Armenia & Georgia adventure holiday
Typically you will be sharing your experiences with between 4-20 like minded travellers (depending on the trip, operator and how many others are booked on the trip) and you'll have a group leader with you. Whether you are travelling alone or with friends its good value, and a great way to meet new people! While itineraries are pre-planned there is some flexibility and you'll have plenty of privacy. This trip will appeal to travellers of all ages who enjoy meeting new people as well as seeing new places.
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
Travelling in fragile environments like Honey Pass in Armenia or Mount Shkhara in Georgia, high altitude desert areas we are very careful not to leave marks that would remain for generations. Even a simple tyre track may damage the brittle crust that holds the soil in place or even change the course of a small stream bed thus diverting what little available water there might have been away from small plants and shrubs that have grown to depend upon it. Even bio-degradable waste which one may commonly discard in much wetter climates will not decompose and may upset finely balanced equilibriums here.
There are areas here that have been set aside as informal 'no go' areas. But even in areas open to tourism, we carefully select the transport (may use horses or bikes instead of trucks) and provide guidelines on appropriate behaviour to minimise the impact on the natural environment.
Community
This jeep tour contributes to the development of local community in Upper Svaneti high-mountain region of Georgia, UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to of Europe’s 10 highest peaks. Travellers experience the traditional lifestyle of Svans and encounter the rich heritage and history of the region.
During the visit to Svaneti, travellers stay in small guesthouses run by Svan families, the food served here is traditional, produced in the village, the drivers and local mountain guides are Svans. When timing coincides travellers participate in traditional Svaneti festivals enhancing their appreciation of the unique environment they encounter.
Not only travellers receive information about the uniqueness and richness of the environments they visit. The people that host travellers benefit from this interaction – they see how their identity is respected and valued and are empowered to continue to provide the best of service to travellers restoring their village architecture, renewing their traditional techniques and cuisine, preserving the unique fabric and style of their properties, limiting the number of rooms and dispersing travellers across villages, monitoring the nature and wildlife in their area. The importance of preserving the unspoilt and authentic environment thus becomes key in their operation – this is the essence of true sustainable tourism.
We help them in this quest – developing their own model of sustainable tourism as we are the first point of contact with travellers and travel partners around the world. We come in touch with interesting practices developed in other countries (including during our interaction with organizations like ResponsibleTravel.com), we request feedback from our travellers. All this is passed to our local partners to help them improve their practices.
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