5 Cutting-Edge Green Travel Ideas To Fly Right By

Travel as we know it is rapidly changing before our very eyes—for the better. Airlines—from European budget carrier Easy Jet to Continental, Delta, and Jet Blue, suddenly allow you to purchase carbon offsets with your ticket for just a few bucks. Decades before expected, commercial planes are taking off running on 100 percent biodiesel. "Staycation" is the new buzz word, and many who do leave town are no longer going on vacation, but on eco-tourist trips, or volunteering vacations where they can spend their time in the great outdoors. In the hospitality industry, green hotels are sprouting up all over the place. So are you ready to be a hip, green traveler? Plan out your next trip using these five cutting-edge green travel and outdoors ideas.

The Staycation


It's not yet in the Oxford Dictionary, but "staycation" is the newly coined term for living it up where you live. Discovering the local attractions in your hometown both slashes your carbon footprint and saves you serious money—and given this economic disaster, that could be reason enough for many. From art museums, to the zoo, to historical landmarks, to sporting events, to music festivals, to university events, much enjoyment can be gleaned from what's going on next door.



Volunteering Vacations and Eco-tourism


So you aren't sold on the idea of a staying put: Get your exotic fix via eco-tourism or a volunteering vacation. Eco-tourism is all about treading gently, leaving as little impact as possible: an idea that can be tricky if everyone flocks to see the flora and fauna at places like the Galapagos Islands. To embark on a volunteering vacation and get your hands dirty with like-minded folks, check out Web sites like EcoVolonteer.org and Earthwatch Institute. Chances are when it comes to cherishing your vacation stories, rescuing Iberian wolves, monitoring river otters on an island in Brazil, or studying dolphins in Italy will leave a much more lasting impression than that time you put too much sun tan lotion on at the beach.



Carbon Offsets Can Help


As we say in our Guide to Carbon Offsets, carbon offsetting—or purchasing credits to green power or tree planting to neutralize the effects of your travel—won't save the planet, but they can help remedy some problems, and certainly send a signal to the market that you believe in putting a price on CO2. But which carbon-offset provider should you choose? Try the Environmental Defense Fund's Carbon Offset List or firms recommended by reliable sources such as Tufts University.



Green Hotels: the New Luxury for All


Hotels can be extremely wasteful entities: air-conditioning rooms when no one is there, washing towels that haven't been used, sending huge amounts of waste to landfill instead of recycling. Yet finding a green hotel is becoming increasingly easy—though it is still best to ask these nine questions when booking to make sure you're not walking into one big greenwash ploy. What does the future hold? Eco-luxury resorts, if Hollywood's hottest hunks have anything to say about it. Just check out the plans for Brad Pitt's eco luxury resort in Dubai and Leonardo Dicaprio's green island resort in the Caribbean.



Commercial Planes Running on Biofuels


Flying sucks up a tremendous amount of fuel—so what if that fuel was renewable, from a sustainable source that doesn't compete with food production or require a tremendous amount of land? The technology is there: The first flight running on 100 percent biofuel was successfully made by a Czechoslovakian aircraft in 2007. In 2008, months ahead of schedule, Virgin Atlantic flew the first biofuel passenger jet on a mixture of Brazilian babassu nuts and coconuts, In January of this year, Continental Airlines flew a commercial carrier running on a biofuel blend that includes components derived from algae and jatropha plants, both sustainable, second-generation sources that do not impact food crops or water resources or contribute to deforestation. Japan Airlines, which also ran a test flight earlier this year, thinks biofuel could even be more efficient than regular fuel. So when will we be buckling up on a biofuel flight? In as little as three years, says a representative from Boeing. Until then, lessen the impact of your trip with carbon offsets—it may not be a perfect system, but it's what's available, and better than nothing.