Socialtours wins "Certificate of Excellence 2013"

Yay!! Last week TripAdvisor -  the world's largest travel site announced the certificate of excellence to socialtours' Private Day Tours. The accolade which honors travel excellence, is given only to establishments that consistenly achieve outstanding traveler's review on TripAdvisor, and is extended to qualifying business worldwide.

It took a while but we are slowly getting there... now recognised as one of the top 10% of tourism businesses worldwide with this Certificate of Excellence from TripAdvisor.

We are proud that we won the excellence award in 2013, which place us in the top 10% of all the business on the TripAdvisor. We thank all our travelers who took their time to review our services and encouraging us for excellence.

Kathmandu Kora Cycling Challenge 2013

NO CHILD BORN TO DIE!
Every year, on the third Saturday in July, riders from Nepal and all over the world (ok, that sounds glamorous, but riders from different nationalities do participate) gather in Kathmandu (last year we were close to 300 riders) to ride a personal challenge rider of 50 kilometers around Kathmandu Valley. This is now popular as the KATHMANDU KORA, this year on its third edition.

Started in 2011, a modest 35 riders challenged themselves and got pledged of around half a million Nepali Rupees for a school and an orphanage in Kathmandu. In its second edition, almost 300 riders turned up and raised close to a million Rs. for upgrading birthing facilities in RUKUM.

THE CAUSE
THIS YEAR, its going to be BIG. As part of the EVERYONE CAMPAIGN, we plan to build a birthing facility in Sharmali VDC, Baitadi. This will be a Eco-Designed building, providing the best facilities to the women and children in this remote VDC. The principle is simple - no more minimum standards for our women and children. They deserve the best standards. They deserve a birthing facility that is beautiful, secure, earthquake proof, welcoming, warm and everything that we expect facilities to be like in the city. And this is what we aim to do.

The GOAL is - ONE MILLION for BAITADI.

How do we achieve this?
Easy. We register. We share. We talk to people about what we are doing, and get pledges from them for each kilometer we are riding.

REGISTRATION
The registration form for the Kathmandu Kora Cycling Challenge 2013 is here. Please fill in all fields and read the small print before you press submit. We shall contact you via email (so please make sure that the email is accurate) to confirm your registration.

THERE IS NO FEE FOR PARTICIPATION! 

You just need to register thats it! IDEALLY, we will ask you to please raise Rs. 100 for each km you ride by asking friends, family, companies to pledge the amount for the BIRTHING FACILITIES we are raising this money for. This is voluntary, and you are not bound to raise this money.

We respect your privacy and do not tolerate spam and will never sell, rent, lease or give away your information (name, address, email, etc.) to any third party, nor will we send you unsolicited email.

Online Ticketing for Kathmandu Kora Cycling Challenge 2013 powered by Eventbrite

socialtours @ ITB Berlin 2013

socialtours @ ITB Berlin 2013

06 - 10 March 2013 | Hall 4.1b Adventure and Ecotourism Hall | Booth # 208

For the past five years, socialtours has been actively participating at ITB Berlin, and bringing new products and services to the table every time we come. This year we bring a whole selection of exciting stuff for you to choose from. More reason to meet us at ITB Berlin. Booth # 208 Hall 4.1b Read on.

1. Nepal beyond trekking | not just treks

For over two years now, socialtours has been actively developing extensions to demonstrate that travel into Nepal is NOT JUST TREKS! In these two years, we have successfully launched popular products such as COOK like a LOCAL, THROW your own SOUVENIR, Newar Village Tour, WALKING with MONKS, CROP to CUP Coffee tour and many such products. More recently, we have developed newer products such as PAINT like a LAMA, the WORKING Nepali walk etc, building an exciting range of products we have brought together into our GO LOCAL | Discover Hidden Secrets Series of products. This is what we are coming with this year at ITB, and actively searching companies interested in these products and who are willing to talk to us about developing more products such as these.

2. School Partnerships | Tourism affecting real change

For over seven years now, the award winning project Namaste Nepal S-GmbH, has been fostering school partnerships between schools in Germany, Netherlands and Nepal. We plan to give more information about this amazing project and its achievements at a presentation during ITB at Hall 4.1b. The patrons of this project will come over from Freiberg in Germany to also participate during this presentation.

