Responsible Travel

What Responsible Travel is and where it operates

Responsible Travel is a holiday booking platform that sells small group tours and tailor-made trips worldwide. Its homepage says it was "Founded in 2000" and calls it "the world's first and largest responsible holiday company", and the footer adds "Pioneering responsible travel since 2001". It is not the operator of the trips it sells. The about page says its holidays "are crafted by expert partners", that each is screened "for the specific ways they support local communities, nature or cultural heritage", and that "many trips can only be found here" because the company handpicks who it works with. The same page claims "over 6,000 extraordinary holidays across 180 countries". The homepage, signed by founder Justin Francis OBE, speaks of 200,000 customers and "Over 12,000 reviews", and says 96% of the reviews received this year were rated 4 or 5 stars, adding that reviews can only be written by people who have been on its holidays. The company runs a UK site priced in pounds, with a phone line on a UK 01273 number, and its footer links to a separate US site.

The range of trips and activities

The about page groups the catalog into small group adventures, tailor-made journeys, wildlife, family and walking trips, and small ship cruises. The homepage search filter goes further, listing holiday types including Adventure, Cultural, Cycling, Family, Flight free, Rail, Safaris, Sailing, Self drive & fly drive, Small group, Solo, Tailor made, Volunteer travel, Walking, Wellness, Wildlife and Winter, plus an "Accessible" filter. Featured trips on the homepage include a Borneo small group tour through Sabah and Sarawak, a self-drive South Africa trip covering Cape Town, the Winelands and the Garden Route, a cycling holiday in Portugal's Douro Valley, a Maldives conservation cruise that goes in search of whale sharks by snorkel, and a tailor-made Spain holiday. Wildlife is a large share: the homepage says the site has "over a thousand wildlife holidays across more than 120 destinations".

The Southern Madagascar tour is a 17-day small group trip priced at £3,795 excluding flights, with full board, an English-speaking guide, domestic flights, national park fees and all activities in the itinerary included, and a £750 single supplement. It lists departures from October 2026 through December 2027. The Morocco page shows how deep a single country goes, with 120 matching holidays, filters for Adventure (38), Walking (25), Cycling (3) and Small group (65), and location filters for the Atlas Mountains and for climbing Mount Toubkal. Examples include a 15-day Morocco cultural tour from £975 to £1,315 excluding flights (with lower offer prices shown), departing every Wednesday and Sunday and on selected Fridays; a Morocco family holiday with teenagers from £849 to £899 for 8 days; a Morocco budget tour from £649 to £699 for 8 days; a women only tour of 8 days; and a luxury trekking holiday in the Atlas Mountains priced from €1,188 for 6 days. Tailor-made trips such as the 7-day Marrakech to the Sahara holiday "can be tailor made throughout the year", according to the listing.

How booking, cancellation and payments work

Visitors search the website by destination, holiday type, price band (excluding flights), duration (7 days or less, 8 to 14 days, 15 to 21 days, 22 days or more) and travel dates. Trip pages display the price excluding flights, the duration, the type (small group or tailor made), what the price includes and a table of departure dates with an availability status. Some listings carry offers: the Morocco page shows a £49 (or €75) single supplement for selected Morocco trips booked by 3 November 2026, and "Up to £240 off selected dates" on the women only tour.

Booking help comes from a named Travel Team. The site gives the phone number 01273 823 700 with the note "Call us tomorrow after 9am", and an email address, rosy@responsibletravel.com, for people calling from outside the UK. The Morocco page promises "No bots, queues or awful hold music", and the homepage says the team knows "our 6,000 trips inside and out". On money, the homepage says "Your money is completely safe with our Financial Guarantee" and mentions "Discounts off your next trip and a free gift with every holiday"; the footer links to financial protection, loyalty discount and terms and conditions pages. The Madagascar page states "We cater for both vegetarians and vegans."

Responsible Travel's responsible tourism approach

The company says it screens every holiday before listing it. On the Southern Madagascar tour, the trip page says the trip funds a school tree nursery near Italavina, "a long term project which aims to plant over 2000 trees every year", and says plainly that it "is not done as a carbon offsetting program". It adds that approximately 2% of the trip cost is donated to the project. The page also says the trip uses only Malagasy guides, pays staff fair wages, runs a continual training program for local guides including English lessons, and stays in locally owned accommodation such as Camp Catta. Travelers receive instructions on preserving the environment and are asked to follow local rules, "such as never disturbing animals in their environment".

The homepage describes a Trip for a Trip scheme that it says "has made a difference to over 9,000 children", under the heading "Giving kids a day out". The about page links to an impact report, a "How we screen holidays" page, a "What we do not sell" page and a carbon offsets page. The customer review quoted on the homepage, from a traveler back from Ecuador and the Galapagos, praises how "the team at Responsible Travel carefully selects specialists", which is the company's own choice of testimonial.

What remains unclear and who this suits

The site does not state cancellation windows, refund terms or deposit requirements on its trip and destination pages; those sit behind the terms and conditions link. Group-size minimums and maximums are not given on the Madagascar or Morocco listings, even for trips labeled small group. The "Accessible" filter and an "Accessible travel" page exist, but the trip pages do not describe access arrangements for specific holidays. Visa requirements, vaccinations, fitness levels and equipment are not covered on the trip pages. The date filter runs to September 2028, and the listings show departures well into 2027 and 2028.

Responsible Travel suits travelers who care where their money goes and want a specialist partner chosen for them, particularly for wildlife, walking, cycling, adventure and cultural trips in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Small group departures work for solo travelers, with a dedicated Solo filter and women only departures in Morocco. Families get family-specific holidays. The phone-first Travel Team suits people who like to talk a trip through before committing. Budget travelers are not shut out: the Morocco listings include a 7-day Climb Mount Toubkal walking holiday from £545 and the 8-day budget tour from £649, though the 19-day Imperial cities and desert luxury tour is listed from €9,857 and the flagship Madagascar trip sits at £3,795. The platform is a middleman, and the trip itself is delivered by one of its partner companies.