Guide to Modern-Day Travel

With the Coronavirus pandemic, the Earth’s climate emergency, and a stronger spotlight on social activism, many folks are re-evaluating how they approach life. From how and where they work (and for whom), to where they call home, to how they spend their leisure time, the last two years in particular have prompted deep change. 

People in more well-off countries wanting to get out of their homes and explore different counties, countries, and continents are now more able to do so, thanks mainly to vaccination rollouts. Having the opportunity to properly swap four interior walls for the great outdoors—or the expanse of lively towns and cities—is a boon. But how can you ensure that you’re keeping yourself and others safe as you wander? That your environmental impact remains low? And that you’re not disadvantaging the communities who call the places you’re visiting home?

For travelers wanting to enjoy exploring again while making sure they have a positive impact rather than a negative one, we’ve compiled nine tips to help you adopt and sustain an eco- and community-friendly mindset, no matter where in the world you’re going. 

Three Tips to Help Local Communities Thrive

As a traveler, you’re engaging with local communities and economies as soon as you arrive at your destination (and sometimes even beforehand). Supporting a local community and economy as a non-resident is relatively easy—you just have to be conscious of what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. To help you out, here are three straightforward, community-orientated tips.

Combat overtourism by taking the road less traveled

Amsterdam. Barcelona. Venice. These three European cities aren’t the only places struggling with the number of visitors they receive, but they’re certainly standout examples. Venice, in particular, faced something of a crisis in the before times: Its resident population shrank to a record low of around 60,000 due to the inflated price of living, the overabundance of holiday lets, and incredibly high tourist numbers. In 2019, the small, roadless city had 5.5 million visitors according to Statista—many of whom were not contributing much to the local economy as they visited for just a few hours. Post-pandemic, it’s uncertain what Venice’s future will look like.

Whether in Venice or elsewhere, overtourism is making certain locations miserable for both residents and tourists. The best way to tackle this issue as a tourist? Take the road less traveled! As Kate Newman, a conservation writer, photographer, and conscious traveler told National Geographic, “We need to diversify our locations to avoid mass tourism and focus on the places that really need it.” Opting for places that aren’t oversubscribed helps to lighten the load—plus, it means avoiding a less enjoyable, and ultimately less authentic, visiting experience. A win-win for everybody and everyplace involved. 

Visiting a very popular destination? Try the off-season

Speaking of overtourism, there is a reason why travelers flock to certain locations in great numbers. Be it the history, culture, climate, cuisine, or people—or all of the above!—it can be difficult to pass up unique opportunities. 

If you are planning on exploring a place that’s currently oversubscribed, consider going during the off-season. While off-seasons do vary on a country-by-country basis, the peak season—especially in the Northern Hemisphere—generally takes place during the summer months. Traveling during the off-season, again, lessens the pressure. It also allows you to see what a location is truly like when it’s not so concerned with attracting tourists, meaning a more genuine (and probably more satisfying!) time. To boot, it’s better for your wallet—getting and staying there will come at a reduced price.

Ditch the chains and support local businesses

Chains are known for their convenience. From hotels to restaurants, grocery stores to clothing retailers, when we use and buy from a chain, we know what we’re getting: A cheeseburger from McDonald’s in Paris, France is going to taste pretty similar to a McDonald’s cheeseburger sold in Paris, Texas. Putting your well-earned dollars, pounds, euros—whatever currency you’re paid in—into the hands of the local community and economy, though, is more beneficial overall.

Firstly, you’re helping smaller businesses to financially thrive among moneyed competitors. Secondly, you’re voting with your wallet, expressing clear interest that you’d rather spend time and money in homegrown establishments, rather than identikit, same-y chain stores you can find anywhere else in the world. Lastly, what you receive in return will most likely be higher quality: While that McDonald’s cheeseburger is quick and easy sustenance, it, let’s be honest, lacks the flavor of a cheeseburger made from local produce and prepared by a trained chef. 

It might take a little time to research what is and isn’t a chain when you’re in an entirely new location, but with an internet connection and a search engine, it’s easily done.

Guide to Modern-Day Travel: Three Green Tips for Traveling More Sustainably

How and where we travel has a direct and tangible impact on our planet. Here’s some advice on how to travel far and wide in an eco-friendly manner.

Instead of flying, train your way to your destination

Cars and airplanes, although extremely practical methods of getting from one location to another (especially considering there are huge bodies of land and water between places!), aren’t exactly kind to the environment: The aviation industry, in fact, is responsible for roughly 5% of the planet’s global warming. Meanwhile, cars and other road-based vehicles are the single largest contributor to air pollution in the United States, according to Jenny Green at Sciencing.

On the flip side, trains are a far more environmentally-friendly way to travel—even when they’re powered by diesel. As Amit Katwala at WIRED wrote, “According to the European Environment Agency, rail travel accounts for 14 grams of CO2 emissions per passenger mile, which is dwarfed by the 285 grams generated by air travel, and the 158 grams per passenger miles from journeys in cars.” 

While it might not always be possible to conduct the whole of your trip via train (for obvious reasons), try and opt for trains where possible. On top of dramatically reducing your carbon footprint, train travel provides you with an opportunity to slow down, take in the surrounding scenery, and indulge in the act of journeying itself.

Prioritize eco-friendly accommodation

In addition to choosing more eco-friendly travel methods, you can also choose greener accommodation. Green accommodation is committed to reducing electricity usage, water usage, and waste—on top of lowering carbon emissions, to the point where some even achieve carbon zero status. 

