink Your Bucket List
Discover wonders of the world beyond UNESCO's at-risk sites or the favorite ports of call of the cruise industry. Instead of the crowded hilltop towns of Tuscany, try the hills of the Istrian peninsula of Slovenia and Croatia. Rather than being part of the problem of overcrowding in Venice, take the ferry to the small fishing town of Rovinj, where you are welcomed by locals who take you around in a traditional Batana fishing boat.
4. Timing Is Everything -- Spend Time at the Right Place
Plan your day at famous sites carefully and be sure to get the latest information as local conditions and regulations change constantly. The best plan is familiar the world over. In Croatia, plan to tour Dubrovnik before cruise ship passengers disembark, in Cambodia visit Siem Reap before tour buses disgorge, and in Peru arrive at Machu Picchu before the daily trains do. When you finally are where you’ve dreamt of being, follow slow travel principles and linger longer, but in fewer places.
5. Pay to Play
A great many worthwhile experiences cost more. Whether a part of a private and exclusive event or of a carefully managed ecotour that limits the number of visitors, the extra dollars spent help to protect fragile habitats and visitor experiences.
In Africa, this may look like tracking mountain gorillas in Rwanda and Uganda for which there are limited permits. To protect the experience in some locales for years to come, some safaris are very exclusive and conducted in a private nature reserve like Timbavati in Greater Kruger N.P. In Tanzania, the remote camps of Katavi and Mahale require bush flights to access some of the wildest places on the planet.
In South America, the fragile cultural patrimony of the Inca Trail in Peru and delicate balance of nature in the Galapagos Islands are carefully managed by limited permits and fees that control access and provide a source of revenue for critical conservation programs. Advance planning is required to enjoy the privilege of being among the few where limited numbers of permits are allotted.
6. Consider Where You Stay
Your choice of accommodations is one of the most important considerations in minimizing impact on the local environs while maximizing the benefits you bring to the local community. Many hotels, camps, ecolodges, yachts and expedition ships are rated for their level of sustainability. They are rated on energy sources, recycling, waste management, water conservation, food sourcing, and other sustainability-focused initiatives. In addition, many are actively involved in nature and wildlife conservation and in educating guests about ecosystems and biodiversity. These accommodations are deeply connected and committed to indigenous culture and the well-being of local communities. The highest rated ecolodges and camps are safeguarding the world's cultural and natural heritage while delivering the most meaningful guest experiences.
Traveling Responsibly Isn't About Staying Home
The Center for Responsible Tourism asserts that traveling responsibly "…is about managing travel and destinations in an environmentally and culturally responsible way and designing tourism programs and individual trips carefully to provide travelers with the experience they seek, while leaving a positive footprint on their destination." Destinations are always changing and we have many choices to make when we travel, “but the important thing is to be mindful of our impact on the people and places that give us so much and help others to do the same...and to keep traveling,” says Kutay.
For more information on Wildland Adventures’ worldwide offerings, availability and reservations, call 1-800-345-4453 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Visit http://www.wildland.com/.
About Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1987. As active managing directors, they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Contact Widness & Wiggins PR for photos, interviews and more information:
Sara Widness / 802.234.6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 720.301.3822 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SEATTLE, WA, Aug. 14, 2019 – Over-touristed sites are now the new norm throughout the world.
For example, this year in record numbers, tourists are queuing up at the Blue Mosque, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Istanbul.
“Travel is an investment in time and money. Istanbul has cultural and historical treasures that extend beyond the Blue Mosque. So why waste hours just to get inside a building you have been told you must see?” asks Kurt Kutay, CEO and President of Wildland Adventures.
Instead, guides with deep knowledge of Istanbul and Turkey will share the Blue Mosque story with fine-tuned timing that skirts crowds and by introducing historical/cultural takeaways at less selfie-prone places.
“This resurgence of interest to visit Turkey is keeping us on our toes,” Kutay says. “We have to be aware, well in advance, where the maddening crowds will gather next. Then we plan contingencies that will connect the same cultural dots that the hot spots do – but perhaps even more effectively without the distractions that come with crowds.” Turkey has 100,000 registered historic spots. If a must-see UNESCO World Heritage Site is over-run by crowds, Kutay’s team will choose the best hours to visit or designate a comparable place to fulfill a similar interest and expectation.
Wildland Adventures to Turkey embrace the culture people flock here to experience. “We bring our guests as close as possible to real worlds, freed of artifice, must-sees and must-dos,” Kutay explains. Among the takeaways that Wildland Adventures guests enjoy are:
The tours Wildland Adventures offers in Turkey are
Departure dates are available upon request. Kutay notes that even though there’s more pressure on prices because of renewed demand by tourists, the Turkish Lira has fallen against the stronger dollar.
“Our trip prices remain the same as they were three years ago,” he notes.
For more information on these itineraries and all of Wildland Adventures’ worldwide offerings, availability and reservations, call 1-800-345-4453 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Visithttp://www.wildland.com/. Kutay has also recently published 6 Ways to Travel Responsibly in an Age of Overtourism.
About Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1987. As active managing directors, they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus:https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Contact Widness & Wiggins PR for photos, interviews and more information:
Sara Widness / 802.234.6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 720.301.3822 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SEATTLE, WA, March 25, 2019 -- Wildland Adventures has created an intricate choreography in a little-known land, the world’s fourth largest island, Madagascar. Fully 80 percent of the plants and animals found on this island in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa are found nowhere else on earth.
On the 12-day Madagascar: Land of Lemurs, new for 2019, guests roam rainforests and mangrove swamps for sightings of endemic wildlife, including dozens of lemur species. They track around rice paddies and up 3,000-foot highlands for stories of the culture of this island that millennia ago broke away from the Indian subcontinent. This was long before 350BC when outrigger canoes carried people here from Borneo and before Madagascar became a trading post stopover on the transoceanic slave trade route. Guests engage with the indigenous Antandroy (“people of the thorns”) tribe who live in their sacred spiny forest (an eco-region under threat of coal explorations). These are nomadic cattle herders who ventured from the East Africa mainland in the 17th century.
“On this trip, our guests follow an astonishing evolutionary path through one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots harboring an exotic array of fantastic creatures, epic landscapes and a blended Malagasy culture of Malayo-Indonesian and African-Arab ancestry,” explained Kurt Kutay, Wildland Adventures founding President and CEO.
The island’s isolation has allowed endemic species here to thrive. Some 130 species and subspecies of lemur (Madagascar’s flagship animal) are found here, including earth’s smallest primate, Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur, weighing in at about 1.1 ounces and the indri or babakoto, which can weigh 21 pounds.
Wildlife enthusiasts will encounter habitat under increasing threat of deforestation as local populations encroach further and further into the limited forest lands for timber and firewood. Large-scale cultivation of sisal and vanilla require enormous plantations that add to the land stresses as do expanding mining operations that produce some of the industrialized world’s must-haves: nickel, titanium ore, copper, oil and gas.
Throughout this exploration, accommodations have been curated for comfort, the charm of the Malagasy (people of Madagascar) and access to nature reserves and native communities. Guests are pampered in lodgings that reflect the French colonialism (until 1960): a 19th century bank building turned pension; a mountaintop lodge surrounded by rainforest; a tented, riverside camp with hand-carved furnishings; and thatched roof dwellings positioned between a rainforest, a white sand beach and the Indian Ocean. Studded with mangroves, this is the last untouched patch of coastal rainforest in southern Madagascar.
Departures in 2019 are in the non-rainy months from the end of June to late November.The per person rate is from $7,890. The gateway city is Antananarivo (Tana), a mix of traditional and French colonial architecture with sparkles of Indonesia. See: https://www.wildland.com/trips/africa/madagascar/madagascar-land-of-lemurs/overview.aspx
Guests sample koba, a traditional sweet made from ground peanuts, brown sugar and rice flour, wrapped and roasted in banana leaves. In Moramanga they can ride in a bicycle rickshaw or pousse-pousse. A night walk in the forest with a local guide reveals a variety of nocturnal species: mouse lemurs, white footed sportive lemur, fat-tailed dwarf lemur, woolly lemurs, chameleons and frogs. Walking on primitive trails in dense forest exposes an abundance of birds including the scaly ground roller, the pitta-like ground roller and the breasted coua. A private reserve, Lemur Island, protects rescued and habituated lemurs including bamboo lemur, black & white ruffed lemur, brown lemur and diademed sifaka. In a misty forest may come the loud wail of the barely visible tail, black and white markings and a surprised teddy-bear face of the rare indri, Madagascar’s largest lemur, one of the few animals that cannot survive in captivity.
Depending on departure flight schedules, guests may have time to visit Ambohimanga, 12 miles northeast of Tana. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is the ancestral home of the Merina kings and queens who united Madagascar under one rule. It is a fortified, sacred hill with 16 gates leading to the former house of King Andrianampoinimerina, together with a series of elegant royal summer homes. The King ruled the Kingdom of Imerina from 1787 until his death in 1810, and these amazingly well-preserved sites are a window into Tana’s royal history.
“After recently spending three weeks in Madagascar, I can say that this island is a continent apart from anywhere else I have been in Africa. Nearly all of the lemurs, chameleons, geckos, amphibians, reptiles, flowers and trees are endemic to this one little corner of the world,” said Chris Moriarty, Wildland Adventures’ Africa specialist. “This is what an adventure is all about – journeying to a faraway land and coming face to face with a strange, beautiful and captivating place that’s home to amazing creatures, unusual plants and intriguing cultures.”
Upcoming Webinar
On April 12, 2019, from 2-2:30 p.m. EST, Chris Moriarty will host a 30-minute webinar on travel to Madagascar.Visitors will be mesmerized by the unique wildlife, plants and cultures found there. There are some very important considerations when traveling to Madagascar and this presentation will detail the best routing, lodges and guides to make sure that you make the most of your time here. From rainforests to beaches, from lemurs to chameleons, from the spiny forest to bustling Antananarivo, Chris has the expert inside knowledge you need to plan an amazing adventure to what many call the eighth continent. For more details and to register please go HERE.
For more information on this itinerary and all of Wildland Adventures’ worldwide offerings, availability and reservations, call 1-800-345-4453 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Visit http://www.wildland.com/.
About Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1987. As active managing directors, they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus:https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Contact Widness & Wiggins PR for photos, interviews and more information:
Sara Widness / 802.234.6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 720.301.3822 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SEATTLE, WA, Dec. 12, 2018 -- In 2019 Wildland Adventures explores the wild side and cultural complexities of Slovenia, a hidden gem of Central Europe that’s only a stone’s throw across the Adriatic Sea from over-visited Venice.
“Slovenia is surrounded by its more popular neighbors -- Croatia, Austria, Hungary and Italy – who left their marks here, but not the crowds,” says Kurt Kutay, Wildland Adventures’ CEO and President. “Whereas ancient caravans and modern nomads used to pass through here on their journeys east or west, today Slovenia rightly commands the attention of travelers.”
With Slovenia’s yet-to-be-discovered natural riches and diverse cultural influences in mind, Kutay and his team have created two itineraries that help distinguish Slovenia from its neighbors. Guests learn, for example, that Slovenia’s Slavic language uses the Latin – not Cyrillic – alphabet. They enjoy the culinary rewards of an explosive food culture with farm-to-table, slow-food presentations that mix up splashes of Italy and Austria along with a distinctive Slovenian slant. The historic relationship of people to their land is revealed through visits to an apiary, to vineyards and to farms where cheeses can be sampled.
Slovenia shares a 110-mile, north-south border with Italy; owns some 30 miles of Adriatic coastline on the Istrian Peninsula (across from Venice); embraces a climate spanning Mediterranean to alpine (the highest peak is 9,396 feet); and its main river, the Sava, courses from near the mountainous border shared with Austria on the north out to the Black Sea (via the Danube Basin). At her feet lie Croatia and the historical complexities of the late Yugoslavia (that included Slovenia.) Since 2004 Slovenia has been a member of the European Union while claiming a lineage that includes ancient Rome and the Habsburg Dynasty from the north across the mountains in Vienna.
These mountains, the hidden valleys, waterfalls, lakes and forests all harbor mysteries of culture and history that Wildland Adventures’ itineraries will reveal as guests
Best of Slovenia: Alps to the Adriatic is an eight-day wine and culinary immersion including hiking and cycling that explores chapels and castles, samples cheeses on family farms, sips wines from Slovenia’s own Tuscany, dines in mountain huts and at the world-famous Hiša Franko restaurant in the Soča River Valley. This restaurant, among the top 50 restaurants of the world, supposedly is where Hemingway wrote A Farewell to Arms. Now a self-taught chef who originally trained as a diplomat breaks down culinary borders with a modern-international cuisine sourced locally from woods and streams. The trip ends in a Venetian Gothic town on the Adriatic – still in Slovenia. The per person double rate is from $4,995. See: https://www.wildland.com/trips/mediterranean/slovenia/best-of-slovenia--col---alps-to-the-adriatic/overview.aspx
Trekking the Julian Alps: Hut to Hut delivers 10 days of travel including four days of quintessential European-style trekking but with far fewer hikers sharing the trails than are found in Austria and Italy. The region is Triglav National Park in a remote corner of Slovenia’s spectacular Julian Alps that jut some 9,000 feet into the sky, eventually plunging west onto the warm Adriatic coast. Here lie the oldest hiking trails in Europe. Along a limestone ridge of the Komna Plateau, several days into the journey, guests are encouraged to imagine a legend of a magical white chamois buck with precious golden horns, Zlatorog, that lives among the outcrops of limestone. His likeness is found in statues, operas and on the label of Slovenia’s popular beer, Lasko Zlatorog. Days on the trails lead to mountain huts at night for hearty soups, fresh breads and local cheeses – and sleep. The per person double rate is from $4,595. See: https://www.wildland.com/trips/mediterranean/slovenia/trekking-slovenia--col---hut-to-hut/overview.aspx
For more information on Wildland Adventures’ worldwide offerings, availability and reservations call 1-800-345-4453 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Visit http://www.wildland.com/.
About Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1987. As active managing directors, they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel.
# # #
Contact Widness & Wiggins PR for photos, interviews and more information:
Sara Widness / 802.234.6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 720.301.3822 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus:https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Dear Friends,
On the cusp of Thanksgiving we’re taking stock of our blessings here at Wildland Adventures. High on our list always is the privilege we have of sharing the world and its many people with our clients.
While this has been our practice for over three decades, we’re following an emerging trend that is especially gratifying. Grandparents want to travel alone with their grandchildren – leaving parents behind. Something we and others are calling 'Skip-Gen' travel. We started asking questions of both generations.
What’s it like for tweens and young adults to travel in a foreign country with only their grandparents as companions? And conversely, what do grandparents experience when their travel mates are more than a generation apart?
Interviews by telephone with grandparents were intense and often emotional just before the recent midterm elections and after learning that scientists predict that Mother Earth, as we know it today, may slip from our fingers by 2040. The grandchildren interviewed reflected confidence and were highly appreciative of their grandparents.
The desire of these grandparents to bond and create memories with their grandchildren is universal. However their motives in opting for travel as a pathway to those memories is informed by their concerns about the world and by their passion to impress upon their grandchildren that the world is more than the United States. They see travel as a game changer for grandchildren who will better understand the changing environment and vulnerable communities on the planet they are to inherit. They want their grandchildren to become better ambassadors of their future.
Good Luck in Morocco
“I didn’t travel until I was 50 beyond Mexico, Canada and Hawaii. I wanted my grandchildren to explore the world earlier. They had a hand in where we went, a place they were curious about, but I insisted it be on another continent. I just traveled to Spain and Morocco with my granddaughter who is 20. Emma’s world is getting way beyond mine. I wanted to get experiences myself through their eyes, to be awed by a very different lifestyle and culture,” says grandparent Anne.
Anne and her daughter’s journey through Morocco sparked conversations about the roles of women in the world, about what constitutes work in different cultures and even about social media. They tented one night in the Sahara, experiencing a severe storm that induced a long-dry river to suddenly flow. Their guide wept and said that they brought good luck.
“In Morocco there are so many different cultural codes. It was hard for me to understand. But I could still relate to people. We had different world views but we could share this incredible moment. An experience like this expands your world view. I definitely won’t be the same person that I was before I left,” reflects Emma.
Active in Belize
Lollie is another grandparent inspired to travel with a younger generation. When her grandchildren turn 11, they study up on where they want to go and select activities. Her goals, shared by nearly all of the grandparents are to broaden their appreciation for the rest of the world, to understand that, throughout the world, cultures are different but people are very much the same, to learn about the abundance (and diversity) of animals that inhabit our Earth and to become better stewards of the environment.
