By Trisha Pillay | Follow Alice
Some of the best things in the world are born from frustration: a bad meal that inspires a great chef; a long wait that sparks a better idea; and, in the case of Follow Alice, a Mount Kilimanjaro climb gone wrong that changed everything.
There’s a version of adventure travel that looks great in a brochure but feels hollow once you’re on the ground. It’s guides who don’t know the mountain, tour operators running trips they’ve never personally done and money that never makes its way back to the communities carrying your bags and cooking your food.
Group of trekkers on route to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro with the Follow Alice team.
Follow Alice born literally on the side of a mountain
Follow Alice didn't start in a boardroom; it started on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. Co-founder Reto Bolliger had dreamed of climbing the mountain for years. But when he finally made it happen, the experience left him very disappointed. The company he'd booked through had outsourced everything to local operators who had little connection to the mountain and even less accountability to the people working on it. The tour felt impersonal, the logistics felt careless and most tellingly, the money wasn't going back to the people who deserved it most: the local guides, cooks and porters who made the climb possible.
Reto could see the gap clearly, and then, partway up that mountain, a porter named Chris Sichalwe started talking. Chris shared what life was really like on Kilimanjaro for the people doing the hard work behind the scenes: the inequalities, the unsafe conditions, the lack of fair pay and the sense that the people who knew the mountain best were the ones benefiting from it least. It was an honest, eye-opening conversation, the kind you only have when someone trusts that you actually care.
Reto, Chris and Rob Sichalwe joined another local leader to discuss operations in Tanzania.
Reto listened, and together with Daniel Louis, they decided to do something about it. That conversation became the seed of Follow Alice, a company built not just to run great adventures but to make sure the people at the heart of those adventures are respected, empowered and better off because of them.
Daniel with the Follow Alice team in Tanzania.
Fast forward to today, more than a decade later, and Chris Sichalwe is no longer a porter. He is the Director of Tanzanian Operations for Follow Alice. His journey from the trails of Kilimanjaro to the leadership of one of the company's most important operations is not a footnote in the Follow Alice story; it is the story.
Watch Chris story here: Chris’s Story | The Warm Soul Leading Follow Alice Tanzania
That progression says everything about the ethos of this company. Follow Alice is about sustainability and empowering local communities in every single place they operate, not as a side policy but as the entire point.
Follow Alice is now a boutique adventure travel company incorporated in both the U.K. and Tanzania, with a remote core team spread across the globe and on-the-ground crews that are 100% local. They operate across East Africa, South America, Asia and Iceland, running 50 adventures that have taken over 3,500 travelers to some of the world's most extraordinary places.
Watch Reto speak about Follow Alice: Meet Reto | The Vision And Founder Behind Follow Alice
View trips here: https://followalice.com/
What "responsible travel" actually looks like
The term responsible travel gets thrown around a lot. However, Follow Alice earns it by holding themselves to four honest questions for every trip they run:
Do our services offer local entrepreneurs genuine growth opportunities?
Does our business benefit the local community and economy?
Do we help protect or at least not harm the wildlife we encounter?
Do we help protect or at least not harm the natural environments we explore?
These aren't marketing talking points but a lens through which every itinerary, every partnership and every hire is evaluated. 70% of every trip price stays in the local economy, which is always channeled into fair wages, local empowerment and the partnerships that sustain communities long after the travelers have gone back home. Local teams don't just guide the adventures; they lead them, own businesses built around them and share in the revenue they generate.
Follow Alice taking part in a Mount Kilimanjaro clean-up initiative in support of Leave No Trace principles.
Safety as the foundation
On Kilimanjaro and Mount Everest climbs, every Follow Alice guide holds a Wilderness First Responder (WFR) certification, an intensive program focused on trauma care, altitude illness, patient assessment and emergency response in remote environments. The qualifications are only part of it because the guiding philosophy matters too. Follow Alice chooses longer, safer acclimatization routes over rushed itineraries because getting people home safely matters more than getting them to the summit quickly. Every expedition carries comprehensive first-aid equipment, and guides are trained to make decisions based on client wellbeing rather than commercial pressure. Regular refresher training and emergency scenario drills help keep those skills current.
Trekkers making their way up Mount Kilimanjaro with the Follow Alice team.
The Follow Alice team in Nepal take a picture with the Himalayas behind them.
The same approach extends across Follow Alice’s trips in East Africa. In Kenya and Zanzibar, the company works with trusted local teams who understand the rhythms of the places they operate in, right from the logistics of remote safari camps to the practical realities of coastal travel and changing weather conditions. The emphasis is on experienced local leadership, small groups and thoughtful planning rather than moving people through destinations as quickly as possible.
