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Community:
Ensuring that local people benefit from tourism is core to our philosophy. We employ local guides, use locally owned transport and hotels and try to spread our custom to a variety of local restaurants. It’s not just good for the local communities; we believe you get a better experience as a result. Of particular note is our overnight on a local ‘junk’ in Halong Bay which gives us a great insight into local culture. En route to Halong Bay we can visit the Hong Noc humanities centre to purchase crafts which helps provide a livelihood to disabled people.
Another good reason for using local guides on this tour is that we get in-depth information on the countries we are visiting. China and Vietnam have a wealth of history and culture to explore and we can also learn about how modern day life is; from learning about the education system, to making sure we don’t fall foul of any taboos! Meeting the people is often a great highlight of a tour and our leaders are real facilitators; enabling us to meet and mix with local people wherever possible. There are many opportunities to explore local villages, perhaps by bicycle, visit local markets and travelling by train is also a great way to get into the local swing of things and get a flavour of the real country.
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 tour eliminates internal flights completely from the itinerary. Furthermore, by opting to travel on public trains 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.
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.
This small group operator is just celebrating its 30th year and was originally set up to enrich people’s lives through adventure travel. The directors have roots in overland trucking and are determined to keep a pioneering spirit alive. They believe what sets them apart is the strong relationships they’ve developed with local suppliers and tour guides over the years. A tour leader who thinks creatively can turn a good experience into a fantastic one and open up a place so that travellers gain insight into a completely different way of life. They operate in many different countries and try to avoid a blanket approach – their aim is to get customers involved in the projects they visit and to forge lifelong friendships.
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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!
