Incredible Adventures Guides
Jolie Ginsburg Owner
Brian Deninger President
Amin Saidi Web Marketing Director
Jolie Ginsburg is co-owner and CEO of Incredible Adventures. She started guiding for Incredible Adventures in 2000 soon after moving to San Francisco and 2 months later bought the company with her business partner Brian Deninger. She used to be on the road several days a week; now Jolie just does the occasional trip, but still likes that she can travel and interact with people while working. She grew up mainly in Houston and Pittsburgh, the oldest of a younger sister and brother, and has traveled to all 50 states and to every continent except Antarctica.
Jolie is an active member and coordinator of two local biodiesel collectives, raising awareness of alternative fuels, making it more accessible and advocating its use by public transportation and other large fleets. Her favorite van is #3 because it’s the first van to be run on Biodiesel. She strives to be self-sustainable and environmentally conscious, both in her personal life and in her business operation. Jolie loves almost all outdoor activies – hiking, climbing, biking, anything that ends with “-ing.” Her favorite wine is beer, and her favorite foods are Japanese and Mexican. She’s been kissed by a black bear in Yosemite, and has spotted a few bobcats. Cloud’s Rest is Jolie’s favorite Yosemite hike because it’s like a slide that she’s tempted to ride down.
Brian Deninger is co-owner and President of Incredible Adventures and is responsible for marketing and business development. Brian moved to San Francisco in 1999, worked temp jobs and wore a suit to his job at Citibank until buying the company with his business partner Jolie Ginsburg. He grew up in Fontana, about 45 minutes east of Los Angeles. His love for the outdoors started as a teenager when he and good friend Damon almost froze to death in 14-degree winter weather, with tennis shoes and a living room pup tent. They survived, and Brian went on to lead backpacking trips at UC Santa Barbara. He still enjoys leading trips occasionally, especially the opportunity to interact with people from different walks of life. He appreciates being involved in his community and providing jobs to some pretty amazing people. He loves all Incredible Adventures vans equally.
Brian is on the board of and member of the San Francisco Biodiesel Collective. His hobbies include snowboarding, surfing, rock climbing, backpacking, camping, whitewater kayaking, traveling, and lately has been cultivating a taste for fine wine (especially Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon). His favorite music is alternative rock, and his favorite food, true to his SoCal roots, is Mexican.
Brian’s favorite Yosemite hike is the Hetch Hetchy Grand Canyon because of its amazing camps, few people, wonderful waterfalls, towering cliffs, and an amazing diversity in wildlife. His best wildlife sighting was a coyote chasing a deer – made him think of the trials of life. Homewood is Brian’s favorite winery in Sonoma because it’s his Cheers! He also really likes Ceja in Napa, a winery owned by former vineyard workers. One of his top spots in the city is the weekend drum circle in Golden Gate Park.
Brian has made numerous cross-country road trips and has traveled the world, including 4 months in China, and Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Egypt, Costa Rica, Mexico, and several European countries.
Brian is the youngest of three. His older sister Kellie Flowers is an amazing person, mother, and sister, and his older brother Mike Deninger is a bit crazy but always makes him laugh.
Amin Saidi has worked at Incredible Adventures for years -- initially as a tour guide and now calling some shots as the marketing director. Amin has lived in San Francisco for six years but has been spending time here for over 10. His love of movement and fear of monotony has kept Amin touring for over 12 years leading overnight mountain biking tours in Pisgah National Forest and multi-week over land tours throughout North America including Alaska, Canada, the lower 48 United States, Mexico, Belize and Guatemala.
Amin grew up in Orlando, Florida, where he perfected his earlier career of alligator wrastling while his brothers and sole sister marveled. In addition to traveling, Amin spends his time mountain biking, playing soccer, surfing, snowboarding and socializing with friends. The strangest thing about Amin is, really, that he is normal and everyone else is weird. He loves all kinds of music but gravitates toward downtempo selections. Favorite wine? Well, that would be the no longer available Homewood Russian River Zinfandel and Spanish Riojas which aren’t from Sonoma County. Amin’s favorite hike in Yosemite is poaching the trail to Mirror Lake on a mountain bike where he recently saw a mother and her two cubs feasting on a fallen tree. As far as San Francisco sites, Amin thinks the best is Golden Gate Park. He has traveled North and Central America from the Arctic Circle to Costa Rica, through Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Spain, France, Southest Asia, the Galapagos Islands and the Middle East. This winter may spot him wandering around the highlands of Northern Thailand.
And a few of our guides...
Mitch Brown
Mitch Brown was born in Duluth, MN and lived in Two Harbors along the shores of Lake Superior (a.k.a. the Norwegian Riviera). At age eight he moved with his family to Ontario, Canada, living in Haliburton and Newmarket for seven years before moving back to the US. Subsequent moves to Michigan & Massachusetts followed. Extended road trips to visit his far-flung family members only sparked his love for travel. In 1991, he began to work for an adventure tour company and stayed until 2002. Mitch has met some incredible people from all over the world and has visited the most famous (and some not so famous) national parks in both the US and Canada. Hiking, rafting, biking, horseback riding and wine tasting are some of his favorite activities. Mitch moved to San Francisco four years ago to escape winter in Minnesota and can now be found leading groups to the wine country of Sonoma and to Yosemite National Park all year long. He loves living and walking in San Francisco and sharing his favorite restaurants, pubs & bars with others. He recently visited Australia (only eight years behind schedule) and is eagerly looking forward to visiting Perth, Western Australia and Tasmania. Mitch loves getting to know his passengers and making sure that they have an “incredible adventure” that they will long remember as the highlight of their visit to San Francisco!!!
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Ernest Smyth |
Ernest Smyth received his degree in Medieval Castilian Literature from the University of Southern California. He spent two years at USC’s European Campus in Madrid, Spain, and speaks fluent Spanish. He has his own dinner & wine club in San Francisco, enjoys art and architecture, and is interested in geography, geology, archaeology, climatology, and sailing. He has voyaged on private sailboats to Hawaii and Mexico from the U.S. mainland, and has sailed charters off coastal Italy, Croatia, and Turkey. He is a retired advertising and television executive whose work took him to speaking engagements in Europe, Africa, South America and Asia. Ernest is an expert in travel, wine, the outdoors, and America’s national parks. This guy is fun!
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Tom Agner |
I have always had a hard time trying to balance my need to travel with my need to work. Traveling won. I left my career as a San Francisco radio host to spend some serious time checking out music festivals around the world. After 33 countries and a lot of adventure, I took the advice of some of my tour guides and made a new life of it. I currently spend my summers as a driver and guide in the American southwest. I'm still spending my off-season as a passenger or making my own way around. Central America, here I come!
