Portugal · Three-day micro-excursions
Short, wild, unplugged.
Led by a survival expert.
MicroAdventures is a small-group program running three-day outdoor excursions in Portugal - cross-country kayaking, bushcraft, firecraft, wilderness navigation. Your guide is Tom Williams, winner of History Channel's Alone (Season 1). The first trip leaves late May.
Join the list
Trips are capped small. Waitlist members get first pick when dates open.
First excursion · Late May 2026
Ferreira do Zêzere, Portugal
- Three days on the Zêzere river and the forest that surrounds it. Real time outside, not a single screen.
- Cross-country kayaking through sections of the river most people never see, pairing paddle work with route-reading and camp skills.
- Core survival skills taught hands-on - fire from scratch, shelter, water sourcing, navigation with and without a compass.
- Small cohort. Intentionally limited so every participant gets real teaching time with Tom, not a group tour headcount.
What you actually get out of three days.
Short enough to actually go
Three days fits in a long weekend. No quitting your life to disappear into the mountains for two weeks. Book it, show up, come back sharper.
Skills that outlast the trip
Fire, shelter, navigation, water, kayak safety. Not a listicle - practiced under a guide who has lived it longer than most people have practiced anything.
A small, chosen group
Every trip is capped. You meet a handful of real people doing something hard together. That is the kind of connection the internet cannot manufacture.
The evenings
Real conversations. Under stars. Without signal.
You spend the day outside - paddle in hand, feet on real ground, learning skills that work when the wifi doesn't. When the sun drops, the phones stay in dry bags. We light a fire and we talk.
The group is small on purpose. Six or seven people, a guide who has lived this longer than most, and the kind of conversations that only happen when nobody is half-staring at a screen. People leave having made real friends, not another LinkedIn connection.
Your guide
Tom Williams
Tom won the first season of Alone on the History Channel - 56 days by himself on Vancouver Island, outlasting nine other wilderness experts. He has spent two decades teaching bushcraft and survival to beginners and veterans.
Through his long-running program Desert Island Survival, Tom has run hundreds of trips. MicroAdventures is his invitation to bring that training to Portugal in a shorter, more accessible format - same depth, smaller footprint.
Questions people ask first.
Who is this for?+
People living in or visiting Portugal who want a short, hands-on outdoor reset and the chance to learn skills they actually retain. No prior wilderness experience needed - Tom teaches from zero.
Is this dangerous?+
No. The Zêzere section we paddle is closer to a lake than a river - flat water, no rapids. Tom is a decorated survival expert and a trained instructor; the group is small enough for genuine supervision. We carry full safety gear, first-aid kits, and proper insurance, and we are never far from roads and medical care. We also move at the slowest-comfortable pace in the group, not the fastest.
Do I need to be fit?+
Moderate fitness is enough for the first trip. You will be on the water and on your feet for a full day; nothing technical. If you can walk briskly for an hour and swim a few strokes, you're fine.
I've never kayaked. Does that matter?+
No. The first trip is designed for first-timers. Tom and the team run a short on-shore intro before you get on the water. The Zêzere is flat and forgiving. Within a few hours people who had never held a paddle are moving confidently.
What's included?+
Guide fee with Tom, group kayaks and safety gear, shared camp setup, group meals around the fire, and the full skills curriculum. You bring personal gear (sleeping bag, clothes, toiletries, headlamp). We send a detailed packing list once dates are confirmed.
Where do we sleep?+
Riverside camping. Tents (shared or solo - we ask preferences in advance). Part of the experience is learning to set up a good camp, so the first night is also the first skill session.
What if the weather is bad?+
Portugal in late May is usually dry and mild, but we carry weather contingency in the plan. Trips only reschedule for conditions that would make the water unsafe; everything else is part of the experience. Bad weather around a good fire turns out to be memorable rather than miserable.
I don't know anyone else going. Is that weird?+
Roughly everyone arrives the same way. The group is deliberately small (6-7 people) and the first campfire evening pulls strangers into a group fast. Most of our guests come solo and leave with friends.
Can I bring my phone?+
Yes - for photos, emergency contact, the drive there and back. During the day we ask for it to stay in a dry bag. Reception is spotty by design, not by mistake. People who have tried it call it the best part.
Is this the only trip?+
It's the first. The program will add more locations and themes across Portugal and Spain. Signing up now puts you first in line as the calendar fills out.
Who is running MicroAdventures?+
MicroAdventures is a collaboration between Tom Williams and Sean Tierney (Vibecode Lisboa). Tom handles the wilderness side. Sean handles the logistics, bookings, and the community side.
Why this exists
The phones are louder than ever. The antidote is older than you are.
Most of us spend our days in a chair, arguing with a screen, paid to do work a laptop can undo. That is not a life crisis, it is a real day in 2026. What people are missing is not another app. It is real - real weather on your face, real people around a fire, real skills you trust because you practiced them.
MicroAdventures exists because a three-day reset inside a good group, in a real place, under the hands of someone who has lived it, does more for a person than a year of inspirational content. And when the phones and the grids eventually go weird - which they will - the people who have sat with silence and made their own fire are the ones who stay calm.
Authenticity
Genuine outdoor experience - no sanitized resort-adjacent nature walk. Real ground, real weather, real fire.
Community
A small cohort doing something hard together. Shared discomfort is how strangers become friends faster than they do in any app.
Self-reliance
Not a marketing word. You leave knowing you can make fire, navigate a river, build shelter, and handle yourself if the wifi ever stops working.
Sustainability
Leave-no-trace camp practice, local guides, small footprint. The places we visit should feel better after we leave.
Late May. Portugal. Small group.
Put your email down. We'll send you the date, the route, and the packing list as soon as the first cohort opens.