South African safaris for families with teenagers

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.

On this trip: We travel in small groups so have a minimal impact on the environment as we go. On this trip we use a local agent from South Africa, locally owned hotels, 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.

Responsible code: Being Responsible is at the heart of everything our company does - full details of our code can be found on our website. The local supplier for this trip will promote our responsible travel code throughout your adventure. You will also receive specific information on this trip’s responsibility in your trip notes.

Helping to minimise negative impact: All of 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.

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.

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.

Community

On this trip: Our Teen Adventure visits the township of Soweto on a guided tour. This eye-opening start to the trip gives an insight into the real-life struggle in South Africa. You’ll also visit a traditional Zulu village near the Mkuzi Game Reserve and have a chance to interact with the local community. Educating the younger generation about the people and animals of the region they are visiting is a vital part of future of responsible travel.

We also support a project to take disadvantaged local children to game parks so that they can experience a safari for themselves. Our local agent works in conjunction with the SOS children’s home in Ennerdale Johannesburg. The children spend a weekend in the Pilanesberg Game Reserve giving them a chance to see some of the wildlife indigenous to South Africa. It also introduces the children to conservation issues and hopefully will encourage some of them to go on and study conservation and the natural world in the future.