Eco Friendly Travel Agents

The excellent EcoShopper have discovered EcoBookers, a UK based travel agency that offers eco friendly travel to destinations throughout the world.

They were founded in the belief that not only should it be possible to visit new countries and experience new cultures without doing harm to them, it should actually be possible to have a positive impact.

EcoBookers is not a travel agent or tour operator, they are an online information source and booking agent for eco-acommodation. They get paid va commission from any hotels or travel that are booked through them. Why not take a look and let us know how you get on?

Take A Green Holiday in England

Enjoy England, the official tourist board for England, have launched their Rural Escapes campaign. Included in this are Green Escapes with information and inspiration on sustainable and organic hotels, stunning countryside walks, farmland retreats, regional food, farmer’s markets and much more.

“Stay in a teepee or castle, shop for organic food at a local market, get close to animals on a farm, take a vineyard tour, stroll along an empty beach at sunset, or try your hand at navigating a canal boat. All this and more is possible in England’s spectacular coast and countryside, and our brand new Rural Escapes campaign offers plenty of inspirational ideas and top tips for your next break, whether you’re travelling on your own, as a group, as a couple, or a family.”

Take a look and be inspired this summer for Rural Escapes.

More Eco Hotels And Places To Stay

Further to my esteemed brother’s post about environmentally friendly hotels, there are a few in the UK too. The Apex Hotel in Edinburgh (branches in London and Dundee too) won three Keep Edinburgh Clean Awards in 2006 and the Scottish Hotel Environmental Award in 2007. They have a environmental promise:

• We will work with our supplier partners to encourage use of environmentally friendly soaps and detergents for laundering bed linen and towels
• We will identify and implement eco-friendly policies through the formation of an Apex Green Team
• We will endeavour to use eco-friendly chemicals in all Apex Hotels
• We will endeavour to purchase recycled goods whenever appropriate
• We will recycle used toner cartridges
• We will only provide newspapers when requested and recycle at every opportunity

They also offer a way to offset your carbon footprint with Climate Care and have just appointed an environmental director - have many companies have one of them? You can find out more about the specifics of what they do here.

There’s Natural Retreats in the Yorkshire Dales too. They advertise themselves as “a ground breaking luxury holiday home development based on strong sustainable and environmental principles.”

But if your budget is a bit smaller, try a youth hostel. From £14 per night you can stay at a hostel in Lockton, North Yorkshire which was the first eco-hostel in the UK in 2005. It boasts “showers heated by solar panels on the hostel roof, dry compost toilet and a system which harvests rainwater and other ‘grey’ water to use to flush toilets. The building is insulated using sheep’s wool and the new extension also has a living Sedum roof, the foliage of which will also provide a habitat for local wildlife as well as adding extra insulation.”

And north of the border in Scotland is the extreme in environmental hostelling. The Loch Ossian hostel in Rannoch Moor in the Highlands can only be accessed on foot and is a mile away from the nearest train station. Again it has a dry toilet and grey water system, and energy is provided by a wind turbine. It’s also friendly to wildlife - there are a colony of bats in the attic!

Have A Green Hotel Stay

When going on holiday usually there isn’t much of a choice of how green your hotel is. However some hotels are cropping up that have been designed to be a little more environmentally friendly.

In San Francisco the fifth LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) hotel in the US has opened. 86 rooms with an energy saving roof, low-flow plumbing, dedicated recycling centre, and an auto shut-off feature when you leave your hotel room, saving 20% of energy with just that feature.

Hotel Green in Nantucket uses all energy-efficient lightbulbs, organic linen and towels, recycled paper (including toilet paper), organic food and wine and chemical free cleaning products.

For a “no-frills” eco hotel, Canadian ALT Hotels incorporates geothermal technology, that will use the earth’s constant temperature of 10 degrees Celsius (at a depth of about three meters) to help heat and cool the hotel. Other measures include energy saving lighting, and heat recovery from water used in commercial washers.

Even if you don’t have a “green” hotel where you’re going, there are a few things that you can do whilst staying at a hotel in order to make it that little bit greener.

• Turn off lights and air conditioning when you leave your room.
• Only get your sheets, towels and amenities changed when you really need too.
• Ask the hotel about their energy usage, such as bulbs and recycling. If enough people ask then they might take notice.
• Refill your own water bottles rather than using the ones provided.
• Take short showers rather than baths.

Do you have any more tips for a greener hotel stay?

Why Don’t You Take A Rural Retreat?

A couple of weeks ago, a few friends and I took a “rural retreat” through the aptly named Rural Retreats. We stayed in Norfolk, in a place near North Barsham and Walsingham, at a set of “cottages” called The Barshams.

Comprising of a few different joined cottages - High Barsham, was once a threshing barn and overlooks Stiffkey River valley. Despite the close neighbours all was pretty quiet. A shared spa and steam room can be booked and there is a games room (though no actual equipment could be found) if further entertainment is needed, which is likely with a longer stay (or kids).

I took a pretty quiet video tour of the place that gives an overview of the inside of the cottage/barn.

A few tips, some of which were covered in TheLondonPaper also.

• Some people like to sort out bedrooms in advance to save arguments. Though if you’re staying a weekend it doesn’t really matter.
• Book taxis in advance if no-one fancies driving to the local village. My friends did a great job finding one, but it would have been easier if we had planned earlier.
• Take plenty of food and drink, your local shop could be a long walk away if you’ve been drinking in the afternoon and fancy some snacks. Mind you, we had enough crisps for about 40 people.

Thanks to everyone who came!

You Know England Rocks!

Enjoy England, the English Tourist Board that markets England to the English, have launched their England Rocks! campaign.

It maps out England’s wide musical history and brings it right up to date with this years festival and concert locations. It has loads of information on famous rock cities like Liverpool and London and lots of the locations associated with some of the greatest musicians and bands from the 50s to present day, including The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Queen, Oasis, Robbie Williams and Arctic Monkeys.

Besides from having a cool flash musical intro (you can skip it if on a slow connection), a nice jukebox and great use of Google Maps they have fun take on Top Trumps, called Pop Tramps where you could win an iPod and £50 worth of vouchers. You can also order your free England Rocks! map.

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