Travelling can be one of the hardest things to do in an environmentally friendly manner. Travelling locally is easy enough by using public transport (check national rail enquiries for train times, Solent blue line, unilink and first for bus times and national express for coaches).  But travelling abroad or going on holiday is a little more complicated. The best way to go on holiday and be environmentally friendly at the same time is to take an arranged trip with a charity such as Help to Educate, BTCV or The National Trust. Trips such as these are great as most of the profits go back into the charity rather than being swallowed up by estate agents. The other option, if you’re not keen on working holidays is to find a holiday from Responsible Travel where all the listed holidays are ethically and environmentally checked. If you still can’t find what your looking for, or if you are more of an independent traveller then try using the following tips instead.

• Offset your CO2 emissions with a carbon offset scheme such as Climate care.
• Try to find green accredited accommodation such as Green globe, Little Acorn (New Forest), GTBS or Green Island Awards.
• Most hotels and bed and breakfasts will wash the bedding after your first night. Unless you have been playing in the mud then there is no need for bed sheets to be changed after one night. If you after for your sheets not to be changed then you will be saving lots of water and detergent.
• Try to buy local produce and encourage the accommodation that your staying in to do the same.
• Avoid restaurant and supermarket chains and instead support small local businesses.
• Conserve water when on holiday, especially in countries when water is a scarce commodity. People tend to use more water on holiday than they do at home to make a conscious effort to turn taps off and have shorter showers.
• Don’t use the free shampoos. Its doubtful that those little plastic bottles get recycled so by not using them you will be saving the waste and saving the cost of production of more of them.

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