Transcaucasian Trail walking holiday, Georgia

Planet

We believe that walking trips are one of the best ways to experience a destination, they allow you more time to appreciate changing landscapes and get to know locals in villages and towns you pass through that would otherwise be overlooked. Travelling on foot has minimal impact on your environment, but we encourage clients to stay on the marked trails to avoid erosion.

Travellers are encouraged to follow our company-wide Waste Management Policy, which advocates taking your own reusable water bottles and reusable stuff sacks to avoid single-use plastics. We follow this same philosophy in our office as well as on the tour: in our London premises we have banned single use coffee cups and water bottles; we use recycled paper and we are working towards reducing the overall amount of paper we use; and we recycle all of our waste, including plastic and paper.

Over the years, our award-winning Responsible Travel Guidebook, which presented our Travel Group’s comprehensive policies on sustainable travel, has evolved and in March 2018 the Thoughtful Traveller booklet was launched. Before your trip to Georgia you are encouraged to read this easy-to-read document, which empowers travellers with suggestions about how they can be part of the solution and collectively make the world a better place when they travel.

In Georgia, awareness of environmental issues is growing but is still in its infancy. We prioritise staying in accommodations which have made efforts to reduce their environmental impact, for example our regular guesthouse in Becho now gets most of its electricity via solar power.

People

We utilise locally owned accommodations on the trip wherever possible. These are generally small scale accommodations, staying at these properties not only gives you an authentic Georgian experience but also helps directly contribute to the local economy. This same principle is the reason why we eat in locally-owned restaurants, plus you get to try the delicious traditional food! In the mountains, our meals are mostly prepared using produce from the surrounding areas: milk, cheese, farm meat and vegetables. Purchasing these from the community helps stimulates farming in these regions and the additional income helps becomes a reason for the locals not to leave the mountains and head for the cities.

For example in the remote village of Adishi, where only 5 to 6 families live, we stay at a family guesthouse. Here we will be welcomed with traditional Svanetian hospitality and food. Sharing their local traditions, the authentic culture, and cuisine with us helps to conserve these practices and ensure these are continued.

We use local guides throughout this trip. The guides are highly experienced, have strong local knowledge and a love and understanding of their country. During the hikes, we hire an additional mountain escort for the group. These young individuals, mainly students, are seeking for seasonal jobs to support their families or earn some extra funds to continue their studies.