Tel. +44 (0)1273 600030 (UK)
1of5
Community
All our tours are based on small group of a maximum of 10, and in some cases less than 10. We feel that groups of this size significantly reduces the negative impact on local way of life, and enhances the experience for our guests through a more authentic interactive experience
A national guide who has been further trained by us will lead the tour to enhance guests experience and to ensure responsible travel at all times. There will be a briefing and handout given to guests prior to the start of the tour with specific details about cultural do’s and don’ts and other important information to ensure that we travel in harmony with our surroundings.
Our visit to the Lanten hill-tribe village on the way to Luang Namtha is important for this very poor and small minority group. As well as a tour of the village by the local teacher, our guests have the opportunity to buy traditional bamboo paper produced in the village. As well as providing a crucial source of income it also helps to ensure traditions are continued, as some have been lost since they moved down from the mountains to settle permanently.
In Vientiane we also encourage our guests to eat at the fantastic “Makphet” restaurant. Not only is the food great but as part of the non-profit “Friends” organisation all staff are former street children who have been given an opportunity to gain an education, receive training and eventually find jobs in the hospitality industry.
Our trekking excursion into the Nam Ha National Protected Area has been developed by the Luang Namtha provincial tourism department in co-operation with local stakeholders, and with help and funding from foreign a NGO. This is a community-based trek, developed to ensure long term sustainability and income for the remote communities in the protected area where the proceeds go back to the communities and not to tour operators. This trek uses a specially trained regional guide, and a local guide from one of the remote villages providing a significant source of income and education for people from this remote part of Laos. Also included is a significant contribution to a central fund which is distributed fairly to everyone in the area, ensuring that everyone benefits from tourism. In fact, the whole development of this activity has been to protect and sustain the local communities and environment and the local guides have been specifically trained to pass this awareness on to guests.
In Luang Prabang we support Big Brother Mouse, another charity doing working in Laos. They produce and distribute educational books for the children of remote villages, the only organisation to do so. We encourage our guests to visit in their free time there and we are also actively involved in the distribution process when we purchase books. We distribute them ourselves when we visit villages on the way to Phonsavanh.
Where possible, for all our tours our accommodation is in small family run guest houses or specially constructed eco-lodges. For this tour we use the Boat Landing guest house in Luang Namtha which is a traditional Lao style gust house with a strong environmental policy and uses solar power. The Nong Kiau Riverside Guest house is also built with similar principals. Accommodation in the larger towns of Luang Prabang and Vientiane may sometimes be in slightly larger hotels during peak season due to availability issues, but we always avoid large foreign-owned chain hotels to ensure that all profits stay in the country.
Although Laos is a magical country there is also another darker side that we feel we have a responsibility to educate our guests where appropriate. This particular tour supports some of the most important projects in Laos. Our visit to Phonsavanh includes a visit to UXO Laos - one of the mine clearance teams working on a very small budget to reduce the amount of unexploded ordinance left over from the secret war. This is an enormous problem which still fatally injures an average of one person a week in the province. It is a little known fact that Laos is the most heavily bombed country in history. Our city tour of Vientiane now includes as standard a visit to COPE.This great charity is doing amazing work in helping treat those affected by UXO.
Guests also have the opportunity to participate in an English lesson with some extremely eager students at the English school we support in Phonsavanh. This provides the students with a very rare opportunity to practice their English with foreigners. Students from this school have gone on to win scholarships at national and foreign universities and obtain good jobs. These are opportunities that were previously unheard of in one of the poorest regions of a country where even for the small wealthy minority, job opportunities are very small.
Environment
All transport used is sourced locally to ensure that the wealth is spread as much as possible and of course with a small group we are able to use small vehicles therefore reducing our carbon footprint and damage to roads. Drinking water is provided with transport and we encourage the use of large containers to refill clients own water bottles to reduce plastic bottle waste. For our own operations we strive to achieve a paperless office and reduce waste generally as much as we can.
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!