Granddaughter Emily, age 12, chose Belize’s active adventure, including zip lining, cave tubing, horseback riding, canoeing, snorkeling and paddle boarding, with time out to visit ruins...all the while experiencing a culture very different from home.
“This trip made me able to see how different other parts of the world are from where we are. It changed the way I look at things,” says Emily.
Slower but More Fun in Tanzania
Adventuresome grandparents George and Dianne enjoy arranging activities and experiences for grandchildren that may be out of the parents’ reach financially at this point in their life.
Their 14 year old granddaughter, Ana, remembers her excitement as George planned their trip to Tanzania.
“The Africa trip was really, really fun. Grandpa booked everything before. He knew everything about the trip. We just came along and enjoyed. He always likes planning ahead of time,” Ana says. One difference between traveling with grandparents is that travel is “slower but more fun. It’s always a quicker pace with my parents.”
“On the way to Tanzania, we spent a few days in Amsterdam”, adds Diane, “While there, we had a tour of the city by a young lady who showed us her family’s synagogue and shared the experiences of her Jewish Grandparents’ survival during WWII. That experience impressed the children far more than just reading about WWII in a school setting would.”
South Africa Then and Now
At age 20, Hunter’s grandson, Evan, hopes to pursue environmental engineering, in part because of a trip to South Africa.
“Living in the US, my concept of being poor was very different before the trip than after. Travel gives you an appreciation of the hardships people face in other places around the world,” reflects Evan.
Hunter enjoys sharing generational differences related to exploring the world, explaining along the way “what it was like to travel abroad when you traveled back in the 1950s compared to now, the understanding that traveling around Africa even 10 years before we did Africa was different.” He anticipates traveling with the next grandchild but with the caveat that deciding where to go isn’t “totally free form. We’re not going to Yemen.”
Globe Trotting
When she was widowed, Marna thought, “Aha!I know how I can see the world...” Costa Rica, Galapagos, Tanzania, Hong Kong and Malaysia later, she has traveled with one grandchild at a time, save for one trip which included an extra cousin.She prefers a solo companion.
“These were serious 10- to 14-day trips taken in the summer. We went where they wanted to go. I wanted them to know there’s something else going on in the world. Now I’m out of grandchildren. A lot of people would like to give me theirs,” says Marna, who professes to be a third-world traveler.
It’s Not a Frightening World
Grandparents Bob and Judy like to feel the excitement of their grandchildren when together they visit places familiar to the grandparents.
“I want the kids to know that differences are good. There’s a world out there they should be able to travel in and be with anybody. It’s not a frightening world,” Judy underscores.
Their granddaughter, Isabelle, thinks it’s more fun to travel with Bob and Judy than with her parents. Her travel takeaways? “You never understand how much you have until you come back. You visit poor villages; you see things they can’t get in everyday life – clean water, a healthy diet. In Cape Town houses are made of trash, metal slabs, they built with their own hands. They had no electricity. A family of eight lives in a house the size of my bathroom. How grateful I am. I don’t take things for granted.”
Taking Charge in Costa Rica
Determining where to go is a challenge, says Ellen, a grandmother of six. It is especially difficult when one of the rules is that the upcoming destination can’t be one a sibling or cousin has visited. “We want them to be interested in travel and out of the basic comfort zone with their own family,” notes Ellen, underscoring the importance of guides in helping secure the impressions and memories that come with travel.
Ellen and Robert charged their 13-year old grandson to take oversee their inner-generational vacation. “Our grandson chose Costa Rica and did the research where and what he wanted to see. He made the final decision choosing a company. We just tagged along, enjoyed everything, and were thankful he chose Wildland.”
This grandson was moved to write a blog about their trip. Please see https://ww2.wildland.com/travel-blog/costa-rica-teen-review-everything-was-perfect.html
The experience he shared expresses what Anne and I as guides and grandparents hope to foster from our inner-generational Wildland Adventures around the world. After our son traveled together with his Turkish grandfather in their ancestral homeland of Turkey, and after many family adventures together throughout the world, our son’s family is truly all of humanity. Most recently we traveled with our teenage grandson to the jungles, Mayan temples and indigenous villages of Guatemala, a journey that took him way out his comfort zone while discovering the mysteries of ancient civilizations and wildlife of tropical rainforests, and in these discoveries transforming his outlook on the world and of himself.
Whether traveling for first-hand insight or through informed journalism, we strive for an accurate depiction of our world. Thank you for the understanding you share through your communications. If you would like to pursue this new trend with us, please let me know and I can introduce you to some of our senior and junior clients.
Helping all to become citizens of this amazing world!
Kurt Kutay
Founder and President of Wildland Adventures
Phone: 1-800-345-4453
Website: http://www.wildland.com/
Contact Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Contact Widness & Wiggins PR for photos, interviews and more information:
Sara Widness / 802-234-6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 720.301.3822 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SEATTLE, WA, Aug. 28, 2018 – Making positive change through travel is a goal of one travel company’s new safari into southern Africa to showcase the results of a $24,000 GoFundMe campaign to purchase, install and maintain four new solar-diesel water pumps assisting elephant conservation and villages in Hwange National Park in western Zimbabwe.
Wildland Adventures’ Water for Hwange Conservation Safari is scheduled for June 10-20, 2019. It is designed as a special insider’s opportunity to be immersed into a symbiosis of incredible wildlife viewing, village life, community development and hands-on conservation efforts on the front lines of wildlife protection. A new fundraising effort has been set up through the Travelers Conservation Trust foundation to support the campaign. For details please see https://www.gofundme.com/water-for-hwange.
The itinerary showcases the necessity of sustainable and reliable water sources for wildlife and clean drinking water for local villages. Guests will discover firsthand from local villagers how they now view wildlife conservation as essential to their livelihood and therefore keep a lookout for poachers who may threaten it. The per person double rate for this 11-day safari is $6,950. This includes a $600 tax-deductible contribution to the non-profit Travelers Conservation Trust that assists communities like those visited in Hwange.
The park is just an hour south of Victoria Falls, the first stop on this itinerary. From the bountiful falls of the Zambezi River, guests witness the arid realities within the park that has no major rivers. Year-round water supplies (including an aging infrastructure of diesel pumps and bore holes) are, therefore, unreliable for villagers and some 45,000 elephants. This region of grasslands and mopane woodland supports over 100 species of mammals including lion, leopard, cheetah, African wild dog and the rare sable antelope.
The Wildland Adventures safari will be led by guru safari guide Mark Butcher, a native Zimbabwean and visionary conservationist who directs wildlife conservation and community development in and around Hwange. Mark leads guests on walks in the bush to experience firsthand the impact that renewed water resources have on the wildlife and communities of Hwange.
Guests will assist in a pump run, which means working alongside villagers who tend to a system of water pumps (including the new solar hybrids) that pump water up into “pans” where animals come to drink. Game drives are coupled with village visits including school children, elders and tribal chiefs who help stitch together stories of living with wildlife, and the promise that solar water pumps and conservation hold for a better future for people and wildlife. Other tour highlights include mountain biking on elephant trails, close-up elephant viewing and photography from ground-level “look-up blinds,” and an overnight fly-camp under the African sky together with an elite Cobra unit of anti-poachers. The journey ends at a luxury camp on the banks of the Zambezi River with canoeing on the “River of Life,” the fourth largest river system on the African continent and the force that created Victoria Falls where this itinerary begins.
For more information on Wildland Adventures’ worldwide offerings, availability and reservations call 1-800-345-4453 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Visithttp://www.wildland.com/.
About Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1986. As active managing directors, they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus:https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Contact Widness & Wiggins PR for photos, interviews and more information:
Sara Widness / 802.234.6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 720.301.3822 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SEATTLE, WA, July 9, 2018 – The active travel company known for its transformational journeys has curated a new, nine-day plunge into Cuba focused on that country’s soul – its art and music.
Wildland Adventures’ itinerary, Adventure Cuba: Art, Music & Dance that debuts Nov. 10-18, 2018, probes how music and the arts overall have celebrated the revolution and sustained Cubans through decades of deprivations. See: https://www.wildland.com/trips/caribbean/cuba/adventure-cuba--col---art2c-music-26-dance/overview.aspx
“Music and revolution go hand in hand in Cuba, as music in many aspects is a representation of the revolution,” says Kurt Kutay, CEO and President of Seattle-based Wildland Adventures (https://www.wildland.com/) who will be co-leading this departure with company Vice-President, Anne Kutay.
People-to-people moments are staples of all Wildland Adventures. This trip reveals the creativity of 21st century Cubans and stories of their forebears who toiled in sugarcane and tobacco fields but who never stopped singing and dancing.
“We've chosen a variety of artists and a range of both musicians and performance venues from living rooms to community centers and performance stages. Our travelers will experience the vibrant character of Cuban culture, with opportunities for open-ended Q&As in private-audience settings,” he underscores. “The musicians will showcase how deep – and how far reaching – this musical heritage is with a musicologist lecture on the history of Cuban music and performances from Dayme Arocena’s songs reflecting the original Yoruban culture up to contemporary fusion jazz performances.”
This stroll by way of Havana, Cienfuegos and Trinidad explores how music, art and dance rooted themselves in the Cuban character, helping Cubans endure isolation imposed on them by political isolation and economic blockade as they used art to challenge artificial boundaries and limitations.
Every day this exploration guarantees dialogue with Cubans who are at some level engaged in the arts: culinary, visual including needle and pottery, music, dance, literature and architecture. Some meals are taken with artists and scholars. Farmers markets and, yes, ration stores are mixed into the tour, along with a private sunset cruise and a walk through El Cubano National Park.
Guest accommodations include bed & breakfast-style overnights in casas particulares (private homes) and the glamour of Hotel Nacional de Cuba, a national monument overlooking Havana Harbor that harbors the stories of the rich and famous pre-revolutionary days. Cuban-American Gloria Estafan immortalized the hotel in song. Its gardens include a museum memorializing the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The 2018 scheduled trip date is Nov. 10-18 (additional small group scheduled departures are available and private trips on request). A per person double rate starts at $5,600. A single hotel room supplement is available for $900. Included are:
This itinerary is available upon request for educational and arts groups who seek to expand their familiarity with Cuban culture and music. For organized groups of 12 to 14 the per person, double rate is $5,800. For 15-18 participants the rate drops to $5,600 per person, double, including an American escort from the sponsoring organization.
Local in-country guides use their extensive network of friends and professional colleagues to design in-depth and personal small group experiences for over 18-years leading specialist in tours of Cuba and focusing on Cuba’s burgeoning music world.
For more information on the new Cuba programs as well as all of Wildland Adventures’ worldwide offerings, availability and reservations call1-800-345-4453 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Visit http://www.wildland.com/.
Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventuresin 1986. As active managing directors they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel. Rated by National Geographic Adventure as the #1 Best ‘Do-it-all’ Outfitter on EarthandFodor’s as one of the World’s Best Tour Specialists, Wildland Adventures offers more than 150 unique itineraries on seven continents in 45 countries.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Contact Widness & Wiggins PR for photos, interviews and more information:
Sara Widness / 802-234-6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 720.301.3822 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SEATTLE, WA, April 5, 2018 – A rare journey in 2019 will guide guests over 10 days through the centuries-old worlds and traditions that help define today’s spiritual universe of India.
Wildland Adventures has organized this Feb. 9-18, 2019, trip, Diving into Immortality, to culminate at the Kumbh Mela (The Festival of the Urn), a 45-day spiritual gathering in Allahabad, which the Hindus consider to be India’s religious capital.
A massive pilgrimage of faith and the most euphoric religious event in India, the Kumbh Mela observes the largest congregation of men, women and children on the planet. It is especially renowned for the presence of an extraordinary array of sages, yogis, mendicants and religious ascetics (sadhus and mahants) enticed from remote hideaways in forests, mountains and caves. During the festival, more than 10 million zealous devotees gather together to wash away their sins for the purification of body, mind and soul. The city vibrates in hectic religious fervor amidst the intermittent chanting of mantras, the heart-rending dance of the Aghori (people smeared with cremation ashes) and the holy ghats (steps to the river) lit up with fiery diyas (oil lamps). The Hindu people hold this festival in the highest regard because the Kumbh Mela, representing a cycled phased over 12 years is considered to be the most auspicious time to take a dip in the sacred river and attain a step forward toward salvation.
“Over the two days we spend in Allahabad, we will step out of the comfort of our luxury tents in the heart of the Kumbh Mela to the center of the largest gathering of sadhus and pilgrims on earth. Streets are awash in ash-covered bodies hung with garlands of bright orange marigolds. The smells, sights and sounds overwhelm the senses. With our camp host and personal guru, we will walk into a zone unknown to western culture and religion. I predict we will return home reborn with new perspectives that will manifest in positive changes in our lives. This is how travel can be transformational,” underscored Kurt Kutay, Wildland Adventures’ founding CEO/President.
Shepherding Wildland guests from their “glamping” tents will be host Lakshmi Singh, a spiritual disciple of two great Advait philosophy masters and a princess from the royal family of Tikari in Bihar. She spent years operating luxury camps throughout India. In 1989 she discovered the Kumbh Mela when one dip in the holy Ganges changed her life. She has traveled multiple times to Allahabad to be part of the special gathering with her guru. Lakshmi and expert guides navigate guests through the sea of people and labyrinth of piety, providing unrivaled access and photographic opportunities.
In the week leading up to this immersion, Wildland Adventures’ guests dive into India’s soul in some of its holiest cities. The itinerary begins in with the imperial vibe of New Delhi and the frenetic bustle of Old Delhi, moving on to Amritsar, the center of the Sikh religion, and then to the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi and Allahabad, both so sacred for the Hindu religion.
Guests lodge in New Delhi at Claridges, which gives a nod to this city’s British colonial past. They enjoy modern regional Indian dishes in the gardens of the National Handicrafts Museum and they witness the world of street children as seen through the eyes of the children themselves, now trained as local guides. Here in India’s capital city are vestiges of the one-time Mughal Empire that was ruled by a Muslim dynasty.
The Sikh religion, the world’s fifth largest religion, is introduced at the gold-plated holy shrine in Amritsar, the site of Sikhism, a religion founded in the 15th century in part as a rejection of the Hindu caste system. Since 1481 the Golden Temple has been serving free hot meals (Langar) to people of all faiths who come to its doors. Volunteers, along with 300 sewadars (permanent helpers), daily prepare over 50,000 nourishing vegetarian meals. Wildland travelers join devotees to witness the Langar and participate in an evening Palki Sahib ceremony that prepares a palki orpalanquin (a large box carried on horizontal poles) for the transport of the Guru Granth Sahib (Holy Book) from the main shrine to the inner sanctum, laying the book to rest for the evening. The Sikhs also represent an ethnic group known as Punjabis. Out in the country guests visit a working farm and sit down to tandoori, a typical Punjabi lunch, returning in the evening to Swarna Amritsar, a five-star Taj hotel.
In Varanasi guests participate in the glittering Aarti ceremony on the Ganges when to honor the deities candle wicks soaked in ghee (purified butter) are set afloat. And guests walk through the great cremation ground of Shiva, the deity that destroys evil. The host hotel here, Suryauday Haveli, is located beside the river with convenient access to a particular flight of steps to the river, the Ganga Ghats. Guests have multiple opportunities in this, one of the oldest living cities in the world, to witness the rituals of life and the afterlife that are focused on Mother Ganga.
The per person double rate exclusive of international and domestic air is from $6,395. A single supplement is $2,375. For details please see: http://www.wildland.com/trips/asia/india/diving-into-immortality/overview.aspx.
For more information on Wildland Adventures’ worldwide offerings, availability and reservations call 1-800-345-4453 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Visithttp://www.wildland.com/.
About Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1986. As active managing directors, they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildtravel
Contact Widness & Wiggins PR for photos, interviews and more information:
Sara Widness / 802.234.6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 720.301.3822 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SEATTLE, WA, Feb. 22, 2018 – Successful tour operation requires months if not years of careful research and planning. One award-winning travel company known for its meticulous tour development, Wildland Adventures, is now primed to introduce the newest emerging travel hot spot of Colombia.
For 2018, Wildland Adventures (http://www.wildland.com/) offers three new active tour itineraries in Columbia that weave culture and wildlife with hiking, rafting and birdwatching.
“Now that peace and security have been restored, Colombia is “one of the world’s extraordinary new travel hot spots because of its stunning biodiversity and cultural heritage,” said Kurt Kutay, Wildland Adventures founder and president.
