Hurricane season is from June 1st to November 30th, but the peak hurricane season is during the months of August and September. You’ll take a risk of getting more rain during this time, but the prices may be cheapers at hotels and tourist attractions. March, April, and May boast the best months for weather in the Keys, but there really isn’t a bad time to visit. It just depends on how hot you’d like it to be while staying there. So, have we convinced you to visit yet?
(Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:00:25 GMT)
10 Tips For Saving Money While Traveling Green
In today’s post we’ll be combining two things that we love: saving money and traveling green. Recently, we highlighted a study that revealed that most Americans are not ready to pay the extra money for traveling green. Well, we believe that the premise of this study is a little skewed, because there are plenty of ways to save money while still traveling more green. Many travelers have this notion that traveling green means visiting eco-friendly locations. While this is one element of traveling green, it’s certainly not the breadth of what traveling green entails. Traveling green means doing everything you can while you travel to keep your carbon and waste footprint as light as possible. Here are ten tips that help you save money and travel green at the same time. - Pack a small, carry-on suitcase. By packing lighter, you are reducing the weight of the airplane, which will effectively reduce the amount of emissions the plane exerts while in flight. And if you carry on, you’ll avoid checked baggage fees that many airlines have adopted as a source of additional revenue. I recently flew to Los Angeles and my bag was slightly too big to carry on, so United made me pay an extra $20 to check the bag, each way!
- Stay with friends, family, and acquaintances. I don’t recommend this is you want to have a real vacation, but it’s a great thought for business travel if you’ll be in a city with a friend or family member that you can crash with. You’ll save money on a hotel, and you’ll avoid all of the pitfalls in green travel by not staying in a hotel. Hotels use an enormous amount of energy and resources each day, so skipping out on a hotel stay every now and then will help.
- Use a Home Exchange Service. It sounds weird to let a stranger stay in your home while you aren’t there, but if you have a nice house in an area desirable for tourists, you could equally find an upstanding couple willing to lend out their home in the mountains or on the beach for a week. Again, the idea here is that you avoid staying in a hotel, plus you get the benefits of cooking meals and getting a feel for a local neighborhood. There are many home exchange services, just type in “home exchange” in Google, and find a reputable agency to help you make the deal.
- Bring a Water Bottle. The re-usable water bottle should be a staple item for any green traveler. Not only can you save a lot of money on drinks while you are traveling, you’ll help the environment by not throwing away a water bottle every few hours.
- Maintenance Your Car. If you’re traveling by car, you’ll spend some extra money to maintenance your car before travel, but you’ll make that money back from the fuel savings. Get an oil change, inflate your tires to proper pressure levels, change the air filter, and fill up the first time with premium octane fuel. Your car will thank you by performing better and eating less gas.
- Travel With A Partner. Do you travel a lot for business on the road? Do you have other professionals andhttp://www.rezhub.com/or co-workers that drive similar routes as you? Then, car pool together a few times. You’ll be able to get work done while your partner is driving, and you’ll save money on gas.
- Use Public Transit. If you are traveling to a big city with good public transit, don’t even think about renting a car. When we backpacked in Europe, we used the rail systems in London, Paris, and Rome, and it was much quicker and much more efficient to use that rather than a cab or a rental car.
- Buy Toiletries In Bulk. We all know that buying in bulk can save you money, but the containers toiletries come in are not travel friendly. Instead of buying travel-sized bottles every time you travel, buy clear, re-usable travel bottles and fill them up with shampoo, body wash, hair gel, hair spray, etc.
- Turn The Air Up and Unplug Appliances While Away. Don’t turn the air or furnace off while you’re gone. in hot weather, you’ll run the risk of mold growing in your home, and in cold weather, your pipes could freeze up and burst. But, you also don’t need it as low as if you were in your house, so kick it up or down a few notches, depending on the weather. Appliances use energy when they are plugged into the wall, even if they aren’t turned on. Unplug all of your stuff before you leave. This will also protect your electronics and appliances if you live in an area prone to lightning strikes.
- Choose a Green Hotel. RezHub.com offers a sophisticated green score rating system to rate hotels based on how “green” they are. We do the research for you, and all you need to do is decide on which hotel to make a reservation!
(Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:50:54 GMT)
Are Americans Reluctant To Pay More For Green Travel?
Recently, the July edition of Travel Horizons co-authored by the U.S. Travel Association and the YPartnership, came out with a study stating that Amercian travelers are more aware of sustainable travel, but they are remain unwilling to pay more for it. As a travel booking company that focuses on helping travelers make their travels more environmentally friendly, we were intrigued by this new study and what it meant. Familiarity with green travel terms and awareness of what “green travel” means have increased dramatically in the past two years, but according to this study, only 9 percent of consumers say they are willing to pay more to use travel service suppliers that offer eco-friendly options for travelers, and only three percent have purchased a carbon offset when booking travel.
Still Good News For Companies With A Green Initiative
A quote from their press release:
“Although consumers are reluctant to pay more to support green travel service suppliers, they are definitely paying attention to those who are green, even in this down economy,' said Peter Yesawich, chairman and CEO of Ypartnership. 'Travel service suppliers should therefore continue to adopt green practices that have a minimum impact on consumers' wallets.”
Other key findings:
- While consumers believe travel service suppliers should be good stewards of their environment, over half (54%) also believe that individuals themselves have the greatest responsibility for preserving and protecting the environment.
We completely agree with this!
- Six out of ten (58%) travelers say they believe that environmental programs by travel service suppliers could have a positive effect on the environment.
They Do! To increase awareness of green travel, we donate 20% of our profits to eco-friendly organizations to help us improve our environment.
- The majority (51%) of consumers will continue to patronize 'green' travel service suppliers regardless of an economic downturn. In fact, nearly half (48%) of travelers say that continuing to support environmentally-responsible travel service suppliers is a necessity, even in an economic downturn.
This is also true, and RezHub.com can help you find green ways to travel without spending more money!
- Less than one-third (29%) say it is easy to find out about environmental policies and initiatives of travel service suppliers.
You can visit our green travel hub page to find out more about who we are and our environmental policies and initiatives.
We know that getting Americans to think about green travel more is a challenge, but it does NOT need to cost more to travel green. The broad misconception about green travel is that you need to travel to an Eco-Spa or a remote jungle location to experience “green travel”. This is simply not true. You can choose a hotel with a high green score rating, choose a direct flight, drive rather than fly, and make good use of the three “R’s” while traveling: reduce, reuse, and recycle. None of these actions require you to spend more money if you do your research, and RezHub.com can help you with all of your green traveling needs!
(Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:05:41 GMT)
Travel Photo Of the Day: Sunrise In Alaska
Alaska, some like to call it "God's Country" because of photos like this. This was taken by a photographer on Flickr from the deck of a BC ferry very early in the morning.
Visit this 4 green star rated hotel, the Anchorage Sheraton Resort and Spa to maximize your green travel experience!
(Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:54:46 GMT)
The Three Components of Green Travel: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
There are two separate definitions of green travel. One definition includes visiting an eco-friendly destination, but the other definition includes making your everyday travel more green and environmentally friendly by reducing, reusing, and recycling resources while traveling. The latter definition is what RezHub.com and Green Travel Hub are most concerned with. We want to make the process of traveling green easier and more automated, so you can spend more time planning your trip and what you'll be doing on the trip.
Reduce
Here are some examples of reducing your impact on the environment while traveling:
- Paying extra to take a direct flight, rather than picking the cheapest flight with multiple connections
- Driving a hybrid rental car
- Turning off all lights and appliances when you leave the hotel room
Reuse
Reusing our resources is something we often forget to do while traveling. When we get into travel mode, we become more careless and waste much more than we would in our normal lifestyle. Here are some examples of reusing for green travel.
- Putting the "Do Not Disturb" sign on your hotel door. This will prevent the housekeeping crew from servicing your room every day, so you can re-use towels and sheets for a couple of days.
- Bring your own re-usable water bottle with you while traveling.
- Don't open hotel freebies so the hotel can reuse them.
Recycle
Recycling is the most essential part of getting the most out of our planet's resources. Here are a few examples of how we can recycle when traveling.
- Give away old luggage instead of throwing it away
- Keep the empty shampoo and soap bottles from hotels and fill them up with your own shampoo.
These are the fundamentals of thinking green and living a green lifestyle.
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