Vietnam family holiday

Environment

All of our tours in Vietnam are run in conjunction with a local partner which has been chosen partly because they provide a fantastic service but also because they share our environmental and social goals.
As an example, the more demanding (and longer) treks that we arrange in the north of Vietnam operate with strict environmental guidelines, for example we take all plastic water bottles away from the areas that we pass through rather than leaving them behind to litter host communities. Our trekking guides also ensure that travellers behave in an environmentally responsible manner, for example ensuring that no soap or detergent products are used in local water courses when travellers are refreshing themselves.
Throughout Vietnam we try to use small locally owned hotels that have been built and furnished using local materials.
Our UK office is run as environmentally as possible. The majority of our staff either walk or cycle to work and we operate a primarily paper free environment. We do not produce brochures (which often leads to a lot of waste) but market our tours exclusively on the internet.

Community

As mentioned above, our partners in Vietnam have been chosen partly because they share our responsible travel ethos. One of the main issues facing tourism in Vietnam involves the exploitation of some hilltribe communities. We have been working closely with our partners to ensure that all of our visits are carefully controlled to ensure that they bring about a positive rather than negative impact on host communities. As an example we try to 'share out' the hosting experience amongst different families where possible, to ensure that tourist revenue is spread evenly within a village and not just concentrated with one family.

We also advise travellers on how to behave appropriately when travelling to rural villages. This also applies more generally on our trips in Vietnam as our programmes are usually escorted by local guides who are on hand to provide local advice on behaviour, for example to ensure that people take off their shoes when visiting temples and tombs.