6 best practices for sustainable travel

1. Choose, when you can, the most ecological transport

Means of transportation are one of the elements that most increase the impact of our trips, due to the burning of fuels they use to operate and their consequent greenhouse gas emissions. Whenever you can, choose to move by land by bus or train, instead of flying, and, if your budget allows it, choose flights with the fewest possible stopovers since landing and takeoff is one of the moments of higher emissions.

2. Bring your own reusable bottle, cloth bag, and cutlery set 

One of the easiest ways to implement sustainable practices on your travels (and in your everyday life) is to carry reusable items with you to replace the need for the dreaded and harmful single-use plastics, such as water bottles or plastic cutlery. Therefore, always having a reusable bottle and a set of cutlery on your trips is essential for those moments of excursions or unexpected lunches on the street in which, if you did not have these elements, you would have to use plastic options that, minutes later, would become waste. In the same way, you can also carry a reusable silicone bag to store dirty or wet items, and a cloth bag as an additional storage item in case you buy gifts, food, or something else.

3. Support local businesses and guides

If you think about it, it doesn't make much sense to travel to the other side of the world and drink coffee at the same chain where you do it every day on the way to work... Traveling is about discovering other cultures, flavors, and ways of doing things and living... Why not honor this incredible activity by contributing to the local community? From where you choose to eat to where you buy an after-dinner dessert and the type of objects you buy... Everything has its local alternative, which will always, from a sustainability perspective, be the best: you will not be contributing to an infinite chain of transfers to obtain a very low price for consumers and, in addition, you will probably be motivating the operation of a business owned by local families in the place where you are.

4. Choose private apartments over large hotel chains

We know that the availability of totally sustainable or ecological accommodation can be difficult not only to find but also to corroborate, which is why we find it much more viable to recommend that, when you can, choose private accommodation over large hotels. Given that processes such as the daily linen change or the buffet breakfast are standardized in large establishments, a lot of food is wasted and resources such as electricity and water are spent on activities that are probably not necessary for the majority of guests. 

In the case of our private apartments, you have all the comforts to have a more sustainable stay, from being able to request a weekly change of sheets if you require it, such as breakfasts with food according to the number of people and fully equipped kitchens so you can cook if, for instance, one night you prefer to rest and stay at your place. This way, you won't feel forced to buy food in single-use plastics or ask for delivery. Get to know the destinations where we have private apartments available and cultivate a new way of traveling.

5. Take care of the spaces, the local fauna and flora

From showering elephants in Thailand or feeding monkeys on the streets of Bali, breaking the natural contact that animals would have with our objects and with us, human beings, is a very unsustainable practice. When attitudes like feeding a monkey to have a photo with it are repeated over time, negative changes occur in the local fauna and their behaviors. The same thing happens with taking care of natural spaces, choosing to save garbage to later throw it where it belongs instead of leaving it lying on the beaches, for example.

6. Choose public transportation over private options

We know that taking public transportation in countries with other systems or even languages ​​can be difficult. However, it is the most ecological option, after walking or renting bicycles, to move within a city. 

Travel sustainably so we can keep on traveling!

As far as we know, we only have one planet we can live on. Taking care of the environment is everyone's task. Of course, government regulations are needed to ensure business practices don't harm ecosystems, but we must also take charge of our own actions and consequences. If nobody does anything, nothing changes. But, if each traveler starts taking more local or land transportation, bringing their own cutlery and reusable bottles, and respecting the local environment, we could surely achieve big changes. 

Start planning your next trip sustainably and choose your private accommodation, with all the hotel amenities available when you need them, and start changing the tourism paradigm with Zip Housing!