Tour Leaders

– Our recruitment window is currently closed –

Inside Knowledge

Would you like to join the Wilderness England guiding team? Do you currently guide clients around England and/or Wales, introducing them to our landscape, history and culture? Do you have a passion for outstanding service, a love of England’s natural landscape, and a curious mind?

If the answer to these questions is a YES then keep on reading.

The Wilderness Guide plays a pivotal role in the company, ensuring that our clients experience outstanding adventures throughout England and/or Wales.

What We’re Looking For

Wilderness England is seeking Tour Leaders to host an array of trip itineraries in England and Wales for our clients. To be a tour leader, you do not need an NGB qualification (but it is great if you do), as you would deliver any such activities in tandem with a qualified guide. You may hold a formal guiding qualification (such as being a Blue Badge or Green Badge guide) or have gained experience working in the sector. You will need to hold a valid first aid qualification. You will need a curious mind that thrives on seeking out interesting new experiences and encounters for our clients.

Our tour leaders will lead small groups of clients around England and/or Wales, sharing their passion for the destination. As well as being knowledgeable about the area’s history, heritage and culture, you will introduce our clients to England’s nature through various experiences designed by our team. We want to connect our clients to English and Welsh natural and cultural heritage, and your role is crucial in achieving this aim. Therefore, you must be able to demonstrate a great love of and knowledge of England’s and/or Wales’ natural environment.

The ability to demonstrate great familiarity with many areas of England and/or Wales is vitally important. Knowledge of English and/or Welsh history, culture, environment, geology and geography is also important to us. Of course, we aim to provide our clients with the best possible experience, so our guides must take pride in their work and have a natural flair for customer care, hospitality and the ability to act as the host throughout the duration of any trip.

We would love to hear from you if you have the knowledge, character and experience to work for Wilderness England. We can offer you an excellent wage, good working conditions and the opportunity to lead superb trips in some of the most beautiful regions of England and/or Wales.

While we have a lot of fun at Wilderness England, our team is 100% focused on delivering 5 star world-class client experiences. As such, the successful guide will bring a professional and high-energy approach with an unwavering focus on all aspects of the client travel experience.

What You Can Expect

We offer a special combination of interesting work, career opportunity and supportive culture in which to thrive as a freelance guide. We have steadily grown over the years and plan to continue this growth path, which in turn, will offer a wide range of guiding opportunities.

We commit with passion to providing our customers with the most inspiring experiences of their lives, ensuring our experiences are delivered sustainability, promoting the value of wild places, setting new standards for tourism experiences and creating a rewarding, meaningful and truly fun place to work

Being a guide for Wilderness England is more than just another freelance job. It means being part of a dynamic team that are always seeking new ways in which we can improve with guide feedback highly valued and acted upon. The successful guide will thrive in this fast-paced environment and within the wider Wilderness team but will be encouraged to bring new ideas and enthusiasm to the role and the company as a whole.

The freelance benefits of guiding with Wilderness England are as follows:

Guiding opportunities on a freelance basis
Competitive daily guiding rates
Meaningful and rewarding work
Working with high-quality equipment
Training and development opportunities
Support from our dedicated operations team whilst guiding in the field
Industry discounts on outdoor clothing & equipment (for core guiding team)
Opportunity to be part of an industry-leading adventure travel company

How to Apply

Please send a CV detailing any relevant qualifications, work experience and a summary of areas of England and/or Wales where you have worked as a guide. Please note that we get many applications for guiding work and if your application does not cover the above, it will not be considered or responded to.

Please also include a 1 page cover letter and send it together with your CV to [email protected]. The cover letter should detail the following:

1/ Why you wish to work for Wilderness England in a guiding capacity
2/ What motivates you to guide in England and Wales
3/ Your interpretation of what is meant by outstanding customer care and hospitality when guiding experiential travel holidays

To informally discuss guiding with us, please call +44 (0)1768 721 210 and ask to speak to Julian.

If you wish to join us as a guide then you will be required to progress through our in-depth guide selection process detailed below. Our aim is to take on guides who are looking to work with us for many years to come, and hence this should be your intention if you are keen to join our guiding team.

Guide Selection Process

We believe our guide selection process offers a robust and transparent approach to guide recruitment, selection and subsequent work allocation. A fundamental principle of the approach is that it’s a two-way process; offering the potential guide the opportunity to learn as much about Wilderness as Wilderness learns about them.

If you are keen to work for Wilderness England then please consider the following steps before applying. All applications should be sent to [email protected] in the first instance and include a cover letter highlighting why you wish to work for us and what sets you apart from all other potential guides who are keen to work with us.

