Our Responsible Travel Practices

Small Groups by Design

Pedalers scheduled trips are limited to either 8 or 12 guests, depending partly on the accommodations and services available along the route. Trips will depart with as few as two guests.

Private groups can sometimes reach 16, although larger groups may require different lodging, particularly when many single or twin rooms are needed.

Small groups have always been part of the Pedalers model because they make for better travel. They also have practical responsible-travel advantages.

A group of eight can stay in a small locally owned inn that could never accommodate a coach tour. It can eat in a family restaurant without taking over the dining room. Guides can alter timing, stops and routes without moving a small army of people.

That flexibility also lets us spend more time away from the busiest tourism centers.

Most Pedalers tours begin in a larger, better-known city because it makes arrival and departure easier. Once underway, we generally prefer smaller towns, rural communities and places where tourism remains part of everyday life rather than the dominant activity.

There are also destinations we no longer operate because the number of organized tour groups on the ground began to detract from the experience. France cycling tours are one example.

Avoiding overtourism may now be discussed as a sustainability strategy. For us, it has mostly been a matter of designing better trips.

Local People Run the Trip

Our guides, drivers and support crews are local.

The same applies to the companies providing vehicles and, where needed, specialist activities such as rafting, canoeing or sea kayaking.

Some Pedalers guides and drivers in Thailand, Bhutan and Alaska have worked with us for more than 20 years. Our operating relationship in Bhutan also extends back more than two decades.

When we select guides, local knowledge matters as much as activity skill. We look for people who know the roads, trails, food, customs and communities through which they are traveling. Personality matters too, as does a genuine interest in sharing the destination.

And yes, a love of food helps.

Technical qualifications remain important. Depending on the role and destination, that can include local guiding licenses, first aid qualifications, commercial driving licenses and activity-specific expertise.

When choosing operating partners, we look for real experience in the niche. A company that says it can operate cycling trips is not necessarily the same thing as a company whose people actually ride bicycles and understand what makes a supported cycling tour work.

Adventure travel benefits from people who know the activity personally.

Building Trips With Local Partners

Pedalers does not normally hand a destination management company a blank sheet of paper and ask it to create a tour for us.

We start with the concept.

Routes, hotels, meals, support systems and activities are then developed collaboratively with local partners who bring their own knowledge and experience to the process.

When a new tour begins, Tom may accompany the first group or two to observe how everything works in practice and suggest refinements. The local guide and crew still run the trip.

There is no formal "Pedalers Way" checklist currently handed to every guide. Much of the process has historically been collaborative and conversational.

That is something we intend to improve. A concise set of Pedalers operating and responsibility expectations can help make long-standing practices clearer without turning good local relationships into bureaucracy.

Long-Term Relationships Matter More Than Lowest Price

Pedalers does not design a trip around the cheapest components we can find.

We decide what makes the trip work, then price the trip accordingly.

That philosophy extends to suppliers.

If a guide, hotel, restaurant, vehicle company or operating partner consistently provides the right experience, we value that relationship. Some hotels in Thailand and Hawaii have worked with us for more than 20 years.

A cheaper supplier is not automatically a better choice.

Likewise, when a good partner has a weakness that can reasonably be improved, our preference is to work with them rather than immediately replace them.

A cycling operator that lacks cycling expertise is probably the wrong partner. A strong partner using more disposable plastic than necessary may simply need a conversation and a better alternative.

Responsibility works better as cooperation than as a pass-or-fail test.

Fairness to Guides and Crews

Guide meals, lodging and normal working expenses are built into our tour operations.

Guides and support crews generally eat lunch and dinner with the group. They may stay at the same hotel as guests or at another suitable property nearby.

Long-term working relationships matter here as well. We want guides and operating partners to view Pedalers as a reliable relationship rather than a company continually shopping around for the lowest possible price.

Good trips depend on good people. Treating those people fairly is part of operating responsibly.

Keeping Tour Spending Local

Nearly all of the money Pedalers spends to operate a tour stays with locally based people and businesses.

We deliberately avoid putting an artificial percentage on that statement. Exact accounting quickly becomes complicated and can create a level of precision that does not tell travelers much.

But the operating pattern is straightforward.

Guides are local. Drivers are local. Support vehicles are locally supplied. Hotels and inns are locally owned or part of local hotel groups rather than international chains. Restaurants are independently owned. Ferries, cafes, markets, fruit vendors, boat operators and specialist guides are local.

The bicycles used on our tours are locally owned as well.

Even Pedalers jerseys are produced by a small business in Thailand rather than a large multinational cycling company, although we do not pretend that every company purchase is sourced separately in every destination.

The objective is not to manufacture a perfect "100% local" statistic. It is to structure tours so that tourism spending remains overwhelmingly in the places being visited.

Lodging With a Sense of Place

We have always preferred locally owned lodging that reflects the destination.

That may mean a traditional inn, a family-run lodge, a locally owned boutique hotel or a property belonging to a regional hotel group.

We do not use international hotel chains.

Ownership is only part of the decision. Architecture, location, atmosphere, service and connection to local culture all matter.

