Botswana vacation, tailor made

Planet

Having travelled extensively ourselves and witnessed first-hand how tourism can have either positive or negative effects on local communities; we vowed to always endeavour to leave a positive mark on all places we visit and send clients. Our clients’ requirements are of primary importance to us at all times, as we know that our growth and success depend on their continued support.

Our Service Providers in Botswana feel very strongly about running our safaris in a responsible manner throughout Southern Africa, Madagascar and East Africa. We ensure that our safaris meet the strict guidelines of TIES (The International Ecotourism Society). All the tours always use local services, are low impact, take into account the environment, make use of local guides and always support conservation and community projects. We are so committed to social responsibility and responsible travel that we even created an add-on safari (in conjunction with our Northern Experience) so that clients can get involved.

As a company: We strive to operate as a paperless company as far as possible, and recycle wherever facilities are available. We use toxic-free fair trade products whenever we can.

While traveling: Many of the resorts and operators we work with offer our clients free drinking water refills to minimise wastage of plastic bottles through out the trips; and ask clients if they want items laundered before simply washing towels and linens unnecessarily, to conserve water. While in remote areas, we carry rubbish with us and ensure we do not disturb anything in the natural environment.

While we are there: We will visit protected conservation areas, such as the Chobe National Park , the Makgadikgadi Pan and the Moremi National Park, and ensure that our clients are given the correct guidance to minimise impact on the environment and respect the natural wonders of the area. All these protected area and reserves use guides who are local to the area and have been trained, bettering their communities.

These guides typically communicate all the do’s and don’ts while visiting these protected areas. Typically these areas also ask for a fee to appreciate the protected area. These fees go to conservation and infrastructure efforts directly supporting the reserve.

This trip has a strong focus on exploring natural wonders with the aim of fostering a love of and respect for the environment and subsequently conservation in the areas visited.

People

This tour has been designed to both operate in a way that minimises our impact on the environment that we visit and to maximise the benefit that our clients can have on the host community. We endeavour to follow responsible guidelines, as with all trips. Guests will be briefed on responsible tourism at the start of the trip, and encouraged to be mindful of the environment and respectful of local people and culture.

Our Southern Africa Service Provider currently supports a vegetable and fruit gardens programme – teaching school-kids how to operate a sustainable and self-sufficient vegetable garden providing education, tools and seeds. The project is named Grow Africa – a sustainable & educational food-growth project. This is one small ways local communities are enriched.

Our Service Providers in Botswana feel very strongly about running our safaris in a responsible manner throughout Southern Africa, Madagascar and East Africa. We ensure that our safaris meet the strict guidelines of TIES (The International Ecotourism Society). All the tours always use local services, are low impact, take into account the environment, make use of local guides and always support conservation and community projects . We are so committed to social responsibility and responsible travel that we even created an add-on safari (in conjunction with our Northern Experience) so that clients can get involved.

While we are there: We will visit protected conservation areas who will have employed guides and staff who are local to the area, having been trained, therefore bettering their communities. All guides are local to the destination and can provide insight into the culture of the place. We encourage interaction with local communities, however we keep our group sizes small and provide advice during the trip to ensure our impact on the indigenous way of live is minimised. Typically these conservation areas also ask for a fee to appreciate the protected area. These fees go to conservation, employment and infrastructure efforts directly supporting the community and the reserve.

Where we stay: As a boutique travel company we recommend unique and authentic travel experiences. We prefer to use local suppliers who recommend accommodation that will add to the uniqueness and sense of adventure of the trip and we therefore encourage our clients to stay in privately owned accommodation where possible to support the local community. Where the hotel owners source staff, produce, products and other services from within the local community. This gives the local people an opportunity to gain financially from the increase in tourism in the area.

While we are there: We encourage our clients to have a truly immersive experience as well as support the livelihood of the local community.
We ensure guests have opportunities to purchase locally produced traditional crafts at the source, ensuring maximum financial benefit to producers and artisans. We travel in small groups to ensure our customers can interact with locals in a meaningful way and to ensure that any impact on local communities is minimised.

Typically with all our tailor-made trips to destinations we enjoy offering new routes and encourage travel to areas that are not on the main tourist trails and further support communities.