Bruges photography vacation in Belgium

Planet

Due to its unique beauty and character Bruges attracts quite a lot of tourists.

The Town of Bruges has taken significant steps to manage and reduce the impact of tourism by requiring tour operators and guides to have a valid license/authorisation. The town has also issued a comprehensive municipal by-law concerning organised walking tours for tourists to which we adhere.

We go to great lengths to keep our impact as low as possible.

All of our photography vacations are essentially small group travel with a maximum of 10–12 guests. However we rarely move around in one group but instead encourage our guests to explore in smaller groups of 2–3 persons or on their own to find their individual angles of view. This allows us to blend in and in turn we are rewarded with better insights and hence better images.

We explore the town by foot, which is the preferred means of transport. We also encourage our guests to choose public transport (bus, train) for their journey to Bruges wherever possible.

Photography is generally a quiet, contemplative activity and our guests are always careful not to leave traces or intrude in any way on other people’s life and activities.

In addition we encourage our guests to travel responsibly and to consider the following guidelines:

• Respect local customs religion, traditions and personal property boundaries.

• Don’t take photographs of local people and places of religious significance without permission.

• Keep promises! Send copies of photos to local people if this is what you have said you will do.

• Reduce pollution and dispose of litter in designated bins only.

• We discourage buying plastic bottled water. Instead bring a metal or heavy-duty plastic bottle to refill with water from a safe source.

People

Knowing that tourism is an important source of income for the area, our responsible travel policy demonstrates our active commitment to sustainable and responsible tourism. This vacation visits places that are less frequented by tourists and our departure to the area falls outside the main tourist season. That makes our economic contribution especially welcome. All of our service suppliers are informed of our responsible travel policy which can be found on our website.

Our hotel is a small and lovingly restored historic property. In 2012 it received the EMAS and ISO 14001 quality certificates for its progressive environmental management.

Eating out in small local restaurants is not only benefitting the local economy directly but it is also a major attraction of this particular vacation.

We always ensure that participants on our vacations get the opportunity to see and purchase local products. Local providers appreciate our ongoing commitment to their livelihoods.

When shopping for things such as food and souvenirs we ask our guests to read the labels and buy local products so that money directly benefits the community.