Snowshoeing vacation in Bulgaria, Rila mountain

Planet

We always try to include accommodation in guesthouses and small family-run hotels, so that the accommodation part of the tours goes to local people and supports the sustainable development. This is very important in areas where skiing has become the main industry – it’s hard to convince local people that they can earn money not only from gondolas and ski runs. Bringing there clients who principally do not use the ski facilities shows to the locals in practice that responsible skiing is possible and encourages them to open new guesthouses and provide new services like snowshoes, guiding, cooking classes… The food consumed in the tour is produced by the hosts or bought locally. It is very often pure “bio”. If there were any well enough trained local guides, we would include also them in our tours.

People

Rila and Pirin are both nature conservation zones: Rila National Park is in the PAN parks network and Pirin National Park is included in the UNESCO world heritage list, so it is essential to develop sustainable tourism in these areas. We believe it is very important that the money paid for this tour goes to the local business, supporting and developing it in a sustainable way.

Moreover, the tour is aiming at minimum transportation costs and bad emissions – there are short transfers almost every day and 3 longer ones from 1,5 h to 3 hours. Last, but not least, the tour accommodation consists only of family-run hotels from the “green lodge” network, which means that the hosts think about environment while running their hotels and are fully committed. To support these very hosts is a part of our philosophy.