Muir's Tours is the trading arm of The Nepal Kingdom Foundation, a UK charity that was established in 1982 to aid the people of Nepal in a wide range of ways. (registered charity No. 326441).

We have carefully chosen what many think is some of the best travel experiences available today.  Our partner organisations who run the tours that we advertise, are benefiting from our fair trade policy which enables them to plan for the future, as opposed to living from hand to mouth. We keep our overheads low in various ways, in particular we do not receive clients funds, as we are advertising agents, not travel agents. We provide you with all the information you need and when you wish to book a tour, you pay direct, which means a better deal for small scale tour operators in poor countries.

Our Ethos

We are committed to Responsible Tourism that respects the environment and all its people. We hope you feel the same way about tourism.

Our name, Muir's Tours, is taken from the Scottish born environmentalist, John Muir and reflects our respect for the environment.

"By choosing  a tour through Muir's Tours you will be bringing benefit to the places and people you meet. In addition all profits will be divided between worthy causes in the countries you visit and our core charities. The result being that everyone benefits. All profits, means 100%. Not a small percentage as part of a marketing gimmick. In addition we ensure that our administration costs are low. This is possible as we have a small army of volunteers who help our staff. Our premises are rent free thanks to our generous landlords."

Maurice Adshead FRGS
Manager Operations

Muir's Tours (formal name = NKF Trading Limited)

Fair Trade & Community Co-operation PLUS Consent

We work in close partnership with local communities in the places we visit for a number of reasons. Our travellers gain from a deeper and richer cultural experience and the local communities will guide and host tourists to obtain greater benefits than normal from tourism. This is important as the world's population grows and the pressure on the land increases - in some areas tourism may be the only means of survival.

Sustainable Livelihoods

We also help them to maintain and develop sustainable tourism solutions that protect and enhance indiginous cultures and the environment. For example in Nepal we are working with a number of sustainable projects that provide locally produced fuel thereby reversing deforestation and the consequent land-errosion. It also means communities need to earn less cash in order to buy fuel. It also means arguments for gigantic and damaging hydro-electric dams are weakened.

Keeping most of the money in the local economy

We make sure that most of the money from tourism stays in the places our travellers visit. In general this is as high as 80 to 90%. This contrasts with the norm where local communities generally see less than 20% of the money generated from their homeland. One of the worst case examples is that on some African safaris the yield is as little as 3% for the indigenous landowners.

We also ensure that the local staff we use, in particular porters are paid fair wages, and that they have sufficient clothing and equipment to ensure their safety.  There are examples in many poor countries where the local people are recruited for very little money with high risks. Yes, they desperately need the income, but they are all to frequently abused, for example some porters are not provided with a tent or other shelter in winter conditions, or the clothing they have is not warm enough and the employer fails to provide what is needed. Often the culprit is a local person who is managing the porters, but Western owned travel companies should be making sure that these violations of basic rights are not happening, and some companies just do not pay enough attention to the lower paid staff.  This is where you come in, if you want a great holiday, but not at another persons suffering, tell the owners of the company that you will not travel with them again unless they declare to stop these inhumane practices.

Locally Sourced Expertise and Training

We have a policy of employing our staff from the countries we visit and where this is not possible, for example where the technical know how of climbing or say white water rafting is needed, we will source suitable Western* personnel whilst we help train suitable local people.

*Our Western personnel typically being from the UK, USA or New Zealand.

Small Group Sizes

Our group sizes are typically 5 or 6 people with maximums of 12 and in some cases less. This ensures that the experience is richer and at the same time less damaging to the local environment/ culture. Although on some of our budget safaris we take as many as 16.

Your Privacy

See a full explanation of our privacy policy.

Currently we are supporting

Tourism Concern - a charity working to eliminate the negative impact that tourism can bring on people and their environment, mostly in third world destinations.

Survival International - protecting the interests of indigenous people around the world.  

Wonderful News - December 2006
The bushmen of the Kalahari desert are the winners in a court case that was to have expelled them from their ancient homeland.  WOW what a result. Well done all of the team at Survival and the Survival supporters.

World Wide Fund for Nature - provides practical help to protect wildlife and habitats around the world, especially our favourite, the polar bears of Churchill, Manitoba. These poor creatures are destined to one of the first to be wiped out by climate warming.

The John Muir Trust - committed to the conservation and, where possible, the restoration of our wild places.  The Trust's name and ours is taken from the Scot who emigrated to the USA and became the father of the world's environmental movement.

The Tibetan Government in Exile - We are working with various community organisations to help the Tibetan people help themselves. We have established links with 4 craft workshops, 3 operated by community groups and the 4th by the Tibetan Welfare Office.  We are also operating tourism projects in conjunction with the Tibetan Welfare Office. We link sponsors to Tibetan children, often orphans, who need financial help with education and housing.

Nepal Kingdom Foundation - The NKF has wide ranging aims and objectives to help the poorest people of one of the world's poorest countries - Nepal.

American Indian Heritage Foundation - distributes food, clothing, blankets, toys, building supplies, educational materials, medical equipment & supplies. There are also programmes to help build confidence, self-esteem and self-awareness in American Indian youth.

Disclaimer: Muir's Tours is not legally linked to the above organisations (except the NKF) but acts as a supporter in various ways.

In addition we support and recognise various other organisations - see our links page