Responsible Travel
Baltic Holidays achieves Travelife Partner
"Amsterdam, June 1st, 2023. The Travelife Partner level award was received today by Baltic Holidays (Lithuania). The award recognizes the long-term efforts of Baltic Holidays regarding sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility." More info re Travelife is here...
Responsible Travel - Sustainable Travel
These are now well-known terms worldwide and thankfully becoming more respected and implemented by the travel industry. As a small tour operator, run by nature-lovers with young families, we have always placed great importance on being responsible and sustainable wherever possible. This can be a challenge for the travel industry, as how we travel and how much we travel has an impact on the environment. But we always have choices, and we will always choose to make the least negative impact and to create positive benefits where we can. Here is an insight into how we work, so you can understand how we navigate our industry in the most responsible and sustainable way we can.
- Wherever possible we use local suppliers, family run businesses and hotels. This means that money spent by you stays in the local community, at a grassroots level rather than to shareholders who may not live in the local area.
- We use local guides and drivers in each region or country, many of whom we have worked with for many years and are our good friends. This means you benefit from a true local expert and meet more locals on a multi-region tour, but this also means that your money spent benefits more local families.
- Our aim is to help local communities benefit from a sustainable increase in tourism. We want to welcome more visitors to our destinations, but we also encourage our guests to leave the honeypots behind and feel like the only tourist in town; experience authentic real life and discover the country beyond the main sights. This helps to spread your money spent across the region, to family businesses that rely on fewer tourists.
- By taking one big main holiday rather than several short breaks, you can reduce the impact you have on the environment. Fewer flights for starters. And this gives you the chance to see more and do more, to really get to know a country, its heritage and people. Our Baltic capitals tours are a great example, do Tallinn, Riga & Vilnius (and more) in one trip rather than three small ones.
- Slow travel - we love this! So often people want to see as much as possible, we understand that. But when we get asked to create an itinerary exploring a place for a week or two, to enjoy local festivals, workshops, spa retreats & time in nature, that is an absolute pleasure. Slow travel allows you precious time to talk to people, to hang out, to get invited to an ad-hoc party or event, to visit hidden sights that a quick itinerary would never allow for. Slow travel means you share the economic and social impact of your stay with more locals and it is so much more fulfilling.
- Seasonal travel - we encourage travel all year round, to spread the impact of visitors and also provide a year-round income for local businesses. We will help you choose the best destination and itinerary for when you want to travel.
- Get out into the nature! This is the best way to appreciate the natural world around us. Feel connected to nature, feel inspired or awestruck - these are emotions that we all need to experience regularly to remind ourselves that we all play a part in the future of the planet.
- Meet the locals - by meeting locals who are naturally eco-minded, who live and work with nature, and who have a wholesome approach to the use of natural, traditional materials and methods, we hope our guests might take home a practical tip or reawakening of what they could do differently at home to be more mindful of their impact on the environment.
- We endeavour to constantly improve our responsible travel approach by promoting public transport in our itineraries, choosing local suppliers, changing our vehicles to cleaner energy, passing on feedback to suppliers, and considering the environment in our decision-making at all times.
We may be an online travel company, but when shopping for a holiday we are the equivalent of shopping in your local greengrocers rather than the big supermarket.
Support small business - enjoy better service & value for money and directly support local communities. It's what we do!
