From	To	Description	Num Days	Price	Booking
17-Nov-2008	31-Dec-2011	This private tour costs from £1,800 per person. (it will cost more at peak times, namely summer and Christmas). If taken as a family holiday, 25% discount for under 12s (minimum two people paying adult price).	15	£1800.00 what's included? Kind Points:405
Included in the price: Accommodation Activities Arrival starter pack Breakfast Government Gratuities and tips High chairs Logs

• American Express	• Cheque	• Mastercard	• Visa
• Maestro	• Electron	• Bank Transfer

We encourage visiting less places and spending more time there which allows richer experiences and also has less impact on the environment than constantly moving from one place to another. Whilst we do use private cars and minivans (not shared transport), where possible, our vehicles are fuelled by LPG. We also encourage exploring local areas by foot or bicycle.

On this nature holiday, you will get an unrivalled insight into Thai culture and you will meet a wide range of ordinary people on an 'equal' basis, not just those involved in the tourist industry to ‘serve' you. You will learn about real life in Thailand, both traditional and modern, sustainable ways of living and farming, local festivals, dances etc. We find people who will show these to you and compensate them accordingly, this helps local efforts of keeping traditions alive.

You will spend most of your time areas away from the main tourist destinations, therefore providing additional income in local economies that may not normally benefit from revenue from tourism. Whether a housewife takes you to her local market to buy food to prepare dinner, or you pop into the village co-operative to browse their handicrafts, your holiday will help the very places and people you visit.

The accommodation on this itinerary is small and local, within existing buildings or built with comparatively low impact to the environment. When you do stay in a 'conventional’ hotel, it is a Green Hotel, which uses solar energy for heating the hot water and room sensors that automatically turn off lights and appliances.

This nature holiday includes meeting elephants but not riding them, you will learn why when you spend time at Elephant Nature Park. This is a showpiece of wildlife conservation in Asia, with a passionate founder who has been named Time Magazine's 'Asian Hero of the Year' for her efforts. Not only does Elephant Nature Park provide a refuge for elephants from all over Thailand, often previously-abused, but it spreads knowledge on humane training and elephant welfare to the wider community, as well as providing hands-on medical assistance to elephants who are not lucky enough to live here.

It goes without saying that we also provide cultural guidelines and travel tips which include responsible travel information.

Our Responsible Travel Policy

Local culture
The values of responsible travel are at the heart of every Tell Tale Travel holiday. By designing each itinerary to work in harmony with the daily lives of local people, we aim to offer one of the most responsible and enjoyable forms of tourism available with some of the most authentic and valuable experiences you can have as part of your holiday.

Our holidays are founded on the following beliefs:

* The best way to get to know a country is through its people.
* The responsible sourcing of accommodation and activities from local communities means that your visit provides our hosts with additional income without distracting them from their daily lives and main sources of revenue.
* Wherever possible we avoid using tour groups and guides in order for our hosts and our guests to meet on an equal social footing and to improve the chance for them to form lasting relationships.
* We actively seek out opportunities for you to get involved in aspects of everyday life, such as visiting markets and participating in festivals, which reinforce the importance of local culture thereby helping to conserve it.

Despite the many advantages of working this way, there are of course risks involved in giving you access to local communities without depending on tour guides. In order to minimise these risks we have adopted the following principles:

* We work with hosts in local communities who are used to dealing with foreigners directly, who have above average communication skills and who can offer accommodation above an acceptable level of comfort to avoid unnecessary culture shocks.
* Our hosts and local consultants are fully involved in the creation and delivery of our holiday itineraries to ensure that we do not interfere in the running of the local community and that any issues are dealt with as they arise.
* We work with small groups of independent travellers to avoid the typical 'them and us' attitudes of group tours and provide comprehensive cultural guidelines to highlight potential issues to you before you travel.

The Environment
As we mainly work with independent travellers, we cannot be around to enforce our environmental policy during their holiday. However, we accept our responsibility to promote the respectful use of the environment to all our guests and work with our hosts to iron out environmental issues. We have made the following commitments to promoting environmental responsibility on our holidays:

* Our pre-travel guidelines highlight key environmental concerns such as water conservation.
* Our hosts will normally provide guests with food that is locally grown or caught.
* We promote visits to recognised nature conservation projects including an elephant sanctuary and a hydro-powered, eco-village that protects a rare species of tree (Aquilaria Crassna).
* We encourage our guests to use public transport, particularly trains for longer distances, and provide opportunities to explore local areas by bicycle.

Staff and Training
By directly running our own local operations, we are able to ensure that the majority of our service is provided according to our publicly stated responsible travel policy. Where we have to rely on external suppliers, we enforce strict sourcing guidelines to ensure that we pay a fair rate to local suppliers and that they pay their staff fairly in turn. Where possible we employ local staff who provide us with the intimate, first-hand knowledge we need to administer local bookings and maintain good relationships with our many suppliers. All staff are retained under UK law and provided with the requisite opportunities and resources for training and development.

Charitable Support
As an organisation our chosen charity is Medecins Sans Frontieres to whom we send donations when the opportunity arises. We are currently exploring a more formal set up in Thailand through which we can provide training and development to benefit our hosts and their communities.