Kiev & Chernobyl Group Tour, Ukraine

Environment

Travellers to Chernobyl are provided with a lot of useful information from the local guides about nuclear power stations and their possible influence on any environment. With the example of the Chernobyl nuclear power station history, you can see what awful consequences to people and the environment after the blast of a nuclear reactor.
As a destination Ukraine does not tend to attract huge numbers of visitors and as a result environmental considerations which are now common-place in many other parts of the world often get overlooked. We work with our local agent to encourage environmental responsibility where possible. Such things as not asking for new towels every day in the hotel and turning lights off when leaving a room are strongly encouraged by our local agents and the hotel but can be still slow to catch on. All food served on the tour is sourced locally which not only helps the local communities but minimises the environmental impact of transporting goods. The very format of this as a group tour means fewer vehicles are required to transport visitors thus avoiding excess vehicle fumes being released into the atmosphere. Drivers of the vehicles are also advised not to leave it 'idling' to avoid release of pollution into the air.

Community

Our local agent has been operating socially responsible trips to the country for many years and has a wealth of experience and expertise in the region. The trip includes the chance to meet with the 'self settlers', people who have returned to the Chernobyl area against Government rules. These local old people are always glad when guests visit them as they haven't got any neighbours and many of them haven't got any relatives or family to help them. They are always glad to greet guests with local homemade food and drinks and to talk with someone about their history and issues of life in Chernobyl. These self-settlers get very little support from the state today and try to survive on their own by growing some food and keeping some animals. Our local agents pay these settlers and donate food which not only provides an important income and source of food to settlers but also provides a great opportunity to learn about real life in the Chernobyl area and how hard it is.
Also increase of the volume of travellers to the Chernobyl area also helps local businesses and people, as there are few other job opportunities than tourism in the 30km restricted Chernobyl area.
For every booking we will donate to Chernobyl Heart a charity which was set up by two clients of ours who had previously travelled with our company to Belarus and were moved to do something about the lives of the children still being affected by the fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. The tragic events of 1986 caused thousands of tonnes of radioactive material to affect the surrounding natural environment leaving long-lasting effects on the populace. As the new generation of residents start families in an attempt to move on, many years later children are still being born with cardiac conditions which heavily affect their quality of life. We donate to this organisation in an attempt to help alleviate at least one child’s suffering.