Adventures Without Tourism

for travelers who want story, awe, and understanding

Gift of Go is a founder-led travel company guiding long-form Expeditions, Journeys, and Bespoke trips, built to share the living stories of places.

Our inaugural Collection is set in Brazil’s Serra do Espinhaço — a vast, storied mountain range that remains largely unknown to international travelers.

Our trips are long on moments and short on “highlights.”
We offer crossings: original routes shaped through years of fieldwork, designed to reveal a place through motion, continuity, and real contact.

trail to Dois Irmãos. Chapada do Couto

How our trips are built

  • Founder-led in the field. Each of our Expeditions, Journeys, and Bespoke trips is led end to end by the people who designed the route. We explore, chart, and refine every route ourselves, then guide it with the same crews and communities who helped build it.

  • Only-operator, original routes. Our crossings are composed from historic paths, little-used trails, working backroads, and connective terrain, shaped through years of fieldwork.

    We don’t white-label other companies’ itineraries or use pre-existing routes.

  • Little-visited by design. We work in regions that sit far outside international tourism flows — places with few visitors and little infrastructure. They aren’t alternatives to iconic places; they’re simply worlds most travelers have never been shown.

  • Time is the unlock. Our trips are long by design: 12–28 days for Expeditions; 14+ days for Journeys; 5+ for Bespoke. Depth, meaning, and continuity take time.

  • Real + Adventure, not staged + comfort. Our trips are driven by stories, pathways, and connection — not by landmarks, activities, or checklists. We move through working landscapes and living communities.

    Days are challenging because the story asks for it. Comfort exists, but it isn’t used to keep reality at bay.

  • High support, low spectacle. Our Expeditions (2–8 travelers) and Bespoke trips (1–8) are supported by unusually strong, consistent crews. Journeys even more so.

    We think of our teams as ensembles, with travelers at the center. The only thing we ask of you is to walk, experience, and remain open to what unfolds.

  • Scarcity is structural. We guide one departure per Expedition per year, with a maximum of eight travelers. Journeys and Bespoke trips run only when they make sense.

    We don’t optimize for headcount. Fewer travelers allow for deeper continuity, stronger crew relationships, and a more coherent story, all of which matter more to us than scale.

  • Travel should be a gift for everyone involved. We hire locally, pay above-market wages, prioritize family-run stays, maintain trails, and donate 5% of proceeds to local causes we know personally. We live in the places where we work. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

Brigadistas. Sempre Vivas NP.

There are three ways to experience our work

EXPEDITIONS

Founder-led, small-group crossings on fixed dates, designed to reveal the Serra through distance, effort, and continuity.
For travelers who want to move through a place with others — sharing the work, the story, and the long arc of the journey.

Journeys

Founder-led, omakase-style expeditions for one traveler, shaped in the field rather than scripted in advance.
For those seeking a quieter, deeper reckoning with place — where time, presence, and attention bend entirely around a single life.

Bespoke

Private, founder-led expeditions built to suit your people, your dates, and your pace, drawing from the same routes and crews.
For travelers who want the structure and seriousness of a GOGO crossing, adapted to their own rhythm and relationships.

Old tropeiro trail. Chapada do Couto.

Who our trips are for

Our trips are immersive, demanding, and revealing.
They’re also commitments of time, attention, and effort.

In our experience, the travelers who get the most out of them are those who:

  • want to understand a place, not just see it,

  • are willing to move through effortful days in exchange for depth,

  • value real contact and lived experience over polish and performance,

  • are drawn to continuity and relationship, not landmarks, thrills, or checklists.

Travelers looking for the next “off-the-beaten-path” destination often arrive with different expectations.

Those who’ve gone off the beaten path before and feel the pull to stray further usually know when they’ve found their place.

“Gift of go Face”. Day 12

A final litmus test

A strange bed in a modest home.
A community you’d never heard of before arriving.
A simple, homemade breakfast.
An arduous 25-km trek through working landscapes and little-visited terrain.
A late dinner, hearty and unpretentious.
A cold beer in a dimly lit bar.
Maybe hot water. Maybe not.

You’ve been moving like this for weeks.
And there’s still so much more ahead.

If it sounds exhausting, uncomfortable, or unappealing, you’re in good company — and our trips probably aren’t the right fit.

If it sounds grounding, clarifying, or just right, you already understand more than most about how these journeys work.

If you’re somewhere in between, we’re always glad to talk.

Talk with Eddie

If you’re considering 2026–27, reach out early. Trips are limited, and fit matters.