Green Holidays

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Do you know enough about both biodegradable products and biodegradable packaging?

I know it might seem obvious what they are when you just think abut the word ‘biodegradable’ as we all sort of know what this means - but what about behind the products?

When you think about biodegradable washing up liquid or shampoo for example, are you thinking about the product itself, or the packaging - or both?

And what exactly are the benefits of each - if any?

And is a product that breaks down even better than one that stays in it’s original form - chemicals or not?

Well, in this article I have put together a very basic summary of the good and the bad of both - so you can make a more informed choice when you think about your next purchase.

The Products:
Well, holiday toiletries and suncreams, etc should all ideally be biodegradable as otherwise your everyday shower is washing all these ingredients into the waterways and rivers of the village or vacation spot you are visiting.

This way, when you wash off your shower gel when in your hotel or out camping, it passes into the neighbouring ground or lake and gradually ‘breaks down’ with the help of bacteria, sunlight or water into virtually harmless little bits. 

Although it could still cause a bit of a problem in the first few days or weeks - it will eventually be gone - which is better than always being there for years and years no matter how diluted it is.

However would you be interested to know that there is no legal definition of ‘biodegradable’ for products in the US or EU - it’s just a vague assumption.  That assumption being that the product will break down more or less naturally into naturally existing particles in around 6 months or so.  However - it doesn’t have to do this at all to use the phrase on it’s packaging or advertising!

Needless to say - anyone can use this ‘claim’ on the product accompanied by a standard flowery or plant looking picture or image - and you can’t prove either way, you just have to take their word for it.

It is the same with the word ’natural’ on products.  This word has no legal right or wrong on packaging - and anyway, petroleum oil is natural and so is arsenic, so the word natural is a bit of a strange one anyway!

The Packaging:
Then there is the bottle it’s in.  It would be virtually impossible to not use plastic bottles when traveling, so you should really try to use biodegradable plastic bottles, right?

Well, there is an argument for and against strangely enough - and it’s all quite simple: if you buy a container that has been designed to degrade naturally over a period of time - then you can’t use it over and over again can you?

Buying a normal plastic bottle means that you can either recycle it or use it repeatedly for any product - but if that bottle is liable to start breaking down, then you certainly can’t use it over and over, it’s unreliable.

And of course, you can’t really recycle it either as otherwise the recycled products you make out of it will be unstable too and just as liable to break down as well!

So, it’s a tricky one really.

Buying biodegradable plastic bottles is encouraging continued plastic production - but is better than new regular plastic being made.  But if the demand for recycled plastic products drops as a result, then surely that is a bad thing; as all the existing non-biodegradable plastic will be left for ever on earth in dumps and floating in the sea!

And if regular plastic isn’t made anymore, then we won’t be able to reuse our bottles and tubs again and again forever - we will always have to buy new!

The End Result:
I can’t say for certain what is the better in terms of the whole plastic situation, but it certainly makes you think a bit further into the issue than just assuming that a biodegradable product is instantly better.

However, I certainly recommend seeking out products that really are made of safe natural ingredients and those which should not have a harmful effect on wildlife - as it means that they will probably not be harmful to humans either.

I mean using products on your body that contain man-made chemicals which are known to poison fish can’t really be that good for you either, can it?

Rather than focus on using your car less - you should be thinking about using it to do more!

And by more I mean cramming more into your day than ever before. I mean if you are going into town in the car - make sure that you plan ahead to do everything while you are there!

Sometimes public transport just will not cater to your needs - or you have to add another hour or 2 on to your journey time!  So sometimes it is better to take the car if you can make good use of it!

I mean - it’s far better to drive into town 1 time than pootle in and out 3 times a week!  So let’s start thinking about planning our lives a bit better to better suit our planet!

The Plan:
Well, I live about 14 miles away from my family and about the same from one of the places where I volunteer - totally out of walking distance.  So, I always plan to visit my family on the way home from volunteering.  And while I’m out I plan to grab the shopping and maybe a trip past a friends house too.

It would also work for other things, like if you had booked a trip to the dentist or optician - why not look at meeting friends in town too, or arranging to grab lunch with a colleague who is working that day?  Or even bring a neighbour into town too and then meet up to go home together.

