The Good Travel News

Become part of the Good Travel community by dropping in on our bloggers, reading our exclusive features and catching up on the latest environment reports from the world's media. Or join in a chat with other travellers around the world through Travel Shout.

Blogs

First-hand accounts of life on the road and blogger's musings on sustainable travel

• Volunteers Begin To Ask Questions. International development charity VSO recently cautioned young people taking a gap year abroad that it may be better to travel rather than to take up spurious voluntary work in developing countries.The escape from structure and routine that travelling provides is such an important breath of fresh air for young people who have just left the education system. There are so many life skills to be developed and experiences to be had from the independence that travelling provides.more
• Foreign Aid: ENGO’S or ENJOYS? Water buffalo drink from a nearby lake. Barefoot children play cricket on the dusty street. Native monkeys roam wildly with goats and chickens, the odd tuk- tuk whizzes by tsunami-damaged huts, burnt out general stores and heart wrenching poverty. And NGO/ foreign aid sign posts. Heaps of them. They line the streets like fence palings. more

Features

The big issues in sustainable and ethical travel

• Bragging Rights While much of the world might have a hard time finding Bulgaria on a map of the world, to native Bulgarians their nation is no less than birthplace of all worthwhile things.* As an American in Bulgaria, I am subject to frequent history and science lessons of questionable accuracy, designed to better inform me of both the former influence and suffering of this nation. more
• Balkan Train Travel Train travel is an environmentalist’s best friend, especially in Europe, where rail systems connect virtually the entire continent. In a matter of hours you can zip from London to Paris, Paris to Berlin, wherever you’d like to go, pretty quickly and in quiet, air-conditioned comfort. Rail in Western Europe is the pinnacle of environmentally-friendly travel – highly efficient, competitively priced, and embraced by the masses.more

Newsfeed

The latest on climate change, environmental conservation and sustainable living.

• 'Greenwash: Time for rail to raise its game and cut emissions'

  Travelling by train is the green way to go. In the month when the government seems set on railroading us into a third Heathrow runway, even ministers will agree on that. You can "travel greener" with Arriva to Wales. Or hop aboard Eurostar, which claims to "generate 10 times less CO2 than flying" to Paris. Or emit "78% less" than flying if you take one of Virgin's tilting Pendolino trains to Glasgow.

  But is it always true? And do the rail companies deserve the green plaudits they shower on themselves?
  All these claims are based on average emissions for taking one passenger for one kilometre. In theory they take account of everything from how the power is generated to the type of engine and how full the plane or train usually is. And they are independently audited. more

• The shape of things to come

  Adapting to the impacts of climate change will be a painful process fo people around the world. Adapting our homes and habits to the floods droughts, storms, rising sea levels and hotter summers it heralds wil mean giving up things we care about and the places we love. This year's U Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports show that rising globa temperatures will alter the geography of where we live, whether it is in cities, floo plains or the coast. How and where the next generation will move is a major issu for international governments, even if they don't know it yetmore