Goody Green: Eco-Travel Tips

If you're planning a family vacation this summer be sure to bring your eco-thinking on the road! (Just because it's time for some R&R, doesn't mean you can't put a little energy into being green.) Here are some easy eco-travel tips I found on the Green Hotel Association's travel page:

Save Paper!
1. Suspend delivery of your home newspaper while you're away.
2. Only take maps and activity programs when necessary (see if you can access this info online or through your hotel's TV channel).

Save Water!
3. Reuse bath towels. Need to keep track of who used which towel? Pack small safety pins and plastic colored beads. Attach a different color bead to the end (or tag) of each towel with the safety pin. Then, assign each family member their own color so there's no confusion.
4. Bring reusable water bottles with you and refill when necessary. (This water geeks bottle is great for travel!)

Save Energy!
5. Pack a night light. This way kids can find their way to the bathroom without leaving a light on all night.
6. Take a walking tour, hop on the hotel's bus, or take public transportation when possible.

Save Things!
7. Take photos with a digital camera. Disposable cameras and film are expensive and wasteful.
8. Don't buy any souvenir that may have been killed or taken from it's natural habitat for a "gift shop sale". (That includes starfish, coral, shells, feathers etc.)

For more simple ways you and your kids can Go Green while soaking up the sites, click here. 

Comments

[Sarah Burns]

Love the safety pin idea for towels but if you don't want to put a hole in your towel, or have safety pins around small children (ouch!), check out my patent pending product that I invented, www.tagatowel.com. Sign up for updates on the shop page and be the first to have a Tag a Towel this Fall! We can even have them monogrammed!

Tag a Towel
For Busy Bathrooms

[Kimberly at GoGreenTravelGreen]

This is a good list - I really like the color-coded safety pin idea for identifying your towel.

Packing light is another great way to reduce your impact since lighter luggage burns less fuel. And now that airlines are starting to charge if you take more than one bag, packing light will save money, too!

[Richard]

These are all great tips. But also, if available, stay at a green hotel. The property is investing their money to do something to help the environment and we can reward both them and the environment by staying at their "Green" hotel.

A great website for finding "Green" hotels is http://www.iStayGreen.org It has around 3,000 properties that have been Green Eco-Leaf Rated. It's also a social networking site similar to Facebook - TripAdvisor - and Expedia but all wrapped up into one website for the eco-friendly traveler to hang out at. Their members write reviews on the properties they stay at based on their "Green" initiatives, so basically the public is creating an accountability system that forces the property owners to be truthful in their claims and do something about becoming more environmentally friendly.