Modern Explorers
We’re more than a travel company. We’re explorers at heart! going far, staying curious, and building journeys for people who want more than a highlight reel.
Modern Explorers is a small, independent travel company built around one simple belief: great journeys should feel personal.
We don’t do crowds, checklists, or packaged experiences. We do small groups, thoughtful planning, and the kind of travel that actually means something. Our trips are designed for people who want more than a highlight reel. People who want to understand the places they visit, meet them properly, and come home with stories that go deeper than “I’ve been there.”
Every journey is created with care, curiosity, and respect for the places we go and the people we meet. Groups are kept intentionally small so things stay flexible, grounded, and human. You won’t be herded through souvenir shops or marched behind a guide holding up a flag. You’ll be present. Engaged. Part of the experience.
All of our trips are led by Connor or one of a small circle of trusted guides from around the world. They know how to create space, read the room, and bring people into a place with honesty and respect.
The goal isn’t just to entertain.
It’s to connect.
At the heart of everything we do is a simple phrase:
Go Far, Stay Curious.
That’s not just a slogan. It’s the reason Modern Explorers exists. We believe travel is about depth, not distance. About stepping into the unfamiliar with open eyes and an open mind. We don’t build trips for box-tickers. We build them for people who still want to understand the world, and maybe even their place in it.
Adventure awaits, but we think it should be done properly.
Urban Immersions
Sometimes the adventure is waiting in the middle of a city.
Our Urban Immersions are shorter, city-based Modern Explorers experiences built around neighborhoods, food, history, local stories, public spaces, and the everyday rhythm that gives a city its character.
They are different from our longer multi-destination journeys, but they share the same philosophy: small groups, thoughtful planning, local insight, and travel that feels personal rather than packaged.
A standard city break might show you the landmarks. An Urban Immersion helps you understand what they mean.
We may still visit the famous places, of course. Icons become icons for a reason. But we are just as interested in the markets, side streets, cafés, murals, transport systems, local guides, and conversations that reveal how a city really works.
You will not see everything.
That is not the point.
The point is to look closer.
Meet Connor
Connor Turley has travelled through more than 60 countries and all seven continents, all of them more than once, including Antarctica. He’s trekked the Himalaya and the hills of Rwanda, ridden motorbikes across India and Vietnam, sailed through French Polynesia, explored the Sahara by camel, and stood on the deck of an icebreaker in the high Arctic. He’s wandered markets in Hong Kong and Singapore, explored the mosques of Oman, island-hopped in the South Pacific, and traced history through the Balkans and Central America.
From South Africa to the Seychelles, from Costa Rica to Croatia, Connor’s approach to travel has always been intentional. He’s never been one for racing through countries. He prefers to slow down, pay attention, and actually experience the place he’s in, the food, the conversations, the stillness, and the unexpected.
When he’s not leading Modern Explorers trips, Connor works in rope access and the film industry as a technical safety specialist, a background that quietly shows up in how carefully each journey is planned. He’s also taken part in international rescue and recovery work, bringing a calm, capable presence to some of the world’s more difficult moments. That same awareness, empathy, and instinct travels with him wherever he goes.
Modern Explorers came to life after enough friends asked for help planning the kinds of trips he was already doing, immersive, off-the-radar journeys that avoided the usual clichés. Connor personally plans and often every one, keeping the groups small, the experiences real, and the pacing human. As he puts it, most large tour groups feel like “hostage situations with meal breaks”, which is exactly why he builds something different.
Adventure Awaits!