Welcome to the Wild On The Fly
World Travel Planner

"By my criteria, any fishing lodge that aspires to superlative status must, of course, have excellent fishing, i.e., demanding angling for an interesting variety of big fish. It must also offer superior creature comforts, emollients both for the body and the mind for that preponderance of time when you are off the water. Moreover, the place should have a breath of effortlessly understated elegance, and the days spent there must have symmetry, excitement, and spiritual comfort to them…”

Wow! Would the world of angling be even more of a spectacular playground if every fly fishing lodge delivered on the criteria advocated so eloquently by seasoned angling traveler and writer Charles Gaines. The good news is there are lodges out there that meet and even exceed those standards, but unfortunately there are many that fall well beneath. How can you make an informed and correct decision on where to go if you’ve never been there before? That’s where we come in.

As the foremost media company dedicated to fly fishing travel, we’ve been reporting on international destinations for over a decade through our magazines, web sites and television programs. Our first-hand knowledge of specific fisheries, local lodges, outfitters and guides is current, correct and comprehensive. And the best part is that we’re presenting it all to you for free in the pages of our World Travel Planner!

How to use the World Travel Planner

It’s easy. If you know where you want to go, or you’ve heard of a specific lodge you want to check out, select it from the dropdown menu under Lodge in the black World Travel Planner bar above. Leave the other fields unselected (keep in the mode) and click on Submit. You’ll be immediately routed to a detail information page about that specific lodge, complete with an in-depth description, slideshow, video, maps, current conditions, testimonials, custom packing list, and many other great travel resources.

If you’re not sure where to go and you want to search for the best destination that fits your requirements, leave the Lodge field unselected and make choices from the dropdown menus in the other fields. These include geographic location, species of fish you’re after, time of year you want to travel, and how much you want to spend (presented as cost ranges for a week of fishing/lodging). Then click on Submit. You’ll be presented with a selection of brief overviews on one or more lodges that match your search criteria. Select the ones that strike your fancy and you’ll be routed to their detailed information pages.

How to Book a Trip

It used to be that you had to use a booking agent to reserve space at most fly fishing lodges around the world. But now with complete global assimilation of both the Internet and cellular phones that is no longer the case. Nearly every good lodge out there has a web site, reliable email and phone service, and professional protocol in place to process bookings. And in most instances it is very easy and satisfying to make that reservation yourself.

Of course, you certainly can still use a booking agent for most of these destinations, but that's becoming more akin to using a travel agent to book an airline flight. It's simply not necessary most of the time. Yes, there IS a certain convenience factor, but how can you be sure you booked the destination that was best for you. Booking agents work on commissions (15% to 20%) and owe allegiance to certain properties; both can skew where they suggest you go. That's not always a bad thing, but sometimes it is. Don't get us wrong, there are certainly some excellent agencies out there who give their clients great service, and most of those have been in the business for quite awhile. However, over the past few years seemingly dozens of new agencies have opened all claiming to be unique, yet doing little more than diluting the market and spreading less-then-qualified information hither and yon!

Being a travel agent used to be one of the few reliable ways to make money in the fly fishing industry, and that may account for the relatively recent boom. But even that is changing. Not unlike the traditional airline/travel agent collaboration, today's more challenging economic conditions are having an inevitable affect on the lodge/booking agent relationship. The reality is that every fly fishing operation out there now needs a certain number of clients not financially compromised by a steep commission and they look favorably on direct bookings.

Every lodge or outfitter in our comprehensive database represents what we consider to be the single highest quality fly fishing experience in each of the greatest fisheries on earth. Rest assured that these are the best of the best. Once you’ve found your dream destination you can easily book it yourself directly with the lodge just by utilizing the phone numbers and email addresses in the Contact Info tab on each Destination page.