Small groups make these properties practical. A lodge with a handful of rooms may be ideal for Pedalers even though it could never work for a large escorted group.

Where two properties provide comparable experiences, environmental practices can certainly become part of the decision. But we do not choose hotels because they have the best sustainability statement on their website.

We look first at what the property actually offers and how it fits the trip.

Eat Where You Are

Regional food has been part of Pedalers tour design from the beginning.

We favor locally owned restaurants serving the cuisine of the place we are traveling through. Markets, cafes, fruit vendors and specialty food producers often become part of the experience as well.

Guides have considerable freedom here.

If they know a better restaurant, they can change the plan. If guests have reached the point where another local dinner is one too many, the guide can find something different. Pasta and pizza have rescued more than a few travelers over the years.

Food also has an economic role. Eating locally directs spending to cooks, restaurant owners, market vendors and producers.

But that was never the original reason we built trips this way.

We do it because food is one of the best ways to understand a destination, and because the trip is better for it.

Bicycles That Already Live There

Pedalers does not ship a global bicycle fleet from country to country.

The bicycles used on our tours are owned and maintained locally.

That avoids the international freight and logistics associated with moving a centralized fleet around the world while supporting local mechanics and cycling businesses.

Fleet life varies according to use. Locations with heavy tour schedules may refresh bicycles every couple of years. Fleets used for only a few departures each season may remain in tour service for five or six years.

A well-maintained bicycle can safely remain useful much longer than that. When Pedalers-owned bikes leave active tour service, they are normally sold locally and continue being ridden.

Maintenance is important throughout their service life. Contracted mechanics service our own fleets several times during a season, and guides handle minor adjustments while tours are underway. Our operating partners generally follow similar systems, and fleet maintenance is one of the things we consider when choosing them.

Some worn parts find second uses. Old inner tubes, for example, become remarkably useful tie straps in luggage and bike trucks.

Other equipment should not be reused simply for the sake of avoiding waste. Helmets are discarded when their protective function is compromised. Safety takes priority over recycling.

We currently use conventional bicycle lubricants sparingly. Biodegradable products exist, but many require frequent reapplication and are not consistently available in the destinations where we operate. We would rather be honest about that trade-off than claim an environmental solution that does not yet work well in practice.

Our eBike fleets are still relatively young, so batteries have not yet reached the end of their useful lives. Proper return, recycling or manufacturer disposal will need to become part of our equipment practices as that begins to occur.

Support Vehicles That Support

A support vehicle is there to help riders, not follow them continuously.

On most cycling trips, the vehicle leapfrogs the group in stages of roughly 8 to 12 miles, depending on the route and riders.

It remains parked with the engine switched off until it is time to move forward. The timing is planned so the vehicle passes the group and arrives at the next support point shortly before the cyclists.

This keeps support reasonably close while naturally limiting unnecessary mileage and idling.

The vehicle may remain at a junction when a turn is not obvious, and water and snacks are available whenever riders reach a parked support point.

Vehicle configurations vary by destination. In much of Asia, groups typically use a passenger van together with a separate luggage and bike truck. In the Americas, a passenger van and trailer are more common.

European canoe trips currently use electric minivans for passenger transfers, while canoes are transported separately.

We do not make promises about converting every tour to electric support vehicles. Availability, charging infrastructure, road conditions and suitable vehicle sizes differ enormously around the world.

As better options become practical locally, we are happy to consider them.

Water, Waste and Everyday Choices

Drinking-water practices vary considerably by destination.

Where tap water is safe, large coolers or carboys can be filled at the hotel for the day's riding.

Where tap water is not advisable, we purchase purified water locally. Whenever possible, that means returnable or refillable 20-liter containers, or refilling through hotel filtration systems.

When those options are unavailable, larger single-use containers are preferable to large numbers of small bottles.

Guests are asked to bring their own reusable water bottles on every Pedalers trip.

Picnic food is normally carried in reusable containers with paper wraps where appropriate. Crews carry washable reusable glasses for fruit juice and similar drinks, and individually packaged snacks are avoided when practical.

Waste is collected during the trip and recycled where meaningful local systems exist.

That qualification matters.

A recycling symbol does not accomplish much if everything ultimately enters the same waste stream. We prefer describing what actually happens rather than claiming a universal recycling program that does not exist.

Walking and Paddling

Our current walking program is concentrated on Japan's Nakasendo, a route combining small roads and long-established historic paths, many of them stone paved.

Off-trail travel and the erosion concerns associated with wilderness switchbacks are simply not major issues there.

Our canoe trips are operated by local specialist partners whose guides know their rivers intimately.

Boats remain within their individual river systems rather than being transported by Pedalers between waterways. No motorized support boats are used on current canoe trips.

Guides maintain appropriate distances from wildlife, although wildlife occasionally has its own ideas about appropriate distance. Territorial swans have been known to make that point.

The broader principle is that activity-specific practices should fit the actual environment rather than be imported from a generic adventure-travel checklist.

Culture and Traveling as a Guest

Cultural understanding is part of responsible travel.

