Georgia and Armenia walking holiday

Planet

For customers keen to avoid buying single use plastic bottles, we encourage them to take advantage of our discounted filter Water-To-Go bottle which removes 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. This trip actively encourages customers to reduce the carbon footprint to a minimum. An example of this locally is the local guide training. The local guides used in Georgia and Armenia have a detailed knowledge of trails and work hard to make sure customers are offered the best possible walking experience with minimal environmental impact. Early season we walk through beautiful wildflower meadows. The guides can identify local flowers and explain the importance of not picking any for later identification by customers. Our clients get a greater understanding of the local environment and the issues facing the Georgians so they are better able to behave in such a way to minimise their personal impact

People

We stay in locally owned hotels in both countries. An excellent example of the hotels we prefer is the Tufekian chain in Armenia. This chain was set up by at expat Armenian to show case and revive ancient Armenian art. In the hotels the furniture is handmade by local Armenian artisans from local materials, such as iron and basalt stone. The hotels lovingly created and ancient crafts are revived, and local skilled employment is provided. This is used in the hotels and also available for sale providing a bigger market for local crafts.

We visit ancient communities such as the Molokan to help maintain and revive ancient cultures existing within Armenia. We eat with local communities and even have a chance to cook a meal in a local village

We cap passengers at a maximum of 18 customers so as not to impact on the environment and every customer has the best opportunity to engage with the locals. This maximises cultural exchange to the great benefit of all parties.