Holidays to help charity
Charitable Travel is the first of its kind, allowing customers to book a holiday to anywhere in the world and donate five per cent of their holiday price to a UK registered charity of their choice through a partnership with JustGiving. Making the donation doesn’t cost you a penny, as Charitable Travel sacrifices the travel agency commission.
Charitable Travel are already working with Just a Drop – a charity that transforms lives by bringing sustainable safe water, sanitation, and hygiene projects to communities across the world – and My Life Films, who are dedicated to improving the lives of people affected by dementia.
• Book a trip to Malta in May 2022 from £695 per person for seven nights, including your flight, and this would mean that a £70 donation could be donated to your favourite charity if you make the booking through Charitable.travel
Book a local tour guide
What better way to find out more about an area or country than with a local guide? It’s a great way to engage, learn and share different experiences and find out more about the culture. Toursbylocals.com offers over 4590 guides in 193 countries.
Ljubljana in Slovenia was the first European city to commit to a zero-waste goal. According to local guide Ivana, “Ljubljana has transformed itself into a remarkably green and sustainability-oriented city. We have more than 500m2 of green surfaces per capita. Almost half of the municipality is covered in a forest and 20 per cent is under some sort of protection status.”
On this delightful tour, you’ll visit the green parts of Ljubljanica river, Tivoli Park and up to the popular Ljubljana Castle and Rožnik hills. For those wanting a break from walking, a ride on Ljubljana’s Urban electric train is perfect for getting around without worrying about your carbon footprint. Guests will learn all about Ljubljana’s transition to becoming the Green Capital of Europe in 2016. Ivana shares insight into her life in the city and how it has changed since she was a kid.
• The Secrets of Green Ljubljana tour takes around 5 hrs 30 mins. It costs £204 per tour for up to ten people. Extra costs include food and any personal expenses. To book, visit Toursbylocals.com
Sail on a sustainable ship
The new A-Rosa Emotion Cruise Ship (aka Arosa E-Motion) will feature new on-board technology to reduce the line’s environmental footprint. This ship is greener than anything seen on the river before, using an “E-Motion” concept that is truly innovative. The hybrid propulsion system ship combines a diesel engine and a separate electric engine, which is powered by batteries. This means that when approaching a port, the ship can switch to battery power, enabling it to arrive almost silently and emission-free. The battery can be charged overnight, allowing the ship to depart the city in the same way. It also features an optimised hull design that will additionally help to reduce emissions.
• You can experience it for yourself by booking the seven-night “Rhine Discovery Amsterdam and Rotterdam” cruise, which costs from £1,369 per person based on 22 October 2022 departure from Visioncruise.co.uk. Starting in Cologne, the ship will travel to Amsterdam (overnight), Rotterdam (overnight), Dordrecht and Antwerp before returning to Cologne. Price includes return flights from London Stansted, seven nights on a premium all-inclusive basis, plus transfers to and from the ship. Based on two sharing.
Stay in a green hotel in the city
Fancy a trip to London, but don’t want all the hustle and bustle that comes with it? The Inhabit Hotel isn’t your usual city stay. This mindful boutique hotel has banned all single use plastics and is decked out with ethical furniture. In each of the bedrooms, the beds are tipped with eco-friendly VOC-free mattresses, and bathrooms are stocked with sustainably sourced bio-active ingredients from Ren. Air filtration systems from Airlabs have been installed in public areas, and a meditation pod can be found in reception. The hotel’s café focuses on plant-based cuisine, with all food and drink supplied from Yeotown Health Food Kitchen, and they have also partnered with food wastage apps like Karma and Too Good To Go, to sell reduced-price food that would otherwise be thrown away during a daily happy hour! You can also hire a Tokyobike to get you around. To help you get a good night’s kip, they provide mobile phone boxes – an up-cycled handmade box for stowing away and charging your mobile devices in your room, designed to aid restful sleep.
• Nightly rates at Inhabit Hotel on Southwick Street start from £150, based on two sharing. Inhabithotels.com
Please check Gov.uk/guidance/travel-advice-novel-coronavirus for travelling advice following the outbreak of the coronavirus