About us
50 Degrees North is a niche, independently owned, specialist travel company that aims to give you a little more than just a holiday. We specialise regionally, as we believe it is not possible to be good at everything. We also focus on offering the most enriching style of travel. Not necessarily cheap, but rewarding, full of real life experiences and with incredible value for money. Our knowledge and expertise will allow you to get deep under the skin of the northern region, and take home with you learning and understanding that others will miss.
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Our Director & Co-Founder, Tietse Stelma, is Norwegian and was born far north of the Arctic Circle in a Sami village called Karasjok. He grew up in Hvaler in the outer Oslo fjord and has the last 7 years been living and working in Melbourne, Australia. Tietse joined the travel industry in the early 90’s in Norway working with off the beaten track travel, as well as specialist tours to China. In the late 90's he lead tours in North Asia, and later established the China product for Intrepid Travel in Australia. From 2005 to 2010 he headed up the global operations team for Peregrine Adventures to ensure high class product delivery. With 20 years in the industry, Tietse has spent years exploring the extraordinary northern region and knows the area better than most. Tietse is also the sitting President of the Norwegian club of Victoria (Friends of Norway), speaks fluent Norwegian and Dutch, and has over the years built an extensive network of operators and suppliers in the northern region. |
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Leila Myllymäki-Hay is our Sales & Business Development Manager. Leila grew up on a farm by a lake in the middle of pine forest in Finland. She started her career in travel and tourism in 1980's while studying at Helsinki University. She went on to work in hotels, restaurants, local visitor information centres and travel agencies in Scandinavia and Australia. Leila has also co-ordinated various events ranging from gala dinners to tennis tournaments and from Icebreaker cruises to 2-day festivals. Before moving to Australia Leila worked as Sales and Product Manager in one of Scandinavians largest Destination Management Companies - custom made special interest and incentive tours is her passion! Leila is also very passionate about Finnish design and architecture. To pursue her love of great design, she has been running her own Scandinavian design shop for the last ten years. Leila speaks fluent Finnish and German. |
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| Jayde Kincaid is our Marketing Manager and Co-Founder and has been a tour leader in China, Europe and North Asia. Early in life Jayde learnt Japanese and has a strong affection for Japan. She was a rafting guide in the mid 90's safely guiding adventurous customers down the Mitta Mitta and Thomson rivers in Victoria. The past 15 years Jayde has spent in the Outdoor Education industry in Australia, working for a major Outdoor Education Group. She has also worked in operations at Intrepid Travel, looking after the Japan, Russia and Europe products. |
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Our General Manager, Esbjörn Torstensson, is Swedish and was born in the beautiful harbour town of Helsingborg, Sweden. "I grew up in a small house next to a big forest and have fond memories of long warm summer nights and snowy winters. I identify myself as a Skåning. Skåne is a unique part of Sweden in both accent, attitude and landscape. My family hails from all over Sweden and I know my home country, and the region, well. As soon as I was old enough to pay my own bills, I started travelling around the world, which eventually lead me to combine my passion with my profession. Migrating to Australia in 1998 started off my career in the travel industry. I spent 4 years with STA Travel in Australia and Scotland and eventually sought out adventure travel at Intrepid Travel, where I worked behind the scenes with travel agents, travellers, leaders and other operators, before managing Intrepid's first ever concept store in Melbourne, Australia for a number of years. |
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At 50 Degrees North we like to call ourselves specialists! We don't try to do everything - only what we know. What we know really well. Our Director grew up in the north, he is Scandinavian and is passionate about designing realistic itineraries and experiences that work for you. He also spent years working in Northern Asia looking after the quality and operations of tours in this region. He has worked locally in Mongolia for an inbound operator in Ulaanbaatar training and developing local staff. As destination specialists, we are able to tailor make holidays to suit you, be that customising the itineraries shown on our website or creating something bespoke. Therefore, if you cannot find exactly what you are looking for, tell us about your interests, timescale and budget, and we will get to work. We are prepared to spend considerable time and effort making sure that your holiday is right for you, ensuring your time away is fun and hassle free. Canada and Alaska, which are perfect contenders for product to include within 50 Degrees North is on our horizon. However, at this very moment, we do not feel we can offer you that bit of extra specialist knowledge for this region just yet. |
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"Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Faroe Islands - One of the best traveling experiences, very well organised and full of adventure with a great group of people. From the Scandinavian forest, waters and mountains to the table, the food was both exciting and delicious. Thank you Kim and Greg, escorts for the 2011 Nordic Real Food Tour." Luisa
"Thanks for your help in making the trip happen – we had a fabulous time. Iceland was sensational – the tour fitted our needs really well, and we got a really good feel for Iceland and the culture. The hotels were excellent and well-located and all the connections worked (except for the Flam train – thanks for your help in sorting that out). We especially liked the Hotel Glo in Helsinki." Greg Hotel staff could not have been more attentive and helpful and the planned activities were all good fun. I can't think of any negatives other than the weather was quite mild - only -5 to -10 degrees. We had psyched ourselves up for -20 to -30 !! Maybe next time. Even though this type of trip is ideal for families I would be happy to recommend this trip to anyone looking for something different to an Aussie Christmas" Feedback from Ken, Christmas in Lapland 2011 Read our latest press: Visit Kamchatka and Aurora Borealis Photography |
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50 Degrees North Pty Ltd is independently owned by Scandinavians with a strong financial background. 50 Degrees North is a full member of the Travel Compensation Fund and holds a full travel agency licence (no.: 32937). "The Travel Compensation Fund is Australia's primary means of providing compensation to eligible travellers who suffer loss as a result of the financial collapse of a participating travel agency business. The TCF helps guard against the failure of participating travel agency businesses through financial monitoring of agency accounts." www.tcf.org.au |
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