About us
What is greentraveller?
greentraveller is a website that provides information on how to have a green holiday.
We feature lots of amazing trips that can be conveniently reached by train, as well as a range of green and gorgeous places to stay in the UK and abroad. We also have a blog packed with tips on how to go green from leading eco travel writers. If you need help finding your way around the site, see our quick tour of greentraveller.
What is green travel?
Let's face it, few holidays are 100% green. Most trips involve taking some form of motorised transport and unavoidably contribute to carbon emissions. Greentraveller shows how you can plan a holiday that keeps these emissions down to a minimum. If it wasn't such a mouthful, we'd name the site: greener traveller.
Who are we?
The website was founded in 2006 by travel journalist Richard Hammond - the co-author of Clean Breaks - 500 new ways to see the world (Rough Guides) and travel editor of National Geographic Green magazine.
Greentraveller began as a blog – set up while Richard was writing a weekly green travel column in the Guardian newspaper. He received so much correspondence that he created the greentraveller forum for readers to debate the issues online. Over the last three years the website has attracted a huge amount of attention (in November it was awarded the British Travel Press Travel Editors’ Green Award) so he has now decided to take it up a level to provide a more comprehensive guide to green holidays. The new site was launched in January 2010, and is still managed by Richard but he now has the help of a small team of writers and researchers (see The Team).
What’s new about the re-launched site?
We've received a terrific boost to the blog thanks to the contributions of several leading travel writers, including Anna Shepard, Paul Miles and Catherine Mack. The most popular comment (Is cargo ship travel sustainable?) has been read over 19,000 times and the most popular feature (Treehouse holidays in Europe) has been read over 23,000 times.
In addition to the blog, the new site has a listing of lots of fabulous green places to stay (with reviews from our writers and inspectors who have visited some of the featured places) as well as low impact holidays that can be conveniently reached by train. We have also created a new feature Plan your journey by train, which gives practical advice (including prices and sample itineraries) for over 50 train journeys from London St Pancras International to Europe as well as suggestions for stopover hotels in Paris, Lille and Brussels as well as further afield in Cologne, Madrid and Copenhagen and even as far as Morocco. Our latest addition is a detailed page on How to travel to and from Ireland without flying.
We also send out a monthly e-newsletter, with the latest tips for green holidays and rail and ferry journeys in the UK and Europe. See a sample e-newsletter. To sign up, either register or if you are already signed in, select 'My account' (top left) and go to manage your subscriptions.
How can you have a greener holiday?
The single most effective thing we believe you can do to go green is to minimise your carbon emissions by taking the train rather than the plane. However, while rail and ferry travel is often considered the most eco-friendly form of motorised transport, a low emissions car with three or more passengers can be just as carbon efficient, as can a full coach.
If you’d like to know more about the emissions of various modes of transport, see Forum for the Future's Overland Heaven Project. As the report concludes: "Europe is criss-crossed with high-speed, low-carbon rail and coach links, which offer a practical and exciting overland alternative to flying, and the Channel Tunnel puts it all on our doorstep".
The second most effective thing we believe you can do to have a greener holiday is to choose a more eco-friendly place to stay. When judging the green credentials of hotels, villas and self-catering apartments, we look at five key factors:
- how it reduces its draw on energy
- how it minimises the amount of waste it sends to landfill
- how it minimises its consumption of water
- how much of the food it serves is sourced locally (as much as possible)
- whether it actively encourages guests to arrive by public transport.
A word on greenwashing
Key ‘ecotourism’ or ‘responsible travel’ into an internet search engine and it throws up so many results it can be difficult to be sure that any are the genuine article. Similar search terms, such as “ethical” and “sustainable” are becoming just as overused (and abused) by tourism companies looking to cash in on the green wave.
The places to stay that are featured on greentraveller have either been visited by one of our travel writers/inspectors (yes, someone actually goes to check out what the place is like!) or we make sure the place is up to scratch by checking with one of our local contacts and looking to see if it has been certified by a recognised eco label where a trained inspector has visited the property (such as Green Tourism Business Scheme). Those places that have been inspected by us are flagged up as 'Reviewed by greentraveller'.