Balloon safari in Maasai Mara, Kenya, with wildebeests of the Great Migration beneath.
In Rwanda and Uganda, gorilla trekking is led in partnership with experienced local operators and park authorities who know these forests like the back of their hand and understand the responsibility that comes with taking visitors into one of the world’s most sensitive wildlife environments. Treks are paced carefully, group sizes remain small and the focus stays on respectful wildlife encounters that prioritize both traveler safety and gorilla conservation.
A silverback gorilla is captured chilling on a Uganda trekking experience.
In Iceland, trips are designed around guides and itineraries that respect how quickly conditions can change in the highlands, on glaciers and along the coast. Local knowledge matters in a landscape shaped by volcanic activity, shifting weather and long distances between services.
The people who make it happen
Follow Alice's guides are not interchangeable with service workers. They are storytellers, professionals and in many cases, business owners in their own right.
Khalfan Hamdun has guided travelers across the Serengeti for over three decades. Puru Sharma, who leads Nepal and Bhutan treks, studied law in the U.K. but kept coming back to the mountains and now personally curates every Himalayan adventure Follow Alice offers, ensuring Sherpas and local guides benefit through profit-sharing from every journey. In Uganda, guide Simon has become something of a legend among Follow Alice travelers, multiple testimonials singling him out by name.
Watch Puru in action: Everest Base Camp and the Three Passes Trek | Nepal | The Most Beautiful Trek in the World
Where Follow Alice goes
Follow Alice operates across some of the world's most iconic adventure destinations:
Africa: Kilimanjaro climbs via the Lemosho, Rongai, Machame and Northern Circuit routes; Tanzania and Kenya wildlife safaris; beach holidays in Zanzibar; and gorilla trekking in Uganda and Rwanda.
Asia: Everest Base Camp treks, peak climbing in Nepal, Annapurna Circuit, Manaslu Circuit, Meru Peak and cultural journeys through Bhutan.
South America: Inca Trail and alternative treks to Machu Picchu in Peru, as well as exploring the country’s capital, Lima.
Iceland: Seeing the Northern Lights in regions such as the Golden Circle, Akureyri and Snaefellsnes.
Each destination is personally tested by the Follow Alice team before it goes live. They walk every route, refine the logistics, stay in the accommodations and eat the food because no trip gets offered to travelers until the people behind it have experienced it themselves.
Follow Alice’s team training in Peru.
Travel that leaves things better
Follow Alice's sustainability commitments go beyond their guide partnerships. The focus is less on making broad sustainability claims and more on approaching travel thoughtfully:
Leave No Trace: Teams are trained to manage waste, protect wildlife corridors and tread lightly on fragile ecosystems.
Eco-conscious lodges: Accommodation is selected specifically for environmental responsibility.
Community cleanups: Local crews run trail cleanups, including a notable operation at Shira 2 Camp on Kilimanjaro.
Reforestation and NGO support: Travelers are given opportunities to contribute to local conservation, climb for charity and community projects.
Wildlife protection through tourism: The company actively supports the argument that tourism, done well, is one of the most powerful conservation tools available.
Follow Alice's team briefing for the KRTO clean-up initiative on Kilimanjaro
Why this matters in 2026
What matters now is not how often sustainability is mentioned but how it is reflected in the way trips are actually run. As more travelers look for experiences that feel responsible and meaningful, there is greater attention on who leads journeys, how local partners are involved and how tourism supports the places it moves through.
That is why platforms such as CATALYST PLANET are becoming more relevant. Their approach focuses on identifying operators built on long-term local relationships, experienced regional teams and a more grounded way of working in the destination. In a space filled with big claims, this kind of careful selection helps bring clarity to what is responsible.
Follow Alice has been included as part of this curated selection, reflecting a shared emphasis on working closely with local partners and shaping trips through established relationships on the ground rather than detached or one-size-fits-all models.
Follow Alice's team pose for a group photo.
Ready to Follow Alice?
The name Follow Alice comes from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, that little voice urging you to leap into the rabbit hole, to be curious, brave and open to the unexpected. The company's mantra is simple: come as a client, leave as a friend. If you're looking for an adventure that challenges you, connects you to real communities and leaves the places you visit better than you found them, Follow Alice is worth your attention.
Explore Follow Alice trips on the CATALYST PLANET trip finder, or visit www.followalice.com to browse their full range of adventures.
Follow Alice Contact: info@followalice.com
Follow them: @followalice on Instagram | YouTube | Facebook
Trisha Pillay
Trisha Pillay is an award-winning journalist and travel writer with over 14 years of experience in storytelling and editorial media. Her work focuses on adventure travel, culture, and thoughtful storytelling that explores the connection between travel and everyday life.