Responsible Travel with Voyager Cycling Tours

The Earth is our homeland. Give it the care and respect it deserves.

Our responsibility lies not only in creating the best cycling holiday you could imagine with unbelievable cycle routes, interesting locations, divine cuisine and the odd glass of the local drop! It also extends to our host country. Not only do they provide us with a wonderful backdrop to a magnificent cycling trip, they also allow us an insight into their culture, history and hospitality.

So that we can return each year and enjoy this experience with you, we seek to conduct our tours in the most responsible way possible. Showing the same respect for their surroundings as we do for our own is the best way we know how.

Being ever mindful that we are 'guests' in their country, Voyager attempts at all times to act in a responsible manner toward the environment and local industry while traveling with you.

Economic Responsibility

As well as visiting some well known locations that always please the 'I've always wanted to go there!' part of you, we also include in our itinerary some 'not so obvious' places that benefit greatly from our groups business. Much of our accommodation is in smaller family owned and operated establishments that also provide us with meals made from local produce. Over the years a wonderful rapport has come about through the assurance of our return business each year.

We actively encourage our group to explore our locations further as we visit local monuments, museums and parks. These are thoroughly researched and offered as part of the afternoons recreational time.

Environmental Responsibility

Cycling is an ideal way to explore most destinations and whilst we may take slightly longer to get from place to place, both your environment and your own health will benefit greatly! We also support many small businesses along the way making sure we have lots of pit stops so that we can compare quality of coffee between neighboring cafe's! . We minimise car transfers as we prefer to keep you on your bike as much as possible, after all, this is what you have come to do! Keeping you fit and minimising fuel emissions all in the one holiday.

Our cycle routes are road only and although we do have a team car to lend you all the support you need, this also encourages us as cyclists to dispose of our rubbish in a more thoughtful manner, ie in the car and not on the ground. Anything we buy throughout the day, whether it be a newspaper or a bottle of juice can be popped into the recycle bag in the car and we will return it to the hotel at the end of the day for recycling. Think of it as a mobile recycle bin! The team car also carries a fresh supply of water each day for you to replenish your bidden as needed.

As many of our locations are small and quiet towns, we like to show a healthy amount of respect toward their peaceful way of life and riding respectfully on their local roads, giving consideration to both pedestrians and motorists is just one way we can carry this out. Same as we all do back home! Safe and responsible cycling!

We encourage you to bring a few changes of cycle clothing. This helps to minimise the water usage at each hotel by reducing the need to wash as frequently. We indicate which hotels provide a commercial washing machine and encourage you to utilise where possible with a large load rather than smallitems.

Social responsibility

Our tours generally take you through small villages that may at first seem remote, though quickly prove to be a delight as we promote the most authentic experience possible providing tips on local culture and traditions. We encourage you to adopt a few obvious words in the local tongue to show a willingness to appreciate both the culture and heritage of our host town. By the time you leave you will be fluent in Bon Jour and Buon Giorno if nothing else!

Just so you know that we continue our responsibility toward our environment while we are at home, here are a few things we cover at the office of Voyager Cycling Tours in Sydney, Australia:

We prefer to send electronic brochures as opposed to printed material. We use recycled paper for printing and have a ‘re-use’ tray which means we print on both sides of a piece of paper rather than one sheet per print. We pass our old toner cartridges on for re-cycling. We use environmentally friendly cleaning products for our office and use energy efficient bulbs in all rooms.

Voyager Cycling Tours is a proud member of ResponsibleTravel UK.