Hey Joy. That’s awesome. Where do you plan to travel to? I’m sure it will be great and so good to hear you’ll be supporting locally-run accommodation and looking for low-impact options. I hope that you both have a wonderful time!

Thank you for the Costa Rica recommendations!

Hi Jackie, thanks for your comment! I 100% agree about the fresh air and natural environment – I really love it when we have accommodation like that. I also use a menstrual cup (so useful!) and love it when I have natural products as well.

Hey Karianne,

Thank you! It’s awesome to hear that you have a similar way of going about finding accommodation while you’re travelling. I was a bit late getting into Airbnb but we’ve started to find some real gems on there – although it does take a bit of searching.

Let me know when you make it to Costa Rica! Looking forward to reading about your adventures there :D

When we travel, we spend a lot of our time staying in apartments in local areas – AirBnB is absolutely amazing. It has not only saved us a lot of money, but has allowed us to immerse ourselves in the local area, meet local people and gain a real understanding of the place we are staying. And it is great to know that that the money we are spending is going to a local person.

We are also huge advocates of housesitting – so far, we have only done assignments in the UK; however, we are planning on looking for more assignments around the world. Again, it is a great way to base yourself in a local community.

Thank you for the Costa Rica recommendations! We are planning to visit as soon as we can so we will check these places out!

The article you linked to about Greenwashing was also really interesting. I’ve been toying with the idea of doing the M.A in Responsible Tourism at Leeds Met but it’s a long distance course which puts me off because I’m not very disciplined without hands-on guidance. My colleague has done it and I’ve learnt a lot from her.

I can relate to the article because I work in product for a travel company which essentially means I put holidays together. Whilst doing this I try and use suppliers who implement their own environmental policies but I can’t always do this as much as I’d like because these companies/hotels often don’t have the structures in place to deal with tour operators i.e. their website isn’t in English, they don’t have prices ready, enough rooms, commissionable prices, and other variables which make it difficult to form a partnership. And on the otherhand the hotels which do offer all that are usually the chain hotels who think less about the environment.

I’ve learnt to try and strike a balance and not beat myself up if everything isn’t as green as I’d like it to be. As a company we don’t advertise the fact that we are always responsible, firstly because we’re not 100%, and because we hope our itineraries showcase that without us having to say it.

In the travel industry there are loads of companies who say their tours are eco-friendly but then in their own time, on their own holidays, they travel to Dubai or stay in resorts. What does this mean? That they clearly don’t practice what they preach and to some extent their image as an eco-friendly company is all for appearances instead of really wanting to make a difference. It’s greenwashing.

It’s people like you who should be creating holidays because you actually care about the planet and the negative effect tourism has upon it.

Absolutely! It’s so true that accommodation goes way beyond just hotels, as you say. There’s so many options to suit different budgets, tastes and travel styles :)