Family vacation to India, sightseeing and safari

Environment

Responsible mission: As adventure travelers we relish and celebrate the diversity of the world. We also recognise our obligation to protect the environments that we explore. Our aim is to tread lightly, whilst contributing to maintain the world’s culture and nature, and most importantly to engage the help of all our customers to utilise the potential of tourism as a tool to aid sustainable development. We believe that responsible travelers are welcome in the places that they visit.

Carbon Offsetting: All our customers are invited to offset their international flight emissions. Contributions go to the Blue Ventures Carbon Offset program, a non-profit organisation which provides solar stoves for subsistence communities in Madagascar, benefiting the people and protecting the environment. We also contribute £2 per person towards offsetting of your in-country travel. We fully offset all emissions from our staff travel and run an energy efficient office.

Partnerships: As a company we support The Travel Foundation, a UK charity that has been established to promote responsible travel practises throughout the whole of the travel industry. We also work with a number of charity partners who work in the destinations that we visit; including Friends of Conservation and Born Free Foundation. We partner with many small grassroots projects throughout the destinations that we visit - they all share our responsible vision.

On this trip: We travel in small groups which has a minimal impact on the environment as we go. On this trip we use a local Indian agent, locally managed hotels and local leaders. Not only does this mean that more of the money we generate stays within the community, but their local knowledge and expertise helps us to better understand the environment in which we are traveling, whilst reinforcing within the local community that preserving this environment is both important and worthwhile.

You’ll make a number of your journeys between destinations by rail. Not only does this mean you’ll receive an authentic travel experience where you’ll travel like a local but the environmental impact against making the same journeys by road is comparatively slight.

Community

Giving something back: We have a foundation that collects the funds that you donate to us to support our projects. All our customers are invited to make a £1 per person contribution to the foundation at the time of booking. We will match every contribution that you make with our own £1. You as a customer choose where these funds are used from a shortlist of nominated projects – so it really is YOUR foundation.

On this trip: You will have the opportunity to visit a government run school during this trip where you will interact with the students there. We have developed a number of partnerships with local primary schools in conjunction with our local agents. The schools we support are run on minimal funding from the Indian government, therefore we donate £3 for every passenger traveling with us on this trip towards vital maintenance activities and items of equipment, which allow the children to learn in a more comfortable environment. Gifts of clothes, games, sports equipment and photographs from home would be welcomed and will provide a useful stimulus for cultural exchange during your visit.

We also work with Wildlife SOS, an organisation set up to protect Indian wildlife, conserve habitat, conduct research and create alternative and sustainable livelihoods for poacher communities. These activities are crucial to the survival and conservation of many species you will see on this trip. On this trip, you will have the opportunity to visit their Bear Rescue Facility in Agra where we have helped to fund its education centre.