Winter walking in Cyprus holiday

Planet

Cyprus is of course well known for its beach tourism, but away from the beach resorts you will find large areas of natural, unspoilt countryside. Woodland, orchards and vineyards are interspersed with traditional villages. We believe the best way to explore these areas is on a low impact walking holiday, the planned walks are mostly in the Akamas Peninsula, an area soon to be declared a nature reserve, and also in the adjacent “Laona” plateau area, at 600m, with its small traditional villages. As we visit these special areas, it is important to make sure we plan our trip in a sustainable manner.

The slow style of a walking holiday, not only affords you more time to appreciate the natural beauty of the region but, just as importantly, positively contributes to the regions that host you. To help avoid erosion, we recommend you stay on the marked footpaths at all times.

We are aligned with “Leave No Trace”, an international organisation that has set the global standard for outdoor ethics. Through targeted education, research and outreach, its mission is to ensure the long-term health of our natural world while maintaining sustainable recreation in nature.

Our Waste Management Policy encourages our travellers to take their own reusable water bottles, coffee cups and reusable stuff sacks to avoid single-use plastics. We follow this same philosophy in our office as well as on the trail: in our London office we have banned single use coffee cups and water bottles. We use recycled paper in our office and we are working towards reducing the amount of paper we use, as well as recycling all of our paper and plastic waste.

People

Our preferred accommodations we use on this trip are locally owned small hotels and B&Bs; this way we ensure your tourist spend is staying within the area and benefiting local people. For example, when available, we book the Aphrodite Beach Hotel. This is a small family owned hotel, and in their restaurant they use spices grown in their garden (oregano, basil, cinnamon, cloves) and produce their own fruit (figs, pomegranates oranges, mandarins and lemons), vegetables (avocados, olives and seasonable vegetables) and homemade marmalades that you can take home with you. So you can enjoy a warm welcome, and enjoy local foods.

Travelling in winter, outside of the main tourist season, you are also helping to provide valuable income for the community at a time which is traditionally considered as a quieter time of the year.

In 2000 we developed the award winning Responsible Travel Guidebook, which presented our Travel Group’s comprehensive policies on sustainable travel. Over the years our Responsible Travel Guidebook has evolved to meet the ever-changing landscape of sustainable travel. In March 2018 The Thoughtful Traveller booklet was launched, which is an easy-to-read document that empowers travellers with suggestions about how they can be part of the solution and collectively make the world a better place when they travel. Everyone is encouraged to read the Thoughtful Traveller ebook before departure.