Of course, the greenest honeymoon would be to stay local and with a bit of imagination, create a beautiful, fun and magical honeymoon that is also kind to the planet. Staycations are all the rage and if you get the weather right, you can have a cheap and guilt free holiday in your own country.

However, some of us (especially those living in cold climates) dream longingly of a sun-kissed beach in an exotic country. But we’re reluctant to call us ourselves “environmentally conscious” while at the same time travelling half way across the planet and (let’s face it) contributing a very dirty carbon footprint.

It’s an ethical dilemma. So what’s an eco girl to do to balance both of these desires?

Let’s face it. Some of us will travel on planes around the globe for our honeymoons and it’s pointless to spend the whole time feeling guilty. My own honeymoon spanned the UK, Singapore, Indonesia and Australia, and now in our jobs as The Honeymoon Testers, we’re travelling around the world for six months. This definitely does tug at my environmental conscience but I still, perhaps ironically, think of myself as someone who cares about the future of our planet.

I know I’m not the only one with this moral predicament. Our generation longs to be global citizens, but nobody wants to create more damage to the planet than is necessary. Rather than be hypocrites and tell you to stay at home, we’ve been gleaning ideas to share with other honeymooners with itchy feet.

By any means, these actions don’t cancel out your globe-trotting altogether, but here are some small and easy tips that you can do to reduce your impact without spending every second worrying about it.

Choose your holiday wisely

Start with the end in mind and support destinations that use renewable power, have community programmes and implement relevant environmental policies (not just the one about reusing your bath towels). This includes water usage, waste disposal and building materials.

Most importantly find places that are creating jobs and wealth in their communities including sharing clean water and sanitation for local people. Do employees get paid fairly, or are they reliant on tips to earn a living wage? Does your resort benefit the community or is an oasis of wealth and privilege amongst grinding poverty?

Holidays involving animals should have ethical conservation policies as well as being respectful to preserving environments for animals to live in the wild. We’ve heard horror stories about dolphins being kept at pets in resort pools (and committing suicide), tourists offered photo opportunities with toothless and chained tigers, and performing elephants trained with violence and intimidation. Don’t give these places your money and contribute to the problem. Eco-tourism can be profitable and beneficial so spread the word about inspiring enterprises.

Air conditioning

Every hotel and resort I’ve been to cranks the air-conditioning to nipple-popping levels, making the contrast to outside even more unbearable. Make sure you turn it off whenever you leave the room, and check back after breakfast to ensure that the housekeeper hasn’t turned it back on to run all day.

If you have good mosquito nets, consider not using the AC all night and open a window instead. On our honeymoon in Indonesia, we lived in a cabin on stilts in the water and the warm ocean breeze was our air-con.

Bottled drinks

In many developing countries bottled water is still a necessity, and you could get seriously sick from drinking the tap water. In these cases find the most local brand, buy the biggest bottles so you don’t go through hundreds of the smaller ones and dispose of them carefully. Ask your hotel if they recycle.

What’s better, glass or plastic? In most countries, glass is more easily recycled and you’re more likely to see plastic trashing beaches and littering oceans.

If the chances of getting sick are slim, filter and boil your own water using tablets, special drinking straws and filtering water bottles.

Many countries such as Singapore and Mauritius have tap water that is absolutely fine to drink so always ask and don’t be paranoid, but use the filtering options mentioned if you’re worried. Fill up your reusable water bottles in the morning to use all day.

A great alternative to bottled drinks are fresh green coconuts served straight off the tree. Coconut water is extremely good for you, tasty and is nature’s version of sugary energy drinks. The coconut shells are biodegradable and in some countries are used as a fuel source. It’s also money that’s going straight back into the local economy, as they grow wild and aren’t owned by a global bottling company that gives a pittance profit margin.

Food and drink

Going meat-free on honeymoon will give you a much better chance of avoiding food poisoning or sickness. Many countries have low standards around battery farms or humane slaughtering practices, so even if you aren’t vegetarian or vegan, consider doing it for your honeymoon.

Take the opportunity to try local beers and wines where possible, and talk to the chef about where and how fish and vegetables are sourced.

