I’m so excited that you included bringing a reusable water bottle to the airport and filling up there. It makes me so sad to see people buying bottles of water because they think that is their only option.
Buying souvenirs second hand has been my top priority for the past couple trips I've taken. I've even been known to plan my day around going to the thrift. I've found shirts that are wayyyyy cooler than any I could have bought at the souvenir shop, AND it lets me scratch that thrifting itch I usually miss while away from home. Thank you for sharing these tips, tricks and hacks :)
Honestly, I'd love to go thrifting wherever I go, but where I am (the Netherlands), thrift stores are usually way outside of the city center and inaccessible by public transport. Makes me sad, I want to see all the 2nd hand treasures!
My favorite vacation souvenirs are always thrift finds. I got a shirt that says “ALASKA” from my trip to Florida😂 and also a sweatshirt with “retired and loving it” embroidered on it!! Both are much more memorable than a $5 neon graphic tee sold on the beach!!
I love it because I'm not typically one to buy clothes with city names on it. So I may just get something I really like and know I will wear often. Even though its doesn't say where it's from I always remember the trip when I wear those pieces
My standard travel souvenir is a post card! I'll get one or two for each location we visit and then write what we did on the back. Post cards are available everywhere I've been, it turns it into a fun little travel journal, takes up basically no space in my house, I have professional pictures of the major sights we saw, and the footprint of a post card is negligible in my book.
During a trip to California (Texas here ✋), we thrifted 2 bikes that went all the way to Yosemite and ended up in Santa Cruz after we donated them to a local bike repair shop. Fun times!
If anyone is thinking about visiting Washington DC in the future I have a few helpful tidbits: 1. Fly into DCA if you can, not Dulles. Our metro connects directly to that airport so you don’t have to get a Lyft :) 2. We have tons of delicious vegan spots, but my three favorites are Smoke & Barrel (BBQ), Bubbies (burgers and fried chick’n), and Busboys & Poets (brunch). 3. Aim for NW neighborhoods. Capitol Hill, while very touristy, is a bit of a food desert Bonus: you can take Amtrak just about anywhere on the east coast from DC! Check out Baltimore, Philly, or NYC on your trip to make the most of your time :)
When I personally buy souvenirs, I'll generally look for a top or sweater that I just love. I used to buy ones with locations written on them, but I never wore them. So now I just look for something I genuinely love, and I just know that I purchased it on a trip
literally all i wanna do is travel, but i'm always nervous about harming the planet more. so this is the video i've needed for years!! thanks shelbi :)
we all have to give & take, right? I stopped travelling for a couple years for that same reason before I realized it was something I would 100% regret on my death bed. I'm always just doing the best I can!
For hotels and such I look for nice mom and pop bed and breakfast places. Supporting small local places versus big uber hotels and getting 1 souvenir that is meaningful versus just crap is worth more than just taking pictures.
Thank you SO MUCH for talking about Leave No Trace and lessening the impact on the local environment. I work for a well-known land management agency (think green uniforms and funny hats) and I cannot stress enough how important it is to follow local guidelines.
I'm literally packing for a trip later today, so the timing of this video is impeccable! My husband and I are staying in DC for our anniversary since it's the nearest big city and we don't want to go far bc of Covid. I'm so excited to take the metro into the city and not have to drive. We're staying at an eco-conscious hotel and plan to do a lot of outdoor activities. People ask why we take trips to nearby places, but I think it's fun to discover new stuff close to home.
I would honestly love if it was the norm for travel agents to know about and be able to advise their clients on sustainable travel! Reduces the need for everyday people to become experts in yet another sustainability topic.
I can reduce a lot of things in my life but having my family and friends all over the US, traveling is not one of those things. Thank you so much for these great tips!
I personally like to buy backpacks and travel bags from one of the outdoor brands who has lifetime warranty (my faviourite is Osprey) You can mail them you backpack (even second handed ones) and they will either repair it for you, or if it is too old to repair, they will send you a new one. The quality are usually very good, and the functionality of the packs are awesome.
If I go back to Kauai I'd like to volunteer to walk shelter dogs, I met someone who was doing that and got to spend the whole day with a dog from the shelter. It sounded so fun!
WHAT?! I HAD NO IDEA LYFT OFFSET THEIR FOOTPRINT! That's awesome. I use uber or lyft (whichever has a cheaper estimated total) each morning for work and then take an electric bike or scooter home since I don't have a vehicle. Definitely gonna start choosing Lyft more often now.
