We’re all aware of it – traveling is not the most eco-friendly activity to take part in. But hey, this planet is still too beautiful to not explore, right? That’s why eco-friendly travel is always a priority for us. We want to keep the planet as beautiful as possible for future generations to enjoy. That’s why we thought of these 25 sustainable travel tips to help you be more eco-friendly anywhere in the world.
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Table of Contents
Why eco-friendly travel is important
The sad truth is that today, a lot of places are drowning in plastic, and are not as beautiful as they used to be. If we keep going this way, this beautiful planet will not have unspoiled places left to offer travelers and future generations.
In the “western” world, we have been told for years that we need to reduce, reuse and recycle. We have started to compost in major cities, and overall, we’re fairly aware of the toxic effects of using single-use plastic, plastic in general, and the effects of consumerism. Of course, we aren’t perfect by any means, but we generally understand the consequences of our actions on the environment. In developing countries, where such infrastructures don’t exist, and there are bigger concerns like daily survival, recycling and keeping our earth clean are just not priorities.
When you travel, it’s easy to “take a break” from being the usual eco-conscious green person that you are at home. But, the truth is, it’s a lot easier than you think to keep up the good habits. So here are some simple sustainable travel tips and tricks you can use to stay green and keep the planet clean. If we all chip in, we’ll make a far bigger impact together.
Sustainable travel tips for your next trip
So you want to head out and explore the world? Cool, this is the first place to start thinking green!
1. Be more eco-conscious by skipping the plane… if you can
I know! Easier said than done. But this is the first place you can cut your carbon footprint. The carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by a plane is incredibly damaging. So if you can, take a bus, a boat, a train, a bike or your legs to go explore that crazy beautiful place you have in mind. Whatever way you can to produce fewer greenhouse emissions is the best way.
This is probably not the easiest rule to put into practice, but if you can do it, please do! Often, the alternate means of transportation will probably offer more scenic views too, so it’s a double win.
If you can’t avoid taking a plane, there are still other ways you can be more eco-friendly like paying Carbon Credits to offset your flight’s emissions. Or, you can also take a direct flight to your next destination. Truth is the takeoff and landing are the most damaging to the environment, so reducing the number of flights to get somewhere is a great solution.
2. Join the daily commute to reduce your carbon emissions
Once you make it to your destination, travel like an eco-conscious local. Avoid taking cabs, Grabs, and Ubers. Instead, take the local bus or subway, trains or ferries to get around. The more people take public transportation, the better it is. Not only will there be less traffic on the road, but governments will invest more in these infrastructures, offering better service and reducing the number of cars on the road. Often, it’s also a cheaper way to get around than to cab it all the time. Or better yet, pick a central hotel where you can walk to the main attractions.
If you have to take a cab, try to split the fare with others going to the same location. Ask around your hotel/hostel. It’s a cheaper, more eco-friendly and fun way of getting around anyway!
Sustainable travel tips for your stay
Finding a place to stay isn’t always the easiest thing to do, but there are a ton of things you can do to make your stay eco-friendly. Here are some sustainable travel tips to help you.
3. Choose to stay in an eco-hotel or an eco-resort
This is a no-brainer. If you want to splurge and stay in a hotel, pick one that is eco-friendly and sustainable. Nowadays, a lot of places around the world are putting in efforts to be more green. As eco-conscious travelers, it’s important that we support them so that other hotels follow suite.
It can be small and simple things like being an eco-building, using recycled materials or not washing towels every day. Or it can be a truly green place that doesn’t offer anything plastic, that does trash clean-ups, that practices sustainable activities in their community. All you have to do is some research and you’ll see, these places are easier to find than you think! Our favorites so far have been Babel Guesthouse in Siem Reap and Hotel Penaga in Penang.
4. Stay with locals to be more sustainable
Ok, so I can already hear some people thinking this is crazy but Couchsurfing is an awesome way to travel. You get to stay with locals, exchange ideas, and connect with people on a whole new level. We couchsurfed quite a few times when in Asia and Europe, and we loved it. We know we have made friends for life.
