Gravel Travel’s deep love of Icelandic heritage and nature is the core of everything we do. We value our integrity and responsibility to the environment we live and operate in. We value giving our guests quality experiences without compromising local communities or nature. With three generations already working together in Gravel Travel we know the value of preservation of Iceland for the future generations to come. 

Our Sustainability Commitments

To ensure we are having a positive impact wherever Gravel Travel operates and beyond here are the tangible commits we have made:

Responsible Guiding: All of our guides are qualified in first aid. Depending on the tour you take they will also be trained in commercial driving, glacier guiding or other required specialism. As part of our tours, our guides discuss with our guests about the environment and community in Iceland and our commitment to protecting it. Our team always follows the highest safety practices and works closely with The Icelandic Tourist Board, The Iceland Metricological Office,  Safe Travel Iceland and The Icelandic Search and Rescue Organisation. 

Pre Arrival Information: Before guests join us on our tours we send our pre arrival information educating guests on how to travel responsibly in Iceland. We encourage guests to sign The Icelandic Pledge from Visit Iceland to be a responsible tourist.

Trusted Partners: When using partners to operate certain elements of our tours or promoting partners tours we ensure that they follow our values for the highest level of customer service and respect for the Icelandic environment and community.

Creating a Responsible Culture: From our hiring process, our ongoing team meetings and training to our ‘marketing voice’ in our blogs, social media and all our communication with our guests we aim to spread environmental awareness, educate about issues we face in Iceland and create practical, impactful and inspirational engagement in responsible sustainability in Iceland.

Partnerships: We are working closely with our local DMOs (Destination Management Organisations) Visit South Iceland, Visit Reykjavík and Visit Iceland to ensure we are part of voice of tourism in Iceland and have the latest knowledge of tourism sustainability and development. We are also partnering with Katla Geopark, a UNESCO word heritage site. With this partnership we educate our guides and guests of the work and goals of the Georpark.

Local Products: Wherever possible we aim to work with local businesses and encourage our guests to engage with them when they visit Iceland. An example of this is on our Northern Lights tours we provide pastries from a local bakery.

Slow Tourism: We encourage all our guests to spend more time in the local areas they visit so that they can create a better connection with the local environment and community and boost the local economy further by using local businesses, such as; hotels, shops and restaurants. We ensure our tours are small groups that are appropriate for the area and activity we are taking part in and our itineraries are well planned to maximise guests experience within communities.

Leave No Trace: We ensure that our team and our guests use proper waste management. We ensure we do not leave any waste in the areas we operate in, recycle where possible and aim to limit the waste we create by avoiding single-use plastics or unnecessary paper. We understand some areas we are operating in have delicate ecosystems and we want to avoid damaging them.

The Fleet: Our vehicles are well-maintained and an appropriate vehicle is picked for each tour. An investment in quality vehicles is an ongoing priority. We ensure all our team use eco-friendly driving skills when using our vehicles, such as smooth driving, sticking to the speed limit, reducing idling, accelerating too fast and reducing unnecessary braking.

Beyond these commitments Gravel Travel  has  dedicated team member who coordinates sustainability within Gravel Travel. This coordinator assesses, identifies, improves, educates and implements sustainability measures within the company to ensure Gravel Travel is always striving to be a company with a positive impact. They follow/adapt to the latest industry changes or new research and advice from global sustainability best practices in accordance with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.