1. Local before global:

Remember that pizza place next door that looked so inviting when you moved into your home? Fast forward two years and you still haven't tried it out, right? Similarly, many of us tend to covet international holidays over local attractions. We want to see Bali and the Swiss Alps before we want to explore the Andaman Islands and the Himalayas. I recently travelled to the Western Ghats with my family and enjoyed spending time in nature and eating local food. There are many advantages to travelling locally:

A Maharashtrian thali during my recent travels to Pune. Photo taken by author

2. Train > Volvo bus > Car > Aeroplane

Birds, the last surviving dinosaurs, have been around for 150 million years. In 2022, a bird called ‘bar-tailed godwit ’ took 11 days to fly 13,560 kilometres from Alaska to Australia without stopping for food or rest. This is the longest recorded ‘non-stop’ bird migration in history. Humans can not only travel further , they can do so ten times faster, while enjoying ridiculous comforts along the way. The aviation industry is the pinnacle of human ingenuity and progress. Unfortunately, like most other modern luxuries in the post-industrial era, air travel too has a hidden cost to society — an ecological and environmental cost that we often overlook when planning the next big vacation.

Air travel has the highest carbon footprint among all modes of transport. If you think about it, that’s not surprising — we are talking about lifting 300 people (& their luggage) 40,000ft above the ground and carrying them across continents at 1000km/hr. Here are some key takeaways:

3. Carry a water bottle, eliminate plastic waste

While travelling, the biggest source of plastic pollution is from consuming bottled water. You will be offered bottled water on planes, on trains, in your hotel room, at most restaurants and shopping centres. Most often, the water is complimentary, which makes it hard to resist! What you may not have noticed is that there are RO water filters everywhere too, at the railway platform, at airports, in the hotel lobby and shopping malls. All you need to do is carry your own water bottle.

During a recent trip with my family, we said no to at least 15 water bottles across two train journeys, three different hotel stays and a visit to two theme parks. That’s 15 water bottles that are NOT going to end up in our rivers and oceans. We carried two water bottles, one for adults and one for our daughter and filled them at every RO station we came across. Simple. Plastic eliminated.

Photo by Brian Yurasits on Unsplash

4. Keep an eye on your trash

Hallstatt, a small picturesque town in Austria has a population of 800. During peak season, it can receive up to 10,000 tourists per day. Imagine the amount of trash and waste that is generated due to this influx of tourists. How can the local government possibly manage the mounting garbage? The tourists come for selfies by the lake but leave behind empty plastic bottles, leftover food at restaurants and Nutri-bar wrappers. It is not fair to burden cities with this problem. We visit these places because of their beauty, so, it is only fair that we try our best to maintain that beauty by reducing and managing our trash. Here’s what you can do:

Hallstatt has seen various protests due to over-tourism. Photo source here .

5. Refuse complimentary/free services unless necessary

Once you have addressed the transportation emissions and plastic pollution, you can go the extra distance by refusing complimentary services at your hotel. Do you wash your bedsheets and towels every day? Probably not. Then why do we expect hotels to wash our linens and towels daily? Thankfully, most hotels have now adopted an ‘opt-in’ model for room service, wherein room service is only provided upon customer’s request. Unless you are hiking in the forests and/or rolling around in mud, chances are you don't need to clean your towels during a short stay at a hotel.

When I was younger, I used to feel embarrassed when my parents would take any leftover toiletries after a hotel stay. However, over the years I came to realise that most hotels throw away unused shampoo & conditioner bottles after check-out. So, it is perhaps better to take that half-opened bottle of conditioner and finish it at home. If you have room to keep a shampoo or soap bar in your luggage, you may be able to eliminate the need to open these plastic bottles at the hotel.

Photo by Lisha Riabinina on Unsplash