How I got into sustainable travel
The question I get asked most often when talking about sustainable travel is: how did you get into that?! If you’ve listened to any of the podcasts I had the honour of being interviewed for, you will have probably heard me talk about a certain London trip and a cancelled flight. But aside from that ‘breakthrough moment’, my passion for sustainable travel has slowly built over time. By sharing the impact some of my travel experiences have had on me, I want to explain how my ideas around sustainable travel have developed over time. If anything, this is to show that lasting behavioural change comes gradually. Moreover, we cannot expect everyone to suddenly adopt a completely flightfree, vegan lifestyle. Although if I could flip such a magic switch, I would!
University: 2015-2018
I have some sustainability-related memories from before university. I remember learning about a hole in the ozon layer and acid rain in school, and one of my favourite songs as a child being “Adem in, adem uit” (“Breathe in, breathe out” a Eurovision kids song about climate change). But I don’t want to make this blog too long. More importantly, when I started university, I was still far from living or travelling sustainably. At the time, I strongly believed humans were supposed to eat meat. I did not at all relate to the one vegan girl at my rowing club. In terms of travel, I did the typical student thing of trying to find the cheapest flight for a weekend city trip. I also went on two big trips: first to see a friend’s hometown in the US and later to work at a summer camp in Canada.
Despite all that, I equally made an effort to travel locally. I enjoyed a daytrip to Gent by bus and used my free train travel to visit cities around the Netherlands. On top of that, I applied to be on my the university’s student sustainability committee. I didn’t get the position, but apparently I already had an interest in the topic back then. Through friends who sometimes ate vegetarian meals (shocking!), I gradually started reducing my meat consumption. Towards the end of my undergrad, I started a food blog, which got me in touch with several vegan food bloggers. Safe to say they ‘influenced’ me!
Surprise trip to Berlin: December 2018
Throughout the years, I travelled with srprs.me a couple of times. This is a travel agency that sends you to a random location within your budget without disclosing your destination until you arrive at the airport. A very fun concept and they had student-friendly prices, so I loved it. I sometimes have a look to see whether they offer a similar experience by train, but alas (they do have a road trip option). At the end of 2018, I booked a trip with them for the third time. They sent me to Berlin, and I was a bit annoyed that they didn’t make me go by train. I felt that the distance between the Netherlands and Berlin is too small to warrant a flight. Especially given that there is a direct train connection. After this, I never booked another srprs.me trip. Did I go ahead and book train trips for myself instead? Well, not quite yet.
My first cycling trip: August 2019
I cannot remember what came first: my road bike or the idea to go on a cycling trip. Either way, I had not cycled much in preparation for a 935km journey from Edinburgh down to London. Being reasonably fit from rowing, I luckily didn’t struggle with the average 90 kilometres a day. What I did struggle with were some of the logistics. I initially wanted to rent bikes in the UK, but a one-way trip from Scotland to the south of England does not lend itself well to this. Instead, I copied what one of my friends had done and took my bike on a flight to Edinburgh. Or, rather frustratingly, 2 flights to Edinburgh.
At the time, I didn’t know about the existence of the Amsterdam to Newcastle ferry. The alternative, travelling up to Edinburgh by train, was going to take too much time. I had merely 2 weeks to visit friends and family in both Edinburgh and London, travel to/from either destination and cycle the entire distance in between. The fact that I had to take a one-way flight to Edinburgh didn’t bother me too much. To my knowledge there was no viable alternative to get there. Strangely enough, I couldn’t find a direct flight from anywhere in the Netherlands to Edinburgh, so I had a layover in London. Karma got me, though, because the first airplane was delayed. This meant that my bike didn’t make it onto the second one. What followed were a few midly stressful days in Edinburgh waiting for my bike to arrive. It did, just in time.
After arriving in London, I took the early morning Eurostar back to the Netherlands. I had made some concessions on this part of the journey, as it was only possible to take a bike to Amsterdam. Rotterdam is usually easier for me, but apparently one has to sacrifice convenience for the sake of sustainability somestimes. Because I needed to drop off my bike at the station a few hours before the Eurostar departed, I actually had to arrive at St. Pancras the night before. The experience of taking a bike on the Eurostar and collecting it afterwards was surprisingly smooth, though. It’s a shame they don’t offer this service between the Netherlands and London anymore. It was probably too popular!
Flight shame and a Flixbus from London: February 2020
Here, we arrive at the short answer to how I got into sustainable travel. I was working a fulltime internship and desperately wanted to visit a friend in London. I only had a weekend and a limited budget (it was an unpaid internship), so flying seemed to be the quickest way. Nonetheless, I felt really bad about it. After the trip to Berlin over a year ago, I now experienced full-blown flight shame. Here I was, claiming to care about sustainability and taking such a short-distance flight…
On the day I aimed to travel back, a massive storm rolled in. In the end, my return flight got cancelled. You wouldn’t believe how relieved I was when I found out I could take an overnight Flixbus instead! The Flixbus was uncomfortable and even a bit sketchy driving over a bridge in a storm, but I felt incredibly good about it. I arrived home halfway through the morning after informing my internship supervisor I wasn’t able to come in.
