What are your Best Green Travel Tips?
 

Whether you try to partake in eco-tourism, responsible travel, sustainable travel, or green living in general . . . I believe that small steps can make a difference. Personally, I'm never without a refillable water bottle.

What eco-habits are important to you when you're on the go? Do you focus on local products and services? Seek out eco-lodges?

Thanks for sharing your great green travel tips!

We wear clothes that dry quickly so you wash them easily and carry less clothing. They are a bit more expensive, but you need less mass washings that use gallons of hot water.

We use public transportation whenever possible, including from airports to hotels.

We always try to walk or even bike to nearby sites when traveling. We are huge bike enthusiists so it fun for us!

I know most hotels now request you use the same towel - I always hang my towel back up and re-use it.

Something that is huge for me is that I always want to support their local economy - I will go to the locally owned restaurants and shops and buy produce from that area too for snacks. This at least cuts down on transportation and gas costs.
I will seek out a little ma and pa owned coffee shop before I ever step foot in Starbucks. I do that at home too!

I would love to stay at an eco-lodge someday like the ones I have seen in Costa Rica!

Aduchamp1 - Public transportation is a great way to go green, and save money.

annesherrod - I know the eco-lodges are also about the eco-experience. Thankfully lots of "regular" hotels have at least some green commitment too now.

Anyone else have other green tips to share?

I entirely agree with using the same towels at lodging. Nobody washes their towels every day at home, so why have the hotel do it every day? No need at all.

Bottled water is another pet peeve of mine. Just get a big one for the bottle if needed and then refill it with tap water. Nothing wrong with it. I'm tired of seeing empty water bottles that someone apparently couldn't manage to carry back and reuse dropped along the side of the trail. What are these people thinking?

And if you do hike, take a little trash bag that you can hang onto or fit into your daypack and pick up a little after the slobs if you see something.

Driving to use less gas:

(1) Remove your roof rack entirely if you can and you don't need it. At least remove the cross bars.

(2) On the highway, use your air conditioner rather than opening the windows.

(3) Use cruise control whenever you can, even in local driving.

I regularly get 3.5 to 4 mpg more than the conservative EPA highway mileage on my Subaru Outback and once got 35.7 mpg for more than 120 miles fully loaded, but under really good conditions of temperature, wind, and terrain.

In cities, don't idle. Shut off the motor at 4 way traffic lights when you are going to wait a while. Park at Burger King and go inside rather than go through the pickup lane (ditto the bank, laundry, etc). Better yet, skip Burger King and go (as suggested above) to a local place for real food, if not in reality much green contribution.

I love sailing! The original wind-power, a sailing vacation is relaxing and aboard a larger boat you have many of the comforts of home. There are a lot of small charter sailboat companies in coastal areas globally that cater to travelers.

I was thinking about eco-friendly travel today as I made a rental car reservation. A hybrid car wasn't an option but I did choose the smallest available car (which is also cheaper to rent and will save me more on gas).

Any other great green travel tips out there?

<<<I entirely agree with using the same towels at lodging. Nobody washes their towels every day at home, so why have the hotel do it every day? No need at all.>>>

I'm more than happy to sleep on the same sheets day after day, but I like my towels dried (which I do at home) every day, rather than just hung up -- where they never seem to get really dry. I try to make up for this "lapse" in other ways.

<<<And if you do hike, take a little trash bag that you can hang onto or fit into your daypack and pick up a little after the slobs if you see something.>>>

Litter is my pet peeve. My DH and I were on a "tour" in Hawaii when someone dropped and ground out a cigarette and left the butt on the ground. Being young and foolish, my DH picked it up, tapped the guy on the shoulder and said "Did you drop this?"

<<<(3) Use cruise control whenever you can, even in local driving.>>>

I actually think this is dangerous. Cruise Control allows you to not focus on your driving, which might work on an open highway, but I think it's a terrible idea in traffic.

So what do I do -- same sheets for my stay, walk and use public transportation in cities and from airport to city (I'll admit to not doing so if the inconvenience factor is high, like from LaGuardia to Manhattan), always eat in local rather than chain restaurants (although I'm not exactly clear why that's "green"), etc. I just have to say I'm much more <i>aware</i> of what I'm doing in the last few years.

We are "forced" into green travel :) as we don't drive - public transport on all trips.

Don't toss on the floor towels that can be re-used.

We refill the water bottles. I like to make herbal tea in the coffee pot for refills, taste better then just water.

We don't buy travel guides, take 2-sided print-outs off the Internet with us, in the museums only take fliers that we need - our idea of saving the trees.

We have found that lots of hotels are now getting on the conservation bandwagon with sheets and towels - I think they've realized that they save money if they don't have to launder all the sheets and towels every day.

Anyway - we do the public transportation thing when we can, take walking and biking tours a lot (organized or on our own), reduce reuse recycle, rent small cars when we do need a car, etc.