carbonneutraltourism.co.uk

Previously we have written a post on Natural Retreats, a provider of luxury self catering breaks in the Yorkshire Dales.  Their ethos centres on providing environmentally friendly breaks.  Natural Retreats have recently announced that they will be introducing new sites in the UK in the near future.   Click here to find out more.

Ernst and Young report that China has displaced the UK in the top 5 most attractive countries in respect of investment in renewable energy.   The indices which has been running for 5 years shows that the UK has dropped from 4th to 6th place.  Read more on Ernst and Young’s website.

A note from Christopher Hill, Managing Director of Hands Up Holidays (linked to your site).

Hands Up Holidays are offering three trips over the Christmas/New Year’s period which are all carbon-offset:

1. Southern Hospitality - a 9 day luxury fully guided trip in South Africa that includes Cape Town, Table Mountain, Cape Peninsula, volunteering at an AIDS orphanage, and a luxury safari - starting 24 Dec, ending 2 Jan to find out more click here.

2. Sunderbans Smiles - an 11 day community based tourism fully guided trip that includes Calcutta, tiger spotting in the Sunderbans, village interaction, and volunteering with
environmental conservation - starting 24 Dec, ending 4 Jan to find out more click here.

3. Taste of Morocco - a 9 day fully escorted guided trip that includes Marrakech, luxury riads in Marrakech and Essaouira, hiking in the Atlas Mountains (or a trip into the Sahara desert depending on weather conditions), relaxing in the coastal town of Essaouira, and volunteering in a remote Berber community to help build a library, IT room and reading room at the school - starting 24 Dec, ending 2 Jan to find out more click here.

A note from Cate Trotter the founder of Insider London.

Bored with the same old routes around London? Want an eye-opening experience of the capital’s secret hot-spots? Coolhunting agency Insider London launches Cutting-Edge Green Tours to give you the scoop on the most pioneering, sustainable-design goings-on in the city, from sexy products and gorgeous shops to futuristic architecture and inspiring communities - all in an afternoon.

The tour shows just how far London’s come from the hair-shirt wearing, recycled cardboard approach of years gone by. All the sights have been cherry-picked for their pioneering contributions to green living, ranging from high-end tailored scrap clothing to Britain’s first hydrogen-powered building and floating gardens producing renewable energy. The initiatives on the tour aren’t just some of the most sustainable and sexy concepts in London: the city’s world-leading status means the examples are some of the best on the planet. The tour’s positive, innovative approach won it a ‘Love London’ award earlier in the year.

Cate Trotter, Insider London’s 26-year-old founder leads the tour, drawing on her eight years’ of eco-design and green marketing expertise to provide highly-informed commentary. Having met many of the people behind the initiatives, she imparts all of the quirks that bring each story to life. Cate says: “Whether new to sustainability or a green veteran, the tours are an eye-opening, inspirational experience. We’ve had a lot of interest from business leaders, designers and student groups, as well as companies keen to organise events for their staff. The one thing they have in common is their desire to see the next ‘big thing’”.

Tours can be booked for the date and time of the clients’ choice, keeping it ‘insider’: no tour guides holding up umbrellas, here. The tours last 3 hours, with bespoke, day-long tours also available, focussing on the topic of the clients’ choice, whether green retail, ethical fashion or sustainable architecture. The experience can be extended to include a 2 or 3 course lunch at one of London’s leading green restaurants, or a stay in London’s first 5-star green hotel. Interior design and architecture tours are also coming soon.
Founder, Cate Trotter, said: “The tour has been praised for being a great new way to explore the city. It is a one-stop shop to the best in sustainable living. Jaded Londoners love getting a fresh view of their hometown, while foreign visitors find the tours are a great way to orient themselves in the city beyond the West End, as we take them overground from the East End and along the South Bank.”

