The Global Basecamps Blog

While we’re busy forgetting our new year’s resolutions and recovering from a string of holidays when travel is too often limited to visiting the folks and local destinations, we should be getting ready to plan another year’s worth of sustainable travel adventures. Floating on a riverboat in Vietnam’s Cai Be, huddling around a wood-burning stove in the exotic but cozy White Pod Camp in the Swiss Alps, and hiking through the mesmerizing Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia, Chile were among the highlights for 2009, but green travel destinations abound, and the most breathtaking views, elegant boutique hotels, and overpowering wildlife adventures are yet to be discovered in the new decade.

We are nearing the darkest, smoggiest, most nerve wrenching travel day of the year: the day before Thanksgiving. Flight prices are sky-high, malls and grocery stores are overcrowded, and the roads are a nightmare. Luckily from an environmental standpoint, it is estimated that this year a fifth of Americans will spend less for the holiday than the previous year, and the airline industry has estimated a 4% decrease in Thanksgiving traffic.

Skipping holiday travel on the biggest family day of the year for environmental reasons is hardly feasible for most, but what every traveler can do is take simple steps to minimize the harms of carbon emissions from travel and consider sustainable alternatives on the turkey day itself.

Here is our list of sustainable travel tips and green Thanksgiving solutions:

Traveling builds understanding for diversity and cultural awareness. Associating with locals while traveling, avoiding large corporate resorts and conserving local environments through sustainability allow for mutual cultural enrichment between the traveler and the local community. Unfortunately, exploring the world is not an option for everyone, but a great way to promote values of peace and tolerance is to integrate cultural diversity in the daily lives of children.

A Halloween Story: Halloween Lands in the Arctic

Halloween is an inherently American holiday, like Valentine’s Day or Thanksgiving. During the last few decades, however, it has slowly emerged as a holiday celebrated around the globe, but like most imported ideas, it has gone through adaptations and transformations to fit cultures and customs. A case in point is Finland, a Northern European nation, a country with a good record of sustainability and high level of environmental consciousness and where Halloween has been modified to fit the arctic climate and dominant countercultures.

Biking around urban destinations is popular among travelers mindful of sustainability. Bike rentals are easy to find in most cities, and cruising around central areas and sights hardly requires a marathoner’s physique. The journey about to be undertaken by the 40 or so participants of Tour D’Afrique, however, is far from what most environmentally conscious travelers would have in mind when planning bike tours on their travels. The “Cairo to Cape Race,” organized by an environmentally oriented bike tour organizer, Tour D’Afrique Ltd , is about to kick off early next year. The race covers 7,500 miles, running through 12 countries and encompassing the entire length of the African continent.