“It was a privilege to raft and explore with Greg Findley, one of the great river pioneers of our time. Be it charging crocs, unrun rapids, landmines, tropical diseases, or the challenge of dutch oven baking, Greg is consistently cool and competent, a renaissance river guide, ever knowledgeable, ever-wise, always curious, and at home in any eddy or current or wilderness in the world…there is no better traveling companion!” 

— Richard Bangs, Adventure Travel Pioneer and Author

Greg Findley

Chief Exploration Officer

Greg Findley is the consummate international adventure travel guide, operations manager, and company owner, as comfortable on a wild river in Chile as he is at home in the Detour office or with his family and friends in the backcountry of Wyoming and Montana. He teaches at an online climate change school, and he loves introducing people to new destinations, to new adventures, and to helping them expand their world to appreciate wild places and other cultures, and feels it is his mission in life to make it help people get the trip that is best for them. It’s been said he can make pancakes out of anything, although his kids wish he’d stick to using flour and milk.

While these days Greg rarely guides clients on wild adventure trips as he did for nearly 20 years in the Western US, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Turkey, and the Philippines, among other destinations, he understands what makes one trip great and another just ok, and also realizes that even on great trips, some travelers may not be fully happy, as ultimately they are on the wrong trip. Because of this, Greg has created a company whose mission is to help guide travelers through the tricky adventure of choosing a great vacation to help them get the perfect trip.

Greg lived in the Philippines as a young boy, and had traveled around the world by the age of five (at the time he assumed that was normal for all 5-year olds). Although he fell in love with camping and wilderness as a kid on trips with his family to Colorado, Montana, and Idaho, it wasn’t until he took a National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) semester course during his sophomore year at the University of Michigan that he really knew his path would be leading people on adventure trips around the world. As he likes to say with a wry smile, “That course ruined my life.”

He tried commercial fishing for salmon in Alaska and running a landscaping business in Jackson, WY, but neither of these scratched the itch of his desire to share wild adventures with people in remote destinations around the world. Eventually he started guiding raft trips in Wyoming, and that led to guiding Class V rivers in California and multi-day wilderness trips in Idaho, guiding and managing operations on the world-famous whitewater of the Zambezi River in Zambia, guiding the Bio Bio and Futaleufu Rivers in Chile and treks in Patagonia, and leading groups on first descents of rivers in Ethiopia, Bolivia, and the Philippines.

Now, with an amazing wife and two fun-loving boys, he tries to share as many adventures with them as he can, and gets his kicks from using his vast travel knowledge and personal experience to guide the Detour team to help travelers get life-changing trips operated by the best local tour operators in each destination.

“On our return home, Peter & I feel very fortunate. From the moment Peter found your travel agency on the internet everything went from well to better; we expected the Galapagos Islands to be a unique and fascinating place to visit, but it was all of you that have helped our vacation to become a beautiful and unforgettable experience.”
— Olga

Layna George

Travel Advisor

Everyone loves Layna George, partly because she is so good at guiding travelers to the perfect trip with humility and charm, and partly because she is just so damn friendly and nice. Around the office we joke that we should change our company name to “Layna’s Tours.”

Raised in California’s wine country, Layna studied cultural geography at the University of Oregon and then moved to Montana to pursue work for a greater good as an Americorps volunteer. She worked with a social and economic justice organization to guide people to better lives by developing local food projects, building community gardens and organizing advocates for local food assistance.

Due to her great love of adventure, of meeting new people and exploring new places, and of making a difference at the community level, Layna was a natural fit with Detour. She combines her background of community service working to improve local people’s lives with her desire to help travelers have transformative experiences, mixes it up with a dose of thoughtfulness and caring, and out pops a creation of helpfulness that guides travelers to the trips of their dreams while also helping to make the planet a better place.

Layna’s expert guidance, combined with her thoughtfulness and thoroughness, will probably have you sending a glowing post-trip message that once again gets the rest of the office whining, “Layna, Layna, Layna – everybody loves Layna.”

