Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are Field Guides tours like?
Who goes on Field Guides tours?
Can I do a Field Guides tour?
What kinds of trips does Field Guides offer?
Can I be comfortable on a birding tour?
How do I know what a specific Field Guides tour is like?
Is group travel for me?
Who are the guides?
Do you offer private tours?
What does the cost of each tour include?
What do I need to bring?
How do I sign up for a Field Guides tour?

What are Field Guides tours like?
To all of us at Field Guides, and to our clients, birding encompasses some of the best things in life. Birding is about learning, seeing, and discovering amazing and wonderful new things, and understanding each of our small but important parts in larger systems. Birding is about excitement, the anticipation of discovery, and the thrill of achieving it. Birding is about sharing the adventure with the friends you know or the new ones you make on tour. And, of course, birding's about fun, the simple pleasure of doing something we love in some of the world's most beautiful places, without hassle and without worry.

We believe your birding holiday should be all of these things, and that simple premise is the foundation upon which we plan and operate our approximaely 120 advertised and private birding tours each year, as we have since 1985.

Who goes on Field Guides tours?
Thousands of birders of all stripes and from all walks of life and of all ages have traveled with us. Their common bond is a love of the outdoors and the joy of seeing some incredible birds in many fantastic places.

Can I do a Field Guides tour?
No special skills are required. All you need is enthusiasm, a sense of adventure, and the physical ability appropriate to the tour you choose, as described in the itinerary.

What kinds of trips does Field Guides offer?
Our tours range from 4-day weekends to month-long safaris. All of our tours focus primarily on birds (and, of course, we see lots of interesting mammals and other wildlife along the way), but each tour has a unique purpose and design. Some tours are based at only one or two sites and are intended to allow plenty of time to absorb a place's bird life and natural history at a more relaxed pace. Others are designed as more comprehensive survey tours, visiting a number of sites in order to get a fuller overview of an area's or a country's birds. We also offer some tours focused on the endemics or rare birds of a particular area, and the daily routine of these itineraries reflects that goal; a small number of these tours involve a few nights of camping in order to reach remote areas where some special birds occur. Finally, we also offer a few tours combining birding with other natural history interests, such as butterflies, or with other cultural interests, such as poetry. If you are interested in a particular destination, that tour's itinerary (available from our office) will give you a sense of the design and purpose of the tour. You can see listings of our tours by Date or by Region here on our web site.

Can I be comfortable on a birding tour?
If you don't like roughing it, we understand. We think you'll be pleasantly surprised at the level of comfort on most of our tours. And it is remarkable how lodging facilities have improved in even remote, hard-to-reach areas in the past few years. Some of the finest lodges we visit are in remote wilderness areas. Our itineraries include descriptions of accommodations. If our route dictates that we stay in simpler accommodations on some nights, these too are described in the itinerary.

How do I know what a specific Field Guides tour is like?
Our catalog and web site offer a general description of each tour. For day-to-day activities and more detailed information about our birding route, routine, accommodations, and the pace and purpose of the tour, ask our office for the itinerary for the tour(s) of interest to you.

Is group travel for me?
Group travel offers a social framework in which to share the excitement of birding: You help others, others help you, and at the end of the day there are numerous common experiences to share. There are more eyes helping to spot birds, and travel to some remote areas is less daunting and the cost more reasonable. We know that group travel is not for everyone, but if your purpose is to maximize your birding enjoyment under expert guidance, to share your excitement with other birders, and to leave the planning, logistics, and troubleshooting to someone else, one of our birding tours is the way to go.

Who are the guides?
Our professional guide staff is the foundation of our success. Of course, our guides are first-rate field ornithologists skilled at finding birds and showing them to all members of the group. Just as importantly, however, they are also warm, fun-loving people who genuinely enjoy making the tour a pleasant experience for each participant. Many of our clients, a great majority of whom are repeat customers, tell us that our guides (and how they interact with our groups and work with each other) set us apart from other birding tour companies.

Do you offer private tours?
We regularly organize unadvertised tours for bird clubs and groups of friends. Most of our tours can be re-designed to accommodate a private group, led by one of our staff guides or an experienced in-country guide. Contact our office if you are interested in organizing a tour for your club or group.

What does the cost of each tour include?
It's our job to make your birding vacation as fun and free of concern as possible. Toward that end, we try to make our tour fees as all-inclusive as possible. Our fees typically include all lodging, ground transportation, guide services, all meals (and a ready supply of field refreshments from our coolers on most tours), and all tipping. Since our clients arrive from many parts of the world, the tour fee usually does not include airfare to and from the tour's departure point (as noted in our catalog, on our web site, or in the itinerary); however, internal flights that are part of the day-to-day itinerary usually are included.

What do I need to bring?
Well, your binoculars, of course! And for each tour we have an information bulletin to assist participants in preparing for their trip. It includes sections on Documents, Climate and Clothing, Emergency Contact, Insects and Other Pests, Luggage, Personal Items, and other topics as appropriate to each tour. Participants also receive a suggested reading list and a customized checklist for keeping track of the birds we see on the tour.

How do I sign up for a Field Guides tour?
You may hold a space on a tour in one of two ways:

1. Request the itinerary from our office staff by phone, e-mail, or regular mail. A registration form is included at the back of this catalog and with each itinerary we send out. After you have received and read the itinerary, send in the completed registration form along with the appropriate deposit amount as specified in the itinerary. (Simply requesting the itinerary will not cue us to hold a space on the tour for you; see #2 below.)

2. If you are interested in a tour that is nearly full (or one for which the complete itinerary is not yet available), and you feel it may fill before you've had a chance to receive the itinerary and return the registration form, ask one of our office staff to "pencil in" your name on the tour. We will mail you the itinerary, and you will have two weeks to complete the registration form and return it with a deposit before the space is released to another client. (If the itinerary is not yet available, we will hold your space until we've mailed the itinerary and you've had a chance to look it over.) Some of our most popular tours frequently fill months in advance, and we don't want you to be disappointed.

Additionally, if you are interested in a tour that is fully subscribed, be sure to ask that your name be added to the waitlist. There is no obligation on your part (no deposit is necessary to be on the waitlist for a tour, even if the itinerary has been mailed to you), and participant cancellations (even late ones) do occur regularly for various reasons.

As always, our staff is happy to answer any questions you may have about our tours and their availability. Just give us a call at (800) 728-4953 or send us an e-mail!

You can find out more about Field Guides tours here.

• 1+ 800-728-4953
• 1+ 512-263-7295
• 1+ 512-263-0117 (fax)

Field Guides Incorporated, 9433 Bee Cave Road, Building 1, Suite 150, Austin, TX 78733

Field Guides is a registered trademark of Field Guides Incorporated.