What is sustainable travel?
Something that I've learned over the course of my travels is that the cost of travelling is much more than your airline ticket and price of your hotel. There’s a more costly environmental impact than I think most travelers realize they are leaving behind. If you sit back and think of the last trip you did, ask yourself a few questions.
Did I fly to my destination?
What other mode of transportation did I take?
How much locally grown fare did I eat and did I support local economy and businesses?
Did I learn about the culture?
These are issues that need to be brought to the table as we enter foreign territory, and these are the questions I’ve been asking myself for a while.
Backpacking across Australia was a trip of a lifetime, but I think it was getting out of western culture and experiencing a lifestyle so unlike mine via Bali, Fiji and Barbados that has raised curiosity in my mind. I can choose to be a mindless backpacker looking for the next pub, the sunniest beach, or the best party hostel, or I can make my travel experiences more fulfilling and meaningful. Now this is not to say that I will never look for the best pub on the sunniest beach, but there a time for throwing your cares away, and a time for examining them. As a person who would like to make travel an integral part of her life and career, I’ve been hunting for ways to develop a sustainable and conscious way of travelling.
GAP adventures, the leading Canadian travel company for sustainable and adventurous travel, offers great trips involving voluntourism; a combination of touring and volunteering. Packages that can take you to Nepal, Kenya, Agentina, the Galapagos, saving wildlife, teaching children, or cleaning up a beach. Together with the help of Planeterra, a non profit organization, more people are choosing voluntours as a means of travelling.
To make your next trip a meaningful one, check out GAP adventures.
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