40 Years of Adventure

It all started back in 1984 in the heart of the Karakoram Mountains in Pakistan, when our intrepid founders Tim Greening and Glenn Rowley led the first expedition-style treks to K2 and started a company called the Karakoram Experience (hence ‘KE’).

We were soon offering small group walking and trekking holidays throughout the Himalaya and before long, walking, cycling, multi-active, wildlife and family adventures throughout the world, led by our own expert KE leaders.

In 2018 we introduced Self-Guided walking and cycling holidays, offering a greater degree of flexibility and freedom to those who prefer to travel on a date of their choice and at their own pace. Today we have around 400 Guided and Self-Guided trips in 100 countries, ranging from leisurely walking and cycling, through to tough multi-day treks or rides in some of the world’s most remote and rugged wilderness areas. We have something for everyone, whatever your ability or level of fitness.

Based in Keswick in the Lake District, we live and breathe adventure and love to get out into the surrounding fells at every opportunity. We also love chatting about our adventures with our customers. So if you are passing, do pop into the KE shop; we’ll put the kettle on.

Unrivalled experience - with 40 years’ experience of operating active adventure holidays throughout the world, we understand the challenges and have a deep knowledge of how things work in each of the countries in which we operate. We know what makes a great trip and work closely with our local teams and leaders to ensure that the very best travel experiences are delivered and that customer safety is never compromised.

Great Reviews – our customers tell us that we are getting things right all the time in the amazing feedback that they give us and reviews that they leave. We have a 97% excellent score on AITO independent reviews and an overall rating of 4.75 out of 5 (95%) on our own online reviews. Don’t take our word for it, take a look for yourself and see what our travellers say about us.

Fully bonded – we are fully bonded through ABTA for all of our holidays sold without flights. We also have an ATOL license issued by the Civil Aviation Authority, which covers all the flight-inclusive holidays that we operate. Put simply, KE is a fully bonded tour operator and your money is 100% protected when you book with us.

Value for money – we believe that we offer a quality product, at a fair and competitive price. Our headline selling price is not always the cheapest and we make no apologies for that. Sometimes our trips are slightly longer than other operators, to allow for acclimatisation and a better success rate on tougher trips. We also tend to include more in the price, whether that be meals or excursions, bike hire or internal flights. We do not increase our prices in order to be able to offer discounts, and aim to always offer a fair price to all KE travellers.

Expert Leaders - All of our Guided Group trips are accompanied from start to end by a professional KE Leader. The majority are local to the countries in which we travel and all have a deep knowledge and understanding of the destination and the local culture. Wherever they are from, KE leaders are recruited in conjunction with and vetted by, our team in Keswick and undergo a rigorous training programme.

Enriching Lives

We love what we do and are passionate about adventure travel and the outdoors.
Our aim is to deliver incredible travel experiences for those who are curious about the world we live in and who like to stay active on their holidays. We aim to ensure that the local communities in the areas through which we travel, benefit as much as possible from the tourism that we bring and that our groups are respectful and protect the fragile environment around them. We also do our best to make sure that all KE travellers return home enriched by their experiences.

We are guided by the following company values in all that we do:

In the early 80's, KE's founders Tim Greening and Glenn Rowley set out to discover the Karakoram Mountains of Pakistan, seeking to discover the reality behind the breath-taking photos in Galen Rowell's book 'In The Throne Room of the Mountain Gods'. It was a life-changing trip.

Together with their guide, Mohammed Iqbal, they set up the Karakoram Experience in 1984 to take British trekkers to this very remote, tough and spectacular region. During the next few years Tim and Glenn led groups on a variety of previously unknown trekking routes in northern Pakistan and these became established 'classics', described in guidebooks around the world.

The exploration continued and as they discovered spectacular places and adventures across Asia, Europe and the world, the Karakoram Experience became KE Adventure Travel, reflecting the global range of the travel experiences now being offered. Whilst the name changed, their mission didn't. KE continued to offer utterly unique experiences in captivating destinations, as it does to this day as one of the world's leading active adventure travel specialists.