Americans are often surprised by the sophistication they find upon shaking hands with such South American gems as Bogota, Colombia’s capital. These itineraries introduce the 500-year-old patinas of vibrant cities, still cobblestoned, former colonial hubs that welcomed explorers, pirates and conquistadors searching for El Dorado.
“Our Wildland Adventures in Colombia utilize a comprehensive network of new airline connections and a good primary road system, with 4x4 access on secondary roads into more remote regions and trailheads. The last decade has seen new-found economic growth and political stability, andvastly improved security presenting itself as the new gateway to South America. As tourism develops, restored colonial boutique hotels and ecolodges are popping up across the country. There’s also an exciting gastronomic scene evolving,” added Kutay.
Colombia is a virtual topographical and ecological smorgasbord with…
Rafting, snorkeling and diving into freshwater rivers and salty seas hint at a gold standard of adventure. Along with prehistoric and extant jungle creatures come nearly 20 percent of the world’s bird species. The company’s Colombia Wildlands and Wildlife is a 14-day program that starts and ends in Bogota. The per person double rate is from $5,840. See: http://www.wildland.com/trips/south-america/colombia/colombia-wildlands-and-wildlife/overview.aspx.
In Bogota guests visit vibrant neighborhoods and plazas, including the impressive Gold Museum and the Botero Museum. Fernando Botero’s transcendent depictions of his people recall themes familiar in the work of Mexico’s Diego Rivera. Then the economy and culture of coffee come to life in the cool uplands of the central Andes, along with sub-tropical cloud forest rife with bird and wildlife. One of the world’s most difficult genus of birds to catch sight of, antpittas, and the masked saltator and ocellated tapaculo are protected in their natural habitat in the Rio Blanco Nature Reserve.
The Amazon Basin eco system introduces a conservation project and eco-lodge helping support indigenous peoples on their own lands. The tour visits a foundation that protects and studies primates on site.Another ecosystem of montaine forest rises to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Mountains, a coastal range home to around 600 bird species. Once off-limits for security reasons, the San Lorenzo Ridge is the crown jewel of the avian habitat, allowing birders to see over 20 of the Sierra’s 24 endemic species representing the highest level of endemism in the world. Here are the Santa Marta parakeet and rufous antpittas that can be spotted walking along the road just before sunrise.
Highlights of Colombia is an 11-day itinerary from $3,150 per person double. See: http://www.wildland.com/trips/south-america/colombia/highlights-of-colombia/overview.aspx#/overview.
Guests meet in Bogota before transferring to Villa de Leyva, a 16th century colonial town surrounded by a dry Andean Acacia forest. Guests hike in a nearby cloud forest and bike in the adventure capital of Colombia, the province of Santander, where the UNESCO World Heritage town of Barichara dating to the Spanish conquest remains “the prettiest town in Colombia.” One six-mile hike on the cobblestoned Caminos Reales (Royal Road) leads to a meet up with a restoration specialist who demonstrates how to construct mud adobe brick walls in their original style. Caminos Reales also connects to Chicamocha, the Grand Canyon of South America. A stay at a coffee plantation concludes the interior tour before moving to the Caribbean coast to explore Tayrona National Park, a bio-diverse, palm-fringed paradise skirting white sand beaches. Here are the ruins of El Pueblito, a vast system of stone terraces, aquaducts and round platform foundations of an ancient civilization.
Leaving nature behind, Cartagena, a UNESCO World Heritage city, teases appetites for colonial and Caribbean flavors in this former (1533) Spanish port. A visit includes a foodie walk stopping at favorite cafes and food stands frequented by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the fabled author of, among others, Love in the Time of Cholera. Kutay thinks that Cartagena is the most seductive city of the Caribbean.
“Here in the capital of amor, we eat and drink our way through Cartagena following in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ footsteps with a literary expert reciting excerpts from the author’s writings describing his favorite food stands, pastries, cafes and local drinks that we savor on a Marquez culinary walk in Cartagena,” he added.
Unexplored Colombia: Coffee, Culture, and Coast over 12 days combines the Coffee Triangle with whale watching (extension) on the Pacific. The per person double rate is from $3,660. See: http://www.wildland.com/trips/south-america/colombia/unexplored-colombia/overview.aspx.
From Bogota guests travel to Cali, famed for the Salsa Dance Academy. Medellin (the departure city) is revered as one of the most beautiful places in South America. Here via cable car, guests access the re-invigorated and thriving barrio that drug king Pablo Escobar helped build. They also hike through the Otun Quimbaya Flora & Fauna Sanctuary, a cloud forest with hundreds of species of butterflies; birds ranging from eagles to hummingbirds; and mammals, including spectacled bears, tapir, deer, cane skunks, and howler monkeys. Enroute to the Andes guests may climb 600+ stone steps for a 360-degree view from El Penol, amassive stone rising out of the flat ground and once worshiped by the Tahamies Indians. The one-time mansion of Pablo Escobar is nearby.
Guests engaged in the extension to the Pacific Coast fly to the Chocó region. Here there are no roads, just air and boat access. Misty jungle-clad hills spouting waterfalls and hot springs meet the white sand of the Pacific. This biodiverse region offers kayaking around one of world’s largest humpback whale migrations (June – November).Located in the Biological Conservation Corridor Panamá-Chocó-Manabí, this zone is one of the most pristine marine ecosystems in the Pacific.
For more information on Wildland Adventures’ worldwide offerings, tour availability and reservations call 1-800-345-4453 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Visitonline at http://www.wildland.com/.
About Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1987. As active managing directors, they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildtravel
Contact Widness & Wiggins PR for photos, interviews and more information:
Sara Widness / 802.234.6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 720.301.3822 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SEATTLE, WA, Dec. 5, 2017 – As safari specialists in the Serengeti region, Wildland Adventures has shared its love of the people, wildlife and landscape of Tanzania. To bring in the new year the company is announcing new enhancements to its safaris plus a trip giveaway for two.
“What better way to celebrate 25 years of Wildland Adventures’ African safaris than to offer an online giveaway with a grand prize, a 12-Day Serengeti Wilderness Safari for two!” says Kurt Kutay, Wildland Co-Founder and President. The giveaway, wildtripgiveaway.com, runs Dec. 4 through Dec. 24, 2017. In addition to the safari valued at nearly $12,000 for two, the winner and companion also receive three sets of clothing from Toad&Co, two Adventure Camera Kits from Mountainsmith and two Grayl Water Purifier Bottles. International air is the responsibility of the winner and not included.
The runner-up prize is one Adventure Pack from Mountainsmith, one piece of Debug Clothing with Insect Shield Technology from Toad&Co and one Grayl Water Purifier Bottle. Plus, one daily winner will receive a Grayl Water Purifier Bottle.
New for this year on its Serengeti Family Safari are visits to a Wa Irakw tribal family in the Karatu area enroute to the Ngorongoro Crater and coffee-growing areas. The Wa Irakw are genetically linked to Afro-Asiatic tribes who migrated south from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers over 500 years ago, stopping enroute in Ethiopia and Somalia. Children and adults alike will learn how to make a traditional Wa Irakw hand drum, engage in Swahili language lessons and try out their haggling and business skills in a local market.
Also new are expanded family accommodations (two with interconnecting rooms) at the southern Serengeti’s Lake Masek Tented Camp. This camp is ideally located for viewing the Great Migration from December through March when the wildebeests are calving. Guests will also appreciate the new vehicle upgrades with the addition to the fleet of five new Land Cruisers with pop-up roofs, camera-charging plugs and a fridge for cold drinks.
For every night on a Wildland itinerary, a donation per guest goes to the Emusoi Project in Arusha which educates indigenous women and girls who lack the support or funding on their own. Guests have the option to visit the project during their stay and see firsthand the difference this program makes. Also the new Mara River Tented Lodge (12 spacious ensuite tents, 4 family tents, swimming pool, solar power and Wifi) will open in May 2018 in North Serengeti National Park. Ideally situated in the Kogatende (with airstrip) near the Mara River, guests can observe northbound herds crossing the river as well as the proliferation of African wildlife throughout the area.
The per person double rate for a 12-day Serengeti Wilderness Safari is $5,685. Experiences include game drives in Tarangire National Park, visits to markets and a beading co-op, hunting or foraging with Hadzabe Bushmen, hiking with Maasai in the highlands at Ngorongoro Crater, and four nights safari in Serengeti National Park.
The per person double adult rate for a 10-day Serengeti Family Safari starts at $4,550. There are discounts offered for children under 14 years of age.
Both programs include guided tours and excursions, English-speaking naturalist guides, airport-hotel transfers, local air transportation (family program only), accommodation (hotel, tented camps, local farmhouse), safari transport on specially outfitted 4 WD safari vehicle, three meals daily, bottled water and beverages, park entrance and camping fees, Wildland Adventures travel consultation and pre-departure services.
For details on Wildland’s special 30th Anniversary Season worldwide, please see https://ww2.wildland.com/30th-anniversary.
For more information on Wildland Adventures’ worldwide offerings, availability and reservations call 1-800-345-4453 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Visit http://www.wildland.com/.
About Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1987. As active managing directors, they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Contact Widness & Wiggins PR for photos, interviews and more information:
Sara Widness / 802.234.6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 720.301.3822 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SEATTLE, WA, Aug. 16, 2017 – People travel thousands of miles to Zimbabwe to immerse themselves in a symbiosis of nature co-mingling with village life, hopeful always of extracting meaning beyond what they see in stock photos.
For 30 years Wildland Adventures’ (http://www.wildland.com/) raison d’etre has helped travelers reach beyond the clichés of destinations they visit. The company’s new Zimbabwe Conservation Safari is a hands-on journey through the heart of Africa’s wildlands with a modern-day conservation hero. Over nine days guests interact with villagers and elephants in ways that bring sustenance to community and wildlife alike. They begin to understand the issues behind and the possibilities of safeguarding wildlife to secure better lives for local people.
This safari, among others, turns over to a Zimbabwean foundation that conducts community work in Zimbabwe a $700 tax deductible contribution included in each guest fee. Participants engage with villagers and school children while pounding a nail here, reading a story there and perhaps kicking around a soccer ball. Visitors roll up their sleeves to provide water for elephants to drink. The trip is led by fourth generation Zimbabwean, Mark "Butch" Butcher, who is a modern-day hero of African conservation.
Mark, who won the 2014 Guardian and Observer ethical travel award, is an ecotourism pioneer, professional safari guide and leading conservationist in his native country. He receives Wildland travelers at his lodges in Victoria Falls, on the Zambezi River and in Hwange National Park where he shares stories about working as a game ranger fighting rhino poachers in the late 1980s. Today, he leads safaris and saves elephants by employing ex-poachers as his staff and they in turn protect wildlife for tourism that now pays their salary.
The program begins at a pioneering community-based tourism accommodation, Gorges Lodge, overlooking Batoka Gorge at Victoria Falls. Next guests board a 24-seat private rail car, the Elephant Express, that traverses an historic colonial-era railway line along Hwange National Park. On the vast game plains of Ngamo guests are accommodated in the luxurious Camelthorn Lodge for four nights going on safari each day and immersed in the daily life of a Zimbabwean village. Here they assist in wildlife monitoring, releasing animals from snares and assisting anti-poaching activities. A day trip to Mfagazaan Pan introduces Hwange’s famous elephant herd sustained in the dry season on a pumped water program started in the 1930s.
While enjoying two nights in a luxurious tented camp on the Zambezi River guests go out on patrol with park rangers, a dedicated anti-poaching team who routinely patrol along the shoreline of Zambezi National Park.
Kurt Kutay, founder of Wildland Adventures, reflected that not long ago, indigenous rural communities received very little direct benefit from Zimbabwe’s safari tourism business.
“For the rural villager living next to a national park, wildlife was by no means an attraction. Elephants ate their crops and lions killed their livestock. The animals were problematic and not something local people wanted to protect. Tourists who came to see the game typically passed by villages in safari vehicles and spent their money elsewhere. We’re proud to say that visitor by visitor we are helping to change this,” Kutay Said.
The per person double rate of the safari is from $5,575 (single supplement $1,057) that includes the $700 tax deductible contribution to the Imvelo GTrust/D3 Foundation that supports local social service projects in Zimbabwe; all guided tours and excursions; National Park entrance fee; English-speaking naturalist guides; airport-hotel transfers, land transportation; accommodation for eight nights; meals, soft drinks, beer, wine and local spirits; laundry service; Wildland Adventures travel consultation and pre departure services.The June 13 - 21, 2018 departure can accommodate up to 14 guests (minimum age 12). See: http://www.wildland.com/trips/africa/zimbabwe/zimbabwe-conservation-safari/overview.aspx#/overview
For details on Wildland’s special 30th Anniversary Season worldwide, please see https://ww2.wildland.com/30th-anniversary
For more information on Wildland Adventures’ worldwide offerings, availability and reservations call1-800-345-4453 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Visit http://www.wildland.com/.
Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1987. As active managing directors, they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Contact Widness & Wiggins PRfor photos, interviews and more information:
Sara Widness / 802.234.6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 720.301.3822 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SEATTLE, WA, July 13, 2017 – How does a travel company in business for 30 consecutive years celebrate its success?
This was a no-brainer for Kurt and Anne Kutay, who founded Wildland Adventures in 1987. Of course, they would celebrate their loyal clients as well as those who long to travel with them. In recognition of their contribution, the company will offer a series of trip giveaways, the first being a trip for two to Thailand and Cambodia. The online contest begins July 13 and concludes at 11:59 p.m. Aug. 3, 2017.
Interested travelers may enter the Wildland Adventures Thailand & Cambodia Trip Giveaway by visiting the company website at http://wildtripgiveaway.com/ and completing and submitting the online entry form. Additional entries can be earned by referring friends or by visiting a number of social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram as explained on the contest page.
“Thanks to our intrepid travelers, we continue to expand our global community. What better way to express our gratitude and celebrate 30 years of ‘Going Wild’ than to give away a trip to Thailand & Cambodia, welcoming two lucky winners into our family of adventure travelers,” Kurt and Anne Kutay, Directors.
Joining this birthday bash are two highly respected travel partners. The winning duo will be outfitted with a load of travel gear from Eagle Creek and prAna. Included from Eagle Creek are two Expanse Carry-Ons and two Expanse Flatbed 29” luggage pieces. prAna will donate four items of prAna travel clothing to each person.
The Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA), of which Wildland Adventures is a charter member, is also helping promote this festivity through their consumer website www.adventure.travel. Adventure.Travel showcases the best adventure companies and stories inspiring travelers to explore the world in a passionate and responsible way.
The Trip Giveaway winner and guest will have time to build their excitement over the Thailand & Cambodia Trip where travel may be scheduled from Aug, 30, 2017 to May 31, 2018. Upon arrival in Bangkok (flights not included), a Wildland Adventures guide will meet them at the airport and help settle them in to the first of several boutique hotels they’ll enjoy enroute.
The sights of old and new Bangkok reveal themselves while bicycling through the city and then cruising by boat the Chao Phraya River, virtually the city’s lifeline. After absorbing Bangkok’s cultural treasures comes a visit by car and long tail boat to the ancient capital of Ayutthaya dating to the 15th century. Moving from ancient history to tropical jungle reveals one of Asia’s largest intact monsoon forests, home to several hundred wild elephants, as well as tiger, leopard, Asiatic black bear, sambar deer, gibbon, macaque, and several species of hornbill.
Although the pleasures of Thailand are far from exhausted, this tour next brings guests to theThai-Cambodian border and on to Siem Reap’sAngkor Archeological Park, visually, architecturally and artistically breathtaking and one of the most important archaeological sites in Southeast Asia, if not in the world. Stretching over some 400 square kilometers, the park contains the magnificent remains (think Angkor Wat) of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, from the 9th to the 15th century. In the course of a bike ride along the Siem Reap River are children waving in small villages where cyclists see palm wine and sugar production, basket weaving and rice farming before transferring to the airport for the flight home.
The Kutays three decades ago birthed a new travel concept they call The Wild Style. This means consciously choosing to travel deeper, not farther; to experience a world that craves our understanding and compassion rather than our judgement; to visit communities that seek to welcome us rather than entertain us.
“Today we feel at home in the pivotal global movement to build inter-personal, inter-cultural and environmental bonds among the people and the places we travel,” said Kurt Kutay. “Over the course of our 30-year journey, we have held firm to a truth that travel may be the most important path to a growing global community which sustains – rather than degrades -- life on earth. We do this not between nations but through conscientious individuals and communities who care about Mother Earth, economic inequities and social injustices.”
