The Great Glen Way hiking vacation in Scotland

Planet

We believe that walking trips are the best way to experience a destination. This slow style of travel not only affords you more time to appreciate your destination, but can positively contribute to the regions that host you. This long distance path opened in April 2002, and travels through the very heart of Scotland, it is an ideal low impact way to explore the history and landscape.

We are aligned with “Leave No Trace”, an international organisation that has set the global standard for outdoor ethics. Through targeted education, research and outreach, its mission is to ensure the long-term health of our natural world while maintaining sustainable recreation in nature.

Our Waste Management Policy encourages our travelers to take their own reusable water bottles, coffee cups and reusable stuff sacks to avoid single-use plastics. We follow this same philosophy in our office as well as on the trail, in our London office we have banned single use coffee cups and water bottles. We use recycled paper in our office, and are working towards reducing the amount of paper we use, and we recycle all our paper and plastic waste.

People

Our preferred accommodations we use on this trip are locally owned small hotels, Inns and B&Bs; this way we ensure your tourist spend is staying within the area and benefiting local people. We select our properties for their warm welcome; and also favour those that offer local produce in their breakfast menus. For example, when available, we book the family owned Guisachan House in Fort William. They feature Scottish produce in their breakfast options including Speyside Haggis, porridge oats from Aberdeenshire, locally made salami from the Great Glen Charcuterie and smoked salmon produced by Ardshealach Smokehouse at Glenuig.

The trip has been planned on a bed & breakfast basis only, leaving you free to choose a neighbourhood restaurant for the evening, and to help your tourist spend spread further in the community. During your tour we encourage you to purchase your lunch/snacks from local shops; it will give you a chance to meet the local people, and can encourage genuine cultural exchange.

In 2000 we developed the award winning Responsible Travel Guidebook, which presented our Travel Group’s comprehensive policies on sustainable travel. Over the years our Responsible Travel Guidebook has evolved to meet the ever-changing landscape of sustainable travel. In March 2018 The Thoughtful Traveler booklet was launched, which is an easy-to-read document that empowers travelers with suggestions about how they can be part of the solution and collectively make the world a better place when they travel. Everyone is encouraged to read the Thoughtful Traveler ebook before departure.