Since Rough Guides was founded 1982, we've made it our mission to highlight lesser known places and bring our readers in-depth insights into the culture and history of the destinations we feature. We believe this approach encourages travellers to stay longer, immerse themselves in experiences that enhance local economies and enjoy cultural exchange with their hosts.
Our dedicated network of writers work hard to bring travellers practical information to help you minimise any negative impact of your trip, while maximising the positive impact that comes from engaging with local communities.
These are the beliefs that Rough Guides was formed on, and now we’re going one step further. What started as an ethos is now a promise: We pledge to uphold and promote responsible travel.
Find ideas for how to travel more sustainably and, for your one-stop guide to travelling the UK by electric vehicle, don't miss The Rough Guide to Green Britain and Northern Ireland.
Rough Guides pledges to empower women in travel © soft_light/Shutterstock© soft_light/Shutterstock
At Rough Guides, we’ve long recognised the fundamental, transformative contributions that women make to communities, culture and commerce around the world. These contributions are still all too often overlooked, which is why we’ve also pledged to support and promote women-led and women-empowering travel initiatives.
Our goal is to help amplify the voices, expertise, experiences and endeavours of women around the world. We will do what we can to support female-led community tourism operators and entrepreneurs, community leaders, female travellers and writers.
This includes unique highlight trips such as joining craftswomen in remote Brazil to show their exceptional clay arts or exploring the real life of women in Central Asia's Uzbekistan.
Furthermore, we use our online presence to promote female-led initiatives through blog articles like our article on the Nasio Trust in Kenya led by Nancy Hunt empowering rural communities or our article on female-led community projects in Dominica.
We promise to:
Raise awareness - We will bring you, our readers, as much information as possible on issues and practices relating to the empowerment of women and responsible travel
Raise the bar - We will improve our company practices to be a role model for our partners and readers
Raise money - We will support charitable projects that make a difference to local communities, especially to women’s lives
We will apply these principles to all areas of the Rough Guides business - our guidebooks, the articles on our website, the trips we organise for you through our Tailor Made Trips initiative and the way we work within our company.
Rough Guides supports travel that benefits local communities © szefei/Shutterstock
Our Tailor Made Trips connect travellers with local tour operators, who plan a bespoke trip for you, just the way you want it
On our website, we feature both destination guides as well as topical articles in our blog.
Working towards a future of more responsible travel © Chachamp/Shutterstock
The Rough Guides Responsible Travel Policy is a constant work in progress. We’ll do our best to uphold and promote responsible travel and to support woman-led initiatives, and we’ll review our work regularly to find out what needs to change. We are proud to make these long-term pledges and we look forward to fulfilling them to create a better future for travel, for all of us.
Find out more about travelling more responsibly in the post-Covid world and how to think about travel in a more mindful way.
Top image: Hmong women in Mu Cang Chai, Yen Bai, Vietnam © Chachamp/Shutterstock
written by
Amy Hopkins
updated 08.09.2025
Rough Guides connects you with vetted travel agents who create personalized trip plans from scratch based on your travel style, pace, interests, and budget. Instead of choosing from fixed packages, you can receive up to 3 different itinerary proposals, compare approaches from different local agents, and refine the preferred trip together until it fits the way you want to travel.
