The terms “green travel” or “ecotourism” evoke a wide variety of images ranging from sleeping in hammocks to purchasing pricey hemp luggage from the newest “hip” shopping center. However, to travel green one does not have to do without luxury or inversely to spend a lot of money. It simply means doing your part to preserve the ecology of the place(s) you visit. In fact, green travel can save you money at the same time. We have provided the following list of 30 ways to save money through green tourism, while at the same time doing your part to “save the planet”.

Packing and Planning

1. Pack light, especially when flying. It not only saves on extra baggage fees, but less baggage equals less weight equals less fuel

2. Print maps and tourist information before you go. Better yet, borrow a guidebook from the local library and save a tree.

3. Purchase empty travel bottles and fill them with your favorite shampoo and other products. By reusing them on multiple trips you save money and keep dozens of travel size bottles from local landfills.

4. Bring your own digital camera instead of purchasing an expensive disposable camera that can only be used once before being dumped in a landfill.

5. Consider purchasing a solar charger as most cameras, cell phones and iPods can be quickly and easily recharged this way.

6. Consider traveling closer to home this year to avoid flying. Flying is getting more expensive every day and uses a tremendous amount of fuel and contributes a lot of pollution to the air.

7. Combine work and play. If you have to fly somewhere on business plan your personal vacation before or after so you won’t have to fly twice.

Transportation

8. Whenever possible get around town using public transportation.

9. Take short trips by walking or using a bicycle.

10. If you have to rent a car get a small one, or better yet rent a hybrid. Many car rental companies are now offering hybrid vehicles. Sure they might cost a little bit more to rent, but typically you save on fuel prices.

11. If taking your own automobile, take some or all of the following steps to increase your fuel efficiency and save on gas costs while reducing emissions. Have a tune-up before you leave, make sure your tires are properly inflated and reduce the number of unnecessary items you might have stored in the back seat or in your trunk. Turn off the air conditioner whenever possible. Reduce any drag on your car by removing roof racks and driving with your windows closed.

12. Carpool whenever one is available. Carpooling is not just for work anymore!

During Your Trip

13. Eat locally produced food. It is a lot healthier and less expensive and it saves on all the shipping costs and emissions from transporting them across the country.

14. Buy locally produced souvenirs. Handicrafts made by locals are not only sustainable but they are often a fraction of the price of items shipped in from out of town.

15. Visit local, state and national parks and reserves. The costs are usually very reasonable and the fees are used to support these protected areas.

16. Bring your own reusable water bottle instead of filling up landfills with old ones. If the tap water is not safe to drink at your destination, purchase a gallon size or larger of water and use it to refill your smaller bottle. It saves you money buying in bulk and saves the environment from billions of water bottles.

Accommodation

17. Stay with family and friends whenever possible. Hotels use a lot more energy and resources than homes through daily cleaning, mini bottles of shampoo, hallway lights constantly lit. Whenever you do stay in hotels remember to turn off the lights and TV, turn the A/C down whenever you leave, and when an option reuse the towels and sheets instead of changing them daily.

18. Look into a home exchange whenever you can. This type of tourism not only saves you money over an expensive hotel, but you can more easily practice green living while away from home.

As you can see, using just a few of the list above can save money and energy and helps one protect the environment even while traveling.

Tip 1: No matter how catchy the deposit plans seems, try and pay it off as soon as possible for there are always price hikes in a week or two before the busy season of flights begins (July to September, November to January and March, April).

 

Tip 2: Booking with travel agents is usually cheaper than booking online or other ways. As they often buy seats in bulk and get huge commissions and bargains to manage selling them cheaper for big number of sales.

 

Tip 3: Always double check your flight schedule by calling the airline at least one day before departure and one day before return as the flagship and only direct flight, Air Zimbabwe often go through rescheduling flights by difference of hours.

 

Tip 4: Get your hotels book through agents before leaving your country as where there is a sound of “an accent” the price goes up in Zimbabwe. Your agent in UK may have local level contacts and book you a much cheap flight fares to Zimbabwe as well as accommodation. Remember tourists are charged higher always – it’s a universal rule isn’t it!

