Kruger & coast vacation in South Africa

Planet

We’re all for zero contact, zero interaction experiences with wildlife. Wild animals should be viewed in the wild. This trip offers travelers the opportunity to view wildlife in their natural habitat in the Kruger National Park, and Hlane Royal National Park. Our leaders are trained to ensue travelers follow a few simple guidelines; don’t call out to animals, whistle or try to get their attention – noise disturbs them and stresses them out – just let them do their thing. Drivers and guides must never use their vehicles to get an animal to move, or drive off-road to get closer to the action.

We actively discourage the participation of travelers in any activities that exploit wild or domestic/working animals. Unfortunately there are many businesses in Southern Africa offering an optional 'Walk with the Lions' experience. We ask all our travelers to avoid this activity as it is contrary to our Responsible Travel policy. The lion walking industry directly contributes to the captive breeding and canned hunting of lions.

In an effort to reduce single use plastic during this trip we provide reusable cloth bags to all of our travelers. It’s easy to use plastic excessively, especially in the hot months. However, we encourage our travelers to buy large 5-10 litre bottles to refill their small water bottle.

Water is a precious commodity in this part of the world. Our trained tour Leaders are well versed in advising travelers on initiatives to manage water consumption. We encourage travelers to treat this scarce resource with the utmost respect.

Unfortunately on the vast majority of this itinerary, using local transport is not reliable or feasible. So we use private, locally owned transport. We ensure our vehicles/fleets are well maintained and fuel-efficient. We also endeavour to include a range of other local transport options such as Canoe where possible.

People

This trip s run by our own local Southern Africa operator who shares our commitment to responsible travel, from waste and water management to ensuring we are leaving as minimal a footprint as possible. Our local team are trained on our global responsible travel policies and practices. We also use a range of other local suppliers for different activities throughout this 2 country itinerary.

All aspects of this trip (on the ground) are operated by local Southern Africans (most of whom live locally) including all our leaders, vehicle drivers, local site guides, suppliers and accommodation providers.

The cloth bags provided to our travelers on every trip are sourced and suppled from a local community NGO.

This trip has a maximum group size of 16, to minimise our impact on the places we visit. Overtourism is an issue we are very conscious of and we are taking measures to ensure our impact on the communities we visit and their environment is our top priority.