Travel and Leisure

Go Green With Green Travel

Traveling green (that is, eco friendly travelling) has different dimensions and may mean different things to different people. You can make your own travelling experience eco friendly, however, by doing or using the following:

1. Green Transportation

Your green travel starts with how you choose to get to your destination. Carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases responsible for causing undesirable climate change on the planet as a result of human activities. As a lot of carbon dioxide is released into the air by the burning of fuel through the normal transport methods we use, we would therefore need to reduce our level of fuel consumption to reduce the level of these gases in the atmosphere. You can play your own part too when you travel by using green transport.

Some of the options you may have is to simply go walking. If you are only going on a short break within your city or your destination is not that far, you could just walk down there. Alternatively you may use a bike or even row a boat (that is if your final destination is reachable by water), to get to where you are going. These are some of the best eco friendly ways of moving around, at least for short distances.

Another option is to travel via public transport instead of driving your own motor vehicle. This has the advantage of reducing the number of vehicles on the road, which in turn reduces energy consumption and carbon emissions.

2. Eco Tourism

Eco tourism allows you to understand the import of human activities on the environment and to better appreciate the need to preserve natural settings while exploring nature. Through eco tourism you will experience travel with the goal of contributing and participating in the local communities of your destination, conserving and sustaining their environment, learning/appreciating their culture and getting hands-on experience on being green. Eco tourism is not just nature tourism, it is responsible tourism that involves leaving/preserving the environmental settings/resources of your destination as they are, for others to use and enjoy too. To get a true eco tourism experience you will need to choose the right travel company and ask lots of question to ensure you get a true eco tourism excursion. You may want to delve deeper into eco tourism as another form of green travel.

Some of the world’s greatest eco destinations include:

• Madre De Dios, Peru – Rainforest conservation groups promote ecotourism to the area in the hope of creating an economy that depends upon the rainforest remaining healthy and intact.
• Loango National Park, Gabon – A mostly unspoiled area of Africa, and home to free roaming large mammals like elephants, gorillas, hippopotamus and forest buffalo.
• New Zealand – One of the most beautiful places on earth, this isolated island country draws ecotourists in droves and engages in environmentally and culturally sensitive tourism strategies and practices at local community, private business and government levels.
• The Galapagos Islands – Visitors to the Galapagos are accompanied at all times by an accredited park ranger to ensure that you enjoy the natural beauty of the islands and the threatened wildlife that inhabits these without causing damage to their environment.
• Madidi National Park In Bolivia – Bolivia’s diverse landscape offers a variety of different ecosystems to explore, from the Altiplano – a high mountain plateau where Andean civilization first flourished – to dense Amazonian rainforests like the jungles of Madidi National Park.

3. Eco Retreats

Where you choose to stay during your travels can be green too. In an effort to encourage others to be eco friendly, you may want to stay at eco retreats; these are lodging establishments employing eco friendly practices. There are plenty of green/eco retreats you may choose to stay at, yet, there are varying degrees of being green amongst them, however. Some of what you should expect to see or get from eco retreat facilities are organic foods, use of renewable electricity like solar power, chemical-free pools, innovative eco flooring and furniture, green waste disposal like composting etc. Some of them may even provide you with bicycles to move around or low-energy car pools saving on energy and lowering carbon emissions.

All of these are possible ways you can go green on your travels not have to spend more on your travels to use them.

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