Elevated Purpose through Ecotourism

Ecotourism is tourism that keeps money in the local communities while giving value and benefit to the environment and the culture. In order to promote environmentally and culturally ethical tourism we pride ourselves on practices that encourage:

  • Conscientious, low-impact visitor behavior
  • Sensitivity towards, and appreciation of, local cultures and biodiversity
  • Support for local conservation efforts
  • Sustainable benefits to local communities
  • Local participation in decision-making
  • Educational components for both the traveler and local communities

Elevated Trips uses local Tibetan guides, hotels, drivers and exists to support and empower communities.The money from your tour goes to support local Tibetan economies.

We are not a mass travel company who turns out tourist trips with a factory mindset. But we do care deeply about each participant as an individual as well as maximizing their understanding and place as a global citizen in the local culture and customs.

Ecotourism is defined by the International Ecotourism Society as “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves interpretation and education.” It is our goal to walk out these three legs of ecotourism while providing meaningful, enriching, engaging experiences to our travelers.

You can see our recent 2020 blog on ecotourism initiatives and experience here

 

Elevated Service

Our commitment to service comes from significant travel experience all across Asia and Tibet. Ben Cubbage, the founder of Elevated Trips, has over 6,000 miles of trail-tested trekking experience and 15 years as a professional guide with 7 of those years guiding in western China. Most  the local guides we employ have 10-20 years of guiding experience and are considered the best, most in-demand guides in the business.

We work with only the highest quality local guides to give you the best possible ecotourism experience. Elevated Trips employs the best Tibetan guides who are fluent in English and offer the best customer experience. This means that our guides don’t just repeat a canned line on a tour bus microphone. Our guides go above and beyond the normal to give you the highest possible quality experience.  It is often a highlight for many of our customers to get to know the guides personally and to learn first hand from them about their own lives and stories. The guides we work with are highly sought after because they get what it takes to make the customer feel understood and go the extra mile to serve you.

We pride ourselves on being on the forefront of safety and peace of mind.  Ben has also participated in 450 hours of wilderness specific first responder training.This is the industry standard that NOLS, REI, the world’s best wilderness guide services require in their guides.

Don’t be shy if you are a long way from making a booking – we want to hear what excites you about visiting this unique land. Being good listeners is at the heart of our old school approach to service because we want to fill your travels with rich experiences and personal touches.   We are happy to tailor-make your experience to suit your needs and love seeing the glow of a smile light up when people feel cared for and really get what they were hoping for.

Elevated Experience through Ecotourism

Don’t just go and take a photo to impress your friends.
We want you to come back from our trips changed on the inside with broader minds, that are educated and enlightened. We don’t settle for riding a bus in a group tour and stopping at the  touristy, commercialize sites.

Our tours and treks are culturally immersive and full of wonder and life and even delightful  spontaneous moments that can’t be squarely placed in a brochure.  By immersing yourself in culture you begin to admire it in a new way that you can not as a mere spectator.

We get off the beaten path where few foreigners have ever roamed.
Imagine sitting outside a Tibetan tent on the high plateau watching your nomad host make butter tea in a handmade wooden churn.  His wife is weaving coarse dark yak wool on a loom that has been in her family for generations.  From the corner of your eye you spot the herd of yaks coming back home for the night to make their bed in the grass.  A Tibetan nomad offers you a steaming mug of tea as you look up at the brilliant stars.  If you want to the see the world through the window of an air conditioned tour bus,  Elevated trips is not for you.  If you want to experience life through the eyes of a Tibetan living on the roof of the world, we will take you there in a way no one else can.

Elevated trips. . . live it, don’t just see it.

Elevated Landscape

And, of course, our trips are at high altitude.  The average elevation of the Tibetan Plateau is 14,000 feet.  People think this makes the trip dangerous or just for the elite mountaineer.  But with proper, gradual acclimatization you will be able to experience an environment that has few parallels in the modern world: one of the last wild remote places on earth.  From the diversity of wildlife that includes yaks  marmots, pika, wild antelope, black necked cranes, and wild asses at high altitude to the alpine tundra, the ecosystem is unique.  The lifestyle of nomads that live on these high plains in difficult conditions  is equally as interesting and shows a fortitude and adaptability that is truly inspiring.