So obviously, staying with a local is a lot more eco-friendly than staying in a hotel, especially because you don’t take up much more energy in the powering of the place. If you’re not comfy with this idea (although we highly encourage you to try it at least once), you can always opt for shared accommodations in an Airbnb.
5. Skip on getting fresh towels every day
Let’s be honest here. Back home, you don’t wash your towels after every use. So why would you do it on the road?
Most hotels will offer to wash your towels and bring you new ones each day, but this creates a lot of wasted water. Not to mention all the detergent and chemicals that end up in the waterways. So just leave your used towel on the rack. Usually, the hotel staff knows not to replace it. If you’re unsure about their policy, just ask at the front desk or leave a note asking that your towel not be switched out. Easy peasy!
6. Skip on room cleaning to be more eco-friendly
Here’s another no-brainer. Again, do you clean your room every day back home? Nope! So avoid doing it when you travel… well unless you’re a super messy person!
Usually, when they clean your room, they spray a whole bunch of chemicals in there, which is not good for your health or the environment. Then, they give you new trash bags (plastic, of course) and all those tiny plastic bottles of soap and shampoo and lotion (damn, more plastic). Once you realize that this cleaning is just creating more plastic waste, you’ll want to avoid it.
Many hotels will offer to clean your room only when you need it to, so go for this option. If not, just hang the “do not disturb” sign on your door, and voilà!
7. An easy way to be more sustainable is to avoid plastic bottles
Most hotels in South East Asia will give you complimentary water bottles every day during your stay. Avoid them!
How?
Well, that’s easy!
Either carry around a reusable water bottle that you can fill at refill stations (usually, your hotel will be able to do this) or get a Lifestraw Go as we have. We can refill it with tap water anywhere in the world and make the water drinkable! WIN!
Eco-friendly travel tips for eating out on your trip
If you’re like us, you like to eat. A LOT! I mean, we eat insane amounts of food. Derek is 6 foot 4, so that’s a lot of man to feed. But when we do, we follow these simple sustainable travel tips to reduce the amount of waste we create.
8. Markets are delicious but so trashy, so be eco-conscious
We LOVE eating local food. The best place to do this is in local markets. Unfortunately, this is a place that creates huge amounts of waste. They put your food in polystyrene containers. Don’t get me started on polystyrene/styrofoam. It’s a killer and should be banned everywhere. It should not exist… damn, I got started! Sorry!
Not only is this plastic bad for your health (chemicals seep into your food) but it’s terrible for the environment too. It always ends up floating into our oceans and killing our marine life. Avoiding it is easy. Just bring your own containers to the market. Mason jars, reusable containers, whatever you have that will help you take your hot food home to enjoy.
A trick to remember to bring a container is to pack fragile things in it. When we arrive at our destination, we remove the items and use the container.
9. Ditch the plastic utensils while you travel
If you’re already bringing your own container, take it a little step further and bring your own cutlery too.
As travelers, we always have our cutlery with us – it’s perfect when you just feel like having an impromptu picnic or you feel like making yourself a snack with some local groceries. If you don’t have your own set of travel cutlery, you can always take your meal back to the hotel and ask them for metal cutlery. This will make you a total environmental champion (and we love champs like you!)
Just remember that you can’t travel with a metal knife in your carry-on luggage, so make sure you don’t keep it there. If not, you can opt for bamboo cutlery instead.
10. Avoid fast-food restaurants while you travel
This may be another “easier said than done” solution, but if you can avoid it, please do. We totally get that eating the same type of cuisine day-in and day-out is not the most thrilling part of traveling and that sometimes, you just want some golden fries that taste like home.
Just know that massive fast-food chains tend to generate a lot of waste and pollution. Just think about the transport of that frozen food, the tons of plastic and styrofoam used to wrap it all, the single-use plastic utensils… it all adds up. And really, don’t you prefer eating a local dish to support a local family and economy? Yes, yes you do!
