Cycling the Baltic States vacation

Planet

We aim to minimise water and atmospheric pollution from any specific tourism development we use.

All of our self-guided groups travel by bus or minibus, while rental bikes are transported in trailer (not by separated motorised vehicle). To decrease the air pollution, we choose to work with transport companies offering newer, energy-efficient vehicles.

Reducing waste: We aim to achieve zero litter policies everywhere. Therefore we encourage travelers to avoid disposable plastic and to recycle. On this self-guided cycle tour we provide our customers with reusable plastic bottles for drinking water.

On this tour we recommend having lunches in local restaurants located in small towns and villages along the route, for example, Silute region in Lithuania, Sigulda region in Latvia and Saaremaa Island in Estonia. As these are agricultural areas, the restaurants use local and seasonally grown food what cuts down food travel miles.

We also recommend going off the beaten track, getting extraordinary travel experiences in the pristine nature and leaving it untouched afterwards.

This is a biking tour so the majority of time is spent either on two wheels or two feet helping to keep the emissions produced on the trip down. We also eat locally produced wherever possible to keep food miles in check.

Sourcing locally grown or produced food (with lower food miles) - this tour is organised in agricultural countries, which produce a lot of local food products; and for dinners booked in advance we always choose menus including more locally grown products and traditional dishes.

Offering vegetarian/plant-based and low dairy foods (which reduce CO2 emissions). We always offer for dinners a vegetarian menu as an option. Tourists should inform us in advance about this choice that we could inform hotels and restaurants (in order not to waste food products if informed too late);

Reducing energy use in our office which is now established in energy efficient building: heating in winter is controlled depending to weather conditions; in summer we don't use air conditioning - instead we use horizontal blinds to close windows from outside; low energy bulbs, etc

Hiring local city guides in the capital cities Vilniusm, Riga and Tallinn to reduce international travel;

People

On this trip we hire local guides in the capital cities Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn; they live and know the best her/his own city and the country,

We provide a list of recommended local museums and galleries of local handicrafts with preference to small family owned places, for example, amber gallery in Nida, Lithuania, etc.

We prefer accommodating our guests at local hotels rather than in international chain hotels, for example, NERIJA Hotel in Nida, SIGULDA Hotel in Sigulda, SAAREMAA Hotel in Saaremaa Island, etc.

We also use family owned boat transfer services across the Curonian Lagoon from the Nemunas River Delta area (Vente or Sturmai) to Nida; and local transport company to transport luggage from the boat to the hotel in Nida and next day from Nida to Klaipeda.