“The care we were given, the constant quick replies we received and the suggestions were wonderful. It led to a smooth, most enjoyable and very affordable vacation. All our wishes had been listened to and catered for. We seemed to get the best of everything.” 
— Caroline Resner

Kelly Palmer

Traveler Support / Travel Advisor

Kelly Palmer was drawn to Montana for its wide open spaces and adventurous lifestyle for many of the same reasons she is drawn to the world of international travel. Kelly craves adventure, and she seeks out wild places and off the beaten path experiences. Naturally, she wants to share this with others and works hard to ensure travelers get fantastic, life-changing experiences on every trip. She has intensive experience in both the adventure sports and the international travel businesses, and her strong work ethic and ability to get more done in a day than three normal people (all without pounding coffee all day!) makes her quick to respond to customer needs and concerns.

Although she moved a lot as a kid, Kelly earned her Science and Environmental Studies degree at Mississippi State University, and then started working with an island resort in Belize before moving to Colorado to in search of a more adventurous lifestyle.  She has worked in the ski and snowboard industries, and has previous experience in the international adventure travel world; she has decided that international travel is where she wants to be.

Kelly lives in Bozeman with her husband and two dogs, where she rides her bike and gets outside as much as possible.

“I have already recommended the group and your company to several friends who have asked about our trip. Allie was wonderful. She was unbelievably attentive to our every question. You have a great person there. Thanks again!”
— Maddy

Allie Savage

Product Development Expert

We hope we don’t offend anyone by saying it, but we think Allie Savage kicks ass! We aren’t talking about the kind of butt-kicking she used to do on the soccer field growing up in Chicago or on the Carthage College soccer team. We are talking about her kick-ass positive attitude, her incredibly helpful nature, and her unbelievable knowledge about traveling in Latin America. Her ultimate goal is to help you get a great trip, and she, frankly, kicks ass at this (oops, we said it again!).

Allie is motivated to help people and to make the world a better place for all, and she certainly makes a difference wherever she goes. Her infectious spirit and can-do attitude infect everyone in the office every day, whether she is leading us in a push-up contest or dancing a jig when a customer books a super cool trip that she knows will rock their world.

She moved to Montana to do public service as an Americorps VISTA volunteer, working in the Helena, MT public schools. She then helped a leading environment group lobby the Montana legislature to protect Montana’s clean air and water. She fell in love with the state because she is an adventure junky, and she has become addicted to a lifestyle of snowboarding, mountain biking, trail running, rafting, kayaking, stand up paddle boarding, and drinking craft beers with good friends.

Allie is driven by her desire to help people, and she is also driven by her love for adventure, for travel, for exploring new places and meeting new people. At Detour, she has found she gets to combine all of these, as she gets to go explore new destinations and trips herself, all the while looking to gather information she can share with prospective travelers. While she doesn’t lead trips in the field, she is an expert at guiding travelers to the trip that is best for them. Most travelers she has guided to the ultimate trip agree: Allie kicks ass.

“The trip was great and your services were perfect! Couldn’t do it without you!!”
— Kim Williamson

Katie Colligan

Travel Updates

Katie Colligan loves traveling so much that she can’t bear the thought of people having bad times on a trip. That’s why she refers to her job as “Traveler Happiness” so that she can focus on helping to assure everything goes smoothly from the moment someone books their trip until they return home happy from a satisfying, and hopefully, life-changing adventure.

She helps travelers navigate the many annoyances and hurdles of preparing for an international trip as smoothly as a seasoned river guide snakes their raft through the turbulent currents of a whitewater river to safely and easily avoid rocks, holes, and other river hazards.

That makes sense because Katie was a rafting guide on the Salmon and Snake Rivers for several years, and she has also guided sea kayaking and cross country skiing excursions in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. She understands well what it takes to prepare for a great trip, and she uses that experience to guide travelers to stress-free pre-trip planning.

Born and raised in the Chicago area, Katie got her degree in International Studies from the University of Wisconsin, where she did a semester abroad in Quito, Ecuador. During this time she developed a deep love for South America, its people, and its landscapes.

After college Katie moved to Colorado to help a coffee roasting company arrange contracts with Fair Trade and Organic coffee producers in Central America, then guided special education students to reach their maximum potential working in the public school system. She continued this work in Jackson, WY, where she also helped to promote English and Spanish literacy and to support cultural exchange.

At Detour Katie combines her previous job and life experiences to guide travelers to seamless trips. Like rafting with a good river guide, you may not even notice how smooth it all feels until you get back home and realize that you just had a fantastic trip, and that the pre-trip planning and organization were pain-free, and dare we say, even fun, and that you truly are a Happy Traveler.