Eco Holidays

posted by Catherine on Jun 22

What is the fun in making a whole load of rules about the countryside?

The Countryside code is something that people rarely ever read – and this is for 2 main reasons. Either the people being shown the information are too rude and selfish to consider what might be best for the countryside itself and everyone else sharing in it’s beauty, so they have no interest in being ‘told what to do’.

Or they already know the code inside-out as it is all common sense to the the eco thinker!

I mean how more obvious could it be to anyone that dropping litter isn’t a great way to keep the countryside healthy! If you drop litter here today – what do you expect it to look like tomorrow?

The basic principles of the Countryside code are really just the exact same things as we see everywhere else in our lives – but maybe with sheep instead of hamsters, and oaks instead of rose bushes.

Would you leave the door to your friends hamster cage open after you put something inside? Would you start pulling roses off your neighbours bushes because you wanted a closer look at the leaves? Would you hit your dog waste under a hedge with a stick and into the school playground? While looking around a shop, would you start opening all the doors just to see what’s on the other side?

Strange. Because that is just what people expect to be able to do in the countryside.

How Are They The Same?
Unfortunately, because the countryside (and beaches and woodlands and mountains, moors and marshes) are all free to visit – some people assume that they have no value. And so they treat them as such.

For example, Family A travel to a small village for a visit and decide to wander off up a footpath as it is sunny. As they have not ‘done this before’ they may well ‘lose’ their way, find the path turning the ‘wrong’ way or come across a huge muddy puddle.

photo credit: robertsharp

Rather than thinking that the footpath goes another way for a reason or that the place they want to go might be private anyway – they say to themselves: ‘Well, we can see where we want to go – so if we just jump this fence, we can walk across this dry field and get there anyway’.

Now if you went around your friends house for a visit, walked to the end of their garden and saw a beautiful lake across someone else’s garden – you wouldn’t just bunk over your friends fence and trample your family across somone else’s garden to get to the private lake, would you?

So what makes it OK when it is just a farmers field?

All Are Welcome:
The countryside is usually ‘free’ to enter as many charities and private owners alike want people to experience to wonder and amazing character of the open countryside.

They do this by opening up for private business, extending their existing footpath and bridleway network to allow great freedom of the visitors and by making their land as easy to access and walk through as possible.

However, at any time they can revert to the bare minimum of access for walkers and riders. And repreated trespassing and vandalism will only bring this about sooner.

For example, shops that find large numbers of children encourage thefts restrict the number of children they allow in to their stores. Private Houses and Gardens open to the public often put barriers around precious items, flower beds and lawns and even close of certain rooms – usually due to past visitors damaging or breaking something with their carelessness.

The same could be true for your favourite areas of the countryside.

Imagine if all footpaths were fenced in; Open Access land was restricted back to the by-ways and gardens and houses were closed of?

Imagine also that due to the cost of repairs and alterations due to damage by visitors was placed on future visitors.

I remember a whole host of places that used to have ‘free parking’ or ‘free entry’ all year round – and churches that were left open all day.

That is not always the case anymore. More and more landowners, farmers, clergymen and charities are finding that unquestioning hospitality and generosity just are not traits that keep things ticking over.

Times are changing, but hopefully people can too!

Please pass on the Countryside Code to whoever you take out with you on your eco adventures. Pass on the reasons – not the rules – and hopefully you can change a few yourself.

posted by Catherine on May 14

Rather than recite facts to your kids out on a walk – let them find it out themselves.

Why not spend a while at home creating a wildlife, tree or plant id guide yourself – specific to your local woods, park or open downland. Maybe even specific to the season!

Most field guides contain ‘all the plants in Britain’ or the ‘Birds of Europe’ – when all you need is the small number of common plants or animals living near to you at that time.

When searching through a field guide, you will have to sift through hundreds of species that will never grow where you live, or in winter – but they are still hindering you in the book – taking up valuable pages.

photo credit: kasthor

Also, you might think you have seen a certain species, only to find out that it is only found in the remote snowy highlands or on volcanic rock only – and you are in a city park!

