EXPERT NATURE TRAVEL GUIDE
Travel with Rolands
I am not the kind of guide who reads a script. I read landscapes, groups, weather, awkward silences, animal behaviour and occasionally the look that says: “coffee would solve many things.”
As an expert nature travel guide, I use field experience, conservation biology and group leadership to help travellers understand places better whether they join an Escaperies journey or read Field Notes while planning their own route.
FIELD BACKGROUND
25+ years in nature conservation
GUIDING PRACTICE
8+ years leading nature tours
GROUP LEADERSHIP
Improvisation-trained group flow
TRUST RECORD
5-star Baltic Nature Adventures reviews
WHY I GUIDE
Because a place gets better when someone helps you read it
I guide because nature is not a decoration. A wetland, a rainforest, a mountain pass or a coastline is always doing something. Species are moving through it. Water is shaping it. People have lived with it, modified it, misunderstood it, depended on it and sometimes made a majestic mess of it.
Good guiding makes that visible without turning the trip into a seminar. The aim is not to impress you with names. The aim is to help you notice more – and to come home with a sharper, warmer, more human memory of the place.
A biologist who guides, not a guide who quotes
I am Rolands Ratfelders – a conservation biologist from Latvia with more than twenty-five years in nature and travel. I founded Escaperies because I believe nature deserves a guide who reads it as a living system, not a backdrop. For more than eight years I have designed and led small-group nature experiences through Baltic Nature Adventures, my Baltic-focused guiding brand – testing every part of the approach with real travellers, real weather and real places.
In my world, nature meets adventure and structure meets improvisation. The best travel stories are not read from paper. They happen while crossing morning dew, hiking into mountains, watching a bird you did not know existed, or realising that the forest has been doing important business while you were busy checking the map.
I am also an improvisor and improvisation teacher. Why is this important here? Travel and improvisation have more in common than people expect. Both happen in real time, with real people, in real conditions. Both reward presence. Both can break down the divisions that normally separate strangers – and turn a group of people on a difficult trail into something more interesting than the sum of its parts. This is not decoration in what I do. It is part of the method.
Latvia and Baltic guided tours are operated through Baltic Nature Adventures. Escaperies is the international journey platform.
THE MIX BEHIND THE METHOD
Not a standard guide profile
Nature background
Conservation and biodiversity experience gives the journey a field eye: ecosystems, behaviour, habitats, patterns.
Real guiding practice
Baltic Nature Adventures has been the testing ground: private tours, small groups, changing weather, real travellers.
Group dynamics
Useful when humans behave like humans. It helps with timing, chemistry and turning small chaos into flow.
Journey design
A route needs rhythm: effort, recovery, story, place, food, weather, logistics and one or two good surprises.
Partner standards
Escaperies uses trusted local partners. The founder-set standard is the constant. Local knowledge is the advantage.
Field Notes voice
The same eye that leads the trip also writes about it: practical, field-based, curious, and allergic to brochure fog.
UNIQUE COMBINATION
Biology + improvisation
The biologist’s eye
Biology helps me read nature as a living, connected system and explain it without making anyone feel trapped in a lecture hall. You start noticing patterns, behaviours, habitats and small details that usually slide past unnoticed. Suddenly the background has a plot.
The improviser’s instinct
Improvisation teaches attention to what is happening now – not only what was planned three weeks ago. When the group needs to be engaged or something different, I notice it and adjust. It also helps when the weather changes, the perfect plan meets reality, and reality wins by a small but decisive margin.
That combination shapes the kind of journey Escaperies offers: structured, alert, human and alive.
WHY GROUPS WORK
The useful side of improvisation
Group chemistry
A good group does not happen by accident. It needs pace, tone, clarity and enough space for people to become comfortable.
Listening in real time
Improvisation trains attention. It helps me notice when people need a story, quiet, movement, rest, food or a small rescue from awkwardness.
Direction without stiffness
The group knows where it is going, but the day can still respond to weather, energy and the odd perfect moment that was not in the spreadsheet.
A FEW THINGS I BELIEVE ABOUT TRAVEL
Small principles. Large consequences.
Nature is not just scenery
It is the main character. We are the visitors, occasionally wearing bad shoes.
Expertise should clarify
If knowledge makes the place heavier, it is being used badly. It should open the view, it should help you to get a bit more open minded every signle time you travel.
Small groups matter
People travel better when they are seen, heard and not turned into a moving queue.
TRAVELLER PROOF
What travellers say about being guided by me
155+ reviews on Tripadvisor — 5.0 average. These reviews are from Baltic Nature Adventures, my Latvia-focused brand, and speak to how I guide.
TRAVEL WITH ME
Upcomming Escaperies journeys
SRI LANKA · 16 DAYS
The Great Sri Lanka Journey
Wildlife safaris, rainforest, rafting, surfing, tea-country hiking, ancient cities and the Indian Ocean doing what it does very well.
28 Nov – 13 Dec 2026 · €2,050 + flights · 6–12 travellers
ALBANIA · 10 DAYS
The Great Albania Journey
Ionian coast, Karaburun, UNESCO stone towns, Osumi Canyon rafting, Llogara and the Valbona–Theth crossing.
15–24 September 2026 · from €1,420 + flights · 6–12 travellers
WORK WITH ROLANDS
Beyond joining a scheduled journey
Sometimes the right fit is different: a private group, a field-based content project, route scouting or a conservation-minded collaboration.
Private journeys
For friends, families or small private groups who want an Escaperies-style route without joining a fixed departure.
Scouting & route design
Field-checking routes, pacing, partners and practical details before a journey becomes something travellers can trust.
Field writing & interpretation
Nature travel writing, destination interpretation and field-based content that explains a place without flattening it into brochure fog.
If you are a publication, tour operator, conservation organisation or private group with a project that fits the Escaperies way of travelling, write to me.
A clear brand note
Latvia and Baltic guided tours are operated through my Latvia-focused brand, Baltic Nature Adventures. Escaperies is the international journey platform. Same guiding values, different purpose.
NEXT STEP
Ready to see where we are going?
Explore the current small-group journeys, or write to me if you want to check whether a trip fits you before applying.