Patagonia tailor made tour, self guided

Environment

On our Patagonia self-guided trekking holiday we include two stunning national parks: Torres del Paine in Chile ( a park since 1959) and Los Glaciares in Argentina (a park since 1937). Both have World Heritage status also. Visitors to the parks help contribute to their preservation and conservation though ENTRY FEES.

We use small locally owned hotels. We use public transport throughout Argentina and on long transfers between countries to cut down on carbon emissions.

In our UK office we do not print unless necessary. We use web and email to reduce the use of paper. We use low energy light bulbs and recycle as many materials as we can. We try not to use plastic bottles on our tours but encourage use of refillable containers.

We encourage our customers to donate to Rainforest Concern to offset the carbon emissions for this trip. All our guides operate a leave no trace policy throughout all parts of the trip. Water is sourced from local streams, fed by glacial melt, meaning there is no need to use plastic water bottles that would otherwise be imported and put into landfill.

Community

On our Patagonia self-guided holiday we use locally owned and run hotels. On this self -guided tour we encourage our customers to get out and about and eat in local restaurants and talk to local people. Travelling in couples and small groups makes this easier than larger tour groups.

When out on tour we encourage learning about the country we are travelling in, the local culture of the teams we work with and the areas we pass through. Local guides are used on parts of this tour to help this sharing of knowledge.

We work together with our local partners to try keep abreast of local issues and to keep ourselves informed and therefore be ready to support any campaigns that arise. We have worked with our partners in Chalten to help to keep trails and campsites cleaner and better maintained.

We support the UK registered charity Amantani. As this charity is very much in keeping with our ethos of small scale, targetted help which is educational & sustainabale. HuchuyYachaq is the other main Peruvian charity we support by paying a for a full time teacher. A % of all our income goes to support those two projects.