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Travel Away: Travelling Sustainably - What To See & Do

1. Minimize Your Waste
   While traveling, avoid buying disposable items (ie Styrofoam food containers) when you have reusable alternatives, such as. Though this is tougher when travelling with children, at least choose to buy products with minimal or no packaging.
   
   
2. Lend a Hand
   Make a positive impact on any community you visit. This can be as simple as picking up trash on the beach or along the roadside. There are international volunteer opportunities including helping at orphanages, hospitals, and child care centers; teaching English; and sharing professional skills such as engineering, photography, or management.
   
   
3. Visit Blue Flag Beaches
   Support coastal communities practicing responsible environmental stewardship policies, and help ensure a healthy beach vacation, by choosing Blue Flag beaches. Over 3,200 beaches and marinas in 37 countries across Europe, South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, New Zealand, Canada and the Caribbean participate.
   
   
4. Hike a Historic Cemetery
   A historic cemetery gives visitors a completely non-commercialized view of the past in a peaceful setting. These are often identified in the Green Maps. Every cemetery has its own hours, regulations, and terrain, so check at the on-site cemetery office, or call in advance, before embarking on a walking tour.
   
   
5. Go Where the Wild Things Are
   With all the talk of vanishing habitat and threatened species, ecotourism is one very good way to fund protection of both.
   
   
6. Stay on the Trail
   While eco-tourists know to take only pictures, leave only footprints, but its very tempting to head off the beaten path to avoid the crowds. Unfortunately, riding a snowmobile through forested backcountry or driving an all terrain (ATV) or four-wheel-drive vehicle across an open beach can destroy fragile ecosystems, affecting both plant life and animals, especially if done by lots of tourists. Many national, provincial or state parks and wilderness areas typically require hikers to stick to developed trails, unless they have an off-trail permit.