I found over our vacation that traveling green is hard! Something simple like recycling is difficult when you aren't near a recycling bin, so you have to tote garbage as well as four people's worth of stuff around the country.
I planned on making our vacation as green as possible. What happened was almost the exact opposite!
I read an article how Motel 6 is going a tad greener, so I went to book a room for when we stayed in Eureka. Accidentally I booked Super 8 (those hotels with numbers confused me I guess).
I found great places for Ashland and Portland though. We stayed in a granny unit of a local family in Ashland. They didn't have regular hotel amenities like cleaning service and I noticed Seventh Generation under the sink, so hopefully they are green themselves :) But nothing beat Portland... McMenamins! If you all are ever around Portland, you HAVE TO stay at Kennedy School! It's an old school that was closed in the 70s and McMenamins reopened it as a hotel with a movie theatre (you can drink beer in), a restaurant that had the best food ever and a soaking pool. They have their own brewery and coffee roasting company. I could have stayed at the hotel for the full two days and been perfectly happy. Each room looked like an old classroom with chalkboards and all! I loved it's quirkiness. Plus they had recycling bins in each room and they didn't change bedding unless requested.
We had planned on driving the hybrid, but it was totally impossible once we tried to cram everything in there. I planned on eating local in each place, but sometimes fast food prevailed. We ended up buying more packaged food things since we had little space and needed the convenience.
I only bought a couple souvenirs and I really like them: an organic onesie from a local Ashland coffee shop we went to several times, some natural, organic bath soaps that smelled good made by a local in Ashland and a book for Emma made by a local in Ashland.
Overall, I was disappointed in my resolve to stay green over that ten days. From now on, when we travel I will put more effort into making the entire trip as eco-friendly as possible. We did well but not as good as I had hoped. Live and learn...
3 comments:
Hey, you tried, and that is what counts. And it is all a learning experience. The more any of us do anything toward being green, the better we will get at it and the more prepared we can be for travel and the like.
Good for you for making the effort!
And thanks for the Portland tips. I want to go there so bad. I think that school would be so fun!
I totally agree that it is that fact that you tried that counts. Every little bit helps and its no different for when you are traveling so good job!! Welcome home :)
Glad you're back safe.
From my recent vacation experience, I too found that it's a challenge to travel green. I think it will start to get easier. When I went into AAA to get some vacation planning guides I asked if they had anything on green travel and the clerk said there is one in the works. The on-line ones seem to be kind of funky at this point. If your vacation plans take you to San Francisco or other certain cities then planning a green trip is snap. But in the real world there's usually a destination that's predetermined, and it seems to be a challenge to plan a green trip that way.
Hopefully in the near future we will have some better green vacation planning guides available.
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