Why Travel With Us
Total Flexibility - On many of our trips you can choose to join a small international group or have a private departure.
Local Guides - All our tours are guided by local experts, ensuring of the best possible knowledge available to you, after all this is their own backyard.
Local Contents - All arrangements for your stay and transportation are made by locals, insuring maximum benefits to the local communities and at the same time keeping costs at a reasonable level with no compromise in standards. Our clients can therefore feel assured that a percentage of the tour fee goes directly to the local communities.
Small Groups - On our treks we travel in small groups making the trip much more enjoyable and avoiding negative impact on the environment and local communities.
Porters and Tourism Concern '' Indochina Explorer Tour Co., Ltd'' support Tourism Concern in their campaign to improve working conditions for porters employed by the tourist industries around the world. Guides and head porters are responsible for their porters and they will have available specific emergency funds to pay for porters to be evacuated and treated in case of sickness or accident. Porters will be paid a stable and fair basic wage. Provisions are made for porters’ food and accommodation so that they do not have to provide for this out of their wages. Equipment appropriate to each stage of each particular trek will be provided to porters, including, for example; sleeping tents, protective clothing, carrying equipment and kerosene for their own use. A maximum load has been set and porters will not be asked to carry more than this under normal circumstances.
Environmental Guidelines By following these simple guidelines, you can help to reduce the impact on the environment, minimize the possibility of animal suffering and stress, and encourage respect and appreciation of other cultures and traditions.
Campsite - Remember another party will be using the same campsite after you have left. Leave the site cleaner than you found it.
Don’t Fuel the Fire - Always discard matches and cigarettes with great care but also keep the use of wood for fuel to a minimum. When possible, take kerosene or an alternative fuel source for cooking and heating purposes.
Remove litter - Burn or bury paper and carry out all non-degradable litter.
Keep local water clean - Avoid using pollutants such as detergents in streams or springs. If no toilet facilities are available, make sure you are at least 30 meters away from water sources, and bury or cover waste. Use fresh water sparingly – it is very precious.
Plants should be left to flourish - Taking cuttings, seeds and roots is illegal in many parts of the world. Also remember the trade in many wildlife products is strictly illegal.
Help your guides and porters to follow conservation measures.
When taking photographs - Respect privacy - ask permission and use restraint.
Respect Holy places - Preserve what you have come to see, never touch or remove religious objects. Shoes should be removed when visiting temples.
Giving to children encourages begging - Please do not hand out sweets, pens, money etc at will. This not only encourages begging and aggression from children, but also promotes expectancy well into later life. If you want to positively give during your holiday, ask us to incorporate a visit to a school during your trip.
You will be accepted and welcomed if you follow local customs. Learn basic phrases from the local language, such as “please”, “thank you”, and “can you help me?” Travelling with respect earns you respect.
Clothes - Loose lightweight clothes are preferable to revealing shorts, skimpy tops and tight fitting action wear.
Visitors who value local traditions, encourage local pride and maintain local cultures. Please help local people gain a realistic view of life in Southeast Asian Countries.
Respect Animals - In National Parks and Wilderness areas the animals are wild. Harassment can cause stress, keep your distance if you are in a safari vehicle or other forms of transport. In some situations it is possible to get really close, this makes for great pictures but Mountain Gorillas, for example, can catch human diseases which can be fatal.
Stay on Track - Unsupervised off road driving can cause irreparable damage to the soil and vegetation, all for the sake of that once in a lifetime shot. In many areas, trekking and climbing are popular leisure activities. By carefully keeping to marked paths and routes, human impact can be kept to a minimum.
Local purchases - Purchase handcrafts from the makers in their respective villages if you can, rather than from a large craft shop in town. Spread your buying around various stalls, so that your money benefits many families rather than one. Buy local produce rather than imported goods. Do not buy products made from endangered species, hard woods or ancient artefactual. Bargain fairly and with respect for the seller. Be aware of the economic realities of where you are. Haggling is the norm in many cultures, but don’t feel upset that as a visitor who potentially earns 100 times a local’s salary, you are expected to pay slightly more than the local price.