For additional details on Wildland’s 30th Anniversary please see https://ww2.wildland.com/30th-anniversary
For more information on these and all of Wildland Adventures’ worldwide offerings, availability and reservations call1-800-345-4453 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Visit http://www.wildland.com/.
Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1987. As active managing directors, they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Contact Widness & Wiggins PRfor photos, interviews and more information:
Sara Widness / 802.234.6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 720.301.3822 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dear Friends,
In 1987, Anne and I, founders of Wildland Adventures, birthed a new travel concept we call The Wild Style. We wanted to travel deeper, not further; to experience a world that craves our understanding and compassion rather than our judgment; to visit communities that seek to welcome us rather than entertain us. Starting out, we questioned if we could build a successful business around accomplishing these goals, but over 30 years we achieved a delicate balance of introducing guests to remote destinations while preserving the culture they’ve come to experience. The Wild Style requires more effort to deliver. Our field research to make inroads into local communities and find guides who delight in our quest for life-changing travel takes time but results in big rewards for the guest.
Our impetus? While motoring up the Amazon River in a dugout canoe 30 years ago, we came upon the Yagua, an indigenous people of Colombia and northeastern Peru. From afar we witnessed the commotion as they ran into their huts in jeans and t-shirts and emerged half-naked in grass skirts with blowguns in hand to greet us. In that instant, while leading our first group tour we decided:
At Wildland Adventures, authenticity will be our highest priority;
that we will approach our world and the people and cultures we share it with
embraced in an ethic of honesty and sincerity.
When we approached the Yagua in gratitude with respect, what otherwise might have been a one-sided tourist parade was a heartfelt cultural connection. This was not a group of individuals living in the past, but rather an indigenous community transitioning into the modern world. We laughed together while learning how to use a blow gun and the façade between us faded as we began asking deeper questions about them as individuals. How did they live today? Provide for their families in the jungle? They were excited to share their traditions, customs and present-day lifestyle with a group of eco-tourists genuinely interested in learning more.
Later, as our canoe drifted back downriver to our reality, we were returning home with a new-found understanding of the hardships faced by indigenous peoples. We began to understand their challenges in overcoming inequities and prejudices, as well as their struggle to reclaim the basic human rights necessary to participate in modern life while preserving their own cultural heritage. Our interaction on that sand bar in the middle of the Amazon River was their opportunity to earn income and share their culture with the outside world.
Today we continue to seek out rural communities where we can bring the benefits of ecotourism to help support local people while promoting the conservation of wildlands.
Over the course of our 30-year journey, we have held firm to a truth that travel is one of the most important paths to a growing global community which sustains – rather than degrades – life on earth. Thanks to our travelers, we’re expanding our global family. We do this not between nations but through conscientious individuals and communities who care about Mother Earth, economic inequities and social injustices.
Our Wild Style of travel opens the possibilities of exploring, as author Joe Robinson describes, “…the vast incognita territory within each of us.” When you travel in gratitude with an intention to experience the world in sincerity and good faith, every adventure becomes your own personal journey to discover something in yourself.
Our purpose is to return home from a trip not only knowing the world, but our place in it. After 30 years of travel with friends and family, our children now show us by example that to be transformed by travel is to transform the world. They remind us that our adventures down an open road help us shed our baggage, summoning us to cultivate love and renewed purpose.
Thank you for your support over these past 30 years. Please check your inbox in the coming months for how we plan to celebrate moving forward into the future.
With kindest regards,
Kurt and Anne Kutay
Wildland Adventures
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
800.345.4453
Contact Widness & Wiggins PR for photos, interviews and more information:
Sara Widness / 802.234.6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 720.301.3822 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SEATTLE, WA, Jan. 6, 2017- Wildland Adventures kicks off its 30th anniversary in 2017 with a January series of travel seminars featuring guest speakers who are all top guides and conservationists in their native countries of Zimbabwe, India and Brazil. The seminars are on three consecutive Saturdays at The Savvy Traveler in Edmonds. The dates are Jan. 14 at 1 p.m. on Zimbabwe, Jan. 21 at 10 a.m. on India and Jan. 28 at 10 a.m. on Brazil.
“We are very excited to kick off our 2017 season and the start of our 30th anniversary ‘Going Wild’ around the world by inviting our community to presentations by some of our most enthusiastic and engaging guides, all of whom are nationally recognized in their native countries for innovative ecotours that take our travelers to remote habitats they have helped to protect,” says Wildland Adventures President Kurt Kutay. “We’ll show short videos of Mark leading us on foot in tracking elephant in the bush, searching for the Bengal tiger (and finding them) from Amit’s jungle lodges and swimming with Douglas in the “meeting of the waters” where two rivers form to create the mighty Amazon River.”
All events are held at The Savvy Traveler store, 112 5th Ave S in downtown Edmonds, WA 98020, telephone (425) 744-6076. Call or register here: http://www.savvytraveleredmonds.com/Imports/Registration.asp?Id=717&TIME=10:00%A0AM
Safaris in Zimbabwe / Saturday, Jan. 14, 1 p.m. - Guest Speaker: Mark “Butch” Butcher, Safari Guide and Conservationist
Fourth generation African and native Zimbabwean,Mark "Butch" Butcher holds the 2014 Guardian and Observer ethical travel award. He is an ecotourism pioneer, professional safari guide and leading conservationist who hosts Wildland travelers at camps and lodges on the Zambezi River and in Hwange National Park. Wildland Adventures Directors Kurt and Anne Kutay and other local travelers recently returned from Zimbabwe will introduce Mark and relay their own adventures on safari. Mark will share some of his life's stories: from working as a game ranger fighting rhino poachers in the late 80's to his latest roles leading safaris and saving elephants by employing ex-poachers as an incentive to protect wildlife through ecotourism. The presentation features amazing lodges and tented camps, the Elephant Express safari train, and incredible wildlife encounters including a video of Mark tracking elephants up close on foot with Kurt and Anne.
Inspiring India! / Saturday, Jan. 21, 10 a.m. - Guest Speaker: Amit Sankahla, Guide and Tiger Specialist
Amit Sankahla is Wildland Adventures’ foremost Indian guide and one of India’s leading tiger conservationists. This evening of stories and multimedia unveils the spectacular labyrinth of sights, sounds and mysteries of the sub-continent. Amit will share his kaleidoscope of award-winning images and videos revealing treasures to be discovered traveling among rural communities and into the wild places throughout his native India. Together with Wildland Directors Kurt and Anne Kutay guests will track the elusive Bengal tiger and Snow leopard, visit traditional markets and festivals including ancient Sufi and gypsy dance performances among many other surprises Wildland Adventures arranges for travelers to India’s premier tiger parks, hidden villages, the historic cities, majestic forts and opulent palaces of Rajasthan, the Taj Mahal, the spiritual city of Varanasi and the soaring temples, tropical Malabar backwaters, and plantations of the Spice Hills in the south. India remains the 'great frontier' for adventure travelers. Following in the path of his grandfather who was recognized by Indira Gandhi as "The Tiger Man of India", Amit operates two lodges and a luxury camp in the heart of tiger reserves, and through his collaboration with many others, he is credited with contributing to the success of the recent increase in population of tigers.
Discovery and Adventure in Brazil / Saturday, Jan. 28, 10 a.m. - Guest Speaker: Douglas Simoes, Ecotourism Guide and Conservationist
Wildland Adventures' Brazil guide, Douglas Simoes, explores how to create a comprehensive and seamless introductory itinerary that links the best of Brazil’s nature and culture. Guests will explore deep into the Pantanal wetlands epicenter for jaguar spotting and into the vast wilderness of the Amazon, home of some of the world’s most biologically diverse habitats for primates, caiman, capybara, 700 bird species, ocelots, pink dolphins and more! Walking on remote jungle trails, canoeing on rainforest lakes and rivers and mingling with monkeys in observation towers in the canopy of the rainforest are part of the fun. Foodies and culture buffs will love the international fusion of African, Amerindian and European cultures through architecture, food, music and dance on the beautiful coast of Salvador de Bahia. Inland lies the remote region of Chapada Diamantina where active travelers find endless trekking, swimming and photographic opportunities in a beautiful landscape of tabletop mountains, canyons, valleys, caves, electric blue pools and thundering waterfalls, including small villages to experience rural life with locals. All routes in Brazil lead to Rio with visits to the famous Sugar Loaf and Christ the Redeemer Statue atop Corcovado Mountain and the sun-soaked beach of Copacabana. It's a short hop down the Green Coast to Paraty, the picturesque colonial UNESCO World Heritage Site town and jumping off point for hiking and kayaking in Brazil's rainforest fjord - Mamangua. Guests can begin or end a Brazil adventure in magnificent Iguassu Falls draped in rainbows and glittering mist.
For more information on these and all of Wildland Adventures’ worldwide offerings, availability and reservations call1-800-345-4453 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Visit http://www.wildland.com/.
Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1986. As active managing directors, they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Contact Widness & Wiggins PRfor photos, interviews and more information:
Sara Widness / 802.234.6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 720.301.3822 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SEATTLE, WA, Dec. 15, 2016 – Going wild around the world is the mantra for adventure travel pioneer Wildland Adventures that is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2017.
“For 2017 we’ve added 16 new and/or extensively revised itineraries to enhance our portfolio of small group adventures. All our Wildland Adventures promise to cultivate connections and possibly transform yourself and your view of the world. We have added trips that target active women and epicureans, families, emerging writers and adventurous trekkers,” said Kurt Kutay, founder and owner of Wildland Adventures (http://www.wildland.com/).
2017 New Trips for Families
In Africa: Botswana Family Safari- 8 days, from $5,195 for family of four. Families are whisked to a private safari camp in Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Wildland’s Young Explorers program led by professional safari guides teaches the whole family the art of bush craft: spotting wildlife, learning animal behavior tracking game on foot. Guests visit local communities to experience daily life, and, among other activities, make jewelry, weave baskets, shoot with slingshots, fish and cook over an open fire. Every day kids “read the morning newspaper” which means looking over tracks in the sand for nighttime visitors.
In Latin America: Guatemala Family Adventure- 9 days, from $3,695 adults, $2,895 teens, $2,695 child. Wildland families discover everyday subsistence life of indigenous Mayans on small farms and marketplaces around Lake Atitlan. They hike in the Pacaya Volcano, explore the UNESCO World Heritage colonial city of Antigua, and the ancient Mayan city of Tikal in the remote jungles and wildlife reserve of Tikal National Park. An expert bilingual guide leads guests who bike, hike, kayak, explore ruins and connect with Mayans in their homes, villages and fields.
In Europe: Croatia Active Family Adventure- 9 days, from $4,095 adult/$3,295 under 18.Croatia is accessible and offers great value for the travel dollar. This active itinerary traverses the Julian Alps through forests, following waterfalls and rivers flowing to ancient ports along the Adriatic coast. Families hike, cycle, raft and kayak in national parks, through rural villages and among Roman ruins and ancient fortifications. In local homes and restaurants guests experience traditionally prepared pastas, stews and Adriatic seafood. This adventure begins in the capital city of Zagreb and concludes in Dubrovnik.
2017 New Trips for Womenand Epicureans
In Cuba: Havana and Heartland of Cuba- 7-day women’s departure March 10-16, 2017, from $3,995. A Cuban professional female guide introduces travelers to the lives of Cuban women from their role in the Revolution to the formation of modern-day Cuba. Guests visit with extraordinary women as part of a people-to-people program. Get ready to laugh, dance, learn and be deeply touched by the women of Cuba a la Wild Style! Cuba is also among the safest countries in the world for female travelers.
In Latin America: Women’s Active Wine Adventure in Chile & Argentina- April 1-10, 2017, from $4,995.Adventurous women will explore vineyards and valleys of Chile and Argentina on horseback and bicycle, and walk through culturally vibrant back streets of Santiago, Valparaiso and Buenos Aires. Lively female guides introduce South America’s epicurean highlights while the group sips perfectly blended Malbecs, experiments with unique ingredients at a regional cooking class and meets vendors at local markets.
In Europe: Women’s Southern Italy Epicurean Adventure- May 22-31, 2017, from $6,695.This active exploration of Puglia blends sunshine, charming landscapes, delectable cuisine and wines with active women’s zest for the good life. Puglia’s rustic charm is reflected in the locals’ welcoming personalities and communal dining, simple and flavorful local fare that has stood the test of time and a rich cultural history reflecting, among others, Byzantium and the Normans. Menhirs (pre-history stones), cave churches and medieval castles keep it wild along with hiking, shopping, wine tasting, cycling and preparing classic dishes with master chefs. Antonello Losito, since 2007 one of Pugli's premier guides, shares his passion for the food, landscape, and culture of Southern Italy with guests.
2017 New Trip for Writers
In Asia: Vietnam: Travel Writing with Dave Fox- Mar.6-17, 2017, from $3,775. Guests who want to delve deep into Vietnamese culture and advance their travel writing prowess are invited to explore Vietnam with best-selling author and award-winning travel writer Dave Fox. In a collaborative small group, budding travel writers practice mindfulness and how to see anew employing a heightened sense of awareness using all their senses traveling south to north by boat, bike and foot among the clamor of cities and the peaceful rice paddies and villages. The trip culminates with a two-night cruise through Halong Bay as participants develop new sources of self-expression and personal story-telling that chronicles a sense of place and people, grabbing the imaginations and capturing the hearts of their readers. Dave has been a Public Radio news anchor, a tour guide and an international cruise ship lecturer.
New for 2017 - Transformational Adventures
In Latin America: Patagonia: A Journey of Discovery- 7 days, from $3,100 is one of Wildland’s first in a series of new Transformational Travel experiences. Embark on a guided journey of personal exploration and discovery through one of the most spectacular and inspirational places in the world. Head deep into Torres del Paine National Park for three days of extensive hiking into the Paine Massif. Along the way, Michael Bennett, Ed.D. of Muddy Shoe Adventures, facilitates small group sharing using the power of nature and adventure to foster a deeper sense of discovery of the on this journey of personal exploration. Michael will use the trip's many adventures as catalysts for casual yet inspirational discussions for participants to reflect, share and learn from what they are experiencing with the goal of integrating it into one’s day-to-day life.
In Asia: Thailand: Discovering the Land of Smiles - 9 Days from $2,450. Thailand is one of the most diverse, exotic, and exhilarating countries on earth. A trip there among chaotic cities, vibrant markets, temples steeped in spiritual richness, and verdant tropical nature full of wildlife, guarantee that you’ll be enlivened and enriched and an opportunity to see yourself anew. Along the way, Michael Bennett, Ed.D., of Muddy Shoe Adventures, facilitates sharing among travelers of each day’s adventures as inspiration in a collaborative and supportive small group recognizing each traveler’s present rite of passage, and for some to develop a personal action plan for kick-starting the next chapter of their lives.
For more information on these and all of Wildland Adventures’ worldwide offerings, availability and reservations call1-800-345-4453 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Visit http://www.wildland.com/.
Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1986. As active managing directors, they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Contact Widness & Wiggins PRfor photos, interviews and more information:
Sara Widness / 802.234.6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 720.301.3822 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SEATTLE, WA, Sept. 29, 2016 – Adventure travel pioneer Wildland Adventures showcases up and coming Nicaragua along with a slice of the Caribbean little known to most travelers in its new 9-day/8-night Colonial Granada, Highlands and Island Adventure.
Wildland’s Central America immersion for the active and curious traveler includes the Corn Islands (70 km off Nicaragua’s eastern Caribbean coast), a sun-swept destination well known in the past to pirates and buccaneers but off today’s tourist map. A secluded white-sand beach adventure is the trip finale after…
In addition to securing off-the-beaten-track experiences, a defining element of all Wildland Adventures is flexibility. For example, when guests arrive on Big Corn Island, they can choose to be hosted at Arenas Beach Hotel or move on to Yemaya, considered one of the most beautiful island luxury lodges in the world on the more secluded Little Corn Island, a perfect romantic hideaway. Throughout the trip guests stay active, but here they can choose just to lie in a hammock – or snorkel or swim.
