Meteora and Pindos hiking vacation in Greece

Planet

Through our local office in Zagori we are supporting the maintenance of the hiking trails in the area where this walking vacation takes place. We encourage the guides and hotel owners in the area to participate in trail maintenance, as volunteers. If there are rubbish-strewn sections, we go out and clean them. When way marking, we try to only refresh the old marks and not intervene unnecessarily by installing big metal or plastic signs. We use paint on rocks so that the effect on nature is minimal.

To minimize our environmental footprint, we limit the size of our parties to maximum 6 people for this vacation. Our detailed tour information packs include a section on environmental responsibility and detailed instructions related to the ‘leave no trace’ policy, protected animals and plants in the area, etc.

We encourage our clients to use the info packs and maps in electronic format and not print them out and bring reusable water bottles. This vacation includes two separate areas of Greece, but we intentionally have not included a private connecting transfer between them, so that clients use more environmentally friendly public transport options (bus or train).

People

We use only local guides for developing and maintaining the Zagori part of the itinerary. Accommodation is in small, locally-owned and operated guesthouses and not in big-chain hotels which helps keep emissions down and minimise energy expenditure.

We also support the Geozagori initiative, started by one of our local representatives. Geotourism is nature-based tourism that focuses primarily on sites of geological interest. It promotes the exploration of geosites, the conservation of geodiversity and an understanding of Earth sciences through observation and learning. This is achieved by visiting geological features and view points, guided tours and geo-activities.

Geotourism will be integrated into the entire natural profile of a valued protected area, such as a geopark. Geo-Zagori offers a penetrating view of Vikos-Aoos Geopark focusing on the area surrounding Vikos gorge so called Zagori. With the belief that through geotourism a better understanding of the Earth can be achieved, I intend to present the geological values of Zagori promoting the protection of the geological heritage. We include detailed info on this in the pre-departure info pack and support local organisations like GeoZagori.