Vacations & Trips

and I don't mean sick!! With this being Green Week at iVillage, I'm wondering if, during your travels, you try to be green or eco-conscious? Do you do anything in a different way than you would at home? Do you do particular tours or trips that are more eco-friendly?

Tell us how you become or stay green while traveling!

We TRY to be the same as at home but we often can't do all we can do at home. After all, just the transportation to the place we are going isn't very green, what with all the fuel being burned, whether it be by plane or by car don't know if we have the courage to try bus or train travel at this time in our lives and not real sure hat it saves that much more energy, to be honest.

We have never taken an "eco-vacation" per se... Have been tempted but never actually go so far as to plan such a trip. And with the budget crucnch being what it is now, probably won't either.

Some of the places we have gone have implemented green practices: not washing the linens every day (hotels *and* cruise lines), not using plastic wrap and packaging (especially the national parks), restriction of vehicles inside parks, etc...

In all, I think it's very hard to stay green when traveling --- just like it's hard to keep on a budget (at least if you are my DH! LOL) or on a diet (healthy food is hard to come by when traveling and eating out all the time)...

We reuse linens, turn of lights, and turn of the a/c or heat if the weather is great.  Normally we stay in condos, so we like to save the Owner money.

BTW!!  We have a hotel in Ft Walton Beach, FL that was certified today under Florida's "Green Lodging" program.  Since my computer won't let me link it here is the site:  http://www.dep.state.fl.us/greenlodging/about.htm

We try to be as much as at home, too! If we are packing food with us, we use ziploc bags as often as possible, so we can reuse them during the trip. If the bag has held dry food, I will reuse it for other dry food at home later.

When we are traveling for business, we will reuse any plastic bags we get at stores for our customers, especially when we are in Hawaii! We shop alot before we start working there, so we have plenty to reuse!

We always look for recycling containers on the road, like at many of the rest stops. We use them for any plastic bottles that we don't reuse. We take our aluminum home with us as we recycle that for cash, plus we'll pick up any that we find on the trip!