Croatia swimming vacation

Planet

CARBON REDUCTION
We have designed our trip operations carefully to minimize our impact on our environment. By its very nature, exploring the world via swimming – “human powered”, means our guests are not using unnecessary motorized vehicles to enjoy their vacation destination. We try to keep our transfer times as short as possible, ensuring guests spend less time traveling and more time swimming on their swim vacation. All our trips are sold without flights so travelers have the option to use more environmentally friendly means of travel if they wish.
Guests use shared local transport to travel from Split to Hvar on the ferries and we share all guest arrival times so that collective lifts can be arranged from Hvar to St Klement by boat.
Vegetarian & Vegan food is available daily from both our hotel and the local restaurants that we choose to visit in the evenings. The hotel uses fresh local ingredients including antipastos of island cheese and Dalmatian olives and locally caught seafood. This is enjoyed with local wine produced in Hvar and often followed by homemade herb liquor.

ENVIRONMENT & WILDLIFE
The Megeghello family who own the hotel have a rich connection with nature which can be experienced by spending time in their impressive gardens. The story of the garden goes back to 1906 when ancestors began planting exotic tropical vegetation. The impressive array of pines, cacti, palms and herbs attract a wonderful collection of wildlife including birds, bees and butterflies. By supporting this local business, they are able to invest in the gardens to ensure their long term future.

We continue to be reminded of the problem of plastic in our oceans. As such, we are committed to helping reduce to amount of plastic we use on our trips. We do this by:
• Encouraging guests to bring their own reusable water bottle on tour, or purchasing one of our non-plastic reusable alternatives
• Running regular guide plastic clean up sessions in our locations
• Using locally grown produce and home-cooked food wherever available to reduce the amount of plastic food packaging bought

People

LOCAL ECONOMY
Our local host families, cooks and helpers work closely alongside our guides to deliver an unforgettable vacation experience for our guests. Our local partners provide an invaluable wealth of local knowledge, not only on the safety front, but also by enhancing our guest’s cultural experiences – from food, to customs and hidden-away local gems. Through years of building happy, positive relationships with our local partners, we are confident in the knowledge that our guests will receive a wonderful warm welcome.
The hotel we use in Croatia is family owned and run and has been handed down through generations who have spent over 100 years creating a paradise of cultural tourism.
As most of our locations are small and remote, we make sure that our itineraries ‘spread the happiness’ meaning we take the guests to visit different businesses within the community. For example, we arrange for evening meals to be hosted at a different local restaurant each night, ensuring that the economic benefits brought about by our operation are distributed in an equitable way on the island.

EMPLOYMENT, INCLUSIVITY AND DIVERSITY
The Mengehello family own and run the hotel which provides employment opportunities for local people in the Pakleni Islands, Croatia. We use a small, local company to provide our safety boats and use all locally owned restaurants which help sustain employment in the area.
All our trips are inclusive and everyone is welcome to join us as long as we can make suitable arrangements for any individual needs. The trip is LGBTQ+ friendly and we are happy to discuss individual needs relating to mobility, vision, hearing or cognitive issues and as long as we can put in place measures to ensure the trip remains safe for all guest we welcome everyone.