I am not an eco hero. I take a few trips a year, I fly when there is no reasonable alternative, and I am not about to stop seeing my family. But a piece in Cape Coral Pool Villas about gentler travel made me change a few small habits, and they cost me nothing.
Trains for shorter distances, when the line exists. The station is in the middle of town and the airport is nowhere, so I get half a day more of the place I came to see instead of spending it in a taxi.
Fewer places, longer stays. Two nights somewhere is a taste, four is a trip. I stopped doing the thing where you tick off five towns and remember none of them. Staying put also means the baker starts to know your face, which is worth more than a fifth cathedral.
I buy from small shops rather than the souvenir place by the cathedral. Bread, soap, a notebook, whatever I actually needed anyway. The money stays in the street I am walking down, and I come home with something useful instead of a fridge magnet.
The bottle goes everywhere with me. One refillable one, filled at the tap, has replaced a small mountain of plastic over the years. Some towns have fountains, some have cafes that will fill it if you buy a coffee and ask nicely.
And I read the signs in protected areas. Stay on the path, no fires, keep the dog out of the water, do not feed anything. They are there because a lot of people ignored them before me. Following them is the least dramatic thing I do all year and probably the most useful.
