Cycling the Lake District of Chile and Argentina

Planet

Accommodation & meals:
Throughout this trip we stay at a number of hotels all of which employ local staff; so our guests are providing an income to areas that do not usually benefit from tourism. Posada Del Angel is an example of a local family run hotel we stay at on the periphery of San Carlos De Bariloche. When staying in Conguillio National Park, we stopover at La Baita Conguillio, an Eco lodge. The lodge is built from native wood and is efficiently heated and insulated. Energy is produced by a turbine generator meaning appliances which consume a lot of energy cannot be used and hot water is limited.
Dinners are not included on this trip allowing clients to visit different local restaurants each night enabling their money to spread further within the local economy. Most lunches are included in the tour and we stop at different local restaurants en route each day.

Environment:
During this trip we visit five national parks; Pérez Rosales National Park (Chi), Nahuel Huapi National Park(Arg), Lanín National Park (Arg), Villarrica National Park (Chi), Conguillio National Park (Chi). The park entrance fees are included in the tour price. These national parks are important as they are preserving the natural landscapes in these areas, in particular conserving endemic trees as well as fending off projects to build hydroelectric plants.

Group size:
This small group tour has a maximum of 16 participants, meaning that we have a low impact on the communities we visit and are able to ensure that we do not disrupt or lead to the displacement of local people. The small number also allows us to stay in unique, family-run hotels that cannot benefit from coach tours and other mass tourism due to its limited size.

Activity:
Few vacations have as little detrimental impact on the environment and local residents as a cycling trip. It is a quiet, low impact activity requiring comparatively little resources to support. Leaders ensure that clients stick to agreed routes in order to minimise our impact. We do believe in leaving no more than footprints (or tyre tracks!).

UK office:
It all starts at home so we have first worked at reducing our carbon footprint in our UK offices. Through energy conservation measures and recycling policies, we are proud to be actively reducing the waste produced and our impact on the environment. We support various projects all over the world to try and give something back to the places we visit.

People

Community:
We employ local Argentinean drivers and tour guides to lead this cycling trip providing employment opportunities and financial benefits for people in the communities from this region. Throughout the tour we support small local businesses by making stops at local shops/stalls to replenish snack supplies to carry in the support vehicle.