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Where adventure, conscious travel, and luxury converge

Our Why

At the heart of Sojourn Explorers is a deep love for exploring the world, having enriching experiences, and traveling well. Nothing delights us more than sharing milestones with our guests. We love bringing someone to Africa to see their first lion in the wild, guiding them along the footsteps of St. James on the Camino de Santiago in Spain, or taking someone up to their first mountain summit.

We create sojourns that combine your destination with immersive experiences designed to renew, rebalance, readjust, and refine your perspective.

Our team provides only the best local operators, guides, food, beverages, and accommodations. We always look to partner with service providers who support the communities we travel through by hiring and buying products locally as much as possible. They also have a shared ethos of leaving no footprint behind and efforting to leave things even better than when we arrived. Many of our providers have community outreach and empowerment programs.

Every sojourn is curated to guide, connect, and support you in a regenerative travel experience in meaningful ways.

Compass Points of Travel

Experiences
This compass point is an activity that engages you with the environment: hiking, sailing, photography, community visits. This is your guided outer journey.

Wellbeing
This compass point connects to your why. Why you want to take this sojourn. Is it to unplug so you can reflect on a career pivot? Do you need to reset your priorities? Learn to manage stress better? This is your guided inner journey.

Luxury
This compass point is all about your environment. We care about where you place your head at night. We care about what you eat, what you drink. We handpick places that are unique as well as sustainable.

Giveback
his compass point is about being respectful and supportive of the places we visit. Every sojourn offers a donation gift that supports the destination we visit.

How We Travel

Starting
a Conversation

We speak with you on the phone, Skype, or Zoom. We genuinely want to understand the trip you have in mind and what you hope to take away from your experience. How do you want to return home?

Curating an
Amazing Journey

We create an experience that includes every detail from the time you leave home to your return. Each journey is uniquely designed based on your travel dates, the number of guests, and specific requests. To begin planning, we kindly request $350. Once the trip is confirmed, this amount is applied to your total cost.

Getting
You Ready

Maria will engage and inspire you about your upcoming journey, from reading material to questions to think about to videos to watch. Before setting off, there will be a bon voyage call to go over details and answer questions.

The Journey

There is an outer journey: your destination, planned experiences, real adventures, or cultural events. Then, you have your inner journey: meaningful conversations, mindful movement, meditation, and reflective time guided by Maria as you travel. If she is not traveling with you, Maria will create a personalized Daily Inner Journey Guide Book to bring along. 

The Return

Your trip does not end when you come home. In a post-experience conversation, Maria will support you in putting your renewed and refined perspective into meaningful action.

MEET OUR EXPERIENCE SPECIALISTS

MARIA BALTAZZI, PhD, MFA, FOUNDER, WELLBEING MENTOR, TRIP CURATOR + GUIDE

Maria is an Emmy-winning television producer as well as a PhD in Conscious-Center Living. She was one of the original producers on CBS’s hit series Survivor and has filmed numerous other shows on location in remote areas. One show followed four modern-day explorers across the Tanzanian landscape, retracing the footsteps of journalist Henry Morton Stanley’s search for the great explorer, Dr. Livingstone. This was for History’s Expedition Africa: Stanley & Livingstone. Maria also went with Special Forces Operators on the hunt for poachers in the Greater Kruger area of South Africa for Animal Planet’s Battleground: Rhino Wars.

In her travels, Maria has been on all seven continents twice. First, as a television producer telling stories about adventure. She did another lap around the globe, walking more than 2,000 miles training and doing marathons as fundraisers. When she crossed the finish line in Antarctica, her last continent, she decided to create Sojourn Explorers. Her mission is to share meaningful travel with others — journeys that are more than simply ticking the box on another destination. That is where her PhD in Conscious-Centered Living comes into play. Having studied the art and science of happiness, neuroplasticity, positive psychology, spiritual psychology, and mindfulness, Maria weaves these ideas into curated experiences that give greater depth to an already incredible journey. She wants every guest to take home indelible memories that elevate their lives.

Maria uses her production expertise to curate extraordinary adventures. She is an Explorers Club Fellow National member and the North American Ambassador for the Transformational Travel Council.

