In Oct 2024 myself and 2 friends joined this tour led by Kevin Laughlin to the Galapagos Islands. One of my friends fell against a boulder on the 2nd day and thought she broke 3 ribs because she heard 3 cracks. Kevin failed to divert the tour to the nearest clinic nor would he call for a medi-vac. He said we would be in San Cristobal in 4 days. So for 4 days on this rocking yacht, my friend endured unspeakable pain. Kevin never checked on her or texted her. Kevin wouldn't even accompany her to the clinic; he sent a crew member. The clinic refused to take an X-ray, but Kevin told everyone that she they had and she had no broken ribs. My friend flew home 4 days early, where she was immediately admitted to the hospital with 8 broken ribs and a partially deflated lung! I personally endured being bullied by another participant and Kevin actually defended her yelling at me. I will never travel with him again nor should you if you value your life. I would rate this minus 5 stars if I could. read more

We are world travelers and this is the worst tour we have ever taken. We traveled with Gabriel to Puerto Rico and we were absolutely miserable. I would only recommend wildside to people who want to have a bad vacation, never experience any of the birds for more than a moment, boil alive in a van with NO AC, and spend most of your time eating or at the hotel instead of birding. We went to Puerto Rico with high expectations since we had heard great things about the tour. Myself, my mother, and my friend all spent over 3k (not including flights) for this trip. To start, the first hotel that wildside booked for us was filthy. This would be fine if it were the only problem (although it wasn't excusable, especially since it was in an area with multiple nice hotels). I was verbally (and almost physically) assaulted by a guest. He screamed in my face like a crazy person and got closer and closer (so close that I could feel the heat of his breath on my face). He was nearly a foot taller than me and a hundred pounds heavier. I started sobbing and he was unrepentant, giving a half-assed apology after. If my friend hadn't physically grabbed him by his shoulders, I am certain he would have hit me. Gabriel responded by saying "there are worse things you'll experience in life." I later found out this guest was paying for a private tour with Gabriel after our tour, so he had a conflict of interest that allowed him to stay on the tour after attacking a young woman (the person who gave a positive review below is his wife). Gabriel was immediately unkind. He was clearly suffering from pain in his neck that led to him being extremely irritable (although maybe this is actually his personality). If we didn't see his laser pointer, he got mad at us; if we stood on his left instead of his right, he got mad at us; if we asked him when we were leaving the hotel, he got mad at us; if we asked me to spend more time looking at a bird, he would get mad and say "we'll see it tomorrow" (which was always a lie). He is also an extremely aggressive driver who rides the butts of other cars, blaring his horn incessantly. Gabriel also made lewd sexual jokes with one of the guests which made all the women in the van uncomfortable. He kept calling the secret spots on the island that Gabriel frequents "G-spots" and how they would "hit them all" which Gabriel called "sexy." Gross. When my friend, an HR lawyer who handled sexual harassment cases, said it made her uncomfortable, Gabriel just said "get in the van" and never apologized. The van was terrible. The AC didn't work at all which meant the hours of driving were excruciating. We had to sit in the truck in our tank tops, fanning ourselves, soaked in sweat. This meant that the entire tour was uncomfortable, soaked in sweat, and SMELLED. The area where the seatbelt clicked in was sharp metal and this metal cut open the hand of an elderly guest (a guest later padded this with his camera case since Gabriel didn't care). We had a flat tire because the tires all had patches on them, and Gabriel proceeded to patch the patch. On the last day, the van got stuck (because the tires had NO TREADS) and Gabriel asked three women to push the van out of the mud because "his neck hurt too much." We didn't spend any time ENJOYING the birds. We would see them and Gabriel would immediately push us back into the van. We didn't get to enjoy any of the birds, we were simply checking boxes. If you want to enjoy the birds and watch them for more than a minute, DO NOT GO ON THIS TOUR! This is simply a tour for listers, NOT bird lovers. When we came to Kevin (the owner) of the tour with all our problems, he was rude and dismissive. He blamed us for "talking bad about Gabriel when he wasn't around." We never spoke badly about him, we spoke amongst the three of us about how we were unhappy with the tour. Apparently this meant we couldn't get a refund because we voiced our dissatisfaction amongst friends. Who knew having an opinion was a sin? I recommend all guests speak to Kevin about what they're allowed to discuss privately if they intend on going with his company. It does not surprise me at all that Kevin allowed a woman to walk around with broken ribs (see Review by Shelley). read more