3. Destination Far West Nepal | Nepal's newest attractions

For over two years now, the director of socialtours, Raj Gyawali, has been working with entrepreneurs in the Far Western Region of Nepal to develop the tourism there into a vision that was commonly identified by locals of the Far West - "An Internationally Recognised Responsible Tourism Destination". This is probably one of the most exciting exercises we are involved in, and we will bring a team from the Far West and present the exciting potential of this region during a presentation at Hall 4.1b.

4. The Green Circuit | cross border tourism

Since 2009, the Green Circuit has grown from just an idea to five responsible travel companies in the Indian Sub-continent actively working together, sharing information, jointly marketing and offering clients interesting options to reduce carbon footprints like cross border tourism products such as the GREEN TRIANGLES of Nepal and India. This initiative works with award winning companies such as The Blue Yonder, Grass Routes Journeys, Help Tourism and Spiti Ecosphere

Come learn more about this at our stall.

5. Mountain Biking | Nepal's new tourism frontier

Several years ago, the government declared a "Make your own Village" scheme and disbursed small amounts of money to each village in Nepal. Identifying roads to be the top priority, the villages promptly started building roads. However, the money was not enough to backstop these roads. This means Nepal has the best range of dirt tracks in the world, covering the whole country and becoming a paradise for mountain bikers. Add road access reaching high altitude areas and we have the most amazing rides, from jeep track, to cross country to single track to extreme down-hilling. We offer Nepal's best selection this year at ITB. This is definitely the new Tourism Frontier in Nepal and you do not want to miss the wagon.

6. Gay and Lesbian Tourism | opening doors

Nepal is fast becoming a good destination for Gay and Lesbian Tourism, what with Nepal being one of the few countries in the world to recognise the third gender. In partnership with Pink Mountain Travel, we offer gay and lesbian mountain weddings, and custom tailored packages to the community. (www.gaylesbiantravelnepal.com)

7. Our Regulars | soft Adventure, cultural immersion and philanthropic tourism

Beyond what we get really excited to do, are our regular products, in Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan and India, all flavoured by that brand of tourism that we really like, Responsible Tourism. Our Director will be on stand by to explain more about what this means in action.

We cannot wait to meet you!

Your opinions / reviews / feedback mean the world to us!

We take your opinions very seriously. A company which does not listen to feedback and reviews cannot develop very far. This is why we have created multiple mechanism to listen to what you have to say about us and the experiences we offer!

1. TripAdvisor - On TripAdvisor, we are listed under socialtours - day tours on this link. All you have to do is click on this link and put in your review. This will help other travellers benefit from your opinion through the worlds premier review site.

2. Facebook - We have tied up with TourRadar and have put in a TOUR REVIEWS app on some of our Facebook pages. You can make a quick review without having to leave the Facebook pages and do not have to register separately for it at all. Here are the links to the pages.

socialtours corporate page : http://www.facebook.com/socialtours.np
Trekking, Hiking, Walking : http://www.facebook.com/Trekking.Hiking.Walking
Everest Base Camp Trek : http://www.facebook.com/Everest.Trekking
Annapurna Circuit Trek : http://www.facebook.com/annapurna.treks

3. Linked In - We have a corporate page on Linked In where reviews are now possible. If you prefer this social media to leave your review, do feel free to do it at this page -

socialtours on Linkedin - http://www.linkedin.com/company/socialtours.com-travels

4. Our website - We have two corporate feedback mechanisms integrated into our website  - a shorter one which just gives us a gist of your feedback, and an optional longer one which evaluates our responsible action while on the trip. It is your choice whether you want to spend more time improving the industry's responsible action, or just providing us a quick feedback. You can do that at this link

http://www.socialtours.com

You can choose to use any one of the above for your review. If you really want to help us, ideally you would put in your review on all links, each having its multiplier effects that help other travellers. Alternatively you can just reply to this mail too.

Thanks for your time. We value your opinions! It means the world to us

Raj Gyawali
Founder Director