Chloe Davison of Davison PR shares eco-friendly travel tips from some of the industry's leading brands

Above: learn about the history of the Ancestral Puebloans with Trafalgar

Responsible travel can help us better understand and appreciate our world, its remarkable cultures and species, and its stunning landscapes.

From using the latest technology to make sustainable choices, to avoiding single-use plastics, several leading travel brands share their tips and hacks to help us make a more environmentally conscious return to travel in 2022.

Embrace the tech

App In The Air, the award-winning personal travel assistant application that helps more than six million users manage their travel from start to finish, recommends embracing the amazing technology that has been designed to make it easier for us all to make sustainable choices and move closer to carbon neutral travel. By doing the heavy lifting for you, tech can ensure that even the most time-poor of us are still doing the right thing when we travel.  

New initiatives from App In The Air help mitigate the carbon emissions from your flights. An in-app filter allows you to sort your flight searches by estimated carbon emissions, as well as by times and price, so you can choose the least polluting options. The app will also plant a tree for every flight you book, and it estimates your personal carbon footprint based on your flight history. It also helps you to offset your emissions in an easy way.

App In The Air is free to download, with a premium version offering extra functionality also available for £29.49 a year. Help the app to hit its goal of planting 1m trees in the next three years by downloading the app from www.appintheair.com.

Choose flight-free holidays where you can

For some destinations, flying may be the only practical option, but there are many holidays we can travel to without stepping foot on board an aircraft.

Chateau Neercanne by Jos Odekerken CC BY-SA 3.0 NL via Wikimedia Commons

Luxury cruise and tour specialist APT has curated a number of 'No Fly' Cruises for customers eager to book more environmentally friendly travel options. Including return Eurostar travel to Amsterdam from London St Pancras within the price, each guest's place on one of APT's 'No Fly Cruises' will create 80% less greenhouse gas emissions than travelling on the equivalent short-haul flight (Eurostar produces 10.7kg CO2 emissions, compared to 63.3kg CO2 emissions by plane).

Trips include the 15-day Western Front Explorer luxury cruise, beginning and ending in Amsterdam. This includes a visit to the 17th-century Chateau Neercanne, where guests can delve into World War I history as they explore the battlefields, shrines and memorials found along the Western Front. The itinerary takes in Ghent, Antwerp and Bruges, and explores The Netherlands, where cuisine, culture and art take centre stage. Other highlights include Michelin-starred dining and a private organ recital at the oldest Protestant church in The Netherlands, in Willemstad.

Priced from £3,495 per person (was £4,395, saving £800), the cruise includes return Eurostar travel, home-to-home transfers by private car, 14 nights on a luxury Concerto River Ship, luxury dining (a total of 41 meals and a wide range of onboard beverages), sightseeing and unforgettable experiences, and the services of an expert APT Cruise Director. 'No Fly' departures operate on 23 March and 2 November 2022.

For more information visit www.aptouring.co.uk.

Make travel matter

It is essential that when we travel, we do so with respect towards indigenous communities. Trafalgar has a number of trips that intend to 'Make Travel Matter' by giving back to locals and supporting indigene who have suffered more than most during the pandemic, such as the Native American population of the USA. When it is safe to do so, it is important that our travel supports those communities that need it most.

With its new Southwest Native Trails itinerary, Trafalgar offers a complete immersion into Native American heritage over 11 days – learning about the history of the Ancestral Puebloans, while journeying through red rock canyons and catching blood-red sunsets. The trip takes guests to significant settlements and spectacularly preserved archaeological sites, and provides the chance to meet people from living Native American communities and Local Navajo Specialists.  

Priced from £3,058 per person, the trip includes 10 nights of accommodation, 18 meals, all on trip transportation and the services of a Travel Director.

For more information, please visit www.trafalgar.com.

Always carry your reusables

Because plastic is the number one threat to our marine environments, a quick change towards becoming a more responsible traveller is to always ensure you have packed a reusable water bottle, carrier bag and cutlery for your journey.

Bottled water is typically 2,800 times more expensive than tap water, and 73% of water bottles end up in landfill or in the ocean, so Contiki has developed a sustainably designed, foldable, travel-friendly water bottle. This uses an advanced filtration system that removes 99.95% of bacteria and 99.97% of protozoa, creating clean, safe drinking water wherever you are in the world. Travelling with a reusable bottle removes the need for using harmful single-use plastics, so it protects the planet while saving you cash.

Contiki is subsidising 50% of the cost of every bottle it sells. Bottles cost $15USD (£11) each and come with free shipping.

For more information about Contiki visit www.contiki.com.

App In The Air crowdsources helpful information from its community to help users more seamlessly navigate the airport. This includes helpful details like where you can refill your reusable water bottle for free, so you'll never have to buy an expensive single use bottle at the airport again.

Monument Valley

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