It can even work for passing things on to save a journey - like I don’t often get to my brothers, but he often visits my mum - so I just pass things to her and she passes them to him when he’s next over.  No extra journey needed!

The Benefits:
This obviously will save you petrol and wear and tear on the car - which has a direct impact on the amount of energy your use and the emissions you create.  And possibly reduce the replacement car parts you need if you are using it less!

It also encourages you to make more use of your time and to fit more fun into your day rather than wasting the same 30 minutes driving the same route over and over again!  There is a horrible route to town for me, so the fewer times I have to do that - the more time I get at home or volunteering!

And car sharing could mean that you get to make new friends - and help out your neighbours.  Elderly people still want to get out and about - but it’s the journey that can be the problem, and of course carrying everything back home!  You don’t need to escort them everywhere - just leave them to it and arrange a ‘home time’!

The Results:
So, there we have it - a good reason to use your car!  So rather than 3 or 4 separate journeys a week - you could cram everything into just the 1.  Better for you, better for your wallet and better for the planet!

It is using exactly the same green travel technique as travel abroad - if you are going to take the big trans-Atlantic flight - then cram in everything else you can while you are there!

If you are heading over to Europe, then make it a long trip and visit city after city rather than March: Paris, May: Berlin and July: Madrid.  Look to use the train and see them all at once! 

So plan ahead and see the Dr, Dentist, Optician, family and friends all on the same day - and then relax, knowing that you have the rest of the week to yourself!

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Hello again, and I hope you haven’t been caught up in all this airline trouble at the moment!

No doubt if you had booked a quiet trip by train across Europe, it could have been affected by thousands of other holidaymakers who couldn’t get on a plane! 

Your quiet out-of-the-way hotel could have been besieged by families waiting for a ferry or coach to turn up!  It could make for some really interesting articles but wasn’t much fun I’d imagine!

Anyway, lets get on with those already in the system - starting with a great post about travelling around the States using car-shares rather than the hassle of hiring one yourself or dragging your car across the country!  Follow the tips offered by Byteful Travel in How to Get Paid to Travel 1,000 miles: Craigslist and see if you can go on a great plane-free car-sharing friend-making adventure!

If you are traveling north to Canada instead then why not take a peek at the photos in Mark H’s article: Wicked But Stunning (Jasper National Park, Canada) where you can see images of pure tranquility! And imagine if you a life there for next too nothing - wouldn’t that make it all the more magical?

Eco Living Advice wants to share with you some destinations on the other side of the Atlantic with 7 Eco Friendly Tourist Destinations in the UK, showing that you don’t need to travel across oceans to see some great sites - you have plenty right where you are now!

And if you want to take along some pretty unique clothing and accessories when you travel - maybe for yourself (laptop bag) or for others (hair bands and wallets) - then take a look at some of the links which Gabriella White has in the post 100 Amazing Upcycling Ideas Anyone Can Do and maybe give one a try! It makes using all your rubbish so easy - and you get something totally unique virtually for free!

However, if you want a taste of a country without actually going there, take a look at the huge choice given by Rowena Hebert for travel literature that summons up the taste and feel of exotic or distant destinations that could interest and inspire you: 100 Novels That Let You Travel The World Without Leaving Home. I have added a few to my reading list that I hadn’t heard of before……

……but if you want to see rather than read, then take a look at Daniel Jones’ list of Top 100 Travel Photography Blogs and see some amazing shots - and like me you might wonder why you aren’t doing your own travel journal like this!

And finally, Jerry Rogers offers up a huge list of links for the student and includes a small section on green travel links 100 Essential Blog Posts for Students Going Green, and you might even find something else inspiringly green that you weren’t really looking for as well!

So, get reading and change today for the better…….

Going on a car journey for your holiday?  Got the spare spark plugs?

If you are heading off on a long journey as part of or all of your holiday, you might as well take some little things that can be the difference between a quick fix and a long wait at the garage - and that’s if you happen to run into trouble close to one,  rather than having to find one in the first place - and assuming on top of that that they speak English!

We all know that a spare tyre is expected and many people carry a torch, an ice-scraper, some oil and maybe a warning triangle, but there are many more little things that can really help out if you intend to be on the road for a while.

Now, you won’t want to weigh your car down with a huge amount of excess things, as it will use more fuel and allow less space for your holidays bits or family.  However, most essentials are only lightweight anyway.