Tropical countries have an abundance of fresh fruit, so take advantage of supporting the local economy and as long as it has a peel (pineapple, mango, passion fruit, bananas etc) then it’s almost always safe to eat.

Find your own off-set

There are definitely controversies around flight off-set schemes, so find one that feels right for you. You may want to support a local regeneration programme, a global organisation that plants trees or an animal conservation charity instead.

Considering doing some charity work with the local economy, donating time, money or materials such as pens and books to local schools.

You can ask your wedding guests to donate to the community in lieu of a wedding present, or give you give vouchers for low impact activities such as bike tours or massages.

Spend your money ethically and avoid illegal DVDs (it can support crime), don’t take home shells or coral, don’t buy products made with plastic, endangered or rare materials and buy locally made, sustainably produced souvenirs such as beaded jewellery or woven handicrafts.

Of course, there are many other small actions you can take that are probably second nature to you. Always pick up your trash (but I know you do that anyway!), switch off lights, don’t charge electronics unnecessarily and reuse your beach and bath towels.

You could spend the whole honeymoon debating the merits and relative damage of each activity, but you are there to enjoy yourself and live this wonderful time together according to your values and principles. Do what you can and try to benefit each place in some way.

Lastly, travelling the planet and meeting other cultures is a wonderful and life-enriching thing, and wouldn’t it be great if our children can do it (relatively) guilt-free? There will be better ways to travel in the future if we demand it, using renewable sources of energy to power our planes (hey, maybe even teleportation) so always support organisations that are paving the way so it becomes unacceptable (and unprofitable) for the holiday industry to exploit the natural resources of our beautiful planet.

Just being conscious about your every day actions will give you plenty of ideas that you can share with others too. It’s hard to get this 100% right, so enjoy your honeymoon as much as possible, and spread love as you go – for each other and for planet Earth.

…

Denise Duffield-Thomas is a blogger, writer and speaker who is currently travelling the world with her husband Mark as “The Honeymoon Testers”, reviewing the best wedding and honeymoon destinations on behalf of travel company Runaway Bride and Groom.

If you’re anything like me, I bet the honeymoon brochures have been piling up around your sofa and downtime at work has drifted into honeymoon daydreaming with a little help from your friendly internet search engine.

So now is the time to put all that research into action and make your nomination in the 2009 Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards.

The Awards are organized by online travel agent, responsibletravel.com and they’d love your tip-offs of tour operators, hoteliers and destinations around the world that are doing their bit to help people and the planet.

Don’t worry, they don’t expect you to be responsible travel experts, just give them the name and a couple of lines to say why you think the hotel / lodge / tour operator / destination is eco-friendly and/or giving something back to the local community and the Responsible Tourism Awards judging panel will dig deeper (read more about the judging process).

Win a holiday of a lifetime

You can make as many nominations as you want and if it turns out you’ve nominated a winner (winners are announced in November), you could be in with a chance to win a holiday (or honeymoon?!) of a lifetime for you and your loved one.

2008 Award winners Gamewatchers Safaris & Porini Camps are offering a memorable prize safari holiday in Kenya.

The prize includes 7 nights accommodation (1 night Tribe Hotel, 2 nights Amboseli Porini Camp, 2 nights Ol Pejeta Rhino Camp, 2 Nights Mara Porini Camp) and return economy flights from Heathrow to Nairobi.

Read more about this amazing holiday.

Repulsion full movie

Nominations needed

The Responsible Tourism Awards team is particularly keen to get nominations in these categories:

• Best in a Marine Environment – An organisation related to a beach or other marine environment, such as turtle conservation or a marine eco-tourism trip
• Best for Conservation of Cultural Heritage – A tourism organisation or initiative working to protect and promote cultural heritage
• Best Large Hotel – A hotel, lodge or other accommodation of more than 50 rooms that is run with the environment and needs of local people in mind.
• Best Personal Contribution – A person who has made an outstanding contribution to responsible tourism.

But hurry – the deadline for nominations is next Monday 15 June! Make your nomination.

