Visit website
Updated: 2026-09-28 01:38
Language: English (default)
Access: Normal
Profile views 6 
Outbound visits 1 Website Review
What is Responsible Travel?
Responsible Travel is a UK-based holiday company and booking platform founded in 2000, describing itself as the world's first and largest responsible holiday company. Its central idea, stated on its homepage, is that holidays supporting local people and places bring travellers closer to both — and are more enjoyable as a result. It lists around 6,000 holidays, with a strong emphasis on wildlife, culture and community benefit.
What it actually offers
- Trip types: small group tours, tailor-made holidays, self-drive, cycling, walking, rail and overland, sailing and small-ship cruising, safaris, family trips, solo travel, wellness, volunteer travel and accessible or accommodation-only options.
- Destinations: wide global coverage, with over a thousand wildlife holidays across more than 120 destinations according to the site.
- Examples from its featured list: a two-week Borneo small group tour, a southern Madagascar tour, a South Africa self-drive, a Douro Valley cycling trip, a Maldives conservation cruise and a tailor-made Spain holiday.
- Booking: you can search by date flexibility (exact day, or ±7/14/21 days) and filter by holiday type, plus a last-minute section for trips departing soon.
Who it suits — and who it doesn't
It fits travellers who care about where their money goes and want a curated, values-led shortlist rather than the widest possible inventory. It's less suited to anyone hunting purely on lowest price, or wanting a single operator's own product range, since it aggregates trips from many different companies.
How to use it well
Start from the holiday-type and destination filters rather than browsing everything, then read the individual trip pages and customer reviews before enquiring — the site's own framing is that reviews are where its claims get tested. If you want to compare approaches, mainstream operators such as Responsible Travel differ from generalist booking sites in that sustainability criteria shape what's listed at all. For a second opinion on a specific trip, cross-check the operator's own site and independent review sources.
How does Responsible Travel ensure my holiday benefits local communities and the environment?
Responsible Travel's core claim is that holidays supporting local people and places are more enjoyable because they bring you closer to both. The site describes itself as founded in 2000 and as the world's first and largest responsible holiday company, with founder Justin Francis OBE stating the aim is for trips that benefit local communities and conservation while giving travellers a deeper experience.
How the benefit is built into the trip
- Locally run and community-focused trips. The holiday-type filters include "Locally run," alongside categories such as "Cultural," "Volunteer travel" and "Wildlife," so you can deliberately choose trips whose structure keeps spending and decision-making closer to the destination.
- Conservation-linked itineraries. Featured examples show the pattern: a Maldives conservation cruise where you snorkel in search of whale sharks while assisting local conservation experts, and a Borneo small group tour framed around wildlife and culture in Sabah and Sarawak.
- Off-the-beaten-track and small-group formats. Southern Madagascar is described as lemurs, baobabs and beaches with plenty of time off the beaten track; small group, small ship and tailor-made options let you trade the convenience of a large resort for lower-impact, locally guided travel.
- Flight-free, rail and overland options. These categories exist for travellers who want to cut the emissions of getting there, not just the emissions of being there.
What this means in practice for you
If your priority is money reaching local communities, filter for "Locally run" and read the individual trip description rather than trusting the label alone. If your priority is nature, look for itineraries with a named conservation partner or expert, as in the Maldives and Borneo examples. If your priority is carbon, start with "Flight free," "Rail" or "Overland."
A useful decision test: ask what percentage of the trip is delivered by locally based guides and businesses, and what specific conservation or community activity your money supports. The site's own framing is that benefit comes from supporting communities and preserving nature; the strength of that benefit varies by trip, so compare the individual itineraries.
For broader context on responsible travel standards, see Responsible Travel and, for independent certification of wildlife and community claims, Responsible Travel's own travel guides section.
What types of holidays and destinations does Responsible Travel offer?
Responsible Travel is a UK-based responsible holiday company founded in 2000. Its site describes itself as the world's first and largest responsible holiday company, with around 6,000 holidays that it says support communities and preserve nature. The core offer is holidays where the travel experience and the benefit to local people and places are meant to reinforce each other.
H3 Holiday types The site lists a broad range of holiday styles, including:
- Activity-led trips: walking, cycling, multi-activity, sailing, small ship cruising, safaris, winter holidays and wellness trips.
- Interest-led trips: wildlife, cultural, art, beach, adventure, special interest and volunteer travel.
- Practical formats: small group, tailor made, self drive and fly drive, overland, rail, flight free, short breaks and last minute offers.
- Audience-specific options: family, solo, honeymoon ideas, accessible travel and accommodation-only bookings.
- Value and lifestyle filters: budget, luxury, locally run, special offers and vegan & vegetarian holidays.
That range matters because it lets you filter by how you want to travel, not just where. A solo traveller who wants a small group walking trip and a family looking for a beach-and-culture break will use the same site very differently.
H3 Destinations The site has a "Popular destinations" section and says it offers wildlife holidays across more than 120 destinations. Featured examples on the page include:
- Borneo: a two-week small group tour focused on wildlife and culture in Sabah and Sarawak.
- Southern Madagascar: lemurs, baobabs and beaches, with time off the beaten track.
- South Africa: a self drive trip covering Cape Town, the Winelands and the Garden Route.
- The Douro Valley, Portugal: a cycling trip with wine tasting and village visits in a UNESCO wine region.
- The Maldives: a conservation cruise snorkelling with whale sharks alongside local conservation experts.
- Spain: a tailor made two-week holiday from Gaudí to flamenco.
- Morocco: city tours and Atlas Mountain treks.
H3 Who it suits and what to weigh up This is best for travellers who care about local benefit and conservation and want a specialist operator to do the filtering. The trade-off is that the site is a marketplace-style collection of many trips rather than a single tour operator, so quality and style can vary between holidays. It is less suited to people who want a standard package beach resort with no interest in the responsible angle.