In February we published the Green Travel List - a list of the top green travel and tourism companies, which was published in the Guardian newspaper in association with Forum for the Future.
Not the bloke on Top Gear... though I've got used to the disappointment when I turn up to review a hotel and the mates of the owner's son have come to meet the TV celebrity and not me. But anyway, here I am, the founder of greentraveller and generally the bloke who looks after the site. It all came about three years ago while I was writing a green travel column for the Guardian and I just couldn't adequately deal with the piles of correspondence sent in from readers. So I set up greentraveller as an online forum and as a resource to link to all the places I'd visited. In the last couple of years there has been a surge in interest in the site (in November greentraveller was awarded the British Travel Press Green Award) so I figured it was high time it stepped up a gear. In November 2009, I hired Julien Queyrane to design a new site, hooked up with Anouk and Catherine and the rest of the team below, and we re-launched the site in January.
As well as managing greentraveller, I'm the travel editor of National Geographic's Green magazine (quarterly) and write a monthly column, The Responsible Traveller, for Geographical magazine (the magazine of the Royal Geographical Society) and have recently co-written ‘Clean Breaks – 500 New Ways to See the World’, published by Rough Guides (right).
Over the last ten years, you may have read articles I've written on green travel in BBC Wildlife, BBC Countryfile, Community Care, The Ecologist, Eve Magazine, Green Futures, Harper's Bizarre, ivillage.co.uk, Livewire, Marie Claire, The Observer, Resurgence, Sunday Times Travel magazine, The Times, Timesonline and Wanderlust.
I've also written several analyst reports for Mintel, including ‘Redefining Ecotourism’, ‘Sustainable Tourism in the Travel Industry’ and ‘Tourism and Poverty Alleviation’, am an inspector for the WTTC Tourism for Tomorrow Awards, am the special advisor on sustainable tourism to the Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO). I was the editor of Green Places to Stay (for the green trailblazer/publishing guru Alastair Sawday) and I was the Contributing Editor to the Travel Channel's six part TV series How to Holiday Greener. Phew, if there was more space I'd love to write more about my recent swimming holiday in the Inner Hebrides, but just before I go, we're all writing about our favourite trips so here's mine: take the Train to Nice then island-hop cross Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily before returning back by Train from Sicily to London via Rome. Now here's Anouk...
Originally from Holland (hence the tulips), but born in Belgium - a short hop on the Eurostar from where I now live in London. In a previous life I worked at the Futures Company, making short films and interviewing people across the country about wide-ranging issues such as debt and parenting. I also ran a blog about slow travel called 'slowmoves' with my friend George (see below), all about travelling overland, taking the time to absorb the sights and landscapes and acclimatising to a new place.
Green travel for me is about discovering unique, off-the-beaten track places and getting immersed in local culture, whether that means staying in a family-run bed & breakfast, volunteering on an organic farm in Haute-Savoie or being shown around by locals in Slovenia. I have recently been to Burgundy, the Black Sea coast, Cornwall, and Emilia Romagna. Where next? Montenegro!
It's the people who always sell a place to me, and that is why they often feature in my travel articles. They are the real key to ensuring a truly responsible form of tourism in the future. Plus I am Irish, so I am a sucker for people and their stories. I am now living in London, and I combine travel writing with full time parenting, which calls for serious juggling sometimes. My best travel moments since completing my Msc. in Responsible Tourism Management in 2007 include: travelling round Ireland to write my book, ecoescape:Ireland (but it did make me pretty homesick); swimming from one Croatian island to the next on a Swimtrek holiday, watching my sons being taught to climb to the top of a sixty foot oak tree on the Isle of Wight, and walking with a donkey in the Alps for a week. Writing a regular slot as Ethical Traveller columnist in The Irish Times keeps me on my toes too. I am on a mission to get local food production linked in with tourism whenever possible. But one of my greatest ambitions is to see the opening of a high speed tunnel rail link from UK to Ireland within my lifetime. For more info on my work, see my website, Ethical Traveller
Anna wrote the Eco Worrier column in The Times for four years and her book, How Green Are My Wellies - Small Steps And Giant Leaps To Green Living With Style, published by Transworld in 2008, was shortlisted for a Clarion Award.
