From Montreal to Melbourne, Lisbon to Las Vegas, it’s always exciting to go on vacation somewhere. No matter where you choose as your holiday destination, you have the opportunity to experience new cultures, meet new people, and see new things.
That said, not everything about your vacation needs to be completely and utterly new. A common pitfall of many tourists is that they allow their values to be cast aside while on vacation, throwing caution to the wind and not sticking to some of their core beliefs and practices. What do I mean by this? Let’s have a look at a few examples.
The Green Initiative Away from Home
Although I am certainly not without my faults, I do make an effort to be reasonably friendly to the environment. I try to minimize my waste, reuse or recycle what I can, and unplug electronics when they’re not in use. Even with other people who are more environmentally-conscious than I am, however, they can sometimes cast that philosophy aside when they are on vacation. While staying at a swanky Las Vegas hotel, they may take longer showers, use more disposable items, and get the maid service to provide fresh towels every day. Even when you are on holiday, it’s important to keep your environmental concerns in check.
Frugal Here, Frugal There
While you may be able to exercise a certain level of restraint when it comes to spending at home, you may be more inclined to spend more money when you are on vacation. This makes sense, since you are there to have a good time, but it doesn’t mean that you should be tossing your cash in any direction that will accept it.
When visiting attractions like the local zoo, see if there are any traveler coupons available. When considering your transportation options, weigh the convenience factor with the price to determine which is the best way to get from point A to point B. Sometimes, it’s more affordable to rent a car than it is to take the cab. Other times, the reverse is true. If you’ve got more time, public transit can save you a lot of money too, especially in busy cities like Tokyo and Hong Kong.
The Right Kind of Food
Are you conscious of your diet when you are at home? Do you count calories and minimize your intake of processed foods? Do you consider the size of your portions? Why is it, then, that so many people indulge in much more excessive diets when they hit up a favorite vacation spot? Again, I understand that you are there to have a good time, but those few days of indulgence can nullify any progress that you have made in the months leading up to the holiday. It’s okay to eat a burger from time to time, but try to keep your travel diet within the range of your regular diet.
Bend the Rules, Don’t Break Them
As I’ve stated more than once in this article, it’s perfectly fine for you to have a great time when you go on the vacation. That’s the whole point of a holiday, right? At the same time, you don’t want to let your standards be forgotten. There are a lot of people who choose to over-spend while on vacation, only to enter an incredible super-cheapskate mode upon returning home, inundated with a credit card bill that they cannot afford. That’s not a smart practice.
Vacations are a good time for you to enjoy yourself, so feel free to bend a few rules. Just don’t break them.
A vacation is to treat yourself, so indulgence should be allowed. I don’t agree with following your diet on vacation unless you really need to because of a health reason. That doesn’t mean that you have to overspend, or overeat, just eat what you want and enjoy.
Planning a vacation to find values in food, places to visit and other things to do is what it’s all about! You can enjoy without overspending, but splurge if you see something that you really want to do and didn’t know it was there.
The meaning of a vacation is to relax from your regular grind. Enjoy, don’t follow your normal routine like you have to.
Your subtle attempt to preach ‘responsible travel’ must be applauded.
I hope more can be done globally to promote and raise awareness of responsible travel and ecotourism.
I hope more global corporations will jump aboard the bandwagon in supporting sustainable development, and helping travelers and travel providers protect the cultures and environments they visit.
Take nothing but photographs and leave nothing but footprints, and kill nothing but time.
It’s important to be responsible while traveling – I agree. I may take an extra indulgence (or extra dessert) but I almost always leave the “do not disturb” sign on my door for the duration of my stay so that excess cleaning and linen changing does not occur.
My mom, on the other hand, used to take all the disposable soaps and shampoo bottles and put them in her bag so that they’d get replaced every day. She liked to collect them though she ended up not doing anything with them when we got home. In the end, we donated them to a homeless group who needed them, but in reality we probably could have just asked the hotel for stuff if that was our main goal.
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