How You Can Travel Green & Be Eco-Friendly | Quick Tips

How You Can Travel Green & Be Eco-Friendly | Quick Tips

There is a new trend emerging with people starting to want to travel green. Many travelers are shifting their behavior and are thinking how they can minimize the impact they have on the environment while traveling.

Especially with the recent events in Florida, United States and other devastating weather events around the world, we all have to restart our thinking about how we interact with our environment.

Undeniable, the occurrence and strength of those events have increased each year lately. If everybody starts to travel green today, we might have the chance to have an impact on reducing the strength and occurrences of those events.

 

We Travel A Lot

In 2016, all airlines combined in the world carried more than 3.6 Billion passenger or over 10 Million people per day and it is exponentially increasing since 1970 for every year. The airlines and airplane manufacturers are constantly improving their machine to reduce their kerosene emissions.

But what about the passengers? Have they thought about adapting their travel lifestyle abroad to be more environment-friendly and travel green to reduce their personal carbon footprint?

For each individual it takes only a small effort to reduce the carbon footprint but combined, it will have a huge impact on the earth so we can still lively safely on our planet earth without the environment being our biggest enemy.

Here is a list of how every traveler can have an impact on saving the environment with a small effort.

How To Prepare Your House For A Vacation

It all starts with how you leave your house and prepare it for your vacation:

  • Make sure all your electronics are unplugged at home
  • Suspend the newspaper delivery
  • If you are coming from a colder region - turn down your thermostat - you do not need to have a warm room if nobody will be there
  • Turn off all water valves
  • Eat any food that could go bad after vacation

How You Can Start To Travel Green Today

First and foremost, the probably easiest but less appetizing solution is to explore your own country first before venturing out to other countries abroad. Many people board a plane, fly to a far away destination in the coziest way which also the least responsible way.

There are 1000’s  of opportunities for you that will amaze you just like the vacation abroad. If it is close, you can even take your bicycle and ride to your destination.

I understand if that exploring your country first is not a suitable option for you, but at least make sure that you travel as lightweight as possible. By reducing the amount of luggage that you take with you, you reduce the kerosene emission by the airplane and the petrol used by other transportation vehicles.

It not only saves the environment but also your back. You do not need to carry 30kg of clothing with you if you can find the weather suitable clothing at your destination. Of course, there are exceptions that prove this rule.

Live Like The Locals Do - Or Don't!

During the time I have been traveling and now living abroad, I have seen many foreigners completely acting out and behaving in a completely different way than they would back home. You probably heard already other saying that you should “live like the locals wherever you go”. 

Just because that there might be dirt and plastic everywhere on the street depending on the destination that you are going to, does not allow you to throw your garbage wherever at the most convenient opportunity. On an additional note, I have met many nice and friendly people at the beach before.

They were talking about how amazing and beautiful this country is including the area while simultaneously burying the cigarette stub into the white sand. Don’t be that guy! If you like your holiday destination, do not destroy it with neglecting behavior.

Throwing away rubbish anywhere except bins should not be considered at all and that includes to not flushing down cotton buds, condoms, tampons and plastics down the toilet.

Enjoy Locally Grown Food

Live like the locals do can be referred to consuming homegrown food as much as possible. Try to enjoy the local delicates that the country abroad has to offer for you and avoid imported food.

Immerse yourself in the new culture and enjoy the locally grown food.

Save The Water and Electricity

Save electricity not only abroad but also back home can have an impact on your monthly utility expenses and the environment. Our today’s society is getting used to having a smartphone, tablet and laptop with them for any sorts of entertainment or work-related activities.

This might even get more with the newest generation that is growing up after the technology has been introduced to the market. Maybe just one out of the three devices is enough to handle all your tasks. Carefully think about how you use your devices and consider if you really need all of them.

Saving electricity goes hand in hand with reducing the consumption of tap water. These advices are not only for being at home but abroad as well.

  • Take shorter showers
  • Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth
  • Reuse towels and clothing
  • Skip bottled water if destination's tap water is safe to drink

Think Twice About Your Souvenirs

Last but not least, you are feeling relaxed now after your holidays, had some once-in-a-lifetime experiences and are thinking about making a last visit to the local market to get a souvenir.

This is more an ethical advice but think twice about buying a souvenir made of an endangered species, animal skins or other animal body parts such as ivory or coral. Overall, try to avoid animal exploitation.

It might seem okay to go visit rescued animals or zoos with exotic animals but your visit and the visits of many other travelers only encourages the owners of those places to get more and more animals from the wild.

If you love animals and would love to see exotic ones then please make sure that the places you are going to, are treating the animals fair.

We all want our travels to be an incredible adventure but not everybody is trying to be as protective to the environment as possible. What steps are you taking to travel green in the future? Let us know in the comments and as you are here already, take a look at our Pocket WiFi if you are still looking for a mobile internet solution abroad. The Pocket WiFi starts with a rental price of 5.40€ / day with up to 1GB per day.

*Unlimited internet with Daily Fair Usage Policy applies. Europe & USA: 1GB in 4G/LTE - Mexico : 2GB - South East Asia, Japan & China: Unlimited 4G/LTE - Rest of the world: 500MB in 4G /LTE. Throttled speed of up to 512kbps afterwards.