green travel - a lifestyle choice

I love to travel. Not the occasional road trip to the next state over, I like to take those 12 hour plane rides to a different world and get lost in it. I was drawn to this Washington Post article because I'm trying to be more deliberate about my lifestyle choices so as to not disregard the environment. As I read the article I realized that although I have the travel bug for far away places I am actually a pretty eco-friendly traveler. Mostly because I'm a budget traveler who likes to stay a while.
The first point discussed was picking an environmentally conscience destination to visit. I'd never considered that factor when choosing my travel destinations, but I found that it really wouldn't limit my choices. In Ecuador the environment has rights, in Namibia natural resources and habitat conservation are written into their constitution, and Nordic countries are continuously rated at the top of sustainable countries.
In my travels I have been to two cities that have really stood out as being over the top environmental advocates: Stockholm, Sweden and Salzburg, Austria. Stockholm was impeccably clean, had a great public transport system, had recycling everywhere and was perfect for biking and walking tours. Salzburg was the city of bikes and outdoor activities. I feel in love with the city. There were far more bikers and pedestrians than cars and in the main downtown areas cars aren't even allowed. I biked and hiked and spent as much time outside as I could. In both areas the air was fresh and the water was crisper than any other cities I'd been to.
Green transportation is another key component of reducing your travel footprint. This is easy for me to do because there's no way I would shell out the money to rent a car. Frankly, I'm so cheap that if it's less than a 40 minute walk I'm trekking it. I'd rather save my money and experience the food culture wherever I'm at. For those who aren't strapped for cash; busses, trains, bikes, and ride-shares are the way to go. That's how you truly experience a new place and meet people anyway!
Hotel accommodations aren't great on the environment because of the amount of energy, water and single use items used. I find that Airbnb helps with these problems because you can share space with others and find a house/apartment that fits your environmental values. Plus, your Airbnb host won't set out styrofoam for your use or clean your sheets unnecessarily during your stay.

Ultimately, I feel that green travel is the way of the future. Young people are using Airbnb for travel accommodations, they're seeing cities by bikes that they rent, and they're swimming, hiking and snorkeling. For my friends and I this is the way we prefer to travel. It isn't a green travel decision for me, but the way I live my life. I don't want to spend my money on plastic disposable water bottles, I have my own reusable one, and I'd rather take a walking tour through local areas than a bus tour through tourist traps. More and more people in my circle are moving to this way of traveling. It would be interesting to see if this is common practice in other areas of the world outside of the PNW.