You may have also seen Anna on radio and TV, including BBC News 24, Countryfile, Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio Wales and she has contributed to many national newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian, The Telegraph, Prospect magazine, Red magazine, Elle magazine and The Ecologist.
Anna has recently been on a snowshoeing holiday in the Pyrenees and travelled by train to Marrakech. Now that there is a new addition to her family – her son Owen – she says she is "honing the art of the perfect family-friendly UK-based holiday that neither damages the planet nor breaks the bank. If a babysitter is thrown into the equation, all the better."
Philippa is Features Editor on the renowned travel industry newspaper Travel Trade Gazette, where she writes about responsible tourism alongside the business of travel as much as she can.
She has her own blog, Greenspaced, which explores green travel, conservation, and whatever other green issues are bothering her at the time. For greentraveller, she’ll be concentrating on wildlife holidays, voluntourism and diving, and also green travel options which make the most of the coastal areas and islands right here in the UK.
Philippa has just started volunteering for the RSPB, so at weekends you’ll find her helping people to appreciate the wildlife of London. Some of her favourite holiday experiences have been killer whale-watching in the fjords of Norway and diving with wild dolphins, but she knows she can’t put off diving British waters much longer, and is already bracing herself for the cold...
Adriana is our 'special projects manager' and coordinates the Green Travel List, which is organised by greentraveller in association with Forum for the Future and was published in the Guardian in February.
Adriana comes from a dance/art background and speaks French in addition to her native Spanish. She has an undergraduate degree in Tourism Business Administration and a MA in Tourism, Environment and Development from Kings College of London. She has previously worked as an intern at the World Travel and Tourism Council on Corporate Responsibility.
John (with Olivia) has created all the wonderful train journey itineraries in our Plan your Journey feature. He has joined greentraveller after interning at the Independent and Ink Publishing, and he is also a content editor of and major contributor to Where’s Cool. John has a first class degree from Edinburgh University where he was co-founder and editor-in-chief of a student travel magazine On the Road.
We've been lucky to have the benefit of Olivia's perspicacity and insight when we were planning the relaunch of greentraveller. She has also researched many of the train and ferry routes in the Plan your Journey feature. When not on holiday, she works as an event organiser and cook, and arranges all kinds of events from a chamber music festival in the Wye Valley to classic car adventure holidays in South East Asia. Here she is on a train from Rawalpindi with the train conductor's sons.
George is one of greentraveller's roaming, roving, 'at large' contributors. After a [green-motivated] decision to stop flying, George has taken the train all over Europe to go walking the GR20 in Corsica, ski touring in the high Alps and cycling the coast between Bordeaux and Biarritz. He works full time (coordinating companies’ delivery of corporate social responsibility commitments in London's East End) so he says his blogs on greentraveller "will show how 20-odd days holiday a year doesn’t stop you from making the most of a journey".
We can’t think of a mainstream newspaper or travel magazine that hasn’t featured green travel over the last 18 months. The press coverage of greentraveller has to some extent mirrored the increase in interest in low impact holidays. Conde Nast Traveller, the Guardian, the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, Marie Claire are just a few of the titles that have mentioned greentraveller. It’s clear that green is no longer extreme.
If you have a press or media enquiry, please contact Richard Hammond: info AT greentraveller.co.uk
Here’s a snapshot of some of the press coverage of greentraveller:
9 July 2010: Sunday Times journalist and SEO expert Mark Hodson tweets: “I am increasingly impressed with Richard’s website: www.greentraveller.co.uk. Sets high standards.”
25 May 2010: Greentraveller’s Richard Hammond writes about ‘Ecotourism Breaks‘ in BBC Countryfile
19 May 2010: Greentraveller’s rail planner mentioned by Tom Hall (Lonely Planet) in Guardian’s Live travel Q&A today.
15 May 2010: Greentraveller’s Richard Hammond writes about Responsible Whale-watching Holidays in Geographical – the magazine of the Royal Geographic Society.
10 May 2010: Greentraveller’s Richard Hammond profiles swimming holidays in National Geographic GREEN magazine supplement
20 April 2010: Greentraveller’s Richard Hammond is interviewed on BBC Radio Wales on the consequences for alternative transport in the wake of the ash fall out.
