Baltic holiday, North Eastern Europe

Environment

This tour takes in four UNESCO World Heritage Sites, showcasing to our clients the utmost importance of respecting the areas we travel to in order to preserve these old towns and buildings. We have a responsible travel policy available online and linked from pre departure information stating with guidelines for visiting historic sites.

We use green accommodations wherever possible. Our hotel in Tallinn has been awarded with the environmental green key, with some of their accomplishments being solar powered heat production, the introduction of aerators in sinks to limit water consumption, shampoo and soap batchers instead of one-use plastic containers and toilet paper with an eco label.

Travel on this tour is completed using public transport. In doing this, we limit our impact on road congestion and the CO2 produced by this tour is minimal. In Riga and in Vilnius our hotels are located in walking distance to the bus stations, again limiting the CO2 produced on the tour. Travelling using widely available, existing infrastructure is one way that we make our tours environmentally friendly and it has the additional benefit of being able to meet locals whilst travelling.

Group Size:
This small group tour has a maximum of 19 people, meaning we have a low impact on the places we visit. This allows us to stay in smaller hotels that cannot benefit from large coach tours.

Our tour leaders ask that travellers respect signage, to take only photographs and leave no litter or waste behind. Clients are advised during the pre departure meeting to practise eco ways of travelling such as ensuring all lights are switched off in hotel rooms before leaving, reusing towels and bed linen and avoiding plastic bottles where possible. These points are reiterated by our tour leader while the group is travelling.

Community

All our travellers are encouraged to learn a few words and phrases of the language and interact with the locals as much as possible to enhance their social experiences on tour. Travellers are also encouraged to take part in city walking tours, supporting local guides and learning more about the destination from local experts.

Accommodation and Meals:
Our tour leaders suggest authentic and local restaurants for clients to choose from and highlight the location of local markets where applicable. We use small, locally owned hotels and stay clear of large international chains.

Our tour leaders provide walking orientation tours in Riga, Vilnius and Warsaw. The Old Towns here are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites and money spent here is injected straight back into the local community. In Riga, clients are encouraged to visit the Central Market where they can purchase local produce and interact with vendors.

On this tour we visit the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights, formally the KGB Headquarters in Vilnius. We hire a local guide for this excursion, providing business to the community but also giving customers the most in depth educational experience possible.