Croatia self guided hiking vacation, Istria region

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 our tour "Walking adventure through green Istria" 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. Hotels on the tour in countryside of Istria (Buje, Motovun, Buzet) are offering specific Istrian food such as truffles or wine which are products from local food factorys and wineyards. With this offer we are helping local economy and redounding region of Istria to be known as "land of truffles and Istrian Malvazia".

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. 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.

We support local economy and small business by supporting locally owned shops, restaurants, and using local guide services. Using local employees, accommodation providers, local restaurants and transportation services, we ensures that financial benefits remain in the local community. Following this rules in tour "Walking through green Istria" is included town of Grožnjan which is well known as "town of artist". With many galleries with products made by local artist we are offering our customers authentic products (suvenirs) such as "kažun" which is trade mark of Istria and Croatia. Kažun is a small field shelter, built in drystone technique, without any mortar. As well in our self guided walking books we have list of local restaurants (konoba) with traditional Istrian food as suggestion for our customers. Parenzana railway know as "Route of health and friendship" is part of our tour in green Istria. Parenzana is rebulided railway which was connecting Porec, Koper and Trieste and it is using in tourism purposes as a walking and cycling path.