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Green travel

Ode's annual special report explores new trends for socially responsible tourists who still just want to have fun - and shows them how to check in to an exotic eco-lodge, kick back and join the "slow travel" movement or get their hands dirty at a cozy agritourism destination.

Go with the slow

Vacations should be more than a rush of flights, sights and fast food. All aboard for the “slow travel” movement!

Barbara Haddrill was thrilled to hear of her best friend’s engagement, and happily accepted the offer to be a bridesmaid. But because of her growing concern about the effect of flying on the environment, Haddrill decided not to take a plane to the wedding. The only problem was that she lived in rural Wales and her friend was getting married in Brisbane, Australia. But with a little pluck and a lot of planning, she made it to the ceremony on time, thanks to bikes, buses, trains, boats, the Trans-Siberian Railway, her own two feet and a six-day voyage aboard M.V. Theodor Storm, a Russian freighter carrying cargo between Singapore and Perth, Australia.

The trip took 40 days, and was filled with wonders like watching the sun rise over Siberia’s legendary Lake Baikal and discovering new foods and friends everywhere along the way. “It has changed my life in many ways,” she wrote on her blog (babs2brisbane.blogspot.com), “not just in terms of the amazing things I have seen or the people I have met but more about what I have discovered about the generosity and kindness of complete strangers.”

Haddrill is at the extreme forefront of an emerging trend called “slow travel,” a modern impulse to follow the old wisdom that getting there is half the fun. Inspired by the “slow food” movement, growing ranks of people want to remember their vacations as something more than a blur of cramped plane rides, rushed sightseeing tours, gobbled fast food and long lines at the rental car counter. They’re motivated by an indefatigable sense of adventure as well as a taste for authentic experience.

“Slow travel doesn’t mean reigning in your curiosity about seeing the world,” notes Mark Ellingham, founder of the Rough Guides travel book series. “I would say just the opposite. It gives you a better chance to experience the world. On many holidays today, you feel like you are just being dropped off somewhere, like a package.”

And flying less often, Ellingham believes, doesn’t have to involve sacrifice in either comfort or fun: “If you live in London, you’d have to be partly insane to want to fly to Paris today. It’s not faster than the Eurostar train and it’s much more hassle.”

Of course no holiday can ever be zero-impact on the environment, but that plane ride from London to Paris pumps 244 kilo­grams (540 pounds) of carbon into the atmosphere, more than 10 times the amount of the Eurostar train at 22 kilograms per passenger, according to a 2006 article in the UK’s Observer newspaper.

Slow travel advocates like Ellingham recognize that trains, boats or bikes don’t work for every journey we want to take. That’s why he and Tony Wheeler, founder of the Lonely Planet travel guides, developed a travel campaign with the motto, “fly less, stay longer.” Treat yourself to an adventure, in other words, by spending a leisurely amount of time at just one faraway destination.

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