Best of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile vacation

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.
This trip is deliberately planned as a road trip to avoid domestic flights as much as possible. Although the distances are long, traveling by a compact mini-bus prevents the emissions caused by large 50-seaters while also allowing us access to the best of these amazing landscapes. Some of the hotels were selected on this trip due to their energy saving initiatives such as solar-powered water heating, special taps that reduce flow rate in all rooms, cleaning with eco-friendly products that do not contain chemicals that are harmful to the environment and encouraging their guests to reuse bed linen and towels. The Flamencos Eco Hotel in Bolivia and the Kenton Palace Hotel in Buenos Aires are good examples of this. The Kenton Palace also has bikes available for guest hire and provides information about public transport in Buenos Aires, in order that guests don't need to take taxis around the city.


ENVIRONMENT AND WILDLIFE

Whilst much of the environment that we travel through on this trip is desert of one kind or another, it is still home to a surprising amount of wildlife including vicuna, llama, hawk and falcon. Much of the itinerary passes through protected areas such as the Humahuaca Gorge, the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve in Bolivia, and parts of the Atacama Desert. In these areas our tour leaders and expert local guides brief our groups thoroughly on the etiquette of sticking to the trails to reduce erosion and ensuring all rubbish is taken home with you. Any entrance fees payable go towards the maintenance of the parks, and we use local teams in Bolivia who know how to navigate the roadless Salt Flats.

We stay at the Los Flamencos Eco Hotel on this trip, an accommodation in a very remote part of Bolivia that is made entirely from local materials (mud, wood and stone). Hot springs feed the property here, providing a limited supply of hot water. Solar panels do the rest of the work, providing additional water heating as well as all of the central heating and electricity for the property. We eat here in the hotel restaurant, which serves Bolivian recipes cooked with locally-sourced ingredients.

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.

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 travelers 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.
Our Argentinian tour leaders are real facilitators, enabling us to meet and mix with the locals wherever possible – all the more fun when we are traveling off the beaten track. They take us to small, locally owned and run restaurants wherever possible throughout the trip, and take advantage of numerous opportunities to support local businesses by visiting the small craft markets found throughout the region, notably in Uyuni, Purmamarca and Atacama. Aside from the main cities of Buenos Aires and Santiago, we travel through a lot of smaller towns during this trip and we eat out at local restaurants and cafes in the evening. This ensures that small businesses benefit from our visit, and that we enjoy a very authentic experience.
All hotel accommodation used on this trip is Argentinian, Bolivian or Chilean-owned.

EMPLOYMENT, INCLUSIVITY & DIVERSITY

We use Argentinian tour leaders to run this trip, with the assistance of local guides within Bolivia and Chile where necessary. In Uyuni, Bolivia, we have a more extensive team of 4x4 driver/guides who are all Bolivian and based in the Uyuni area. They are absolute experts in the geography of this special area. Our ground operator is Argentinian, and both we and our local operator are committed to paying guides and tour leaders above the minimum wage in these destinations.