Cape Town to Johannesburg self drive holiday

Planet

Making a difference to planet and people underpin our itineraries and travel philosophy, across destinations. South Africa is a particularly good example of this. As a hot spot for eco conscious travellers and wildlife enthusiasts who are keen to immerse in local culture and nature in a meaningful and informed way, we have gone above and beyond to ensure that we maximise the positive impact of international travel in the locations that we offer.

One of our central USPs is that we work with locally owned, boutique style special stays as opposed to international chain hotels. This works twofold, by providing the traveller with a once in a lifetime experience full of authentic, local flair and also supporting the local community through investment in locally owned ventures and the employment of local staff. Many of these hotels and independent guesthouses also have policies to reduce their environmental impact. For instance many of the lodges we offer have a luxury eco-lodge atmosphere and are located at the heart of, or near the entrance to, world famous nature reserves. Naturally, as a result, they are committed to the welfare of the animals that are a primary source of attraction here, as well as the upkeep of the surrounding natural environment.

Carbon reduction policies extend beyond accommodation. As part of your tour package, you will also enjoy a range of excursions and activities that have been checked and vetted by our team. These involve a range of human powered transport like hiking, canoeing, swimming and more. All our trips can be made vegan and or vegetarian friendly on request for instance during your cookery class in Cape town, and our helpful assistance travel with Zoe can give specific food recommendations to accommodate more environmentally friendly choices.

As a business, we are keen to practice what we preach. As a UK team, we recycle 80% of our waste in a closed- loop system, work in a b-corp office space, and are working towards b-corp status ourselves. We also partner with Earthly, a company that chooses nature based solutions to invest in the future of the natural world. This aims to protect, better manage and restore ecosystems while addressing global challenges. All of Earthly’s projects remove carbon, restore biodiversity and improve livelihoods. A £5 donation is added to each parties itinerary as standard.

We are a proudly nature positive tour operator. This is realised through our itineraries in multiple ways, particularly in destinations like South Africa where wildlife safaris are one of the main attractions for international tourists.

Even before take off, we offer tools to our customers to encourage sustainability, carbon reduction and caring for the environment both at home and away. These include 'zero waste while travelling: our top tips', as well as our 'make it meaningful policy' that promotes animal welfare (underpinned by our relationship Animondial, an animal welfare group), 0 waste (exemplified in our almost entirely paper free office), and a slower pace of travel. We’re serious about this animal welfare stuff and want to do everything we can to improve the welfare of animals in tourism. We’ve therefore teamed up with animal welfare experts, Animondial. Their vision is to minimise tourism’s impact on animals, natural environments and the people that depend upon them. They’ve helped us to improve the welfare standards of our trips even further and create long-term plans to support animals in tourism. Best of all though, we’ve worked together to create an Animal welfare in tourism starter kit for small businesses, to help other travel companies improve their animal welfare standards too.

As a team, we believe that protecting the environment goes hand in hand with building stronger communities, which is why we have both lead and joined in with beach cleaning initiatives with surfers against sewage, and local community gardening initiatives.

People

Our trips aim to put positively impacting local communities at front and centre of our itineraries, as local interactions are what make our trips so fantastic.

We work with small, boutique style special stays full of authentic flare work twofold by offering you a unique experience and also supporting local business ventures and local employment, thus supporting the local economy. For instance you will experience the best of local cuisine during your cookery class in Cape town, and enjoy the local wine during your tours of the famous vineyards. This helps bolster the local economy further.

One of the key aspects of our itineraries is that we work with local partners who are based in country in order to provide the most authentic insight into everyday life in the destination, and divert from the usual tourist trail (which is important when considering the mitigation of environmental degradation in tourist hotspots) but also supports the country's economy even before our customer has touched down as the local partner helps to develop their itinerary.

We maximise local economic opportunities further by using only locally owned excursion companies where you will meet and learn from expert local guides throughout the trip on excursions, for instance the staff at locations like Addo elephant park or Kruger national park, depending on your itinerary.