The sustainable travel movement is strong and growing and includes multiple organisations around the world that are seeking to educate people about how they can help. Many of the suggestions are simple and can be easily incorporated in your day to day travel lifestyle too. It’s important to know the ways to be a sustainable traveller, because many people that may take care of the environment when they’re at home, but forget when they go travelling. As a responsible traveller, you should be knowledgeable about your destination, seek awareness of the impact that your presence has on the local population and environment, and attempt to minimise negative impacts. Isn’t seeing new places the whole point of travelling? What happens when we destroy all that there is to see? Let’s be responsible and give the future generations a reason to travel. Here are ways in which you can be a more sustainable traveller:
Recycle
It’s perhaps the most obvious of all the ways to be a sustainable traveller, but so many #people forget simple things like recycling when they’re away from home. You may have to work a bit harder to recycle, but do ask hotel staff about recycling bins, carry your own shopping bags, take a reusable coffee cup and water bottle, and pass your newspaper on to another traveller once you’ve finished with it.
Walk
Walking is free, it’s good for you, it’s fun when exploring somewhere new, and it doesn’t harm the environment at all. If you can walk somewhere when you’re on vacation, do it. It’s the best way to experience an area anyway.
Use Public Transport
If you can’t walk to where you want to go, then using public transport rather than a car is definitely one of the #best ways to be a sustainable traveller. Make use of what is specific to where you are, as public transport is often part of the experience. For example, if you go to London, you really need to experience the Tube.
Carry a Reusable Water Bottle
Did you know that a whopping 6% of the world’s hydrocarbon consumption is for plastic beverage bottles? Don’t make this worse when you’re travelling.If tap water is safe where you are travelling, reduce your environmental impact abroad by avoiding bottled water and bring a reusable water bottle with you abroad.
Buy Local, Eat Local & Drink Local
Rather than heading to a chain grocery or department store (where more energy is used to ship food further distances), stop by the market or a street stand (and bring a reusable cloth bag for shopping). And it’s not always easy to find restaurants that serve organic food, but you can usually find some that buy the ingredients for their meals locally. Instead of buying juice in plastic bottles, buy some fresh-squeezed juice or simply eat fresh fruit. Have you read my post on eating like a local in Paraguay?
Stay Local
Stay in locally owned accommodations, eat with locals, and hire local guides. Usually, smaller equals better. Rent unique accommodations from local hosts in 190+ countries. Feel at home anywhere you go in the world with Airbnb.
Use Your Hand and Feet
There are plenty of things that you can do for fun that is also ways to be a sustainable traveller. These activities don’t involve releasing any carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and many are also methods are transport that can get you places too. Pedal, hike, ski, paddle, row, skate, and anything else you may fancy.
Save electricity
Turn off lights, air conditioners, and heaters when you are not in the room.
And lastly, choose tour companies that have environmental policies
Companies such as G Adventures and International Expeditions have pages dedicated to sustainable travel and detail the steps they are taking to make sure their tours don’t have a negative effect on the environment.
Gr8 tips & w8ing for more
Nice post. It is easy to forget that sometimes the best thing you can do is just pass along your own experience through stories.
Hello Nikolai,
Thanks for putting this article up, it is really informative when I need something to be done to my travel planning.
Glad to help 🙂
Great post this, some fantastic advice especially the ‘eat local ‘one!
Thank you. Everyone love’s food 😉
These are great tips. We recycle as much as we can and even have a compost bin. Also love the name of your blog by the way 😉
Thank you very much 🙂 Good on you, I intend to get a compost bin when we move into our new house!
Love this! I always carry a water bottle everywhere
Thank you 🙂
Always try to eat local but I always feel the transport (despite being public transport) is potentially the most unenvironmental aspect as I don’t ‘need’ to travel, but I so want to.
Sadly I would have to agree with that. If only they could make it more environmentally sustainable.
I need to get into the habit of using a proper water bottle! And turning off switches…
It took me awhile but once you’re locked into it, it only comes naturally. Soon you’ll find yourself turning off switches in other peoples house to save electricity 😛
Great tips, just lots of little things can make a really difference don’t they
Little things go a long way 😉
We love walking as it gives you the chance to see things you would miss when in a car or public transport. We always take refillable water bottles too – saves a fortune
I agree. I’ve noticed that spending on water can get expensive and quick when travelling in certain countries. Luckily the UK doesn’t have that problem.
Love these tips. We always recycle when we’re away and we always take re-usable bottles and eat and shop local. x
Fab travel tips here. I am getting into the habit of walking more.