Kyrgyzstan Tian Shan Mountains hiking tour

Planet

We work closely with local individuals, families and companies in Kyrgyzstan to design journeys in an optimal way to limit our impact on the environment.

We are traveling to such remote areas on this trip, so off the beaten track very few tourists and even the locals will have visited! Because of the remoteness of the region we camp in our own tents, with the exception of the last night in Altyn Arasham (Golden Springs) where we will stay in traditional yurts along side families where we get the opportunity to bath in the natural hot springs, making sure not to pollute the water with any cleaning products.

We travel with local guides to learn about the customs, traditions and culture along the way. This adventures involves a lot of hiking through very natural and remote environments and we work with the policy of ‘Take nothing but memories, Leave nothing but footprints’. This means that we do not leave any foreign materials or waste in these environments from our camps, nor do we take any objects from the environment nor disturb its equilibrium by our presence or actions.

Throughout the trips, we will stay with local families in felt yurts, all of which use solar power for lighting at night. These are summer Yurts and are packed down for the winter.

Finally, we are very proud to have partnered with Water-To-Go, specialists in personal and expedition water purification, instantly, and on-demand. Their unique, 350L water bottles incorporate advanced filtration technology to convert even the dirtiest water to drinking water as you fill up.

Being able to produce safe drinking water from sources off the beaten track, of sometimes dubious quality, offers incredible benefits to our adventure travellers and eliminates the need for single-use plastic bottles. We subsidise this product to make it more accessible to you.

People

This trip gets right under the skin of Kyrgyzstan and is a very interactive trip using experienced local guides and staying alongside local families in traditional yurts. We witness firsthand the ancient techniques of the Nomadic shepherds who bring their flocks up to these high summer pastures to graze, using trained dogs to protect the dogs at night from wolves.

We believe that partnering with local families not only enriches the overall experience of this trip but it also allows our clients to understand local traditions in Kyrgyzstan. The wonderful thing about this kind of interactive tourism is that everyone gains – the nomads financially and us with the wonderful welcome and experience they give us.

It is important we help our travellers to learn about and appreciate the local cultural and customs of this wonderful country.

Some examples of this include not passing close to a yurt without loudly informing the occupants first; failure to do this means the group or a client can be attacked by the guard dogs and will cause great discomfort and embarrassment to the occupants and possible injury to the dogs which then have to be forcibly restrained when they were only doing their job.

We actively encourage the giving of tips for meaningful services as well as the purchasing of locally sourced goods/souvenirs to support families and communities.