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About the Wilderness Group

UK & Ireland
3500+ Traveller Reviews
Sustainability Commitment
Multi Award-Winning

UK & Ireland

With offices in Scotland, Ireland, and England, and a dedicated team of destination experts, we specialise in offering inspiring active and experiential holidays across the UK and Ireland. 

The Wilderness Group is brought to you by the team behind the brands Wilderness Scotland, Wilderness Ireland and Wilderness England. As a team of 30+ adventure travel experts and a guiding team of over 100 qualified and experienced guides, we create enriching adventure holidays in which we use our destination expertise to bring clients to the wild hidden corners of Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales.

The Wilderness Group is also a founder member of the Active Travel Group, a collective that brings together some of the finest active travel companies in the UK. Specialising in tailor-made human powered holidays across the globe, the brands of the Active Travel Group run tours from the Scottish Highlands and Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way; to skiing holidays in the Alps and North America, and cycling tours in Europe.

The itineraries we build truly seek to get under the skin of the destination and strive to offer that perfect blend of outstanding guides, handpicked luxury accommodation with the authentic active and nature-based experiences to match.

Our Roots

The story of the Wilderness Group started back in 2001 with the launch of Wilderness Scotland, founded Paul Easto, who dreamed of sharing Scotland’s wild and untouched wilderness regions with the world. Later, the same team behind Wilderness Scotland travelled across the Irish Sea to establish Wilderness Ireland in 2014. Then in 2020, despite having run tours here previously for a number of years, we took the opportunity to officially launch Wilderness England.  Today we bring all three travel brands together under the Wilderness Group and look forward to continuing to work with like-minded trade partners from around the world to showcase the very best of the UK and Ireland.

The Wilderness Group is dedicated to working with other industry professionals to provide the best outdoor, cultural and experiential adventures across each destination. We work with custom travel designers, tour operators and travel agents to find or build the itinerary that best suits their clients.

Whether you are looking for private, bespoke or FIT trips, we are here to help. We specialise in trips that showcase the best of the UK and Ireland’s outdoor spaces and cultural experiences, from gentle to moderate and challenging activities, “ungoogleable” experiences, and great handpicked accommodation, all led by expert guides.

For us at the Wilderness Group, each and every trip should carry the same unwavering commitment to delivering a truly amazing and memorable experience.

The Trophy Cabinet

When our business began we didn’t really give much thought to scooping gongs and attending award dinners. For sure they are fun, but the real enjoyment comes in finding out that people like what we do and, in a world busier than ever, appreciate the value of doing things a bit differently and striving for the very best customer service possible. 

But it’s always worth celebrating our achievements, and our dedicated office and guiding team have been fortunate to scoop over 20 major industry awards such as:

  • Excellence in Wellbeing Award from the Great Place to Work awards scheme in 2020-21.
  • The only tour operator to receive a Great Places to Work “Best Workplaces of 2018” and “Best Workplaces of 2020” in the small business category.
  • Winner of the “Best Workplace for Women 2018” category.
  • Listed 16th worldwide (1st in Europe) in National Geographic Adventure Magazine’s list of the ‘Best Adventure Travel Companies on Earth’
  • Winning the World’s Leading Green Tour Operator in the World Travel Awards in both 2007 and 2014
  • Holding a Green Tourism Gold Award by the GTBS for 15 years+ recognised as the world’s most credible Sustainable Tourism Programme
  • Achieving recognition twice in the World Responsible Tourism Awards
  • Becoming the first Scottish company to gain AITO’s 5-star award for Responsible Tourism
  • Named in the Guardian Ethical Travel Awards: Best UK Tour Operator
  • Winning the Scottish Tourism Business of the Year after 3 years of operation
  • Having our Outer Hebrides & Skye Walking trip and Scottish Sea Kayak Trail feature in National Geographic Traveller Magazine’s 50 Tours of a Lifetime.
  • Winner of the Sligo Local Enterprise Award and finalist at Ireland’s National Enterprise Awards

Our Assurance and your Financial Protection

As a trading name of Wilderness Scotland, Ireland and England, The Wilderness Group is a fully bonded tour operator with ABTA, under their Financial Protection Scheme, and fully compliant with the EU package travel directives

While B2B bookings made with us are not covered by this scheme, you can take confidence that we are subject to rigorous tests each year on our financial viability and security.

We are also a member of AITO, the Association of Independent Tour Operators. AITO vet their members on the basis of Quality, Expertise and Customer Protection. They also host independent reviews of our tours. View our profile on the AITO website.

Wilderness Scotland also voluntarily nominates itself to the Health and Safety Executive for their Adventure Activities Licensing Authority (AALA). This means that our equipment and practices are subject to an annual inspection by senior inspectors who are all highly qualified and experienced outdoor professionals.  They have worked in the sector for many years before joining AALA and all still participate actively in adventure activities. View details of our AALA licence on the HSE website here.

Award Winning Experiences

Best Adventure
Travel Companies
Green Tourism
Gold Approved
High-End
Experiential Travel
High-End
Experiential Travel
Luxury
Travel

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