Wilderness travel guide

The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, often driven by intensive farming. A fight back is underway, led by rewilding pioneers such as the Knepp Estate in West Sussex. Wildlife safaris here track nightingales, butterflies and Eurasian beavers. In Scotland you can go winter wildlife safaris in the majestic Cairngorms National Park, camping and watching for reindeer, pine martens and red squirrel.

There’s a growing drive to make nature more inclusive, such as the John Muir Trust partnering with Boots & Beards, an organisation that aims to help more people from ethnic minorities experience natural settings. Accessibility is trickier – wilderness areas are such because they have no, or virtually no, human infrastructure. But there is much that could be done, such as by improving interpretation for people with sight or hearing problems, and better signposting of accessible routes.

Many wilderness areas are inhabited by Indigenous groups whose ancestors have cared for these places for centuries. Mountains, rock formations, trees and rivers can hold immense spiritual significance for these communities. Minimising your impact isn’t just about allowing litter or campfires to despoil the environment – it’s also about respecting the stewards of these lands and their beliefs.

Wilderness areas rarely have much in the way of signage, and trails can often be unclear. With unpredictable weather and the odd wild animal too, exploring these places is best done in the company of someone who knows them well. Expert guides can also expand your understanding about everything from medicinal plants to animal tracks and survival skills.

It’s maddening that species such as wolves, bears and beavers have been wiped out, in many instances to make life easier for the farming industry. Thankfully, attitudes are shifting and we’re now seeing many rewilding projects around the globe. Done well, these can mitigate the concerns of local people and have significant positive effects on ecosystems that have had a missing piece for too long.

Does it protect you from the elements? Is it provided by local people so that their communities benefit financially? Does it blend in with its natural environment? From aurora cabins in Finland to luxury tented camps in Botswana, and remote rainforest villages, the accommodation on wilderness vacations can be one of the highlights of your trip.

We don’t think it’s helpful to think of wilderness areas as innately threatening, but instead places where it pays to be prepared. It’s better to see them as places that humans belong, but in harmony with nature rather than opposition to it. And to see the benefits that we can gain from being there.

It’s easy to forget how close we are to the wilderness. You don’t need to travel halfway around the world to lose yourself in nature. In fact, you may not even need to board a flight at all. In Europe, we have wilderness vacations in countries as varied as Poland, Scotland, Sweden, Finnish Lapland, Armenia, Iceland, Norway and Italy.

Wilderness vacations take place in places almost entirely free of tourism infrastructure. If planning such a trip, you often need to be prepared for very remote places with basic accommodation and amenities, where it can take some time to get in and out again.

The world’s truly wild places are few and far between these days as we humans tend to get everywhere, with plenty of mountainous walking routes where you bump into fellow ramblers. Which is fine, but not always what you are seeking. Wilderness trekking vacations take place where you will meet virtually no other hikers and in locations that are almost raw in their beauty, such as serious trekking in Patagonia, hut to hut hiking in far out Finland, the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea or the Maliau Basin of Borneo.

If desert landscapes are calling you, then we have a wonderful array of experiences on offer, such as a four-day camel safari in the Moroccan Sahara, or through the ancient lands of Nubia in both Egypt and Sudan. Others adventures are in countries which may be more known for mass tourism, but with deserts well off the beaten track, such as Oman.

Here, the desert folds of Wadi Bani Khalid are well protected by the Bedouin people, who will welcome you with open arms in their camps. Similarly, few things can prepare you for the greatness of Wadi Rum in Jordan when you see it for the first time spread out before you. Same goes for the star filled skies above you at night. Other desert great experiences include the Gobi in Mongolia, the Badain Jaran in China and the Atacama in Chile.

On a trekking vacation in Jordan’s Wadi Rum desert, one of our travelers Jill Marquis shares these lovely thoughts: “Half of me wondered whether I would find that huge space of the desert intimidating, but actually I found it so liberating. I thought it was wonderful... We were quite a small group, only five of us, so I didn't feel lost, I didn't feel intimidated, and I was overawed by all that space, but it was liberating. There was just no one else around, apart from the odd jeep in the distance, so essentially we were on our own.” Read more in Jill’s full interview.

As well as some of the classic routes, such as small ship cruises around Spitsbergen or camping in remote parts of Alaska, those who want to stretch those expedition muscles just that bit more have wonderful options. Unheard of by many, places like the Chukotka coast and Wrangel Island in far eastern Siberia really are a beautiful place to be ‘banished’ to on expedition cruises. See our Arctic and Antarctic guide for more details of our polar wilderness vacations.

Unsurprisingly, in places so little touched by humans, wildlife is often a big feature – such as seeing penguins on New Zealand’s Subantarctic Islands, bears in Finland’s Wild Taiga, zebras and giraffes in Namibia, and myriad mammals in Manu National Park in Peru, from elusive jaguars to monkeys. For more details on these wildlife vacations, with naturalist guides, see here.