Guidance varies by destination because cultures vary.

Japan receives a more detailed introduction because many everyday expectations differ substantially from those familiar to Western travelers. Elsewhere, cultural guidance may take the form of reminders along the way about footwear, clothing, photography or appropriate behavior.

Local guides provide that interpretation.

They also have the freedom to step in gently when a traveler needs a reminder.

We do not believe travelers need to be surrounded by rules. Most adventure travelers are already thoughtful about where they are and how they behave.

What matters is recognizing that we are visitors in someone else's community.

Wildlife

Wildlife guidance also needs to be destination-specific.

On Indian wildlife drives, guests are accompanied by local naturalists who understand the animals, environment and appropriate viewing behavior.

On cycling tours in Alaska, bears, bison, moose and caribou can occasionally appear near the road. Guides brief guests at the beginning of the trip on how to respond to possible encounters.

After roughly 20 years of operating Alaska tours, we have fortunately had no serious roadside wildlife incidents.

Pedalers previously included elephant-camp visits on some Thailand tours. Those visits are no longer part of our itineraries.

Our focus today is on encounters that can be handled appropriately in the context of the destination and with guidance from people who understand the wildlife involved.

Climate Without Accounting Tricks

Cycling, walking and paddling do not make a trip impact-free.

Hotels consume energy. Ferries burn fuel. Support vehicles produce emissions. Travelers generally need to fly to reach the destination.

Some of those impacts are within Pedalers' control. Others are not.

Guest flights are particularly difficult to assign meaningfully to an individual tour. A traveler may come directly from home, combine several tours, extend the trip independently or travel on aircraft with very different efficiencies.

We can acknowledge that those emissions exist without pretending we can assign an exact percentage of every journey to Pedalers.

We therefore focus first on what we can influence.

Our guides and crews already live where the tours operate rather than being flown from a central office. Our bicycles already live there too. Support vehicles limit unnecessary driving. We avoid designing itineraries around excessive shuttles and transfers.

Pedalers operates virtually rather than maintaining a large bricks-and-mortar office.

We are also willing to calculate representative operating footprints internally when doing so helps us understand where meaningful reductions may be possible.

What we do not do is buy carbon credits and claim the emissions have therefore disappeared.

Carbon credits do not remove the emissions produced by a guest's flight or our support vehicle. We would rather direct our attention toward reducing impacts we can actually control than pay to claim those emissions have been balanced somewhere else.

If Pedalers supports a worthwhile conservation or community project, we would rather support it because the project deserves support, not because a calculation says it cancels emissions somewhere else.

Different Places Need Different Solutions

Pedalers operates in destinations with very different infrastructure, economies and environmental challenges.

A water-refill system readily available in Japan may not exist in rural Bhutan. An electric support vehicle may be practical in France but unavailable in Thailand. Recycling systems range from excellent to almost nonexistent.

Responsible travel therefore requires judgment.

We do not believe one universal checklist automatically produces the most responsible result in every destination.

Local guides and partners help us understand what is practical, what can be improved and where compromises are unavoidable.

When guests want to understand those compromises, our guides can explain the local realities.

What We Ask of Our Guests

Our Terms and Conditions already include basic guest responsibilities, and detailed guidance for each destination appears in Guest Information and through guide briefings.

In simple terms, we ask travelers to choose a trip appropriate to their abilities, arrive properly prepared, respect the laws and customs of the places we visit, follow guide directions concerning safety, wildlife and the environment, and respect both local communities and fellow travelers.

Guests are also asked to bring their own reusable water bottle.

Destination-specific guidance belongs mainly in the destination. Our guides are better positioned to explain what matters in rural Japan, Bhutan, Thailand or Alaska than a universal list written in an office.

Measuring What Matters

We do not intend to build a sustainability bureaucracy simply so we can publish more numbers.

Some practices can be measured easily. Others cannot.

We can document local staffing, long-term partnerships, refillable-water systems, new lower-impact vehicle options and meaningful operational changes.

Other statistics can quickly become artificial. Asking every partner bicycle operator around the world to provide annual fleet-retirement figures would create work without necessarily producing useful information.

Where exact percentages would create false precision, we prefer clear qualitative statements supported by concrete examples.

We will maintain a simple responsibility log so improvements made during the year are not forgotten, and review the public information regularly.

If a major operating change makes something on this page inaccurate, we will update it rather than waiting for an annual reporting date.

There Is Always Room to Do Better

We do not claim that Pedalers is perfectly sustainable.

We do not claim zero impact.

We do not claim carbon neutrality through credits.

And we do not believe a certification badge automatically makes a company responsible.

What matters more to us is how a trip actually operates.

That means continuing to listen to guides and local partners, adopting better ideas when they genuinely work, improving weak areas where practical and being willing to change as technology and local infrastructure change.

Some of the practices described here have existed at Pedalers for nearly four decades. Others are relatively new. More will undoubtedly change in the years ahead.

We do what we do because we believe it is the right way to travel.

Writing it down simply gives us another reason to keep making it better.