Green Holidays

Hello – and welcome to a one man/not many tigers Green Holidays Blog Carnival!

I chose this one post to use today as it really made me think about the whole ‘green’ and ‘eco’ travel ethos. And the fact that WWF are currently running a campaign to help save the tiger (still).

Time and again there is the ‘grey area’ that catches out so many people trying to ‘do the right thing’ on their vacations.

Should you/Shouldn’t you?

Sometimes it just isn’t so straight forward once you take into account all the alternatives as well as comparing experiences and events like for like – especially when you are traveling outside of Western Nations in countries with a whole different culture and belief system.

Take this article as a classic example: A Tiger Petting Zoo « Travels with a Nine Year Old – a blog I regularly read for the great pictures and the amazing discoveries this young lad is lucky enough to experience.

But this article shows both sides of animal tourism – as well as the choices that parents can make with their kids.

Should you deprive a young child of an amazing experience because it isn’t really ethical or should you allow them to do everything that kids find amazing regardless of the impact – but because it will be something that they may never get the chance to do again?

Read this boys parents struggling with those very questions and make up your own mind afterwards.

And, if you love Tigers – use one of these banners, Twitter backgrounds, wallpapers or phone apps to show your support and to share your thoughts with others.

Have you ever wondered where you can watch bats from your own front door?

Well, I have put together a short list of some bat watching holiday destinations where they virtually guarantee you a sighting or 1 or more species every night – and are working for the bats best interests!

Now, although you yourself will not be allowed to touch the bats or disturb their roosts, by going out on an adventure with a bat specialist you may well get to use highly specific equipment on your trip.

For example, the organisers may well lend out night vision goggles, bat detectors and know specific roosting or feeding sites that you can stake out from a distance. And of course – being experts – they will actually already know how to identify the species you see in an instant, making your experience even better!

1) In The UK;
Many of the buildings that are managed by the National Trust contain bat roosts – and many have had camera installed too. Dunster Castle and Arlington Court have both installed viewing and information for visitors – and even do late night bat events throughout the year.

And other nature charities like the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust and various Wildlife Trusts offer night-time events through the year. There are 18 species of bat found in the UK – although not all in the same place – some can be quite location-specific.

The Bat Conservation Trust also offers a range of free or paying courses to get you closer to bats and their habitats.

By offering up your time to train as a volunteer or if you pay for a introductory course – you will certainly get close up and personal to bats in their natural environment – and willl be taking a huge step forward in studying them and identifying bats day to day!

2) EcoTours Hungary Bat Tour:
If you are a bit more serious and want to really see a huge variety of bats, then maybe this bat watching holiday in the Bükk and Aggtelek National Parks in Hungary will impress you – with 26 bat species to choose from!

They virtually guarantee you will see 15-20 of these as standard – and that adding on a further 3 days and another location could help you see even more. You may also see beaver, lynx and wolves as well as many other unusual species along the way.

The tours offer all safety precautions for you and the bats of course, with a little waiting around sometimes to allow only small group to intrude into roosts at a time. Obviously disturbing the bats is the last thing they want!

There aren’t many great – or green – bat watching holidays, but there are plenty of ways to see some great wildlife without over-running their habitat or destroying the very things you went to see!

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What a great summer we have been having here!  I have been out and about almost every day!

I have taken a few eco courses with some local charities and helped out and attended several green summer carnivals and general fairs with the family.

There are a few more on the horizon as well and maybe some educational volunteering at a local wetlands reserve for me too!

So, what has everyone else been up to?  Well, lets take a look……..

One Family enjoyed some hiking in the woods for the day – so join their story – with great photo’s – for Enjoying Yosemite Valley with Kids – A Trip Report. Amazing!

And if that puts you in the mood for the great outdoors and you are thinking of camping for the first time to save some money, then take a look at Beata Antoszek’s quick post with 6 Tips for Camping on a Tight Budget.

Or, will you be on the road this summer? If so – is your car prepared for the journey? Look in on Jena Ellis’ article for a list of 10 Essentials for a Car Emergency Kit, and then hop over the Eco Holidays for a quick guide to help you Check Your Car For Basic Safety. 

