This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Exeter chapter.
Road trips can be a great way to explore more of the country that you’re visiting and get off the beaten track of the main tourist sites. However, we often forget that driving such long distances, coupled with the inevitable impact of tourism, can be bad for the environment. My experiences of road trips are largely based around Australia and New Zealand, but hopefully, some of these tips will apply to other countries too.
- If you are planning a road trip, consider going by coach or bus instead. These trips can be really fun, and a great way to meet people. Going with a company with designated stops with hop-on-hop-off options can be a great way to reduce the CO2 emissions you produce by travelling. Of course, depending on your route this is not always possible, and it might not be the style trip you are looking for. But if you are not too fussed about how you get from A to B this is a great choice. Not only does it reduce your emissions, it is also a great way to meet other travellers, with the added bonus of not having to worry about parking, directions and fuel costs!
- Get some reusable containers. Although it doesn’t sound very glam, rather than buying a new water bottle every day, or obscene amounts of plastic-wrapped food, invest in some reusable bottles and containers that you can bring with you on your trip. Most of them are really inexpensive, and they’re really handy to have when you’re not travelling too. Sometimes you will have to buy plastic products, and when you do always try to recycle it, keeping in mind that every piece of plastic ever made still exists somewhere on the planet!
- It might be common sense, but it is really important to respect the environment where you are travelling. This means recycling or taking your litter away with you, sticking to designated travel paths when exploring and being careful not to damage vegetation. Although they might be cute, don’t venture too close to wild animals; close human proximity can make animals uncomfortable and disrupt their breeding patterns.
- This might sound more like a tip to save time, but planning your trip can also be a great way to help you be more environmentally friendly. For starters, if you plan your route to ensure you don’t get lost, you could save valuable hours when your car doesn’t need to be running (and polluting)! You can also decide where you are going to stop off so that you can stock up on larger amounts of food, reducing plastic packaging, which is a good idea before you start your trip too. If you are just driving to get to a destination and don’t really mind your route, maybe check which is the quickest way to get there to reduce your travel time and fuel use.
- There are some decisions you can make before you set off on your trip which can reduce your environmental impact too. When it comes to choosing your car/van, if you are renting try to choose one that is more environmentally friendly where possible. Also, try carpooling with others! Getting a group together in one car rather than splitting between two would not only reduce costs but the fuel you use too. Packing lightly can also help as heavier cars are less energy efficient.
- Finally, when on your road trip you can consider the choices you can make about where you are staying. If you are driving in a camper van you will probably just be staying in your vehicle, but if not, consider staying in a ‘green’ hotel, look for ecotourism options, or even camp (as long as you clean up after yourselves!) in order to help make you overnight stays less environmentally damaging.
For more tips check out these super helpful websites:
http://wwf.panda.org/how_you_can_help/live_green/travel/on_vacation/
https://www.worldnomads.com/explore/top-10-tips-for-environmentally-frie…