I took the Wildside nature tour of Alaska, the nature of Nome on June 16 to the 22nd. This was a very strenuous trip, not because we did a lot of hiking, but because of the hours we kept. The information about the tour indicates that the first two days are going to be used to acclimate to the area and the time change. however, we did not do that, and in the first day we got two hours of sleep for 46 hours of travel and being out until 3 AM in the morning. I told our guides we needed to get back onto the schedule on the morning of the second day but we still stayed out till 3 AM that night. And we never did really adhere to the schedule. We were supposed to spend all night on Friday night out until 6 AM but actually did that on Thursday night which was supposed to be another short day. This was a photography tour. However, it's more grab and go Photography. I was chastised for using a tripod because I would miss to many shots. The promo brochure for the trip indicates that there is lots and lots of wildlife. That is true but it is scattered over thousands of miles and 250 miles of roadway. So if you think you're going to see rookeries like in Florida or South Carolina or Georgia in the winter time or if you think you're going to see lots of wildlife in a small area that's not the case. Nome is beautiful and you could do this trip on your own very easily. The city of Nome puts out detailed wildlife viewing guide which includes exploring the roadways mile by mile. And a visit to the visitor center can bring you up-to-date on the most recent information on wildlife sightings. The hotels in Nome offer car rental if you're staying with them. Checking the prices after I got home, you could rent a room and get car rental for about $500 a day. Which would save you about 50 to 60% of the cost of this trip. I would like to get back to Nome. The scenery was beautiful and the sunsets were spectacular. read more

We just spent 5 adventurous days birding in Puerto Rico with a Wildside Nature Tours group and then 3 days privately, all with the amazing birding guide, Gabriel Lugo, from December 3 to 11, 2024. Gabriel was a paragon of professionalism and proficiency: he could hear, see and find birds that were not even noticeable to many, certainly not us, and his skills as a tour organizer and cool-headed, even-tempered group leader made the trip memorable. Gabriel took us to his many "secret spots" around the island that were most likely off the beaten path of other tour groups yielding us close up views of "hard-to-find" birds without a having to do protracted searches - efficient? - Yes, indeed! By the numbers we added 31 birds to our "Life List" and encountered 85 birds previously seen elsewhere for a trip total of 116 different bird species. We saw all of the Puerto Rican endemic birds with ease and plenty of viewing time and most of the "soon-to-become-endemic" birds as well. We also got eyes on a variety of established "introduced" species from Africa and SE Asia. With Gabriel at the wheel, we circumscribed the entire Puerto Rican coastline and crossed through the central mountains twice. Doing so we had the pleasure of seeing the beauty and breadth of ecosystems in Puerto Rico, as well as enjoying learning about the history and culture of the people of the island first-hand. Breath-taking birding moments included seeing 100 critically endangered endemic PR Amazons (parrots) fly in all at once from nowhere to feast on date palm seeds at Rio Abajo, a pair of majestic White-tailed Tropicbirds flying together along the cliffs at Merendero de Guajataca, finding the Yellow-breasted Crake - not once, but twice - at Laguna Cartagena and finally getting a good look at the "difficult-to-find" PR Owl on our third try at Arecibo! Gabriel merits our wholehearted recommendation; if you're planning on a complete tour of birding in Puerto Rico, contact Gabriel Lugo through Wildside Nature Tours. In our opinion you will be birding with the best. read more