 

Tip 5: Don’t be shy to Bargain in the open flee-markets and at the craft shops. Also to make them agree on a rate you propose, if bargain is not working try walking away as if you will not buy at all, they will call you within a minute. Or if they don’t than it means the last rate you were getting was the actual rate, shop around and get back later to buy from them with a smile on your face, they won’t mind to sell.

 

Tip 6: While roaming around be careful not to pull over, park or stand in front or in close proximity of the President’s palace as people often complain about getting beaten, threaten, punished and an incident of getting shot as well on entering and stopping in the supposedly “red zone”. Also never to mess with the president’s protocol, stay where you are when the entourage is passing and strictly follow the rules of the army.

 

Tip 7: Always remember, you are only a guest in the country so keep your comments to yourself. Do not be judgmental of the Government or get talking about the politics or religion. Only enjoy your time and be a spectator not a participant for your own safety as the Government is strictly intolerant to criticism.

 

Tip 8: Watch for your attitude. Keep a moderate smile at most instances when conversing with the locals. Bad attitude only brings on problems; remember you are not at home! However, if you will extend a friendly smile it will be reciprocated in much more than just smiles and you will end up making many good friends for a life time.

 

Tip 9: Stranger is a stranger after all so there is no harm in politely refusing the offers to buy a coke and a bun or to decline invites to a dinner party at an unknown location or uninvited guide services. Be more watchful of those who insist and have a professional sort of asking style, I am sure you will be able to differentiate the mugs from the genuine majority of locals always eager to help their guests. For a guide, rather use the services of your hotel or travel agency.

 

Tip 10: Never take uncalculated risks such as asking “add it to the bill” or “to the room” trade in cash strictly and get your currency exchanged from valid franchises preferably, get it done before leaving as there are two rates of currency conversion in Zimbabwe, an official and an unofficial one, with a difference of about 80% between them. Watch for it!!!

Traveling with children by car can be a real challenge for any parent. However, you have something special during a car trip that is hard to beat anywhere else. 

What you have is time. Lots of quality family time with each other. Time to spend together without the distractions of everyday life.  Time to talk, sing, read to each other and play games. Time to  make memories. It’s precious time, so don’t waste it.

 If you get a chance to map out your trip before you go,do it..,There are some great web resources to help you find something fun along the journey to make your trip more interesting.

When traveling in the car or on an airplane, a great entertainer is reusable stickers. Your children can stick and re stick them on the windows of the car or airplane. Also, lollipops are good for ear aches during flying or long drives..

 Also,to keep the children alert you can play a road trip game. This game will challenge the children to look for certain items on the trip.  For example, you can challenge them to look for license plates for all 50 states. If you create a list ahead of time, they can simply check off the states as they find them.  You can use this states.doc with your kids while on your trip.

Finally, attitude is everything: expect problems, go with the flow and everything will work out great. Travel is hard and traveling with kids is even harder. But if you treat your trip like an adventure, annoyances, missteps and mishaps simply become small obstacles for your hearty band of explorers to overcome.

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In general, Indochina area is safe for travelers and tourists. Violent attacks rarely happen, but heist is a problem in Indochina area, just like what is happening in most part of this world. Don’t worry about it; here are some tips for you to take some precautions while travelling in Indochina area:

There are special tips at different countries and regions in Indochina area: Vietnam: Tourists are sometimes not authorized to travel to certain areas of Vietnam in deemed sensitive by the Vietnam Government.

Cambodia: The landmines are no longer a concern to regular tourists, but pay attention to them because the remaining mines concentrated in the border areas (particularly the Thai Border), some mountain areas, and other war zones.

Laos: Landmines are the main concern to travelers; make sure where you cannot go to with your guide or the local people.

Thailand: In this country, you cannot avoid the beautiful beaches, do wear a life jacket when you hire a water scooter or a jet ski, and keep away from areas people are swimming.

Southwest China: This region is a well-developed tourist destination, while traveling in this area, you need to make sure that your driver is licensed and experienced, because of the complex terrain and road conditions. You can visit http://www.indochinaodysseytours.com to get more information about this.