Eco Holidays

posted by Catherine on Jul 16

Why not celebrate something special as your annual holiday?

More and more these days, you see that people are celebrating everything big. No longer is turning 50 just an excuse for a friend to hang a huge embarrassing bed sheet on a local roundabout with your name on it.

Now we want a massive celebration to say that we have done virtually anything from leaving school, to losing weight, to turning almost any age, and even getting a new pet!

Aren’t we just over celebrating for the sake of it – using valuable resources for bunting, balloons, non-recycleable party novelties and just too much junk food?

photo credit: havankevin

Turn It Around:
If you do want to celebrate virtually anything – why not make it an eco friendly adventure instead?

Rather than having all these little parties and having everyone fill their evening with repeated driving to and from various venues over the year – why not focus it all on one great big event?

Imagine your family and friends renting a huge house in the countryside for a week or two. With enough of you sharing, you could hire out a mansion, part of a castle or a whole farmhouse.

And when you are sharing with 10 people that £2000 a week doesn’t sound to bad – just £200 a person for 7 nights accomodation in an amazing property that you just couldn’t experience by yourself.

Added Bonus:
And with this great big event occuring you can roll all those smaller things into one great big one – and it will probably be cheaper for everyone – and more memorable.

Added to this is the eco bonus that there will be less waste across this one eco holiday – and if it becomes a regular thing – then people might take less holidays abroad as this will count as their 2-week break.

Also, if you are all going to the same place, doing the same things and eating the same foods – you can share cars, buy bulk goods and cook large amounts of the same helathy and local/organic food for everyone rather than buying trashy nibbles and party cakes.

And there needn’t be a party balloon or any bunting in sight!

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 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 Apr 18

Why not use the ‘no flights’ situation to help persuade others to travel by train or boat!

We know that you can get around Europe very easily by train, coach and boat – so why not help revive their use during this time of aviation standstill!

Rather than just listen to your friends and work colleagues worry and moan about how their holidays or whatever are ‘ruined’, why not help them find alternative routes to the destination using more eco friendly means.

Depending on their insurance policy details and how important their travel is, you could easily find a route to their destination for them using all the support of the internet – and some logical thinking.

The Route:
The hardest part of their journey will not be the crossing of the Atlantic or the 13 hours to South East Asia it will be the parts closer to home.

It’s easy to forget that direct travel isn’t the only option, for example London to the Caribbean doesn’t have to be a one stop shop. Flights go from all over the world to these delightful tropical islands.

So, you can get a flight from Spain to Bermuda or Italy to St Kitts – all you need to do is get to the nearest working airport to your home that is allowing flights.  Whether that involves a boat or a hi-speed train, the result is you get to arrive to your destination.

Now, although this still involves a flight, many trips people are looking to book could easily be shaped by a non-flying decision.  Why not suggest a romantic train ride through the Alps to Italy, or a sail-boat trip around the Mediterranean.

The Alternatives:
Don’t forget that many people will not be so open to looking for other modes of transport of a ‘greener ilk’ and this could be your chance to open their eyes to an alternative means of travel – and possibly a great short haul holiday.

And, if you are offering to take the sting out of arranging all this for themselves, they may well be more likely to go ahead with it – in the same way that people might not want to cook themselves a vegan meal, but in cooking it yourself they can experience the new!

I’m not suggesting that you start interfering in your friends or bosses lives, but a bit of gentle persuasion never did anyone any harm! 

And if all these people still want to travel after the suspension is lifted you can imagine the number of extra flights that might be laid on to clear the backlog of passengers?

The more of these people who travel by other means can only alleviate the strain.

And, what a great way to a bit more towards reducing air travel!