Walking in the Picos de Europa holiday

Planet

We believe that walking trips are the best way to experience a destination; because you have more time to appreciate the changing landscapes and get to know locals in the villages and towns that you pass through. Travelling on foot has minimal impact on your environment, but we encourage clients to stay on the marked trails to avoid erosion.

Our Waste Management Policy encourages our travellers to take their own reusable water bottles, coffee cups and reusable stuff sacks to avoid single-use plastics. We follow this same philosophy in our office as well as on the trail: in our London office we have banned single use coffee cups and water bottles. We use recycled paper in our office and we are working towards reducing the amount of paper we use, as well as recycle all of our paper and plastic waste.

In 2000 we developed the award winning Responsible Travel Guidebook, which presented our Travel Group’s comprehensive policies on sustainable travel. Over the years our Responsible Travel Guidebook has evolved to meet the ever-changing landscape of sustainable travel. In March 2018 The Thoughtful Traveller booklet was launched, which is an easy-to-read document that empowers travellers with suggestions about how they can be part of the solution and collectively make the world a better place when they travel. Everyone is encouraged to read the Thoughtful Traveller ebook before departure.

People

Two of the biggest threats in the Picos de Europa are the abandonment of the livestock farming (a traditional activity, essential to maintain biodiversity) and the rural depopulation of these mountain areas. The accommodations used in this program are supporting livestock farming by offering the local produce on their menu including traditional goats that have been raised locally in the high pastures of the National Park. We work with the Hotel Sotres as part of this tour, which collaborates with the artisan cheese diary “Maín”, located in Sotres. They offer in their à la carte menu a cheese platter of the famous Cabrales cheese that has aged in a cave located at 1,465m altitude for seven months, supporting local businesses in the very heart of Picos de Europa.

We encourage you to visit local cafes, and purchase local food whenever you can, as this helps your tourist spend stay in the local area benefiting the local community.

Our accommodations mostly employ local staff, helping to reduce the impact of depopulation in the area.