Travel

The term “sustainable travel” often evokes images of low-flow shower heads, rickety beachfront shacks with no AC, yoga retreats deep in the rainforest, and a general lack of luxury amenities. Well, that, or thoughts of nothing more than reusable water bottles and reef-safe sunscreen…Fortunately, sustainable luxury is absolutely an option when traveling. And Peninsula Papagayo in Costa Rica knows it. I got to experience it first-hand this June, basking in sun and surf while I learned all about what the peninsula–and the accommodations and residences on it–are doing to make the world–and their little corner of it–a cleaner and more sustainable place. Read or watch to find out more about this slice of sustainable, luxury paradise.

When we travel, we tread lightly. We want to leave every place we visit better than we found it whether we’re backpacking, road tripping, visiting national parks, or jetting around the world. And while sustainable travel encompasses lots of different things, from which tours you book to what mode of transportation you use to get there to where you lay your head at night, what you pack can set you up for a more sustainable adventure. So no matter where you’re headed, for business, pleasure, or a bit of both, here are 5 things to pack so you can travel better.

Listen, we love a good weekend getaway as much as the next guy. But if we’re being totally honest, a lil’ weekend break (even if it involves camping) usually still involves laptops, cell phones, notebooks, planners…basically, we’re workaholics and we know it. So when we got the chance to got spend a few nights in one of the Getaway tiny cabins in Wimberley, Texas, we were all, “yes, please!” I mean, cell phone lock boxes? Spotty cell service? No TV? An excuse to just chill the heck out and enjoy some quality time in nature?! Where do we sign up? So we packed our bags and headed to Wimberley, our closest Getaway location (there are locations around the U.S.) to unwind. Here’s what the stay was like.

A good, reliable camp mug is a beautiful thing. Not just because they can keep your hot beverages hot and your cold beverages cold for hours and hours wherever you go, but because they help reduce waste when you use them instead of disposables at your favorite local coffee shop, gas station (road trip coffee, anyone), campsite, or to-go hot bevy. But if you really want to step up your sustainability game, forgo the cheap vessels that are gonna last for a year if you’re lucky and snag a more reliable and eco-friendly alternative that creates less waste, leaves a lighter footprint, and looks good doing it! Here are 3 camp mugs that are as sustainable as they are functional.

We love us an innovative and integrative travel packing system here at Terradrift. So you can imagine our excitement when we got our hands on a setup from the Peak Design Travel line: the 30L Travel Backpack, Packing Cubes, and Wash Pouch. In fact, it might just be the best compact travel packing system we’ve ever used. Ready to know what makes it so dang great? Read on (or watch) to find out!

Not a teacher? Then don’t even think about volunteering for a week in a school or orphanage abroad. That’s just one of the guidelines Susan E. Gibson, Author of “How To Be An Amazing Volunteer Overseas: Stories from the Field, Rules of the Road” presents in her book. Because volunteering abroad is not just about visiting a new destination and getting warm fuzzies from doing good. Sometimes volunteering is harder work than you anticipated. Sometimes it does more harm than good. And sometimes it’s extremely beneficial to the local community. So for this Sustainability Spotlight we sat down with Susan and asked her to summarize, in a nutshell, how to volunteer abroad (the right way).

Gone are the days of baggy zip-offs, cheap nylon fabrics, and ill-fitting hiking pants. Welcome to the age of trail to tavern hiking pants: coverage for your legs that doesn’t look like you just returned from 9 months studying worm habitats in the Amazon. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. We’re big fans of worm habitats and the people who study them. Or we would be if we ever met them. But many of us prefer something a little more stylish and versatile these days. Namely, hiking pants that function as well on the trail or on the river or at the crag as they do heading out for drinks or dinner or tapas afterward. Because who wants to go home to change after a little ‘ol day hike just so the restaurant host doesn’t seat you at that corner table right next to the bathroom? And who doesn’t love a single pair of pants that can do it all? So don a pair of these stylish and sustainable hiking pants and enjoy wherever your adventure takes you.

We go on a lot of road trips here at Terradrift. Like our Austin to Alaska road trip last summer or the socially distant one we took this year to Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan. And usually when we road trip, we camp along the way, preferring to freedom camp in favor of pricey campgrounds (lookin’ at you KOA) or hotels (especially during these pandemic days). Plus, we like to have the flexibility to stop and sleep whenever and wherever we want (forest, rest stop, Walmart parking lot…), which means we end up sleeping in our car from time to time. So we built this Prius platform that involves removing the back seats entirely for even more storage space. Finally: a road-trip ready Prius built for two.

If you’re like us, you read the title of this article and abruptly proclaimed, possibly out loud to an entirely vacant room, Where the heck is Door County, Wisconsin?! I get it. We didn’t know either until about two weeks ago. But that’s the whole dang point of these Surprising Destination features, isn’t it? To open your world to new, under-the-radar, totally legit destinations that nobody else is talking about but are still totally baller. So buckle up, because we’re about to introduce you to you new favorite place to lace up those boots and get hiking, kayaking, snowshoeing, leaf peeping, apple sampling, lighthouse touring…we could go on, but we’ll just let you keep reading and find out for yourself what a delightfully surprising and outdoorsy destination Door County truly is.

Here at Terradrift, we’re always on the lookout for the perfect bag for travel. And no lie, that’s a pretty tall order. Of course, “the perfect bag” will look different for everyone–someone on a luxury vacation in Europe is NOT gonna be considering the same bags as someone backpacking through South America for three months–but for those of us who prefer to shoulder a pack rather than roll around a suitcase and carry on our luggage instead of trusting it to those black holes at the airport where luggage disappears and–finger crossed–eventually comes back out again, the Cotopaxi Allpa 35L Del Día bag may be the perfect travel bag, especially if you consider sustainability a top priority.