Award-winning honeymoons

daybreakers hd download seed movie

elegy online download To give you an idea of the kind of holiday that wins an Award and why, let’s have a look at some of last year’s honeymoon-friendly winners…

Kingfisher Bay Resort, Fraser Island, Australia

flesheater movie

This breathtaking resort won the Best Large Hotel Award in the 2008 Responsible Tourism Awards and was commended for its low environmental impact, educating its guests about conservation, and getting involved with the local, indigenous people helping them to share their culture and learn new skills for employment.

Nkwichi Lodge, Mozambique
A stunning lodge on the shores of Lake Niassa, it’s the perfect honeymoon spot: beauty, tranquility, crystal clear fresh water, white beaches and a welcome feeling of remoteness – there are no cars and the only access is by boat. The lodge is very private with only 7 chalets all uniquely designed to blend in with the local environment.

The lodge won the Best Small Hotel Award in the 2008 Responsible Tourism Awards. Not only is it environmentally-friendly in design but those behind it also played a key role in the creation of the Umoji Association which represents 20,000 local people through their chiefs and elected representatives. As one of the first large community associations in Mozambique, it has helped six communities to secure their land rights certificates from the Government.

Ecoventura, Ecuador
Winner of the Best in a Marine Environment Award in 2008, Ecoventura will take you around the awe-inspiring Galapagos Islands while taking every precaution to protect this delicate environment.

Appointment with Crime hd

Ecoventura won its Award for creating scholarships for education, and developing micro-business for local women, converting a fishing boat into a restaurant and boutique to offer alternative livelihoods for the wives of fishermen. Ecoventura was also among the first cruise operators to be independently environmentally audited.

Shigar Fort – Palace Restoration Project, Pakistan
This beautiful fort won the Best for Conservation of Cultural Heritage Award in the 2008 Responsible Tourism Awards. It would make a unique and relaxing honeymoon haven for a couple who want to get off the beaten track.

The project was commended by the judges for the sensitive restoration of this historic building and its development as a hotel which has placed the property once again at the heart of the community.

It is now a cultural and economic asset which brings employment, microenterprise opportunities, and social and cultural empowerment to local men and women.

Inspired? Get nominating now – deadline Monday 15 June!

Want the latest on the Responsible Tourism Awards? Follow them on Twitter.

Primeval video

Katie
Talk ethical honeymoons in the Ethical Weddings Forum!

Last of the Wild Chimps video

We decided for this holiday we’d go the low carbon route again but a bit further this time (last year was via Eurostar and TGV to the Loire Valley) and took the train all the way from Worthing in West Sussex to Girona in northeast Spain. 

The tempting sleeper cabin option was rejected due to lack of funds so on the downside we did spend most of 2 days making the journey there and back but on the upside got to see some gorgeous countryside and coastal beauty spots as we sped along.

On the way down we broke our journey at Perpignan staying at a stylish B&B called ‘le crocodile rouge’.   

Stylish did not mean snooty, I’m pleased to report, as our extremely friendly hosts invited us to share dessert with the family and then spend a pleasant evening chatting about this and that (chance to use my French!), including ethical weddings and responsible travel!

Travelling through France and Spain by train allowed us many opportunities as we sat by the window to pick out potential future holiday spots that we never would have seen had we gone by plane and it struck us what a wonderful honeymoon it would make – a couple of hours on the train then a few nights at the first destination that takes your fancy, then on to the next, checking in at different places on your return journey.

Before going to university, everyone was off interrailing around Europe for the summer, now air fares are so cheap it’s all about jetting around the world.  Maybe your honeymoon could be a good time to think about reliving your youth and dusting off that interrail pass again for a break at a more leisurely pace!

If you’ve been on a great rail journey for your honeymoon we’d love to hear about it.  Coming soon…we’ll have the Man in Seat 61′s honeymoon by rail tale for you, so watch this space!

Katie
For the latest ethical wedding tips, chat, articles and more, free to your inbox, sign up to the monthly Ethical Weddings Newsletter

Christmas is such a romantic time of year, I’m sure there were a few fourth fingers wearing nice new rings come January…?

But then it’s back to work, the weather is dull and rainy and everything seems a little depressing. So, the perfect time to start thinking about holidays and planning your honeymoon!

To give you a few ideas, why not take a look at our article for responsibletravel.com on finding a honeymoon with a heart…

Take care, and wrap up warm!

Katie
ethicalweddings.com