On The Road

This way you can be doubly sure you don’t get held up by some stupid basic problems instead of enjoying your trip!

And what about your clothes? If you need new travel or camping gear – make sure you read Eco Living Advice’s tale of whether natural or man-made materials are more eco-friendly – and as usual it is not as straight-foward as you might think! So open up Eco Clothes and see both sides of the debate!

But if you want to get away from where you are for a while – or for ever – then maybe take a look at The Investor’s information with some help Researching moving abroad.

Whatever you decide – do take plenty of photos!

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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?

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What’s the difference between an SSSI, a SNCI and an AONB?

There are plenty of acronyms all over the countryside and in wildlife literature, but what are they and what do they actually mean?

How could they affect your green adventures closer to home – and which are the best for wildlife, best for families or best avoided!

Well, I have found out about the main contenders in the UK – and details of what they are about:

NP – National Park
These are large areas of the country that have been chosen to be preserved and improved for the enjoyment of people and for the safety of local plants and wildlife – or ways of living/heritage.

Most of the land within National Parks is privately owned and so there are certain areas that cannot be visited by tourists – and this can also lead to conflict with local businesses and excessive congestion in the ‘best’ places.

Parts of a National Park can also be designated as any of the following as well, for example the South Downs National Park is dotted with SSSI’s and smaller Nature Reserves.

SSSI – Site of Special Scientific Interest
This is the name given to areas in the UK that have special features which need to be protected, and fall into either biological SSSI (mainly habitats like peat bogs and cliffs) or geological SSSI’s (which have been chosen to represent a specific geological or visible feature of a landscape specific to the UK).

Pulborough Brooks - Sussex - SSSI Nature Reserve

They do not need to be on public land, and in fact many are in private hands and cannot be visited by the public, however National Charities and Organisations like the RSPB and Wildlife Trusts run them as Nature Reserves.

The SSSI’s do not need to a beautiful places to visit – they just contain certain elements or are in certain locations that should be protected.  They could just be an old field by the side of the road!

AONB – Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Only covering abut 10% of land in the UK, these areas are given special protection with regards to development and housing – so that the areas cannot be destroyed or divided by roads and buildings.

These Areas are normally smaller than National Parks and are more or less places to roam freely.

NR – Nature Reserves
These are totally different from National Parks as they are specifically run to protect and preserve the habitat and wildlife – rather than as places for people – although many are open to the public. 

They can be either a National NR (NNR) and ‘run by Natural England, or they can be a Local NR (LNR) and run by non-government groups or private owners.  They could also be Marine Nature Reserves (MNR) a and protect the coastal edges or the UK. 

It is often created in an area where a particular species of plant or animal is endangered, and so by protecting the area and restricting access and development, the species may survive and thrive.

CA – Conservation Area
These areas do exactly what they say – they are created to protect a species or landscape that would otherwise be lost to development.  They are usually quite small and are part of or all of a LNR.

They tend to have a variety of names as they are run by the county, so a Site of Nature Conservation Importance (SNCI) is virtually the same as a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC)

CP – Country Parks
These are just areas of the countryside that have been set aside for human pleasure – with no particular interest in conservation.

They are usually large areas of managed woodland and open space with extensive and well marked trails for people on foot, on horseback and more recently on mountain bikes.

The park may well have a campsite and other facilities (cafe/shop/toilets/play park) on site, and there may well be a charge for the car park!

So, now you can plan your trip to better suit your needs – and you will know what to expect when you get there…….

Hello again – and welcome to another summer of green holidays and adventures!

I have been out and about myself on the allotment, volunteering for charities, holding stalls at carboot sales and basically enjoying the sunshine – but what have you all been up to?

Lets begin with a real green adventure leading off from my previous article (great minds think alike and all that!): Eco Living Advice offers up the idea of analysing your job and to try to make is into a more green alternative – now that really could be an adventure; so read on with his Green Careers article and get thinking!

Then in a similar vein, here is TravelCat’s quandry of Should I Travel Abroad To Raise Money For Charity?  These 2 really make an interesting read to look at the wider side of eco friendly activities!

