If you know EXPLORE, you know that we specialize in Africa and pride ourselves in knowing its secrets. We occasionally receive requests from our clients for travel outside of Africa to areas we are not well-versed. We feel it is necessary to provide our clients with touring options around the world that match the EXPLORE standard to ensure they have the same quality experience as they had in Africa.
We would like to introduce you to the Travel Experts Alliance. This is a growing network of experts that specialize in countries and continents around the world that are as passionate about delivering a great experience to you as we are.
Please call me at the EXPLORE office (970-871-0065) or, if I am in Africa, speak to Tena, and we will introduce you to the right contact person with our partner companies.
~Cherri
EXPLORE Inc's owner, Cherri Briggs, has been chosen for 10 years in a row as one of Conde Nast Traveler's Top Travel Specialists in the world. She is also one of a very select few to be named Top Villa Specialist.
CAMBODIA: Andrea Ross | Journeys Within
In 2003 Andrea moved with her husband Brandon to Cambodia where they started Journeys Within Tour Company and B&B. In the last seven years Journeys Within has also set up additional offices in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar, meaning that any Journeys Within trip includes Journeys Within drivers, guides and experiences throughout.
Andrea has been on the Wendy Perrin Conde Nast expert list for Cambodia, Thailand and Laos for the last four years and takes her role as a regional expert seriously. She lives in Cambodia for more than half of the year and travels extensively through Southeast Asia to make sure the guides, drivers and hotels used by Journeys Within are up to standard. She loves to find new and unique trips, hotels and experiences for her guests.
CHINA: Mei Zhang | WildChina
Mei Zhang is Founder of WildChina, a Beijing-based premium sustainable travel company offering distinctive, ecologically sensitive journeys to all corners of China. A native of Yunnan province in southwest China, Mei earned her MBA from Harvard Business School and worked as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company until she found her true passion in sustainable travel.
Mei started WildChina in 2000, inspired by the clash she perceived between economic development and conservation of both nature and culture in Yunnan. She strongly believed that there was a solution to this: providing a sophisticated interpretation of Chinese culture and nature, and therefore creating experiential travel that was unheard of in China. She built WildChina on the mission to assist travelers to experience China differently.
INDIA: Sanjay Saxena | Destination Himalaya
Sanjay Saxena was born in New Delhi, India. The son of a Brigadier General in the Indian Army, Sanjay has lived all over India and traveled extensively across Asia. He began mountaineering and rock climbing in the high Himalaya at age fifteen, after successfully completing mountaineering courses from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, India.
A professional guide since 1979, Sanjay has led countless groups trekking, climbing, touring and safaris to Tibet, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and throughout India. In January of 1992, David Breashears and Sanjay co-led the first western descent of the Brahmaputra river in India. The 250-mile white water rafting trip was filmed for the BBC series “Classic Adventures,” and was shown in North America by Arts & Entertainment. In 2001 he led the first western group to journey overland from Kunming to Lhasa along the “southern road.”
MONGOLIA: Jalsa Urubshurow | Nomadic Expeditions
Since Mongolia’s peaceful transition to democracy in 1990, Jalsa has passionately promoted travel to Mongolia, his ancestral homeland oftentimes called the “last wilderness nation” due to its largely intact wildlife and nomadic traditions and lifestyle. He founded Nomadic Expeditions in 1992, a company that specializes in creating unique adventures throughout Mongolia such as birding trips targeting Central Asian rarities, dinosaur fossil excavating scientific journeys, family adventures to the alpine taiga in Northern Mongolia, weddings in the Gobi Desert, journeys to the Golden Eagle Festival of the Kazakhs in the Altai Mountains, overland jeep safaris and spiritual retreats.