Be Specific – But Not Fussy:
Find the most common species to where you are and focus on them – there is nothing more dissapointing to an amateur wildlife detective than not finding in your guide – the very thing you are looking at on the ground.

I have done it many times myself, only to then have to resort to reading about all the most likely alternatives to see if they ‘could’ be the one – or taking a photo to show someone more in the know than me! Very frustrating!

So, save the kids the trouble of being stumped by another yellow flower or brown bird and only show those you know are found here – or settle for the family or genus rather than the actual species. For example knowing that a plant is a violet is good enough for the kids – they don’t want to get bogged down with the fact that there are actually around 500 species of it around the world!

And a ‘warbler’ is good enough for basic bird id – considering even regualr bird-watchers can’t always tell them apart without scopes, songs and the bird to sit still for about 30 minutes on a noticable branch with the sun shining on it!

Make It Special:
Also, rather than prattling on about it’s distribution, egg size and mating ritual; focus on its benefits to the environment or the landscape.

Why is it there, not somewhere else? Did we plant it or are we trying to get rid of it? Is it edible or useful around the home? Do butterflies feed on it, does it attract bees or is it poisonous!

All of these things are far more interesting to a child who is new to the world of wildlife and nature. You don’t want to bore them with charts and maps – you want to inspire them with ideas and let them feel like they have achieved something in the process.

You never know where it might lead them in the future!

posted by Catherine on Apr 10

Throw out that traditional ‘city’ guidebook – write your own eco adventure guide!

We all try to make sure that we see the oldest church, tallest tower, biggest fountain or a giant shoe – but what about the landscapes surrounding us? Do you find out where the local wildlife lives? Where the local people go and relax or where the more remote landscapes off the tourist trail are?

If not – then you aren’t having an eco adventure – you are having the same ‘adventure’ as a thousand other tourists who passed by.

By finding out a bit more about your destination first, you can discover so much more when you are travelling – and will have a better eco holiday that you ever imagined.

The Landscapes:
It might sound boring to research the rock types and weather patterns of your holiday destination – but by finding out things like whether the rock is ‘hard’ (granite) or ‘soft’ (limestone) you would know whether there would be a lot a water on the surface, the likelihood of caves and what plants and animals you could see.

photo credit: DaveBleasdale

For example softer more porous rock types like chalk and limestones don’t hold water so will be reasonably dry landscapes and any water features will usually be seasonal or man-made. And this affects the wildlife and plants you will find.

Other rock types might produce totally different effects and environmental diversity – which could make for some very interesting places to visit on your vacation.

The Locations:
By looking at the niche habitats and weather patterns – you could find out where the most pleasant places to visit are.

You may well avoid India in the monsoon, and the Caribbean during the hurricane season – so why visit a desert at the hottest time of day, or a tropical coastal location before the afternoon sea breezes come in?

Locals know all the secrets to making the most of the day – so if the locals don’t go out until the afternoon – you know to copy them! What do they do instead and where do they do it?

I remember when I first went to Malta I was back in my flat by 6pm and stayed in all night as I was totally knackered from all that sun. But 1 night I needed something important, so popped back out to the shop and found the entire local population out on the boulevard socialising!

Kids on bikes, couples, babies in strollers and games of chess all going on – there wasn’t a single seat free for about 2 miles of promenade! I had wondered why the prom was so wide with so many benches when I hardly ever saw anyone there – but of course it was too hot during the day to sit in the sun!

Learning a bit more about somewhere isn’t so hard – and then you could find you get a lot more from the experience.

posted by Catherine on Feb 8

If you see ‘poisonous’ Ragwort alongside a footpath – would you destroy it?

After all, Ragwort is known for it’s toxic nature – and is always destroyed on equestrian land and is generally unwanted on cattle grazing land and in hay meadows.

Eating it over a period of time will usually cause permanent liver damage, but this is very, very rare in reality. However, some walkers take it upon themselves to snap off the ragwort stems as they pass them by – for reasons only known to them.