The itinerary rates are also flexible depending on the number of people in a party. Departures may be arranged for a minimum of just two people starting at $1,995 per person double occupancy for a group of six or more. Children ages 6-11 receive a 20 percent discount. See: http://www.wildland.com/trips/central-america/nicaragua/colonial-nicaragua-highland-and-island-adventure/overview.aspx
After arriving at Managua International Airport the adventure begins in the colonial city of Granada (Est. 1524). History that reverberates down cobblestone streets and in colorful markets resonates with the mysteries of pre-Columbian embellishments. One day focuses on rural Nicaragua, with opportunities to visit artisan workshops in Masaya, the country’s most popular handcraft market. This day also introduces ceramic artists in San Juan de Orienteand Nicaragua’s geologically eruptive nature with a visit to Masaya Volcano National Park and the stunning and active Santiago crater. Views of Mombacho Volcano, a sleeping giant rising to 4,626 feet, are omnipresent in Granada, which only adds to the excitement of a zip line tour along the flanks of the volcano, soaring through a verdant cloud forest rich in hanging moss and epiphytic plants. A cooking lesson in a local kitchen is followed by a visit to a Choco Museum that exhibits the country’s pride, chocolate. The importance of chocolate moves to front and center in a chocolate workshop where guests learn how to roast, winnow, grind, mix, conch, refine and mold their own morsel of chocolate.
In the mountain zone of Matagalpa resides an eco lodge icon in Nicaragua, Aguas del Arenal Lodge. Here guests stay for two nights while exploring the birdlife (Nicaragua has over 700 bird species) and La Bonanza, a coffee plantation harvesting this export in a sustainable manner. Then it’s time to return to Granada for an overnight before a short flight to Big Corn Island for a deep breath on the Caribbean beach – sans tourist attractions.
Wildland Adventures (http://www.wildland.com/) also offers two other unique itineraries in Nicaragua that focus on the mainland’s culture and beach activities along the Pacific coast.Nicaragua Adventure Touris a 9-day program for families and active travelers that includes hiking, biking and kayaking, touring rural villages and understanding the volatile life of volcanoes. The per person rate is from $3,795. Nicaragua Family Vacation is an active 9-day exploration that brings young and old alike into contact with the friendliness of locals and the fun of zip lining, kayaking and hiking. The per person rate is from $3,495.
For Central American travelers with a passion for snorkeling, Wildland Adventures suggests any of its four holidays, including one for families, exploring Belize. Here the focus is on the barrier reef, Mayan ruins, sailing excursions, rainforest hikes and even treehouse accommodations. The Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System offers snorkeling and scuba diving amongst the magic world of corals; its expanse is second only to Australia’s famed Great Barrier Reef.
Three of Wildland Adventures’ opportunities for adventure travel in Costa Rica are designed with families in mind. Other itineraries feature river rafting and immersion into the country’s complex and diverse eco systems where birds, monkeys and other wildlife thrive.
For more information on these and all of Wildland Adventures’ worldwide offerings, availability and reservations call1-800-345-4453 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Visit http://www.wildland.com/.
Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1986. As active managing directors they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel. Rated by National Geographic Adventure as the #1 Best ‘Do-it-all’ Outfitter on Earth and Fodor’s as one of the World’s Best Tour Specialists, Wildland Adventures offers more than 150 unique itineraries on seven continents in 45 countries.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Contact Widness & Wiggins PRfor photos, interviews and more information:
Sara Widness / 802.234.6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 720.301.3822 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SEATTLE, WA, August 3, 2016 – Americans since 2011 have been permitted to visit Cuba under the US government’s highly regulated People-to-People program. Ever since the first tour groups arrived on the shores of the Caribbean’s largest island, restrictions have tended to keep American visitors under tight rein.
However, as attitudes at home toward the embargo continue to soften and Cuba itself feels more comfortable in its role of host to curious Americans, the reins are loosening. Adventure travel pioneer, Wildland Adventures (http://www.wildland.com/), is now delighted to fold Cuba into the company’s 30-year anniversary portfolio while making the most of new-found opportunities to explore beyond the bounds of the island’s iconic highlights such as Havana.
“We've done the research to really explore Cuba and to feature more outlying communities and natural reserves that only recently began receiving Americans. Our two brand-new itineraries support fledgling community-based ecotourism initiatives with opportunities for more intimate and authentic cultural exchanges for our travelers,” said Kurt Kutay, Wildland Adventure’s CEO and President.
An 11-day Captivating Cuba Coast to Coast tour ventures into regions not noticeably impacted by tourism. Company founders Kurt and Anne Kutay will accompany the first departure set for Nov. 27, 2016. The per person, double, rate is from $5,950. This itinerary offers scheduled departures into May 2018. The trip begins with flights from Miami to Havana and returns to Miami from Santiago de Cuba, the musical epicenter of the island. See: http://www.wildland.com/trips/caribbean/cuba/captivating-cuba-coast-to-coast/overview.aspx
Havana and the Heartland of Cuba is a seven-day itinerary focusing on lesser known and impressively distinctive UNESCO-designated small towns and nature reserves. This trip begins and ends in Havana with roundtrip flights from Miami. Departures are scheduled from early May 2017 through December 2018. The per person rate, double, is from $3,995. See: http://www.wildland.com/trips/caribbean/cuba/havana-and-the-heartland-of-cuba/overview.aspx
International air is not included in these rates (currently set at $550 RT subject to change).
So Why Cuba Now? Kutay offers these insights for prospective travelers:
- Visitors to Cuba who engage in People-to-People tours now enjoy greater opportunities to plan more diverse itineraries fostering individual one-on-one interactions with Cubans from all walks of life.
Heretofore Americans traveling legally on People-to-People tours in Cuba were strictly limited to a narrow range of people they could meet, where they could go and what they could do. Now, as a result of enhanced tourism infrastructure throughout much of Cuba, more interactive exchanges are sprouting up in diverse regions and communities. For example, there are more private B&B accommodations especially in the time-honored enclaves of eastern Cuba. This means that visitors can engage in thriving grass-roots community endeavors. Artists and academics, farmers and fishermen, musicians and dance troupes are all eager to share their stories.
- New, individual, People-to-People visas open doors for visitors to participate in expanded custom, private (guided) small group travel.
As of March 2016 tour licenses have expanded making it easier for companies to offer custom-designeditineraries. As Cuba embraces tourism, more and better infrastructure and specialized tourism services cater to small group travel. Custom trips must still comply with People-to-People requirements including 5-6 hours of planned and guided activities. But with Wildland’s network of guides throughout Cuba, there are new-found opportunities that can be adapted to individual interests of travelers.
- Wildland Adventures is now able to bring its authentic and intimate style of travel to Cuba thanks to the improved infrastructure of small, distinctive accommodations including historic boutique hotels and private casas particulares minimizing time in larger hotels.
There has been an incredible growth in the private sector catering to tourists, especially with private restaurants (paladars) and private bed and breakfasts (casas particulares). Casas particulares should not be considered traditional homestays because they operate as businesses. These accommodations have been modified allowing for more guest privacy (including private bath). However, the guest experience is not unlike a homestay for the genuine interaction one enjoys sitting around the breakfast table with enterprising Cubans who have turned their homes into lodgings not just for the money but also because they love the connection it brings with inquisitive Americans.
- The remote Cuban countryside and small rural towns are beginning to receive guests who seek the less developed and more traditional side of Cuba beyond the popular tourist enclaves of Havana, Cienfuegos and Trinidad.
Although Wildland does visit some popular not-to-miss sites in and around Havana such as Hemingway’s farm and Fusterlandia, they have gone to great lengths to escape motor coach tour groups and cruise ships in busy cities and harbors. Guests are free to explore outlying nature reserves and rural communities that have only recently begun to receive guests. However, the mission is still to provide authentic cultural exchanges.
- More of Cuba’s national parks and nature reserves are opening up for hiking, bird and wildlife viewing, along with greater opportunities for active adventures.
Ecotourism, on the rise in Cuba, encourages guides and local outfitters to engage in new ways with visitors. Wildland has developed a cadre of local naturalists and adventure guides who are ambassadors into Cuba’s 263 protected areas (covering 22% of its land base, including six UNESCO biosphere reserves). There is more territory now available to explore while viewing Cuba’s endemic and endangered wildlife species. Future plans to include more national parks with active adventures such as zip lining, kayaking, snorkeling and diving, horseback riding and cycling are in the works.
- Soon to come will be regular commercial flights providing reliable service and a greater range of flight schedules and same-day connections from major US cities.
Several airlines are preparing to offer direct commercial flights from major US cities to Havana and Santiago de Cuba. The process of traveling through Miami to board charter flights is somewhat inconvenient and costly, typically requiring overnight hotel accommodations in Miami both coming and going. As the embargo loosens and commercial carriers take off in this market, more frequent service is anticipated with direct flights from major US cities and more competitive fares.
For more information on the new Cuba programs as well as all of Wildland Adventures’ worldwide offerings, availability and reservations call1-800-345-4453 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Visit http://www.wildland.com/.
Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1986. As active managing directors they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel. Rated by National Geographic Adventure as the #1 Best ‘Do-it-all’ Outfitter on Earth and Fodor’s as one of the World’s Best Tour Specialists, Wildland Adventures offers more than 150 unique itineraries on seven continents in 45 countries.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Contact Widness & Wiggins PRfor photos, interviews and more information:
Sara Widness / 802-234-6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 720.301.3822 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SEATTLE, WA, June 16, 2016 – Brazil has recently emerged on the world adventure travel radar as travelers have discovered all that it has to offer: a wide range of unique cultural experiences, captivating adventures and a paradise for wildlife seekers. And with the Rio 2016 Olympic Games quickly approaching, Wildland Adventures (http://www.wildland.com/) offers three ways active travelers can capitalize on the opportunities created by the international sporting event.
1. It just adds up: Brazil has temporarily lifted the mandatory $250 visa for US citizens this summer (through Sept.18), and, on top of that, the US Dollar is the strongest it’s ever been to the Brazilian Real. Add that to that the fact that roundtrip flights from the US to many of the most sought-after adventure destinations in Brazil are as low as $450 in July and August (including theAmazon and Pantanal), travelers can expect significant savings. Many of the popular adventure resorts still have availability for July and August.
2. Can you taste it? There is an emerging mouth-watering culinary scene in Brazil thanks to its being one of the word’s cultural melting pots. From churrascaria to feijoada, Brazil’s distinct tastes and flavors entice and satisfy even the most discerning gourmands.
Brazil's history and culinary stage are inarguably intertwined. Sugar and coffee are vitally important crops while also being labor intensive, which fueled the African slave trade to Brazil and in turn, African culinary traditions as well. Brazil’s national dish, feijoada, is thought to be an African take on a traditional Portuguese dish. Another beloved Brazilian dish, acaraje, originally from Nigeria, has become a staple of Bahian street food and the use of dende (African palm oil) is one of the principal ingredients in moqueca, an otherworldly classic Bahian stew.
After the abolition of slavery, immigrants from Italy and Japan joined the Brazilian labor market and added their own influences to the melting pot of the Brazilian culinary scene. Pizza in Brazil can easily rival that of Naples and New York and is practically its own food group. Unique ingredient additions find their way into the pizza ovens of Brazil's urban centers that include everything from soft catupiry or local minas cheese, cinnamon, bananas and even guava.
3. Where to go: With thehuge crowds expected in Rio this summer, now is the perfect time to venture off the beaten path and explore the wilds of Brazil. Brazil offers many rare opportunities such as scouting for jaguars in the expansive wetlands of Brazil's Pantanal or swimming with pink dolphins in the Amazon. Active visitors can snorkel in crystal clear rivers and explore ancient caves in Bonito, or trek through mysterious valleys, past table top mountains and waterfalls in Salvador’s Chapada Diamantia. One can cruise on a private schooner past pirate coves on the Costa Verde in Paraty or gaze dumbstruck at Brazil’s Iguassu Falls. Wildland Adventures has even pioneered a new activity where travelers are able to swim at the “Meeting of the Waters”, a natural phenomenon where the Negro River (originating in Colombia) meets the Solimões River (originating in Peru) to form the Amazon River.
Wildland Adventures has recently expanded their trips to Brazil by venturing to new areas offering several unique explorations of 9 to 14 days.
- Ultimate Jaguar and Wildlife Adventure is 14 days and explores Brazil's two largest and most famous regions of biodiversity: the Pantanal and the Amazon.
- The 12-day Best of Brazil: Amazon, Rio de Janeiro, and Iguassu Falls itinerary explores the tropical rainforest of the Amazon and Iguassu Falls, one of the world’s largest waterfalls.
- On the 13-day Brazil Family Adventure kids and parents kayak, snorkel, spot jaguars, hike, play in the surf and learn to cook while exploring Bonito, the Pantanal, Paraty and Rio de Janeiro.
- Guests trek through the mysterious valleys, past tabletop mountains and waterfalls in Chapada Diamantia National Park on Wildland’s 14-day Brazil Trekking Adventure.
- Into the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil (Costa Verde) focuses on the biodiversity of the Atlantic Rainforest. In the 9-day itinerary, guests will kayak along secluded beaches, search for wildlife and hidden waterfalls in mangrove forests and explore the colonial city of Paraty.
Brazil and Zika: Is it safe to travel to affected regions? Until more is known, and out of an abundance of caution, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention recommends special precautions only for pregnant women and women trying to become pregnant: Pregnant women in any trimester or women trying to become pregnant should consider postponing travel to the areas where Zika virus transmission is ongoing. Pregnant women who do travel to one of these areas should talk to their doctor or other healthcare provider first. Wildland Adventures urges all passengers to travel sensibly, and to take preventive measures against mosquito bites. Any passenger who is pregnant or think they may become pregnant during or prior to their trip should contact their doctor and potentially reconsider their trip in accordance with CDC/WHO advice.
Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1986. As active managing directors they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel. Rated by National Geographic Adventure as the #1 Best ‘Do-it-all’ Outfitter on Earth andFodor’s as one of the World’s Best Tour Specialists, Wildland Adventures offers more than 150 unique itineraries on seven continents in 45 countries.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Contact Widness & Wiggins PRfor photos, interviews and more information:
Sara Widness / 802-234-6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 720.301.3822 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SEATTLE, May 23, 2016– On July 28-30, 2016, a team from Wildland Adventures will embark on a charity climb to the summit of Mt. Rainier to assist four schools in Nepal that have been devastated by recent earthquakes.
The team’s goal is to raise $5,000 to provide solar panels and lights to four primary schools and panels with the capacity to power up to four desktop computers in addition to lighting at a secondary school, all in rural Nepal.
The group of eight climbers seek pledges to support this campaign as they make a determined effort to reach the summit of the highest mountain in Washington State. With an elevation of 14,416 feet, Mount Rainier is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world and is the most heavily glaciated peak in the lower 48 states.
A fundraising page at YouCaring.com (https://www.youcaring.com/ClimbForNepal) supports this mission.
"I'm proud of our ambitious climbing team for embarking on this adventure to raise desperately needed money for our brothers and sisters struggling to recover from the 2015 earthquake in Nepal. It's that spirit and commitment to making the world a better place that fuels all of our adventures," says Kurt Kutay, founder and owner of Wildland Adventures (http://www.wildland.com/).
Kelsey Wenger, a Wildland tour leader and travel advisor, and other staff, clients and friends will deliver the solar panels to the schools in November 2016 during Wildland Adventures’ Himalayan Odyssey: Bhutan to Everest. In part to commemorate Wildland Adventures’ 30th anniversary this year, Wenger designed this 15-day journey from Bhutan to Nepal to include a six-day trek in the shadow of Mount Everest. The adventure culminates in a spectacular aerial viewing of the world’s highest mountain by helicopter.
The community sites for assistance were selected by Wildland’s Nepal ambassador Jwalant Gurung, who began the tradition of climbing with a purpose in 2006 by founding Seattle-based 3 Summits for Nepal, afamily of climbers dedicated to transforming the lives of underprivileged children of Nepal. He personally selected the schools that were most in need of support. They includethree schools in Taplejung District built after the Sikkim earthquake of 2011 (magnitude 6.9) which affected the entire Kanchenjunga Conservation Area. The fourth is in Singla Village near the epicenter of the 2015 Nepal earthquake, where every single home was destroyed. A Kathmandu native and resident, Gurung holds an MBA from the University of Washington.
“In these villages, my goal is to not only build schools but to also build an Early Childhood Development Center to encourage and foster alternative learning at a very early age in the villages. In the villages of Nepal - and even the cities - learning by rote is the norm. I want to incorporate song, dance, art and play into learning,” says Gurung. “If Wildland can raise more than $5,000, 3 Summits for Nepal will use additional funds to help rebuild homes. To date our Nepal team has rebuilt 15 homes and we hope to rebuild at least ten more this year at a cost of $45,000.”
