Buddhist Bhutan cultural tour, Black necked Crane Festival

Planet

CARBON REDUCTION

The transport logistics of this trip have been designed to feature travel primarily by shared vehicle, and to remove the necessity of internal flights. Also, keeping our groups small (twelve maximum) means there is no need for huge coaches, and we can instead use smaller vehicles.

The accommodation for this trip primarily consists of small, locally-owned lodges whose impacts are inherently lower than those of large hotel alternatives by nature of their size.

All diets can be catered for, including vegan and vegetarian. All we need is advance notice so that we can prepare our local team, and the hotels and restaurants you will be visiting; during the trip, your guide will be able to assist with ordering meals that meet your requirements.

ENVIRONMENT & WILDLIFE

Broadly, we use local guides who have intimate knowledge of the places you visit and how they are fairing in terms of restoration, degradation, and therefore how best to navigate them. We always ask our clients to respect our outlook on this, in being mindful of rubbish, and trying to recycle whenever you can.

We encourage all our clients to bring a reusable water bottle, ideally with a filtration system to replace the need for single-use plastics. We offer a free Water-To-Go bottle (just pay for postage) to all of our UK-based clients when they book, which provides a great chance to try out these amazing filtered bottles in the hopes of converting more travelers to using them on all of their travels

People

LOCAL ECONOMY

As regular travelers, one thing that never ceases to amaze and inspire us is the kindness and generosity of local people, often people who have very little to their name. We firmly believe that they are who make these places special and that they should benefit from our visit so we do our best to ensure that the benefits of our tours reach as widely as possible into the communities where they operate.

Bhutan has long had a policy of controlling numbers to lower environmental impact by means of their sustainable development fee, and this cost is included in our tour costs.

All of our tours in Bhutan are led by fantastic local guides, and transport is provided by local drivers who ensure that all supplies are purchased locally for your journey.

Our first preference for accommodation is always locally owned properties, which often provide a better boutique experience, but also minimises the economic leakage from tourism spending. The same goes for restaurants and shops.

EMPLOYMENT, INCLUSIVITY AND DIVERSITY

One thing which is true across all of the countries in which we operate, is that we are passionate about ensuring the partners we have on the ground are those with the best knowledge of them. In Bhutan we work with a Bhutanese local company, who employ a team of people from various regions thus diversifying their knowledge of the country.

All of our guides, drivers, and other staff are paid at least minimum wage, if not a living wage or above for fair compensation of the incredible work they do.

We are LGBTQ+ friendly on all of our trips. We are always willing to have discussions with those who may have questions about safety on the ground, visibility, and any other concerns to ensure that our clients are comfortable and confident whilst on our trips.