Taking a step closer to home is The Nature Blog with a really touching tale of the opposite of nature watching – nature waiting.  Read this short article on the virtues of letting nature come to you rather than chasing it all over the woods or seas: In Praise Of Slow.

A shorter article here from Viviana Widjaja suggests some great Holiday Activities for Kids – Eco Friendly Holidays to inspire in advance for the weeks they have off school!

And another quickie from Wise Bread with their 5 Essential Travel Tools to not leave home without on your green adventures! And Linda@NHE offers advice on what to do if you encounter bugs there! So read on with Mosquito Bites Natural Remedies and save yourself some scratching!

This is followed by a lovely article – with pictures – to offer you the chance to take a pilgrimage as part of your green holidays, walking centuries old pathways in the footsteps of millions: 10 Amazing Religious Pilgrimages by Phillip Lopez.

Hopefully this interesting selection will keep you busy for a while – not just reading them, but thinking about the ways that these articles could change the way people think about their job, their family and they vacation.

Times are changing – and now is not the time to be left behind!

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We all think that all ‘green’ and ‘eco’ travel definitions are around about the same: but no!

A friend of mine recently got a book called ‘The Ethical Career Guide’ out of the local library only to be surprised by what was in there.  There was no mention of conservation or the environment, and global warming was not even touched on.

Why?  Well ‘ethical’ always refers to working with people to create equality as well as supporting communities and cultures – it doesn’t really have anything to do with the natural world.  So an ethical holiday isn’t necessarily a green holiday or even eco friendly!

So I have put together a simple definitions article for the main words we use to define our holidays and travel so you can be sure to focus on the best one for your requirements and prefered areas of interest.

Ethical Travel:
“Travel to any location that includes offering respect and courtesy to local people, as well as thinking about the long term effects of your actions for the communities that you visit.”

So for example, ethical travel would include supporting the community you visit financially by using local services and buying local goods – and at a reasonable price.  It would also look to not exploit natural resources – or local people, and includes not offering gifts or money to ‘begging’ children but to the places that will benefit the children most, like schools and local groups.

Responsible Travel:
“Travel to any destination in the world – including cruises, luxury villas, skiing and volunteering – can be ‘responsible’ if they can prove that they care about the people they come into contact with and their culture as well as their surrounding environments and it’s wildlife.”

For example, if you travel to a ‘responsible’ African safari lodge, you would expect it to be run by or employing local people and spending some or most of it’s profits and time on helping protect the surrounding wildlife for the future. 

It doesn’t matter if you have to fly across the world to get there and only stay for 3 days (although longer stays can help communities more) - it is what you are supporting while you are there that counts.  And if it is a big step away from mass tourism – it is ‘responsible’.

Eco Friendly Travel:
“Travel to destinations with the intention of reducing your overall impact on the environment, including the avoidance of many of the usual destinations, modes of transport and travel products.”

For example, we know that flying creates higher than average emissions and cruises create more than their fair share of waste – so the eco friendly traveller would try to travel using other means, or would use these modes of transport more wisely by staying in the destinations longer or choosing a more eco friendly company to use.

Eco friendly travel would also include not using products that can damage or put undue stress on the environment they are visiting, so would try to use biodegradable toiletries, wash clothes less, eat local foods rather than expect locals to import things 1000′s of miles in, take all rubbish home with them if no recycling exists and not buy products made from endangered resources – or animals!

This type of travel would also look at certain destinations that are being overcrowded or exploited with the end result of the area/destination/beach/local community being degraded, overused and ultimately destroyed.  Mass tourism destinations would be among the places to avoid, although something could be said for keeping all the ‘sun-seekers’ in one place!

Green Travel:
“A type of travel that includes both using modes of transport which reduce or limit the environmental impact of getting from A to B as well as limiting environmental damage while preserving natural resources and reducing pollution and excessive waste.”

Although quite similar to the Eco Friendly Travel definition above, Green Travel really focuses on self control while travelling – enough sometimes to not even travel in the first place!  Eco Friendly looks at still taking a trip but looking for less damaging alternatives – whereas green travellers might look at taking a different trip entirely.

