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Responsible holidays
+44 (0)1653 617001
Responsible holidays
+44 (0)1653 617001
 

Treading lightly

Exploring new places, finding new paths, stepping into new, unknown landscapes – being able to share the thrill of travel has guided us from the very beginning.

We’ve designed our holidays to provide those moments; when you turn a corner and are greeted by the most mesmerising vistas with nobody else around; seeking out family-run restaurants where the experience is as enriching as the food; and staying at independent hotels and guesthouses where generations of the same family can tell you their story over drinks in the library bar.

The challenge? Our holidays must tread as lightly as possible through these landscapes and communities, allowing them to regenerate and thrive once more.
 

The Inntravel mission

 

Trip carbon scores explained


We want you to be able to make an informed choice about your holiday, so in collaboration with carbon experts, ecollective, we calculate and publish a carbon score for every one of our trips (you'll find them on each holiday webpage). Here's some useful background information on what these scores mean – and why they matter.

What is a carbon score? A holiday’s carbon score is the average amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere by each person taking that trip. 

How do you calculate the score? These comprehensive scores consider everything involved in each holiday, from the number of included meals and on-trip transfers to the expected energy consumption per night at each hotel. Excluded from the scores are your journeys to and from the holiday – customers arrive from a range of start points and via several different travel methods. How you travel, particularly if you fly, can significantly increase your overall emissions.

Why is it important to have a score for each holiday? One reason is to enable you to easily compare the environmental impact of different trips. Another key reason is to help us to reduce our carbon footprint – we’ve set ourselves the target of cutting it by 50% by 2030, and reaching net zero by 2050, but we can only do this if we know what it is in the first place.

 
 

Responsible holiday picks

View more responsible trips
View more responsible trips
 
Travellers needed
Many of our holidays take place in remote, rural areas where depopulation is a threat to the local economy. By holidaying in these regions, you help to bring employment and regeneration – giving our hoteliers and taxi drivers an additional incentive to stay in the towns and villages in which they were brought up, as well as helping to maintain and improve local services – for example, our walking routes help to keep open traditional drovers’ roads and other ancient paths.
 
Family-run businesses
The hotels and taxi companies we use are, almost without exception, local and family-run businesses. The fact that our holidays are for individuals rather than groups also allows us to work in very quiet villages with small hotels and guesthouses offering as few as two or three rooms. Some of our other accommodation is larger, but with an inspiring backstory – in Portugal's north, we work with historic manor houses which have opened their doors to visitors in order to preserve their splendour, while in Cyprus we offer charming stone-built homes whose sensitive restoration has revived a once-abandoned mountain village.
Using the local grapevine
Our hoteliers are often very enterprising, incorporating local produce on their menus whenever possible and implementing their own environmental policies, relating for example to laundry, energy conservation and resource use. Their methods serve to enhance your holiday, and the same network of local sources allows us to provide you with detailed background information, giving you tips on where the locals eat and the most scenic picnic spots along the route.
 

Responsible travel tips

Looking to travel more sustainably? We've pulled together our top five responsible travel tips.
  • At Inntravel, we love train travel for its comfort and convenience, and even more so for the environmental benefits. We are specialists in international rail travel, and have a team of experts to navigate the timetables and ticket arrangements on your behalf, so you can just sit back and enjoy the ride.

    For certain destinations, travelling all the way by rail can be easier than taking a plane and onward transport. The Franco-German borderland of Alsace is a perfect example – we can transport you here in just six hours from London by train. 
  • Many of the regions we visit are truly unspoiled – places where low-impact tourism can play an essential role in maintaining the rural economy. This is the case in the Logar Valley, an idyllic slice of Slovenia that remains remarkably free of crowds and dedicated to sustainable tourism. As one of the very few tour operators with a presence here, Inntravel’s cooperation with the valley’s one hotel brings vital employment and regeneration.
  • We’re exacting when it comes to our hotel choices, and are always on the lookout for accommodation that can combine charm, comfort, and top-class hosting with a passion for sustainability. Few hotels do this better than the family-run, four-star Biohotel Eggensberger: set in a quiet, lakeside village with views towards the Bavarian Alps, it  is relentless in its work to reduce its climate impact – and has been recognised with several awards and certifications.
  • Wherever possible, we recommend travelling on public transport – it’s a great way to immerse yourself in the local life of your destination, as well as to limit your on-trip carbon footprint.