COVID cancellations: March 2020
Another cancelled flight solved the next episode of flight shame for me. I was due to go to Bergamo and Milano the exact weekend COVID-19 broke out in that region. I wanted to travel by train, but gave in when my travel partner insisted on flying. None of it mattered in the end, because I decided it unwise to travel at the start of what turned into a global pandemic. Not only am I glad I avoided getting an early mutation of the virus, I was also happy to not be flying anywhere.
Local exploring: August 2020
Trapped by lockdowns and international travel restrictions, I took the opportunity to see more of my home country. I did some trips to nearby cities and went on another bike trip with a friend. We cycled from Den Haag to Groningen, which exceeded my expectations in every way. I saw some landscapes in the Netherlands I had never seen before and enjoyed staying with local cycling enthusiasts through “Vrienden op de Fiets” (“Friends on Bikes”, comparable to Warm Showers).
Going vegetarian and into politics: December 2020
My first step towards going vegan was as a pescetarian. This means I occassionally ate fish, but not other meat. From then on, I gradually phased out fish, egg and dairy products. Unlike most people, I didn’t struggle with cutting out dairy, because I hated cheese anyway. This period also saw me become active in politics. I joined the Dutch “Partij voor de Dieren” (“Animal Welfare Party”) and became actively involved in its youth branch. After helping out at a local level, I took a position on the national committee for several years. Volunteering for an animal welfare organisation was the final push towards veganism, because I didn’t want to be a hypocrite. Too bad being a progressive politician means people will find reasons to call you a hypocrite anyway, but at least I could sleep at night knowing I wasn’t contributing to deforestation, animal cruelty and excessive fresh water use.
All of this made me realise that if I was incorporating sustainability in pretty much every aspect of my life, why would travel be an exception? Since the start of the pandamic, I had not been on any airplanes, and I decided I wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible. This was the start of my pursuit of finding flight-free routes to the destinations I wanted to visit.
Work trip to København: April 2022
As borders slowly started opening up at the end of the pandemic, I successfully convinced my work friends to plan our visit to København by train. Out of the 11 others on the trip, 9 joined me on the train. I think I can say with confidence that all of us had a great time during the rail journey. In fact, everything about this work trip was fun, but I loved the train travel even more than expected. I enjoyed it so much, I took the same route again only a few months later.
Cycling through Sweden: July 2022
This summer, it was time for a proper sustainable holiday. It was challenging in terms of planning the logistics, as transporting bikes from the Netherlands to Sweden by train is no easy feat. But it was so worth it! The train journey with an overnight stop in København went smoothly, and the cycling was fantastic. Dan & I cycled all the way from Stockholm to Göteborg to Trelleborg, again covering roughly 935km. On the way back from Sweden, we took a ferry to Rostock in Germany, followed by trains to the Netherlands.
Long distance relationship: 2022-2024
I am quite proud to say this: during the 1.5 years Dan & I were dating and living in different countries, neither of us took a single flight between the Netherlands and UK. Of course, the distance between these countries isn’t actually that far. We were fortunate to have 3 viable options for flight-free travel: the Eurostar train, the Hull to Europoort overnight ferry and the overnight Flixbus. We utilised all of them and managed to see each other nearly every month.
During this time is also when I started The Sustainable Travel Guide. Having a travel blog focusing specificially on sustainability reinforced my ambition to adopt better travel practices. Hopefully it inspires others (such as yourself!) to try and travel more sustainably, too. Though my blog started with a focus on flight-free routes and cycling trips, I now cover a broader range of topics. Destination guides and hiking content seem to spark the most interest.
Travel blogging: 2024-now
Since starting my travel blog, I learned a lot more about sustainable travel from other bloggers. Things I try to focus on more is finding sustainable accommodation and supporting local businesses. That includes tour operators, activity centres, gift shops, etcetera. Oftentimes, tourism-oriented businesses and hotels are owned by foreigners, meaning that the money you spend at your destination doesn’t stay there. Finding reasonably priced accommodation that is somewhat sustainable remains a challenge for me, but homestays are always a good option.
So, for my upcoming travels, I want to stay at more homestays and find local tour guides. Naturally, I want to try more flight-free routes, as well. There are so many cool train journeys I have yet to take! I also aspire to go on more cycle trips or perhaps a thru-hike. Either way, I’m really enjoying travelling around the UK through hiking weekends and city trips. There are always new things to see just around the corner, and I can’t wait to discover more beautiful places nearby.
