Annika Hipple

A dual citizen of the United States and Sweden, Annika was raised bilingual and bicultural, spending the school years in suburban Boston and summers in Sweden, with numerous childhood trips to Norway as well. She has worked as a tour leader since training at the International Tour Management Institute in 2001. Her work has taken her across much of North America and Europe, including Scandinavia, as well as to such diverse destinations as Cuba, Belize, the Galápagos Islands, Patagonia, Egypt, Morocco, Mongolia, New Zealand, Japan, and India. Annika earned a B.A. in environmental studies from Middlebury College, spending a semester abroad studying ecology and conservation in Ecuador. After college, she moved to Uppsala, Sweden, to study international development as a Fulbright grantee. She later completed a master’s degree in Latin American studies at the University of Arizona, for which she conducted research in Mexico on the relationship between environmental organizations and the media.

As a freelance writer and photographer, Annika specializes in travel, sustainability, conservation, and history. She served as news editor for the nonprofit organization Ethical Traveler for several years and has contributed to a wide range of publications including Sierra Magazine, BBC Travel, Luxury Travel Magazine (Australia), The Christian Science Monitor, and Earth Island Journal, among others. Frequently consulted as an expert on Scandinavia, she writes about the region for various publications and publishes the independent travel website RealScandinavia.com.