Tel. +44 (0)1273 600030 (UK)
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Community:
All our trips are led and guided by local mountaineers and trek leaders. The porters accompanying the group are usually from Yoksum or from other villages in the same valley. Each trip brings work to these people and their families. This is definitely helping in the local economy.
Raja, who generally leads the trek is the country representative of International Porter Protection Group. This ensures that the porters are decently paid, covered by insurance, use good clothing & gears and finally never overloaded.
Accommodation: The tea-houses are located in villages or night halt places along Singalila ridge and Tsoka. They are owned by locals and employs local. They serve food that is locally grown. So anyone staying a night in these tea-houses directly helps the micro-economy of that particular area. Hotels in Kolkatta - a regular city hotel we use for transit which also employs local people. Hotel in Darjeeling - Its a 125 year old Royal Manor House. Elgin is a very famous heritage chain which has restored that building, employed local people in there staff to run the establishment.
Environment:
We also believe in small groups, as this means less impact on the environment. As a company we do not encourage taking large groups on trekking. Smaller groups make less impact. We bring our garbage down from the mountains, always, without fail and recycle. Our porters and crew are trained to do so. We regularly conduct plastic and other litter cleaning programme in the mountains in collaboration with National Park authorities.
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