Walking through fields or woodlands off the main footpath wouldn’t really bother any other type of traveller – but a green traveller would think of the potential for localised damage – for example trampling on rare plants or invading areas used by courting mammals and birds.

The Result:
Well, as you can see there is a fair amount of overlap with these definitions, but some are more social and others more environmental.

Yes – the 2 are sort of linked up anyway as if the community are supported they will take better care of their environment, however many travelers want to see the direct link to their personal beliefs and their actions.

For example an eco friendly traveler would take pride in buying all the most chemical-free, animal-friendly, waste reducing and natural products they can to take with them to visit a local community - whereas a social traveler would take more pride in helping a community to support themselves for the next 20 years whether their shampoo was biodegradable or not!

And a responsible traveler wouldn’t mind flying in to a remote mountain lodge on the other side of the world to support a 5* business built up, owned and run by local people – whereas a green traveler would possibly choose to go camping 1* in a nearby woodland with their local scout group teaching them simple field-craft techniques for free!

So, it is your choice really as to which of these you choose to be like when planning your next vacation, because sometimes they will take you to totally different places!

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Hello again, and what a lovely time of year it is to be traveling through familiar environments!

There is nothing better for me sometimes, than to just walk a short while from my home to the beach or the countryside with a good book and my binoculars!  Pure bliss on a sunny day like today!

I’ve been out along the beach, up in the countryside – as well as visiting the family now that we all live a lot closer together these days!  Although, I shouldn’t have gone on the trampoline for so long – my legs are aching today!

Well, let’s see what the rest of you have been up to…….

It is quite clear that some of you are also planning to stay home too by the looks of Ana Paula’s article – with the Top 100 Gardening Blogs - many of which are eco friendly green fingered tips – but not all, so make sure you modify the un-green gardening tips!

Try to lighten up or even ‘green’ over your commute to work using Maria Clara tips: 100 Excellent Lifehacks for Your Long Commute. There are quite a few in there that totally make eco sense…….. and best use of your time. I mean if you have to take a journey, why waste it just staring out of the window – learn something new, do something new – make every second count!

Here’s a nice little article on one thing that even I struggle with – Tips for Eating Healthy While on Vacation by Debbie Dragon – and it had a great Vitamin gadget on the site too!

Here’s a lovely sort tale of what wonders a walk in the countryside can have – especially if you happen to pass through a farm – so thanks to Richard with his A Visit to Fulking Hill! – with some great photo’s in there too.

Next, Mike Vogt gives us something very different to think about with his great article on 10 Great Mission Trip Ideas.  Not many people consider the role that religion and religious thinking can have in developing countries.

the beach

And one for the summer: Tara V presents Green Wedding Guide; Planning an Eco-Friendly Exchange of Vows.  A great way to enjoy the best day of your life – as well as making sure that it doesn’t have a negative impact on anyone else!

It’s still sunny, so get back out there!

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Why travel miles from home to stay in a half empty or overcrowded hotel – when you can mingle?

By staying in a local home, not only can you get to know a bit more about the country you are visiting and what the local people really eat and drink when at home – but you can get the real thing!

Popping out of your hotel for a day trip is all well and good if you are supporting local trade and communities – but what if you could live in that community without being a ‘group tour’.  Just you as an individual, experiencing what it’s like to live in the peaceful Chinese mountains or in a bustling European city.

There are 5 main ways that you can easily achieve this – and most of them will cost you a lot less than a package deal – and you will gain a whole lot more than a tan!

1) Homestays

Basically, you live in someones home for a small cost – basically like an exchange student.  They provide all your food and drink (by arrangement) and you usually get your own room and all the trimmings.

This is great if you are trying to learn a language or work in the community yourself as you will see family life and get to see how things really happen.  And even if you don’t understand everything said around the dinner table – you will know that they will go out of their way to make your stay the best they can.

2) On The Couch!

There is a growing industry at the minute for a slimmed down version of the Homestays – and that is where you arrange to sleep on someones couch for a night or more.  That’s it. 

