Tanzania vacation, Kilimanjaro trek, safari & beach

Planet

Looking after the natural world is extraordinarily important to us and to our guides. On the mountain, any rubbish must be taken with you back down the mountain and from there, properly disposed of. Water bottles or similar (trekking guests typically have particular equipment that they prefer) will be refilled from natural streams (mostly from naturally-occurring glacial melt). For reasons of safety, as well as for the sake of the environment, it is essential that guests heed their guides’ directions and stick to the designated pathways. Departing from them could be highly dangerous, not to mention detrimental to the otherwise-isolated flora and fauna that lives on the mountain.

On safari, your visit will immediately be of assistance. Firstly, your contribution of National Park fees supports the outstanding conservation efforts of the Tanzanian National Parks, which is responsible for everything from deterring poachers, to protecting Park boundaries and providing assistance to animals in distress. What’s more, we deliberately work with local guides who each share immense knowledge of and respect for the natural world and its inhabitants. All are experts at finding game while causing a minimum of disruption to wildlife, often using traditional tracking methods. Furthermore, our approach to continual training ensures that best practices are always continuing to evolve.

All our accommodation partners seek to integrate environmentally-conscious design features into their properties, whether sourcing natural, sustainable materials, or using renewable energy (e.g. solar) for their power.

Our offices in the UK and in Bangkok take a leading role in setting the standard for an environmentally friendly work environment. Alongside ensuring that our waste is appropriately recycled, we have instituted a paperless work system, in which paper usage is kept to a bare minimum. We have also implemented a plastic ban in our offices, starting with coffee cups and single-use plastic drinks bottles, and expanding to encompass food packaging as far as possible. Each office has a designated ‘sustainability officer’, who helps to implement programmes and answer questions, whilst all team members are able to set the environmental agenda by highlighting their ideas on a specific sustainability channel in our internal communications network.

People

An intrepid undertaking, you will share this African adventure with your local team of professional staff all of whom receive unrivalled, fair salaries and are not reliant on tipping.

You will gain a deeper appreciation of the mountains and the local people who make their living from them. By being only one of eleven UK tour operators which partner with KPAP - The Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project - we ensure that porters are protected, and are paid fairly (in fact, the highest salaries in the history of Tanzanian trekking expeditions).

Wayfairer’s cultural tourism initiatives, such as the Maasai village visit, are diligently structured so that they mutually benefit the community and the curious traveler. We encourage you to be proactive and respectful when engaging in such activities. We also remind you to always ask permission before taking photographs.

We employ local guides and support staff who we pay fair wages, often exceeding government standards which we still consider too low, and thereby remove the reliance on tipping from travelers for livelihoods.

Our accommodation choices make use of locally owned properties where possible and often include adventurous, authentic choices such as local homestays which therefore involve local people and their communities in the very fabric of our vacations.

We encourage all our travelers to research local customs and read your trip notes before you depart to ensure you are conscientious and respectful in a different culture.

In most cases we strongly recommend that you do not give money to children beggars. If begging is a successful enterprise, parents are encouraged to forsake their children’s education in pursuit of this opportunity.

Talk to us about packing for a purpose and see if you can get involved by making a small material contribution to the communities you are visiting. We have developed partnerships with charities and accommodations throughout Tanzania and are constantly working to extend our reach with the help of our travelers.