Spanish course & hiking vacation, Picos de Europa, Spain

Planet

We are serious about maintaining the natural beauty of the region and take steps to ensure that the environmental impacts of our activities are kept to a minimum.

In order to reduce vehicular traffic in the area, we recommend to use public transport to get here where possible. If not, we prefer to pick up all visitors from the airports, ferries and train stations that service the area.

As a way on encouraging flight-free travel, we offer a 5% discount on the price of our course to those who use a ferry or train to get here.

We promote local environmental projects and initiatives, and use these as a point of interest in our walks. This improves knowledge, awareness and allows a positive transfer of ideas.

We take litter home with us (whether it’s ours or not).

We walk responsibly, minimising soil erosion and disruption to animals. We use lesser known routes to halt over exploitation and damage.

We are knowledgeable about the environment we live in and its rich history. One of our passions is supporting people who respect their environment by taking an active interest and helping out with work when things are busy, for example at our friends traditional farm.

People

We want our business to have a socially positive impact locally and beyond. We visit local businesses and promote traditional practices that do not abuse the environment.

We take an active interest in other local businesses, for example helping out when things are busy at one of our neighbour’s traditional farms. We organize cinema nights at the school for the locals, as well as conversation exchange opportunities (such our "Menage a three" nights where Spanish, English and French are spoken over a glass of wine). We also work with local projects to promote sustainable development.

One of the great things about the area is that everybody helps each other when needed and money is never mentioned. We really like this and support these values. We treat the traditional ways of life and the local people with respect. We make a point of showing these to our groups as a way of promoting the area and creating interesting points of discussion.

We use a local taxi minibus service for our trips to the National Park, allowing us to be dropped off and picked up in different locations. This also minimises pollution and creates employment locally.

The Picos have some very old and traditional villages high in the mountains, these often have combined bar/shops which we use whenever we visit, helping keep them alive for the local people. This is really important as many of these villages are remote and inaccessible during winter.

We use local produce and workforce whenever possible.