SHAUN MOUSLEY, EXPERIENCE SPECIALIST, EAST AFRICA

Shaun was born in Kenya and grew up on a 24,000-acre tea farm in Kericho, Western Kenya. Here he spent most of his time fly-fishing the rivers and dams and going on long treks through the Mao forest, satisfying his love for the outdoors.

After school, Shaun expanded his wilderness experience by working as a white-water-rafting instructor in Kenya and Uganda. It was then that his love of action and adventure was born, and his close affinity with Africa’s diversity and cultures came to inspire his career path.

After acquiring a hospitality degree at the International Hotel School, Shaun expanded his African horizons with extensive travel throughout Zulu Land, Kwa Zulu and Natal, and Seychelles. He was lucky enough to return to Kenya to manage two of Kenya’s top luxury lodges in the Maasai Mara and the Chyulu Hills/Amboseli ecosystem. He decided to combine his guiding proficiency and expertise in travel logistics to become a ‘professional nomad’ – a traveler, a leader, a wilderness photographer, and a lover of all things wild.

CARL-OSCAR LAWACZECK, EXPERIENCE SPECIALIST, NORTH POLE

With a university background of economics and logistics, it was, however, aviation that became Carl-Oscar’s profession. Following the footsteps of his great uncles, who served as pilots during WWII, he received his wings in Ljungbyhed, Southern Sweden, a place in aviation history. Also, his parents were in aviation. His mom was a flight attendant for SAS since the ’60s, and his father, an aviation entrepreneur. Since 2004, Carl-Oscar has flown commercially, both in cargo flights to Svalbard, and VIP private jets around the world. Currently, he flies for a major passenger airline in Scandinavia.

“Mankind will continue to travel and explore, as well as transport and transfer by air, but we need to find new efficient means to offer the next generation what we have taken for granted for so long.”

MIKE VARNDELL, EXPERIENCE SPECIALIST MALAWI + ZAMBIA
Mike was born in Zimbabwe but raised in Malawi. While working in the finance industry, he realized he wanted a life of adventure. Mike threw in the towel in London and traveled across South America before the lure of home called, and he moved back to Malawi. Realizing a gap in the market, he set up Malawian Style 11 years ago, creating exciting adventures across the warm heart of Africa. The business has since grown and expanded to include Zambia, beach destinations in Mozambique and Tanzania, with some locations in South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. Amidst the pandemic, Mike launched a new company, Wines and Wings, focusing on wine distribution in Malawi, to complement the safari arm of the business, survive COVID, and have another business with nonseasonal revenue.
Mike works very closely with his team of local experts. With a keen passion for uniting like minds and showcasing this beautiful continent, he continues to strive to get tourists to visit his home nation.
EPAMEINONDAS (NONDAS) ILIADIS, EXPERIENCE SPECIALIST, GREECE

Nondas has always had a lifelong passion for sports that has granted him the privilege of being connected to outdoor and recreational activities. His background includes being a graduate of the German School in Athens, the University of Aachen in Germany, and as well as an executive in top-tier Greek and multinational companies. Through these experiences, Nondas has collected a wealth of knowledge in the fields of sales and management. Today, he is the Founder and Managing Director of Aegean Outdoors, which offers the opportunity to combine his experience and professionalism with his love for nature and adventure. Nondas believes that every guest should have an unforgettable experience matched with a high standard of services.

OUR ORGANIZATION

The Sojourn Experience — a conscious-centered company with three portfolio brands. The first is Sojourn Explorers, which curates transformational travel experiences to extraordinary places around the globe. Part of the money for each trip goes to nonprofit enterprises that we support. The second is Picture Happiness: Take a Shot, which focuses on wellbeing in mind, body, and spirit. The Sojourn Media Group looks to create partnerships with writers, producers, and directors to get their projects sold to production companies and various platforms.

Website Photo Credit: Shaun Mousley, Lemala Authentic Camps and Lodges, Aegean Outdoors, Viceroy Bali, Hummingbird, Four Seasons, Six Senses, Pexel, and Unsplash.

© 2023 The Sojourn Experience