A useful next step: decide your format first (small group, self drive, tailor made), then your interest (wildlife, cycling, culture), and use the destination and holiday-type filters together. If you want to compare with a broader responsible-travel directory, Responsible Travel is the starting point, and Travelocity or Lonely Planet can help with general destination research.
How do I book a holiday through Responsible Travel, and can I customize an itinerary?
To book through Responsible Travel, you browse the site by destination, holiday type, or departure date, then contact their travel team to start planning. Customisation is available: the site lists "Tailor made" as a holiday type alongside fixed small group tours, so you can either join an existing trip or ask for an itinerary shaped around your dates and interests. The featured trips show the range: a two-week Borneo small group tour, a Southern Madagascar tour, a self-drive South Africa route, a Douro Valley cycling trip, a Maldives conservation cruise, and a tailor-made Spain holiday.
Responsible Travel
How booking typically works
- Search or filter holidays by destination, holiday type (for example cycling, wildlife, family, rail, solo), or by month using the date grid.
- Open the trip you like and check what is included, the departure dates and the operator running it.
- Contact the travel team to confirm availability and ask questions — the site shows a phone number and states calls are answered after 9am.
- Book with the operator or through the team, depending on how the specific trip is arranged.
When customisation makes sense
| Your situation | Better fit |
|---|---|
| You want a fixed date, group and price | Small group or last-minute trip |
| You have specific dates, pace or interests | Tailor made itinerary |
| You want to drive yourself and choose stops | Self drive & fly drive |
| You want a short trip near home | Short break or flight free |
Tailor-made works well if you are travelling with children, need accessible arrangements, or want to combine regions that no single scheduled tour covers. Fixed group departures usually cost less per day and are simpler to book, but you trade flexibility for convenience.
A practical next step
Pick two or three trips that roughly match your dates, note what you would change about each, and send those notes to the travel team. Concrete requests — a slower pace, extra days in one place, a specific wildlife season, dietary needs — get clearer answers than a general "can you customise this?" question. If your dates are fixed and close, check the last-minute section first, since those departures are already confirmed to run.
What do customer reviews and ratings say about Responsible Travel holidays?
Responsible Travel's own site points to customer reviews as evidence for its core claim: that holidays supporting local people and places are more enjoyable. The page states that “by reading our reviews you'll see that our customers agree,” and cites 200,000 customers since its founding in 2000. It does not publish an aggregate star rating or review score in the supplied page content, so treat the site as a route to individual reviews rather than a summary of ratings.
What the page evidence actually supports
- Reviews are presented as customer testimony, not as a neutral rating system.
- The founder, Justin Francis OBE, frames the reviews as confirmation of the company's responsible-travel idea.
- The page gives no average score, review count per trip, or breakdown by holiday type in the evidence provided.
How to read reviews on a specialist operator
Reviews hosted by the company selling the trip are useful for detail — what a guide was like, how local the experience felt, whether a family or solo traveller was well looked after — but they are selected and displayed by the operator. For balance, compare them with independent sources.
| Source type | Best for | Main limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Operator's own reviews | Trip-specific detail, staff responsiveness | Selected and hosted by the seller |
| Independent review platforms | Cross-company comparison, complaint patterns | Thin coverage of small specialist trips |
| Travel forums | Candid, unedited experiences | Anecdotal, variable quality |
A practical next step
Pick two or three specific trips that interest you — for example the Borneo small group tour or the Maldives conservation cruise — and read every review of those exact departures, not just the homepage testimonials. Look for repeated comments about group size, local guides and whether the conservation or community element felt genuine rather than token. Then cross-check the operator on an independent review site such as Trustpilot and in traveller discussions on Reddit, and ask the travel team directly how many reviews a given trip has received and whether any are negative.
How do Responsible Travel's prices compare to conventional tour operators, and what is included?
Responsible Travel doesn't publish a single price list, because it isn't one operator: it's a marketplace listing thousands of trips run by independent, locally based companies. So the honest answer to "how do prices compare?" is that they vary trip by trip, and the site's own pitch is about what your money supports rather than being the cheapest option. Expect prices broadly in line with specialist small-group and tailor-made operators, and often above mass-market package deals — the trade-off being smaller groups, local suppliers and less of a resort-style product.
What's typically included
- Accommodation, transport within the trip, guiding and the activities described in the itinerary
- Meals as stated per trip — often some but not all
- The contribution to local communities and conservation built into the trip cost
- Flights usually excluded, especially on "flight free" and overland options
- Optional extras, tips and personal spending excluded
Where the value sits
- Trips are labelled by type — small group, tailor made, self drive, rail, cycling, walking, wildlife, volunteer — so you can match format to budget
- Local operators keep more of the spend in the destination, which is the core claim
- Last-minute and special-offer sections exist for travellers who are flexible on dates
Who it suits
Travellers who care about where the money goes and are willing to pay a modest premium for that, or who want a specific style (flight-free, conservation-focused, solo-friendly) that mainstream operators rarely offer. If your priority is the lowest possible headline price, a conventional package operator will usually win.
How to decide
Compare like for like: check group size, what meals and transfers are included, and whether flights are in the price. Then ask the operator directly for a full inclusions list. Start by browsing the holiday types and destinations on Responsible Travel, and read traveller reviews on the specific trip page before booking. For a second opinion on mainstream alternatives, Responsible Travel's own trip pages usually name the local company running the holiday, which you can then check independently.
Hosting and Email
Amazon Route 53
Hosting
Microsoft 365
Location
Dublin, Leinster, Ireland
Pages, Search and Sharing
googlebot-image
Registration details 
Identified technologies
User reviews (0)