Pygmy Elephant

Our itinerary options offer an astounding level of customization in a wide range of destinations, including the Tour du Mont Blanc, Patagonia, the West Highland Way, and more. We have a unique approach to travel, and pride ourselves on delivering flexible, personalized trips that are meaningful, rewarding, and challenging.

Our founder and managing director, Andrew Delmenhorst, left his job at BASF to pursue his dream of adventure travel. He spent years personally trialing every quintessential adventure travel experience he could think of, from bicycling the Death Road in Bolivia, to trekking 500 miles on the Camino de Santiago, to hiking the Five Sacred Mountains of China. During his adventures, he realized that most travel companies required customers to book group tours or stick to rigid schedules. Andrew knew there had to be a better way to achieve flexible and personalized adventure travel, which led him to create Pygmy Elephant.

Pygmy Elephant specializes in travel planning approaches that help customers embark on a trip of a lifetime. We understand that each traveler has their own unique interests and preferences, and we work with clients to design itineraries that meet their specific needs. Whether they are interested in exploring local cultures, viewing wildlife, or experiencing outdoor adventures, we help them create a travel itinerary that matches their desires.

Our Tour du Mont Blanc itinerary, our most popular by far, is the perfect example. Over the years we have designed more than 90 custom Tour du Mont Blanc stages for our clients, each of them further customized with alternate routes and transportation options. We work with more than 100 accommodations along the Tour du Mont Blanc route, from rustic mountain refuges to luxurious 5-star hotels, all in service of our clients’ wishes. In 2023 alone, we are organizing custom, personalized Tour du Mont Blanc treks for more than 550 clients.

Our commitment to customer support is unrivaled in the adventure travel industry. In the months before their journey, we provide all clients with an informative email series about their trek, and unlimited email and phone support to answer any questions about their itinerary. We also offer an optional welcome briefing via video chat, where we personally discuss our clients’ itinerary with them. On the trail, clients have 24-hour emergency assistance by phone, 24-hour email support, and WhatsApp group chat support.

All of Pygmy Elephant’s clients receive a high-quality printed copy of their personalized itinerary in our trademark saddle-stitched handbook. These handbooks contain all of the route descriptions, maps, elevation profiles, special instructions, and vouchers our client needs. We also provide our clients with their itinerary in a personalized mobile app, and a one-year premium membership to Gaia GPS with associated GPX files to help them navigate on the trail.

Our commitment to sustainability ensures that social and environmentally responsible travel is at the forefront of our operations. We emphasize sustainable travel practices and strive to minimize the impact of our tours on the environment and local communities. We work with local partners to ensure that our tours support local economies and contribute to conservation efforts. We also donate a portion of our profits to conservation efforts in the regions where we operate; in 2022, we donated to the Torres del Paine Legacy Fund, which “seeks to make tourism a vehicle for positive change in Patagonia.”

We are dedicated to ensuring that their customers have the best possible adventure travel experiences. We continually monitor the latest technology to improve our customers’ experiences, and personally travel to meet suppliers and hike new routes to keep our offerings fresh and up to date.

Pygmy Elephant also gives back through our Pygmy Miles program, which rewards customers for traveling in an environmentally friendly way by giving them eco-miles for future travel.