Ways to make your next trip sustainable while having more fun in India

Jul, 18 2022 Posted By : Akshay Agarwal

It is 2022, global warming and sustainability are not new words to us. During the lockdown, when all of us were scrolling  our sorrow away through social media, people’s interest in sustainable lifestyle boomed. While not much is new to Indians, there are very few occasions when Indians go all out befikar. One is weddings,  the other is, their very rare family vacation/ trips. It is indeed a once in a blue moon occasion for many, but being a responsible tourist adds all the more to a place to preserve its beauty for future tourists to enjoy the same and have the similar awe and amazing memories as you did.

Travellers' increasing numbers are characterised by faster access to distant areas, higher disposable incomes, and increased lifestyle ambitions. When the delicate balance of natural processes is perturbed, the resulting damage can throw weather patterns and lifestyles out of sync.

Travelling in eco-friendly ways not only makes it less clutter, but also cheaper!

Here are some very easy ways to make your next trip a sustainable one,but carry just as much, if not more memory baggage!

    1. Turning off unused appliances

Trip begins from the moment you leave your home! Ensuring that all switches of electrical appliances and also the LPG cylinder before leaving for the trip will reduce the electricity consumed and it is for the safety of the house too!

    2. Homestays instead of hotels

Hotels are luxurious, but cut off from local authenticity. Homestays are eco-friendly because they produce much less waste by catering particularly to their guests rather than generating goods always. 

Those complimentary shampoos and soaps and other toiletries are all plastic. Hotels add to the unwanted waste production. Also, heaters in hotels add to the carbon footprint, since most of them don’t use solar heaters.

    3. Carry your own bags

Carry bags from shopping will mostly be the environment’s enemy, polyethylene bags. Hence, take your own jute or cloth bags that are actually much cuter and trendier than plastic bags and carry your souvenirs in them. The bags act as cute accessories and not photobomb those aesthetic photos!

    4. Using public transport 

When in cities or towns with a public transport system, do make use of them rather than hiring a taxi to take you around. Added bonus here is that you get to interact with local people that may help you with your trip becoming more memorable.

    5. Carrying a personal trash bin

Allot a pocket or a small bag to collect all your trash throughout the day’s itinerary. This keeps you from littering landmarks and beautiful sights and saves time in turn by not hunting for a dustbin everytime.

    6. Take your own water bottles

This may feel a bit insignificant or inconvenient when travelling to remote areas, but carrying 1 or 2 bottles of your own reduces the plastic that you litter. It also saves space in bags. Plastic water bottles consume a lot of space in the trash bin that you may be carrying. Hence, taking a bottle and refilling it whenever needed allows you to generate less waste and is also much cheaper! Refilling bottles by asking local residents will create conversations and they won’t even charge you for that!

    7. Trekking/ travelling in large groups

Book a trek with a travel company or travel in large groups. This has many advantages such as packing less so that you could borrow/ lend some things from others, never getting stranded. But how this makes it sustainable is that the company would arrange the trip perfectly for the said number of people, including transportation. This helps in reducing fuel usage and waste generation.

    8. Eating local

Sitting and dining in a restaurant, opting for local cuisines and interacting with the waiters while learning about their food adds all the more to the vacation. But what it does is, no plastic is used to wrap the food or serve it, unlike fast food joints. 

Having beverages in reusable metal tumblers or disposable paper cups and straws could also help reduce the usage of plastics.

 

    9. Carrying own toiletries

Travel sized containers for carrying various products are widely available online or in stores. This allows you to spend less on buying new travel-sized versions of the product itself and plastics used; bonus! reuse the containers for future trips.

    10. Try voluntourism!

It is a form of travelling where one exchanges their skills for accommodation, food, and other services. While helping local businesses or communities, voluntourism is sustainable because, most communities or local businesses are located in remote areas, allowing one to walk or use very less motorised vehicles that helps reduce pollution. Even going to well-known places as a part of plantation or cleaning drives, such as the Swachh Bharat campaign while travelling, makes people think before causing any type of pollution to the environment. 

Try volunteer travelling with AwaraJi! Travel very pocket-friendly and eco-friendly with AwaraJi. 

Apply below to Become an AWARA, a Travel Volunteer! 

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