    For some of our holidays – including those on the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey – we go a step further, providing an unlimited travel pass for the excellent local bus networks, allowing you to explore the length and breadth of these islands with ease.
  • It's possible to enjoy the Inntravel experience without any need for overseas travel. If you're based in the UK, why not choose from our fantastic range of UK holidays (they cover the entire nation, from the Scottish Highlands to the English Riviera)? There’s no requirement to drive on these trips – we can organise transfers between your hotels and the nearest railway stations.
 

Some of our highlights

The Tweed & the Scottish Borders walking holiday, UK
Many visitors pass through the Scottish Borders, but few linger to appreciate the area’s beguiling blend of tradition and beauty. Our leisurely walking break in this often-overlooked region made Inntravel history in 2021, when it became our best-selling holiday ever in one year. A pleasing statistic in itself of course, but what we’re really happy about is the boost we’ve been able to give to the local economy: we work exclusively with family-run businesses, who, in turn, employ locally-based staff. Our walking routes also give numerous opportunities to visit local attractions, to dine at local restaurants and to patronise independent local shops.
The High Route walking holiday, Switzerland
It's possible to travel all the way from the UK to Switzerland by rail for this hotel-to-hotel Swiss walking holiday.But even if you fly, once you’ve touched down in Zürich, Geneva or Basel, you can rely on the highly efficient Swiss public transport system to take you the rest of the way. The holiday makes use of public transport on the walking routes, too: from scenic gondolas to narrow-gorge cog railways and electrically powered locomotives. Your luggage is transported between the hotels using the transport system, and – in a further bonus – two of the mountain villages where you stay are completely car-free.
Pedalling through Puglia cycling holiday, Italy
Travelling to Italy’s secluded south for our Puglian cycling holiday reveals a deeply rural and half-forgotten landscape that is characterised by rich red earth, carefully tended olive groves and a simple-yet-mouthwatering cuisine. Another of the region’s distinguishing features is its traditional working masserie: Roman villa estates that have been converted into stylish and comfortable ‘farmhouse hotels’ – each quite unique, but united in their commitment to offering a warm welcome and authentic local produce. Our cycling holiday gives you the opportunity to experience all this, and as a result provides an important support to one of Italy’s most rural economies.
Life in an Alpujarran Village walking holiday, Spain
Hosts David and Emma Illsley care deeply about the long-term sustainability of the Alpujarras region and a few days at the delightful Casa las Chimeneas will give you a real insight into some of the ongoing projects on their organic farm. From the start they have used traditional farming methods, learning from the locals, working in tune with nature and the seasons, and eschewing herbicides and pesticides. The result is a variety of delicious organic produce that is used by the hotel kitchen, and an abundance of wild flowers, which in turn allow insects and birdlife to flourish.
The Best of Slovenia rail journey, Slovenia
Although Slovenia is a nation with an impressive array of green initiatives, many locals prefer to travel by car – which makes it all the more important to support the country’s railways. Our three-centre rail journey begins amid the peaks of the Julian Alps, where you’ll find both the iconic glacial lakes of Bled and Bohinj and your first hotel: Sunrose 7. The current hotel opened its doors in 2019 following a highly sensitive restoration process, during which much thought was given to the products and materials used. Sunrose 7 ensures its day-to-day practices incorporate a strong cincern for the environment, and also plays a vital role in the local economy through employment and food provision. Another of the holiday’s stops is Ljubljana, a one-time European Green Capital and a city with an extraordinary amount of green space, as well as a culinary offering that revolves around ingredients that are both seasonal and local.
A winter holiday at Norway’s Hindsæter Hotel
From its tranquil location in the mountains of central Norway, the Hindsæter Hotel offers the perfect introduction to a Nordic winter holiday: cross-country trails lead direct from the hotel door, and there are opportunities to head out on snowshoes to fully experience the silence of the surrounding valley. The hotel has been awarded the Olavsrosa seal of quality in acknowledgement of its work to protect Norwegian cultural heritage, as well as the Norwegian Foodprints badge for its use of regional produce – no small feat considering the rather remote location of Hindsæter. Its speciality is reindeer, with the meat coming from the local herd. The hotel has also invested in a private power plant, which uses water from the nearby Sjoa river to provide power for both itself and the wider local area.
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