Papa-Léguas started as a family business. It all began with a simple idea of a couple wanting to share their passion for travel and a different way of seeing the world.
In 1995, after a more or less spontaneous and unorganized hiking through the Pyrenees, Luisa Tomé and Artur Pegas, newly graduated in agronomy and navigating their first jobs, began to draw up a very tenuous outline of what an adventure travel agency could be…
A year later, on a long boat trip between Lisbon and Saint Petersburg, Russia, the idea that seemed abstract a year earlier began to take shape in the minds of each of the future founders of the agency.
Finally, in 1997, Luísa and Artur decided to move forward with the idea. They began to gather documentation while continuing to travel compulsively. Austrian Alps, northern Thailand, Nepal, Turkey, Peru, Scotland … in May 1998 the company was registered and the license obtained.
The years went by and the team grew. In 2000 Luis Dias and Miguel Barros started the project of pedestrian activities in Portugal with Papa-Léguas. The portfolio of offers has thus grown significantly, giving the possibility to many travelers to start trekking and hiking close to home. In 2005 we were the first Portuguese travel agency to organize commercial expeditions to climb mountains in the Himalayas. Under the guidance of climber João Garcia, we took the first group to ascend Island Peak in Nepal.
Later, in 2009, the photographic trips appeared. Joel Santos and Magali Tarouca embraced a project that took hundreds of traveling photographers to the four corners of the world.
With more than a decade of life, it was time to create the 09West brand aimed at the incoming, bringing travelers from latitudes as different as New Zealand, the United States or Japan to get to know our trails and our culture.
Meanwhile, the team grew and so did our travel offer. About to enter our twenty-fifth year of activity, which will be completed in 2023, we are more mature and ready to segment the travel offers we have for those who, over a quarter of a century, have walked with us. We’ve created Micro, Explorer, Classic and Signature trips so that each traveler can have the trip they most identify with. We have introduced self-guided trips, so that travelers with an independent spirit and who do not want to travel in a group can do so with complete freedom and logistical support.
We look to the future years with an unshakable faith in humanity and with the curiosity and adventure spirit that has always defined us.
Thank you for helping us write this story of a quarter-century.
When the idea to create the agency came up, there was neither a name nor a logo, and it remained so for a long time. About a month before registering the company, during a modern dance show in the auditorium of the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, suddenly, in the dim light of the room, the name Papa-Léguas appeared and soon afterwards it was scribbled on the ticket for the show what would be the company’s logo.
The sketch of the logo was presented to a designer friend and consequently the current shape of what is our brand image was born.
INSPIRE + DISCOVER + PROTECT + SHARE
Papa-Léguas mission is to make travelers happy, inspiring them to discover and protect the planet, leaving a positive impact on the places visited and amplifying this impact by sharing it among peers.
Papa-Léguas is an active travel operator that aspires to be a player of European dimensions.
We are committed to creating activities of a tourist nature that are in line with the environmental preservation of ecosystems, the protection of tangible and intangible heritage and the economic and social development of the visited destinations.
We want to continue to grow in an ethical, social and culturally responsible way.
We believe in a Humanist way of traveling.
We believe in the Honesty and Authenticity of the Human Kind and we value the protection of the natural, social and economic environments of societies where we take our travelers.
We are convicted that traveling is a force for the common good, uniting communities and destroying prejudices and myths.
We reject any and all discriminatory practices based on race, gender, sexual or religious orientation and socioeconomic conditions.
We reject mistreatment of animals for tourism, entertainment or any other nature.
Nearly since the foundation of the company, social and environmental actions have been present in our core.
What we have been doing with the help of our travelers in voluntary actions is related to the reforestation and cleaning of some of our forests with autochthonous species; with beach cleaning and with social intervention in partnership with private social solidarity institutions linked to causes related to cerebral palsy, such as APCL or Alzheimer’s disease with the Associação Portuguesa de Alzheimer.
With the NGO Helpo we collaborated more than once in the collection of books to equip libraries in Mozambique. Whenever we participate, we manage to raise several hundred books.
Some of the trips have a strong social component, such as the Caminhos de Morabeza project, led by Paulo Nascimento in Cape Verde, which takes good oral hygiene practices to schools in Santo Antão or the Everest Trekking, with João Garcia, where travelers are invited to donate their travel pharmacy to Khunde hospital in the Khumbu valley.
Continuing with the focus on Nepal, we orchestrated a dinner event, gathering over 50 participants, with the sole purpose of raising funds for the victims of the devastating 2015 earthquake. The entire amount raised was donated to aid those affected by the tragedy.
During the pandemic period, in 2020, 2021 and 2022, there were also several tour leaders who, with the support of Papa-Léguas, developed activities of a cultural and social nature. Right from the start, we have been actively involved in raising donations to support local guides who have faced income loss in various parts of the world, with whom Papa-Léguas collaborates. In addition, we published a book authored by the climber João Garcia and Inês Guise, with the proceeds from its sale going to the Khumbi-ila Foundation in Nepal. Furthermore, we organized a photography exhibition called “Mundo de Inspirações,” curated by the tour leader Carla Henriques and supported by Canon Portugal. This exhibition showcased captivating photographs taken by our tour leaders and staff in different corners of the globe. The profits generated from the image sales were directed towards Associação Zero, an organization committed to advocating sustainability values within Portuguese society.