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The Galapagos was the first natural site to be named a UNESCO World Heritage Site - 1979. It is also a Biosphere Reserve and Whale Sanctuary.
The Galapagos is a worldwide model for eco-tourism. Here you are able to visit an area of great natural beauty and encounter, at close quarters, animal species that have no fear of humans. Strict regulations govern all tourist activities and are rigidly enforced and tourist numbers are restricted.
For every visitor we take to the Galapagos we donate £25 to the Galapagos Conservation Trust www.gct.org who work to protect and conserve the Galapagos islands.
We are also an active member of IGTOA http://www.igtoa.org/, a non profit association of travel companies, conservation organizations, and other groups that seek a lasting protection of the Galapagos Islands. We lobby for conservation, fund projects, and promote and practice sustainable tourism.
The boats we use on our Galapagos adventure vacation are all locally owned and operated yachts, equipped to accommodate 10-16 passengers and accompanied by professional naturalist guides certified by the Darwin Research Station.
On our Galapagos adventure vacation give people free membership to the Conservation Trust, we have IGTOA membership who campaign to protect the islands, we employ local staff all the way one the trip, only use hotels owned by locals, all the food is sourced locally, we take people to locally-owned restaurants to help keep the money in the islands, we don’t use plastic bottled water, instead one huge cylinder is used to fill people’s own water containers so cutting down on use of plastics, lunches onboard served in tupperware containers which can be resused, no rubbish is left anywhere by us or guides. No wildlife is disturbed and we operate a strict policy leaving the animals and flora alone. We encourage people to donate to Rainforest Concern to offset the carbon emissions for this trip.
We are supporting two charities, the UK registered charity Amantani - which is very much in keeping with our ethos of small scale, targeted help that is educational & sustainable - and Huchuy Yachaq, a Cusco-based project which we support by paying a for a full time teacher. A percentage of our income goes to support those projects.
The founder of this tour operator set up 14 years ago after working as a trek leader and writing guidebooks in South America. She decided to offer alternative trekking routes that no one else was doing, where you’re more likely to cross paths with local people. She maintains close personal relationships with her suppliers and is godmother to several of their children. Her small specialised team have really walked the walks and so know exactly what they’re talking about; they familiarise themselves with the hiking trails every year and believe the Andean way of life is well worth sharing.
Listen to the podcast below:
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!