16 March 2010: Greentraveller’s Richard Hammond quoted in this Times article on sustainability in the hotel industry: The Business of going green
7 March 2010: Greentraveller’s Catherine Mack profiles Eco Breaks in the UK in Geographical -the magazine of the Royal Geographic Society.
25 February 2010: greentraveller’s entire Green Travel List is published in the Guardian newspaper, in association with Forum for the Future
3 February 2010: greentraveller profiled as Mail Online’s Website of the Week
2 February 2010: greentraveller named as One of Europe’s Best Travel Blogs by Vintage Travel.
1 February 2010: Guardian features the relaunch of greentraveller: “Guardian: Award-winning green travel forum and blog, has relaunched with new trip-planning and booking tools“
29 January 2010: greentraveller.co.uk relaunches.
January 2010: Writing in Condé Nast Traveller, travel writer guru Nick Trend awards greentraveller four stars and describes it as “Quirky and personal, with a really genuine feel to it”
November 2009: greentraveller wins the British Travel Press Travel Editors’ Green Award
October 2009: greentraveller named in the Telegraph’s list of the best travel websites
September 2009: greentraveller recommended for ‘greener getaways’ by the Energy Savings Trust
September 2009: greentraveller recommended on ratedpeople.com
August 2009: greentraveller’s Richard Hammond interviewed by John McCarthy on BBC Radio Four’s Excess Baggage
August 2009: greentraveller recommended on gadlinks.com
July 2009: greentraveller named as best British eco travel blog and 7th best eco travel blog in the world in the Tripbase Travel blog awards.
July 2009: greentraveller featured in The Telegraph’s list of ‘The Best Travel Websites’.
June 2009: greentraveller recommended in the Ecologist magazine
June 2009: greentraveller included in Cision’s Top Ten Travel blogs
April 2009: greentraveller listed in The Independent’s article on the 50 Best Travel Websites.
March 2009: greentraveller featured on Green Lashes and Fashion.
March 2009: greentraveller is described by Timesonline as “The leading British website for eco travel – great for news, green travel tips and inspiration for a low-impact holiday.”
January 2009: greentraveller recommended in The Daily Mail’s ‘Green Scene’: Reduce your carbon footprint in the sand
December 2008: greentraveller listed as one of the top ten green travel sites by jamblemag.com. December 2008: greentraveller featured on maketravelfair.co.uk
August 2008: greentraveller named as one of judges “favourite websites” in the Green Web Awards.
July 2008: Sheherazade Goldsmith recommends greentraveller in her Daily Mail Green Scene column.
July 2008: greentraveller’s Google rating goes up a notch to 5/10.
June 2008: Fragile Earth’s What About China? recommends greentraveller.co.uk.
May 2008: Alastair Sawdays’s Go Slow England recommends greentraveller.co.uk.
April 2008: greentraveller recommended by BBC Bloom (the BBC’s green lifestyle website)
April 2008: Channel 4’s Green Pages recommends greentraveller.co.uk.
March 2008: The Irish Times recommends greentraveller.co.uk.
February 2008: Raise magazine recommends greentraveller.co.uk.
January 2008: Planeta.com in conversation with greentraveller’s editor.
December 2007: Marie Claire magazine recommends greentraveller.co.uk.
November 2007: The Mail on Sunday recommends greentraveller.co.uk.
November 2007: Tesco Greenerliving calls on greentraveller.co.uk to offer green travel advice.
October 2007: Sunday Times names greentraveller.co.uk as one of five ‘Best On The Net’ and says greentraveller is “a site we should all be using more often. The journalist Richard Hammond’s web pages are the first place to look for green holidays and for discussions on environmental issues.”
June/July 2007: The Green Parent magazine recommends greentraveller.co.uk.
June 2007: Timesonline names greentraveller.co.uk as one of its 100 best travel websites.
May 2007: Whatprice? recommends greentraveller.co.uk.
November 2006: Guardian Unlimited profiles greentraveller.co.uk as ‘Site of the Week’.
October 2006: greentraveller.co.uk launches.
