Eco-friendly family holidays: tips for parents

Sustainable travel with children: stress-free travel for an environmentally friendly holiday

Before families can really enjoy their holiday together, they first need to reach their holiday destination. While some children find long car journeys boring, the departure date and the journey to the holiday destination can be rather stressful for parents. It’s not always an easy task for parents to keep their children occupied during a car journey.

Compared to long car journeys and then a flight, sustainable modes of transport with children can be a lot less stressful – and it’s also more environmentally friendly. We’ll give you an insight into the advantages of travelling as a family on a coach or by train.

• As a parent you can feel more at ease whilst travelling on a coach or by train. You don’t need to keep your eyes on the road, instead, you have more time to entertain your children or simply sit back and enjoy the journey.
• During the journey children will be able to get up and have a walk around to stretch their legs or they can go to the toilet. If you can move around, this can help babies to calm down.
• A lot of children find travelling by train exciting, especially if they have never travelled by train before. They will be fascinated by the hustle and bustle on the platform and by the conductor, who checks the tickets. They will gain a lot of new experiences and they will also enjoy looking out of the window and watching the scenery pass by.
• In trains there are often special family-orientated compartments, where you can reserve a seat. These compartments are more spacious and offer amenities such as drawing tables, a wider luggage area or a shorter walk to the toilet. You can also travel with other families in this compartment.

Tip: If you’re going on holiday with more than one child, then choosing to go by car may be a suitable option. Your carbon footprint whilst travelling by car will depend on the type of car you use and the number of passengers in it. You can use the following travel calculator to help calculate your CO2 emissions for your journey: https://travelandclimate.org/

Farm holidays for children: first-hand experience on an (organic) farm

In most households you can find the following common everyday items of food such as milk, cheese, bread and eggs. Being aware of where this food comes from and how it is produced is an important learning experience for children.  

(Organic) farm holidays offer an exciting and valuable experience, especially for small city dwellers. You can experience how fruit and vegetables are grown and sustainable ways of keeping animals. There are various advantages of going on a farm holiday with your children as seen below:

Make sure to look at what activities are offered in the local area and the services offered on the farm, when looking for the right farm for your family holiday. A lot of farms also offer educational activities such as foraging hikes as well as seasonal hands-on activities. They usually have tips on outdoor activities in the local area.

Nature-based holidays for kids: going camping with children

Playing and being in the middle of nature, having a barbecue around the campfire and then spending the night under the stars – for many children, a camping holiday is a pure adventure. A camping holiday can be the perfect opportunity for families to spend quality time together as they can relax and forget about the stresses of everyday life. Camping with children not only brings you together as a family, but it also helps you to concentrate on the important things in life. Below you will find some advantages of going on a camping holiday with children:

• Be at one with nature: camping allows children to get an up-close insight into nature such as: exploring the forest or meadows, watching the animals or just looking at the different flowers. This will help your child to learn through first-hand experience on how to connect with nature.

You often don't need to go far for a holiday in the countryside. Holidaying in your region will help you to gain a new perspective and at the same time, you will see how beautiful the local countryside is by staying in a woodland campsite near your home. There are also many campsites, which are actively committed to protecting the climate and the environment. The European Commission has a webpage listing the certified environmentally friendly campsites across Europe, which have received the EU Ecolabel.

Eco-friendly family holidays: sustainable activities

It is not only the journey and the choice of accommodation that contributes to protecting the environment. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind during your stay so that you can help to protect the environment, but at the same time your children can get the most out of their holiday:

• While on holiday, make a conscious effort to take part in social or environmental education activities, where you can learn more about the regional or local environment. Try and visit museums, nature parks or special exhibitions, which promote learning and experiencing nature.
• Show your children how small actions help to make a difference and help in protecting the environment. A good example would be taking part in a clean-up event for the local countryside or on a beach. This way, you can make a 'normal' relaxing holiday or a beach holiday even more sustainable.

Summary: eco-friendly holidays open new possibilities

Going on an eco-friendly holiday does not mean that you have to miss out on the normal holiday fun.  A wide range of varied and exciting activities await you on a nature-based holiday, which guarantees your children a lot of fun things to do such as: staying overnight in a tent, farm holidays, hiking in nature reserves, long cycling tours or just jumping into a lake and going swimming.

By using alternative modes of transport, you can either go on holiday in your own country or to one of the neighbouring countries. You can spend your holidays either on an (organic) farm, in a holiday apartment or at a campsite. This way you can save on travel and accommodation costs so that you have more money to spend on great nature-based activities and healthy food.