The company who organises the safari component of this trip and has almost 20 yrs of safari experience within the Sinai area. They combine a complete understanding of Western needs with Eastern knowledge and culture. An integral part of their safaris are the traditions of the Bedouin lifestyle with regards to tented camps, camel handling, food preparation & bread making, herbal medicine, healing and star gazing. Over the years, they have built up special relationships with many local Bedouin families and helped them with issues such as medical care, building of animal water troughs, construction of an eco-lodge run by local Bedouins and employment.
Many Bedouin families choose to live a traditional desert dwelling life-style. However, in the present day they also need an income, which can be provided through tourism. All Sinai trips help local Bedouins by giving them regular work, either as jeep driver or camel guide, and paying them a fair daily wage.
While based in the desert, special care and attention will be given to issues such as fresh water usage and waste disposal. Water is a scarce resource in the desert but a necessity for cooking, drinking and washing. Sufficient fresh water will be available at all times, but we ask all people to take great care to avoid wastage. Any waste decays extremely slowly in desert environments and will therefore be burned on a daily basis rather than buried. The hotel in Dahab is small-scale and Bedouin owned, so local Bedouin benefit directly through hotel earnings and employment.
For all of our tours we provide customers with an itinerary specific responsible travel guide aprox 4 weeks before they depart. This includes a generic travelers code of conduct which emphasises basic responsible travel advice – e.g. reduction of waste and consumption of natural resources, purchase local produce where possible etc. Our vacations are specifically designed to bring guests into direct contact with locals from a range of different tribes and cultures across Africa. We also therefore provide destination specific guidance including advice on local customs and some key phrases in certain languages (e.g. Swahili). We also offer guidance on how to barter responsibly for local curios and what curios should be avoided (e.g. certain wildlife artefacts such as coral, turtle shells etc.). As all of our guides and groundhandlers are local we also give guidance on what a fair and reasonable level of tipping would be at the end of the vacation.
We support the work of Tourism Concern both in distributing their advice to customers and as an active participant in the Ethical Tour Operators Group. Our managing director sits on this group and is a regular attendee of meetings contributing to work towards developing industry wide fair trade standards. We also distribute materials to customers and make periodic donations for the following charities: Tree Aid; International Fund for Wildlife and Survival International Trust. In Southern Africa we support the Southern Africa Sustainable Seafood Initiative and forward their guidance to all customers on which seafood is sustainable when offered a choice at restaurants.
Whilst volunteering on a coral reef in Tanzania, the founder of this company fell in love with Africa. Using her academic background in environmental science, she decided to do something practical and help the continent develop a sustainable tourism portfolio. She developed vacations which combine the obvious itinerary highlights with more unusual experiences such as home stays and township visits. She believes that there are great benefits to travel: it is a chance to widen your horizons, learn about other people and see a bit more of the world than just that little place you call home.
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We invite every traveler who books a vacation via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the vacations they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same vacation can have different views!
