Whether you’re dreaming of a beach holiday or skiing in the mountains, getting lost in nature or strolling around a romantic European city, this simple guide will help you in planning your next eco-friendly European holiday. Travelling in a more responsible manner doesn’t mean absolute sacrifice, but simply adopting a few conscious habits. You can become a more sustainable traveller by considering where and how you travel. Here are a few tips for planning your European holiday, whilst still being conscious of protecting the environment. So, even though travel is restricted at present, there is no harm in dreaming up your next adventure and thinking about more sustainable ways of travelling. Take a look…
Eco-Friendly European Holiday
‘Sustainable living doesn’t always mean absolute sacrifice and luxury doesn’t always mean waste. You can opt for a sustainable, fabulous life by making conscious decisions’
– The Fabulous Times
Select Your Destination
First things first, select your destination. How far will you need to travel? If you’re here in the UK, then the whole of Europe is your oyster, you could book Disneyland Paris tickets, spend a romantic weekend in Venice or a dream city escape to Rome. Most forms of transport contribute to climate change, to reduce your carbon footprint choose a holiday destination closer to home or one you can get to via the Eurostar.
Choose Eco-Friendly Transport
The next step in planning your eco-friendly European holiday is figuring out how to get there and how to move around once you are there. Choose to stay in a village or hotel you can get to via train to avoid flying and hiring a car.
Making more eco-friendly choices in transportation can make a huge difference in your travel carbon footprint.
From the UK, taking the Eurostar and then travelling via train is a more earth-friendly choice than flying. Remember, you’re not striving for perfection but just to make as many positive changes as you have control over.
Plan Ahead
If you’re planning a fun family day trip to a theme park such as Disneyland then the best way to be more eco-friendly in this scenario is to plan ahead. Planning ahead will help you to avoid buying single-use products and plastic packaging. Take your own refillable water bottle. Take a pac-a-mac incase it rains, to avoid using the plastic rain ponchos. Pack a picnic with your sandwiches wrapped in paper in a reusable Tupperware.
Think about each scenario that you might experience throughout the day and consider if you could take your own eco-friendly alternative to avoid consuming unnecessary items and adding to waste.
Bring Sustainable Travel Products
Next up, bring sustainable travel products with you on your adventure. This might mean packing solid toiletries, like shampoo bars and soap, Lush have some fabulous options to choose from. They have a whole array of eco-friendly travel products like solid shampoo and conditioner bars, solid perfume and solid toothpaste. This is a super efficient, lightweight and eco-friendly way to take all the products you need whilst avoiding huge plastic bottles full of shampoo and conditioner.
Take Organic Suncream
Did you know that most suncreams are full of nasty chemicals that can be harmful to marine life? Suncream that contains nasty chemicals is toxic for marine life especially if you are swimming in the sea, what a dreadful thought.
Opting for an organic suncream with natural SPF is a great way to be kinder to your skin and to the environment. A fabulous organic and eco-friendly suncream option is the one from Green People, which is scent-free, cruelty-free and made from 84% certified organic ingredients and comes in fully recyclable, plant-based packaging.
Stay fabulous
Christine
