Responsible Travel

Our Responsible Travel Policy

Cycling for Softies has been promoting holidays by bicycle for over 30 years, encouraging this environmentally friendly activity is at the core of our business. We are committed to encouraging responsible travel and hope to make travel sustainable for the long-term by encouraging our staff and clients to support the environment and local economies.

Our environmental policies

We are always looking for ways to reduce our environmental impact both at home and abroad. Here are some of our initiatives:

• We provide refillable water bottles from our local bases to try and reduce the use of disposable plastic bottles
• Our cycling tours are designed to ensure minimum impact on the environment by encouraging visitors to visit these regions by bike, often it also encourages them to cycle more at home too
• We share information with our clients before they travel on ways to help protect the environment and reduce water consumption. Speak to our cycle experts if you’d like to see this information.
• All of our Travel Documents are sent using recyclable materials
• We recycle paper, cardboard, plastics and metal cans in our office and at our tour bases in France. We also encourage staff to continue this at home and use reusable bags when shopping
• We do not print documents or emails unnecessarily.
• Almost all of our data is stored electronically rather than on paper printouts
• Clients book over the phone and we’ve reduced the need for paper-booking forms
• All staff members take public transport, cycle or even walk to work. We’re also part of the cycle to work scheme to encourage more people to take up cycling

Our economic policies

Our tours are designed to offer the best possible economic output for the local area, with all supporting local businesses and investing in local communities:

• Whenever we purchase new bike equipment, we donate redundant equipment to local businesses or charities
• Our tours offer the opportunity to discover lots of destinations that are off the beaten track, visiting smaller, local communities and supporting local businesses
• When we’re creating new itineraries and supporting new destinations, we try to ensure travellers always enjoy the local area and natural environment, meeting locals and supporting the economy directly
• We offer fair wages and conditions for all staff involved in our holidays
• We support several cycle charities and often take part in charity cycle races both as a business and individually

Our social responsibilities

When travelling, at home or at work we continually encourage our staff and guests to be socially responsible:

• Before our guests depart, we share pre-departure advice on how to support local communities, wear appropriate dress when necessary, travel and make purchases responsibly
• We recommend that our clients learn a few words in the local language to encourage more interaction with locals and a deliver a more authentic experience
• Wherever possible we work with locally owned hotels, apartments and suppliers and encourage our clients to visit smaller, often family-run restaurants, bars and shops to enhance their experience by truly seeing the destination as the locals will see it
• We continually monitor the government travel advice website (www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice) to ensure that the destinations we visit are safe for both our clients and our staff
• We support the charity World Bicycle Relief who provide access to reliable, affordable transportation in rural areas of developing countries

This policy details our ongoing commitments to responsible travel. We’re always looking for ways to refine our policy and we welcome and suggestions on how we can further improve our strategy to travel responsibly.

Please contact us here if you have any suggestions.