PREPARATION OF TRAVEL

 By its very nature, travel undeniably impacts the environment and the people and cultures who are part of the travel process. There are loads of buzzwords being thrown around on this topic - from eco-travel to green travel and responsible travel to sustainable travel - but what travelers really want to know is how can we implement simple.

We hear from you! That's why we have come up with this list of things you can do to start traveling lightly.

 Reduce your carbon emissions. There is no denying that plane travel emits a heck of a lot of carbon. So by traveling internationally we have a lot of ground to make up if we want to go "green". So start out right by offsetting your flight emissions and flying carbon neutral. Most major airlines have an option to offset your emissions and you can use an online emissions calculator to work out how much you will need to contribute to fly carbon neutral.

 Rethink how you consume water. We get it. It's practical. It's safe. And when you're traveling in developing countries the last thing you want is a case of violent vomiting and diarrhea from that water you just knew you should have avoided! BUT! There are achievable alternatives. You can fill reusable bottles with boiled or filtered water. Or you can invest in a nifty product like LifeStraw that literally makes contaminated water safe to drink. AMAZING!

 Buy local. Wherever possible it is always advisable to buy local when you're traveling. Whether it's using a local tour operator, staying in locally owned accommodation, buying souvenirs that are ethically produced by local artisans (we know all about this - check out some of our artisan-produced treasures in the online store), or patronizing restaurants that serve locally grown produce. The best way for a country to see real benefits from the influx of tourism dollars is to ensure the money we are spending is directly filtering through to the local economy. 

 Be culturally sensitive. To me, this is plain common sense, but it's also the one that you see violated most while traveling. The number of times I've seen travelers wearing inappropriate clothing or draping themselves over important cultural sites for photographs, I can't even bear to count! It's very simple to do a little bit of research to make sure you don't inadvertently cause cultural offense while you're traveling.

  Think about sustainability in everything you do. If you can make this statement your own personal travel mantra, you will absolutely minimize your global travel footprint every day. Lots of famous tourist destinations have really bad reputations for having hugely negative impacts on the environment and the local culture. If we can all become better at questioning our behavior while we travel and having a discussion about the potential negative impacts, we can go a long way to becoming more intentional, sustainable travelers.