However – I bet it didn’t oocur to them that the land owners or reserve wardens may in fact be actively encouraging the ragwort to grow there.

photo credit: MGSpiller

Who’s Land Is It Anyway?
Many countryside walkers assume that the land is unchecked, not cared for and little visited by the owners – but they would be wrong in nearly all cases.

All land is ‘owned’ by someone and they would either look after it themselves or have someone else look after it for them (usually with some financial incentive).

And if you studied any biology or geography in your life you would know that there is a natural pattern of succession in the plant world, starting with bare rock or dried riverbed, leading up to mature forest.

(If you are one step ahead of me now you will know what I am about the say.)

As a result of this natural pattern – if land wasn’t tended to or ‘controlled’ by somebody – then the very grassy patch or field where you just snapped that ragwort in half in wouldn’t actually be grassy – or even have any ragwort in. It would be a mature forest.

And as with your own land (generally just your garden) – even if it looks a bit messy and you are at work 5 days a week – you really wouldn’t want someone to walk through it while you were out and then take it upon themselves to cut down your only tree and uproot your rhodedenron bush.

Understand Nature’s Way:
By cutting down young or densly growing trees down to create a glade, or patch of open grass in the middle of a woodland can be a fantastic haven for dozens of butterfly and moth species – and some of them just love Ragwort!

The day-flying Cinnabar Moth (a bright red medium-sized moth) is most renowned for this association and has bright yellow and black striped caterpillars that feed on the ragwort plants. Many other moths also use the plant for parts of their lifecycle.

photo credit: MGSpiller

And strangely enough – bearing in mind how horrible the plant tastes – sheep tend to love an appetiser of Ragwort amongst their normal grasses and flowers. It is believed to kill off internal parasites for them!

Woodlands all over the country are managed to a certain extent – even though they tend to take care of themselves most of the time – but if you want to attract any birds, mammals or insects that don’t live in woodlands, then you need to cut them down.

And that is just what happens throughout the year on the very land you are walking on.

Some plants are best cut down at certain times of the year – and of course you can’t disturb a nesting bird over the spring – so rather than taking on the role of dangerous plant destroyer (ivy cutter/squirrel scarer/dead wood clearer/or anything at all that isn’t agreed in advance with the land-owner) – just walk on by.

If you have anything you would like to share with them about their land, then contact them in the appropriate fashion rather than just sabotage their property.

So, when you are out exploring the countryside – think of their trees as you would of your garden fence; their plants as you would of your rosebush; their gates as your own front door.

Would you want someone to leave your front door open, break down your fence and snap your rosebush in half?

I didn’t think so…….

posted by Catherine on Aug 24

Make Your Eco Holidays More Eco Friendly By Setting Your House To Work

Rather than leaving your home empty while you go off on your eco holidays – make it work for you – and for the environment.  I mean what’s more of an eco waste than an empty house?

Now we have all heard of ‘house swaps’ – but that means that you have to take your holiday in just the one place – and agree on how long for with the other person – but there are a few more options open to you while you are away.

1) Special Events:
If you live near a well-known location or event – why not coincide your trip to allow you to let out your home for a great price!

It’s not just about the ‘really’ famous places these days either as there a local festivals and events popping up all over the place these days.  Especially if you have a property right in the action – or far from it!

Peak season in the Lake District or the South Coast could be a great time to go away yourself.  Your home would be looked after, secure and making you some funds for next years holiday while you are still enjoying this years!

2) Your Front Garden:
Even before you go away, you could be finding a person who needs a parking space right about where you are living!

Thousands of people drive into work every day looking for that elusive safe parking spot where they won’t get a ticket.  What better place than your front garden!

If you can find a ‘tenent’ for your gravel before you head off then there is always someone visiting and leaving your home everyday while you are away – for added security – and you aren’t wasting that patch of land either!

3) Your Back Garden:
If you are lucky enough to have something great in your garden – like a tennis court, pool or riverbank or whatever – then why not consider ‘renting’ it out while you aren’t there?

Of course you could rent it out while you are at home too – but while you are away those resources are going to be wasted.  So share them out – either free or for a small fee if you like!

