eco hotel · Travel · utopia · Apr 15, 2021

How to become an Eco-Friendly Tourist

Located in the heart of Guatemala‘s beautiful nature, the Utopia-Family knows how important a sustainable and eco-friendly lifestyle is. And so do our guests! What’s best: It’s really easy to travel green.

With these five tips EVERYONE can become an eco-friendly tourist!

1. Let´s talk about Bags

What counts at home counts on your travels even more: Never leave your place without a reusable shopping bag. They are small and fit in every pocket. So no excuses!

Especially on the banks of Rio Cahabón you can see how nasty plastic bags can be: they stick to the branches all along the river. There they find perfect conditions to rot into microplastic. Unless someone picks them up. And this can be tricky – above all, when the water level is high and the plastic bags wrap around the highest branches …

2. Join a Clean Up

Riverside Clean Ups are part of the routine at Utopia Eco Hotel and (luckily) in many other places too. Check on the local Facebook groups of your travel destination, for sure you will find a Clean Up very close by. If not, just grab a bag and collect trash along your way. Every piece counts!

3. Quit liquid, travel light

To avoid using those little plastic bottles in hotel bathrooms, travel with solid shampoo bars and conditioners as well as soap. They don’t come wrapped in plastic and last longer than their liquid friends. Moreover, with solids, it is even possible to fly hand-luggage only. This reduces an aircraft´s carbon emissions.

But please pay attention and go for products with eco-friendly components, so no pollutants enter our lakes, rivers or oceans.

4. Stay local, even abroad

The best way to experience a country is through the people who live there. Please support local businesses where ever you can. Buy your groceries from local farmers, souvenirs from native artisians and try the delicious regional street-food. If you feel like helping even more, check out fundraisers or volunteer positions at the places you travel to.

5. Sleep Green

The chance to go green, starts with the pick of your hotel. Not only in Guatemala but throughout the world you can find more and more eco-friendly places like ours.

At Utopia Eco Hotel we live in harmony with nature and the community. For instance we teach agriculture to neighboring farmers, we employ locals and support their families. Our cacao is produced sustainably. And of course, we recycle our waste and save water as well as energy wherever possible.

And there are so many more things you can find to become an eco-friendly tourist. Just be aware and respect Pacha Mama as well as the community that welcomes you.

Photos by Utopia & Michaela Morrison