Are you a green traveler?

Sad to say traveling green does not enter the equation for me. Since I live in the middle of the Pacific, I have to fly to get anywhere. I don't buy carbon offsets as somewhere I read it takes so long for the trees they plant to make a difference that it seems like a silly idea. In my defense, my 1 acre yard is mostly natural vegetation with over 100 palms and native ohia trees, I recycle, use catchment water, use energy efficient appliances and lighting and only drive 12 miles a day to work and back. (no public transportation available and on the return trip it's all uphill not to mention the rain...)

If there were more eco-lodges in the places I travel to, I would consider them as long as they are in line price-wise with the other lodges I would be considering and if I knew of a place that had a total disregard for the environment I wouldn't consider staying there.

No. I am a Green person but not a Green traveler.

I figure, the flight is going to take off anyway with or without me, so I don't worry about my carbon footprint when I fly.

In the past, for car trips, we used to take mine instead of DH's. His is actually a little more fuel efficient than mine, but mine is more comfortable and is an automatic. His car was a stick. So, for safety (and comfort) reasons, we took my car.

[I can drive a stick IF a psychopath is chasing us and about to shoot us, but otherwise I wouldn't trust myself driving a stick.]

However, I try to be green when living day-to-day, which I think has a bigger impact than the few trips I take every year. We recycle everything we possibly can, we bring our own canvas bags to grocery stores, DH has gotten rid of his car and now rely on public transportation, I walk to stores if they're <2 miles from my house etc.

We're doign a CBA to see if it's less to travel to Chicago or drive to SF/Carmel.

AND....I wish those hotels that leave the "Green" signs in the bathrooms ("if you want towels laundered throw on floor-if not hang on towel racks") would actually tell their housekeeping staff what it means!

Don't know how many times we've hung them and they were replaced with new ones.

Love to be able to stay at Gaia Napa Valley.

Not to a large degree. I would love to go to an eco-lodge but I can't pay 5X the cost of a regular vacation to stay in a lodge with solar panels and a composting toilet.

But I would not take a trip snowmobiling in Yellowstone, so environmental issues factor in that way.

We are somewhat green when we travel, but not as green as we are in everyday life.

The things we do that are green (or at least greener):

We walk a lot, rent bikes, take public transportation when on vacation. When we rent a car, we get a small one. When we take a road trip, we take my car rather than my husbands because it is more fuel efficient.

We do a fair amount of camping, and we are pretty green with that.

Things we do that aren't green:

We still fly though and we aren't good about seeking out green hotels or organic restaurants. Never been to an ecolodge, but would if it was in our budget and we went anywhere that had an eco-lodge - LOL.

Well, 'cause I live in Seattle, where everyone is fairly ecologically conscious, when I travel and am given options, such as many hotels now have about reusing towels, I always opt to go green, but haven't stayed in an actual eco-lodge, infact hadn't heard of one until you just mentioned it. Seems most of the places I stay have some sense of being environmentally aware.

As far as the air travel, well, that's a tough one to get around.

For road trips we take the Prius, so I guess that's green.

Kal - I agree, that drives me crazy. This year, I'm going to write a note, date it, and stick it on the bathroom door (and close it so they will see it):

"Please don't switch out the towels. I'd like to help your hotel be green. Thank you"

I figure they can use the note to verify to their supervisors that I really did want to reuse the towels.

As for the OP, I don't really work at traveling green.

I'm going to fly, because there isn't a real option for long distance travel in a limited timeframe.

I usually rent a car, but I will drive to a place, park it, then hoof it for the majority of the day, using the car as a storage shed for my camera gear, shopping, etc.

I always hang my towels back up, but like Kal, they always seem to replace them anyway. I don't use a lot of electricity, etc., so I don't worry about that.

Years ago, I did a study of my electrical habits at home, and I ended up in the bottom 10% of homes my size. I also use public transportation now for work. I figure I'm doing pretty good without having to go to special lengths.

