Melo Villareal
Five Tips for Lowering Your Carbon Footprint on Vacation
What’s more delightful than traveling place to place and seeing what the wonders the world has to offer? Traveling for a relaxing vacation surely is one of life’s greatest pleasures. The experience of discovering new sounds, flavor, places, and people are often the highlight of people’s year and remembered for a lifetime. This experiences can be made even more memorable by going the eco-friendly route. Going green and lowering your carbon footprint while on vacation is not only sustainable but also helps the communities and environment of your vacation destination.
Not many vacationers are even aware that they’re leaving a huge carbon footprint while on their trip and being more sustainable is an option. Big or small there a lot of ways to minimize your negative impact on the destination you’re in. Here are five tips for lowering your carbon footprint on vacation for that eco-friendly travel experience.
Find the most sustainable transportation method available
Even before starting your vacation it’s important to do your research on which methods of transportation to take you to your destination. If you want to go the eco-friendly route, choose the mode of travel that has less impact on the environment. Maybe go local and take a bus or train to your destination or if you’re going overseas, you can travel on a ship which has less impact on the environment than planes. But if you really have to travel on a plane, try to book a flight that takes you directly to your destination without stopovers as the takeoff and landing of planes give huge amounts of emissions to the atmosphere.
Even when you arrive at your destination, there are still more sustainable options for you to travel to get around places. Try renting a bike or an electric car if you need a vehicle. And of course, try walking to your destination as most cities design their streets and pathways to allow their citizens to walk from place to place. Not only is this good for you and the environment, but walking also allows you to immerse in the places and environment that surrounds you.
Bring your own reusable water cannister
We may not realize it but we can dispose of a whole large garbage bag full of plastic bottles when we travel. Most of these plastic bottles are not recycled and are thrown on a landfill just after one use. Bringing your own water bottle made up of aluminum or your own metal tumbler cannister can be an easy solution to avoid wasting plastic water bottles on vacation. Plus, it’s much better for the environment. Hotels, airports, local restaurants, and food strips often have water dispensers for their guests and customers so you won’t want for hydration on your vacation.
Not convinced yet? Well, think of the chemicals in the plastic bottle itself that can seep into the water it holds when the temperature rose high enough. Having a metal water cannister will help keep your drinking water cool and fresh, not to mention much safer to drink.
Conserve water in any way you can
If you’re staying in a hotel, be aware that they can consume gallons upon gallons of water with just a single guest. Try conserving water by refraining from taking their offered plastic water bottle (going back to tip number 2) and hanging up your towel to dry after taking a shower. This indicates to the staff that you wish to reuse your towel and don’t need a new one. You don’t wash your towel every time you use it at home, do you? So it’s not really necessary to do so when you’re on vacation.
Speaking of showers, try to avoid taking baths and shower instead. This consumes lesser amounts of water. Additionally, you can stay in hotels where there’s an option not to change your beddings and sheets every day, conserving water in the process. It’s generally recommended to change your beddings and sheets every two weeks so there won’t be any consequences after you leave them on your bed after one night.
Go to environmentally-focused tours and places
You can go to casinos or movie theatres on your vacation but for a more green trip, you can opt to go on tours displaying the natural environment and wildlife or go to parks and beaches instead. There are a lot of travel destinations that offer to showcase their environment’s natural beauty. Going to the beach is the easiest option for a greener vacation as the beauty of the ocean and sand is more than enough to help you relax and have fun without leaving a huge carbon footprint. Nature tours that showcase wildlife and the natural landscape are also greener options that allow you to better appreciate the scenery around you.
It is also recommended to go to local restaurants or food joints as they are more environmentally conscious for the place they live in compared to big establishment restaurants. This will also give you a genuine taste of the local cuisine.
Watch what you buy for a souvenir
Last but not least, be careful of what you buy on your trip for a souvenir. Do some research on where the products came from before buying them. Of course, stir clear of items made up of ivory, tortoise shells, seashells, animal hides, corals, etc. These products could be illegal and acquired by damaging the environment and disturbing the native animal’s natural habitat.
Do you have other helpful tips on how to reduce the carbon footprint when we travel? Feel free to share by posting a comment below.
Check out our complete list of affordable hotels and resorts via Agoda or you may also see available Airbnb properties in the city.
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Also read: How to Enjoy Traveling to the Fullest Without Going Broke