People also need a place to camp in small villages or remote footpaths – so maybe a small donation for your unused garden wouldn’t be too much trouble for you – maybe give a share to a neighbour who checks up on things too.

Obviously make sure that everything is safe and secure before leaving and that you are covered on any necessary insurance or health and safety things to cover yourself – as you sometimes need to these days!

Otherwise – enjoy your holidays knowing that they are twice as eco friendly as everyone else’s!

posted by Catherine on Apr 24

Should we visit somewhere degraded but in desperate need of tourist dollars – or leave it to recover?

I was talking with a friend about the need to show (financial) support for locations that are in danger of being destroyed by construction or farming, etc – and that the best way to show that an area is worth money as it is, would be to take a vacation there and spend money on local services.

But then I thought, if the location is very fragile or in an area that is highly volitile - would it be better to stay away and let it recover before demanding tours and accomodation to be found (or built)?

Add to this as well, the fact that if you choose not to visit one of your favourite destinations or to see an endangered animal – it might have been your last chance before it is lost forever.

What I Want:

I myself am torn between visiting certain locations around the world as I am worried that my trip there and intrusion in the area could actually be supporting the very things that are destroying it.  But if I don’t go, I will have missed my chance to see something truly wonderful. 

Whether it is to experience the march of thousands of penguins in the frozen landscapes of Antartica, to marvel at the giant tortoises and marine iguanas in the Galapagos or the chance to see thousands of bats at dusk flying from a cave in Borneo – the very act of my ‘eco’ trip could put stresses on the wildlife or habitat itself by changing their behaviour. 

It could also help sustain or even create a market for hoards of others to follow afterwards or even affect the culture of the people who have lived there for centuries.

However, my needs I suppose are only for my own pleasure, unlike the people and the wildlife involved.  Just because ‘I want’ to do something, should I do it – even if the trip is ‘eco friendly’ and ‘responsible’?

The Alternatives?

If I decide not to go myself – how else could I help?  Well, finding a charity or NGO which was working in the area would be a great start, then donating money or time to them will be of endless help.

Don’t forget you don’t need to offer them directly for that specific location or creature, as all their time and funds are intricately linked.  So offering your spare time to them in your local town will ultimately help them spend money to work in the area you are rooting for abroad!  I mean if they are able to spend less money in 1 country, they can spend more in another.

And by creating other demands at home you can affect change.  Examples include the more obvious ones like choosing not to buy certain products, or products made in certain countries, or by subscribing to eco magazines.  Investing in certain energy suppliers or financial companies is another powerful way of showing businesses where you want to spend money and where you don’t.

Even creating a demand for cuddly toys might change future plans for charities and larger companies.  How?  Well, if more and more people start buying toys and products linked to rainforests for example, then it will be picked up as a national trend and things will eventually happen.

Take for example, the current demand for eco friendly cars.  They wouldn’t be making them if nobody was buying them would they?  If people were not so interested in the environment these days – the cars just wouldn’t sell – and as result, they wouldn’t make any more. 

Imagine if in the 60′s before we knew what ‘climate change’ was, they started making hybrid cars that cost more than ‘normal’ cars – would you buy one?  Do you think there would have been a successful business in the 40′s selling carbon credits?  What if someone today set up a charity to help save seagulls or raccoons – would you donate money to them?

Everything you do today, has a huge effect for tomorrow – so don’t rush into anything to quickly.

posted by Catherine on Nov 5

It doesn’t have to be an Eco Holidays Show – but there are people there to answer your questions!

These large-scale travel shows are a fantastic place to get some real info on eco holidays and adventures! But also to get some opinions out there.

Not only will you have all day to wander around asking all the eco questions you ever wanted to ask, and to buy some fantastic gifts or equipment at discount prices, and to speak to people who have already been there – done that, but you will be able to make one huge contribution to the eco holidays movement!

What’s that you ask?
Well, if all the big names in holidays are here in one place, listening to consumers and offering their services – then what better place for you to voice your opinions and concerns about the way holidays impact the environment, tours affect communities and the way profit is spent!

