GeoEx Named Best Travel Company by Outside Magazine
Outside magazine chooses Best Travel Company as part of its first-ever Active Travel awards.
How do you choose the Best Travel Company? If you’re Outside magazine, you assemble a global network of correspondents and ask them to evaluate adventure travel companies based on “the quality of a company’s guides, the authenticity and diversity of its trips, its level of service, philanthropic credibility, safety record, and, most important, clients’ reviews and experiences.”
And the result? “Geographic Expeditions stood above the rest.”
Announcing its selection of GeoEx as the best adventure travel company in its April issue, Outside writes, "For starters, GeoEx has consistently taken travelers to the most remote regions of the world, from Everest’s north side to Patagonia’s glaciers to the far reaches of Papua New Guinea. This year it’s trailblazing new terrain with a 27-day trek to the north face of K2 ($11,450). Guided by Vassi Koutsaftis, a 20-year vet who has led treks in Tibet, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, the journey starts on the Silk Road in China’s Kashgar and tops out at the 17,056-foot advance base camp of K2.
“No need to worry about getting back alive. The company’s emphasis on safety comes from the top: president Jim Sano, a former Yosemite National Park ranger and search-and-rescue team member, is an accomplished mountaineer himself. The price of every GeoEx trip includes medical assistance and evacuation coverage from Global Rescue and medical-expense insurance through Travel Guard. The company has also pioneered relationships with nonprofits and NGOs—37 and counting—like the Maasai Conservation Wilderness Trust, which draws in annual tourism revenues of $750,000, all of which goes straight back to the Masai community.
“But the primary reason more than half the company’s clients come back for more? Its outstanding guides—from Buddhist icon and scholar Robert Thurman, who leads meditation trips in Bhutan, to mountaineer (and Outside correspondent) Dave Hahn, the only Westerner to have summited Mount Everest 13 times, who runs the company’s expeditions to South Georgia Island in the South Atlantic Ocean.”
Responding to the award, GeoEx President Jim Sano says, “We are extraordinarily pleased and honored to be selected as Best Travel Company in Outside’s first Active Travel awards. We can’t think of a better way to celebrate our 30th anniversary than with this recognition of the passion, expertise, and care we put into every journey we craft, whether in Asia, Africa, South America, the Middle East, or the Poles.”
Chairman George Doubleday adds, “For three decades we have been committed to creating transformational experiences for our travelers – and forging connections that nourish and preserve the places and peoples we cherish around the globe. We are exhilarated and humbled that Outside’s seasoned experts and our own travelers have recognized these efforts in naming us the Best Travel Company.”
GeoEx is a founding member of the Adventure Collection. For more information about the company, call 800-777-8183, email info@geoex.com, or visit www.GeoEx.com. Outside’s Active Travel Awards are featured on www.outsideonline.com and in the April issue of the magazine, on newsstands now.