On a quest to a more sustainable way of travelling

If you haven’t taken a moment during all this time to reflect on why you travel and how you do it I encourage you to do it now, with me.

I am not perfect by any means and I have to admit that 2019 was a weird year for me travelling-wise. Let me explain myself: I did work for most of the time and afterwards once I quit, I decided that I had to travel. I didn’t have a particular and well thought out plan, I didn’t take the time to answer to myself on why I wanted to travel; I just did it. I planned to go to the Pyrenees for a work camp, then a week off with my mother to the Bavarian Alps, after it three weeks to China to visit a friend of mine ‘just because’ and two weeks after my comeback, another week off with my mother to Gothenburg, Sweden. When I was in China, already during my first week I felt the need to go back home and stop moving around and travelling overall ‘just because’. But I kept on going. I lost the meaning of why I was travelling; I didn’t do it because I was deeply feeling it but rather to fill in that void of not travelling for more than half a year. And it didn’t do me any good.

By the end of 2019, an acquaintance of mine opened my eyes on the urgent need that we live nowadays to rethink why we travel and change the way we do it (she didn’t say it with nice words so I don’t think it was the best way to go about it). But I am going to try so for you.

In the era we live in, we have lost touch with why we do what we do and how we do it. We seem to care less and less about the choices we make when it comes to travelling. The environment has been screaming out loud directly into our faces but, still, we look in the opposite direction. Some of us might buy the most expensive smartphone in the market (without doing any research on how it was made) but then want to spend the least when it comes to travel (again, because it’s easier, it’s the way the markets and big companies want it to go and so we avoid doing any research on what might be the best choice). Isn’t it kind of hypocritical of us all to search for the cheapest flights on the most expensive phones? Why spend so much on some material things and less on experiences that will last a lifetime?

I am going to be completely honest with you and say yes to travel. I like the way it makes me feel when I do it because I truly desire it and all the good memories, people and knowledge about other cultures and lifestyles it brings into my life. So, of course, I am not going to stop travelling, but I am going to start making wiser choices, doing some research on which one is the best, the greenest and the most affordable way of travelling depending on my budget, as well as keep doing and working on long-term travel which will do better both me and the environment.

And you? What are you going to do to change the way you travel and how you do it?