Coastal walking holiday in Portugal

Planet

Accommodation and meals:
On this trip, we spend the nights in various locally owned hotels that employs local staff and purchase local produce whenever possible. This ensures that our money spent directly contributes to the local community. When food is not provided, our local guides will encourage and recommend clients to visit local restaurants and cafes to try local delicacies. As a seafaring nation, seafood and fish is very common in Portuguese cuisine. One local speciality from the sea is the Barnacle Perceve. Otherwise, clients can also try some good quality meat or excellent dried hams, salamis and cheese in the region.

Activity:
On this trip, clients have a high chance to spot a great variety of birds and mammals along the treks. Such as Swift, Western Jackkdaw, the Peregerine falcon, Egyptian Mongoose and weasel. On the free day, clients get to choose from a number of optional activities available in the area, including surfing classes and a horse riding experience.

As a walking and trekking trip, there is little detrimental impact on the environment and local residents. Though, erosion and adjacent to popular paths is a growing issue in certain places, our local guides will ensure that clients stick to advised routes in order to minimise this. Additionally, a walking trip like this allows easy access to the local community where clients can easily interact with the locals , visit local cafes and restaurants to foster cultural exchange.

Conservation:
Since 2014, our local operator is a partner of Rota Vicentina and have been carrying out several studies on the region about the impact of walkers on these trails. As a result, they try to spread awareness on how human activity is leading to the extinction of endangered species and habitats hence, proving the need to protect these habitats of animals. Our local operator is also engaged in annual cleaning and marking events of the trails in the region to ensure that everything is of the highest quality and that visitors will enjoy using the trails.

Water:
Water is a really important issue with trips such as this and whilst we must stay hydrated, it is also vital that we have a system for providing clean water without causing lots of waste with plastic bottles. Wherever possible we provide safe alternative sources of water to buying single use plastic bottles. This may be through large water containers, or encourage our passengers to filter, sterilise or purify water. We encourage all our passengers to come prepared with a reusable water bottle for this purpose.

Group Size:
This is a small group tour, meaning that we have a low impact on the environments and communities we visit and are able to ensure that we do not disrupt or lead to the displacement of local people. The small number also allows us to stay in unique, family-run hotels that cannot benefit from coach tours and other mass tourism due to their limited sizes.

UK Office:
It all starts at home where we work towards reducing our carbon footprint in our offices through energy conservation measures, recycling policies and the promotion of cycling and walking as a means for our staff to commute. Our head office has become a plastic-free zone with the use of plastic bottles being banned in our head office and we distributed reusable water bottles and tote bags to every staff member. We also support a large number of community and environmental projects in different parts of the world and try to give something back to the places we visit.

People

Local culture and craft:
Though this trip is primarily focused on the scenic views, rich biodiversity and pristine beaches, there are still opportunities for clients to visit small souvenir shops, art galleries, potteries and basket makers to support local craft. Clients can take a visit to the small market town of Aljezur, which is famous for its whitewashed houses and cobbled streets and dominated by the ruins of a tenth century Moorish Castle. Definitely, our local guides will advise clients on what can be bought and what should be avoided. Products made from ivory, cactus and orchids or any leather products made from turtles, crocodiles or snakes should be avoided.

Charity:
Our local operator is committed in donating 1% of their revenue to grassroots, social and environmental groups that make a difference in their local communities, specifically projects in Portugal, India and Morocco.