YBIG 12
New year, new luck – and new vacation money. On cold, grey winter days, one thing in particular can be planned excellently: the next active vacation to enjoy playfina casino. Sustainable, of course – for example with micro-adventures, glamping and eco-lodges.
It should be inexpensive, but still beautiful, relaxing and versatile. The journey should be comfortable, but still environmentally friendly. The food should be delicious, but hopefully regional and seasonal. In short, active vacations today are hard work, and anyone who seriously tries to meet all the criteria for sustainable travel in order to relax in an “ecologically correct” way will probably return home completely stressed out from all the headaches.
Nevertheless, it is important not to throw your sustainable principles overboard, even on an active vacation. With our tried-and-tested 10 tips for sustainable vacations, it’s easy to do. And the following three travel trends offer plenty of action and relaxation – and let you go on vacation with a clear conscience at the same time.
MICRO-ADVENTURES
Small adventures are easier to experience than expected. For example, with the trend of “micro-adventures”.
How about a night in a self-built bivouac? Or a hike to a point on the map that you choose blindly beforehand? Alastair Humphrey, awarded Adventurer of the Year 2012 by National Geographic, has popularised the active vacation with small adventures.
The Briton’s credo: to have exciting experiences, you don’t have to sit on a plane for hours. Even small adventures are quite challenging for many of us. And these are often waiting right behind the house. All we have to do is keep our eyes open and set off. A considerate approach to nature should be a matter of course.
GLAMPING
If micro-adventures are too extreme for you, you’ll find beautiful accommodations under a starry sky in the growing “glamping” offer – but with comfort.
Who hasn’t dreamed of living in a tree house as a child? With glamping, that’s possible without having to sacrifice comfort. The fusion of glamour and camping produces adventurous design cabins, tree houses with bathtubs and tipis with glass roofs. The luxury camping vacation is a special experience for children, but equally for anyone who enjoys original projects.
Often the special accommodations are rented out in connection with a bookable adventure, for example a husky sleigh ride with overnight stay in a luxury tipi in Finland or a jungle hike with overnight stay in a tree house in Laos. But there are also many such offers in Germany.
Of course, views on sustainability and environmental friendliness differ here. So it depends on what each individual makes of it. Such an active vacation is close to nature in any case. The shorter and more climate-friendly the journey, the less impact it has on the environment.
ECO-LODGES
Targeted at eco-travellers are the “eco-lodges”: they offer everything you could want, but make an explicit effort to operate sustainably.
It is now standard in almost all hotel chains: the little sign in the bathroom asking hotel guests to think along and only have the towels washed when it is really necessary. Very often, however, the contribution to the environment ends here.
But what about the employees? What happens to the leftover food? And where do the materials come from? Is the garbage disposed of correctly?
Smaller accommodations, and here especially the Eco-Lodges, can better address such questions and find sustainable solutions. They can be found almost everywhere in the world, especially in regions that are not yet so developed in terms of tourism.