Spare Stuff:
Things like headlights and brake lights are an essential safety feature of your car, so make sure that you have at least those 4 spare bulbs before heading off.  All the other lights are not really vital in stopping other cars bumping into you - Although the more you carry with you the better things will be for you.

Some spare fuel wouldn’t be the worst idea either.  You never know when you will start running out of fuel - and you never know when you will next see a fuel station if you are travelling in the middle of nowhere.

Spare clothes and blankets are something you might have already because of the journey anyway - but spare water for the car for cleaning windows, refilling the engine and rinsing things off could be worth having, as well as toilet roll, some plastic bags and rags are certainly things I have found worth having on my travels.

One time my car started mis-firing - (which turned out to be caused by me spilling oil on one of the spark plugs when I was refilling the engine without a funnel - now added to my list of carry-on things)) and all I needed was a replacement spark plug!  Something you don’t normally carry - but when your car starts chugging up a hill and only gets to 40 mph - you’d wish you had one!

Other Helpful Items:
It’s not just replacement items that could come in handy while travelling, there are a whole host of ‘grab’ items that could really make things run more smoothly.

Pen and paper isn’t a bad idea for on-the-road games as well as for taking details of directions and possibly names of hotels, tourist sights you hear of on the road and even for taking down number plates of vehicles that are involved in accidents or incidents along the way.

Maybe even a portable solar-powered battery charger is something you might consider if you have a mobile phone with you or even a laptop or iPad.  They take up hardly any room, yet could keep you away from civilisation for a lot longer if that was your plan.

A tiny bit further from the norm, but by no means worth ignoring is a basic first aid kit with iodine to make fresh water safe to drink.  If you want to have all eventualities covered - always think of the things that will be really annoying to you on a day out and prepare for it.  So would you want a headache all day?  No, take pain relief then.  Tummy ache?  Loose Stools?  No? Then have it covered as a basic.

And of course, don’t forget your toothbrush!

photo credit: Vinni123

Need a quick re-cap for 2010 on why we take green holidays?

Be Open To New Things
Remember that not everyone does things the way you do them - so make sure that you are wiling to give something new a go if asked. It will certainly allow you to experience a different culture - and you never know - you might really like it!

Be Fair To Everyone
Try to put money into local hands rather than the firms that run the big hotels and tours. By all means haggle for your goods, but a few pence saved by you getting the best price could mean the vendor having to settle for little profit - and having to sell a lot more for their money.

Be Aware Of Differences
Respect the culture and think ahead when dressing for the day. Should you be wearing shoes or not - covering your shoulders or your head. It is all very important to the people who live there even though it means nothing to you!

Be Respectful To Everything
Remember when taking pictures and traipsing across fields and ancient sites - that these places could be very important to local people and their culture. Don’t assume that everything is there for you to explore and take pictures of -and that include people and their homes.

Be Unique On Your Trip
Don’t just follow the tourist track and go to all the places in the guidebooks - use that as a starting point and go from there. Yeah - see the sites that made the country attractive to you in the first place - but visit at different times or in a different way - or maybe visit a sister site or one that is less explored.

Be Aware Of The Options
Make sure that you check tour operators, airlines, hotels, and other travel companies before you make a choice. Check their eco credentials before handing over any money and make sure that you write and tell the best and the worst why you will or won’t be using them this time!

Be Generous And Kind
Don’t offer kids and beggars money and sweets - as this can lead to all sorts of social issues. Take pens and other useful but possibly hard to come by items for the local people you meet to encourage education and entertainment rather than tooth decay and stealing!

Be An Ethical Tourist
Come away from your vacation knowing that you have not only visited an amazing place and experienced amazing things, but that you have left it as it was before you arrived, or possibly made it a little bit better!

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Welcome to the first Blog Carnival of the new year - and welcome to 2010!

As expected, everyone has been very busy with the whole festive period - or have been trapped indoors for weeks with all this snow - so there are only a few articles for me to share with you today.

Lets start with some essential reading - especially after I started watching the BBC series ‘Survivors’ the other day where you really need some basic outdoor skills - and of course it helps to be able to take care of yourself outside of the city!  So lets join Dorrie for some reasons to think of Camping: A Valuable Reminder On Survival.