Doing the green thing isn't only good for the earth, it's good for the pocketbook. It’s difficult to be completely green but if we all do something we’ll all be much better off. I limit myself to only 1 or 2 plane trips a year. Unless, I have to go somewhere for work on a plane.

Pack toiletries from my large home bottles and pour them into small bottles that can be reused time and again. At home, I buy the largest size of anything I know will I use. I used to buy the little tubes of toothpaste but it occurred to me that I could either just quit using a tube when it was close to the bottom or squirt some into a little tiny Tupperware that I’ve had for years.

I get my hair cut so that I use very little product

The towel thing doesn’t effect me b/c I rarely need the maids in my room. At home I use my linens for a week and unless I‘m staying more than a week they can skip my room.

My car is an economy model, although my most recent one is an automatic. It's still doesn't use much gas. We walk when possible and use public transpo. My job does require some driving but I keep it to a bare minimum.

My water bottle is reusable, as use it when I go around the city and throw one in my suitcase while I travel. I dislike buying those little water bottles and will go to great lengths to avoid them.

All the plastic bags that I use for travel to sort my shoes etc, I store in the suitcase for the next trip. Some of those plastic bags are like old friends. It’s fun to see a the bag I got when I bought something in Spain, Prague or Germany.

I carry a large purse while on vacation so I don't need to use extra bags. I tried to get my husband to carry a “man bag” while we were in NY last month but he’s just not there yet.

The digital camera was one of the best earth friendly and money saving investments I ever made. I bought a Kodak easy share that runs on rechargeable AA batteries.

Haven't been to an Earth Day event in years, because the last time I Balboa Park was strewn with pamphlets on how to be green. It was very disappointing to see all that paper wasted. Ah yes, I used to collect paper when I traveled. Now, no matter how tempting it is to grab a brochure that I don’t need. I step away from the brochures. I’ve now saved a whole park full of trees

Yes, I think I am. Using the train system instead of a car whenever possible is one way I do it. I travel mostly in Switzerland and Germany and always, always recommend that folks leave their cars behind and use the trains.

Not many do --

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Oh, and almost forgot--I always carry my Fodors bag in my purse so I never need bads when I shop--here or travelling.

Some stores,--like Trader Joes--give incentives for using your own bags.

So it does seem there's interest in the topic. There are a lot of good tips here that I hadn't thought of. I think it will become easier (and cheaper!) to travel green in the future. Flying seems to be the biggest culprit though---maybe we should all travel in hot air balloons.

yk..your point about that day-to-day mattering more than the few times a year one does travel makes a lot of sense.

Has anyone been surprised by the relative "greenness" of another country/or place. I remember traveling to Ireland and being surprised that shoppers were charged to use a plastic bag at the grocery store. Seems like an easy way to cut down on all of those shopping bags.

Glad the orange bag is coming in handy artlover!

Hi Katie-

Regarding plastic bags in grocery stores:

When we were in Hong Kong in Jan 08, we went to a supermarket (Wellcome) to get some snacks/drinks. I brought along a plastic bag from a prior purchase cuz I really didn't want to waste all these plastic bags. Guess what? The cashier gave me a 10 cent discount for that purchase!

[Well, that was in HKD, so really just barely more than a penny.]

In London/UK, when I'm buying a small amount of stuff from Boots or from a supermarket, the cashier usually asks me if I want want a bag or not. That rarely happens in the US; in fact the opposite occurs with the following exchange:

ME (paying the cashier): I don't need a bag.
Casher: You don't need a bag for this???
ME: No, I don't need a bag.

I also believe that in UK now, each food item has a label on showing the carbon footprint of that item? What I mean is, where that particular piece of fruit or package of pork chops come from. It makes the shopper think a little before they buy, I suppose.

I can only recall ONE hotel (in hundreds of hotel stays) where my towel was not replaced by a new one. That was the Best Western Dauro II in Granada, Spain, IIRC. I was truly impressed.

I need to attend a GTG so that I can get one of these orange Fodors bag! I have some old/dirty canvas bags which I take to grocery stores, but too ugly to bring it to boutiques/malls for shopping trips.

