How We Work
Hinoki Travels creates signature travel experiences designed to reconnect you to your senses and enhance your well-being in nature. Each unique trip design is centered on one of our four themes:
Reverence: exploring global spiritual practices that revere the natural world
Provenance: exploring the distinct flavors of local foods in rural & remote areas
Interdependence: connecting with remote communities who are adapting to climate change
Rewild Yourself: adventures in remote places that challenge us to find a freer version of ourselves
Each trip is informed by our assessment process, which utilizes tools from neuroscience to ensure that your travel experience resonates with your unique needs. We work to balance adventure with a sense of calm.
On every Hinoki trip you will find:
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Access to remote, lesser-known locations often inaccessible on traditional tours.
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A much slower pace. We want you to take time to feel the impact of your surroundings.
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Every experience is designed to reduce our ecological footprint and increase the preservation of local environments and cultures.
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Empathy and sensitivity towards our fellow travelers and destination hosts. Our trips are for deeper connection, getting beyond the ego, and opening our minds. Each of our small group trips are limited to 8 maximum participants, which makes for a more intimate experience.
Please reach out to us via our contact form so we can discuss your exact needs and desires, and match you to one of our upcoming small-group trips. We can also offer you a private trip, if you prefer to travel alone or with your own group at dates of your choosing.
Responsible Travel with Hinoki Travels:
Hinoki offers travel experiences in reciprocity with the communities and lands we visit. Reciprocity means that we collaborate with community-based experience providers to create an equal exchange and mutual benefit between us. Our first priority as a company is to provide the communities at each destination with the opportunity to improve the protection and conservation of their land and cultures. In brief, here is our approach to responsible travel for every trip:
Reciprocal Travel with Hinoki Travels:
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We partner exclusively with local hosts at each destination. We work with them to co-design experiences that directly benefit their community.
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We require all service providers (accommodations, etc.) to present us with their sustainability management practices, and we present ours to them. This covers everything from single-use plastics to energy usage, as well as labor rights, cultural sensitivity, and conservation.
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We advocate for the working and human rights of all our local partners. As much as possible, we conduct an onsite review of business practices to ensure global standards are being met. We follow the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) criteria to assess these standards and look for certifications from GSTC-accredited certifying bodies.
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Our leadership team has completed professional sustainable tourism training and are active participants in global dialogue surrounding tourism best practices. Most importantly, we have in-depth experience working in collaboration with different communities across the world and understand how to facilitate an equal exchange.
We believe Yvon Chouinard (Founder of Patagonia, Inc.) said it best in his book, The Responsible Company. To be 100% environmentally and socially sustainable as a business would mean we have already figured out how to do everything right. Of course, no company operating on Earth can honestly make this statement. However, we are measuring, monitoring, and managing our impacts through every step of growing the business, and will provide full transparency on our process–and encourage a two-way dialogue so you can help us improve.
Hinoki is an active member of the Adventure Travel Trade Association, a global leader in advocating for a more responsible and sustainable approach to tourism.
