Holidays With A Conscience: A Simple Guide To Ethical Travel
Are you ready to transform your travel experience into something with more meaning and purpose? Well, you’re in luck – consider today’s blog your step-by-step guide to more ethical escapes.
Going on holiday can be about so much more than taking a break from the mundane and being enchanted by new surroundings. Nowadays, with over tourism and environmental impacts taking their toll, it’s important to travel ethically – enjoying taking a break whilst being mindful of our impact on the environment and the people we encounter along the way, whilst still having an amazing time!
A short break in the New Forest is a great first trip to start your conscious travel diaries and, at Careys Manor, we have some fantastic New Forest hotel packages to get you started.
Be kind to the environment
The first hurdle when it comes to travel is of course the carbon footprint. How can you minimise yours? By staying local! Tempting as it may be to rack up those air miles and go long-haul, there are so many beauty hotspots right on our doorstep that warrant a visit too.
Choosing a local hotel like Careys Manor for a long weekend in the New Forest means you can travel car-free and catch the train. With direct rail links from London Waterloo, your ethical adventure can get off to a great start – doing your bit to reduce environmental pollution. We also have an electric vehicle onsite, which is available for guest transfers to and from the local train station, along with cycle-friendly facilities.
Once you’re settled in and ready to explore the scenic routes around the New Forest, we make it easy for you – with the local bike hire, Cycle Experience, only a short walk from the hotel and cycle racks at the hotel for storage between cycles. We also have plenty of walking maps at the hotel to set you off on the right foot if you’d rather take it slow on the New Forest trails.
Check out our conscious New Forest hotel offer: save 10% when you travel car-free to us.
Support local
Supporting local not only applies to taking staycations over vacations in terms of destination, but also to choosing a hotel that perhaps is within your county but still far enough to explore new scenes on your stay. This way, you not only support your local tourism industry, but as an extension, this quite often trickles down to supporting other local businesses like farms, cafés, boutique stores and more.
Our hotel group Greenclose Hotels works hard to support our local community, meaning a stay at Careys Manor or one of our sister hotels, The Montagu Arms in Beaulieu or The Imperial Llandudno, will add another tick to your ethical travel list. All of the meat across the 3 hotels is free range and ethically sourced from suppliers such as Owls Barn Farm and Pondhead Farm. We source produce from local suppliers like Marlings Vineyard in Sway, Isle of Wight Tomatoes, Potter Cheese from the Book and Bucket Hampshire Cheese Company and Tunworth Cheese.
What’s more, we donate circa £20k worth of experience vouchers to local charities every year and also support Room To Reward by donating hotel stays to ‘hidden heroes’. We even offer Carers and staff members from our local hospice, Oakhaven, free training treatments in our spa.
Discover more in our Green Policy.
Choose eco-friendly products and behaviours
Whether you plan on re-energising with an active trip or are simply looking to relax and unwind, you’ll want to stay hydrated throughout. Bringing a reusable water bottle with you will help prevent waste both in the hotel and when you’re out exploring. In a similar vein, bring a travel mug if you can’t go without your coffee, and shopping bags for when you mooch around the local boutiques.
We work hard to protect our natural environment for future generations. This includes reusing and recycling where possible by: sourcing 100% of our energy from renewable sources, donating toiletries to Clean Conscience, promoting and using natural and eco-friendly product ranges in our luxury hotel spa SenSpa, encouraging guests to re-use their towels and only changing sheets on stays over 3 nights, plus providing eco dog poo bags to guests should they require them.
More of us than ever are cutting out meat, fish, dairy and eggs. The reason? For many, it’s the environmental impact. According to a 2020 Sky News report on veganism and the impact of the annual Veganuary event, being part of the movement that gives up animal products for a month could help save as many greenhouse gas emissions as moving 160,000 cars from the road, or 400,000 to 500,000 single flights from London to Berlin. If you have ever been tempted to give veganism a try, your stay at Careys Manor could be the perfect trial run. All three of our on-site restaurants have delicious vegan menus, including dishes like Spring Vegetable Risotto and Spiced Roast Aubergine at Cambium and Pad Thai and Banana Fritters at Zen Garden.
Careys Manor Hotel & SenSpa has been awarded the Gold Award in The New Forest Green Leaf Tourism Business Scheme for our efforts to help the New Forest become the UK’s greenest destination.
Leave no trace
You’ve heard the saying before – leave public places in the state in which you would like to find them. This goes for parks, countryside trails, public transport and more, and contributes to your conscious travel goals by being mindful of people and the planet. Take any trash away with you, avoid lighting campfires, stay on designated trails rather than venturing into untouched grassy areas where flora and fauna could be destroyed and leave any wildlife you encounter alone – you have come to visit their home, after all.
Being based in the New Forest national park, Careys Manor is the perfect destination to re-connect with nature and embrace the great outdoors. But, when booking a New Forest hotel, be sure to familiarise yourself with the New Forest Code, which includes rules such as no BBQs and no feeding or petting the free-roaming donkies or ponies.
Feeling equipped with enough practical and simple tips to make your next escape more ethical and environmentally-conscious?
