7 excellent reasons to travel with Follow Alice

At Follow Alice, we look after you from the moment you make an online trip enquiry all the way through to the moment you get back home after having enjoyed an epic adventure with us!

Follow Alice does most of the trip's admin for you so you can just enjoy the experience!

One of the important ways in which we're able to ensure an easy and hassle-free travel experiences is by only selling trips that we run ourselves. In other words, we're not travel agents selling third-party holiday packages – we're the folks behind everything related to your trip, from your online interactions to your actual adventure on the ground.

This one-stop-shop approach to adventure travel empowers us to offer you a holistic and seamless experience that lets you feel valued and supported on your adventure right from the moment you book all the way to the moment you return home.

Finally, here are some of the key ways we strive to make your travel planning and experience as smooth and stress-free as possible:

One of our pre-departure Zoom group calls

We like to refer to our Follow Alice adventure trips as being made "for travellers by travellers".

We say this because all of us who work here are passionate and frequent travellers who know very well the in's and out's of adventure travel, as well as its myriad benefits.

Our cofounder Reto at the summit of Kilimanjaro – the trip that led to Follow Alice being formed

At Follow Alice we select the trips that we offer very carefully. We only offer those that we ourselves love and really believe have the potential to offer others life-enhancing experiences.

Some of our Cape Town-based staff

When you go on a Follow Alice trip – whether it's to see mountain gorillas in the remote forests of East Africa or to trek among chortens and prayer flags in the Himalayas – we're confident we're leading you somewhere that will let you immerse yourself in a rare and beautiful environment that's able to offer physical and spiritual rejuvenation.

To find mountain gorillas you must head into the misty mountains of Uganda or Rwanda

While we organise private group trips for those who want them, one of the things that we really love to do is put together small groups of adventurous folks like yourself who then do the chosen holiday together.

A shared adventure is a great foundation for a new friendship

Over the years, we've loved hearing back from various clients about how they became fast and lasting friends with people they'd never met till they trekked or travelled together on one of our trips!

Adrian, who climbed Kilimanjaro with us in September 2023, says in his review:

Here's Adrian well on his way towards the summit of Kili

When you engage in an adventure activity together – especially over a few days – you break down many of the usual barriers to getting to know people. Lasting friendships are often born this way. We've even had clients who met on one trip plan another trip together with us. 😊

The people you meet on our trips invariably turn out to be gems

One of the reasons we love our company is that it provides many opportunities for growth for entrepreneurial individuals living in our various destinations. And these folks then go on to employ hundreds of other local men and women!

Kazi (in the driver's seat) is one of our excellent Follow Alice Tanzania safari guides

We believe that the host country should benefit the most from the economic activity generated by travellers. This is in contrast to some travel companies where clients' money largely ends up abroad in what's called economic leakage (you can learn more about this here).

Every Follow Alice destination has a local leader who is the entrepreneur and boss when it comes to the trips on offer in their country.

The local leader is responsible for hiring and training their staff, as well as looking after clients from the moment they land in the host country. (Sometimes the local leader is your tour guide on your trip, at other times you're led by one of their employees.)

Chris and Robert (the two seated gents) head up our Tanzania team

As Follow Alice grows, so too do the roles of these entrepreneurs. Chris and Robert Sichalwe, for instance, Directors of Follow Alice Tanzania, have been able to greatly expand the Tanzania side of Follow Alice since the pandemic and now employ hundreds of men and women from the Kilimanjaro region.

It takes a village to run a Kilimanjaro climb!

All that said, it's obviously not enough to just create jobs; you need to create jobs that offer decent wages, dignity, and opportunities for individual development and growth. In short, you need to look after your employees.

Eddie left us this review in August 2023, which we've shortened a little here:

As an aside, Eddie's final point here is something we encourage among our travellers: please bring old trekking gear with you if you have it so that you can gift it to someone whose own clothing or equipment has worn out. Or you could donate your own boots, jacket, torch (flashlight) or similar once the adventure is over!

In Nepal our porters often use donkeys to help transport your goods

Your safety is our very tippity-top priority when you travel with us.

We see traveller safety as having two prongs:

When it comes to preparing you for your trip, we have a wealth of free information in our detailed blog posts and YouTube videos. This info covers everything from what vaccinations are required by the host country to how to avoid developing altitude sickness.

We also send clients a set of pre-departure materials to work through to ensure you're properly prepared for your adventure.

Your local leader is always a local, meaning they know how to keep you safe

Then there's our own efforts at keeping you safe.

Your tour guide always has your safety front of mind. Firstly, they are trained and tested in wilderness first aid and emergency response protocols. Secondly, they always come prepared with the necessary first aid and safety equipment (like bottled oxygen on high-altitude treks).

Your tour guide is your first line of defence against all dangers, big and small

Further to this, your tour guide knows the in's and out's of the visited society, and so is able to look after you (and your belongings) during your visit.

In many ways, our super positive, five-star client reviews on Trustpilot and elsewhere tell you all of the reasons to travel with Follow Alice for us!

In fact, we can't keep count of how many clients have made the decision to travel with us after reading some of our reviews. So if you're still unconvinced by the end of this blog post, please read some of our client reviews on Trustpilot.

We take great pride in the wonderful feedback past clients leave us

For instance, Emily from Australia left us this review in August 2023:

Everybody who travels with Simon raves about the wonderful guide and person that he is

What we love even more than a great review is a return customer!

Many clients who did a trip with us (usually a Kilimanjaro climb, as that's our longest-running trip) have gone on to book another trip with us. And they often bring more family or friends with them this time. We're sure you can imagine how this gets our little hearts trying to bust out of our chests with pride. ❤️

Adventure travel lets you explore out-of-the-way places and reconnect with nature and yourself. It also often introduces you to rural, smaller communities whose culture is steeped in long history and tradition.

Adventure travel takes you into beautiful ecosystems that need to be protected

As we discuss in Why adventure travel is more sustainable than regular travel, our trips are often naturally quite sustainable in nature. That said, a travel company must also still make a concerted effort to ensure the adventure is carried out in a manner that's as sustainable as possible.

At Follow Alice, we strive to engage in adventure travel practices that respect local communities and the natural environment.

How, you might ask?

Well, we go into detail in How we approach sustainability and corporate responsibility at Follow Alice, but here are two key ways:

It's important, we believe, for travellers to learn about local cultures in ways that empower everyone involved

Please note that we have a wealth of information for anyone keen to learn how to become a more responsible and sustainable traveller – just head on over to our Sustainable travel blog section and take a browse.

And finally, we at Follow Alice are learning as we go, and acknowledge that there may well be better ways to do some things. So please do feel free to reach out to us with ideas! We hope to always continue making positive changes to our processes and trips as and when we realise they need to be made. ☘️