Umbria hiking vacation, self guided

Planet and people

Accommodation & meals: We spend the ten nights on this walking vacation in 3-4* hotels in Assisi, Spello, Trevi, Poreta and Spoleto; most of the hotels are privately-owned by locals and at least 75% of the staff are local residents. Our customers provide income to an area that does already benefit from tourism; however the hotels we use are all small properties (the largest of which has 43 rooms). The vacation includes six evening meals at the hotels, two of which include local wine. Food is generally rustic in style, and the hotel chefs focus on using locally-sourced seasonal goods where possible. Most of our hoteliers have also demonstrated commitment to sustainable practices in the following areas: waste management, saving water and saving energy.

Community: We have designed the trip, in collaboration with local agents who have the best inside knowledge. On this trip we encourage and enable our guests to try local cuisine and support local businesses, chat with local people, visit local attractions, cafes and bars, purchase local produce such as the highly-prized black truffles, the finest olive oils and famous Sagrantino wines, gifts and crafts and discover what life is really like in Italy’s “Green Heart”, Umbria. We also offer a wine service in the Umbria region - any customers who want to purchase local wines can do so en route and any purchases are collected by our Local Representative and delivered to the final hotel on the route.

Group size: This is a self-guided vacation with departures every 2-3 days and low passenger numbers, helping to keep environmental impact to a minimum, and reduce over-tourism. Self-guided vacations in our regions with Local Reps (including Umbria) are possible with a minimum of one person on any departure dates, however we would always hope that more people would want to visit this amazing area of delicious produce and jaw-dropping historical architecture!

Activity: Few vacations have as little detrimental impact on the environment and local residents as a walking trip. It is a quiet, low impact activity requiring comparatively little resources to support. We encourage our customers to either walk or cycle between hotels therefore reducing the overall carbon footprint on the vacation. We do believe in leaving more than just footprints and encourage our customers to calculate their own carbon footprint for their vacation and make a donation to offset their effects to the World Land Trust.

UK office: In addition to the careful planning that goes into each and every one of our tours, we also have a policy of operating our office in a responsible manner - to reduce the impact on our local environment. We turn off all lights, printers, photocopiers and PCs at the end of each day: a PC monitor switched off overnight saves enough energy to microwave six meals; leaving a computer on 24/7 costs four times more than if you switch it off; a photocopier left on overnight uses enough energy to produce over 1,500 copies. We use energy-efficient light bulbs and make sure they're regularly cleaned - dirty bulbs can reduce the amount of effective light by over 25%. We've turned down every radiator by one degree in a bid to reduce energy consumption by as much as 10%. All our brochures are printed on paper from sustainable sources and sent in bio-degradable packaging. We strive to reduce paper consumption and, what we do use, we recycle. We recycle all our used laser printer and inkjet cartridges.