To donate please go to: https://www.youcaring.com/ClimbForNepal.
For more information on all of Wildland Adventures’ worldwide programs, availability and reservations call1-800-345-4453 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Visit http://www.wildland.com/.
Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1986. As active managing directors they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel. By fostering genuine connections to create personalized experiences their travelers, Wildland fosters a growing and vibrant community of enlightened and compassionate travelers. Rated by National Geographic Adventure as the #1 Best ‘Do-it-all’ Outfitter on EarthandFodor’s as one of the World’s Best Tour Specialists, Wildland Adventures offers more than 150 unique itineraries on seven continents in 42 countries.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Media Contact for photos, interviews and more information:
Widness & Wiggins PR
Sara Widness / 802-234-6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 303-554-8821 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Adventures Exemplify Myanmar’s Path Between the Ancient and the Modern Including One Expressly Designed for Families
SEATTLE, WA, April 11, 2016– Myanmar today is a most curious place. Driving through the countryside visitors see farmers working their water buffalo in fields nestled beneath hills covered in pagodas and experience first-hand day in and day out the effects of Buddhism that permeate this long hidden culture.
This mystery realm known as Myanmar (Burma) is a must-visit-now destination, says Kurt Kutay, founder and owner of Wildland Adventures. He gives three reasons. First, decades of self-imposed isolationism stalled globalization, thus preserving here a throwback Asia. Second, Myanmar has transformed itself to a democratically elected and installed government and now welcomes the outside world. Third, Myanmar is one of the safest countries in the world to travel to now and exemplifies a peaceful and friendly population.
Known for blazing new trails in adventure travel, Wildland Adventures (http://www.wildland.com/) again distinguishes itself with three new itineraries that explore Myanmar in 2016. In keeping with a 30-year custom of exploring worlds afar in style, these tours delve deeper into daily life and sacred sites than simply posing at a monument. In line with Wildland's founding ethos three decades ago, the company supports community based projects across the country that are run by locals from among its 135 eclectic ethnic groups creating intimate interactions for their travelers with the Burmese people.
“While visiting iconic sites we take roads less traveled to meet local people, hear their personal stories, and see how we can help them improve their lives after the military junta. For example, we bike between the colonial-era hill town of Kalaw and Inle Lake. We experience the drama that is Bagan on foot and from the air,” Kutay explains. “Whether chatting with a local Shan farmer in Northern Shan state, or with villagers in the countryside in Yandabo on the banks of the Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwady), or with an Intha woman showing how to make traditional foods in her house on stilts on the lake, it’s always about making a connection and understanding Myanmar by getting to know its people.”
Kutay promises that his guests will be stunned by the time capsule they explore as they stroll through Shan and Kayin villages, bike around Mandalay, tour a pottery-makers’ village, awaken to the sounds and scents of local markets coming to life, bathe elephants in the river, gaze in awe at the fabled temple field of Bagan, and circumnavigate on foot the 2,500-year-old Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon (Rangoon) with Buddhist pilgrims.
Following are sketches of Wildland’s three new trips to Myanmar…
Mystical Myanmar is a 13-day journey from $4,415 per person, double, that discovers Myanmar's mystical depths revealed in timeless rural life where few travelers venture. On this easy active adventure guests walk amongst hill tribe villages, kayak on Inle Lake, cycle down rural roads, trek through the jungle to an elephant conservation sanctuary and venture into the mountainous states of Mon and Kayin to overnight in Hpa An village. Combining the iconic sites with the unknown, guests explore the vast complex of temples at Bagan and visit three of Myanmar’s most sacred sites: Golden Rock Kyaiktiyo Pagoda, Shwedagon Pagoda and Mahamuni.
Myanmar: Highlights of a Golden Land is a 15-day journey from $4,650 per person, double. Unique to this tour, at the conclusion of an active pursuit of Myanmar’s cultural classics, guests unwind for a day and overnight at Ngapali Beach, a resort situated in a fishing village on the Bay of Bengal. Here guests will be loathe to leave a country that has imbedded memories of a hot air balloon adventure over the Bagan temples, bicycle rides through small villages, riding the rails across the countryside and boating along waterways, sipping tea with the Palaung on tea plantations in Shan State, and marveling at the white and gold of temples shimmering in the dusky light.
Myanmar Family Adventure is a 10-day journey from $3,440 per person, double. Picture the kids bathing elephants, on bicycle rides, soaring in a hot air balloon adventure, taking a jeep safari to discover hidden temples straight out of Indiana Jones, walking through dense jungles to tribal villages and always meeting families and hearing their stories.
In addition to helping support local guides and community-based tourism services like boutique hoteliers and local restaurant entrepreneurs who interface with Wildland’s guests, the company contributes to building much-needed water wells in the dry zone. Through the generous contributions from previous travelers, three wells (and counting) have already been built in these remote villages just since the start of 2015. See: http://www.wildland.com/destinations/asia/myanmar-(-burma-)/givingback.aspx
For more information on all of Wildland Adventures’ worldwide programs, availability and reservations call1-800-345-4453 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Visit http://www.wildland.com/.
Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1986. As active managing directors they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel. By fostering genuine connections to create personalized experiences their travelers, Wildland fosters a growing and vibrant community of enlightened and compassionate travelers. Rated by National Geographic Adventure as the #1 Best‘Do-it-all’ OutfitteronEarth andFodor’s as one of the World’sBestTourSpecialists, Wildland Adventures offers more than 150 unique itineraries on 6 continents in 38 countries.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Media Contact for photos, interviews and more information:
Widness & Wiggins PR
Sara Widness / 802-234-6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 303-554-8821 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website and Portfolio of Past Releases: http://www.travelnewssource.com/
Follow Widness & Wiggins PR on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/BoulderDave
New Culinary & Wine Travel Series Launched To Explore Food Culture and Traditions Worldwide
SEATTLE, Jan. 25, 2016– What do many people do on an anniversary?
They treat themselves to a gala dinner.
This is Kurt and Anne Kutay’s way of celebrating the 30th anniversary of their company, Wildland Adventures. On a May 21, 2016 departure, they will host Walks, Wine and Culinary Adventures in Northern Spain, experiencing with guests the full terroir of Basque and Castile culture from food and wines, to Guernica and the Guggenheim. This special tour also launches the company's new “Travel Style” of offerings dubbed Culinary and Wine Adventures.
“There's no better way to celebrate 30 years of 'Going Wild' around the world than sitting down to the table with guests on a Wildland Adventure, to be served by local specialty chefs while toasting with glasses full of regional wines poured by local winemakers,” says Kurt Kutay.
Joining them on the May departure will be wine experts David and Ruth Arista of Arista Wine Cellars and Xabi Extxarri, a Spanish guide whose passion for culture, literature and the arts emanate from his Basque homeland.
The Spain immersion covers 13 days and begins and ends in Bilbao (think Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim). The per person double rate is from $7,995. See: http://www.wildland.com/trips/mediterranean/spain/Northern-Spain/overview.aspx
Over a nine-course, wine-paired welcome dinner at the Guggenheim Museum, guests experience haute Basque cuisine for an unparalleled dining experience. East of Bilbao lies the town of Guernica, the traditional heart of the Vizcayan Basque culture. Guernica resident, writer and historian, Edorta Jimenez, walks with guests into this region’s history, revealing the bombing of Guernica by the Luftwaffe in April 1937 that woke the world up to the perils of war that so devastated the community. In 1937 Pablo Picasso painted Guernica, a powerful political statement depicting the tragedies of war.
From Bilbao, a private guided tour introduces the caves of Sierra de Atapuerca containing a rich fossil record of the earliest humans in Western Europe, and the worlds’ largest collection of Hominids, the direct ancestors of Neanderthal man. This day continues on foot to the small, ornate city of Burgos made famous by its extraordinary Gothic cathedral looming over the skyline of Spain’s culinary capital.
Guests travel among the remote mountains and along the coastline of Basque and historic Castile, hiking through the vines of the region, as well as along the Camino de Santiago, through National parks and castle-fringed farmlands. Dining includes haute restaurants and local wine bars where Spanish pintxos (snacks) are served. Private tastings in the vineyards and bodegas of Spain’s top winemakers, conversations with farmers, cheese makers, authors and celebrity chefs, as well as the best sommelier of La Rioja, are woven into this tapestry. In San Sebastian, where Michelin stars fall from the sky, guests learn the art and preparation of pintxos at Ni Neu Restaurant.
Other new additions to Wildland’s Culinary and Wine Adventure category include Argentina, South Africa and Turkey.
In Argentina, Wine, Cultures & Canyonlands: Mendoza and the Northwest is a 14-day immersion in culture, history and nature, all with a gastronomic embrace. The per person double rate is from $5,800. The trip begins in Mendoza and ends in Tucuman.
Turquoise Coast Odyssey is a 13-day journey through Turkey from $4,895 per person double on which guests sample a new dish every day, from the street foods of Istanbul, to a cooking lesson at a women’s coop restaurant in Cappadocia, to family recipes prepared on board a gulet cruising along the Mediterranean coast.
A trip that was launched in 2015, Cape Town to Kruger Safari is a wines and wildlife safari in South Africa featuring wines grown from vines on Earth’s oldest soils and wildlife encounters in prime game habitats. Guests enjoy an eight-course, wine-paired African surprise dinner in the Cape winelands of Stellenbosch and Franschoek before going on safari in Greater Kruger National Park and after exploring Cape Town and Robben Island, the political prison of Nelson Mandela. This is an eight-day program from $3,950 per person double.
Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1986. As active managing directors they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel. By fostering genuine connections to create personalized experiences their travelers, Wildland fosters a growing and vibrant community of enlightened and compassionate travelers. Rated by National Geographic Adventure as the #1 Best‘Do-it-all’ OutfitteronEarth andFodor’s as one of the World’sBestTourSpecialists, Wildland Adventures offers more than 150 unique itineraries on 6 continents in 37 countries.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Media Contact for photos, interviews and more information:
Widness & Wiggins PR
Sara Widness / 802-234-6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 303-554-8821 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website and Portfolio of Past Releases: http://www.travelnewssource.com/
Follow Widness & Wiggins PR on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/BoulderDave
Plus a Deal -$1,000 Off Per Person on 12-day Sailing Expedition March 7-18, 2016
SEATTLE, Dec. 17, 2015– On March 9, 2016, there will be a once-in-a-lifetime event that intrepid travelers will not want to miss. Tracking directly over the Equator above Indonesia’s remote Maluku island group, a handful of guests aboard a classic two-masted sailing schooner will witness a total solar eclipse surrounded by a jungle landscape of uninhabited islands and towering volcanoes.
Well-known for such unique and inspiring expeditions, Seattle-based Wildland Adventures (http://www.wildland.com/) has sweetened the offer by knocking $1,000 off the 12-day Spice Islands Solar Eclipse Sailing Adventure package that runs March 7-18, 2016. This brings the per person double rate to $5,495 for the privilege of witnessing one of nature’s grandest shows in a setting that defies description.
Accommodations for the luxury cruise are aboard the 24-passenger phinisi Ombak Putih, a traditional two-masted Indonesian schooner. Guided day excursions and evening lectures by escort and guest lecturer Jeffrey Mellefont, research associate of the Australian National Maritime Museum, enhance the on-board experience of the rich natural history, cultures and customs in the archipelago.
Flying out of Bali and embarking in Ternate, the ship sails across the equator encountering diverse cultures and pristine island habitats while re-discovering the dramatic history of this fascinating maritime world sought after by fortune hunters and adventurers for its exotic cloves, nutmeg and mace. Hidden for centuries by the same remoteness that keeps these islands unspoiled today, the ship anchors in turquoise-colored coves so that guests may visit isolated villages and spice plantations, ancient forts and trading posts, and snorkel over stunning coral reefs. The loveliest and most remote of the islands is kept till last. This is the glorious Banda group that guests visit before disembarking on historic Ambon.
Snorkels, kayaks and paddleboards are kept on board so that guests may enjoy activities in the warm water when they are not on walking and birding tours, enjoying a community beach dinner and touring farms, a clove plantation and a distillery producing ‘kayu putih’ oil. This is a universal panacea extracted from Melaleuca tree leaves that no Indonesian household is without. It is used as a topical for aches and pains, an inhalant for colds and a remedy for stomach unrest.
On the island of Ternate guests visit the old house of Alfred Russel Wallace, the British naturalist and explorer who spent many years based here exploring the archipelago and independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection when Darwin was in the Galapagos. Here, too, is ‘Afu’, the oldest clove tree in the world, representing a fascinating history of intrigue, greed and hope.
On Wednesday, March 9, the ship anchors at 0.4˚N, 127.4˚E, just 24 nautical miles north of the Equator and centered directly beneath the track of the umbra, or moon’s shadow, to experience the sun’s 100 percent occultation for the longest possible time. The partial eclipse commences at 08:35 am local time (23:35:45 UTC + 9), with total eclipse starting at 9.51 am. Maximum eclipse is at 9:52:38, and on Ombak Putih the total eclipse lasts for three minutes and 16 seconds. This is followed by a crossing-the-line ceremony transiting across the equator.
In the Banda archipelago guests will stroll through a nutmeg grove where the shapely nutmeg fruit-bearing trees grow in the shelter of towering, gigantic ‘kenari’ or native almond trees. Visitors when leaving Banda are typically escorted by a ceremonial canoe called a ‘kora-kora’ propelled by banks of warrior-oarsmen, an apropos departure from paradise.
For complete details and itinerary please see: http://www.wildland.com/files/brochure/trips/Indonesian%20Adventure%20Cruise%20-%20Solar%20Eclipse%20FINAL.pdf
About Jeffrey Mellefont
Jeffrey Mellefont, research associate of the Australian National Maritime Museum, is a former blue-water mariner and navigator; a writer, photographer and editor who has made a lifetime study of the fascinating maritime world of Indonesia. Along with regular host and guide, Frans Huneker, special guest and fluent Indonesian speaker, Jeffrey Mellefont will guide the group ashore. At the end of each day, in the comfort of the Ombak Putih, Jeffrey will reveal more of this amazing maritime realm.
About The Ombak Putih
The Ombak Putih is a mix of traditional and modern design. Her hull and rigging are traditional, while the deck house and interior were custom designed to adapt to Western tastes of space, privacy and comfort. While Indonesian traditional sailing vessels are customarily referred to as Bugi Schooners, strictly speaking she is rigged as a Ketch, the foremast being higher than the aft mast. Of the 12 cabins, four have double beds, four are configured as twin-bunks and four as triple, with a double and an extra singe bed. All cabins are air-conditioned (individually controlled) and have private bathrooms with warm and cold water.
Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1986. As active managing directors they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel. By fostering genuine connections to create personalized experiences their travelers, Wildland fosters a growing and vibrant community of enlightened and compassionate travelers. Rated by National Geographic Adventure as the #1 Best‘Do-it-all’ OutfitteronEarth andFodor’s as one of the World’sBestTourSpecialists, Wildland Adventures offers more than 150 unique itineraries on 6 continents in 37 countries.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Media Contact for photos, interviews and more information:
Widness & Wiggins PR
Sara Widness / 802-234-6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 303-554-8821 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website and Portfolio of Past Releases: http://www.travelnewssource.com/
Follow Widness & Wiggins PR on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/BoulderDave
Encourages fellow adventurers to enjoy the outdoors, join social media effort to help build a well for a primary school in Tanzania
SEATTLE, WA, Nov. 19, 2015 – Experiential travel leader Wildland Adventures-- like one of the country’s best-known outdoor retailers, REI – is closing its doors on Black Friday this Thanksgiving holiday and encouraging its staff, friends and family to enjoy the great outdoors for the day while also thinking of others less fortunate.
This year Wildland Adventures is also giving thanks to an alumni traveler and an incredible cause that she has embraced. The company is advocating a Thanksgiving “pay it forward” to assist the fundraising effort of a young Wildland client, Jamie Eisner, age 12, who is half-way toward a $6,500 goal that will help build a well for a school she recently visited on a family safari in Tanzania.
From now until the end of Black Friday (Nov. 28), for every adventure photo posted and tagged, Wildland Adventures will donate $10 – up to $500 -- to building the fresh water well for the Mikocheni Primary School. Submissions should be tagged on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter with #OptOutside and #Wildland.
