Botswana highlights small group tour

Environment

While wildlife watching is a big part of this itinerary, we strive to only observe animals in their natural habitat and do so with the greatest level of respect. From an unfenced lodge where elephants frequent the watering hole, to Botswana’s inland delta and Chobe National Park. We actively discourage the participation of travellers in any activities that exploit wild or domestic/working animals.

Unfortunately, at Victoria Falls there are many businesses offering an optional 'walk with the lions' experience. We ask all travellers to steer clear of this activity as it’s contrary to our responsible travel policy. The lion walking industry directly contributes to the captive breeding and canned hunting of lions.
In an effort to reduce single use plastic on this trip we provide reusable cloth bags to all of our travellers. It’s easy to use plastic excessively, especially in the hot months. However, we encourage our travellers to buy large 5-10 litre bottles to refill their small water bottle.

Botswana is a semi-arid country with limited water resources. This coupled with extreme hot weather, means that the country can be prone to severe water shortages. Our trained tour leaders are well versed in advising travellers on initiatives to manage water consumption, and we are working with our suppliers to encourage better management of this precious commodity. We encourage our travellers to take short showers and to never leave the tap water running unnecessarily.

Unfortunately, on the vast majority of this itinerary, using local transport is not reliable or feasible. So, we use private, locally owned transport instead. We ensure our vehicles/fleets are well maintained and fuel-efficient. We also endeavour to include a range of other local transport options such as mokoro (a type of canoe) where possible.

Community

This trip is run by our own local South African operator who shares our commitment to responsible travel, from waste and water management to ensuring we leave as minimal a footprint as possible. Our local team are trained on our global responsible travel policies and practices. We also use a range of other local suppliers for different activities throughout this three-country itinerary.

An important part of travel is mixing with the locals and experiencing real life in a destination. On this trip, we venture out on a guided excursion to the villages of the Hambukushu and Xwe Bushmen, which presents an excellent opportunity to observe village life up close.

All aspects of this trip (on the ground) are operated by local Southern Africans (most of whom live locally) including all our leaders, vehicle drivers, local site guides, suppliers and accommodation providers.

The cloth bags provided to our travellers on every trip are sourced and supplied from a local community NGO.

Our philosophy is to act local and that means respecting the local traditions and ensuring both men and women are conservatively dressed with legs and arms covered when entering villages and other small communities. We also take care to form genuine and mutually beneficial relationships with local people. An excellent example is the guided excursion to the villages of the Hambukushu and Xwe Bushmen.

We have a foundation which was set up to empower travellers to have a positive impact on the communities they visit. It now supports over 50 local, grassroots projects around the world. Over the past 15 years, the foundation has distributed over AU $5 million to projects tackling areas such as sustainable development, human rights, child protection, environmental conservation, wildlife protection, education and healthcare.