Insider London’s Green Tours run on the first weekend of each month - next dates are Saturday 6th September and Sunday 5th October, with places costing £25, or £20 for concessions. Private tours can also be booked for the date and time of the client’s choice. Bookings can be made by emailing bookings@insider-london.co.uk with the desired date and number of places. Tours last 3 hours and depart from the Bishopsgate entrance of Liverpool Street station, finishing by the Oxo Tower.

www.insider-london.co.uk

A note from INKATERRA:

INKATERRA, Peru’s leading eco and adventure travel company invites birding enthusiasts to don their binoculars, spread their wings and migrate to its hotels for the ultimate bird watching trip. Being home to nearly 20% of the world’s bird species, Peru is a must for any twitcher to tick off their list. INKATERRA’s new tour offers guests unique bird sightings in diverse habitats complemented with exquisite stays at three of INKATERRA’s luxury properties: INKATERRA Reserva Amazonica situated in the Amazon Basin, INKATERRA Machu Picchu in the cloud forest and INKATERRA La Casona, Cusco near Lake Huacarpay.

Each of these properties afford guests specialised guided excursions with an English speaking expert in bird and nature observation. The guides’ extensive knowledge of the native birds ensures that guests are taken to different habitats chosen according to seasonal preferences, to make sure they get the most out of their birding expeditions.

With over 450 different species, the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest provides remarkable bird watching at INKATERRA Reserva Amazonica. Sightings here of black-faced cotinga, band-tailed manikins, lemon-throated barbet, scarlet macaw, fork-tailed palm creeper, hoatzin, white-throated toucan, eagles are common. Extensive research and conservation efforts that have been carried out by the INKATERRA Association (the NGO arm of the company) allow birders to enjoy the lodge’s outstanding facilities. Enthusiasts can spot birds high in the tree tops on the Canopy Walk, or see species nesting in the wetlands nearer to the forest floor on the Anaconda Walk. Whilst those wanting a more relaxing experience, can travel by boat along the river and spot a variety of feathered creatures along the way.

At INKATERRA Machu Picchu the optimum time for spotting the cloud forest’s 180 bird species is early in the morning. Expeditions begin at the river observatory where it is possible to see the sought-after torrent duck and the white-capped dipper. Birders can also visit a tanager feeding area where silver-beaked, blue-necked, fawn-breasted and saffron-crowned tanagers can be found. The hotel’s pathways also provide exquisite birding opportunities with frequent sightings of the cock-of-the-rock, the golden-headed quetzal and many of the 18 different hummingbirds, including the native booted racket-tail and the green-and-white hummingbirds.

Find out more about INKATERRA here and here.

The Hoopoe Yurt Hotel is set in three hectares of olives groves and cork oak forest, with spectacular views of the Grazalema mountains of Andalucia, in southern Spain.
Although we didn’t set out to be an ecohotel, it is has evolved that way because it makes sense here.  The camp runs entirely on solar power and all the loos are composting to conserve water.  We are easily accessible by public transport and the village is a twenty minute walk away.

Staying in one of our yurts is the perfect way to enjoy the stunning scenery, allowing you to get back to nature without forgoing the usual luxuries you would wish for on your holiday. The yurts have private bathrooms, as well as an acre of private meadow with hammocks and comfortable shaded seating areas.  This is the perfect place to unwind and relax, and soak up the sights and sounds of nature right on your doorstep.

This is our fourth year on this bit of land and each year we clear a little more of the scrub and see the wildlife return. In spring the meadows are carpeted with a huge variety of wild flowers, and each year we see plants we had not seen before. The bird population has also increased. The mixture of open meadow and forest provides the perfect habitat for dozens of species of birds, and during the migratory months makes it an ideal stopover for many more.
We have five very different styles of yurt to choose from.  To find out more visit www.yurthotel.com.

Hands Up Holidays is all about providing amazing holiday experiences that combine eco-sightseeing with a meaningful taste of volunteering.

I founded Hands Up Holidays to give you the opportunity to not only see amazing sights, but also to have authentic interaction with local people and give something back in a “hands on” way to local communities through a taste of volunteering.

In my life I have been blessed to have had some incredible travel experiences in over 50 countries, from African sunsets on safari, to swimming with dolphins, to hiking up volcanoes and even gasping for breath in the Himalayas.