Hoping to study abroad in china next summer, and while I can't follow all of these tips (I can't control what hotel we stay in, for instance, or what transportation they use to get us to educational sites), I will definitely be following ones like local/secondhand souvenirs, renting bikes when possible, and light packing (currently thrifting my way toward a capsule wardrobe)! And as someone who has dreams of travelling once I'm a real adult (currently undergrad and premed so a long way off lol), this video is a great reminder to build sustainability into my travel habits from the moment I start!
Not sure if you have this on your list but please consider evaluating the Trader Joe’s shampoo bar. It’s pretty inexpensive and one of the more easily found.
Great tip about bringing your own reusables with food already in them! I love being in the airport and being able to whip out home made food. Better for the wallet and for the planet, and, let's be honest, it always tastes better, too.
When i saw this on my feed I was like…how the heck did Shelbi know I have a trip coming up and then i realized this is the time that literally everyone travels🥴 amazing timing, we all needed this
I literally just got home from my vacation to the beach, and this would have been helpful then! 😆. I do think I did a pretty decent job traveling though! Great video, Shelbi 💚
My husband (who I married before I started my eco-journey) is really slow to change (very much a "I like what I like" person) So could you do a video on how to convince people who are like that to try more eco friendly alternatives. To be clear - he supports me being more eco friendly, but he is also very stubborn when I try more eco brands
I know shelbi has said in the past when people asked this that you can't try to convince/force someone o change and be for sustainable. All you can really do is lead by example so to say and hope that they will come around and follow your lead. x
We were lucky enough to go to Hawaii for our honeymoon, and we were able to take a dog from the Humane Society on a hike. Then you can leave comments about the dog to help them get adopted! Highly recommend checking that out wherever you travel.
Loved the suggestion of volunteering where you visit! I'm definitely a supporter of volunteerism and your video inspired me to check with an organization that I support already through donations to see if they will let me volunteer while I am visiting them. Thanks!
i’m literally getting on a plane to texas in like 4 hours so this was perfect timing!! keep up the amazing work shelbi you’re so inspiring and amazing at what you do:)
Soooo happy that you made this video, I’m sure it’ll be super helpful for people as I think we can quickly forget to think about how we can make our travels more sustainable. I just bought a great suitcase from a thrift store for £15 and I’m super excited about it! Also yay you finally got a new backpack!
My friend and I are planning to go to Japan next year (so yeah, higher carbon footprint). I went there years ago, but I really want to go back (and my friend is fluent in the language). Good to know about Stasher bags being TSA-approved!
I can finally be the commenter who says that a video came just in time! There are some great ideas in here that I'll use for my upcoming trip, thank you!
Shelbi I'd love to see a deep dive on ferries vs flights. I live in Ireland and from Scotland and can't decide what's better. The ferries are huge and noisy for marine life but would probably run for freight anyway. But I'd love to see a comparison
I’m headed to Seattle next month to visit family. I already implement many of these tips but I’ve learned something new and will be implementing even more sustainability tips on this trip-thanks!!
Have we (as a community) considered a Discord or other system? I know I'd love a central place for us to pick each other's brains on travel, favorite workarounds, etc. For instance, I travel to Dahlonega, GA this year for a wedding and I'm having the hardest time making it more eco.
We had 2 trips planned for this summer. one to finally introduce our baby to our family that's a 10 hr drive away and a 2nd trip 11 hrs away bc I was a bridesmaid in a wedding. Separately these trips would have been 42 hours combined. Instead we went to visit family, then wedding, then home. Made it 37 hr drive instead. I'm an exclusive pumping mom so it required a lot of packing just to feed my baby😅
Thank you for this! We've entered a new phase of life that unfortunately will involve transatlantic flights every year or two. I want to do everything we can to reduce our impact from those flights, as well as in our daily life to help further offset that travel.
Our favorite souveniors (if it's not something someone specifically wants) are chocolate and wine. Wine bottles of course are recyclable and on our last trip I found a chocolate bar that was packaged in paper and a home compostable wrapper.
A few things: Signing up for Go Climate TODAY! This is such a great way to help mamma earth. Volunteering in my local community is a struggle at the moment because I’m doing seasonal work rn in AK, but this is super motivating to do volunteer work wherever I can, especially traveling. Love this idea. **pale skin needs sunscreen but all of, dark or light need to protect our skin. *cough *cough Madison…
@Rachel Smith first of all, I didn’t say Madison needed to put the sunscreen on in front of us. Second of all, when did I say they weren’t educated?? Oh I DIDNT. Pale skin does burn quicker but we should include all skin types when addressing, every time, that people should wear sunscreen. Don’t assume ignorance.
