Self guided biking tour in Croatia
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
The highlights of the trip include visiting national parks, areas protected of UNESCO and other fragile environments. We keep our groups small (max 16 people) and we use bikes as much as we can to keep the environment clean and unspoiled. By doing this we also contribute to spreading the idea of different tourism.
We used recycled paper. We recycle all our waste paper (brochures, etc). Our correspondence and promotion is carried out via the internet and email, minimizing the amount of paper used for our activities.
We support different local ecological associations and our staff was directly involved in afforestation (planting of pine trees in Dubrovnik area after fire disaster in summer 2007.) We are active mostly in places where we live, but we support many Croatian ecological organizations (Zelena Akcija).
Besides above mentioned afforestation during autumn 2008 and a couple of seasons before, we directly support and we are involved in the ecological action of cleaning the sea. This underwater cleaning is ecological action which is support by local diving centers and fisherman's associations. The planting trees and underwater cleaning are ecological actions which we have supported for many years and we are one of founders of this ecological association.
We encourage travellers to be more responsible with water waste, and we inform all our travellers before their tour about area, especially travelers on tours when they are in protected areas, sea or countryside. We inform travellers about local cultures and habits, we inform our travellers that leaving litter in the sea or beach could have very negative consequences to the fish, sea ecosystem and finally themselves.
Community
There are so many benefits to the local people, they are main suppliers, especially in the villages where trip take places: from the economical benefits of accommodation, selling domestic food and beverages to selling souvenirs, arts and domestic specialties.
All our guides are local and we train our staff to be more responsible for the local environment and ecology. We buy local products as the souvenirs for our partners and we encourage our guests to buy local products.
We use local services as much as we can. For restaurants we always choose ones with character (mostly family run restaurants with local specialities). On all our tours we use local produce and provide local-style meals, and we encourage our guests to try local dishes and delicacies. We use a lot of locally owned accommodation and this provides direct income for local house owners.