1. Paris by Train - Paris is one of the easiest destinations to reach from the U.K., thanks to the Eurostar rail service. Take the train from St. Pancras Station in central London and you can be in the French capital in about 2 and a quarter hours.  See famous sights such as the Eiffel Tower, visit museums and galleries such as the Louvre, relax in a street cafe in Montmartre, or head out of the city for some magical family fun at the Disneyland Paris resort.

2. Rome by Train – it will take you about 17 and a half hours to get from London to Rome by train, but you’ll be able to enjoy a three course meal, sleep, have breakfast and see some stunning Alpine scenery during your journey. Take the Eurostar from London to Paris Gare du Nord, then travel to the city’s Gare de Bercy and catch the TGV Artesia Night Train, which will take you through Switzerland, into Northern Italy and on to Rome. Visit landmarks such as the Colosseum and the Trevi Fountain, window-shop at some of the world’s most fashionable stores, or head to the museums in Vatican City to see world-famous works of art.

3. Dublin by Ferry – it’s easy to get to Dublin without flying. Simply take drive or take a train to the port of Holyhead and then catch a ferry to Ireland. Two different companies operate ferries between Holyhead and Dublin: Stena Line and Irish Ferries. Once you’ve arrived in Ireland, you can take a shuttle bus into the centre of Dublin. The city’s attractions include Dublin Zoo, Dublin Writers Museum, Dublin Castle, Kilmainham Gaol,  the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Guiness Storehouse.

4. Copenhagen by Train – you can get from London to Copenhagen by train in about 18 hours. Take the Eurostar from London’s St. Pancras Station to Brussels and then take the high-speed ICE train from Brussels to Cologne. For the final stage of the journey, take the City Night Line sleeper train from Cologne to Copenhagen. Once there, you can take a boat trip on the old canal network, see the world-famous statue of The Little Mermaid, take a tour of the Amalienborg Palace and visit the Tivoli Gardens amuseument park.

5. Geneva by Train – it’s easy to get from London to Geneva without flying. Take the Eurostar from London St. Pancras Station to Paris Gare du Nord and then take the metro to Paris Gare de Lyon. From here, you can catch the TGV Lyria, which will take you directly to Geneva. You can explore the city, see landmarks such as the Jet D’Eau and the Flower Clock, and visit some of the many museums.

Image: Leon Brocard

British Airways estimates that up to 16 million gallons of low-carbon fuel per year could be produced at the site and is planning to be using the fuel in some of its aircraft by 2014.

In a press release issued by British Airways on 15 February 2010, the airline’s Chief Executive, Willie Walsh, stated:

“This unique partnership with Solena will pave the way for realising our ambitious goal of reducing net carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2050.  We believe it will lead to the production of a real sustainable alternative to jet kerosene.  We are absolutely determined to reduce our impact on climate change and are proud to lead the way on aviation’s environmental initiatives.”

Ideas include taking a spa holiday in Cornwall, cycling in Holland and taking a trip to the Whitepod, a ski resort in Switzerland which claims to be more environmentally friendly than traditional ski resorts.

The Ridgeway is in southern England and stretches for 87 miles between Overton Hill, near Avebury, to Ivinghoe Beacon. It would take a reasonably fit walker about 7 days to complete the entire trail, but it’s possible to walk shorter sections of it.

You can get to the beginning of the trail using public transport, making it an ideal choice of holiday for anyone concerned about the contribution that carbon emissions from the number of privately owned cars on the road are making to climate change. You can travel from London to Swindon by train and then catch a bus to Avebury. There are also several railway stations near to the end of the trail. If you prefer to travel by car, there are also a number of car parks along the route.

The Ridgeway National Trail website is full of information to help you to plan your trip. It suggests breaking your walk down into the following six stages and provides details of each stage: Overton Hill to Ogbourne St. George; Ogbourne St. George to Sparsholt Firs; Sparsholt Firs to Streatley; Streatley to Watlington; Watlington to Wendover; and Wendover to Ivinghoe Beacon.

The website also provides details of nearby accommodation and includes tips for anyone planning to walk The Ridgeway National Trail. You can also download leaflets about the trail from the site, as well as free guides to shorter walks in the area, such as the Liddington Castle Circular Walk, the White Horse Hill Circular Walk and the Ivinghoe Beacon Circular Walk.

