Our tour from Victoria Falls to Nairobi travels through some of the world’s poorest areas therefore all activities and excursions make use of locally operated tour companies and guides. With our visit to the South Luangwa National park we have selected an accommodation establishment that donates 60% of your accommodation fees paid to the Wildlife and Environmental Conservation Society of Zambia and in that way you are contributing to support local wildlife and education for Zambian school children in the conservation of their natural history.
As part of our commitment to Responsible Travel and responsibletravel.com we now have incorporated a visit to community based tourism program in the South West of Tanzania. Set up by the tea farmers association consisting of 15,000 tea farmers, spread over 108 villages and is the only tea association in Tanzania that sells tea to a fair trade organization in the UK. We pay a fair tour fee that includes a village development fee. With this fee the villages can build classrooms and buy schoolbooks or medical equipment for the local dispensary. On this tour we have time for a ½ day tea tour where a tea farmer will tell you everything about tea while showing you around their smallholder shamba and the expansive tea estate with its great views.
We also make use of local guide on the island of Zanzibar to visit the Spice farms as well as our visit to a Masai village. We encourage our passengers to purchase goods made locally, and to be aware that craft market income is the only income for many families. Food is purchased at local markets where possible.
Finally, as part of our commitment to responsible tourism, we support the Freeplay Foundation. This charity supplies wind-up radios (needing no electrical or battery power) to children in Africa who have been orphaned by Aids or genocide and who are trying to bring up their younger siblings alone and unaided.
Each radio costs only £35. It provides these children with health care information and how to obtain free testing and drugs, as well as general education and help on growing their own food crops and advice on issues such as safe pesticides. We aim to donate at least one radio per overland trip to help these children. If you would like to make a contribution towards this and would find it easier to do so before departure (rather than into the collection box on the truck) please send us a cheque to our UK address made out to “Freeplay Foundation” and we will forward it on.
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!
