Philippines tours, Rice terraces and Palawan

The Philippines is one of the world’s most beautiful counties, but also a forgotten nation in the sense of a tourist destination. Today the Philippines are a democratic country struggling to get their economy at hand. As one of the few tour operators to the Philippines we hope to make a difference. By booking these tours, you'll be helping us to support Philippine service providers, small businesses, boat owners and other people in poor communities throughout the Philippines. Both the Filipino economy and the environment e.g. forests and coral reefs, depend on tourism.

In many places dynamite fishing has come to an end and instead of fishing, fishermen now days make a living out of tourism and help to preserve coral reefs.

During the tour to the rice terraces and Palawan you will be guided by Lina. After travelling the world she finally found here dream destination – the Philippines. In 2004 she opened up a small restaurant in El Nido, Palawan. She is a trained dive master and she has also been helping out in a project to rebuild some of the coral reefs outside El Nido, which had been destroyed by dynamite fishing.

During our hike to Batad we will be guided by Gideon and Paul, two Filipinos who were born in this area and still live here. They have a wide experience and knowledge of cultural traditions and an ability to interpret the cultural heritage of the Ifugao people. On Palawan we visit the Puerto Princesa National park, the park is most famous for the underground river but the park also represents a significant habitat for biodiversity conservation. The site contains a full mountain-to-the-sea ecosystem and has some of the most important forests in Asia. By visiting the park you will be helping to preserve this area, since the fee goes back into the project of preserving the park for the future. During this tour we will stay in small villages which all depend on tourism.

Wherever possible, we stay in locally owned guesthouses and hotels and eat at locally owned restaurants. In some places like Nuts Huts they try their best to only use small local suppliers. Hippocampus, on Malapascua has an adequate waste water treatment, material recycling and employment of locals. They are also actively involved in achieving a sustainable fishing industry in the area with a complete ban of dynamiting and a system of well respected fish sanctuaries.

Going from one place to another we use public buses, jeepneys and boats to help minimize the affect on climate; it is also a great chance to meet local travellers. Sometimes, when there are no other options, we charter a locally owned boat or bus with a local driver

On all our tours our main goal is to give the travellers great memories and also a feeling of having learned new things about cultures but also a feeling of having contributed to a positive development of the area being visited. Respect for local people, their cultures, traditions and environment is essential to us. Throughout our tours we work hard to ensure that our groups have a positive impact on the places and people visited. On arrival our tour guide will give a briefing about local customs, traditions, religion, body language and eating habits. There are no more than 10 travellers on our tour. Travelling in a small group help minimize environmental impact and also makes it easier to interact with the local communities.

Before you go on our tour you will receive our Responsible Travellers code of conduct which will give you details on how you can play an important part in reducing your impact on the fragile environments and cultures around the world. But it is not only what we, and our clients, do on tour that counts. In our office we also try to minimize the negative impact on the environment. For example we do not print brochures due to the huge paper wastage and print runs; all information about us and our tours our clients can find on the Internet. The office use recycled and recyclable materials wherever possible and recycle everything possible: paper, plastic, metal, glass etc.

The company is a member of the Swedish Eco Tourism Association and of Ecpat, a non-profit organisation that works against sexual abuse of children and child prostitution.