Eco-Friendly Summer Vacations: 16 Tips for Sustainable Travel

Exploring different places and cultures is an exhilarating adventure! From the journey, we can broaden our knowledge, understanding, and acceptance of others. However, if we don’t pay attention, the impact of our travels can have a negative environmental effect, paradoxically damaging the very places we travel so far to explore. We can make a conscious effort to be mindful of our environmental impact though! In this blog, we’re going to help you learn to adjust your travel habits to minimize your impact. Get ready to make a positive difference. This is how to travel sustainably:

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16 Tips and Tricks for Being a Sustainable Traveler

Here are few tips and tricks for you to make a positive difference on your next travel!

1. Digital Tickets

Whenever you’re traveling whatever method you’re using to get around have your tickets on your phone or your tablet rather than printing them out.

2. Pack Light

Don’t wear yourself down; every kg counts! 

3. Reusable Waterbottle

Travel with a reusable water bottle, it can hold a lot more than water. You can also use them for takeout soda, juice, smoothies, etc. Plastic is not fantastic. Bring a reusable bottle and refill that!

4. To-go Coffee Cup

If you’re into hot beverages you can also bring a reusable coffee mug. 

5. Reusable Essentials

Of course, bring whatever reusables you may find useful such as tote bags and a spoke.

6. Clean Out the Fridge

Before leaving on vacation make sure to clean out your fridge and give away any perishables that would otherwise have gone bad while you’re away.

7. Put Your Home to Sleep

You can also unplug electronics before leaving as they also consume energy when they’re on standby.

8. Avoid All-inclusive

When you’re choosing a type of vacation try to see if you can avoid all-inclusive offers. They are often quite wasteful as soon as something includes full accommodation more food more drinks etc are wasted.

9. If Flying, Fly Directly and Don’t Choose First Class

If flying choose direct routes whenever possible as layovers actually have a higher impact. Also, don’t choose the first class. Traveling first class can have a bigger impact because there is room for fewer passengers in the same area. 

Sure, if you live in Australia and your dream is to travel to Europe, you’re going to have to fly to get there. You could reduce the carbon footprint of your upcoming trip by choosing to skip other flights for the rest of the year. For example, why not opt for meeting with colleagues online? That way, you can save air travel for when it’s especially important to you.

10. Ditch Cruises

Avoid cruises, cruise ships are by far the most polluting form of travel. Both in terms of fuels and emissions as well as food waste and ocean pollution. However, this does not go for all ferries and boats by the way but cruises and high-speed ferries specifically.

11. Boycott Animal Tourism

When planning your trip avoid activities involving animals like petting tigers, sea world-type parks elephant riding, etc.

12. Local Vacations

Rather than believing the misconception that you need to travel far afield to create a special experience, why not take a closer look at your own local area? You don’t need to book a flight halfway around the world for an amazing journey — your own backyard is often full of surprises! Travel shorter distances and see if you can start appreciating local vacation spots, and staycation spots.

13. Avoid Unnecessary Laundry

Bring your own towel from home. Be sure to plan ahead and wear all of the same items of clothing more than once. You can also pack a few items of clothing, such as a dress or a blouse, that can easily be dressed up or down and work for multiple different occasions. 

14. Stop Collecting Giveaways & Freebies

Honestly, do you really need another pen?

15. Stay Grounded

Air travel is incredibly bad for the environment. It accounts for over 40% of the carbon footprint of the entire tourism industry. For example, a single round trip ticket from LA-NYC generates 20% of the greenhouse gasses that the average American car does all year.

16. Purchase A Carbon Offset

If you need to fly, why not purchase a carbon offset? This fee on top of your ticket price goes towards sustainability projects worldwide and helps reduce the impact your flight has on the environment. With longer flights, more money can be donated to meaningful projects, like conserving rainforests in the Amazon. 

Some may view carbon offsets as a meaningless gesture to disguise the bigger air pollution concern, but we think these initiatives still bring something positive to the table. Reducing air travel is still the most effective, but buying the offsets is a fair compromise.