Have you decided that you want to make your next holiday more sustainable? Here are some of our advice for how you can do that – With our African angle to it.
Planning a sustainable trip can be split up in several steps, just like planning any other vacation. Depending on where in the process of planning your trip you are, you can skip right ahead to the section that you want to read about.
Where to Go
How to Get There
Where to Stay
How to Get Around
Preparing and Packing
1. Where to Go
First thing first, you need to decide where to go for your upcoming holiday. If you haven’t decided yet, this choice alone can make a big difference on how sustainable your holiday will be. Because flying has a huge negative environmental impact, one way to ensure your trip is more sustainable is to choose a destination near your home which allows you to reach the place via land.
Another option you have is to specifically look for places that offers sustainable tourism. There are destinations and even entire countries that have extensive plans for how to make their local tourism more sustainable. A few resources where you can find such places are:
While this is a great way to make your trip more sustainable, this still limits the places you can visit since we are still in the early stages of sustainable tourism. So a 3rd and also important way to make your trip more sustainable is to visit developing destinations wherein the money you spend helps bring more economic development to the less fortunate people in the world. Here, most countries in Africa makes a good choice since the majority falls in the category of developing nations. And even if a country or specific destinations have not adopted a plan yet for how to make it more sustainable, there are still plenty of ways to make your trip sustainable.
2. How to Get There
After choosing the destination you want to visit, next is how to get there. While the best way is to travel by land, this is often not an option if you are traveling to or even within Africa. If you travel from within Africa, there are usually options to visit neighbouring countries via land, however, this is often not that convenient and you need to be prepared for a long and bumpy ride. In some places, you can find trains which gives a more convenient ride.
If you are coming from outside Africa, you do have the option to visit some of the Northernmost countries in Africa via boat from Europe. As an example you can take a Ferry from Southern Spain to Northern Morocco.
Read more about this in our section Crossing Borders in Africa.
But unless you live in Southern Spain this will require a lot of time. So flying is unfortunately for most people the only way of traveling to and within Africa.
With that said, the best thing you can do is then to look for direct flights or the fewest number of flights to reach your destination. Every region of Africa has their own regional big airports that can be reached internationally. So focusing on flights to these airport hubs and then from there make your way to your end destination by land if possible. Here, you may want to go back to the previous step “1. Where To Go” and reevaluate your destination if you find that it is difficult to reach with few flights.
3. How to Get Around
Once you have finalized your plans for reaching your destination, you need to decide how your actual trip will take place. Do you want a tour operator to take you around in your destination and make all the arrangements for you? Or do you prefer to plan every step of the trip yourself?
Traveling With a Tour Operator
If you are planning to use a tour operator, use our guide to choose a tour operator and add as a requirement that they are focused on and even certified within Sustainable sustainability.
There are a number of certifications out there, most importantly here is to ensure that the certification they follow are accredited by the GSTC as they are the accreditation body for tourism that sets the standard for sustainable tourism worldwide. Some of the certifications you can look for are:
From here, make sure to select a few tour operators to contact and compare them with each other. You may not always be able to find a certified tour operators though, and even if they are, make sure to compare them on some of these factors:
- Locally Owned: Select a locally owned tour operator where you can be sure that whatever profits they earn will reach the local community and benefit the destination you visit
- How Are they Sustainable: Ask each of them how they operate and what makes them sustainable and compare each of them. Often, they have different focus areas such as environmentally friendly, or helping local communities. Some of these may be more important to you than others.
Traveling with a tour operator for many people means more privacy, having your own vehicle and guide. This does not make your trip that sustainable though so you may want to consider joining a group to share especially the vehicle to get around.
On Your Own
If you prefer to travel on your own and avoid tour operators altogether, this is definitely a great option to travel more sustainably. This often means using public transport to get around, which is much more environmentally friendly than using your own private vehicle.
Traveling on your own often also gives you more flexibility and control on where to eat and stay. And while some tour operators are willing to customize most of the trip to your wishes, it kinda makes the reason many chooses a tour operator redundant, as this often is to avoid having to plan and research everything yourself.
4. Where to Stay
Whether on your own or using a tour operator, the next step would be for you to choose where to stay during your trip. If you are using a tour operator that are certified in or very focused on sustainable travel, they may already have great options for you to consider.
But even so, it is often a good idea to do some research on our own as well. Some prefer everything booked and ready before leaving home, others book as you go to have more flexibility during your trip. One important factor when choosing a tour operator is to choose a locally owned place or at the very least a place that supports the local community. With this, and depending on your travel style here are some sustainable accommodation options in Africa:
Hostels (Sharing room and resources with others lowers your environmental impact)
Local House (Use AirBnB or similar to find local houses where you can do your own cooking, cleaning, etc. To make it more environmentally friendly)
Sustainable Accommodations (Look for sustainably certified accommodations in places like below)
- Book Different
- Barefeet
- Responsible Travel
- Travelife
- whl.travel
Couchsurfing (Staying with locals)
Read More: Different Accommodation Options in Africa
5. Preparing and Packing
Once you have everything planned and booked for your upcoming trip, next is to prepare for it. There are a number of things you can and should do here. And while these things will help make your trip more sustainable, for most people, they also help make your trip much better altogether.
For example, if you know a few words and sentences in the local language, you can more easily get by when visiting local shops. Plus, it often results in plenty of smiles and for people to be more helpful for you during your trip.
- Learn about your destination before you go – About Africa
- Find the most environmentally friendly transportation options
- Learn a few words in the local language
- Pack Right and Bring Less
That completes our guide for how to make your trip more sustainable before the trip. Next, you can read about how to become more sustainable while on the actual trip itself.
