Traveling in an Environmentally Friendly Way
If you love to travel, that is probably at least in part because you love the planet. As such, you probably want to help make sure that the planet stays in a good state of repair. After all, without a world to go and see, there is no travel possible. But the travel industry is one of the worst offenders when it comes to the environmental state of the world, so it is important that you are doing all you can to travel in as eco-friendly a way as possible. As it happens, there are many steps you can take to make sure of that, so let’s take a look at just a few of them.
Pack Lightly
When you fly, every last pound really does count. If you want to see the world but you also want to protect the world, you are going to want to think about packing lightly for the trip, as much as you can. A good way to approach this is to look at what you have packed and then ask yourself of each and every item whether it is absolutely necessary. You might find that it is often not really all that necessary, in which case it could be important to try and keep those items out.
If you do this enough, you will soon get better and better at it, and in the future you will find yourself automatically packing less and less. Every time you do that, you are saving the planet a little more than if you had packed everything you want. So it’s these small things which often add up to make the biggest difference on the whole.
Travel Overland Where Possible
Of course, if you can avoid using planes altogether, that would be ideal, but it is just not possible in all cases. However, what you can do is to travel overland wherever it is at all possible. Once you start making a point of trying to do this, you will find that it is possible much more often than you might have previously thought. There are many times when you are hopping from place to place where you could drive or take a boat instead. These can turn out to be more enjoyable than flying anyway, and they often have more of a taste of adventure than simply getting into a plane, so that is something to bear in mind too.
Eat Local
Eating great food is one of the best things about traveling the world. But whenever you are sampling the delectable delights of a foreign land, it is best to aim for local food as much as you possibly can. Local food has not traveled the world itself, so overall there are fewer air miles that you have to feel responsible for. What’s more, eating local food is very much part of the fun of travel anyway, so it’s not as though this is putting you out or making the experience less enjoyable in any way.
Offset Your Footprint
If you do travel, and you know that you have caused some harm, perhaps because you had to travel by plane, then there are plenty of ways that you can offset your carbon footprint, before or after the fact. You can find handy online calculators which are designed to show you how much carbon you have been using, and which often then suggest things you can do to counteract that carbon footprint effectively.
As you will soon discover, there are many ways to do that. You might want to think about becoming vegetarian or vegan for a while, switching out your next plane journey for an overland trip, or getting rid of your car and traveling to work by public transport or cycling to the store to do weekly grocery shopping.
You can also help in ways that don’t directly offset your footprint, but which are nonetheless important and useful ways to help out the natural world. That might include visiting www.CelticTitles.com to see how you can help with building a nature reserve, or paying money to charities who are dedicated to helping out the natural world in some way. All of that is going to help, and will mean you can travel more freely without having to worry.
Be Less Wasteful In Hotels
Many of us are guilty of being far too wasteful when we are staying in hotels. The nature of being in a hotel can often seem to encourage it, in fact. But there are some simple things you can do to ensure that you are not wasting too much while staying in a hotel. That includes reusing your towels, not having extremely long showers and turning off the aircon when you leave the room. All of these small and simple steps make a difference in the long run.
Avoid Bottled Water
It is all too easy to drink a lot of bottled water when you are traveling in different far-flung places, and it is obviously a good idea to make sure you stay hydrated. But there is such a thing as using bottled water too much, and it is a very wasteful and damaging industry to support. Instead, you can use refillable bottles and seek out safe sources of water to refill it with. This is harder in some parts of the world than others, but pretty much always possible if you are happy to put the extra effort in.
Take A Trip At Home
From time to time, you might decide to put the abroad travel plans on hold and just take a trip at home instead. A staycation can still be hugely enjoyable, and many people find that they have never even seen a lot of the world in their neck of the woods. If you have yet to explore on your home turf, you can start there and then explore the rest of the world afterwards. This is going to be much better for the planet on the whole.
