Old Dubrovnik and Dalmatia small group holiday

Environment

On this trip we have a balance of historic cities, stunning coastlines and beautiful national parks. We’ll spend a full day in, what is probably Croatia’s most famous national park, Plitvice. Here we will be free to walk along the paths past tumbling waterfalls and glistening lakes. By visiting the park we’re helping to fund the upkeep of the boardwalks and to ensure that the natural beauty is preserved for future generations. We’ll also have the opportunity to go to the lesser visited Lokrum Island Nature Reserve and Krka National Park.

The walled city of Dubrovnik is an extremely iconic site, but it was almost entirely destroyed in the Siege of Dubrovnik in the early 1990s. After the shelling had stopped UNESCO stepped in and fully restored the city to its former glory. During our guided walking tour we’ll learn all about this tragic point in its history.

As a company we are careful to minimise our impact on the environment we are travelling through so our Tour Leaders brief groups carefully on avoiding damaging any of the sites we are visiting, avoiding generating waste and careful use of resources.

To help reduce the level of pollution within the urban centres, the sightseeing tours we operate are mostly done on foot, which is also a great way of seeing all they have to offer first hand. When coaches are being used for these small group trips 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.

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.

Community

Croatia is without doubt one of Europe’s most fascinating countries and for years one of its best kept secrets. The Croatian people have put enormous efforts into rebuilding their country since the Croatian War of Independence in the early 1990s and our visit brings support to communities throughout this fascinating region. Nowadays almost a quarter of Croatia’s population is employed in jobs related to travel and tourism and so the economic benefit of visiting the country is enormous.

We use a local Tour Leader and guides on this trip who know Croatia very well and who will help to give us a unique insight into the history, customs and culture of the country and get us that bit closer to the local people. Our Tour Leaders are trained by us in the importance of responsible tourism with guidance given on how they can make a difference.

Core to our philosophy is that we should be an economic benefit to the countries and communities we are visiting. We do this in Croatia by using locally owned hotels, spreading our business to a variety of local restaurants (which is a great way to sample delicious food and drink) and employing local guides where we can.