What holiday memories are precious to you? When did you last feel you had truly connected with a foreign destination? Rather than being cooped up in an apartment block with fellow tourists, we lovers of Slow Travel understand the need to appreciate the communities we visit. Talking, walking and even working with those at home in for us unfamiliar locations gives us a much greater appreciation of the history and cultural fabric of a place.

What’s more, traditional mass tourism has negative consequences not just for the planet, but also for native peoples. Carbon-chugging short haul flights and huge hotel complexes built alongside substandard housing for locals are just two clearly visible  effects of modern mass tourism. Causing both geographic and cultural erosion, the tourist who takes has become a figure of ignorance and inequality.

In poet Derek Walcott’s impassioned Nobel Lecture on the detrimental effects of tourism he talked about the effect of tourism on his native Caribbean islands. “Its peasantry and its fishermen are not there to be loved or even photographed;” he said “they are trees who sweat, and whose bark is filmed with salt, but every day on some island, rootless trees in suits are signing favourable tax breaks with entrepreneurs, poisoning the sea almond and the spice laurel of the mountains to their roots. A morning could come in which governments might ask what happened not merely to the forests and the bays but to a whole people.” Walcott’s exclamation, “How quickly it could all disappear!” was a stark warning to travel companies and consumers looking for cheap mass tourism.

Fairtrade travel is a great option for those of us wanting to give back to the places we visit in an effort to avoid the consequences Walcott describes. From Himalayan home-stays to meeting Fairtrade product producers- there are all sorts of Fairtrade holidays for you to choose from.

Hands Up Holidays offers a new concept of ‘Voluntourism’, luxury holidays that include some work on community projects. You begin your holiday in luxury accommodation, exploring the sights and sounds of your destination. After a few days doing this you begin sampling volunteer projects. Hands Up say their staff “are committed to giving you an enriching travel experience and know what is required to achieve this.  The choice of sights will fill your photo album, and our Community Development projects will give you a real sense of achievement and help change lives for the better.”

Another option is Traidcraft’s Fairtrade holidays. Ever wondered where that Fairtrade chocolate bar or pot of coffee came from? Traidcraft holidays invite you to meet the people behind the Fairtrade story who produce such products. You can visit the Minka communities in Peru to see the Fairtrade coffee plantations, then take a lavish trip on the Orient Express to the shores of Lake Titicaca. Or you could head to Kenya to see Fairtrade craft producers and the vast plains of the Maasai Mara. These holidays make sure you take the time to appreciate and understand the hard work of Fairtrade craftspeople while satisfying your wanderlust.

The biggest adventure of my life was travelling across northern India, a diverse, awe-inspiring region of dramatic arid mountains and luscious green hills. My fondest memory of the trip isn’t seeing the golden temple in Agra, the dramatic hills of Manali or the bustling markets of Leh; it is of learning a nursery rhyme from a young Tibetan boy on a stroll around a small village below a Buddhist monastery. Such moments come only when you take the time to speak and stroll with local people.

Himalayan Homestays offers a holiday option that allows you to live alongside the people of the Ladakh region, generating income for the local community and providing you with an intimate knowledge of the community. The Snow Leopard Conservancy, The Mountain Institute and local villagers founded the company in 1999 and its Fairtrade holidays have delighted visitors for years. Living with local people is sure to make you acclimatise not just to the altitude, but also to a culture that appreciates the supremacy of nature and the power of the community.

This Fairtrade Fortnight people across the world have been swapping everyday items for Fairtrade equivalents, so if you haven’t already, why not swap in your usual holiday plans for a Fairtrade experience? Even Derek Walcott has been won over by the ethical options in tourism, telling Edward Hirsch in an interview: “Once I saw tourism as a terrible danger to a culture. Now I don’t… Everybody has a right to come down in winter and enjoy the sun. Nobody has a right to abuse anybody.”