Vietnam and Cambodia tailor made tours

Environment

The aim of our journeys is to enhance the communities and countries that we visit through helping to preserve and encourage local traditions and economies and limit any negative impact tourism can have such as pollution. For this reason throughout the tour you will participate in walking and cycling tours especially within the smaller and more remote communities, to limit the amount of impact had on the country’s pollution as well as on the local communities.

We actively minimise plastic usage on this trip by launching our one bottle at a time initiative to replace disposable plastic water bottles with refillable canisters across our destinations. We also send our guests a wooden toothbrush to help avoid using hotels’ disposable plastic brushes, and educate clients about the limited recycling facilities in Asia, and best-practice regarding waste-reduction. Within our UK offices we operate strict recycling policies and make sure everyone in the office uses reusable crockery and cutlery.

We believe that for ‘carbon offsetting’ to be effective, it needs to be implemented as part of a broader set of responsible actions, otherwise it distracts from the real impact of flying, on both the developing country and the developed country. In order to truly contribute towards a healthier planet, we believe that putting our efforts into travelling responsibly and donating towards conservation projects is a more responsible action than simply offsetting, which is why we’ve put together the Selective Earth Programme, which offers all our clients the opportunity to not only reduce their carbon footprint when flying, but also contribute towards conservation projects in Asia.

To do this, we have teamed up with World Land Trust (WLT), an international conservation charity who we believe offer a correctly priced and effective solution to reducing the carbon impact of flights, through actively conserving rainforest whilst supporting local communities. We work closely with the Trust to identify which project needs the most funding at what time, to ensure our donations are making a difference. We are currently contributing towards the conservation of the Khe Nuoc Trong forest, in Vietnam, as well as planting fruit trees in the surrounding communities, with £25,000 pledged in total.

Community

Stay & Eat local.
One of our core values is to collaborate with local, responsible companies and partners who share our focus, beliefs and passions. We work with local guides, local operators and hotel partners, and will always offer small, local accommodation options to clients such Rainbow Lodge or 4 Rivers Lodge. Our holidays are designed to enable our clients to immerse themselves in local places and experiences, and we make sure that, wherever possible, the income they bring to a destination goes back into the community. All clients are given a travel pack with language, local etiquette and other social tips to help you get started, and have experienced local guides on hand to help you interact successfully and respectfully with the people you meet.

Whilst in Phnom Penh you also have the opportunity to eat at a local kindness restaurant ‘Friends’. The aim of this programme is to help educate and train local street children in hospitality and catering so as to provide them an income and housing in the short term, and skills to provide for themselves in the future.

Local partners.
We hire local guides and drivers whenever possible. We also insist that any travel partners we work with adhere to our responsible travel policies, and ideally put responsible tourism at the heart of everything they do. We work collaboratively with them to ensure an ongoing exchange of information, so we can all continue to improve our work around responsible tourism.