Sustainable Travel

  • planning a road trip sustainably
    Sustainable Travel

    Iconic “Great American” Road Trip Planning, but 5 Ways to Make it Sustainable

    Buckle up, road trip season is upon us. Now more than ever, there are more Americans choosing domestic vacations, traveling by car and visiting places within the US that they’ve yet to explore. A road trip is the quintessential journey through the “lower 48” and beyond. I’ve drove tens of thousands of miles over the years, in Canada, Greece, Cuba, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Morocco, Oman and along the east and west coast of the US. Here are a few vital tips and tricks for road trip planning, the sustainable way.  1. Packed & Prepared Make sure you are prepared before you hit the road. Planning for a road trip can still…

  • Eco-Travel Errors and our road to recovery to be more responsible travelers
    Sustainable Travel

    Eco-Travel Errors: Common Mistakes on a Sustainable Travel Journey

    As environmental concerns become more dire, travelers are trying to do more to lessen their environmental impact while on vacation. While there are good intentions, often travelers are missing the mark. Learn about four major eco-travel errors that visitors make and ways to avoid common mistakes.  Eco Friendly Transport  Choosing the way you get around can be the first of a string of planning errors. It can also be one of the easiest ways that you can make up for previous bad behaviors.  Obviously, flying is the major culprit when it comes to poor travel choices. Flights can be the major player when you’re calculating your total carbon footprint for…

  • Sustainable Travel

    What to Take to the Beach as an Eco Friendly Traveler

    You wiggle your toes deeper into the sand, the granules slowly trickle on top of your feet. The midday sun heats the top layer of sand and as your hallux digs deeper, stopping when you find the sticky cool sediment you’re looking for. The tide pushes a wave of cool salty water over the growing mound, hardening the sand around your feet. You squirm beneath the weight of the wet sand, cracking until it eventually crumbles and you start the process all over again. Even imagining something so simple can bring a feeling of pure relaxation. It’s one of the reasons we seek out beach vacations. The calmness you feel…

  • The Benefits of Sustainable Travel
    Sustainable Travel

    The Benefits of Sustainable Tourism

    What is Sustainable Travel? We have all heard the buzz words, but what does it mean to travel more responsibly and what are the benefits of sustainable tourism? These are all important questions we should be asking when planning a vacation. Whether it’s to the beach, your own hometown, a neighboring state or a country a plane ride away, visiting responsibly should continually be a part of the travel conversation. Sustainable travel essentially means that when we are visiting places we are keeping the environment, the local people & their customs a priority. Whether it is reducing your carbon footprint or acknowledging local customs, sustainable travel is a way to…

  • Henna on hand, another potential issue in appropriating culture
    Sustainable Travel

    Being a Better Traveler: Cultural Appropriation vs Cultural Appreciation

    This Week in Ethical Travel: Cultural Appropriation vs Cultural Appreciation Traveling to new places gives us a chance to learn about cultures and traditions. It may be one of the top reasons we travel, it’s the chance to experience something different. When we’re in a country that has customs outside of our own, assimilation is often the first instinct to try and “fit in”. It can be for a variety of reasons, to show respect while visiting or to avoid standing out in a crowd. In doing so, cultural appropriation vs cultural appreciation can be a way for us to decide how to best immerse ourselves without being offensive. It…

  • how to reduce carbon footprint in travel
    Sustainable Travel

    Going Neutral: How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint in Travel

    The best way to be more environmentally conscious when traveling is learning how to reduce your carbon footprint. While a majority of us will have most of our carbon emissions through day to day choices we make at home, travel has become a major cause of carbon. And for Americans, the United States is one of the leaders in emissions through travel. Originally it was predicted that tourism had about a 3% impact on overall global emissions, but after research it was revealed that number is closer to 8%. While that percentage may not sound large, we were nearly 3 times off when trying to predict the impact travel has…

  • Sustainable Travel

    7 Things to Remember When Long Term Travel Ends

    Things I Don’t Forget When Returning from Long Term Travel Travel frequently distributes lessons that you’ll only learn while on the road. Long term travel is a privilege that exponentially increases those chances of valuable life lessons. While there are so many things I’ve found out about myself and others through travel, I think it is the way you use those AFTER you return is the most important. Too often we hear people talk about long term travel as transformative. It’s all too commonly suggested that travel is the best way to find yourself and learn. I’ve been guilty of this myself. I’ve been known to talk about how travel…

  • Africa,  Asia,  Bhutan,  Morocco,  Peru,  South America,  Sustainable Travel,  Uganda,  Vietnam

    Women in Travel: Portraits of Women Around the World

    While I would love to say that gender, more importantly being feminine, doesn’t have the power to define certain aspects of travel, I’d be lying. When visiting new destinations, the topic of gender and solo women travel seem to be in some form, a constant. While this depiction is consistently being defined and shaped by male dominated forces, whether that be a country, a political party, the tourism industry or societies as a whole, I seem to have gained more insight into how extraordinary women are by visiting some countries where we may not always have the most equal of rights.  While so many places try to erase individuality of…

  • Sustainable Travel

    Responsible Travel Behind the Lens: Taking Ethical Pictures

      It’s Friday in Nizwa, Oman and the weekly market is underway. Cars covered with a fresh coat of dust squeeze into the gravel parking lot overflowing into the side streets. People flood into the souk to pick up local fruits and vegetables, meats and their weekly shopping. In the far corner of the market is a round, dirt floor pavilion. Noises from the corner crowd float through the alleyways luring you closer to the commotion. As you make your way towards the group, there is a small sea of colorful, flat embroidered caps. Men wearing long flowing white linen robes raising their hands, vying for attention of others who…

  • US passport in Liechtenstein
    Sustainable Travel

    This Week in Ethical Travel: Passport Privilege

    Everything is packed, you’ve made sure you have everything you need in your suitcase before you head to the airport. You grab your passport and off you go. For so many of us, we can just book a trip and plan a vacation, stress free. For so many more of us, we have to go through dozens of documents just to get the go ahead to begin even the planning phase of a holiday. Passports hold either so much promise for exploring new places or so much strife as a reminder of restriction, all in one little book. Why are passports part of ethical tourism? Part of being an ethical…