Responsible Travel

The single biggest reduction in a trip's footprint usually comes from removing a flight and adding nights. Fewer bases, longer stays and surface transport where it is practical.

Slower trips are also better trips. Three nights in one city beats one night in each of three, and the difference in cost and stress is larger than most itineraries admit.

Independent accommodation, neighbourhood restaurants and locally run guiding keep more of a visitor's money in the place being visited.

Where a guide is available from a resident co-operative or a local association rather than an international reseller, that is usually both the better version and the one where the fee stays in the area.

Popular sites have limits. Book timed entry where it exists, travel outside peak weeks where you can, and accept a closed or restricted site as a legitimate answer.

Cities have limits too. Housing pressure in central districts is real, and choosing a residential neighbourhood one stop out is often better for the reader and for the street.

Stay on marked routes, follow park rules on camping and fires, and avoid attractions built on close contact with captive wild animals.

Distance is the test of a good wildlife encounter: if an animal has to be fed, restrained or handled for the experience to work, the experience is the problem.

Read the local expectation before arriving: dress codes at religious sites, photography restrictions, whether a ceremony is a public event or a private one, and how people prefer to be greeted.

Photograph people with their agreement rather than in spite of it, and treat a refusal as an ordinary answer.

Where a route is realistic by train or bus, we say so and give the journey time rather than defaulting to a flight. Where a site is under pressure, we name a quieter season or an alternative rather than adding to the crowd.

We do not present responsible travel as a separate category of trip. It is mostly the same trip, planned with a little more room in it.