Cambodia small group holiday

Environment

Our Cambodia trip spends two weeks exploring the length and breadth of this fascinating country and travelling on a variety of transport along the way.

In Phnom Penh we travel by cyclo-rickshaw, a more sustainable way to explore the city that doesn’t contribute to city pollution and provides local employment opportunities. On the south coast we travel by ‘remorque’ – a local form of moto-rickshaw, and on Tonle Sap lake we visit fishing communities by longtail boat which offers a traditional and low-impact way to explore and provides employment to the local boat drivers and crew.

When coaches are being used, we keep the size of the coach to a minimum, so rather than using gas guzzling 40-50 seaters we opt for more environmental friendly 15-25 seat coaches that use less fuel and therefore admit less carbon.

One of the trip highlights is a visit to Rabbit Island which has just a few low scale tourist developments and is famous for the Kep crab with Kampot pepper that is a local speciality and we try this in one of the locally owned shack restaurants.

Accommodation is generally in smaller locally owned establishments and typical of this would be the Reaksmey Krong Kep Guesthouse in Kep which prides itself on its great environment to enjoy the coastal views as well as preparing food sourced from local markets.

Community

One reason we use local tour leaders is so they can help bridge any cultural gaps between us and the local people. As well as helping to unlock many aspects of the destination; employing a local tour leader, local guides, drivers, and boat crews all contributes in supporting the local community through employment and training.

Our supplier is a locally owned company and over the past 25 years we have built a long standing, mutually beneficial and respectful relationship.

In Cambodia, we help to support vulnerable communities through business; during our free time in Siem Reap we may choose to visit the land mine museum which helps to support affected families and land mine clearance. In Phnom Penh our Tour Leader will organise a group meal at the ‘Friends’ restaurant, where young people with limited resources are trained on all aspects of running a restaurant. This organisation also has worked with our hotels to ensure children are not exploited in any way.

In addition to the above, we are continually looking for ways to improve and are proud to be ‘Responsible in everything we do’. Education is key and so all staff, Tour leaders and partnering suppliers are trained in responsible and sustainable tourism. At our UK Head Office, we continually strive towards a sustainable and planet-friendly working environment, including having solar panels installed and a company commitment to reducing our plastic usage. As well as this, we have valuable and longstanding partnerships with UK charities Toilet Twinning and Send a Cow, plus many smaller initiatives and projects around the world. We’re members of UK travel industry bodies Tourism Concern and AITO because we believe it’s important to share our knowledge and experience, as well as learn from other operators. We acknowledge that air travel has a negative impact on our environment, so we work together with Cool Earth to offset carbon and protect our important rainforests.