The 2020 traveler wants more nature and fewer crowds, according to Virtuoso’s 2020 Luxe Report, which claimed “Untouristed and Unexpected” as a key tourism trend for the coming year. On that note, Natural Habitat Adventures has introduced five new trips in 2020 that highlight less-traveled sectors of top destinations, including the Canadian Rockies, Yellowstone, Norway, the Dolomites and England’s Cotswold Hills.
Trips pair environmental exploration with luxury accommodations and include forays on foot to uncover the local flora and fauna with naturalist Expedition Leaders. In keeping with its commitment to conservation travel, Natural Habitat Adventures’ 2020 trips are also 100 percent carbon-neutral, and the company will fully offset travelers’ flights booked for each trip.
New 2020 trips include:
Yellowstone: Adventure Under the Big Sky
On this weeklong small-group safari, guests will take in Yellowstone’s highlights before visiting remote routes and hidden parts of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem outside the park boundary. Excursions include negotiating herds of buffalo from Nat Hab’s custom North American Safari Trucks, sunrise wolf tracking in the Lamar Valley and a private gallery visit to view National Geographic wildlife photographer Dan Hartman’s work. Guests will also visit Old Faithful before heading outside the park to their rustic luxury lodge on the Gallatin River in Big Sky, Montana.
The Cotswolds: Exploring English Nature
Natural Habitat Adventures’ locally led 12-person tour explores wildflower meadows and hardwood forests away from the motor coach crowds. Travelers hike estate land with conservationist National Trust rangers, meet farming families whose agricultural practices go back centuries and visit Highgrove House and Gardens—the country home of the Prince of Wales. In the evenings, guests will stay in 17th- and 18th-century manor houses.
Remote Peaks & Meadows of the Canadian Rockies
Guests will visit Banff, Canada’s first national park, and spend two nights at Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. They can also hike the forested shores of Yoho National Park’s Emerald Lake, then take a helicopter ride into a land where grizzlies outnumber people and heli-hike with expert naturalist guides through alpine meadows in the secluded Bugaboo Range, track elk, bear and bighorn sheep.
Italian Alps: South Tyrol and the Dolomites
With a certified Italian Mountain Guide and naturalist Expedition Leader, guests ascend the 9,114-foot Mount Lagazuoi via cable car, hike around Tre Cime and discover the less-traveled Brenta Dolomites, then descend to the turquoise waters, olive orchards and citrus groves of Lago de Garda where a private speedboat tour awaits. The tour concludes with an overnight at a historic villa in Italy’s Valipocella region for a private wine tasting. In the evenings, guests stay in a charming family-run hotel, a 7,000-foot high lodge with views of the Dolomites, and a five-star alpine modernist mountain retreat.
Norway’s Fjords & Fjells
Travelers search for native musk ox and reindeer on the tundra in Dovrefjell National Park, board a high-speed Zodiac into the Atlantic to visit Grasoyane seal colony and kayak the secluded Hjorundfjord, a “secret” fjord within the Sunnmore Alps—and off-limits to big cruise ships. Join naturalist Expedition Leaders for a hike in Amotan Gorge, a little-seen spot home to some of the tallest waterfalls in the world. In remote Norangsfjord, retreat to one of Europe’s most treasured small hotels, a 30-room haven favored by royalty, aristocrats, authors and adventurers since 1891.
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