Hey Shelbizlee, I was wondering if you had any suggestions on where to purchase beach towels that are eco-friendly/sustainable? What do you have? I’m hoping to hear back from you because I have been searching for about a year now and after an Etsy Turkish towel fail I’m skeptical but want the perfect ones. Thanks for your time!
I will say I’ve done my fair share of research into flying during my recent surge of eco anxiety if you are going to fly it better to do medium trips, as short hauls flights are more wasteful. I research a lot into flying because being British and want to be a filmmaker and recently got really worried about accessibility to America which is really hard without flying
This was perfect timing! I’ll be going to San Fran in a couple days! The stasher bags with the shampoo bars is such a good idea thank you!! I hope you had fun😁✨
Thank you! So many helpful tips here. Even if I don't travel far, which isn't in the plans for a while... I can use them for "traveling" around the area where I live, or down the road an hour or so for day trips. And, no doubt, I'll be thrifting my souvenirs!
as a teen i went to where you went at the bridge and i cycled across it and it’s a little slanted and it was absolute hell because it’s so long at you go up but it was fun
I have a question : How do you check the sustainability of different brands? Like, their certification, whether or not they are as sustainable as they claim etc.
I am very lucky to live in Europe where public transportation is generally very good. I try to avoid flying as much as I can and travel by train instead. Great video and I am glad you mentioned flying less because it often gets overlooked yet it has such an immense impact on our footprint!
Fly in the cheapest fare class, and try to choose full flights on big planes? (that's not always practical if you're limited by specific times) I know people like to complain about planes being crowded or not having a lot of leg room, but I'm always happy when I get on a really full flight because it makes me feel like the damage to the environment is being balanced by the benefit to as many people as possible.
I actually like storing my shampoo and conditioner bars in little soap pouches (i knit my own). That way, it's easier to hang them up to dry, and especially if I'm going out that day and they're not dry, I can hang them on my backpack and not have to deal with them getting wet c:
Probably worth adding that some airlines will give you an option to pay more to 'offset' the emissions. I can't remember the reference for it, but I'm sure research showed that a far better use of that extra money would be to use it on Gold standard offsets (such as Go climate) or initiatives like Treedom, because the airlines will just use the cheapest ones they can call 'offset'.
In September I will be heading off to Uganda to do a voluntary service there for a year. I am veery excited to see how environmentally friendly I can make this experience :)
Our rule for traveling is, staying twice as long as the drive. So if we flew somewhere and it took 6 hours, but normally would take 2 days to drive, we're staying for at last 4 or more days at our destination.
Shelbi! I appreciate you so much. Your video shares such a complete view of what I can consider when traveling. Volunteering and supporting the locals are things I can look into more. Happy Cow is a very convenient application/website for sure. I wish you (and whoever else is reading this) a lovely day! :-)
My dad used to work at trash sorting place (i don't know how do you call that) but thanks to that i have my 2 trusty siutcases. Now they are a little bit broken but i have them 6 years. And someone throw them away as trash. I plan on using them for years.
Would you share the name ofvthe sunscreen you were applying and or others you would recommend? Thank you for being considerate of our beautiful manatees here is Flordia as theyvare currently struggling. As always great video.
hii i'm not sure if you'll see this but I want to start buying more from sustainable brands (: I know you use earth hero, but have you ever tried mindful goods or have any thoughts on it?
hi shelby! how are you liking the backpack you got & where is it from? i love the color and style and tried clicking the link but it won't work for me :(
Definitely good to also calculate the carbon costs of flying vs driving too! I usually drove from SF to LA/OC (~8 hours one way) and I calculated that with my camry going one way gave off more carbon than a round trip flight!
Nice, love how you covered the train option as it is one of the least polluting way to travel. Perhaps do a bike trip next time? Bikes are fantastic machines, no pollution, no noise and super cheap! You and Madison could bike with Levi Hildebrand and Leah! And good on you for wearing masks and mentioning this strange semi post covid time.
@@alyssahayes268 Well, it depends hugely on where in the world you are. I know that many north american cities are lagging behind a lot but there are nice cities where you can do long bike trips. I know that the previously mentioned Levi Hildebrand does a lot of cycling in Toronto, Montreal seems to have decent bike infra from what I've seen. Then we also have stars like Amsterdam and Copenhagen, and cities in between like Stockholm and Malmö. Before the pandemonium I did a bit more than 20 km/day to and from my rural university. But even for shorter day to day trips the bike is very useful! :)
@@Phalaenopsisify When I was in college, I used to bike as my primary form of transportation, but here in America, a bike is not very useful for long distances because outside of a downtown area, everything is sooo spread out and the roads are not bike-friendly. Very few airports are close enough to bike to.
