Sintra Natural Park retreats & walks in Portugal
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
We are dedicated to a "green" lifestyle therefore we: recycle, reuse, refurbish, upcycle, and share with others what we do not need or use anymore. Our guests kitchen has recycling and composting bins. We compost all of our food and garden scrapes. We avoid using plastic as much as possible (though guests still request bottled water, we encourage them to drink our well water which is filtered and has been tested.) We use cloth napkins. All of our applicances are energy efficient, rated at least A+ . Most of our light bulbs are low energy. All of our cleaning products are environemtaaly friendly and sustainable. We have an organic garden, grey water sytem, low chemical swimming pool. We only purchase food that is organic, fresh and whenever possible locally grown. We support local organic farmers, artisal food producers, and artisans for soaps etc. We shop at the small, provately owned village stores and local farmers markets whenever possible. We support Made in Portugal and Handmade. We have a half finished solar hot water system which we are saving up to complete. We collect rainwater. And we pickup plastic debris on the beach on our daily walks and enco8urge others to do the same. We walk whenever possible and encourage our guests to walk and use the bus system. We believe in the Cradle to Cradle system!
Community
We support our local community by shopping in the small privatly owned shops, eating at the small local restaurants and cafes and shopping at the local farmers market. We recommend the non-tourist, small restaurants to our guests. We encourage our guests to shop at the local shops. All of our instructors and helpers are local people. We have organized with people from our area, walking tours, yoga retreats, and art classes. We support the artisans keeping ancient hand crafts alive. We share all of the information about local events, artisans, shops, cafes, restaurants with our guests.
We are members and volunteers of the organic food cooperative and at the new small alternative Steiner school. We believe in supporting local endeavors.
We suppoort local issues protecting the natural park, clean-up Portugal days, the local Salvation Army which runs a senor citizen home and a second hand shop etc.. We give our helpers, employing single mothers and long time unemployed, a decent salery and a bonus at the end of the year.
We share the love for this wonderful country and the respect for the people and its land with our guests, encouraging them to seek out non-traditonal tourist activities.
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