If the companies at the show hear person after person asking about their eco credentials and how their packages and tours support the people and wildlife they visit – they will start to improve on those areas to keep the customers?

Imagine if a person approaches ‘Company A’ and asks them whether or not they employ local guides on their tours. If they don’t, then they will find themselves in a sticky situation, but could still answer you politely enough for you to carry on at their stall and that might be the end of that. No one else gets to hear of it.

But what if 50 people ask that same question?

How will that company feel after a day of saying ‘no’? I’m sure that there will be some serious re-thinking of their tactics for the next day – and I can almost guarantee that this feedback will get back to the people who make decisions. Hopefully spurring some change.

Now imagine the positive buzz around those companies that can answer ‘yes’ to that question.

We all know that the companies which survive are those that offer what their customers want or need. So, if they offer holidays that encourage eco tourism, habitat conservation and community development – they will get your eco dollars!

If they can’t answer your questions positively or they blatantly offer tours or cruises that offer no benefits at all to the destination – then they won’t see your money – and hopefully they will have empty seats on their trips!

If people don’t ask for things – they won’t get them.

So, get your questions ready and make a difference!

posted by Catherine on Apr 14

What makes an Eco Lodge an Eco Lodge?

Most people would reply: A log cabin in the middle of a rain-forest clearing, with huge verandas and a river nearby. It would run on solar power and grow all it’s own food on-site. No doubt, monkeys and other animals would be wandering around outside and the local hosts would be teaching you the lingo!

However, we need to be a bit more realistic about what eco accommodation is, and where it is can make all the difference. Not only will the country you are heading to change the variables – but in what setting it is in can also alter the way it can be compared to other ‘eco’ properties.

For example, if the hotel is crammed in a busy town center, it cannot change its percentage land use or have extensive areas for wildlife to live and breed. However, if it is set within acres of rain-forest it can afford to have vast areas ‘untouched by development’.

In addition, if it is an existing accommodation being transformed into a more eco-friendly location it can only do so much with what it has – as demolishing it and rebuilding might be more wasteful than just modifying what it has! However, a new development has an empty canvas – so it can immediately have a beneficial impact on the environment.

However, is a new build resort that eco-friendly in the first place? Did it need to even be built when that land could have been left un-developed and a brown-field site used instead?

So many factors…….

Where to start:
I think you can only really set your own standards depending on the type of accommodation and the location you are hoping to travel to.

If you are visiting a city, then your expectations will need to be reined in and comparisons can only be made with other city accommodations – also less individual travel as the airport/bus station will be close.

However, if you want isolation and low impact countryside living, then development, alternative power, local impact and wildlife disruption need to enter the equation! And don’t forget the distance you have to travel on top of your international flight or bus journey to get to the middle of nowhere…..

You also need to decide whether the impact of your journey there is worth all the fuss – for example if you were to camp nearby to your home that would be a real ‘eco holiday’ (less travel, less resources, less impact) – but it really wouldn’t be an adventure.

However, if you want to impact positively on distant communities and experience different cultures then you must breach the whole ‘carbon emissions’ dilemma of getting there in the first place!

Comparisons:
Basically, whenever searching for accommodation for your eco holidays, make sure you take a good look at whats out there before booking.

Don’t be too hard on yourself to find the ultimate eco destination otherwise you could be taking all the fun out of your trip! However, make sure you set your lowest factors before searching (for example – no all inclusive packages or no international hotel chains, etc) and go upwards from there.

Making your impact there can be just as important. If you go to a city and select an eco hotel and then hire a car and eat in Burger King then why take ages choosing yourself an eco hotel?

At the other end – you could book yourself into a hotel that does the basic eco activities and then make your actions more ‘green’ For example you could stay longer, volunteer within the community, shop ethically, eat locally with local establishments, don’t drop litter or leave waste and use resources sensibly – more than making up for your accommodation using mains electricity.

The End Result:
Don’t forget that it is a holiday after all – so if you aren’t going to enjoy yourself – there is no point in going.

