Traveling Green and Lean:
Budget Ecotravel Offers
Rich Rewards

When planning your eco-adventure, it is easy to find a one-stop tour operator who will arrange for everything from flights to lodging to day trips. You will pay mightily for such full-service planning, and we feel you miss out on much of the true joy of ecotouring. Budget ecotravel not only saves your green by traveling green, but we have found our trips are much richer, more authentically native, and excitingly more us when we do the planning and control our costs.

Of course, some people prefer to have everything planned out for them and enjoy travel where they don't have to make any decisions once they have booked the trip. But with just a little time on the internet and with a guide book on our destination, we have found ways to save money while traveling green and are able to have amazing immersions in each country at the same time.

Tips for Ecotravel on a Budget

• Flexible Timing. When we start planning our next ecoadventure, we usually have a general budget, a specific timeframe when we can travel, and a country we want to explore. Our next decision is to choose and book an organized trekking or guided group active adventure segment in our vacation and then build the rest of our trip around it. This way, we have one anchor activity booked and we can be a little flexible with arrangements before and after in order to get the best price. Every step of the way, comparison shopping pays off.

• Getting There. The internet makes it easy to find good deals on flights, if you must fly to your destination. Consolidator tickets can often save you hundreds of dollards, but typically they don't let you change your flights once you book them, and they don't offer frequent flier miles. Many sites and airlines also offer ways for you to offset the carbon emissions you create from your flights so you can compensate by contributing towards planting trees and greening in various ways. If you can travel by alternate means, check into voyaging by boat or train.

• Off Peak. As much as you can, travel on the front or back end of the high season for your destination. If you go before the locals have fully geared up for the big crowds or at the end of the season when there is just a trickle of vacationers, you can get cheaper prices for lodging, transportation, and guided tours. Going off peak also allows you to enjoy a place without the hassle of navigating through hundreds of others and offers a more relaxing getaway.

When joining trekking groups, costs reduce when you have over certain numbers of people.

• Group Rates. When/if you book a segment of your trip with a guided group--which if you do a trek or active adventure, particularly in a park or national forest, you often are required to book with a guide or an outfitter--the more people in a group, generally the price per person goes down. If you book solo or private tours, expect to pay more.

• Personal Perks. If you are camping or trekking with an outfitter, bring your own sleeping bags, etc. to save on rental fees. We let them provide the big items like tents so we don't have to pack them.

• Rail Time. When travelling by train, book tickets on overnight trains when possible to save on hotel room costs and to be most efficient with your time. Sleeper compartments are a fun way to travel from one highlight to another.

• Finding Green Online. When planning your trip from home, use a current guidebook such as Lonely Planet or Rough Guides for ideas on places to stay, sites to see and good places to eat. These will give you great ideas for locations you want to focus on, how long you might want to stay there and the costs associated. As these book guides don't always offer information on how green an outfitter or lodging option is, supplement your research online. If a website doesn't illuminate how green a place is, chances are it's not, but correspond via email with them to inquire as to whether they recycle waste, conserve energy and water, employ locals, etc. Stay somewhere and book treks with folks who abide by a strict environmental policy.

• Streamline. Book your plans yourself to avoid middleman fees.

• Bookings. Make your lodging and tour and transportation bookings online and via email as well to save on international phone call costs but also to have a written confirmation of your plans.

• Proximity. When staying in cities, choose your lodging so that it is close to the area you find most interesting and will likely spend most time seeing. This way you can walk to the area or catch public transportation, saving money and emissions pollution. Do not hire a private car or a limo when you can safely walk or take some form of public transportation instead.

• Breakfast Included. Book hotels and B&Bs that include breakfast in the room price so that you can save money on meals.

• Buddy Up. When traveling with a buddy, share a hotel room or a tent to save money on lodging. You can often get two beds in a room for the same price as one.

• How Much? And always remember to ask how much something costs before proceeding. Do not commit to even a cab ride without talking about the price up front. This is a lesson we learned painfully in Morocco. And negotiate the price. In some countries, bargaining is expected. Realize that the first price asked is probably highwyay robbery. Counter-offer for half of that and then see if you can meet in the middle on the bargaining. Don't be afraid to walk away if the price is too high.

• Buyer Beware. Pay cash abroad when you can to save money on credit card foreign currency transaction fees. And if you must use credit cards when away, check with your credit card company about their foreign transaction rates. My AmEx was half the cost of my Visa, but then it wasn't as widely accepted abroad. If you are nervous about carrying cash, please check out our safe cash strategies.

• Go Local. Don't patronize imported goods and services. Stay in local-run lodging and eat from local restauarants and markets. Eating where the locals eat has been a fantastic guide to the best native cuisine, and usually at a much lower cost than the places that cater to international palates and pocketbooks. The best spaghetti i had in Florence, hands down, was in the train station in a small, locally run pasta place.

• Lighten Your Load. Pack light so that you can carry all your bags yourself, saving on porters and luggage carts. It's also just physically easier to bring only what you can manage yourself.

• Laundry. Wear fast-drying clothes so that you can handwash your laundry and have it dry overnight in your room or your tent. Laundrettes take time and money away from your vacation and hotel laundries can be pricey.

• Collective Care. We share costs on our medical supplies by splitting up the first-aid items on our list and pooling our resources as we need them. It's also less to carry for each of us when we divvy it up this way.

• Water Matters. In many countries it is wise to drink and brush your teeth with bottled water only. But often those water bottles are not recycled and just add to already overwhelming waste issues. Bring a travel water bottle that you can refill and bring water treatment tablets or water filters so that you can save money and waste by treating tap water to drink rather than buying bottles every day.

• Home Sweet Home. Email or online chat with your friends at home rather than calling them. Internet cafes are generally very cheap ways of staying in touch. And sometimes your hotel or B&B will offer free internet access.

For more help with Budget Ecotravel, check out Choosing Ecotours.