11. Don’t use a straw to be more eco-friendly
This is probably the easiest thing you can do. And it will go a long way as most straws, especially in beachside locations, end up in the ocean and kill our wildlife.
Call us selfish, but since we just started scuba diving, we want to keep the underwater world as clean as possible. So next time you order a drink, make sure you specify you don’t want a straw. If you absolutely need a straw for your smoothie, bring a reusable one with you made from bamboo or stainless steel. See how easy that is?! Don’t you feel better about saving the planet? Yes, you do!
12. Avoid snacks with plastic packaging
Who doesn’t love a good snack? We all need a little sugary pick-me-up once in a while. Instead of heading to the convenience store to get your favorite treat, why don’t you opt for something Mother Nature created for you?
One of the best things about traveling is getting to eat fruits and veggies that you don’t have access to at home. So skip out on that heavily-packaged, sugar-filled fake-food, and go enjoy a local delicacy.
13. Eat more plant-based or vegetarian meals
This is probably the simplest step people can take at home, or while traveling to be more eco-friendly and sustainable. Keeping cattle and growing it until it ends up as a slab of meat on your plate takes up a lot of water and resources. Cutting down on even one meat meal a day will make a huge impact on the environment.
This is the main reason Carine is a vegetarian and Derek has reduced his consumption by a lot (he’s about 85% vegetarian now). When you can, opt for a vegetarian meal. They often have the vegetarian options of traditional meals in restaurants.
Sustainable travel tips to teach locals how to be more eco-conscious
These sustainable travel tips are easy to follow and are one of our favorite things to do. We really urge others to do this as much as they can. It can be as easy as refusing the plastic bag and showing that you can put it all in your backpack or it can get a little more complex. Either way, education is key!
14. Pick up trash when you see it
Yup! It’s that easy. If you see trash, pick it up. It doesn’t matter that it’s not yours. If it’s on the ground, chances are, it’s going to end up in waterways, in your food (because your food will eat it. Unless you’re a vegetarian or vegan, in which case, we love you!) or it’s just going to make a super beautiful place look like a dump.
People may question what you’re doing, or say it’s useless, but if everyone picks up 3 pieces of trash each day, we’ll have one hell of a clean planet real quick! This is another example of how every bit helps. So regardless of where you are (traveling or not), please just pick it up and throw it out in the bin, or recycle it if you can. Thank you!
15. Educate others to be more eco-friendly
Sometimes, people don’t know any better. And it’s not their fault. Not all countries have access to this type of education. I mean honestly, only a few years ago (ok, like 10-15 years ago), people were littering the streets back home and no one would flinch.
So it’s understandable that people with fewer means and less education don’t understand the impact of littering or of single-use plastic. So let them know, in a kind and friendly way. No need to be berating or condescending. Sometimes, just a quick line about how plastic is bad or useless is enough to get them thinking. If you have a better relationship with the person, then you can get into the details of explaining why it’s bad.
16. Always BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag) to be sustainable
One of the best ways we’ve found of educating people is simply by setting an example for them. In this case, it’s bringing our own bag – to the market, to the grocery store, to the fruit stand, wherever. These are places where they are always keen on giving you some toxic plastic bag you don’t need.
We always joke (but we’re not actually joking) and tell the cashier we’re out to save the world, and that we don’t need plastic. It puts a smile on their face and they acknowledge that they don’t need to automatically offer it. Often, the people behind us in line will end up refusing a bag too, and that’s one domino effect we love to see!
Sustainable travel tips for shopping & activities
One of the best things to do when you travel is to get gifts (for yourself or others) or live crazy once-in-a-lifetime experiences. We won’t stop you from doing that, but before you do it, just think about this.
17. Shop locally to be an eco-friendly traveler
This is something they tell us back home, and you should also try to do it when you’re traveling. Shop local. Get something from a local artist or artisan, handmade with love and craftsmanship. Whatever it is, try and support a local family and the local economy. At least, try to make sure the product is produced in the country, as tons of things are made in China but sold as being local.