The idea is that you join the ‘community’ first, so peopole can come and stay on your couch if you let them.  You can be as flexible as you want, so your can give them the couch and breakfast only, or you can take them on tours of the city and show them a good time!  So pick your ‘couch’ with care!

3) Farmstays:

Similar again to a homestay, but rather than just learning the language and some polite manners – you get to learn a skill or two as well.

Whether you are working on a cattle ranch in Australia, a vineyard in Argentina or a citrus farm in France, you get to work the land, hone your skills and possibly meet people from all around the world!

4) Foreign Language Stays:

Not many of these around, but you can book yourself into a hotel in most areas of Europe that is affiliated with a language school – and just talk to everyone all day.

To get people from Spain or Italy to actually meet and converse with English speakers is what these schools are hoping, so they literally put you up in a hotel for free as long as you sit in the sun and chat to their students!

5) House Swap:

Although you won’t get to meet the people who live in the house, you will be right in their community and fending for yourself with what they have left you there!

This option is one of the most ‘green’ if you like as both the houses would have been empty for the 2 weeks you and the homeowners were away, but you each filled them - so that is 2 less hotel rooms needed to be built in the whole scheme of things!

Or, you could just stay home……..

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Instead of waiting until you have booked your green holidays – get planning now!

Think of all the time you have available now to learn something new or start saving for! Even if you don’t know when you will book your next trip – it’s never to late to start thinking about the things that will come in handy when you do.

For example, if you love South America or South-East Asia – then you know you will get there eventually even if you have a few local short breaks in between. And you know that you will want to spend longer there than normal vacations as you love the place. And you know that anything to do with the language, culture or wildlife of those places will interest you.

So, what are you waiting for?
You will never get time back, so why waste it watching that repeat on TV again when you could be reading about a nations history? Why wash the dishes staring out of the window when you could be working through an audio language course while your hands are wet?

And it’s not just the little things you could be achieving. Say for example you enrolled yourself on a distance learning TEFL course and spent a few hours a month completing that rather than searching for an elephant on Farmville!

Or took flying lessons, diving lessons, a photography course or rock climbing adventures. If you practice all these things in advance you can get so much more out of your green adventures – and you will regret it as I have seen people who are in the beautiful Maldives filled with endless coral and passing dolphins and turtles – but they are in the pool taking starter diving lessons rather than out there experiencing the real magic beneath the waves!

Just a few horse back lessons before you leave can build up your confidence for that sunset canter along the sandy beaches on the Caribbean, or a long trek up into the rainforests and mountains of the Andes.

Write Your Plan:
Get yourself a sheet of paper, and create a sort of spider diagram to highlight the places, people, wildlife, or experiences that you love or want to see or experience.  Keep adding to the flow as you think of things.

For example, writing ‘Canada’ could lead to ‘Rockies’ which could lead to ‘skiing’ or ‘horseback riding’; or it could lead to ‘Wilderness’ which could make you think ‘camping skills’ and ‘kayaking’.  Either way, if you read up on these things or gained the new skills needed before you arrived – your trip would become 100 times better.

I wouldn’t want to try setting up a tent for the first time in the middle of nowhere – and I certainly wouldn’t want to try to eat plants or mushrooms in the ‘wild’ having only just brought the book!

Once this diagram is complete, turn it into a 1 or 2 year plan – effectively finding out how long these things take to learn and planning backwards.

So, learning to dive might take around a week if you do it intense, whereas learning Chinese from scratch could take at least 6 months for general conversation – or more.  Fit these in around your existing plans and your work load to find out the best plan for you.

The First Steps:
The easiest first step is a trip to the library.  You don’t need to spend any money or risk any investment – just go grab some books about the things on your list and start reading.

It’s possible that you thought you could learn hieroglyphics yourself – but after reading the first book, you know you need help – or a lot longer!

Same goes for certain countries – what if you thought you liked a certain region and then found a better one – or you found out something about a region that you didn’t know about before and want to learn more!

Everyone has a spare 15 minutes a day to start reading stuff – so take the first step as soon as possible, and get learning!