India holiday by train

Environment:
Through all the debate over the relative environmental merits of different forms of transport, it is generally accepted that rail travel is a lower carbon option than flying. Conscious of our impact on the environment, this rail tour eliminates internal flights completely from the itinerary. Furthermore, by opting to travel on public trains for most journeys, we are drastically reducing the reliance on privately chartered transport within our tour. All travel has impacts. We are confident this tour keeps those to a minimum.

The experience of seeing a tiger (or tigers!) in the wild is one of the most incredible wildlife experiences there can be… yet the tiger is critically endangered and time is running out to save it.

As an operator who takes people to see tigers, we have a responsibility to work towards their conservation. Given that there are estimated to be less than 1,400 tigers left in the wild in India, we do not think it is sufficient to just give money. For this reason we joined Travel Operators for Tigers (TOFT). This travel industry body works together with suppliers in India's wildlife reserves to ensure the environmental and business practice of all proactively supports conservation and motivates the local community to protect the tiger. TOFT directs a significant proportion of its funding to Global Tiger Patrol to support specific conservation and anti-poaching measures.

We joined TOFT specifically because this is a proactive campaign. Since joining we have also enlisted our supplier in India and have been working with the hotels and lodges we use to ensure they too are working to preserve the environment and support local people to protect the tiger. Whilst on game drives we ensure we abide by park regulations to minimise disruption to the wildlife we have come to see.

Community:
Train travel is a great way to meet local people at get a more personal experience of travel in their country. Many Indians speak good English so this is an excellent opportunity to get chatting, though we do encourage you to try a few words of the local lingo! We hope to get a good insight into some of the traditional peoples and lifestyles in this part of the world too and your tour leader will be able to facilitate and inform.

Ensuring that local people benefit from tourism is core to our philosophy. We employ local guides at many points, use locally owned transport and hotels and try to spread our custom to a variety of local restaurants, rickshaw drivers and market traders. It’s not just good for the local communities; we believe you get a better experience as a result.

As well as the above, we support a variety of charities and projects worldwide which support vulnerable communities and habitats including Friends of Conservation, Hope Worldwide and Send A Cow. We are also actively engaged with UK travel industry bodies which promote best practice in responsible tourism, such as Tourism Concern, The Travel Foundation and AITO. Our commitment to responsible tourism is not limited to our overseas operation and we have measures to ensure our UK office operates according to our responsible tourism policy. Carbon offsets for all flights booked with us are included in the tour cost.