Interested individuals can also donate directly to the cause by visiting: https://www.gofundme.com/mpswell/donate
“Before I visited Tanzania, I took for granted that I have easy access to water whenever I want, air conditioning, plenty of food, medicine, a great education, and so much more. The children at Mikocheni have none of this, but we can give them something that would change their lives,” explains Jamie. “With the well, the kids will do better in school because they'll be less tired and less dehydrated. If they are doing better in school, then they will be more successful when they grow up, and live a better life.”
Approaching its 30th anniversary year, Wildland Adventures has a lot to give thanks for, and when better than at Thanksgiving, said founder Kurt Kutay. Please see the Go Fund Me page with project and fundraiser info: https://www.gofundme.com/mpswell
Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1986. As active managing directors they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel. By fostering genuine connections to create personalized experiences their travelers, Wildland fosters a growing and vibrant community of enlightened and compassionate travelers. Rated by National Geographic Adventure as the #1 Best‘Do-it-all’ OutfitteronEarth andFodor’s as one of the World’sBestTourSpecialists, Wildland Adventures offers more than 150 unique itineraries on 6 continents in 37 countries.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Media Contact for photos, interviews, press trips and/or more information:
Widness & Wiggins PR
Sara Widness / 802-234-6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 303-554-8821 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website and Portfolio of Past Releases: http://www.travelnewssource.com/
Follow Widness & Wiggins PR on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/BoulderDave
SEATTLE, WA, Sept. 28, 2015– Wildland Adventures heeds the call of the wild with programs in three exotic destinations during prime times for late 2015 and 2016 travel. The destinations are Sri Lanka, Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula and Zambia.
All three programs incorporate Wildland Adventures’ “Wild Style” travel philosophy that embraces authenticity and meaningful cultural interaction that helps break down barriers and separates travelers from tourists, at the same time contributing to local communities and environmental initiatives.
"While exploring the most wild and primitive places on Earth, we do it in a style that embraces both traveler comfort and authenticity of experience,"explains Wildland founder and visionary director Kurt Kutay. "For example, when venturing into the wilds of Zambia on a walking safari, there is nobody between you and the wildlife except your exceptionally keen and knowledgeable guide whose job it is to allow a safe yet intimate distance without impacting or disturbing the animals."
To that end, Wildland Adventures is introducing this new line-up of “Wild” journeys…
Wild Sri Lanka is a 15-day adventure that journeys from the island nation’s mountain highlands to its marine habitats, focusing on the 15 percent of the country that has been dedicated to wildlife preservation and protection. Safaris through three different national parks offer guests the opportunity to see leopards, sloth bears and herds of wild elephants. Travel is by energy-efficient vehicles and bicycle, with stays at certified eco-lodges.
Activities include mingling with locals, touring UNESCO World Heritage Sites, night and boat safaris, jungle ruins, a visit to an elephant rehabilitation camp, whale watching, observing newborn turtles at Kosgoda Turtle Hatchery, and biking through coconut and tea plantations. This trip focuses on the local benefits of tourism by working directly with the remote communities visited. The gateway city is Colombo. The per person double rate is $5,086. While there are set monthly departures throughout 2016, Sri Lanka is truly a year round destination for anyone wishing to set up a private itinerary. See: http://www.wildland.com/trips/asia/sri-lanka/wild-sri-lanka/overview.aspx
Into the Wilds of the Osa Peninsula goes where elusive jungle cats still roam in Costa Rica. This eight-day itinerary ventures deep into the Corcovado National Park, identified by National Geographic as “one of the most biologically intense places on the planet.” Here on the Osa Peninsula hiking through rainforests, kayaking coastal waterways and rivers and snorkeling from pristine beaches showcase rare and exotic species including the elusive puma and jaguar, tapir, herds of collared peccaries, sloth and assorted monkeys, all the while in a cacophony of calls and warbles of myriad tropical birds.
Trip proceeds support research and habitat preservation of Neotropical cats in the Osa. An optional overnight can be arranged in the remote and rustic facilities of the Sirena Ranger Station. The gateway city is San Jose. The per person double rate is from $3,795. Departures in 2015 are Nov. 21, and Dec. 19, 21, 23 and 26. Departures in 2016 are Jan. 9 and Feb. 11, with other dates to be announced. The Wildland Adventures staff suggests that families may want to plan this as a holiday trip. Rates for children 12 and under are $2,995. See: http://www.wildland.com/trips/central-america/costa-rica/osa-peninsula-wildland-adventure/overview.aspx
Wild Zambia Safari is a 10-day active adventure in Zambia that includes an optional night camping under the stars in the wilderness of South Luangwa National Park. Wildland travelers explore with expert wildlife guides the wonders of South Luangwa and Lower Zambezi National Parks on foot, by canoe, and in specially outfitted 4x4 safari vehicles. This is where the African walking safari originated. The trip includes a five-mile trek (guest luggage is transported ahead) from Luwi to Nsolo bush camps, tracking game through habitat where wild dogs roam among herds of buffalo, giraffe, elephant and wildebeest. Pods of hippos and noble elephants share river space while paddling the shores of Lower Zambezi National Park. Guests learn to read the sands along the river for signs of lion that may not be far away.Per person double rates are from $7,450. Departure dates are available upon request. See: http://www.wildland.com/trips/africa/zambia/Wild_Zambia_Safari/overview.aspx
Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1986. As active managing directors they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel. By fostering genuine connections to create personalized experiences their travelers, Wildland fosters a growing and vibrant community of enlightened and compassionate travelers. Rated by National Geographic Adventure as the #1 Best ‘Do-it-all’ Outfitter on Earth and Fodor’s as one of the World’s Best Tour Specialists, Wildland Adventures offers more than 150 unique itineraries on 6 continents in 37 countries.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Contact Widness & Wiggins PRfor photos, interviews, and/or more information:
Sara Widness / 802-234-6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 303-554-8821 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website and Portfolio of Past Releases: http://www.travelnewssource.com/
Follow Widness & Wiggins PR on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/BoulderDave
Included Are $300 per Person Savings, Complimentary Hot Air Ballooning, Conversation with Whirling Dervish and More
SEATTLE, WA, July 22, 2015– Two Autumn 2015 departures of Wildland Adventures’ already richly textured Turquoise Coast Odyssey, if booked by August 15, 2015, come with value-added benefits including a $300 per person savings, a complimentary hot air balloon ride over Cappadocia with a champagne toast, a private audience with a Sufi dervish and a visit with an American scholar and Turkish sculptor couple in Istanbul.
Departure dates are Sept. 15-27 and Oct. 6-18, 2015, for a 13-day land and sea immersion in Turkey, a country that once visited becomes a favorite among active travelers.
The per person rate (double occupancy) with the discount is $4,595. Required local flights are assessed separately at $400 per person. Tours depart with a minimum of five guests, and private charters are available. Airport transfers, accommodations (including private cabin on a Turkish gullet), guide services and entrance fees, some meals, private air-conditioned vehicles with driver, port fees and more are included.
On this Turkey itinerary that combines land excursions with a sea voyage, visitors experience the dynamics of a changing secular society, observing sophisticates in Istanbul and agrarians in remote villages whose lives resemble snapshots of past centuries.
Kurt Kutay, founder of Wildland Adventures (http://www.wildland.com/), hails from Turkey (see: Kutay family Turkish heritage). He understands this culture and is accomplished in selecting in-country guides who, he says, “are exceptionally knowledgeable about Turkey’s ancient history and the conquerors and civilizations who have passed through this land bridge between Europe and Asia.”
From shipboard and on land, Wildland travelers are introduced to some of the earliest civilizations known to man through tours of bazaars, markets, hidden churches in Cappadocia, Crusader castles and ancient Roman, Greek and Byzantine ruins.
But more than a history lesson, this active trip embraces hiking, kayaking and swimming while meeting locals in their routine daily lives -- especially at the dining table where an ample culinary budget allows guests to try a new Turkish dish every day. Accommodations range from boutique hotels in historic buildings to restored Ottoman homes; some Wildland trips include home stays with the Topkhara family in Uruntu village, a family Kurt has known for 25 years over three generations. While enjoying captivating stories, guests learn how to make gozleme flat bread and are invited to sample grapes, figs and apricots that are abundant here.
After walking the historic streets of Istanbul (Constantinople) and riding a local ferry on the Bosphorus, guests transfer by air to the bizarre geological formations of Cappadocia. Here on the Anatolian plateau are underground dwellings and Christian Orthodox churches carved into the volcanic tuft to escape persecution of Romans. Here guests are invited to a private audience in an old caravanserai with a traditional Sufi dervish to learn more of whirling dervish, Sufism and Islam. Here, too, is a spellbinding balloon ride over Cappadocia at dawn – with a champagne toast.
Another short flight brings guests to the 1st Century AD Roman city of Ephesus and an overnight in a rural village guesthouse.
For six days guests voyage in the wake of ancient mariners aboard a 12-passenger, two-masted schooner called a gullet that anchors in quiet coves to access footpaths leading through herb-scented hills to ruins and remote villages. The trip ends in Antalya after exploring Crusader castles, a Greek theater, 4th CenturyBCELycianhouse-tombscarvedoutofrockamidstrichly decoratedfacadesonhighcliffs, a 3rd Century Christian church and Roman ruins. Guests fly back to Istanbul for a final night together.
Wildland Adventures guests arrive and depart from Istanbul where over several days the Grand Bazaar, Spice Market, Topkapi Palace, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and Hippodrome waft scents and legends overlooking the Bosphorus. Here they may meet for wine and conversation with a Wildland Adventures’ alumna who fell in love with Turkey, American scholar Meg Russet, and her husband, Zafar Sari, a Turkish sculptor.
For complete information please see: http://www.wildland.com/trips/mediterranean/turkey/Turquoise_Coast_Odyssey/overview.aspx
Wildland Adventure also offers a 15-day Heart of Turkey Family Adventure that includes stays in village homes; a 12-day Phoenician-style gulet cruise, Voyaging Among the Dodecanese of Greece and Turkey; and a 9-day Highlights of Turkey adventure. The company can arrange custom trips and private gullet charters on custom itineraries.
About Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1986. As active managing directors they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel. By fostering genuine connections to create personalized experiences their travelers, Wildland fosters a growing and vibrant community of enlightened and compassionate travelers. Rated by National Geographic Adventure as the #1 Best‘Do-it-all’ Outfitter on Earth andFodor’s as one of the World’s Best Tour Specialists, Wildland Adventures offers more than 150 unique itineraries on 6 continents in 37 countries.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Media Contact for photos, interviews, press trips and/or more information:
Widness & Wiggins PR
Sara Widness / 802-234-6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 303-554-8821 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website and Portfolio of Past Releases: http://www.travelnewssource.com/
Follow Widness & Wiggins PR on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/BoulderDave
SEATTLE, WA, May 19, 2015– Wildland Adventures (http://www.wildland.com/), a family-owned adventure travel company with 30 years of first-hand experience traveling with kids and grandchildren offers insights for active families planning an escape this year with children, teens or young adults.
“From the beginning we designed our Wildland Family Adventures to be fun encounters in nature and authentic cross-cultural experiences among indigenous communities that change the way we see the world and benefit the places and people we visit,” explains Kurt Kutay, company founder and president. He developed their family program together with partner and vice-president, Anne Kutay. The premise of their family trips are summarized in their list of 7 tips for your best family adventure vacation.
For families with children (ages 5-10): When venturing beyond amusement parks and beach resorts, Wildland recommends trips closer to home, perhaps in Alaska or Latin America where it’s easy to get away in summer or to escape during winter school holidays. Flight times are shorter and there is little time change in destinations such as Costa Rica, Belize, Panama, Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. Here in abundance are family-friendly accommodations, fun outdoor activities, close encounters with wildlife and beaches for relaxed together under the sun.
Kids love meeting their host country counterparts; parents want their children to see how other families live. Wildland helps foster direct cultural connections by giving a soccer ball to every young traveler at the start of their trip. The mission is to give it away to a local child during the tour. Instead of eating exclusively at restaurants or hotels, the company arranges lunches in rural homes, bringing families together to learn from each other.
Key considerations when traveling with young kids are shorter drives, longer stays with fewer accommodations changes, staying in places with more things to do in the vicinity, and assigning guides who are themselves are parents or teachers and whose specialty is leading small family groups of young children and adults.
Leading a new family adventure every year as their son was growing up, the Kutays were constantly expanding and enhancing Wildland’s family travel program based on their own first-hand experience.
“As our son was growing up, we realized we needed to expand the scope of our family travel programs by creating more active and in-depth adventures for families with older kids,” explains Anne Kutay. “We kept reaching out into the world; going on safari in Africa, riding camels in the Sahara Desert of Morocco, or exploring the jungles, villages and islands of Southeast Asia.” With its own family heritage in Turkey, Wildland travelers of all ages are received as family on adventures in Istanbul, Cappadocia and along the Mediterranean coast of this ancient land.
“It’s important for families to choose a travel company that is flexible in every sense: meals, timing and activities must dovetail with the abilities and interests of young people, whether it’s snorkeling or spelunking, seeing reptiles or monkeys,” advises Grettel Calderon, Wildland’s Central America Program Director living in Costa Rica.
Specialist family guides balance age-appropriate information delivered to young travelers with lots of fun activities so the kids are amazed and engaged as they discover the world around them. “Our pre-trip packets mailed to families when they sign up include booklets, maps, reading lists and laminated wildlife cards that build anticipation and will help young travelers identify the wildlife they see here,” added Calderon.
For Tweens (ages 11-14): Wildland’s trips for this age group are more active and venture deep into the Amazon and Andes of South America, or on safari in Africa offer more opportunities to learn about other cultures by joining in daily life, participating in native rituals, and mixing it up with local families.
“We help families with young adults plan adventures that may be impossible to find or risky to do on their own, such as nocturnal wildlife safaris in the Amazon, participating in a special “pago a la tierra” ceremony honoring “Pachamama” Mother Earth with an Andean shaman, and home-stays or meals with local families,” adds Wildland’s South America expert Gretchen Traut.In India, short walking tours in Delhi are led by former street children just a little older than Wildland’s young visitors who experience a real-world, first-hand lesson in poverty, the value of education and gratitude. Family safaris in East Africa include opportunities to live in a Maasai village in Kenya, and in Tanzania to hunt with bushman using bow and arrow. Young students are also invited to participate in hands-on field work with local students in the Galapagos Islands as part of the company’s Ecology Project International on their Galapagos Family Research Adventure.
For Young Adults ages 15-20: Wildland pushes the experience envelope for young adults with whitewater rafting, sand-boarding on a volcano in Nicaragua, rappelling down a waterfall in Costa Rica, challenging hiking in Patagonia and walking on safari in Africa, activities that break parents and kids out of normal roles and routines. Together on a Wildland Family Adventure young adults and parents may be on par ability-wise and share the joy of accomplishment; or roles may be reversed where the son or daughter has greater ability, strength and confidence, bringing family members closer together through a new shared experience and appreciation for each other. Young adults also seek more independence and optional activities that may be more challenging than parents are ready to undertake. Wildland guides will often engage them one-on-one as peers, thus appealing to their emerging sense of self.
As a pioneering company in ecotourism Wildland supports conservation and community development projects throughout the world under the auspices of its non-profit Travelers Conservation Trust. Wildland’s destination specialists often facilitate special arrangements for families with teens to give back through projects such as building and supplying schools for Maasai in Africa, supporting a community center where young Quechua students can study after school, and, as did a Seattle family, launching a fund-raising campaign at home before their trip in order to deliver a sorely needed van for an orphanage in Tanzania.
The company has shared what parents and kids are saying about their Wildland Adventures in their family travel reviews. To speak with a travel planner or for more information, space availability and reservations contact Wildland Adventures at1-800-345-4453, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit http://www.wildland.com/.
About Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1986. As active managing directors they designed and led family adventures throughout the world raising their son, now traveling with their teenage grandson. They continue to refine and evolve their Wild Style of travel based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel. By fostering genuine connections to create personalized experiences their travelers, Wildland fosters a growing and vibrant community of enlightened and compassionate travelers. Rated by National Geographic Adventure as the #1 Best ‘Do-it-all’ Outfitter on Earth and Fodor’s as one of the World’s Best Tour Specialists, Wildland Adventures offers more than 150 unique itineraries on 6 continents in 37 countries.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Media Contact for photos, interviews, press trips and/or more information:
Widness & Wiggins PR
Sara Widness / 802-234-6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 303-554-8821 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website and Portfolio of Past Releases: http://www.travelnewssource.com/
Follow Widness & Wiggins PR on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/BoulderDave
SEATTLE, WA, Mar. 16, 2015– Wildland Adventures’ Turquoise Coast Odyssey offered this season is a 13-day land and sea immersion in Turkey with an itinerary distinguished from the norm with details woven like puzzle pieces to help guests unravel the Gordian Knot that is this country’s complicated history and culture.
