Western USA National Parks vacation

Planet

The USA may not be the first country you think of when considering responsible travel, but the National Park authorities have a long tradition of maintaining high standards of conservation and environmental practice in the parks. Your trip thus helps to support conservation as we explore many of America’s most wonderful natural places on this tour. Traveling solely by small vehicle, we visit the National Parks of Yosemite, Bryce, Death Valley, Zion, the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley, with the option to extend your trip into Arches and Monument Valley.

Visiting so many areas of pristine wilderness, it's essential that our Tour Leaders are trained to high standards of environmental management in order to minimise our impact. They are all given training on our Responsible Tourism policy, and as they are all inherently hikers and explorers at heart, who explore these Parks in their spare time, they are eager to impart their principles of traveling sustainably onto their groups.

Most hotels on this tour have the option to save towels and bedding, rather than washing each day. In order to save water and energy and to reduce pollution from detergents, we encourage you not to get towels changed if you are staying two or more nights. We ask you to do your bit to reduce plastic bottle waste by bringing a water bottle as tap water is drinkable

As a company we support Cool Earth. Protecting rainforest is one of the most effective actions to tackle climate breakdown. CoolEarth work with indigenous communities empowering them to conserve their forest; keeping CO2 locked in.

People

The USA has a huge amount of history to uncover and particularly interesting in this area is the history and culture of the Native Americans. Our local leader will be able to explain the customs and traditions of the Navajo Indians who we may encounter in Monument Valley. In this location, we stay on Navajo land in the Kayenta Monument Inn, which is Navajo-run. It's a good way to bring in money to their economy, rather than visiting for the day and staying outside the area.

Our Tour Leaders will encourage us to eat in family-run restaurants and visit local shops whenever possible throughout the tour. This all brings economic benefit to the local communities that we visit.

We travel in small groups of 12-13 people to minimise the effects that large groups have when visiting remote areas and small villages. This allows us to stay in smaller properties and eat in more local establishments, while larger coachloads of 40-50 would need to eat in more touristy places.

In addition to the above, we are continually looking for ways to improve and are proud to be ‘Responsible in everything we do’. Education is key and so all staff, Tour Leaders and partnering suppliers are trained in responsible and sustainable tourism. At our Head Office, we continually strive towards a sustainable and planet-friendly working environment, including having solar panels installed and a company commitment to reducing our plastic usage. As well as this, we have valuable and longstanding partnerships with UK charities Toilet Twinning and Send a Cow, plus many smaller initiatives and projects around the world. We’re members of UK travel industry bodies Tourism Concern and AITO because we believe it’s important to share our knowledge and experience, as well as learn from other operators.