And if you haggle the price, which is sometimes half the fun, make sure you are being fair. If the vendor starts to get upset, you’ve gone too far – that dollar that you are saving may not be much to you, but it could be a fortune to the vendor.
18. Don’t shop at all to be more sustainable
This is something that we can do as long-term travelers. To be honest, we have not bought a single souvenir since we have started this year-long trip (sorry, not sorry friends and family!). Why? Well, space and weight are big things, but it’s also because we don’t want things. Before we left, we started living a more minimalist lifestyle, realizing that we prefer to live experiences over having things.
We’ve carried on with this mentality during the trip, and you can do it too. Sure, people may think you’re selfish for not bringing back a gift. But instead, you can learn how to cook the local cuisine and invite them over for a traditional feast when you’re back. Buy some local herbs or spices you can’t easily find at home. Make a donation to a local charity in their name. There are tons of creative ways to offer “travel” gifts without buying things.
19. Avoid animal exploitation to promote sustainable tourism
So you’re half-way around the world and you have a chance to see some pretty awesome animals that you’ve never seen back home. Yeah, freakin’ cool! But before you do, make sure you look into the company that is offering this.
Are they harming animals? Chances are that if a wild animal will do tricks for you or that you get to ride it, they are harming them. We opted to go see elephants at the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, because they were an ethical sanctuary for these gentle giants and we didn’t ride them.
Are you taking a picture with an animal that would usually bite your head off if you saw it in the wild? Yup, avoid this as well. For example, in Thailand, we saw many offers to go hang out with tigers. What people don’t know is that those tigers are drugged to keep them docile.
Is the activity ruining the natural ecosystem or instincts of the animal? Then avoid that as well! For example, in the Philippines, you can go swimming with whale sharks. How awesome… except for the fact that this makes the whale sharks forget their natural hunting instincts and ruins the balance of the ecosystem they live in because they are being fed instead of “hunting”. Instead, we got to see a whale shark in its natural habitat in Koh Tao, where it took us by surprise. A much better experience overall for everyone!
20. Eco Tours, an easy way to promote eco-friendly and sustainable tourism
Whatever tour you decide to do, try to find one that is eco-friendly. In most places, tour operators now understand that if they don’t start taking care of the environment, they will not have a job in a few years. This is exactly what happened to Maya Bay in Thailand, which closed its beaches to tourism. Same as some islands in the Philippines.
So when you’re looking for a way to explore that cool place you’ve been dying to go to, find an operator that has higher environmental standards, one that promotes eco-friendly and sustainable tourism. We found Visit.org which does great work offering eco-friendly tours and activities around the world that support the local community.
21. Use coral-safe sunscreen to be eco-friendly
Recently, there have been many studies showing that using certain types of sunscreen can kill corals. Again, we’re super selfish, and since we started scuba diving, we want to see the corals at their best. This is why we’ve opted for wearing sunscreen that doesn’t contain any harmful chemicals like oxybenzone, Butylparaben, octinoxate or 4-methylbenzylidene camphor.
Another way to avoid killing coral is to put your sunscreen on 30 minutes before heading into the water. Or better yet, cover up with a rash guard or wetsuit if you’ll be in the water for a long time (aka snorkeling or scuba diving).
Sustainable travel tips for health and beauty
This section may be more for women, but we thought it was important to include it. These steps can easily be done at home too, so it’s really a double win.
22. Avoid disposable makeup remover wipes
We all love the convenience of these wipes. Makeup just magically disappears with one swipe. But the truth is, not only are they full of chemicals, they are often not biodegradable.
Instead of disposable wipes, opt for a reusable one like Face It by Cloth in a box. Just use water to wipe the makeup off, then rise it and let it dry until you need it tomorrow. Eco-friendly, and travel-friendly because you’ll never need to carry makeup remover with you.
22. Menstruate better
Ok, ladies, not sure about you, but there are a few days each month when I hate life. You know what I’m talkin’ about: periods. Cramps, pain, discomfort, and the only thing I want to do is crawl up and sleep for those 3 days. Add to that the often uncomfortable and annoying pads or tampons, and you have a recipe for disaster.
