In the late '60s/early '70s, a young Frank McCready left his cleaning business behind and took up the opportunity to organise overland-based trips on the famed ‘Hippy Trail’, taking adventurous travellers in Land Rovers and Bedford lorries to discover places like Istanbul and Delhi. 

Believing in the future and success of these kind of trips, together with three other friends, they opened the first Sherpa Expeditions office in a residential neighbourhood in Chiswick, London. Their business became such a success that, by the end of the 1970s, travellers were taken all over the world on camping and trekking trips, with Nepal being a continuous success. Sometimes things needed a little smoothing though and there is the famous example of a group waiting at Heathrow Airport for their flight to Malawi when the staff member who was supposed to meet them with their tickets overslept causing the entire group to miss their flight!

Business remained successful and European tours were run as camping treks supported with minivans, servicing for example each year the Tour du Mont Blanc, Picos de Europa and High Pyrenees. The Morocco programmes in the High Atlas, as well as Africa and Russia, were increasingly popular. Tents were kept in the double garage at the new office in Hounslow and the team grew. 

By the mid-1990s camping tours declined in popularity and, responding to popular demand, the Sherpa Expeditions team pioneered a new style of active holidays. The product offering shifted to hotel-based guided & self-guided holidays, making Sherpa Expeditions the first travel company to start self guided walking holidays in the UK and eventually Europe. Following our name change and until today, our hotel-based self guided walking holidays have continued being an enormous success. 

Thank you for supporting us for all these years. We look forward to connecting you to the trails for much longer! 

Walkers' Britain & Europe Timeline: