If you Google the term eco travel you will get thousands of results, most offering you the best and most ethical holiday of your life. Of course they do, it is what we searched for after all. How do start sorting the real eco holidays from the ‘greenwashed’ ones? That is a difficult task as seen as there are literally thousands I would not know where to start. Speak to friends, who may have been on such a trip, recommendations are often a good place to start. Forums are also useful as you are not getting a company’s facade; it is real people saying it like it is. ‘The Green Providers Directory’ is a very useful web site that is a nonprofit source of all things green and this includes holidays. Looking into a directory like this, that is a not for profit organization will usually be a good place to start as they have nothing to gain from you booking a certain holiday.
Until the definitions and codes of practice are determined for eco travel it will always be problematic finding a true ethical holiday. An ethical holiday may find you sleeping in a yurt on the Isle of Wight or reading a book in a mud hut in Sri Lanka but a green washing company could provide you with this too. There are often opportunities to holiday in places that have experienced natural disasters, these places may still be getting back on their feet and tourism will help injected some much needed help into the economy that has taken a battering. Take the Boxing Day tsunami that devastated many coastlines a few years ago now, the countries struggled to maintain their tourist industry, places like these need all the support they can get. They are stunningly beautiful places that have taken a huge blow; to holiday in these countries would no doubt be a good ethical choice.