Madeira walking vacation, Portugal

Planet and people

UK Office:
We are well aware of the impact tourism has at home and abroad, and we make every effort to balance the environmental impact of traveling with the immense benefits sustainable tourism can bring to destinations and the people who live there. So we start in the office: we turn off all electrical equipment every night; we use energy-efficient bulbs; we measure print and paper consumption, and re-cycle wherever possible; we print our brochures on paper from sustainable sources, and send them out in bio-degradable packaging.

Leaders & local suppliers:
This hotel-to-hotel independent walking vacation begins with three nights at the 4-star Quinta do Furao Hotel in Santana. With views stretching right across the Atlantic Ocean, the location is simply stunning! It’s also a very “natural” place to stay, with lots of vineyards, vegetable plots, fruit orchards and beautifully manicured gardens, complete with dragon trees and proteas. Evening meals are a feast of home grown delicacies washed down with wines from the private vineyard. If you stay here during September, you can even join in with the grape harvest!

Our local agents suggest places to see and visit locally.

Group size:
Having no minimum number means that groups sizes can be small and therefore the trips have less impact on the environment.

Activity:
Walking has minimal impact on the environment as you provide most of the energy yourself and, when you’re strolling from village to village, you can enjoy a relationship with locals in a way motorists passing through never can. On foot, you get off the beaten track, and you’ll find that people treat you as a visitor rather than a tourist. Also, by walking independently, and not having to worry about keeping up with a group, you set the pace so you can soak up the sights, sounds and scents of your surrounds and really get under the skin of the place you’re visiting.

We proactively encourage walking clients to think about traveling responsibly too: packing light, saving water, buying locally and re-cycling all maps and route notes at the end of their trip.