Tailor made Rajasthan tour, India

Planet

For every person that travels with the company, it plants trees through The Travel Forest initiative. Depending on where they plant and the requirement of the specific area, they plant either indigenous trees or a mix of indigenous and non-native species. Planting non-native seedlings may seem counter-intuitive but doing this can often help any remaining indigenous forest from being cut down (e.g. for fuel) as some non-native trees grow much more quickly than indigenous types. They particularly aim to save ancient or older indigenous forest, through offering an alternative option for fuel requirements of local communities. In addition to this benefit, their Travel Forest initiative helps with such things as planting for water-course retention, soil erosion, shade and even food – all depending on what is planted and where. They have planted almost 100,000 trees to date in various degraded locations including the Andean mountains in Peru, northern Tanzania and Malawi. This has always been done in conjunction with the local communities who plant and then tend the seedlings. Trees are far more important to the health of this planet (and us) than many people imagine. This global Travel Forest initiative can and does make a big difference.

As part of our commitment to the environment we have a programme to plant trees in Tanzania, Malawi, Peru etc. through the company’s foundation. This was set up to help alleviate poverty, conserve endangered wildlife, and protect earth’s environmental diversity for the benefit of us all. All the projects have a link with tourism in some way, and many benefit the wider world as well as local people, through conserving areas of natural beauty. We don’t just look overseas when considering the environment, even at the office the team planted tress in the fields surrounding the buildings to celebrate the company’s 21st birthday in 2019.

As a company we think about our partners overseas carefully. The company ethos is to use properties around the globe that have a similar ethical stance to ourselves. If they can use local suppliers for their provisions, be it food or furnishings then they do, and all offer a variety of menus including vegetarian and vegan/plant-based options. Our partners support the use of solar/renewable energies, and many are looking at ways of switching their current supplies to more eco-friendly options in order to be more efficient. The use of solar, water and air are options in use or being explored, as well as grey water run offs. Energy efficient appliances and practices, card operated in room lighting, low energy bulbs, and a change in laundry practices, are all in operation, and show just a few of the initiatives used. Our partners also use local staff within their properties. Many live on-site in seasonal properties for example reducing the travel emissions of the company, many come from the local villages and communities surrounding the properties. This includes everyone from house keeping to management and the guides that are from the locale.

Due to the nature of the holidays provided by the company, it is impossible to eliminate all flights but where possible we use the minimum flight hours an itinerary can operate with. The packages we have on offer include rail portions in some areas, which keep emissions low, many walking options and shared transportation.

People

The company offering this trips eco-rates many of the property it sells. Two of the places you stay on this trip are homestays, and as such they are an particularly excellent way of getting an insight into life in India. It also helps local people to benefit more directly from tourism in their locality. The homestays are locally owned and run, they employ local people, they use local services and buy from local shops. Being small homes with caring owners, they also take great case to minimise fuel usage (eg lighting) and water usage as they understand how important such resources are for their community.

There are also two additional experiences which can be added to this trip to make it even more special. One is a cooking class in Udaipur – a really excellent way to get involved in Indian culture and traditions, and the other is a trip to the Bishnoi villages near jodhpur. The Bishnoi people were some of the world’s first eco-warrriors. Their beliefs tell them to respect nature, be kind to animals, and not to cut down trees. Meet some of the local people and find out more about their views on mother nature.

Every booking with this company brings funds to a charity which supports grassroots projects in various countries. The charity backs children’s orphanages, wildlife conservation and health centres amongst other things.

Backing poverty alleviation and improve environmental biodiversity, we automatically plant trees on behalf of every client that travels with us. Currently this is done in a very degraded area of northern Malawi, where we plant quick growing exotic trees to provide firewood to the local population so that they don’t chop down the indigenous forest.

The company gives written guidelines to every traveller on how to travel sensitively with regards to local people, and as regards to environmental responsibility. This includes all policies relevant to each trip. No overseas guides are used on any trip run by them, all local guides are used – often supplemented by indigenous guides too where suitable.