Himalayan Silk Road adventure

Planet

Though a minimal amount of time on this tour is spent within nature, many of the locations visited are rural areas, and as such, we ensure our guides are mindful about protecting these environments, and they do a fantastic job of promoting having a minimum impact to the environment whilst travelling.

The logistics of this trip including transport and accommodation have been selected with careful consideration for the environment. The vast majority of the locations on this trip are reached by shared car rather than by air or other less environmentally-friendly methods, with shorter day-to-day explorations being made on foot where possible to reduce emissions even further.

We have gone to great length to source wonderful ethically minded properties both in regard to the environment and the community. In Srinagar, Nadis Hotel is a locally-owned boutique property who grow their own fresh food in garden as a conservation initiative and employ many local people; similarly the houseboat on Lake Dal are a legacy passed on for ten generations and the team are working to preserve their history. In Ladakh, we use a variety of properties all of which are doing great work in this area. Ule Ethnic Resort is entirely solar powered, the first in the region to do so, and source the majority of dairy and produce on-site. Ladakh Eco Lodge has been in the hands of the village's original families for ten generations and their sustainably built mud cabins offer a luxurious stay alongside a look into the traditional ways of life in this part of the world. Finally, Lchang Nang Retreat in the Nubra Valley is a property where ones rooms are found in traditionally built cottages and are fully solar powered, they monitor plastic, waste segregation, and ensure low-impact constructions in their successful effort to reduce their carbon footprint to a minimum.

Finally, to you our traveller, we ask you to be vigilant about disposing of your waste and recycle where possible. During your trip you will be asked if you have any waste to dispose of when it is a suitable time in the itinerary. This ensures we make it as easy as possible for our travellers to be eco-friendly whilst travelling. We strongly advise all travellers to bring a reusable water bottle - this is an easy way to save plastic waste and is detailed in our ‘What to Bring’ trip notes for all trips to all destinations. Your guide will remind you where and when you can fill up your re-usable water bottle. We also encourage general sustainability whenever possible – non-wasteful use of air-con and electricity for instance. This is something we believe in strongly as an organisation and try to pass on to our travellers.

People

As regular travellers, one thing that never ceases to amaze and inspire us is the kindness and generosity of local people, and we firmly believe that it is them that make these places special, and that they should benefit from our visit. For that reason, we use local guides and drivers who are offered fair working conditions and pay, and as a priority, stay in locally-owned accommodation, visit local shops, bars and eateries, and use locally-sourced supplies in order to have the maximum possible economic benefit on the local communities our travellers visit.

This tour features stops in rural towns and villages almost exclusively. We believe that in rural areas such as these, responsible tourism can have a great impact through means of economic growth, even more so than is typical across our tours. Through our support of local businesses of all varieties, this tour is of great benefit to not only the business owners, but the communities visited at large. We support many local families and businesses through culinary experiences, traditional craft workshops, and the Munshi Aziz Bhat Museum and museum in Hunderman which are family-owned and the head of a local effort to preserve the history of border-families and this forgotten part of the Silk Road.

As the Hemis festival is one of great meaning and significance to those celebrating it, we are careful to ensure that our travellers enjoy the festival respectfully. Our knowledgeable, local guides ensure that there is no negative impact on the festival or those celebrating that may otherwise occur as a result of cultural misunderstanding. It is important to us that our travellers only have a positive impact on those they meet, and this is something we consider all the more strongly in instances such as this.

We support the communities in the Nubra Valley and in every other location on this tour by contributing to WaterAid. For every booking we receive, we make a token contribution to this admirable charity. WaterAid works together with the Government, organisations and communities, to tackle challenges caused by a lack of access to clean, sustainable drinking water head on, and we are proud to support this charity.