Solaris Expeditions

21/05/2024

We have a student group traveling in Namibia at the moment. They are doing some wild camping in the Palmwag Reserve, having come in from the coast a couple of days ago, where they explored the always breathtaking Sandwich Harbour. Namibia - what a place for students to have their first taste of travel in Africa!

05/04/2024

The mission from some clients of ours: Craft a two-week trip to Japan built around Cherry Blossom season. The challenge: Japan was closed to travelers for nearly 3 years during the pandemic - and now it's back in very big ways - demand for springtime travel has never been greater, and the tourism sector is fairly buckling under the pressure. The solution: Very carefully plot the course, bookending must visit Tokyo and Kyoto with mountain hot-spring resort towns and less trampled corners of southern Honshu, which offer a glimpse of rural Japan far away from the maddening crowds. For a foundation - include a few nights in a traditional ryokan inn, like Kyoto's superb Sowaka.

03/04/2024

A highlight of a recent trip to Argentine Patagonia was the drive from Bariloche to Villa La Angostura via Valle Ecantada and Villa Traful - back roads Lake District at its best. It's always amazing to see how the green belt of forest along the foothills of the Andes gives way to the vast steppe lands stretching across this part of the country all the way to the Atlantic. Amazing and varied scenery, and the little village of Villa Traful, located on the southern shore of the eponymous lake, is a gem just waiting to be discovered. Come to the Lake District for great hikes, epic Andean scenery, world-class rafting, fly fishing, road and mountain biking, back-country horseback riding, and much more.

02/12/2022

Oman -- We've been getting rave reviews from Solaris travelers coming back from adventures we've created for them in Oman. Both the Musandam exclave and Oman proper offer fantastic desert and mountain scenery, as well as long stretches of Arabian sea coastline to explore. This geographically fascinating little corner of the Middle East is an ideal destination for accomplished travelers looking to experience something new and unique in a country that remains well off the radar of mass market tourism.

27/11/2022

A group of Solaris travelers are off on a north-to-south exploration of Chile tomorrow, starting with 4 nights amidst the otherworldly landscapes of the Atacama Desert before reaching as far south as the King Penguin colonies of Tierra del Fuego, as far south and south gets in the Americas.

26/10/2022

The Andean cock-of-the-rock, one of the most sought-after sightings for visitors to Ecuador's Mindo Cloud forest. This beauty was sighted by a group of Solaris travelers yesterday, along with dozens of other species as they hiked in the forest. Mindo is one of the very best places to do some birding in the world, with more than 550 species recorded in this small and fragile ecosystem. Amidst the birds and forest treks, they visited coffee and cacao plantations which thrive in the humid environment of the cloud forest.

21/10/2022

A great conservation success story from Zimbabwe's Gonarezhhou National Park

In Zimbabwe, the mighty rhino is making a comeback. In southern Africa, the animal was poached to near extinction in recent decades. We visit a wildlife sanc...

29/07/2022

At long last! One of our favorite destinations, Madagascar, is opening up again. It's a fascinating place to visit on its own - or as an add-on to a safari in Southern Africa. Late August to early December is a particularly good time to visit.

22/06/2022

The New York Times recently ran another great photo essay - this time about a favorite place of ours just off the coast of Mozambique, Benguerra Island. An afternoon ride through the dunes and along a quite stretch of beach... as Dylan sang, "Magic in a magical land"

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/20/travel/horses-mozambique-bazaruto-archipelago.html

10/06/2022

Some very good breaking news!

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/10/politics/us-to-end-pre-departure-testing-requirement/index.html

The Biden administration is expected to announce Friday that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will lift its requirement for travelers to test negative for Covid-19 before entering the US, according to a senior administration official.

06/06/2022

A group of Solaris travelers are off on safari through the North of Namibia. Hard to imagine a better place to explore, coming out of two years of COVID confinement. They'll spend two weeks overlanding through some of the most beautiful desert landscapes in the world, camping out under the stars, seeking out Namibia's unique desert adapted wildlife. They'll visit ancient rock art sites, track rhino on foot, traverse a sea of sand dunes, and gaze across the Kunene River at the Angolan Highlands. Wide open spaces, with so much to take in, and learn about.

26/05/2022

Now that we are getting back out there again, taking our first big trips, it would be a good idea to check your passport's expiry date, and understand that many countries require your passport to be vaild for at least 6 months from your intended date of entry into that country. If you are planning on doing some traveling - now might be the time to apply for a new one. Here's a good overview...

https://www.tripsavvy.com/when-should-i-renew-my-passport-2972796

Many countries won't let you in or even board an airplane unless your passport is valid beyond six months beyond the last date of your trip.

25/05/2022

U.S. photographer Beth Moon has been documenting Madagascar's imperiled baobab's for more than 15 years. A fantastic gallery of her work is online now...

https://baobab.photoeye.com/

24/05/2022

The Washington Post has a great unique piece today about the sounds of Cairo, and how the auditory landscape is rapidly changing along with the city's rapid transformations. For anyone who has awoken on a first morning of a trip in the Muslim world, or in a Muslim neighborhood (like the Bo-Kaap, in Cape Town) the call to prayer, for example, is such a powerful reminder of arrival.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2022/saving-sounds-an-ancient-city/

Listen to the the sounds that could fade away as Cairo expands and more people move out of the center of the city.

04/03/2022

The New York Times article left out Tarangire National Park (Tanzania) as another place famous for its tree climbing lion.

04/03/2022

A great question we've puzzled over many times on safari.

Scientists believe that lions everywhere can climb up into branches, but they’re just not very good at it and need help from the right kind of tree.

09/02/2022

With covid numbers going way down, we can't wait to get back to Namibia, one of the world's most beautiful destinations. We offer small group mobile camping trips into the wilds of the desert, and tailormade safaris for travelers seeking unique southern-Africa experiences.

26/07/2021

Meanwhile - in Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe, wildlife goes on as seen from one of our favorite camps in Africa, Camp Mana. There will be so many stories to tell about this age of COVID, some of the hardest ones will come from local tourism and wildlife conservation, which have been absolutely devastated by the pandemic. It's great to know that unique and amazing places like Camp Mana, and Mana Pools National Park are managing to soldier on through the worst of times, all doing their part to keep guides, rangers, camp staff employed, and protecting precious ecosystems and habitat.