Are there companies which organize self-driven tours? (1 Viewer)

[jurek]

On a recent trip, I realized that proper research and organization of a birding trip takes enormous amount of time, which I hardly have anymore. But I still prefer to travel on my own pace.

Are there companies which sell self-driven tours or similar? I would be interested in somebody renting a car, booking hotels, giving me a set of GPS coordinates of places to stop and lists of birds to look at them, and I would travel on my own.

 

[Mono]

This company do various self-drive tours some with a particular birding focus.

Self Drive Search - WILDFOOT Travel

Browse our fantastic Self Drive trips. Let our travel experts create your unique tailor made luxury and adventure holiday.

www.wildfoottravel.com

 

[Jon Gallagher]

Gunnar Engblom (Kolibri Expeditions, Peru) and Sid Francis (Sichuan Birding, China) used to offer this kind of service. Don't know if they still do

 

[Jos Stratford]

Finntours do as well I believe, with text support as you go

 

[dandsblair]

We used Sarus Bird tours to do this for us in Japan and they do it elsewhere too.
We used Wild Earth to do a similar thing in New Zealand.

 

[temmie]

I can offer you a self-drive to some destinations, depends if those match with where you want to go ;-)

 

[jurek]

Why not? A shared trip is my second most favorite thing! BTW, how was the north-eastern Brazil?

 

[temmie]

Why not? A shared trip is my second most favorite thing! BTW, how was the north-eastern Brazil?

I had a blast in NE Brazil, will write a trip report in the coming month.
My album on FB should be visible (I have it on 'public' at the moment), so have a look before I restrict access to (default) 'friends only'.

 

[seedyrom]

Aratinga in Costa Rica are great. We have used Pieter twice now and have another tour booked round Christmas time. Extrely good prices too.

 

[abirdingguy]

Does anyone know of a self-drive tour option for Australia? I usually enjoy putting in quite a bit of planning and studying prior to a trip, but its looking like I won't have the time prior to what I hope will be a trip around this October.

Did OP end up trying one of these self-drive tours?

 

[seedyrom]

Does anyone know of a self-drive tour option for Australia? I usually enjoy putting in quite a bit of planning and studying prior to a trip, but its looking like I won't have the time prior to what I hope will be a trip around this October.

Did OP end up trying one of these self-drive tours?

Naturetrek will do this. We know, because they have done one for us! We probably won't use it though.

 

[abirdingguy]

Thanks for letting me know about Naturetrek. I'm curious why you probably won't use their itinerary though. Why is that?

 

[seedyrom]

We like the itinerary but it doesn't include much guiding and they have indicated that it is very expensive to hire a guide in Australia. Car hire and most meals are not included in the cost either, so factoring these in means the cost would be a lot more than we would want to pay.

 

[abirdingguy]

Thanks (and I like your username). I'm not looking for a guide, and I don't mind figuring out the food, cars, and lodging myself. I'm just looking for someone to help figure out where to go to maximize birding experiences.

I'll look into Naturetrek.

 

[seedyrom]

I'm sure they'll be helpful with that. Sicklebill might be good to contact too. We talked to a few different companies at Bird Fair about where to go - Australia is so vast it's hard to know where to start! Good luck with your planning and trip.