Highlights of The Ridgeway National Trail include: Avebury World Heritage Site, the location of Britain’s largest stone circle; the Uffington White Horse; Whiteleaf Hill; and the Grand Union Canal.

The South West Coast Path is the longest of the U.K’s National Trails, stretching for 630 miles and passing through four counties. The path begins at the town of Minehead, in Somerset, and continues along the North Devon coast, the North Cornwall coast, the South Cornwall coast, the South Devon coast, the East Devon coast and the Dorset coast, finishing at Poole Harbour.

Highlights along the trail include Land’s End, Tintagel Castle, the car-free village of Clovelly, the Minack Theatre, the Lizard Peninsula and Lulworth Cove. There are beautiful views from the coastal path and the South West is also the perfect place to visit if you enjoy wildlife. You may be able to spot peregrine falcons or seabirds, such as guillemots and kittiwakes, and if you’re lucky, you may catch a glimpse of dolphins, seals or basking sharks in the sea.

It would take about seven or eight weeks to walk the entire South West Coast Path, but if you want a shorter walking holiday, you can choose to walk a section of it, as its easily accessible from many towns and cities along the way. The South West Coast Path website has detailed guides to the trail and divides it into 53 separate sections that you could walk in a day, so you can design your own itinerary for your walking holiday.

For example, you could simply spend a day walking the first section of the trail, from Minehead to Porlock Weir and then catch a bus back to your starting point. Alternatively, you could spend several days walking from the popular Cornish seaside resort of Newquay to the town of St. Ives, where you’ll find the Tate St. Ives art gallery.

The South West Coast Path website is an essential resource for anyone wanting to explore the trail, as it features information about things to see along the way, accommodation near to the coast path and safety tips. It also provides details of shorter walks in the South West which are perfect for days out with the family.

Image: Herbythyme

The Maldives featured in Smart Traveller’s list of ten tourist destinations that could be destroyed by the effects of climate change, published in May 2009. In this post, we described how the islands could be submerged as a result of rising sea levels.

The Telegraph states that President Nasheed plans to make the Maldives the first carbon-neutral country in the world within the next ten years, but if the effects of climate change can not be counteracted and the islands begin to be submerged, the climate change fund will be used to rehome residents elsewhere and set up a “new” Maldives.

Sir Jonathon, who is due to retire from his post as advisor today, spoke out in an interview with The Independent. He particularly criticised the Prime Minister for backing controversial proposals for a third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport, condeming the decision as “ludicrous”.

He told The Independent that the PM has “some incredibly fixed ideas about some of these things. He genuinely feels that a successful competitive economy of the future has to be growing its aviation business in order to make UK PLC  more productive, and so on. And you can put the evidence about minimal economic benefit of a third runway in front of him – it won’t go through the Brown brain”.

Sir Jonathon told the paper that the Prime Minister has started to see the importance of climate change over the past 18 months, but that “environment has never been Gordon Brown’s strong suit”.

The survey, which was conducted by budget hotel chain Travelodge, revealed that the ten most popular holiday destinations for Brits holidaying at home this year are as follows: Cornwall; The Lake District; the Yorkshire Dales; the Scottish Highlands and Islands; Edinburgh; London; the Isle of Wight; Devon; the Norfolk Broads; and South Wales.

Many of these people are likely to be staying in the UK in order to reduce costs, due to the recession. However, although this isn’t good news for airlines, fewer people flying is good news for environmental campaigners, as carbon emissions from aircraft are believed to contribute to global warming, an effect of which is climate change.

It’s also good news for British holiday operators, such as Velodays Cycling Holidays, which is based in Aberdeen. Velodays offers a wide range of cycling holidays, so a Velodays holiday is a great option for anyone concerned about climate change.

The Velodays Loch Ness and Strathnairn short break, for example, takes you through some of Scotland’s most beautiful countryside, covering 77 miles in three cycling days.

The price of the holiday includes 4 nights’ hotel accommodation, full breakfast each day, bike hire (if needed), cycle computer route navigation and luggage transfer, and at only £274 – £387 per person (based on two people sharing a room), works out as a great low-cost holiday option.