If the most eco friendly hotel isn’t in the place you wanted to go then you need to make a choice. If the hotel you love has everything you want and need but doesn’t recycle – again, the choice is yours.

I’m sure your house back home isn’t the most responsible house in the world – but you have done your best with what you have and what you think is important. Your hosts may have done the same.

Also – should you only support those companies already offering the best eco solutions or should you help fund those companies still trying to achieve them? Your money as a guest can make all the difference to a growing firm improving the whole area not just over-booking the one resort.

Don’t stress about it to much – vacations are for enjoying!
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posted by Catherine on Jan 17

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Many travel writers now agree on what should be your benchmarks for selecting an ‘eco’ holiday and I have selected some of the easier to achieve targets and briefly discuss them below.

Eco-Holidays are not just about the environment anymore, they involve the whole community: all ages, all communities and all encompassing.

Gone are the days when you were praised for not washing your towels every day or seen as eccentric for volunteering abroad, these trips are becoming more and more popular – and people want to make sure that they are doing their best to support the places that they visit.

After all – we only visit the places we think are worth visiting – so why destroy them?

Listed below are 4 key areas that your eco holidays should score well on, and below there is advice relating to each one that you can easily achieve without too much effort on your part.

A) It should be fair.
This means that you are not just going somewhere for your own gains regardless of anything else, and your choice of accommodation of transport aren’t damaging either. You and your hosts are aware of their impact on that environment and you have taken this into account.

B) It should be community-centred.
By thinking about your impact on the communities in your destination, you are considering how your actions could affect their lives and or their future. Make sure that your hosts are thinking along the same lines.

C) It should be sustainable.
Ideally, your hotel/host/tour company should not be depleting or degrading their environment to the extent that future generations cannot enjoy it as you did yourself, or by destroying it completely.

D) Decisions should be ecologically sensible.
Your resort/hotel/host/tourguides decisions should offer the most logical choice for the destinations ecology. For example, offering a shower instead of a bath or offering travel by horse instead of 4-wheel drive!

Here are some simple steps to help you achieve these goals when travelling.

A) Take your vacation in your own country.
If you stay at home you are reducing your impact on the entire planet by not adding carbon emmissions to the already toxic skies or seas. You are also not likely to affect any communities other than the 1st world destination you live in, and that is better able to deal with your ecological demands and the waste that you generate.

B) Try to find different, less popular destinations.
By offering other destinations your tourist dollar, you are helping smaller communities to prosper. Many local people cannot get a store or hostel in the busiest locations as the rents are too high or they are dominated by foreign companies (like Cancun). By staying in these towns you can make a real difference to local communities and people’s lives.

C) Avoid travelling in sensitive areas without a guide.
If you wander into a nature reserve alone, for a start you may not see hardly any wildlife at all, but more worryingly, you will not necessarily know the correct paths and walkways. You may think it’s ‘ok’ to take that short cut through the trees, or to wade across that shallow pool – but you could be damaging the very environment you came to see. What if you make a ‘noticable path’ where you shouldn’t have and more people mistakenly follow it? Within months damage may be noticable and habitats destroyed.

D) Check that the food you eat is locally produced.
If you feast on US brand named food the whole time you are travelling – what are you offering to local farmers? By buying locally grown produce and locally made products you are feeding that money straight back in to the destinations economy. And who needs Hersheys chocolate bars anyway when there is so much tropical food to chose from?

Obviously these are only a few of the tips that you can take to make sure that you find yourself the most suitable eco holidays. And, there are many other things to consider when choosing your vacation, but this just covers a few basics for you.

posted by Catherine on Dec 7

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I thought I would start off with an article about the basic things to look out for when booking your eco holidays and adventures.

Obviously there are extremes for the most eco friendly holidays out there, but I am just offering a few of the essentials that can make all the difference to the environment you are travelling to and the wildlife and people who you will be sharing it with.

1) Choose a destination you care about.
If you make sure that you are travelling to a destination that you know a lot about or want to explore for the first time, then you will be spending your well earned money supporting eco holidays in that area – ultimately making that people working in that destination treat tourism (and their environment) with care. 

