Protection of and access to nature
Global campaigner the Conservation Collective is making waves across the Mediterranean, helping visitors protect the region’s increasingly stressed ecosystems. Are Sicily Environment Fund is supporting local hiking company Astrid Natura and Collettivo Rewild Sicily to train more hiking guides, who will focus on the benefits of rewilding. Hiking tours with qualified nature guides can also be booked at federescursionismosicilia.it.
While the Spanish government announces that it will protect Andalusia‘s Doñana National Park wetlands of intensive agriculture, there has never been a better time to visit. Here it is possible to experience five ecosystems in one day. Habitats are home to more than 200 endangered bird species and are also home to almost 100 lynx. Travel Counselors organizes tailor-made trips to the region, including train journeys and tours with a local biologist.
Related: The Spanish minister welcomes an agreement to save Andalusia’s wetlands as a model for a green transition
The connection with nature is a dominant theme in a series of new retreats. Somerset the 42 Acres regenerative estate will host one-day workshops and retreats this year (from £100), including ‘wild medicines’ and ‘powerful plants’. It also offers self-guided but fully catered retreats (from £120 pppn).
More hands-on nature activities in Britain include a new Lens on Nature experience at North Yorkshire‘s 1,200-acre Broughton Sanctuary, including bird watching, habitat spotting, wild swimming, tree planting and working with the forest management team (£150 per day for a group of six; cottages sleeping four to 11 cost from £500 for three nights) . Further north, Aberdeen’s recently opened Greyhope Bay dolphin watching facility offers one of the best chances to see bottlenose dolphins from shore and regularly hosts nature workshops.
The Trees for Life naturalization weeks are selling out quickly, but new dates for autumn will be launched at the end of January. New this year is a Trees for Life week at RSPB Corrimony in Inverness-shire, which helped restore the landscape after last summer’s devastating bushfires. If campaigning is more your thing, join a Right to Roam Mass Trespass; the next event promises to be family friendly and will take place on Dartmoor on February 24 – where a challenge to the right to wild camping is destined for the High Court.
Improving local lives
In view of overtourism and climate obligations, many European destinations are attracting visitors this year by bicycle, on foot or by public transport. Valencia, European Green Capital for 2024, is a good example of this, with more than 200 kilometers of cycle paths and 70% of the population who can use green space five minutes from home. Ecobnb’s Zalamera Bed & Breakfast (doubles from €95) is close to Valencia’s old town, making it easy to explore on foot, although bikes are also available.
Related: A local’s guide to Valencia: home of paella, one of Europe’s best food markets and a unique green space
In more rural destinations, rehabilitating footpaths is a priority for targeted travel companies.
In SloveniaIn the less explored Logar Valley, floods washed away walking infrastructure in 2023, but routes have reopened, partly thanks to financial support from slow travel specialist Inntravel. Likewise in the Scottish highlandsMacs Adventure has pledged to donate £5 towards restoring footpaths for every guest on the West Highland Way journey – the most popular walking adventure. The self-guided holiday specialist has also partnered with Loch Ness Hub & Travel, a community business that manages Macs luggage transfers in the area.
Also giving back locally is a new listing from Sawday’s, Trevassack Holidays, whose three timber-clad lakeside lodges in Helston, Cornwall (from £104 per night, for 5-6 people) are fully wheelchair accessible. On-site experiences include kayaking and sailing, with tackles, ramps and other equipment available so no one misses out. Sawday’s itself is a certified B Corporation and Trevassack Holidays, run by the Children’s Sailing Trust (which provides accessible water experiences in Cornwall), is listed on Sawday’s as a “community champion”.
Supporting local businesses is a quick way to ensure travel spending has a positive impact. In SwedenOur Best Småland is a new tour (from £950 pp for four days, all food and drinks included, 2-8 people) put together by four family-owned companies: it includes a stay at Trakt Forest Hotel and a nature camp with Outdoor Experience Småland.
In LondonWomen in Travel’s new Indian Community and Culture tour offers a vibrant slice of India close to home. The three-hour tour along Ealing Road promises an immersive introduction to the flavours, spirituality, clothing and traditions that define India, culminating in an Indian street food feast. Guests visit the Shri Santana Hindu temple, taste Indian sweets and try on a sari. The tour is led by Vaishali Patel, who trained with Women in Travel’s Tour Guide Academy, and fees pay for her time, fund business group visits and support Women in Travel’s mission to provide economic opportunities to disadvantaged women.