Job Description

Whilst the details below do not cover every element of the freelance Wilderness Guide role, they do provide a general overview of what you can expect.

Seasonality Read More

April – October is the main season during which we run trips in England and Wales with the majority of trips taking place from May to September.

Location Read More

All locations across England and Wales, with a particular focus on Northern England.

Expectations Read More

Wilderness England guides are at the heart of the business. The success of any one trip depends upon many people, arguably none more so than the commitment and performance of the guide. We’re dedicated to achieving greater recognition for the guide community – as a profession which is respected by our clients and the wider tourism industry. This recognition starts with doing the highest quality job on each and every trip – be that the first outing of the season or the last when you may well be running on empty. We expect our guides to be dedicated professionals and committed to the relentless pursuit of amazing client experiences. In return, we strive to offer working conditions which lead the way for the adventure travel industry.

Guiding Roles & Responsibilities Read More

The role and responsibilities of a Wilderness guide are as follows:

To represent all aspects of Wilderness England’s operation in the field. This requires guides to:

Embody the Wilderness values of Inspiration, Professionalism, Sustainability and Innovation.
Be totally focused on delivering amazing customer experiences and embracing the concept of sustainable tourism.
Foster strong relationships with our partner network of hotels, transport, activity providers, other services and the rural communities where we work.
Develop familiarisation with the products and services of Wilderness England, Wilderness Scotland, and Wilderness Ireland.
Act as proud ambassadors for their country and the adventure travel industry.

To provide clients of Wilderness England and our partners with a professional, inspiring, informative and entertaining outdoor experience. This requires guides to:

Be professional at all times, in appearance, behaviour and conduct.
Be open, honest and approachable with all clients.
Be flexible and responsive and realise that no one trip is the same.
Undertake to develop knowledge and skills beyond technical capability.
To be conversant with the content of the Guide Manual plus all the resources provided for the successful running of a trip.

To deliver to clients an adventurous yet safe outdoor experience, having regard to Health and Safety and Risk Assessment procedures. This requires guides to:

To be fully conversant with all of the Standard Operating Procedures contained in the Guide Manual.
Be familiar with the Risk Assessments for the relevant activities and be confident in their dynamic application in the field.
Carry out the necessary equipment and safety checks as required by the activity (NGB guides only)
Obtain relevant weather forecasts & other meteorological information on a daily basis.
To follow the emergency procedures and incident reporting procedures in this manual whenever required.

To be committed to the on-going maintenance and improvement of standards in all respects. This requires guides to:

Provide trip and client feedback by completing a Trip Report immediately after every trip.
Make a commitment to ongoing personal and professional development, including attending Training Events where requested to do so.
Provide the office with photocopies of all qualifications in electronic form relevant to guiding with Wilderness England, Wilderness Scotland and Wilderness Ireland.
Ensure that any renewable qualifications are up to date e.g. First Aid.
Hold appropriate public liability insurance to protect against any claim not covered by Wilderness England’s, Wilderness Scotland’s or Wilderness Ireland’s insurance policies.

Skills, Knowledge & Experience Read More

Minimum of 2 years relevant guiding experience within England.
Detailed knowledge of England/Wales and the travel and tourism industry, ideally possessing a good understanding of the adventure travel sector.
Experience in dealing with all parts of the tourism supply chain including accommodation, transport and other service providers.
Good ITC skills with experience of cloud applications and Google Apps.
Good knowledge of England/Wales.

Core Competencies Read More

Highly developed interpersonal skills, awareness and emotional intelligence with an ability to develop and sustain business relationships.
A natural collaborator who enjoys working in teams with a diverse range of individuals.
A strong and clear commitment to customer service excellence and “extra mile” delivery.
Excellent attention to detail, even when faced with multiple tasks.
A genuine interest and passion for England/Wales and its natural environment, culture and heritage.
A curious mind which seeks out interesting experiences and encounters for our clients.

Award-Winning Journeys

Green Tourism
Gold Approved

High-End
Experiential Travel

Leading Green
Tour Operator

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Wilderness Scotland

Tour Leaders

– Our recruitment window is currently closed –

Inside Knowledge

What We’re Looking For

What You Can Expect

The freelance benefits of guiding with Wilderness England are as follows:

Guiding opportunities on a freelance basis

Competitive daily guiding rates

Meaningful and rewarding work

Working with high-quality equipment

Training and development opportunities

Support from our dedicated operations team whilst guiding in the field

Industry discounts on outdoor clothing & equipment (for core guiding team)

Opportunity to be part of an industry-leading adventure travel company