So this started because my buddy Carl from the hiking club kept bugging me: “Where should I take my eco-tour group next season? You’ve been everywhere – spill it!” Honestly, I hadn’t really tracked this stuff properly before, so last Tuesday I sat down with my crumpled travel notebooks and a giant world map I got for five bucks at a flea market.
What I Actually Did First
Scoured all my old notes from trips since 2019 – highlighted the spots where nature slapped me in the face with pure wow factor. Dug through my GoPro footage too, rewatching all those shaky clips of muddy trails and blurry birds. Made a mess on my living room floor arranging sticky notes by continent: green for Asia, pink for South America… don’t ask why, just seemed right at 2 AM.
The Reality Check Part
See, lots of “top eco-destination” lists online are trash. They push places drowning in tourists or recommend spots that got wrecked by landslides last year. So I video-called my guide friends who actually live in these areas. Carlos in Costa Rica straight up laughed when I mentioned Manuel Antonio – “Come on man, that place has queue lines for squirrel sightings now!” Brutal but true.
Here’s the final list I’d actually stake my reputation on:
- Norway’s Lofoten Islands: Cold as hell but those fjords? Unreal. Saw orcas breaching like it was their day job.
- Botswana’s Okavango Delta: No roads, just mokoro canoe trips through hippo territory. Terrifying and magical.
- Palawan, Philippines: NOT El Nido – go further south to Port Barton. Still has that “coconut-powered generator” vibe.
Why This Bites You Later
Almost booked flights to Madagascar after reading some fancy blog. Called up my researcher friend Anika who lives there – she sent me pics of villages that turned into dust bowls since the last cyclone. Would’ve looked like a total jackass taking clients there. Lesson? Never trust sunrise Instagram shots taken before climate disasters hit.
Ended up giving Carl my top five with emergency contact numbers for each region. Also told him to pack extra zip ties after my tent poles snapped in Iceland last year – bet he didn’t see that pro tip on Lonely Planet. You’re welcome, nature nerds.
