Costa Rica wildlife small group tour

Planet

CARBON REDUCTION

As a travel company, we are acutely aware of our impact on the environment. All of our tours display a carbon footprint, and we strive to reduce our emissions by regularly reviewing our tours and embracing low-impact styles of travel, such as trains, public buses, or walking – which offer the added benefit of fostering a closer connection with the destination and local community.

The average carbon footprint on this tour is 161 kg of CO?e per person.

Costa Rica is widely recognized as a global leader for environmental accomplishments. It's the first tropical country in the world to have reversed deforestation. In 2019, the country received the Champion of the Earth award – the United Nations' highest environmental honour – for its role in the protection of nature and its commitment to ambitious policies to combat climate change.

As we travel in small groups, this reduces our environmental impact, and all of our internal connections are made by bus. On this trip, there are numerous opportunities to walk, and we use boats to travel around the National Parks.

During our trip, we stay at many eco lodges, one of them being Trogon Lodge in San Gerardo. Trogon Lodge was awarded an Ecological Blue Flag for their work on the design process of the lodge's infrastructure and their sustainability efforts to help maintain the purity of the Río Savegre.
We also stay at Guayabo Eco Lodge in Turrialba. The lodge is certified with four out of five levels for sustainable tourism from the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.

In Selva Verde, we stay at the famous Selva Verde Lodge. Selva Verde has many carbon-reducing programs such as a compost system to recycle organic waste, solar panels to heat the water for rooms, and using biodegradable cleaning products with no environmental damage.


ENVIRONMENT & WILDLIFE

We strive to support nature and biodiversity through protection and regeneration projects, and for every customer that travels with us we make a donation to Rewilding Britain and Cool Earth.

We encourage customers to avoid single-use plastic on tour, and our leaders give advice on refill points each day. Where tap water isn't safe to drink we recommend Water-to-Go bottles, a filtration bottle allowing you to drink water from any source.

We will visit and stay within the Selva Verde Rainforest at the Selva Verde Eco Lodge. Selva Verde began with one woman's dream of preserving nearly 500 acres of endangered tropical forest and the multitude of species that call it home.

We also visit the world famous Manuel Antonio National Park. To ensure the tourism impact on the national park, in 2023 the Costa Rican Constitutional Court ruled to limit the number of visitors in the park. Tickets are limited, but we secure them in advance for our travellers.
You also have the chance to visit Tortuguero National Park and stay in locally owned lodges. One of these lodges, Turtle Beach Lodge, regularly donates to the COTERC foundation for the cause of Turtle research. The lodge also contributes to the cause of donating instruments to the neighbourhood children’s dance group.

Lastly, our local ground partners were one of the first tour operators in Costa Rica to obtain the Certification for Sustainable Tourism (CST), achieving level five out of five. All staff are given regular training and support to promote environmental best practices.

People

LOCAL ECONOMY

Our leaders are the heart of tours. They bring passion and unrivalled knowledge of the destinations and communities that we visit. Their guidance ensures we observe the cultural norms in a destination, they act as a bridge between travellers and the local community and ensure that tourism is a positive experience for both host and guest. We believe in supporting local; staying in locally-run hotels, exploring markets, buying snacks from street vendors, and by doing this we add money to the local economy and enhance our connection with the local community.

We only employ local guides and crew members, giving economic benefits to the regions we travel through. We prioritize family-run accommodations over all-inclusive chain resorts, which tend to have a much larger carbon footprint and use more imported foodstuffs.

EMPLOYMENT, INCLUSIVITY & DIVERSITY

Our local partners in Costa Rica have been leading the way in promoting gender equality within the tourism sector; recognising that gender equality is a key element to guarantee social well-being and sustainable development, they are a vocal advocate of the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC) mission, which looks forward to achieve equal pay between women and men for work of equal value by 2030.

The Selva Verde Lodge we stay at supports the The Sarapiquí Conservation Learning Center (SCLC), which was founded in 1993. Today it is a fully independent US and Costa Rica registered non-profit organization. The SCLC’s mission is to link communities and conservation through education and ecotourism in the Sarapiquí region. The SCLC offers community programs such as English classes, computer literacy, environmental education and after-school activities. By offering local residents opportunities to improve their job prospects, the SCLC hopes the population is able to cultivate more sustainable occupations to improve their job prospects.