Our team
50 Degrees North was founded in 2010 by Tietse Stelma, a Norwegian living in Melbourne who felt that the Nordic region deserved better than the itineraries that existed at the time. The team he and co-founder Jayde Kincaid set out to build needed to be grounded in genuine connection to the region, whether that meant growing up there, spending years working in it, or building deep relationships across it over time.
Unsurprisingly, a good portion of our 80+ staff across three continents grew up in the Nordic region, and the rest have found their way there through work, travel or long-standing relationships with the people and places. What connects everyone is a depth of knowledge that goes beyond what any guidebook or training course can replicate.
In practice, this means that when a client asks whether the light in Lofoten in late September is worth the shoulder season gamble, or which side of the fjord to be on when the train comes through, or whether the reindeer encounter they've read about is genuinely meaningful or just a tick-box, someone on our team knows the honest answer. Often from experience. Sometimes from a conversation with a cousin who lives there.
The Nordic identity that runs through the team is real, if difficult to summarise. It shows up in the office in small ways: the cinnamon scrolls that appear on a regular basis, the slightly too-serious opinions about the correct ratio of cardamom in baked goods, the chocolate and salty liquorice that someone always brings back from a trip home, and the unspoken rule that they must be shared. It shows up in a genuine pride in these places, and in the way the team talks about them.
None of this is the point in itself. The point is what it means for the people who travel with us: honest recommendations, specific knowledge, and advice that comes from somewhere real rather than a sales script.