And surviving as a vegan while travelling can also be a bit tricky - so have a peek at 20stravel’s guide to Top 5 Tips for Eating Vegan On the Road for some inspiration.

Regular writer Guffly gives us not only: Best Eco-Friendly Getaways | Gufflyfor the new year, but also an insight into their eco friendly travel Green Products. Take a look yourself if you are planning a trip soon.

And how about this final article from Tyler Tervooren who spends a lot of time explaining the concept of the StayCation - and it really had me intrigued so take a look yourself at The Art of the Staycation and see if he convinces you……

Enjoy!

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Welcome to the final Green Holidays Blog Carnival of 2009.

It has been snowing where I am for days now and the ground is thick with snow! Great stuff - but not so good for all the people who are trying to get home before the new year!

And, not so many to choose from this month - maybe as everyone has been out visiting families or trying to escape to the countryside rather than be stuck in town on the holidays!

Anyway, we are here to talk about some green holidays - and lets start with a short one about voluntourism from Mircea: Tips for Volunteering and Traveling Abroad

Next, another short post about feelings running deep in some countries about cultural sites and landmarks where Dan gives us his opinions on The Ethical & Responsible Travel Minefield. Linking to this is a similar post by another writer: Take Care Not To Climb Uluru.

Ther is also another article about the ethics of travel these days, and poses some interesting questions and ideas.  Compare it to what you think when reading Should We Be More Travel Eco Friendly?

Lastly, Theo presents Green Christmas Ideas Revisited where he covers a few ideas for having greener holidays at home and with family at this time of year.

So, it’s ho ho ho and see you in 2010!

Looking for an alternative way to travel to Europe for your short break just got easier!

There has been a lot of talk about taking less flights to help reduce your carbon footprint, or stopping them altogether - but you still want a holiday, right?

So, use the train from Ashford International Station

There is a huge train network right across Europe with trains taking you to all number of destinations.  These include Paris, Istanbul, Rome, Madrid and even out further to Moscow and even China - although you can’t pop there for just the weekend!

I know everyone is talking about different modes of transport, but people still think that the train is ’slow’ so they don’t even consider it for continental travel.  But you should.

The UK now has an amazing International train terminal in Ashford, Kent, with over 2000 car parking spaces, one of the largest shopping centres in Europe and it is only an hour from the continent!

A quick visit to their helpful website will give you all the details you need for planning your journey through Ashford International, including links to other rail and coach networks across the UK. 

For example, a trip from Leeds to Paris for a long weekend over the new year with your partner will take less than 6 hours - where you can watch the British countryside pass by and a new country appear! 

Just For The Record:
It could take you around 7 hours just to get to Weymouth for the same weekend.  I know where I would rather go!

And even more suprisingly - there was very little in it costwise either, they were virtually the same price!

Obviously you don’t have to just visit Paris or Brussels, you could use Ashford Railway Station as your rail link to start your next longer holiday or overseas adventure! 

Just by stepping on a train at your local station, you could travel the world without a carbon chugging plane in sight! 

And Eurostar journeys are now completely carbon neutral - at no extra cost to you!!

So before you cancel your holidays overseas - check out the train.

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The best way to learn a second (or third) language is to go to where they speak it!

Apart from in school where it is compulsory to learn a second language - whether you want to or not - you shouldn’t rely on books and things to learn how to communicate with the locals.

By all means, get started with a basic introductory guide - but the real language can only be found in restaurants and stores in the place you are visiting.

Downside To Books:
Well, needless to say - books and cd’s are using energy and valuable resources to create, and there is only so much you can learn about a language from written text.

Learning how to pronounce the words is virtually impossible with their weird symbols representing unheard of English sounds - for example the Spanish double l in paella.  You need to hear it to have the confidence to use it.  So if I said you should use the ‘y’ sound from the happy cheer word ‘yeay’ (or yay) but also don’t forget to pronounce the ‘ey’ for the ‘e’ - could you come up with it?  Oh and don’t forget to use the emphasis on the correct syllable too!

Go!!!

Or in Egyptian - pronounce the word ‘ughniyya’ if the ‘gh’ should be rolled like a French ‘r’ and you must pronounce both y’s individually with the stress on the second to last syllable.  Any the wiser?