Your first night will be spent in the Trafford Bank Guest House in Inverness, and your bike and equipment will be delivered to the hotel. The following day, you leave Inverness on your first day of cycling and travel to Loch Ness and then on to Strathnairn. You’ll be cycling for 29 miles on your first day, with 10 miles of this route running alongside the banks of Loch Ness. In the evening, you can relax in The Steadings Hotel in Strathnairn.

On your second day, you’ll cycle east for 26 miles, via Cawdor Castle, before arriving in the town of Nairn, where you’ll spend the night in The Newton Hotel. On your final day, you’ll be cycling for twenty miles, passing Fort George and Culloden before arriving back in Inverness, where you’ll spend the final night of your holiday in the Trafford Bank Guest House.

Velodays also offers longer cycling holidays and a number of cycling holidays in other regions of Scotland.

In previous posts about ecotourism, we’ve looked at some of the holiday options that you have if you want to limit your impact on the environment in order to help to combat climate change, and looked at holidays on which you can take part in volunteer work in order to make an active contribution to local communities and the environment.

Conservation holidays have become popular in recent years, but you don’t have to travel across the world in order to go on one. Responsible Travel, for example, is currently advertising nine and twelve day whale and dolphin conservation holidays in Scotland, which are ideal for anyone who wants to travel without flying.

As part of a field team on the research yacht, Silurian, you’ll help scientists to produce data in order to monitor whales, dolphins and porpoises off the west coast of Scotland, enabling scientists to work to ensure that these species are conserved for future generations to see. The price of the holiday includes your accommodation and food whilst you are on the yacht, as well as scientific and sailing training.

For more information about this holiday or to book a place, visit the Responsible Travel website.

Image courtesy of: © Steve Weaver | Dreamstime.com

Sometimes flying is the only viable way to get to a destination and, as mentioned in the earlier post, simply avoiding such places could be counter-productive, as some poorer communities rely on money from tourism. So, when we need to travel by air, is carbon offsetting a good solution?

There are a number of websites that you can use in order to offset carbon emissions.  You can use these sites to calculate the carbon emissions that you will be responsible for as a result of a flight (or in respect of driving your car or the electricity that you use in your home each year), and then pay to offset these emissions. The money that you pay is then used to fund projects such as producing renewable energy, or providing people in Asia or Africa with energy-efficient cooking appliances.

The Government accepts that carbon offsetting can be valuable but the Directgov website states that “offsetting should be a final choice if air travel is unavoidable. It can help reduce the impact of your activities in the short term, but it’s not a substitute for producing less emissions in the first place”.

However, some people believe that carbon offsetting is nothing more than a way for people to assuage their guilt and provides us with a “feel-good” factor without us actually having to change our behaviour in any way. In an article published on the BBC’s website last week, Martin Livermore goes even further, describing carbon offsetting as “transferring money to developing countries to fund projects that probably would have been implemented anyway, and with little real impact on emissions”.

For Livermore, the only way to slow down the effects of climate change is to entirely rethink the way in which we use energy: “The answer is to use the best available and most cost effective low carbon technology for base load generation (nuclear power), increase the focus on energy efficiency in all sectors of the economy, and encourage R&D on new transport and power generation technologies”.

So where does this leave the traveller? If we need to fly occasionally, it’s surely better to do something in order to counteract the effects of our travel than to do nothing and wait for the world’s governments to take action. After all, changing the way in which we use fossil fuels is unlikely to be a soution that can be implemented quickly.

Another solution, however, could be to channel the money that we would have donated to a carbon offsetting programme to somewhere where it could have an even greater effect.

Oxfam, one of the world’s best known charities, for example, is running a climate change campaign. Not only does the charity provide aid, particularly in the form of disaster relief, to the people directly affected by the consequences of climate change, it is also campaigning for direct action from governments to support these people and to cut emissions.

You can make donations to Oxfam in order to help the charity to fund its work, but you can also get involved by sending emails to decision-makers and signing online petitions. Taking such a proactive approach to the issue of climate change, as well as working to reduce the emissions for which our individual lifestyles are responsible, could result in major long-term changes in the world.