The travel paradox

Travelling is my passion and this is something I spend time thinking especially during the holiday season. I cut down my energy use, stick mainly to vegetarian and vegan diet and use bicycle to move around but when it’s about travelling I take a cheap flight to head to a far away destination every now and then (and complain about the poor energy efficiency and recycling facilities at the destination...). I hear these stories a lot. One of my friends even said that she moves around either by bike or takes a flight. This is true for many of my peers in their twenties or thirties. Cheap flights allow us to travel huge distances fast and at low cost.

Travelling contributes to your social status. You know the stories about how someone travelled to a place where no other traveller has ever been to. After that you may think your wonderful three day trip to the neighbouring town is not worth mentioning about. But should it be this way?

Travel also adds to our environmental burden. One long haul return flight may generate more greenhouse gas emissions than an average person in some developing country generates in five years or so. But it is not only about long haul travel. If you spend several hours in your car every weekend to travel away from home you will notice that on your ecological backpack too.

Many of us are passionate about travelling, what can we do then to make it more of an experience and less an environmental problem? The oh so trendy slow movement has introduced the concept of slow travel. That is a loose bundle of thoughts about how to get involved with real pace of the society you are staying at. Spending time and getting to know more than the hot spots. Sounds good? While I have been trying to figure out how to combine the passion to travel and explore without adding too much weight on my eco-backpack I came to the following simple guidelines I try to stick with:

- For short breaks, from one day to few weeks, explore places where it is reasonable to travel by bike, train or bus.

- Since I’m probably not voluntarily willing to give up long haul travel, I’d at
least love to take more time once on the road and travel less often. I hope I have
learned the patience to arrange enough time for a long trip when I decide to make one.

This summer I’m going to spend all of my summer holiday it in Finland. It will be some hiking in Lapland and exploring Helsinki and surroundings. I look forward to it all! I’ll get back to you about my first Finnish holiday experience at the end of this summer.