Colombia holiday, Andes, Amazon & Caribbean

Environment

As with all our holidays, the accommodation you will stay at has been chosen to meet at least our basic responsible criteria, which includes putting in place measures to conserve energy and reduce water usage. The exact mix depends on the individual hotel, but some initiatives we look for are solar heating and lighting, using energy-efficient light bulbs, treating waste water and recycling paper, glass, plastic and food waste.

Our hotels provide advice on how you can reduce your own environmental footprint while you’re in Colombia, for example by switching off air conditioning and lights when not in your room and reusing your towels and plastic water bottles. All the places you stay at buy their food locally, cutting down transport emissions and helping local farmers and some even grow their own organic food on site.

Before your trip, we will also send you information on some of the biggest environmental challenges facing Colombia, as well as our advice about how you can make your stay as green as possible. You can always ask your guide too - we have chosen our Colombian partner because they share our strong commitment to protecting the environment so if they don’t know the answer immediately they can always find out.

Community

It is essential for us that our holidays help to create sustainable jobs and livelihoods for Colombian people. We utilise local tours in all of our trips, making sure the money you spend is spread out evenly. These include the Bogota bike tour, all of your activities in the Amazon and the community experience in Cartagena, which all directly contribute to the local infrastructure

In line with our ethical policy, all the places you will stay at are locally-owned or responsibly-run and we ask that hotels employ people from the area in management positions and give them training. In addition, all our hotels must at least raise funds for local charities and projects.

Again, we particularly promote hotels and other accommodation that go that bit further to support local people, such as the Calanoa Lodge in the Amazon. The Calanoa Lodge work together with the local Mocagua Tribe and other local villages offering training and jobs as well as helping to develop a sustainable infrastructure within their communities. The ways they work with community range from providing materials for the local schools to offering grants to youths looking to further their education at University.