Finding accredited green accommodation—i.e. hotels, motels, rental homes, and rooms that are truly sustainable in practice—is easier than ever, thanks to platforms like ecobnb.com and bookdifferent.com. bookdifferent.com, in particular, collates over one million green accommodations across the globe and details their availability, pricing, and their individual CO2 emissions, so you can select and stay at the most sustainable lodgings around. 

In lieu of Airbnb (which has created issues for several locations, like Barcelona), try a more values-focused platform that helps you to prioritize accommodation that’s good for the planet. 

Embrace the slow travel movement

Our modern world is hellbent on quickness. And travel, both as an activity and an industry, has become nothing but quick: From whirlwind cruises where you rushedly visit a new setting each day, to whistle-stop weekend tours of cities due to the ease and accessibility of flying.

Could fast travel experiences, however, be bad for us as travelers as well as the environment? The short answer is yes—and perhaps it’s no surprise that a movement advocating for slower travel has emerged. 

Slow travel is an approach to traveling that emphasizes intentionality. Essentially, instead of blitzing around a place for a few hours and ticking sights off a “must-see” checklist, you enjoy an extended stay in that place, soaking in its atmosphere, ambiance, and attitude. 

From a community standpoint, you have the chance to properly engage with a different community—people can tell (and show!) you the insider lowdown on what makes their location great. By using an app like Idyoma to meet and talk to local folks—and give both yourself and them a chance to improve foreign language skills—you’re participating in cultural exchange, rather than a one-way cultural extraction that reduces people, lifestyle, and location down to performance.

From an environmental point of view, slow travel certainly means boarding fewer planes and grabbing fewer taxis, which in turn lowers your carbon footprint. To boot, you have the time and space to travel within the area via more environmentally-friendly means, like walking, biking, hiking, and again, by train. Slow travel, then, is something of an antidote to some of contemporary travel’s problems—on top of being a better alternative where both community and climate are concerned.

Guide to Modern-Day Travel: Simple Steps to Safeguard Yourself—and Others—from COVID-19

COVID-19 has impacted us individually and collectively. So that you can keep yourself healthy and coronavirus-free—and ensure that others remain safe as well—here are some easy but essential steps to take before and during your travels. 

Research your potential destination’s handling of coronavirus

Each country’s handling of the novel coronavirus has been different—and it’s fair to say that some are managing better than others when it comes to spread prevention, community safety advocacy, vaccine rollouts, and the fortification of their health services. 

To ensure you don’t put yourself or others in any unnecessary danger, do some research into how your potential destination is currently faring with COVID. How many people there are vaccinated? Are cases high? Are hospitals struggling? If it appears the location isn’t doing well, for whatever reason, it might be better to opt for another location for now, and return at a later date when it’s safer for everybody.

Get to grips with your destination’s COVID-19 rules

Similarly, each country has its own COVID-19 rules regarding aspects like mask-wearing, all the way to travel and its borders. Before booking any flights—and before getting too hung on visiting a certain location—you’ll want to double-check the place’s COVID-19 rules and regulations, on top of ensuring they’re even accepting tourists into the country at this time.

The government of the place you’re considering visiting should have an up-to-date web page where information like the above is available—check there as your first port of call. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, digital news outlets local to that area should have the right information on rules and whether borders are open—just double-check that you are definitely reading through the latest published articles.

Ultimately, keeping abreast of your destination’s latest COVID-19 rules ensures you won’t get hit by any fines—and that you’ll actually be able to gain entry to the country, too.

Stock up on essentials—like masks, sanitizer, and at-home tests

In addition to bringing books, headphones, and device chargers with you onto a plane or train, it’s now wise to also bring easily accessible masks and hand sanitizer with you, to help quash coronavirus’ spread. You’ll most likely have already realized that you’ll need to stock up on preventative items like these, but this paragraph serves as a gentle reminder. 

While on the subject of prevention, COVID-19 tests give you peace of mind that you—and those around you—are safe. So, before you set off to travel, you’ll want to get tested, either at home or at a facility—​​especially as some countries (and airlines!) require you to have been tested for COVID-19 beforehand. For your travels, you may want to stock up and take a handful of at-home tests along with you, so you can self-test when you feel it’s required. (Though, do keep in mind that some at-home testing products aren’t authorized as reliable by leading health organizations and bodies. For instance, here’s a list of the FDA’s currently approved tests in the U.S.)

Guide to Modern-Day Travel: Exploring the World with an Approach That’s Better for Everybody—and Everyplace​​

Eco- and community-friendly travel does take some extra work. As Martha Honey, the co-founder and executive director of the Center for Responsible Travel, said to the New York Times even before the pandemic struck, “There’s not one definitive, dependable website where everything is covered. It takes a little investigation, but that can help enrich a trip because you’re learning about the destination as you’re investigating.”

And while plenty of other eco- and community-friendly (and COVID-safe!) suggestions are out there, hopefully this article has given you a good foundation to work from. Don’t worry if you can’t act on every single tip in this article right away—start small and build your way up if that’s easier. Going that extra mile, though, is more than worth it: Not only does it elevate your experiences while traveling, but it can help you treat the planet and its people respectfully, too.

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Thom James Carter is a writer based in Scotland. He’s written for Current Affairs, The New Statesman, WIRED, Insider, Metro, In the Works, and more.