Food and drink for a better future
A silver award from Sustainable Food Places in the UK for Visit Leicestershire’s Taste the Place campaign put the county on the map by supporting local and sustainable producers. A celebrated experience is Leicestershire’s only Michelin-starred restaurant, John’s House, farm-to-table. It has recently opened two guest houses in a converted stable and hay barn (from £480 for bed and breakfast and the seven-course tasting menu for two).
Natural and biodynamic wines are on the rise across Britain and Europe. that of Estonia Wine Trail includes 20 small-scale wineries that are certified organic or follow organic and biodynamic principles. One of the latest to join is Rüüp, in the north of the country, which offers accommodation with a sauna and wood-fired hot tub. Natural wine lovers will also enjoy Trippin World’s new guide Pariswith a tour of natural wine bars in the capital, including the recently opened Lolo Bistrot.
The latest tour of Bristol-based Good: Stories in Food is a full-day wine and cheese tasting adventure in the Cheddar Valley. The day trip (from £110p) includes a visit to a local cheesemaker, two biodynamic vineyards and lunch at the Pony, Chew Valley.
Also in favor of regenerative agriculture is a hub of businesses in the hills between the River Lynher and Saltash Cornwall. Regenerative expert Tim Williams operates 120 hectares (300 acres) called Erth Barton, part of the Antony Estate, where Polly Moore and Shaun Treloar have just launched a series of retreats. Further inland, Williams and his wife, Claire Hannington-Williams, help run a permaculture plot on the Crocadan farm. The soil-focused farm is chef Dan Cox’s latest project, with a new restaurant of the same name. The couple runs a café called Mamm, a bakery and a farmers market on site, creating a one-stop shop for local, regenerative farmers. Nearby, the Greenhouse Spa Retreat has pods for two from £95 per night.
In June, Hertfordshire is the setting for the Groundswell Festival, also known as the Glastonbury of agriculture, with many events about the regenerative agriculture movement. Last year there were lectures by science and food writer Anne Biklé; Mike Berners-Lee, ecological footprint expert and author of How Bad Are Bananas; and Abby Allen, owner of Pipers Farm in Devon.
Jump on the train
Choosing the train instead of the plane can reduce emissions from a journey by up to 90%, according to the Man in Seat 61. The good news for rail enthusiasts is that the social cooperative European Sleeper will expand its activities from March 2024. Service Brussels to Berlin to Dresden and Prague. Last year, Nightjet opened new routes, including Paris to Berlin and Vienna to Genoa. This winter it’s also easier to get to the Alps by train, with a Ouigo service from Paris to Bourg-Saint-Maurice until the end of March. The Man in Seat 61 still has the most extensive and up-to-date information for those who book independently.
Related: Night trains and border crossings: the best new rail routes in Europe
More and more tour operators are working with railway experts and flights on the water. Ramble Worldwide is now offering 22 no-fly trips: a new seven-day historic Normandy tour (£1,699 pp including train journeys) to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings in June. One of Exodus’ newest journeys, the quieter walk Portuguese Camino (nine days, £2,199 pp), can now be done by train thanks to a partnership with Byway. Intrepid has launched new land trips from London to Madrid, and Madrid to Marrakesh.
Sustainable Journeys develops travel with lower emissions by choosing more sustainable places to stay, flight-free options and using public transport, cycling or walking where possible. It involves an eight-day adventure Latvia by train, or an EV tour of the west Sweden.
Slot the car for cycling and walks
Cycling for Softies has done some carbon labeling work with carbon consultancy ecollective to show how guests on some of their trips emit less carbon every day than the average person at home in Britain. One of these is the Classic Vineyards of Bordeaux self-guided trip, the starting point of which can be reached in just over two hours by train from Paris. Closer to home, the Great Sussex Way has launched a new wine tour by bike, with routes suitable for road, mountain or e-bikes and accessible by public transport.
Other new train, cycle or walking holidays include Responsible Travel’s latest south-west coast cycling holiday (eight days, £965pp) to and from Swansea station and the four-day guided tour of Welsh Walking Offa’s dike journey (£997pp) from Leominster station to Hereford station. Pura Aventura’s nine-day Picos de Europa Inn to Inn trip (£1,500 pp) is part of a new partnership with TourSpain to offer more affordable and sustainable adventures from Britain.
In the western BalkansFrom July this year, the Trans Dinarica cycle route will also welcome cyclists for the first time, connecting roads, paths and cycle paths over more than 4,000 kilometers. The route brings revenue to less visited parts of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Albania. Highlights include the vast wilderness of Sutjeska National Park and the jagged Cursed Mountains and Dinaric Alps of Albania.