Walking the Turquoise coast holiday in Turkey

Planet

Activity & Environment
Few holidays have as little detrimental impact on the environment and local residents as a walking trip. Erosion on and adjacent to popular paths is a growing problem in certain places and therefore our trip leaders encourage clients to stick to advised routes in order to minimise this. We do believe in leaving no more than footprints although this tour actively encourages guests to talk to local people, visit local cafes and restaurants and to purchase traditional gifts and crafts. Also in visiting landmarks, cultural sites and National Parks, our fees contribute to the maintenance of these important places.

Projects:
We are working with the WWF and local marine biologists to keep to a minimum our impact on the environment.

Water:
Water is a really important issue with trekking trips and whilst we must stay hydrated, it is also vital that we have a system for providing clean water without causing lots of waste with plastic bottles. It would be a shame to pollute such a lovely environment, so we suggest that instead of repeatedly buying bottled water, guests should re-fill a singular bottle. There are mountain springs on the journey which offer clean, natural water, or you can fill up at the hotel.

Group Size
Since this is a small group tour, we will have a low impact on the environments and communities we visit and are able to ensure that we do not disrupt or lead to the displacement of local people. The small number also allows us to stay in unique, small family-run accommodations that cannot benefit from coach tours and other mass tourism due to their limited sizes.

UK Office:
It all starts at home where we work towards reducing our carbon footprint in our offices through energy conservation measures, recycling policies and the promotion of cycling and walking as a means for our staff to commute. Our head office has become a plastic-free zone with the use of plastic bottles being banned in our head office and we distributed reusable water bottles and tote bags to every staff member. We also support a large number of community and environmental projects in different parts of the world and try to give something back to the places we visit.

People

Accommodation & Community:
The hotel which we stay at hires staff locally and tries to make the most of the fresh, seasonal Mediterranean produce which grows in the area. This trip is on a bed and breakfast basis and the morning meal usually includes locally sourced eggs, cucumber, tomatoes, cheese, bread, honey and yoghurt.
Where meals are not included, your local guide will be happy to recommend small restaurants in the area (lokantas) where traditional fare can be sampled. We stop at a local village where they sell regional specialties like Pide (Pizza) and fresh trout and there is even the chance to have a home-cooked Turkish meal with a local family. By using these smaller businesses, we are providing quite rural communities with income support.

A Fair Deal:
We work closely with our local operator and ensure that all of our guides are local and that in exchange for their expertise that they are paid and treated fairly. The leaders will give a briefing on Responsible Tourism issues to help you understand how you can help reduce your impact and maximise the benefits to the local community from your visit

Projects:
We also support and promote the work of the Dream s Academy – a local centre for underprivileged and disabled children. With continuous support, they have been able to transform what was originally a run down, abandoned school building into a play camp with library, music room, accommodation and playground.