Panama holidays, Snorkelling reefs & jungle trails

Planet

Making a difference to planet and people underpin our itineraries and travel philosophy, across destinations. Panama is a particularly good example of this. As a hot spot for eco conscious travellers who are keen to immerse in local culture in a meaningful and informed way, we have gone above and beyond to ensure that we maximise the positive impact of international travel in the locations that we offer. This itinerary also helps the traveller to get off the beaten track, diverting from the high tourist footfall in nearby destinations like Costa Rica.

One of our central USPs is that we work with locally owned, boutique style special stays as opposed to international chain hotels. This works twofold, by providing the traveller with a once in a lifetime experience full of authentic, local flair and also supporting the local community through investment in locally owned ventures and the employment of local staff. Many of these hotels and independent guesthouses also have policies to reduce their environmental impact. Furthermore, many buildings in Panama have been restored for alternative purposes. A very good example of this is our accommodation in Bocas del Toro which is over 100 years old and started life as the head quarters of the United Fruit Company.

Carbon reduction policies extend beyond accommodation. As part of your tour package, you will also enjoy a range of excursions and activities that have been checked and vetted by our team. These involve a range of human powered transport like hiking and cycling. All our trips can be made vegan and or vegetarian friendly on request and our helpful assistance travel with zoe can give specific food recommendations to accommodate more environmentally friendly choices.

As a business, we are keen to practice what we preach. As a UK team, we recycle 80% of our waste in a closed- loop system, work in a b-corp office space, and are working towards b-corp status ourselves. We also partner with Earthly, a company that chooses nature based solutions to invest in the future of the natural world. This aims to protect, better manage and restore ecosystems while addressing global challenges. All of Earthly’s projects remove carbon, restore biodiversity and improve livelihoods. A £5 donation is added to each parties itinerary as standard. We are a proudly nature positive tour operator. This is realised through our itineraries in multiple ways.

Due to the unique location in an immersive natural environment, our places to stay naturally bring the traveller into closer proximity with the environment, ensuring their reconnection to nature. This is an investment in their future interest in sustainability. In this itinerary, you are really located in the heart of nature, therefore your accommodation here has a vested interest in creating a sustainable future.

Hiking through El Valle De Anton diverts from the usual tourist trail of hiking more famous hot spots like Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica. The attraction here is just the right amount to helps contribute to investment in the natural environment, whilst minimising environmental degradation elsewhere. As part of this, our travellers will pay entrance fees to all national parks and similar spaces, helping to support the upkeep of these protected areas.

Even before take off, we offer tools to our customers to encourage sustainability, carbon reduction and caring for the environment both at home and away. These include 'zero waste while travelling: our top tips', as well as our 'make it meaningful policy' that promotes animal welfare (underpinned by our relationship Animondial, an animal welfare group), 0 waste (exemplified in our almost entirely paper free office), and a slower pace of travel. We’re serious about this animal welfare stuff and want to do everything we can to improve the welfare of animals in tourism. We’ve therefore teamed up with animal welfare experts, Animondial. Their vision is to minimise tourism’s impact on animals, natural environments and the people that depend upon them. They’ve helped us to improve the welfare standards of our trips even further and create long-term plans to support animals in tourism. Best of all though, we’ve worked together to create an [](http://animondial.com/animal-welfare-starter-kit)Animal welfare in tourism starter kit for small businesses, to help other travel companies improve their animal welfare standards too.

As a team, we believe that protecting the environment goes hand in hand with building stronger communities, which is why we have both lead and joined in with beach cleaning initiatives with surfers against sewage, and local community gardening initiatives.

People

Our trips aim to put positively impacting local communities at front and centre of our itineraries, as local interactions are what make our trips so fantastic.

Throughout our trips we use local guides and drivers who are there to pass on their specialist expertise to our customers, just ask away - the more you ask the more you get out of the whole experience. By having a local guide specific to each area you gain both insight and experience of what life is really like in each of these incredible destinations.

We work with small, boutique style special stays full of authentic flare work twofold by offering you a unique experience and also supporting local business ventures and local employment, thus supporting the local economy. For instance [example]. During your trip, there is a wealth of local shops, cafe’s, bars and restaurants to visit and enjoy, in Pedasi you will stay in a cosy, family- run guesthouse and the town has many locally run bars, cafes and shops that the traveller is encouraged to enjoy. This helps bolster the local economy further.

We are constantly looking for meaningful trips which give back to the communities and adds something really special to our customer's experience in Panama. During this itinerary you will spend a couple of nights in Boquete, our coffee tour here seeks to support local farmers in the area. In Panama there are no co-operatives for local farmers so the farm you visit will reap all the rewards of your visit. You'll get to know all about coffee from the fruit stage to the tasting stage and you'll see exactly what agricultural life is like in Panama today.

One of the key aspects of our itineraries is that we work with local partners who are based in country in order to provide the most authentic insight into everyday life in the destination, and divert from the usual tourist trail (which is important when considering the mitigation of environmental degradation in tourist hotspots) but also supports the country's economy even before our customer has touched down as the local partner helps to develop their itinerary.
We maximise local economic opportunities further by using only locally owned excursion companies where you will meet and learn from expert local guides throughout the trip on excursions, for instance when enjoying the city tour in Panama city, where you can expect to visit the hidden gems with the help of an expert local guide.