Community-Driven and Sustainable Travel Experiences by Wild Frontiers
Adventure tour operator Wild Frontiers believes sustainable and immersive travel can be a powerful force for good, breaking down barriers, dispelling myths and bringing people from different cultures and communities together.
Travel & Lust was born from travel experiences. We've dined with locals at their family-run restaurants, cooked at houses nestled in the depths of medinas, embarked on long guided walks, quad-biked through deserts and more. After posting photos and videos on social media, friends and family often asked us where we booked our experience, which companies we booked with, where we stayed, etc., so we went from copying and pasting our answers on the mobile, to people to creating a travel website. It has always been amazing to see some of the world's splendours. Still, this, coupled with hospitable people that take pride in their country and want to give back and ensure that those from impoverished or less fortunate places also have a way to sustain themselves.
As the Founder of Travel & Lust, I was starting to see a shift in how I wanted to travel. This change was triggered by a) becoming a parent and b) seeing the impact of the virus in 2020. We went from squeezing several stops in a short space of time or booking lots of short-haul flights to visit more places had become a thing of the past. Not only did we want to spend more qualitative time in the places we were visiting, but we also really wanted to get to know the people there and be more mindful of our carbon footprint. We've managed to do this by travelling by train, taking tours, partnering with companies that actively give back to their community and more. It will be an ongoing process for us.
When we discovered tour operator Wild Frontiers, we were impressed by their brand-new collection of tours, 'Adventures with Purpose', highlighting many of the outstanding initiatives and projects they lead and support. Bookmark a selection of some of the brilliant sustainable tours they offer below:
Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Jordan and Namibia are some countries that form part of the new 'Adventures with Purpose' collection, designed to showcase the people and projects behind community-led experiences. Such work helps strengthen communities, enhance conservation and develop the livelihoods of others through tourism. The Namibia tour is a self-drive adventure that introduces guests to the country's glory, where they'll see striking landscapes, animals, flora, and fauna. Accommodation ranges from mountain camps, boutique accommodations, and tented camps on private concessions. While staying at game reserves, guests can search for rare desert elephants, bottlenose dolphins and more—all of which dedicate themselves to local conservation work. The immersive experience will create unforgettable memories.
Visitors get to soak up the scenes of the picturesque pink city of India whilst contributing to benefit local women's lives. Women from low-income households in Jaipur can work as guides or drivers to provide a household income whilst shattering stereotypes. Pink City Rickshaw Company was set up by the non-for-profit organisation Access Development Services, and their work helps empower women and build communities. Pink City Rickshaw teaches employees basic English to communicate with tourists; however, the tour style differs in providing many historical facts. Instead, you have front-row seats in one of the most beautiful cities in India.
Many of us are familiar with the listicle content profiling the places you must visit. Unfortunately, lesser-known places tend to only feature on such lists, meaning that some beautiful, hospitable and cultural places don't get to shine like others. Wild Frontiers allows adventurers and curious types to visit places such as Kyrgyzstan. Their Kyrgyzstan Explorer provides the experience of a lifetime, visiting primal forests, glistening crystal streams and sweeping hilly slopes. Aside from seeing all that nature has to showcase, those that embark on this adventure will meet the nomads who call this country home.
Wild Frontiers partners with social enterprise Ecologi, as part of their climate action commitment. Via the partnership, they are continuously contributing to projects concerning renewable energy and preservation in destinations they visit to offset carbon emissions generated from group tours and tailor-made trips. Joining forces means that they get to invest in climate projects and major tree-planting programmes. More precisely, Wild Frontiers is planting ten trees for every client that travels with them.
