Northumberland walking holiday in England

Planet

It is safe to drink the water from the tap in England, however, for customers keen to avoid buying single use plastic bottles we encourage customers the chance to purchase a discounted filter Water-To-Go bottle which combines three different technologies to remove over 99.9% of all microbiological contaminants in water.

We operate a ‘leave no trace’ policy on tour; our tour leaders are trained to promote this message to customers. As the focus of this trip is primarily walking, we aim to leave a minimal impact on the areas as possible. This trip actively encourages customers to reduce the carbon footprint to a minimum. On this holiday we include walks taking in rugged coastal paths, golden sands and the dramatic ancient castles of Lindisfarne and ruins of Dunstanburgh. Inland there are remarkable gardens at Alnwick Castle and Cragside. This holiday incorporates a good mixture of varied walking together with sightseeing each day.

We’re committed to running our business responsibly. In our office we reduce, reuse, and recycle whenever possible. It’s in a refurbished mill, and we’ve also installed a waterwheel to generate electricity from the river. It was the first of its kind in Britain, gives us our own sustainable source of power and any excess goes to the National Grid.

People

On this tour we stay in The White Swan Hotel, right in the centre of Alnwick, which provides jobs in the local area. The hotel assures us that they recycle as much waste as possible. Breakfast and dinners are served at the hotel; however, lunches are taken in a variety of local eating establishments, such as cafes, pubs and shops to purchase picnic supplies, which helps to spread the financial benefits of tourism.

We offer financial aid to walking groups within the UK to maintain walking by young and old for future generations, rebuild broken paths and bridges washed away. This falls under an organisation named the Charitable Trust.

We cap passengers at a maximum of 19 customers so as not to impact on the environment surrounding the Northumberland National Park, especially as we explore primarily on foot and on ‘rights to roam’ land. We use as many locally owned services as possible throughout this trip. We employ a local transport company to provide transfers to and from the trailheads each day and we include visits to local attractions such as Alnwick Castle, The Alnwick Garden, Bamburgh Castle and the National Trust property of Cragside.