About Us

What is Yugen Earthside?

Yugen Earthside is a sustainable travel booking platform and agency that connects mindful travelers to adventurous trips.

  • Our platform features a curated selection of sustainable, package trips designed and run by our local partners around the world.
  • Our agency arm can help you find and book a responsible trip anywhere in the world, or assist as your sustainable trip planner.

Our Mission: Make sustainable travel easy.

What does "Yugen" mean?

Yugen (pronounced “you-gehn”), is a Japanese word that means:

An awareness of the universe that triggers an emotional response too deep and powerful for words.

Krka National Park in Croatia - clear, blue-green water in the forefront with a cascading waterfall in the background, surrounded by lush green trees and a blue sky with a white cloud in it. A rainbow crosses the image.

Values-aligned travel

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Get to know us

What's in our DNA?

Creating a positive environmental and social impact is important to us. That's why we are:

  • Registered as a Social Purpose Corporation (SPC).

  • Donating at least 1% of gross profits to sustainable tourism impact projects.

  • Certified net-zero through Ecolytics.

  • Including carbon removal through Tomorrow's Air with each booking.

  • Integrating carbon offsets through Sustainable Travel International into our checkout process.

  • Applying for B-Corp Certification.

Caucasian woman sits on a grey couch, looking up smiling, while facing an open laptop computer and a monitor screen set up on a brown wooden table.
The early days

Our Origin Story

Yugen Earthside was founded by Hilary Matson. After working at Amazon for nearly a decade, she left to pursue a career more closely aligned with her interests and values: travel and sustainability.

Hilary earned her MBA and a certificate in Inclusive & Social Business from HEC-Paris in 2020. During her MBA, Hilary specialized in entrepreneurship and developed a social enterprise business plan. Yugen Earthside was incorporated in January 2021.

What is sustainable travel all about?

Our trips adhere to the three basic pillars of sustainable tourism:

Respecting natural environments, including wildlife.

Promoting local economies to keep tourism money in the destination.

Supporting societies & cultures through authentic experiences.

Our Vision:

Inspire and educate travelers seeking to discover and book responsible tourism trips, in order to transform the travel industry into a force used to better connect humanity and preserve the earth.

Our Team:

We're currently powered by a small team. We'll be looking to grow once we have funding.

  • Hilary Matson: Founder & CEO
  • Levi Gable: Website Wizard
  • Caity Zagar: Blog Contributor
  • Annika Baum: Advisor
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Adventure awaits

Now let's go explore! (Responsibly.)

The top of the Taj Mahal is in a close up view with a lush green tree to the left of it in the foreground.

India

The beige city of Toledo, Spain is in view with several blocky buildings with square and octagonal columns; a stone bridge is in the foreground.

Spain

Misty clouds shroud a dark forest; there are green trees in the foreground and rolling blue hills in the background.

Ecuador

A Caucasian woman in a mid-length, white, long sleeve shirt dress sits in a meditative pose with her back to the camera. She sits on a yoga mat with a man sitting to her left and another Caucasian woman sitting to her right. They are on a slat wooden ground, overlooking thin trees with bright sunlight in the background.

Portugal

A tree house on stilts with a thatched matuki roof sits amidst a clearing within a lush green forest.

Kenya

All destinations

75+ experiences around the world

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