It’s the whole demand circle – if loads of people want cheap sun and sand, then you get a Cancun (loads of high rise hotel blocks crammed onto a sandy peninsula).  If people demand (and pay a bit extra for) ecologically and environmentally friendly small destinations – then that is what they will supply.

2) Consider a recommended location.
Ideally, you would travel to a location that had been recommended by a friend or other trusted source.  Not only does this save the destination from having to advertise their location to thousands of potential holiday-makers, but it keeps the feeling friendly – and lets the staff and managers there that they are treating their customers with great customer service – so they will repeat that for your holiday, hoping that you too will pass on the good word.

3) Select your agent well.
If you are booking your eco holidays through an agent, make sure that they offer flexible packages and are not sending huge numbers of people to the same locations.

Most reputable tour operators will fly you scheduled to your destination, keeping travel groups to a limited few (no more than 12 really).  They will normally also offer an English-speaking guide or escort to be with your group at all times, and have everyone travel together on internal transfers.

Many specialists such as Audley Travel and the Kuoni Group can even offer individual travel, basically your group only throughout the trip.  They also offer a personal service for any extras that you may require, such as tailor-made specialist trips.

If you book an ‘eco-holiday’ with companies that normally offer package deals or cheap vacations, then the destination may well be only eco-friendly on paper.  Even if the hotel is in ‘the jungle’ and uses recycled rainwater and grows a lot of it’s own fruit – with 500 paying guests at a time running around the chlorinated pool with a fountain splashing down a rocky slope – it’s not actually an eco-friendly destination.

4) Contact your choices in advance.
If you have selected one or two locations that you like, make sure you contact the owners/managers in advance.  They should respond to your email, phone call or letter promptly and answer any questions you have.

Ideally, they would also offer you advice that they feel will make your vacation even better or your travel plans run more smoothly – even if you didn’t ask for it.  This shows that they have great experience with tourists and have found that certain things work and other things don’t, and they want your trip to visit them to run as smoothly as possible.

5) Go independent.
Make sure that the hotel you select is run independently and preferably by a company that is resident to the country your are visiting.  This way, your host will not only know more about the location and places of interest, but they will have made a network of other suppliers and local tour operators that they will recommend to you as necessary.

The money you spend in the resort will therefore go to benefit the local area and families as and when they are employed by guests or the hotel itself, but your money will not leave the country and fly back home before you as with many package destinations and all-inclusive resorts.

Although such destinations do employ local staff, they are not benefiting local people or the communities they are located in.

6) Research the location and resources of the Hotel.
Many companies like the attention that being ‘eco-friendly’ attracts, so make sure you check their credentials before you book with them.

Where are they located exactly, and does their building or complex fit into the environment well (are they all below the canopy level?, are they made of local materials? where does their sewage and litter all go?) 

Are they located close to the kind of environment you want, for example are they in a cloud forest, on a beach, in the mountains?  Don’t let the name of the lodge or hotel confuse you in this as destinations will often use key words to attract guests (such as monkey lodge, rolling waves hotel, canopy cottages), but could not actually offer that item – or are about an hour away from it….

Do they use all their own energy supplies, like solar panels, recycled river or rain water, composting toilets, limited lighting and wood burning stoves or bio-fuel?

Do they grow their own food supplies and farm animals?  If not, is all food from local suppliers?  If they offer specialist diets such as gluten-free alternatives etc, are these imported – if so do you personally pay for that privilege or does the hotel (and environment)? 

Do they ask you to take all your own litter away with you, or offer sensible alternatives to waste?

7) And finally – Is there anything you can offer them?
Not a necessary part of anyones holiday, but fun none the less. 

Has you hotel or lodge got a local school or project that you could help out with while you are there?  Could they link you up with an environmental group who are doing some work in the local area?  Are they associated with an educational establishment that you could offer your skills to or you could learn from?

If you are there becasue you love that location and that environment, then why not offer to help out and improve what’s already there – at no extra cost to you but of huge benefit to them.

Hope you have a great time!