This is an active trip with hiking, kayaking and swimming splashed with antiquities that bring visitors close to earth and sea where Greeks, Romans, early Christians, Byzantine and Ottoman empires perched and clutched, each successive civilization leaving its mark on the culture, folklore and way of life of Turkish people today.
How Wildland Adventures’ guests come to perceive the diverse civilizations of this ancient land has everything to do with Kurt Kutay who founded Wildland Adventures in 1986 and who has strong family roots in Turkey. For him this trip is highly personal.
“The Turquoise Coast Odyssey is one of our flagship trips at Wildland Adventures. After a lifetime of traveling to Turkey visiting my own family, our travelers are received by the most exceptionally knowledgeable and fun-loving guides who treat you like family and friends,” he said. Thanks to having personally sourced off-the-beaten-path gems that relay the story of this country, guests explore beyond the borders of the usual tour. For example, they
· Lodge in unique historic accommodations including boutique cave hotels in Cappadocia, restored Ottoman-style properties and village homes.
· Experience daily village life beyond the expected tour of historic sites.
· Dine at Kutay’s favorite restaurants and cafes to experience local hospitality where a different Turkish dish is sampled every day. (Most tours have fixed menus and/or limited food budgets; these tours don’t.)
· Rub elbows with Istanbul residents on a commuter ferry; they’re going home even as a Bosporus seaside restaurant anticipates the arrival of Wildland Adventures’ guests.
· Enjoy sundowners at the top of an ancient monastery overlooking the Mediterranean.
· Walk through and witness the active dig and restoration of the Terrace Houses at Ephesus; this is a whole hillside of homes where Ephesians lived; elaborate mosaics being unearthed and restored depicting the life of wealthy Romans in 1 BCE.
· Be received as family by exceptionally knowledgeable guides by virtue of Kutay’s family Turkish heritage and a lifetime of visiting Turkey.
Wildland Adventures (http://www.wildland.com/) guests arrive and depart from Istanbul where over two days the Grand Bazaar, the Spice Market, Topkapi Palace, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and Hippodrome waft scents and legends from their own perches overlooking the Bosporus.
A short flight to Cappadocia and a stay at a cave hotel here introduce medieval churches carved into nearby caves and painted by Christian Orthodox monks. A women’s co-op restaurant brings guests into the intricacies and flavors of a regional cuisine. Another flight transports travelers to the one-time merchant port of Ephesus where the skeleton of a library holds visitors in thrall above ground in contrast to the archaeological dig site that reveals the mosaics underground. Here on the sea guests lodge in an Ottoman-style bungalow in a small village.
Then come five nights aboard a 12-passenger gulet for an all-inclusive voyage along the Turquoise Coast. This journey in part is described in minute detail in The Lycian Shore, a book by British explorer Freya Stark. Persia and Greece traded their “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” here, imbuing the coastline with still-standing ruins accessed by hiking on ancient footpaths from hidden coves through herb-scented hills. The trip ends in Antalya after active days exploring Crusader castles, a Greek theater, 4thcenturyBCELycianhouse-tombscarvedoutofrockamidstrichly-decoratedfacadesonhighcliffs, a 3rd century Christian church and Roman ruins, to name a few.
Departure dates are May 26, Sept. 15 and Oct. 6. Per person rates (double occupancy) are from $4,895 depending on the number of people in a tour. Local flights are assessed separately. A tour will depart with a minimum of five guests, and private charters are available. Airport transfers, accommodations (including private cabin on a Turkish gulet), guide services and entrance fees, some meals, private air-conditioned vehicles with driver, port fees and more are included.
For complete information please see: http://www.wildland.com/trips/mediterranean/turkey/Turquoise_Coast_Odyssey/overview.aspx
Wildland Adventure also offers a 15-day Heart of Turkey Family Adventure that includes stays in village homes; a 12-day Phoenician-style gulet cruise, Voyaging Among the Dodecanese of Greece and Turkey; and a 9-day Highlights of Turkey adventure. The company can arrange custom trips and private gullet charters on custom itineraries.
About Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1986. As active managing directors they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel. By fostering genuine connections to create personalized experiences their travelers, Wildland fosters a growing and vibrant community of enlightened and compassionate travelers. Rated by National Geographic Adventure as the #1 Best‘Do-it-all’ Outfitter on Earth and Fodor’s as one of the World’sBestTourSpecialists, Wildland Adventures offers more than 150 unique itineraries on 6 continents in 37 countries.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Media Contact for photos, interviews, press trips and/or more information:
Widness & Wiggins PR
Sara Widness / 802-234-6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 303-554-8821 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website and Portfolio of Past Releases: http://www.travelnewssource.com/
Follow Widness & Wiggins PR on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/BoulderDave
SEATTLE, WA, Jan. 29, 2015– Wildland Adventures believes that Darwin’s survival of the fittest applies to the outcome of its home team, the Seattle-based Seahawks, as they compete in this Sunday’s Super Bowl XLIX in Glendale, AZ.
Expressing confidence in their team’s victory, Wildland Adventures is celebrating with its own Galapagos Adventure Bowl by offering a 10 percent savings on a cruise through the Galapagos Islands in 2015. And the kicker: if the hometown Seahawks win, another $500 comes off the adventure package.
The small country of Ecuador is a player in this year’s half-time advertising break during the Super Bowl on Feb. 1. This is the first time the country has decided to promote itself in such an ambitious way to a huge US audience and it will be the only destination to be promoted in this event.
Why so bullish on the Seattle Seahawks? "Like Darwin's observations of physical and behavioral characteristics of animals in the Galapagos, we have studied and documented the extreme levels of strength, size and speed among individual Seahawk players and we predict they will dominate in the Arizona bowl habitat,” said Sherry Howland, the company's Galapagos Program Director and most ardent Seahawks supporter.
For details on Wildland Adventures Galapagos Adventure Bowl, please see: http://www.wildland.com/trips/south-america/ecuador-and-galapagos/galapagos-adventure-bowl/overview.aspx
While aboard a deluxe 20-passenger yacht for eight days (the total package is 11 days/10 nights), guests explore where Darwin once roamed. They also enjoy three nights on the Ecuador mainland connecting through the capital city of Quito.
Galapagos Adventure Bowlis available only for new bookings made from Feb. 1-28, 2015 for departures in 2015. Space is limited by availability. Best available dates in 2015 are Sept. 4, 11, 18, 27, Oct. 25 and Dec. 4, 11. Other dates are available on request. Galapagos Adventure Bowl savings are not applicable with other discount programs.
About Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1986. They are actively at its helm and continuously refining and evolving their The results are lasting bonds -- intercultural, interpersonal and environmental -- wherever Wildland Adventures travels as well as their family-like community of enlightened, passionate travelers who have experienced how to focus on what matters most. Intrinsic to Wildland Adventures are strong personal connections with guests, especially the relationships Kurt, Anne and the Program directors have with alumni.
For more information contact Wildland Adventures at; 1-800-345-4453, visit http://www.wildland.com/ or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
# # #
Media Contact:
Jonathan Burnham, Marketing Director
Phone: 206.365.0686 / Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
For photos, interviews, press trips and/or more information:
Widness & Wiggins PR
Sara Widness / 802-234-6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 303-554-8821 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website and Portfolio of Past Releases: http://www.travelnewssource.com/
Follow Widness & Wiggins PR on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/BoulderDave
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
SEATTLE, Dec 10, 2014– Following the path less-touristed, Wildland Adventures’ nine-day Costa Rica Far-Flung Family Adventure targets families with adventurous teens. This itinerary brings travelers from the Caribbean to the Pacific on river rafts, surf boards, zip lines and small aircraft, enroute viewing exotic wildlife, helping local youngsters brush up on English, dining well and overnighting in some of Costa Rica’s foremost ecolodges.
Scheduled departures are Dec. 20-28, 2014; Dec. 26-Jan. 3, 2015; Jan. 10-18 and Feb. 14-22, 2015. The group size is a maximum of 12. The per person double rate is from $3,995. Private departures may be arranged upon request and the program can be tweaked for families with young children or adults only.
This itinerary unique to Wildland Adventures was created by Grettel Calderon, the company’s Central America Program Director and a native “Tica” from Costa Rica, who for 20 years has been designing eco tours to Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Belize and Guatemala.The ingredients of her expert mix of adventures include wildlife viewing in cloud forests and jungles, natural history, cultural exchange, active adventures and local cuisine.
This off-the-tourist-track adventure brings guests from San Jose to the Pacuare River for Class III-IV whitewater rafting before a two-hour boat trip to Tortuguero National Park, so remote it can be accessed only by jungle canals or small air charter. A short repositioning flight back to San Jose points guests in the direction of the Pacific and an ecolodge a short distance from the beach in the Dominical region that accesses Marino Ballena (Whales) National Park, Osa Animal Sanctuary, Corcovado National Park and Cano Island, one of the most prolific humpback whale migratory routes and dolphin habitats in Central America.
“Many areas of Costa Rica that aren’t promoted to visitors have a lot to offer and Dominical is one of them. We've located still-secluded beaches surrounded with lush tropical forests teeming with wildlife, and pristine tropical waters where marine life thrives,” Calderon underscored.
“We've discovered wonderful local restaurants that offer extraordinary culinary experiences. For example this little rural town of Ojocha is nothing but amazing restaurants where local ex-pat resident chefs who have moved there from France, Italy and Indonesia, have blended recipes from home with fresh tropical ingredients and Tico-style cooking to open restaurants in their homes and gardens offering creative cuisines in an ambiance you would never expect in the middle of nowhere,” she said.
In her years of scouting trips Calderon has recently uncovered new private reserves, small coves and barely known beaches, an animal rehab sanctuary, off-the-tourist-track villages to visit and some of the hemisphere’s best whale watching.
Kurt Kutay, who founded Wildland Adventures (http://www.wildland.com/) in 1986 after having worked for the Costa Rican National Park Service, noted that “most outfitters run insensitive (and even illegal) whale viewing trips and Grettel found the right boat operator who provides education and great viewing in comfortable and safe boats. Another far-flung aspect of this trip is that we return overland from the southern coast over the Cerro de la Muerte mountain pass, stopping for a hike in the new Los Quetzales National Park where there are good chances of seeing the Holy Grail of birdwatching – the Resplendent Quetzal.”
In Tortuguero, besides kayaking, boat and village tours, families may join locals in a fun and interactive word adventure game helping kids learn a bit of English (while guests practice their Spanish). On the Pacific participants can join in several water activities: outrigger kayaking (an ancient form of kayaking), regular kayaking or stand up paddle boarding. Enroute to Caño Island looking for whales, a stop is made at Playa Violines, a secluded beach accessed through mangrove forest on the Sierpe River. Here are opportunities for sightings of monkeys, sloth, crocodile, boa constrictor, iguana and more before reaching the ocean.
Departures are guaranteed for two or more people. Group is limited to 12 people. The trip begins and ends with overnights in San Jose. See: http://www.wildland.com/trips/central-america/costa-rica/costa-rica-far-flung-family-adventure/overview.aspx#/overview
For more information and reservations contact Wildland Adventures at1-800-345-4453 or by email at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
About Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1986. As active managing directors they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on an ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel. By fostering genuine connections to create personalized experiences their travelers, Wildland fosters a growing and vibrant community of enlightened and compassionate travelers. Rated by National Geographic Adventure as the #1 Best‘Do-it-all’ Outfitter on Earth andFodor’s as one of the World’s Best Tour Specialists, Wildland Adventures offers more than 150 unique itineraries on 6 continents in 37 countries.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Media Contact for photos, interviews, press trips and/or more information:
Widness & Wiggins PR
Sara Widness / 802-234-6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 303-554-8821 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website and Portfolio of Past Releases: http://www.travelnewssource.com/
Follow Widness & Wiggins PR on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/BoulderDave
SEATTLE, Nov. 17, 2014 – Wildland Adventures (http://www.wildland.com/), trailblazers in the realm of culturally and environmentally responsible travel, announces a new 18-day South Africa and Zimbabwe Wines and Wildlife Safari, the latest in a series of Wildland Adventures Founders Trips hosted by Kurt and Anne Kutay.
The Kutays, along with David and Ruth Arista of Arista Wine Cellars, will host the inaugural departure of the Apr. 12-29, 2015 adventure. The all-inclusive per person double rate is from $9,850 ($1,650 single supplement). See: http://www.wildland.com/trips/africa/south-africa/wines-and-wildlife-safari/overview.aspx
"We started our Wildland Adventures Founders Trips because there are so many places Anne and I have yet to explore and so much to learn from other cultures with whom we share our planet,” says Kurt Kutay, who launched Wildland Adventures in 1986. Most Founders Trips are destinations on the couple’s personal bucket list: exploratory trips in destinations yet to be visited and return sojourns to favorite places they want to share with other Wildland alumni and new travelers.
Active wine and culinary adventures in tandem with treks and safaris to spot indigenous wildlife and to explore local cultures are intrinsic to this trip series that began in 2012 in India with Tigers and Travels, recognized by National Geographic Traveler as a "Tour of a Lifetime". This was followed in 2013 by launching their Wines, Cultures and Canyonlands: Mendoza and Northwest Argentina.
South Africa and Zimbabwe Wines and Wildlife Safari is the first in the Founders Trips series to visit Africa. According to Anne Kutay, "A trip like this is more than the places we visit, the wildlife, food and wine, and the lovely Africans we'll meet along the way. It's just as much about bonding with each of our travelers who join us, and the small group of 12 travelers sharing this rich experience together."
The adventure begins in Capetown and the Cape Wine Region of Stellenbosch and Franschoek with a thorough exploration of the terroir of sun, sea and Cape of Good Hope and the full range of fine wines and cuisine that this ancient soil produces. The Aristas, founders of Arista Wine Cellars will co-host guests in this region along with local wine expert and culinary aficionado, Kara Miller, who introduces Wildland guests to local winemakers, chefs and hotel proprietors. There will also be kayaking among penguins and cycling through the wine country to meet small boutique wineries, family run multi-generation vintners, and some of the premier commercial producers.
Guests then journey north to the Greater Kruger National Park and on to Zambezi and Hwange National Parks in Zimbabwe to experience some of the most spectacular game viewing and wildlife photography on the continent.
On their scouting trip in April 2013 the Kutays handpicked the vineyards, sourced the best chefs and dining experiences, and selected premier safari camps located in prime wildlife habitats that offer the most prolific game encounters with the best professional safari guides in the business. One night the group has the option to stay at a small bush camp to experience the wilds of Africa in the style of early explorers, tracking game on foot with a veteran team of trackers and guides.
Future Wildland Founders Adventures on the drawing board for 2015 and beyond include explorations in Southeast Asia featuring new areas of Burma that are just beginning to open to tourism, wine and culinary adventures to Australia and Spain, and a journey on the Istrian Peninsula (Slovenia) including a voyage along the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia. Also being planned is a visit to Turkey, Kurt Kutay’s family heritage. The Kutays will reside there for a few months in 2016 to host guests in Istanbul for a special program of guest lectures, concerts, culinary and personalized travel experiences throughout the country.
A group is rarely more than 12 people. For more information, availability and reservations contact Wildland Adventures at1-800-345-4453 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Visit http://www.wildland.com/.
About Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay, Founding CEO/President, and Anne Kutay, Vice-President, established Wildland Adventures in 1986. As active managing directors they are continuously refining and evolving their Wild Style of travel. The ‘Wild Style’ is based on in ethic of sincerity, compassion and understanding that breaks down barriers of separation to build lasting intercultural, interpersonal, and environmental bonds designed to enhance rather than exploit the people and places where they travel. By fostering genuine connections to create personalized experiences their travelers, Wildland fosters a growing and vibrant community of enlightened and compassionate travelers. Rated by National Geographic Adventure as the #1 Best‘Do-it-all’ OutfitteronEarth andFodor’s as one of the World’sBestTourSpecialists, Wildland Adventures offers more than 150 unique itineraries on 6 continents in 37 countries.
# # #
Follow Wildland Adventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTravel
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wildtravel
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+wildlandadventures
Media Contact for photos, interviews, press trips and/or more information:
Widness & Wiggins PR
Sara Widness / 802-234-6704 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dave Wiggins / 303-554-8821 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website and Portfolio of Past Releases: http://www.travelnewssource.com/
Follow Widness & Wiggins PR on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/BoulderDave