South Downs electric bike cycling holiday, England

Planet

We've been organising cycling for over 30 years, encouraging this environmentally-friendly activity is at the absolute core of our business. We hope that through memorable cycling holidays we will encourage more people to adopt the bike as a green mode of transport at home as well.

Our destination managers in Sussex provide all cyclists with a refillable water bottle and share some top tips on how to support the local environment. Ideas such as turning off lights when leaving a room, considering if you need clean towels and bedding regularly and taking no more than one shower daily when possible. We also encourage our clients to stick to marked trails and to take away any waste when stopping off for a picnic or to explore the local area. With the beach and South Downs National Park being such a big part of this holidays appeal, we make extra efforts to ensure that our guests know how best to preserve this beautiful landscape and habitat.

The main components of our holidays are already relatively low emitters of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, but we feel strongly that there is always room for improvement in this area. One example of how we are striving to minimise our impact is through encouraging our passengers to book cleaner modes of transport, such as train travel, whenever possible. This tour can be reached by train from London in less than1 hour, meaning not only is it a better option for our planet, but quicker than driving too.

At our head office in the UK we recycle paper, card, plastic and metal cans and we always try to use fully recyclable materials for our printed travel documents and marketing communications. We encourage all our staff to cycle when they can and are part of the Cycle to Work scheme. We also like to take part in charity bike rides together each year.

People

All our tours encourage cyclists to get off the beaten track and discover the lesser-known parts of England, stay in privately owned boutique hotels, visit local wine producers and eat in local restaurants. For example we encourage guests to pay a visit to Tinwood and Ridgeview vineyards, a local businesses that have really helped to grow the UK wine industry over recent years for a tour and tasting. In Sussex we also use local bike rental companies, supporting small businesses in a niche market, rather than shipping our own equipment in.

We are also passionate about the history of this part of the world and encourage all of our guests to explore Sussex's distinct regional culture, whether through visiting sites of historical significance or getting involved in any local festivities that may be taking place.

We also work with World Bicycle Relief to support bike-led charity projects in developing nations.