Lofoten swimming vacation in Norway

Planet

CARBON REDUCTION
We have designed our trip operations carefully to minimize our impact on our environment. By its very nature, exploring the world via swimming – “human powered”, means our guests are not using unnecessary motorized vehicles to enjoy their vacation destination. We try to keep our transfer times as short as possible, ensuring guests spend less time traveling and more time swimming on their swim vacation. All our trips are sold without flights so travelers have the option to use more environmentally friendly means of travel if they wish.
On this trip, guests can use boat travel instead of internal flights to reach the swim location and shared transport is facilitated and encouraged. We use a small rib which is moored outside the accommodation to get to and from the majority of swim venues to reduce unnecessary travel.
Our partner hotel are passionate about sustainable tourism and are committed to reducing their climate footprint by focusing on reducing energy use and managing waste. They are proud to be an Environmental Lighthouse certified company.
Vegetarian & Vegan food is available daily from both our hotel and the local restaurants that we choose to visit in the evenings. All food at the hotel is homemade and based on the finest local ingredients. The chefs are passionate about exploring nature and source ingredients from seaweed to local homemade jams.

ENVIRONMENT & WILDLIFE
As an Environmental Lighthouse certified company, our partner hotel are focused on minimising environmental strain and as such are careful to ensure all building and maintenance materials are reliably sourced and don’t harm users. All waste is separated and sorted to maximise recycling and minimise the amount that ends up in landfill.
We continue to be reminded of the problem of plastic in our oceans. As such, we are committed to helping reduce to amount of plastic we use on our trips. We do this by:
• Encouraging guests to bring their own reusable water bottle on tour, or purchasing one of our non-plastic reusable alternatives
• Running regular guide plastic clean up sessions in our locations
• Encouraging good washing of wetsuits/swim kit between swim locations to avoid the threat of invasive species.

People

LOCAL ECONOMY
Our local partners provide an invaluable wealth of local knowledge, not only on the safety front, but also by enhancing our guest’s cultural experiences – from food, to customs and hidden-away local gems. Through years of building happy, positive relationships with our local partners, we are confident in the knowledge that our guests will receive a wonderful warm welcome. The hotel we use in Lofoten is owned and run by the national Norwegian company Classic Norway hotels.
As most of our locations are small and remote, we make sure that our itineraries ‘spread the happiness’ meaning we take the guests to visit different businesses within the community. For example, we arrange for evening meals to be hosted at a different local restaurant each night, ensuring that the economic benefits brought about by our operation are distributed in an equitable way on location.

EMPLOYMENT, INCLUSIVITY AND DIVERSITY
The hotel have committed to focus on one of the UN’s sustainability goals and are committed to help increase the number of young people and adults who have skills, including in technical subjects and vocational subjects, which are relevant for employment by providing employment opportunities and focusing on developing their workforce. We partner a small, local company to provide our safety boats and use all locally owned restaurants which help sustain employment in the area.