Hiking and Wildlife Tracking in Italy

Our wildlife adventures put nature front and centre throughout. You'll spend as much time as possible immersed in wild landscapes – tracking animals, sitting quietly, waiting for something remarkable to happen. That said, they are still proper adventures: expect hiking, walking safaris and active days, with moments of stillness and observation woven in along the way. An experienced naturalist tour leader will be with you throughout and groups are intentionally small to keep things intimate, minimise the trip's environmental impact and ensure the wildlife barely knows you're there.

Our adventures are designed by animal lovers, for animal lovers, with a strong focus on respect and minimal impact in all wildlife encounters. You’ll be accompanied by experienced local wildlife experts who follow strict guidelines to ensure animals are never disturbed. The group size on this adventure is limited to a maximum of 8, helping to keep disturbance low and allowing wildlife sightings to be handled calmly and responsibly. All trips operate in line with our Animal Welfare Policy (opens in new tab), ensuring wildlife protection always comes first.

Sightings of bears and wolves can never be guaranteed as both are wild, free-roaming animals in a vast national park. That said, the itinerary is built specifically around maximising your chances. On Day 3, you'll head out with your guide before dawn to a higher altitude where wolves are known to pass through, and return at twilight for a chance to hear them howling. On Day 4, you'll hike through forest frequented by bears, martens and wild cats, with your tracker guide pointing out signs of activity along the way. Marsican (Apennine) brown bears are one of the rarest bears in the world, with only around eighty remaining in the wild, so any sighting is a privilege rather than an expectation. Your guide's local knowledge and the use of binoculars, spotting scopes and a thermal camera all help improve the odds, but part of the experience is embracing the patience and unpredictability of watching wildlife on its own terms.

Bears are most likely to be seen from late April to October. In spring, they descend into valley floors and open clearings in search of shoots and ants, making them easier to spot after winter dormancy. Through summer and into autumn, they range more widely at higher altitudes as they forage for berries and fruit ahead of winter. Bears are most active around dawn and dusk throughout this period, and wildlife tracking excursions are timed accordingly.

Wolves are less tied to seasonal patterns and can be encountered at any time of year, although early morning and evening remain the best windows, when the animals are moving and more likely to be heard or seen at a distance. If you'd rather track wolves against a snowy backdrop, our winter edition (opens in new tab) of this adventure runs from November to March.

Our rewilding adventures (opens in new tab) take place in areas that are actively undergoing a process of ecological restoration known as rewilding. Increasingly, scientists and environmental activists see rewilding as a key solution to the ecological crises facing the planet. At Much Better Adventures we have followed this youthful movement closely, and it is clear that tourism has a role to play in helping to fund rewilding projects and show our adventurers the ecological transformations happening on the ground. Our trips explore these areas and particularly the species which are coming back to the returning wildernesses.

On any of our rewilding adventures, you'll be guided by expert wildlife trackers with a deep understanding of the rewilding efforts and the ecological improvements occurring in the areas they live and work in. You will search for and learn about keystone species such as wolf and bison which are either expanding from small historical numbers or being actively reintroduced. You'll see up close returning tree coverage and wildflower meadows, and even witness rivers running clearer due to the land growing wilder and withholding sediments. We aim for our rewilding adventures to instil a sense of hope that the damage which human activity has caused to the wild places on our planet can be reversed.

Every booking we take on a rewilding adventure directly supports and positively impacts the area in which your adventure takes place. Tourism provides a sustainable revenue stream to the local community, boosting the social and economic benefits from conservation and rewilding work, and therefore the incentives to support it.

Included in the trip cost is a Rewilding Levy of 5% which goes directly to the rewilding project connected to the trip. On top of this, the Much Better Adventures Foundation channels 5% of our revenues (not profits) from every booking to support reforestation and rewilding projects that advance our goal to protect the worlds wild places, one adventure at a time. We do this primarily by partnering with the World Land Trust. We also support their Buy an Acre programme, helping local communities to buy and protect natural habitats in perpetuity, ensuring the protection of the habitat and its wildlife.

While we acknowledge that our rewilding adventures have a carbon footprint due to the need to travel to them, we have chosen the projects we support for their potential to remove at least 2x more carbon from the atmosphere than enters it as a result of our trips.

The tap water in this part of Italy is safe to drink. Please bring along a reusable bottle or two to take with you on the wildlife tracking excursions.

Yes, you can leave your main luggage in your room at the guesthouse or hotel in Pescasseroli. You can also leave your main pack safely at the hotel or guesthouse in Pescasseroli when you go to the Bisegna refuge for the night.

Sure can! Over 70% of our travellers travel solo, it’s a great way to meet like-minded people.

Our team of Adventure Hunters co-create exclusive adventures which are run by highly vetted, specialist hosts. The trip is run by our trusted host partner in the destination. We only work with independent, local, in-destination experts who know the very best places to explore and how to stay safe. Read more information about the local teams we partner with (opens in new tab). You’ll be introduced to the host straight after making a booking via the Much Better Adventures platform.

Much Better Adventures refer to the UK Government’s official travel advice when designing trips and monitoring trip operations. We recommend that all customers are familiar with the practical information provided on the Government’s FCDO website (opens in new tab), where current travel advice can be found by searching for the applicable destination(s).

For customers joining this trip from other international destinations – please also read the official travel advice applicable to your country of residence/origin, as this may differ.

We recommend checking out the country-specific information (opens in new tab) and also talking to a travel nurse.

We automatically convert prices from the local currency that a host receives to your chosen currency. We update our exchange rates on a daily basis so this does mean that prices displayed on the site are subject to currency fluctuations, which is why you may see them change over time.

If you wish to change the currency you pay in, head to the bottom of the page.

All of our group adventures are specially designed for adults to enjoy as we want these adventures to bring together outdoorsy people who are truly like-minded. You must be over 18 to join one of our trips.

You're always in good company on one of our adventures.

Our trips are typically made up of a mixture of solo travellers and small groups of 2 or 3 friends, with most in their 30s-50s.

Our sociable adventures are solo-friendly by design and naturally attract outdoorsy people with a shared mindset; a love for adventure, a desire to push themselves and meet awesome, like-minded people along the way. Check out our Community Values (opens in new tab) – a shared code to make sure that everyone's experience is safe, inclusive and brilliantly unforgettable.

It’s this camaraderie that has so often turned a great adventure into a life-changing one.

Don't just take our word for it:

• 95% of people rate the group dynamics on our trips 5/5
• 90% of people recommend joining a trip to make new friends
• 75% of people have met people on our trips that they would now consider friends

See here (opens in new tab) for more info about the Much Better Adventures tribe.

Temperatures in the Abruzzo Mountains in the summer months average an enjoyable 20°C (68°F). May and October will be cooler with averages of around 15°C (59°F). Rainfall is lowest in July and highest in May and October, so be sure to pack a rain jacket, though the region gets a lot of unbroken sunshine in the summer.