Cambodia biking tour, private departures

Planet

Bike Around Cambodia is one of our most eco-friendly programmes as most of the transportation is powered by your own two legs! While there is a support vehicle which accompanies the group, it is not being used for sight-seeing, which enables us to cut down the distance it travels and run it at more efficient speeds.

As with all our vacations, the accommodation you will stay at has been chosen to meet at least our basic criteria, which includes putting in place measures to conserve energy and reduce water usage and providing advice on how you can reduce your own footprint while you’re there. All the places you stay at buy their food locally, cutting down transport emissions and helping local farmers.

Before your trip, we will also send you information on some of the biggest environmental challenges facing Cambodia, as well as advice about how you can make your stay as green as possible. You can always ask your guide too - we have chosen our Cambodian partner because they share our strong commitment to protecting the environment so if they don’t know the answer immediately they can always find out.

People

It is very important to us that our vacations help to create sustainable jobs and livelihoods for Cambodian people. In line with our ethical policy, all the places you will stay at are locally owned or responsibly run and we ask that hotels employ people from the area and give them training. At Angkor Wat, you will be accompanied by a trained and licensed guide who lives in Siem Reap – guides are an important source of income for the local economy.

Another of our key principles is that we support organisations that use tourism to generate tangible social benefits. For example, you can have dinner at the Friends restaurant, which teaches former slum children to work in hospitality trades like cooking and table service. You can also choose to take a tour of Phnom Penh with drivers from the Cyclo Centre, an organisation which helps destitute rickshaw drivers to get work. This means that you are helping disadvantaged Cambodian people directly just by enjoying your vacation.

Our Bike Around Cambodia itinerary includes a lot of opportunities to interact with local people as you cycle through rural areas or visit villages. This often leads to a new perspective for both sides (especially the Cambodian kids who have often not seen tourists before) and useful income if you want to buy some small presents or food. On this trip you can also visit the New Futures orphanage in Takeo province, specially chosen by our Cambodian partner, which runs a variety of community projects as well as taking care of up to 50 children. Unfortunately there is a large fake orphanage industry in Cambodia that preys on well-meaning tourists, so it is even more important to support the real ones.