Travel Guide

Basic travel tips

1. Choose eco-friendly modes of transportation: Consider traveling by bike, foot, or public transportation instead of driving a car. If you do need to rent a car, choose a fuel-efficient or hybrid vehicle.
2. Pack light: Packing light reduces fuel consumption, which decreases the carbon footprint of your trip. It also makes it easier to use public transportation or walk.
3. Stay in eco-friendly accommodations: Look for hotels, lodges, and resorts that are certified eco-friendly. These accommodations use sustainable practices such as energy-efficient lighting and water conservation.
4. Avoid single-use plastics: Bring a reusable water bottle, reusable shopping bag, and reusable utensils with you. This will help reduce the amount of plastic waste you generate.
5. Support local businesses: Support local businesses by eating at locally-owned restaurants and buying souvenirs from local artisans. This helps reduce the environmental impact of your trip and supports the local economy.
6. Conserve energy: Turn off lights, air conditioning, and other electronics when you leave your room. This reduces energy consumption and saves resources.
7. Respect nature: Be mindful of your impact on the environment. Don’t litter or damage natural habitats. Stick to designated trails when hiking and avoid disturbing wildlife.
8. Use eco-friendly products: Use eco-friendly products such as sunscreen and insect repellent. These products are less harmful to the environment and the wildlife you encounter.
9. Offset your carbon footprint: Consider purchasing carbon offsets to offset the carbon emissions generated by your trip. This helps reduce your impact on the environment.
10. Choose eco-friendly activities: Choose activities that have a minimal impact on the environment. For example, go on a nature hike, rent a kayak or paddleboard, or go bird watching. Avoid activities that harm wildlife or contribute to environmental degradation.

To fly or not to fly?

There are many eco-friendly hotels and resorts these days but that’s not going to help if you take a long distance flight to get there. One of the best things you can do is “staycation”: whatever country you live in, there are bound to be places you can go for a break within a few hours drive or, even better, train journey, which will save the hassle and pollution of flying (as noted by the BBC, “if everyone in the world took just one long-haul flight per year, aircraft emissions would far exceed the US’s entire CO2 emissions, according to ICCT analysis”).

Travel by train

Here are some of the best websites to navigate Europe by train:

1. Rail Europe: This is a great website to search for and book train tickets in Europe. It offers a user-friendly platform with options to filter by train type, time, and price. You can also book rail passes, activities, and tours on this website.
2. Eurail: Eurail is a popular train pass for travelers in Europe. This website allows you to book Eurail passes, check train schedules, and plan your route.
3. Trainline: Trainline is a comprehensive website for train travel in Europe. It offers real-time train schedules, ticket prices, and route planning tools. You can also use the Trainline app to book and manage your train tickets.
4. Omio: Omio is a travel booking website that offers a wide range of transportation options, including trains, buses, and flights. You can search for and book train tickets across Europe on this website.
5. Deutsche Bahn: Deutsche Bahn is the national railway company of Germany. It offers train schedules and ticket booking for trains across Europe, including high-speed trains such as the Eurostar and TGV.
6. ItaliaRail: ItaliaRail is a website that specializes in train travel in Italy. It offers train schedules, ticket prices, and route planning tools. You can also book rail passes and tours on this website.

These websites can help you plan and book your train travel in Europe, whether you’re traveling across the continent or within a specific country.

For the USA, here are some of the best websites to navigate by train:

1. Amtrak: Amtrak is the national railway company of the United States. Its website offers train schedules, ticket prices, and route planning tools for trains across the country, including long-distance trains and commuter trains.
2. USA Rail Pass: USA Rail Pass is a flexible, multi-ride pass that allows you to travel on Amtrak trains throughout the United States. You can purchase the pass on the Amtrak website or through other travel agencies.
3. Rail Europe: Rail Europe is a travel booking website that offers train tickets, rail passes, and tours across Europe and the United States. You can search for and book Amtrak tickets on this website.
4. Wanderu: Wanderu is a travel booking website that specializes in bus and train travel in the United States and Canada. It offers real-time schedules, ticket prices, and route planning tools for Amtrak and other train companies.
5. Omio: Omio is a travel booking website that offers a wide range of transportation options, including trains and buses in the United States. You can search for and book Amtrak tickets on this website.
6. Trainline: Trainline is a comprehensive website for train travel in Europe and the United States. It offers real-time train schedules, ticket prices, and route planning tools for Amtrak and other train companies.

These websites can help you plan and book your train travel in the United States, whether you’re traveling across the country or within a specific region.

Are there hotel eco accreditations / certifications to look for?

Nothing particularly simple.

The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) Criteria are a set of global standards and guidelines for sustainable tourism. These criteria were developed by the GSTC, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting sustainable tourism practices worldwide.

The GSTC Criteria are based on four pillars of sustainable tourism: sustainable management, socio-economic impacts, cultural impacts, and environmental impacts. These pillars are further broken down into 41 individual criteria that cover topics such as community engagement, resource efficiency, biodiversity conservation, and human rights.

Tourism businesses and destinations can use the GSTC Criteria as a framework for sustainable tourism development and as a benchmark for measuring their sustainability performance. The GSTC also offers a certification program for businesses and destinations that meet the Criteria. The GSTC Sustainable Tourism Certification is recognized as a trusted and credible certification for sustainable tourism by the United Nations and other international organizations.

In practice if you go their website and look at their certified destinations for North America there seem to be only 2 (Jackson Hole and Breckenridge)! However, there is a list of recognised standards which includes several country-specific schemes (e.g. “Eco-Certification Malta Standard”).

At this point, there are so many schemes it’s hard for a traveller to choose but you’d hope that at the very least a hotel which displays some kind of credential is likely to be thinking about the environment compared to one that displays nothing at all.