Hugh MacDermott

What places and activities do you specialize in?

"Argentina, Chile and the Uruguayan coast. Luxury, Adventure, Food & Wine, LGBTQ+, Local culture, Off-the-beaten-path, 24hr concierge, Lesser known regions."

How did you get involved in travel?

"I first started working in travel aged seventeen as an assistant guide for a horseback safari operation in Kenya. When I was twenty I set off on a journey to get to know Argentina and, on another level, to get to know myself. I ended this voyage of discovery in the highlands of Tucuman, northwest Argentina, where I partnered with a large ranch to organise long distance horse riding trips in the surrounding mountains. In between these trips I worked as an independent travel guide in various parts of Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. I set up our company in 2009, specialising in off-the-beaten-path adventure holidays in lesser known regions of the southern cone of South America. Since then, through our philosophy of designing trips entirely around the wishes of our guests, we have learned to provide a very wide range of services for every type of traveller."

Please share a unique travel experience you will never forget.

"In 2014, I organised the most important trip of my career at that stage, it was a double Andes crossing for a group of retired and active UK military Generals. Each year this group plan a trip based around a historic military campaign, their trip with me was following in the hoof-steps of General San Martin’s extraordinary campaign that began in 1817 and crossed the Andes mountains to surprise and eventually defeat the Spanish Royalists. I was the main guide and it was a fascinating and amazing trip though also logistically very complicated and it took us two years to investigate and organise.
There were so many fantastic moments though perhaps the best was after it was over, when one of the group invited me to a speech about the trip at the Royal Geographic Society, during which they paused briefly to praise our little company."