Istria hiking vacation, Croatia

Planet

Tourism is the world's fastest growing industry. Traveling to far flung places gives us a wonderful opportunity to experience cultures that are so different from our own. But with the wondrous joy of travel comes the responsibility of ensuring that we do not adversely affect those countries that we visit. In a nutshell, Responsible Travel is about ensuring that you, as travelers, and we, as a promoter of travel:
-respect the local culture
-do not inadvertently introduce new social ills and
-promote & practice environmental responsibility in the places that we visit.
That way, you enjoy a unique and memorable experience as well as authentic cross-cultural exchange and our local resources, cultures and customs are protected.
Our environmental policy:
We recycle all our waste paper.
Our correspondence and promotion is carried out via the internet and email, minimizing the amount of paper used for our activities.
We use established, locally-owned and run accommodation wherever possible and aim to leave sites in better condition than we find them.
Our vehicle fleet is managed to minimise environmental impact.
Our group sizes are small, helping minimise cultural and environmental impact.
We monitor our impact, and where necessary alter our programmes accordingly.
We always abide by site-specific guidelines pertaining to flora and fauna.
On this tour we are supporting less turistic places with great potential such as town of Pazin in middle of Istrian region. With it's great castle and canyon of river Pazincica it has great turistic potential. Also as cultural benefit for countryside of Istria are medevial frescs in village of Beram know as "Dance of death".

People

All our staff are locally employed and all our guides are, ensuring a more authentic experience for travelers, as well as sensitivity to local customs and culture. Guides are part of local sports clubs and except at the guiding job they are active in free time, so active tourism is part of their lifestyle. On our biking and hiking trips we are helping local community with the marking bike trails and hiking paths to make more secure trips. Also all our guides have mission to take the garbage where ever they see it (on the sea, river, mountain...).
We also involve local communities in remote areas that we travel to.
Our accommodation is mostly provided in small hotels, guest houses or apartments. On all our tours we use local produce and provide local-style meals, and we encourage our guests to try local dishes and delicacies such as "pljukanci" with truffles in Motovun area. We are organizing wine tasting in local wine cellars ruled by local families such as Tomaz, Arman, Benvenuti or Kabola.That way we support local economy and small business. On this hiking tour we are helping local comunity and local hiking club in Buje area with marking paths and trails. Our policy is to take with us every garbage we see on path or wood.