From Jersey to the Jungle: How to Build an Adventure Travel Company One Misstep at a Time

How One of the World’s Most Respected Sustainable Travel Companies Grew from the Wilds of the Garden State 

Ever wonder how Natural Habitat Adventures became the global leader in conservation travel that it is today? 

Ben Bressler, our founder and director, has remained at the helm of the company for over four decades. Turns out he has quite a story to tell. In his new hardcover book, From Jersey to the Jungle, Bressler shares his engaging tale of building Natural Habitat Adventures from the ground up. He also conveys many of the personal stories, successes and mishaps that led him to an extraordinary appreciation for the natural world and an endless desire to protect it. 

The journey to Nat Hab becoming the world’s first 100% carbon-neutral travel company—not to mention the exclusive conservation travel partner of World Wildlife Fund—was anything but linear. In 1985, Bressler founded what would eventually become Natural Habitat Adventures after being fired from a brief stint as a history teacher at a boarding school. With a “fly by the seat of your pants” mentality, the budding entrepreneur faced numerous crucial moments that could have changed the course of the company forever. When Bressler loses 107 travelers in the subarctic while out on a night hike, it could have been a colossal disaster. Instead, those travelers bonded together in their shared (and thankfully, safe) adventure. The experience also taught Bressler a valuable lesson: “Don’t do dumbass stuff!” 

Bressler’s and Nat Hab’s Beginnings

Bressler’s story begins in the Garden State, a place that Ben Franklin once described as a “keg tapped at both ends,” with all of its resources, culture and wealth draining out to both New York City and Philadelphia. He grew up in the suburbs at a time when “go outside and play” meant pure freedom and spent his early days traveling with his family to spots like Pennsylvania Dutch Country, England and Israel. Both of his parents had a passion for social justice and a policy of standing up for their beliefs. Together, these experiences and examples seeped into Bressler’s subconscious, forming the foundation for the person he’d eventually become. 

It was a canoe excursion down the East Coast’s Delaware River, with a group of teenage classmates and no real itinerary, that really set a trajectory for the author’s future. He writes, “[This] wasn’t just an initiation into planning a trip. It was also my first real taste of why exploration matters.” 

Far from an ideal student, Bressler relied on passion, perseverance and creativity to establish himself in ways that would pay off in the long run. For example, during his ill-fated year as a history teacher, the author was also working as a ski instructor for the school’s ski club. When it struck him that people were actually making a living by taking people skiing, he decided to launch his own one-man company to take students on ski and adventure trips worldwide. The name of the company: Teachers’ Tours. 

Working from a “borrowed” desk in the back of a travel agency, the always resourceful Bressler utilized a list of teachers and their phone numbers from every private school in the country, all obtained in a book he had stolen from the library. He made hundreds of cold calls per week, slowly building a business. Despite starting his enterprise with just $600 and no real experience, Bressler made enough of an impression to attract the attention of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). It was a call that would change his life. When Bressler arrived to lead the IFAW’s first baby harp seal viewing tour in Atlantic Canada, he’d never before set foot in the region. Soon, he established a second expedition, this one focusing on polar bears, the “King of the Arctic,” in Churchill, Manitoba. From here, Natural Habitat Adventures was born. 

Trial-and-Error 

As with many life stories, Bressler’s successes come from a combination of new experiences, reflection and happenstance. Through plenty of trial-and-error, the author sees how tourism can boost local communities and protect wildlife simultaneously. For instance, by hiring locals as expert guides and specialized trackers, villagers receive financial incentives without having to rely on illegal poaching and hunting. On-the-ground relationships matter. By involving local communities, travelers gain in-depth knowledge of local cultures, villagers take pride in their offerings, and there’s a larger commitment to land and wildlife conservation coming from all sides. It’s a win-win situation. There’s also that extra desire to act that comes with witnessing something for yourself. Whether it’s standing in awe in the presence of endangered mountain gorillas or millions of monarch butterflies, these experiences are life-changing in a myriad of ways. 

Despite all of his hard work, Bressler is never a one-man show. It’s the women in his life (as well as some lifelong friends) who truly hold the author up and continue to push him forward. Take Bressler’s mom, a trained lawyer who joined her son in Canada during his first year at Seal Watch, handling organizational tasks, keeping the books and basically keeping the entrepreneur from running his business into the ground. Then there’s Laura, Bressler’s girlfriend and later wife, who not only stands by his side through everything from financial disasters to an extremely poor-timed bicycle expedition across Europe, but also does everything in her power to lift both him and the company up. 

The ebbs and flows of running a travel company 

Along with personal tales and travelogues, Bressler’s book details Nat Hab’s steep learning curve and the ebbs and flows of the company’s growth. For example, when they moved the company from North Jersey to Boulder, Colorado, in the early ‘90s, Natural Habitat Adventures operated only 12 trips worldwide and had only 6 employees. By 1998, they had 119 trips in their portfolio and dozens of staff members. This speedy expansion led them straight to disaster. By straying from their core strengths in small group nature tours, they were no longer experts in their field—and Nat Hab’s guests were noticing. Bressler describes it as the classic “Whac-A-Mole” game. Once they beat down one issue, another one popped up. 

Through major budget cuts, streamlining products and finding an investor that wasn’t looking to make a quick buck and would still allow Bressler to play a role in the company that he founded, Natural Habitat Adventures stayed afloat. But it wasn’t the last time that Bressler and the company would face changes, successes and hardships. From navigating the horrors of September 11 and what it meant for the travel industry to Lindblad Expeditions’ acquisition of Nat Hab in 2016, Bressler shares it all. And he does so with plenty of humor, humility and honesty. 

From Jersey to the Jungle is a story that’s both highly engaging and surprisingly relatable. Whether you’re a traveler, wildlife lover, conservationist or someone simply trying to find their path, this book is for you. There’s even mention of New Jersey’s infamous Action Park, a former amusement and water park that tri-state teens (like myself) loved and parents feared. It’s a place that plays a much larger part in Bressler’s story than you might think. 

What’s especially cool about this book is that with each purchase, 100% of your money will go toward supporting Nat Hab projects like wolf research in Yellowstone and building schools in Uganda and Ecuador. It’s all a part of Bressler and Nat Hab defining ethos: to practice what you preach.