General travel tips
5 Tips you should definitely do to travel more sustainably
Sustainable
To travel
Actually, travel is not at all ecological or sustainable and not good for our wonderful planet that we love to explore. Of course, quitting to travel would be a drastic rule, which would make us very unhappy. But there are a few things you can do to save the planet. That’s why we offer these 5 tips for traveling more sustainably. Because the change starts with yourself!
1 Plan carefully and take your time
Planning your trip well is actually a good start. For example, when driving a car, make sure you don’t take unnecessary detours. Or don’t always take the car on vacation and try public transportation as well (especially for small trips). Also, when organizing your flights, you definitely need to make a flight plan. For example, it would be very stupid to travel first to the north of the country and then go south and then back north. This is not only inefficient but also produces a lot of emissions that are actually avoidable. You can also avoid airplanes, as they are the least environmentally friendly. You can see at least as much by car or even train. Even though these options are not the ideal solution for the environment either…but they are better than taking an airplane. And sometimes even less expensive.
2 Leaving it how you found it
Always leave your locations as you found it and especially if you are staying in nature. Clean up because a small piece of plastic, for example, can cause an animal to choke on it. By the way, do not leave food in nature either, as there are animals that store it in their nest for the winter. And then when winter comes, this food is moldy and they starve. So never feed animals in the wild either.
3 Avoid plastic
Avoiding plastic is perhaps the most well-known tip for traveling more sustainably and just living more sustainably in general. Yet, little to almost nothing is done with this tip. To make up the difference, for example, it’s better to buy a water bottle that you can refill every time instead of purchasing separate bottles. Or you can use reusable jars. Or bring a reusable bag to do your shopping with so you don’t have to use plastic bags. Especially in Mexico, you are then doing a good job for the planet because there they give almost a plastic bag for every product at the supermarket. Also avoid the little soaps in your hotel, they really create tons of unnecessary plastic! So taking your own shower gel and shampoo is good for the environment! Unless you also buy these in small plastic bottles… Then this tip is useless.
4 Water consumption
Avoid excess water consumption and especially in countries where there is already a water shortage. Even if your hotel has a bathtub, prefer to take a shower. It can sometimes make a huge difference without bothering you too much. Or don’t have your room cleaned by the hotel every time, even if it’s free, because having your sheets changed every day is really not necessary and consumes a lot of water. A washing machine not only guzzles a lot of water but also uses a lot of energy.
5 Compensate for your emissions
Today, there are websites such as Greentripper.org that make sure you go back to offsetting your carbon impact from your trip. Here you can calculate what your emissions were from your last trip and can then make a (small) donation based on this data. This money is used to take actions to help the environment. Greenseat.co.uk also has a similar way of working. A beautiful initiative!
What do you do?
This was our list to travel more sustainably. We hope you are already applying these tips in your daily life and travel. You want our environment to remain untouched, don’t you? As travelers, we feel this is very important. Otherwise, what do we have left to discover on this planet?
Do you do (any other) things yourself to travel more sustainably? If so, be sure to let us know in our comments. Then maybe we can apply them too!