Tel. +44 (0)1273 600030 (UK)
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As well as visiting some of the most important Pharaonic sites and learning about Egyptian history, this tour is designed to introduce our travelers to the people, culture and country of Egypt, and not cocoon them from it. This is helped by keeping our group sizes small (max 18, normally 8-14) and also running the tour privately for families, couples or groups of friends.
We take responsible travel very seriously, and have given some details below of how this is implemented on this tour.
Local people:
- We started our operations in Egypt jointly with a new local supplier and have been working and growing with them ever since, creating many new jobs in the process.
- We use fully-trained local Egyptians as our Egyptologist guides, reps and tour leaders, rather than flying in Western leaders whose knowledge and love of the country will never be as full or passionate.
- We use locally owned and operated hotels wherever possible, and one of the highlights of the tour is finding and enjoying a wide range of small local restaurants and snack shops.
- The felucca sailing boats that we use on this tour are owned and crewed by local Nubian people, not large companies, and their use is an essential support to this community, as well as reducing pollution and energy use.
- We give information and advice to our travelers on how to respect local customs and religious practices, giving them a greater understanding of the local people and culture.
Environment:
- The long journeys between cities are done using public transport, including overnight trains and public tourist coaches, so reducing extra vehicle miles and resulting pollution and energy use. Speed limiters are fitted to the vehicles we use for safety and reduced fuel consumption.
- Using felucca sailboats instead of Nile cruise boats also reduces pollution and energy use and damage to the river banks. While on board, we explain the importance of keeping the river environment clean to all our travelers and ensure any waste produced while we are on the river is either buried (if suitable) or taken away with us.
- Explanations are given in Dahab of how to protect the fragile coral reef environment while snorkelling or scuba-diving.
- We have a recycling policy in our UK and local offices and re-use or recycle the information booklets we provide to every client on arrival wherever possible.
- We do not produce a glossy brochure, concentrating on a comprehensive website, and providing as much information to our travelers as possible electronically, reducing the use of paper and inks.
Local projects & charity support:
- We donate £2 (US $3) for every person traveling on this tour towards local projects – one supporting a small orphanage in Cairo, and another in which we arrange desert clean up trips and promote responsible use of fragile desert environments, particularly in Wadi Rayan and the Valley of the Whales, an important protected area and World Heritage site.
- Our travelers are welcome to visit either of these projects and support them personally if they wish.
- The company also supports further projects and charities internationally. Responsible Tourism: We send all our travelers a copy of our responsible tourism policy before their vacation, and encourage them to read it and join us in following the ideas and suggestions contained within it.
A little local knowledge goes a long way. It turns a good holiday into a truly memorable one. We choose tour operators with a deep connection with special places - people who live and work in the destination and who have fallen in love with it.
So travelling with them is not just a brief stay somewhere, it's a real connection with the people, the landscape, the culture and the environment. It's like really living somewhere and enjoying the peace and quiet or the pace and excitement of the place as much as the people who live there do.
Listen to the podcast below:
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!