With the bag thing, I think a lot depends on where you are in the US. I am in the SF Bay Area and it is pretty common to get a small discount for bringing your own bag. It is also pretty common for cashiers to ask if you need a bag when you are only getting one or 2 things.

I was in Hazyview, South Africa stocking up for a self-drive safari and the store charged for the plastic bags. If they can do it there, why can't we do it here?

Amost every grocery store in Europe charges extra for plastic bags which I wish the US did-Walmart and Target come to mind as putting one item in a different plastic bag.

I can't talk about all Europe but my most recent experiences in UK and France, they don't charge for the flimsy bags only the heavier type.

I live in central IL and all of our grocery stores have started selling a sturdy tote bag for $1 which can be re-used. They're selling a lot of these so people want to participate. All of them also have a recycling bin for putting old/used bags.

One additional way to "travel green" is to avoid one night stays whenever you can. This also makes for a more relaxing way to travel (imo), although I realize that for business purposes and for other reasons, it's not always possible to do so.

I operate a B&B, and generally do not take one night reservations. The main reason I have this policy is to keep my workload to a more manageable level (I get the same revenue from a three night stay, but with a lot less cleaning & laundry... consider that each check-out produces two to four loads of laundry...) but it also allows me to operate my business "greener". We do not replace towels unless indicated, and beds are not changed until after three nights.

I also think it is easier for a small operation like my own to operate greener - for instance, I hang out my sheets on a clothesline, whereas a hotel would not be able to do this (this would also be difficult for me to do with one night stays, as the turn over with the laundry is not as fast as when using a dryer - I would have to have more linens.) I also collect guest recyclables and take them to the depot along with our household recyclables; again, something that local hotels can't do so easily.

I wish more of my guests would make use of the recycling facilities we provide for them. I have a small blue box in my guest room as well as a compost bucket in their kitchenette, and very few use it. When I see recyclables on the top of the garbage, I will grab them, but I'm not going to go through their garbage!!

It is shocking sometimes to see how much garbage some people can produce. Our household produces only a small amount of garbage each week, and I have had guests who have produced as much garbage in a day as we do in a week or two!

I find that in general Europeans are much "greener" than North Americans.

krp - I totally agree w/ you on the garbage issue. DH & I recycle as much as we possibly can. Each week on trash day, our actual garbage only fills up 1/4 of our garbage bin, and we have pretty much the same amt of recycling. We don't have our own yard, but if we did, I'm sure DH would be composting also.

our neighbor across the street, granted, they have 4 people in their household (vs us 2), generates almost 10x as much garbage. They have 2 fully packed garbage bins plus 3-4 tall garbage bags alongside. And no recycling.

We just shook our heads every week on garbage day.

We are taking the train to AZ in June. It will take longer then flying but we won't have to drive from Phonix or Las Vegas that cuts down on all the driving. Plus Enterprise offer to buy credit for $1.25 for the offset of the driving the car. I am doing alot to travel more green.

we try to use public transport if available and convenient. if have to rent a car use smallest vehicle that meets our needs. try to walk rather than ride if possible. does not necessarily play a role in deciding where to go. will not pay double to be green. as with everyday life, reduce,reuse,recycle. but, we still have to consider our sanity when traveling and will not decide to be hugely inconvenienced to have a small difference in carbon footprint

Hi Katie,

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EnvironmentallyFriendlyHotels.com should direct some green minded travelers in the right direction.

Unless you plan to walk or bicycle to your destination, your travel is the antithesis of green.

Some like to sav their conscience by checking in to "Green" hotels or resorts. In my experience, many of those were carved out of the places that were better off remaining wild. The people in the busy resorts have less impact on threatened species.

Paying money to someone who will plant trees as a carbon offset is silly. The good option is to create an example that others can follow.

Environmental concerns play a role in where I travel to. I prefer a place with clean air and water and a relatively low chance of getting a communicable disease.