Malawi self drive and trekking holiday

Planet

We want our customers to enjoy an experience led holiday within a natural environment. To do this we use partners and suppliers who are guardians of their surroundings. One of the main stops at Thawale Lodge is operated by African Parks who work to conserve wildlife areas across Africa. Your stay here will directly contribute to funding the rangers and overall conservation program in the area.

Your visit to Chongoni to see the cave art, leads to the direct protection of these prehistoric artefacts through your admission fee.

This trip is particularly strong from an environmental point of view due to the long trek where you will be walking across Mount Mulanje, this will help to reduce environmental emissions and gives you a chance to truly enjoy the nature around you. The self driving nature of the rest of the trip also means no flights, further helping to ensure a more environmentally friendly trip.

Your stay at the Mvuu Camp, will directly contribute to helping to protect Liwonde National Park, with food all locally grown where possible and the camp running off sustainable energy.

During your time at Lake Malawi, your food will be caught and bought locally to reduce any air miles and helping to support the local fisherman and communities.

On this trip you will be encouraged to bring and use reusable water bottles that can be used throughout your journey. We strive to help our customers minimise their use of single-use plastic wherever they travel in the world.

The use of National Parks within our itineraries is widespread, with all park fees going directly to the local authorities responsible for maintaining and protecting the and flora and fauna within the parks.

People

We align ourselves with partners who actively work with local communities, whether this means that they are employing the local population, involved in conservation efforts within the community, or educating the local population with an aim to encourage them to look after their environment. The lodges and camps you will be staying at over this trip all actively employ local staff, for example Mvuu Camp hires directly from the local community.

This trip also is excellent in ensuring local guides are used throughout who know the land, wildlife, and environment the best. This results in a higher customer experience, gives them a greater understanding of the fragile balance of the area they’re visiting, and means that a local person is being employed! This is seen in your trek, where a local guide is used. As well as your time at Chongoni where a local rock art expert is hired. Your time on safari in Mvuu and Thawale are all run and operated by locals with guides from the community used to show you around the natural spaces.

Pre-travel all of our customers are presented with what we call a ‘travel pack’. Within this travel pack our customers receive all the detail about their trip. The detail includes useful information on the destinations they are travelling to, including, but not limited to, the social and political situations within the destination. We also give guidelines on what to pack to try and minimise the amount of luggage our customers take resulting in lower fuel usage on planes and other vehicles.