Also, books are also quite repetitive in the sense that if you buy one basic German book for example, it will cover your name, where you live and giving directions.  Any other basic or introductory or ‘one-day’ books will also contain the same things.  They will all go for the standard stuff first.

Yes, they may do it from a different angle and some may have more role play than others, but you will basically be giving directions to the post office or from the police station over and over again (via the second turning on the left…..!  It can be quite frustrating every time you take up learning again.

And they are heavy to carry abroad too!

The Real Thing:
After travelling quite a bit in South America, I get so much more confident when I am there than when I am at home. 

Ask me to order a cheese and ham sandwich and a cup of coffee in Spanish while sitting on the bus puts a whole different stress on your brain than standing in a restaurant queue in Peru trying to get something to eat!

It just all falls into place.  You have to say the words otherwise you hold up the people behind you and don’t get your lunch!

You don’t need word perfect grammar to get started - and if you have ever watched people ordering food in their own language, it’s never said literally and in perfect order and timing anyway.  It usually goes something like this; “Hi, yeah, can I have a, er, well I suppose, er, a quick sandwich for me; ham and cheese, and a tea.  Thanks.”

Alright, you may get the odd thing wrong and end up picking something you didn’t want out of your dinner - or getting a different dinner to the one you had planned - but you won’t make that mistake again! I always have a reference book abroad with just keywords in it - but I never use it when I am out - it’s just to check things before I go!

And of course, you could always get asked a question about your order after you made it, throwing you totally out of kilter - but just pick up on the words you do know and try to answer their question - this is when you could use pointing!

Fresh Approach:
Seeing as we should all be taking longer holidays now to counter the terrible effects of long haul flights - you will have plenty of time to perfect your new language skills.

Nothing beats turning up at a train station somewhere needing to find you hotel to bring out all your learnt vocabulary.  Even if it is just a few words strung together - you will get by, get to your hotel and probably order something to eat as well.

You really shouldn’t be afraid to start chatting to locals with what you know - they will always be happy to help fill in the gaps.  They can also help you with colloquial terms and phrases too, like the way different regions of your own country refer to their parents (mum, mom, mammy, mother, ma) or their friends etc.

I had more fun learning a language whilst on my holiday than any number of lessons back at school.

So, take your time on your next vacation - and come home with a new language under your (money) belt!

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Learning to Tango in Argentina can be just as important as visiting a rainforest…….

There are a whole host of festival and events that may well rely on your visit to survive the next 30 years or so. 

I’m not talking about the modern Rio Carnival or Oktoberfest - I’m talking about traditions that have lived for centuries in small communities across the world.

UNESCO has set about preserving these traditions with their Intangible Cultural Heritage scheme - to which they have recently added the Tango - but which holds many many more already including many little known cultural delights from across the globe.

Take for example, the Indonesian Wayang Puppet Theatre. This art of story telling has been used in Indonesia for 10 thousand years, across the royal courts and in towns and villages, to bring the regions epic history to life.

There is still an interest in the puppets - either 3-dimensional or brought alive by shadows - accompanied by musicians and singers, but it is having to compete with television and the internet for viewers. 

By making sure you add a visit to a traditional theatre show on your trip to the area, you could be making sure that it is worth continuing the tradion and worth training for.  Would you invest your time learning a skill that people might not need in 5 years?

Or a trip to Mexico in late fall could coincide with the huge festival: el dia de los muertos - the Day of the Dead.  Thousands of local villagers spend the day in celebration of their lost loved ones who are said to come alive for the day and to bring properity and good luck to the families.

Cultural Heritage:

We all know how important it is to encourage traditions and festivals, but of course we need to make sure that we don’t make them into a side show, like the Kayan women from Thailand have become, but we want to make sure that they know the importance of their traditions.

Also, they do not want to freeze cultures in time.  There is no intention to force people to continue with customs that are no longer relevant, but to empower cultures with their past - rather than force them into an uncomfortable future.

Things like Morris Dancing in the UK are well known not to be a part of modern culture - yet we all love the tradition of the dancing and the people who dress up for this know the history and pass on the reasons behind the colors and the stick-bashing!

Society will always evolve - but why not hold on to the things that were once important.  Hopefully governments are working with these groups to make sure that these traditions are not lost forever like many languages around the world have been.