July marks the third birthday of Mariposa though, of course, between our leaders we’ve decades of shared wildlife tour-leading experience. Mariposa was founded and is run by a close-knit and collaborative team of naturalists who, as tour leaders and wildlife tour guests in their own right, know exactly what makes a great wildlife tour experience.
That starts with a deceptively simple but crucial understanding – we treat our guests as we’d like to be treated ourselves. Good communication, from the point of enquiry about a holiday, to during the tour itself, is important – we’re always just a phone call or an email away, and we don’t avoid the ringing phone, or leave emails unanswered.
And we make a point of only using leaders on our tours who, in addition to having deep knowledge of the wildlife we’re seeing, are good company for our guests, always happy to share information and answer questions, to listen, and to respond. That sounds obvious, doesn’t it, but we’ve all been guests on tours in the past with leaders who may know their stuff, but aren’t great with people – some even actively avoid their guests, and wander off to pursue their own interests during the day. We’re proud to say that those aren’t our leaders, and those aren’t our tours.
Quality and quantity matter equally to us on our tours. We make no excuses for aiming to show our guests as many of the butterflies, orchids, birds, etc of the areas we visit – that’s simply giving guests best value for money. And yes, we try to always find the iconic rarities that are emblematic of our destinations, but while doing so, we always appreciate the more commonplace species too. We love a Common Blue every bit as much as we love an endangered Fatma’s Bavius Blue!
Supporting conservation charities in a tangible way has been a central tenet of Mariposa since day one of our journey. We donate funds promptly after our tours to our two principle conservation charities, Butterfly Conservation Europe (BCE), and the Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland (BSBI). We don’t see why any charity, let alone those so vitally involved in active conservation, should be kept waiting for months, or even years for promises to be kept. Supporting BCE and BSBI matters deeply to us, and we know it matters to our guests too.
What’s also important to us is building relationships with small local businesses in the rural areas in which we operate our tours. Our tours often visit areas that have small tourist footflow, and at quiet times of the year. We know that our business matters to the local people involved in the hotels and restaurants we use in the heart of their communities, and we all of us, leaders and guests alike, act as ambassadors for the value of biodiversity to those local economies. Over the years, many of these local suppliers have become personal friends of ours.
We’re a loyal bunch here at Team Mariposa! And naturally, that loyalty extends to our guests. We don’t take our guests choosing to travel with us for granted, and we listen and act upon their feedback. In our first three years of operation we’ve been humbled by the loyalty shown to us by our guests, and we like to think that we’re doing a good job – guest testimonials certainly suggest that we are, as do the number of tours that quickly move to guaranteed departure status or indeed fully booked a year before they run.
Since day one of our journey we’ve operated an Early Bird booking deal, offering all of our guests a discount off their holidays if booked before 1 December in the preceding year. That works for everyone – guests have an appreciable saving to enjoy, hotels have certainty of bookings well in advance, and we can concentrate on the important business of running our tours smoothly and efficiently in the meantime. And, of course, prior Mariposa guests all automatically enjoy a further loyalty discount off the list price of their week-long holidays.
So, for 2027 holidays, our Early Bird deal offers £150 off the list price of any of our week-long tours if booked before 1 December 2026. Prior guests can add the standard £50 loyalty discount to that, making for a £200 discount per person on the cost of their holiday. Those discounts will be subtracted, as applicable, from the listed price of the tours shown on the website after you place a deposit to secure your tour booking, and will be reflected in the account statement we’ll send you confirming the booking.
We’ve a wide and ever-growing portfolio of tours on offer in 2027, all there to be perused on our website. The tour calendar is a quick and convenient way of browsing through them, or you can search by destination, or by category - Botany, Butterflies, General Wildlife etc.
Maybe you'd like to look for orchids on a warm, flower-filled Mediterranean island in the spring, enjoying delicious Greek or Sicilian food every evening. Perhaps you'd like to wander alpine meadows, woodland tracks and lakeside margins in some of the most unspoilt corners of Europe in search of butterflies. Maybe seeing flamingos massing in breeding plumage on the saltpans of Southern France, or watching Carpathian Brown Bears foraging oblivious to your nearby presence in a Transylvanian forest is more your thing. Maybe all of the above, and more besides?
As you'll see, there are tours to suit all tastes running from late January right through to December. We hope there's something there that takes your fancy.
We only ask for £150 deposit when you book a holiday, so now’s a good time to have a think about where you fancy going next year, secure your place, and get on with enjoying what’s left of the summer! And, as we said, we treat guests as we like to be treated ourselves – if life gets in the way of those well-laid plans, we’ll happily refund your deposit straight away.
We hope to see you in 2027! With best wishes from us all here at Team Mariposa.
