It started with one minibus and twelve strangers.
Saltwind began in 2011 with a borrowed minibus, a Moroccan friend who could cook, and a group who were strangers in Marrakech and friends by the dunes. We have tried to keep that feeling ever since.
Erg Chebbi, April 2011. The first trip. Twelve of us, one minibus, no air conditioning.
Saltwind in numbers
Travellers since 2011
9,800
Guides from the region
38
Average group size
9
Travellers who come back
46%
Our story
Fifteen years, the same rules
Clara Hughes and Sam Okoro met leading coach tours and agreed on one thing: the best moments never happened on the coach. Saltwind is what they built instead.
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2011
One minibus to Morocco
Clara and Sam take twelve friends of friends from Bristol to the Sahara, with Hassan driving and cooking.
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2014
Peru and the Andes
Rosa joins and we start running the Inca Trail with porters paid above the legal minimum.
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2018
B Corp-style rules, written down
We publish our standards on group size, pay and carbon, and start removing carbon for every trip.
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2022
Japan, Norway and Tanzania
Three new regions, each with a lead guide who lives there all year.
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Today
38 guides, 6 regions
Still twelve travellers or fewer, still run from a small office on Bristol’s harbourside.
The guides
The people you’ll travel with
Every lead guide lives in the region they guide, is employed all year and has a say in how their trips run.
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Hassan Ait Lahcen
Lead guide, Morocco
Grew up in the Dades valley. Speaks Tamazight, Arabic, French and English, and cooks the best tagine on any of our trips.
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Rosa Quispe
Lead guide, Peru
Has walked the Inca Trail over 200 times. Trained as a nurse in Cusco before she started guiding.
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Ingrid Solberg
Lead guide, Arctic Norway
Aurora forecaster, husky musher and the person who wakes everyone up at 2 a.m. when the sky turns green.
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Eleni Vasilaki
Skipper and guide, Greece
Third-generation sailor from Sifnos who knows every cove in the western Cyclades by name.
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Kenji Mori
Lead guide, Japan
Former chef in Osaka who walks the Kumano Kodo every spring and autumn with our groups.
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Baraka Mollel
Safari guide, Tanzania
Maasai naturalist with twenty years in the Serengeti and an uncanny eye for leopards.
Responsible travel
Promises we can be held to
Fine words are easy. These are commitments with numbers attached, and we report on them every year.
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Small groups, always
Never more than twelve travellers, so we fit in family homes and small boats and don’t overwhelm the places we visit.
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Fair pay, all year
Guides are employed year-round, and porters and crews are paid at least 30% above local guidelines, checked by a third party.
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Carbon removed, not offset
We pay for verified carbon removal for every trip, flights included, and publish the receipts.
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Locally owned stays
92% of our nights are spent in locally owned riads, guesthouses, ryokan and camps.
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A fund run by guides
£25 from every booking goes to a community fund. Our guides choose the projects: schools, water, trail repair.
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Animals stay wild
No elephant rides, no captive wildlife, and every safari follows strict viewing distances.
Where your money goes
Average trip price, last financial year
£68 of every £100 stays in the destination. The industry average for package tours is often less than half that.
Come and see for yourself.
Twelve trips, six regions and a guide who can’t wait to show you around.