Nicaragua tours, small group

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 getting a closer connection with the destination and local community.The average carbon footprint per person on this tour is 383Kg of CO?e

Nicaragua is a relatively small country, and we will be exploring using a minibus. Using group transport is a lower carbon option than multiple vehicles, and is less polluting than alternate forms of transport. We take a public ferry to Ometepe Island, and there are numerous opportunities throughout the trip to explore further on foot, kayak or boat, whether walking through the Selva Negra cloud forest, kayaking on Lake Nicaragua or visiting the Juan Venado Mangrove Reserve. Slower style of travel means that we're reducing our carbon footprint during our journey, but it also allows us to discover less-visited places like the volcanic mud fields of San Jacinto.

Our Ecolodge in Selva Negra works hard to ensure that it is as sustainable as possible. Guests stay in bungalows within a protected nature reserve, shower with solar-heated water, and dine in a restaurant that offers organic products from the farm. The farm animals are fed with leftover food from the restaurant. Additionally, the ecolodge has its own organic coffee plantation and production facility on-site, practices organic intensive cattle ranching, produces compost, and generates methane from the farm for cooking fuel and power generation. There is also a nearby hydropower plant that generates electricity for the farm. The entire Selva Negra estate and Eco Lodge only produce about one 55-gallon barrel of waste a week.


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.

Our Tour Leaders are all trained on our Responsible Tourism policy, which includes reducing plastic waste. All guests are encouraged to refill their water bottles from a central water cooler in our vehicles. Our Nicaragua local partners are working with hotels and lodges we use to provide filtered water at all refill points. Although recycling is still very slow in Nicaragua, some hotels have made really positive steps with their own projects - for example, one of the hotels we use on Ometepe Island separates their food waste and produces its own organic fertilizer. At the eco lodge in Selva Negra their goal is to recycle almost everything that is used, and guests are provided with a large range of receptacles to choose from to help them with this goal.

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.

During our stay on Ometepe island we visit a woman's cooperative. The cooperative maintains a strong focus on sustainability and community based tourism, opening their homes to travellers and offering hands-on activities including showing how organic coffee, beans and vegetables are grown and harvested. This provides much needed money which goes directly to the 24 members of the cooperative.

The property we stay in Granada, Hotel con Corazon, has a strong focus on charity work, with 100% of their profits donated to education programs within Nicaragua & developing countries. Since they opened in 2008, the profits of the hotel in all those years have enabled them to support an average of 250 students in educational programs each year. The hotel also employs over 20 Nicaraguans, which helps provide income and development opportunities.
The ecolodge and community of Selva Negra is in the heart of a community of over 600 people. The estate sponsors a clinic with full-time nurse, school with education up to sixth grade, scholarship opportunities for continued education, adult and children’s library, as well as baseball teams and special occasion celebrations.

Throughout the trip we eat in local restaurants and use guides only from the areas we visit, providing employment opportunities and providing a rich insight to this fascinating country.

EMPLOYMENT, INCLUSIVITY & DIVERSITY

We are lucky enough on this trip to stay at the Pacaya Lodge & Spa. This lodge was developed in partnership with Opportunity International Nicaragua (OIN) as a vehicle to transform underdeveloped communities in Nicaragua and invest in sustainable solutions for microentrepreneurs, their families, and their communities.

Their programs support four core constituencies: young people, farmers, community leaders, and artisans. One example of how the OIN helps to support underdeveloped communities across Nicaragua is by supporting a portion of the operating costs of a technical high school for rural youth located just down the road from the Lodge. Another way in which they support locals is they also assist in adding economic value to farm products through their agricultural processing plant, which reduces the risk of farmers’ dependence on just one crop. Currently the hotel is processing yucca grown by the local farmers, which helps produce starch, flour, and waxed yucca.

Lastly, the lodge is also helping local artists. Many Nicaraguans are gifted in traditional skills such as painting, textiles, wood and ceramics. The OIN created NicaWorks, a best practice group that serves as an organizing vehicle to bring microentrepreneurs together to share best practices, learn new production and quality control techniques and to share lessons learned.