I’m not just talking about disaster for our planet with all the plastic waste, but also for our health. Tampons have harsh chemicals and bleaches, pads have glue and more chemicals, and they’re bulky AF. So how do you avoid all this?
Today, there are a ton of fun options, like Mme L’Ovary or Thinx. These companies make a range of comfy and stylish period underwear. Yeah, you can actually look good as you bleed! What I love most, is that they care about the environment, people and tell you like it is. On most days, I can just walk around in their underwear, without any other protection, which is awesome in the hot, hot heat we’ve experienced. They have been a savior on this trip!
24. Kick it old school with bars
We all grew up with soap bars, but one day, it all changed and now we’ve gotten used to cleaning up with liquid soaps and shampoos. What we forget to consider is that liquids are actually a lot more expensive than bars, you get fewer washes out of them, and they come in plastic that ends up sticking around longer than we want it to. Especially when traveling, these bottles are bulky and heavy to carry around.
So what’s the solution?
Going back to the good old days of bars. They have come a long way themselves – more natural options are available, softer on sensitive skin and longer-lasting. And their packaging is easily biodegradable which is great considering many countries don’t recycle. We’re loving this bar shampoo by Lush that can give you up to 80 washes, or replace 3 medium bottles of shampoo. And another perk is that you can bring them in your carry-on.
25. Wash your clothes in an eco-friendly way
We got so excited when our friends told us about the Scrubba. This innovative bag helps you wash your clothes as you travel. It also doubles as a dry bag, if you love spending time on the water.
Basically, you fill it up with water and eco-friendly biodegradable soap and drop your clothes in. You scrub them thanks to the little bubbles on the inside of the bag. Then you rinse your clothes and hang them to dry.
This way, you use less water and fewer chemicals. You save money not only on laundry fees but since this allows you to wash often, you don’t need to bring as many clothes. Ultimately, you could travel with a smaller suitcase, also saving you travel fees.
To recap, here are 25 ways to be more sustainable and eco-friendly when you travel
- Skip the plane if you can
- Commute using public transportation
- Choose an eco-hotel
- Stay with locals or share accommodations
- Skip the fresh daily towels
- Skip on getting your room cleaned daily
- Avoid plastic bottles
- Bring your own containers to markets
- Ditch the plastic utensils
- Avoid fast-food restaurants
- Don’t use a straw
- Avoid snacks with plastic packaging
- Eat more plant-based or vegetarian meals
- Pick up trash
- Educate others to be more eco-friendly
- Bring your own bags
- Shop locally
- Avoid shopping
- Avoid animal tourism
- Go on eco-tours
- Use coral-safe sunscreen
- Avoid disposable makeup remover wipes
- Menstruate better
- Use soap and shampoo bars
- Wash your own clothes
Have you found innovative or easy ways to be a more eco-friendly traveler? Let us know in the comments. We’re always looking for new ways to be more green!
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Thanks, much appreciated!
The most amazing and complete guide we’ve read on how to become an eco traveler, you guys covered everything!
Thanks for educating others and turning this beautiful world in a better place 😀
With love and sunshine,
Patricia & Miguel
http://www.freeoversea.com
We are so glad that you liked it and we hope that it can make a difference with others.
Keep spreading the love guys!
Great article! Thank you guys! Eco-pads and cups are another great tool when girls need some protection for their periods without risking the environment.
Absolutely, we recommended products that we actually use, but those are great alternatives as well.
Thanks for such a great round-up on sustainable travel tips! I was glad to see that we are focusing on the same things! I actually use a menstrual cup, was one of my favourite switches! I haven’t tried the undies yet, but am willing to try them at some point, glad to hear they are working for you!
Thank you so much! It is really encouraging to see so many people working toward a common goal!
I tried a menstrual cup years ago but it wasn’t great for me. I think I need to try a different one. The undies have really been a game-changer for me! Hope you enjoy them too!