Responsible Travel Tips

Every person can make a difference. If you want to contribute to keep Nepal beautiful or make it an even better place, please consider the following non-exhaustive list of ideas:

Social & Cultural Issues:

Try and be culturally sensitive with the way you dress. Particularly outside Kathmandu it is most appropriate to avoid tank tops and shorts or beachwear

Please think before giving money or gifts to street children. It might help them for a day but it will keep them in the streets and incentivize others to start begging too instead of investing in their education. In general and in the long run, being a responsible consumer and traveler helps more than donations. Make sure where you can that adults receive decent salaries to take care of their children themselves.

If you want to volunteer, please make very sure you are supporting a decent, effective and sustainable organization. Some orphanages have been set up for the sole purpose to make money and they ‘buy’ children off uninformed parents who hope their child would get a good education. Often this is not the case as keeping children less educated and desperate attracts more support. Check out http://learningservice.info/ for more information or consider a tour with Hidden Journeys Nepal to learn about best practices before volunteering

Try to buy local products and stay in community accommodation to support the local economy

Environmental Issues:

Try to limit the use of water as the whole country faces shortages during most of the year. Turn the taps off whenever possible and minimize laundry in hotels by using towels for a few days

Try to limit the use of plastic. Refill your bottles with purified or filtered water and bring your own bag while shopping and try to avoid disposable cups, cutlery and plates. If you politely decline those, others might learn from your example

In some places you can find waste segregation opportunities. Please make use of them. Plastic, paper, glass, metals etc. are a resource and source of income for many people

If possible, reduce the use of batteries or take them back home as they can not be recycled in Nepal and will end up in rivers or landfills

Please do not litter, even if you see others doing so. One person can make a difference

Whenever possible, turn off lights and other electrical appliances as Nepal faces chronic power shortages and up to 16 hours of power-cuts a day

Ask hotel owners if they use alternative energy like solar and biogas or water-saving showerheads or rainwater harvesting and grey-water treatment. Or check how they recycle waste and if they buy produce from local communities. They might not yet do any of these things, but every guest asking will give them a motivation to at least consider it for the future. You can always ask tour operators for their social responsibility policy to encourage such initiatives