Osmia Trips
Osmia Trips
How it works
Intentional adventure travel: highly planned, physically alive, culturally curious, and spacious enough to breathe. Here is what that means in practice, and how you get a place.
The model
Every journey combines four things.
- IA strong itinerary
Every stay, transfer, meal and activity is planned before you land, and paid for before you leave. You are paying, in part, so that you never research a ferry timetable. The sequence is one you could not easily build alone: a private sailing boat, a Bedouin family's camp, a river run to a jungle.
- IIParticipation
The planned days matter and we expect you to join them. This is a shared adventure, not a hotel with excursions. If you need rest, if an activity is not for you, if your body says no - you opt out, without explanation and without cost.
- IIIFreedom
There is breathing room in every week: lighter afternoons, recovery days, optional mornings, time alone. The itinerary is a strong shape with room inside it. It should never feel like a school excursion.
- IVCommunity
Much of the value is experiencing extraordinary things with the same small group for weeks. Meals, hikes, boats, long drives, fires, difficult moments, incredible landscapes. Nobody runs team-building. The journey creates the community by itself.
What it is
Not a retreat. Not a tour. Not backpacking.
Osmia Trips is long-form, small-group intentional travel. The standard for every day is a question: would this genuinely feel like one of the greatest adventures of someone's life? If a thing is merely nice, it does not automatically earn a place.
- It is nota yoga retreat
The practice supports the destination. It never dominates it.
- It is nota guided tour
Long home bases, real free time, no coach window, no flag.
- It is notbackpacking
Everything is booked, comfortable, and paid for in advance.
- It is notpassive luxury
You will swim, walk, climb, paddle and sweat. Gladly.
The shape
Three a year. Two to four weeks. Eight to sixteen people.
- 8–16Guests
Small enough that we know everyone's name by the second dinner, large enough that you can find your people inside it and take an afternoon off from the rest.
- 2–4 weeksLong form
Long enough for a place to become ordinary. Slow enough to experience it deeply, and full enough to feel like a true adventure.
- 1Home base per chapter
We do not change hotels to collect destinations. Side trips go out with small bags and come back to the same bed.
- 2Hosts, the whole way
Lisa and Balder plan every journey and travel on every one. Local guides join for the days that need them.
Getting a place
Three steps, one conversation.
- 01Apply
Tell us who you are and why this journey, in a few lines. It is a letter, not a booking, and nothing is charged. We read every application ourselves and write back within a few days with the full day-by-day plan and our questions - about fitness, about the water, about what you hope for.
- 02Talk
A call or a long email, whichever you prefer. We want to know that the journey fits you and you fit the group, and you want to know that we are who we say we are. Either of us can say no, warmly. Most of the time it is a yes.
- 03Confirm
A deposit of €900 holds your place. The balance is due 90 days before departure. A journey is confirmed when eight guests have said yes; if it is not, every deposit comes back in full. From then on we send the practical letters: flights, insurance, packing, visas.
The practical questions
Asked before, answered here.
If yours is not here, write to us. We answer every letter ourselves.
hello@osmia.day →What does the price include?
Everything from the moment you land to the moment you leave: every night's accommodation, every transfer inside the journey including domestic flights, ferries and boats, most meals, every planned activity with its guides and entries, the morning practices, and the two of us the whole way. Each journey's page lists exactly what is in and what is out.
What is not included?
International flights, visas, travel insurance, lunches on free days, drinks, tips, and anything you add on your own such as dive courses. We keep this list short and we do not add to it later.
Do I need to be fit?
Reasonably. Each journey says what its hardest day asks: a night climb to 2,285 metres in Egypt, nine days of walking to 3,600 in Nepal, a lot of swimming in the Philippines. You do not need training. You do need to be honest with us when you apply, and we will be honest back.
Do I have to do yoga?
No. The morning practice - yoga, breathwork, meditation, mobility - is offered every day and counted on no day. Many guests come for the adventure and find the mornings on the way. Some never join one. Both are fine.
Can I come alone?
Most people do. A shared room pairs you with someone of the same gender; a single room is available on every journey for a supplement, limited to four places. Nobody eats alone unless they want to.
What about flights?
You book your own international flights, so you can use points, stop over, or arrive early. We tell you which airport to arrive at and leave from, and the times to aim for, the day the journey is confirmed. We advise against booking non-refundable flights before then.
What if I have to cancel?
Up to 90 days before departure you lose the deposit. Closer than that, the scale on the terms page applies, because by then the boats and rooms are paid for. We recommend cancellation insurance, and we will always try to fill your place, in which case you get more back.
What if you cancel?
If a journey does not reach eight guests, or if we cannot run it safely, we cancel it at least 20 days before departure and refund every payment in full within 14 days. Your money is protected against our insolvency, as the law requires; the terms say how.
Is it safe?
We use licensed operators for anything with a real risk: diving, freediving, rafting, canyoneering, trekking. We read the foreign-office advice for every region the week before we travel and we change the plan if it changes. We ask about your health when you apply. And nobody is ever pushed to do a thing they do not want to do.
Where does the practice come from?
From Osmia, the app: a daily practice for living with intention, made by the same two people. The trips are the far end of the same road. You do not need the app to come on a journey, and you do not need a journey to use the app.
The journeys