But as amazing as those experiences are, my most enduring memories are the times when I have engaged in meaningful ways with the local people: becoming the official photographer at a village wedding in a remote section of North-East Vietnam, sharing chai with Indian farmers, sheeshah with Touareg nomads or copious brandies with gracious Serbian hosts are memories I cherish.

Moreover, when these interactions are overlaid with giving back through volunteering, they became incredibly fulfilling, inspiring…and life changing. Experiences such as helping build a house in South Africa and teaching English to my host family in a home-stay in Guatemala are great examples, and the lifelong friends I have made as a result and the lives changed were the catalyst for leaving my job in the City in London and setting up Hands Up Holidays.

I started working on Hands Up Holidays in 2003 to make it easy for you,fellow travellers, to have incredible voluntourism experiences and dig a little deeper into a community and give back in ways that enable you to make a positive impact in 3-5 days with a taste of volunteering.

I am passionate about you having amazing travel experiences through Hands Up Holidays. Expect to have a meaningful holiday with us, while at the same time being challenged to look at the world in a new light.

Here is a sample 14 day trip:

• Days 1-5 are with your local, English-speaking guide; exploring your chosen destination and also learning some of the local language, cultural norms and etiquette. Your accommodation is generally 4-5* but we tailor-make trips to suit all budgets.
• Days 6-9 are your taste of volunteering days. Here you  experience meaningful interaction with local people while you give back through volunteering. This includes (a) being a reading partner, (b) helping at an orphanage, (c) building a house, (d) environmental conservation, (e) repairs and renovations.
• Days 10-14 are for reflecting on your volunteer experience, for consolidating any group bonding, relaxing and continuing to explore with your local guide.

Hands Up is committed to sustainability - in the communities in which we operate and in the ecosystems that we encounter. Our independent travel options and small group size help us to tread lightly, minimizing impact, and ideally enriching the environment.

One way we seek to conserve the environment is by including the cost of offsetting carbon emissions in the price of your tour. We pay for the equivalent number of trees to be planted to offset the CO2 emissions from the flights and the trip. Where practical, you can even plant the
trees yourself!

Our trees are planted by our partner, Climate Stewards, in the tropics (Ghana) and native species are used as well as mango as a source of healthy fruit for the communities.

Is this the entire solution?

Not at all, but it is a step in the right direction.

We are providing fuel efficient stoves in areas where logging is a problem, and through channelling at least 10% of our profits into the Hands Up Foundation, we will be investing in bio fuel creation and storage devices which provide clean burning gas from methane or crop waste.

We also have some superb environmental voluntourism projects that you can get involved in:

- China ‘Home of the Giant Pandas’ – you can help clean panda reserves

- Vietnam ‘Vietnamese Venture’ - an organic gardening project with victims of Agent Orange

- Guatemala ‘Mountains & Mayans’ – a reforestation project

- Namibia ‘Classic Namibia’ – assisting with Elephant/farmer conflict resolution practice

All our trips are rated out of 5 for Comfort and Activity level, so you can find the trip that suits you best.

Most of these trips are upmarket, some of them even luxurious in terms of accommodation, as we know that this is your holiday, and volunteering does not have to involve sleeping on the floor; luxury volunteering is our specialty - although we can arrange this if you prefer, and will gladly tailor-make a trip to suit your budget and requirements.

The volunteering portion of your trip is generally 4 days out of a 14 day trip - not enough time to save the world, but sufficient to make a positive impact, rub shoulders with the local people, and have your worldview challenged.

It is our hope that after experiencing a Hands Up Holiday voluntourism trip, you will feel inspired to  volunteer for a longer period somewhere (even in your home town), or become a lifelong advocate or donor for the Community Development project you got involved with.

Hands Up Holidays is a founding member of the Ethical Tour Operators Group, part of Tourism Concern that is committed to sustainable tourism that benefits local communities and the environment.

Hands Up Holidays is a fully bonded and licensed member of ATOL, number 9675.