What Is the Most Sustainable Way to Travel?

Updated: March 29, 2026

Last week, I shared my reflections on everyday eco dilemmas that challenged some of my assumptions about sustainable living. This post continues that reflection, but this time through the lens of travel.

Much like the everyday sustainability dilemmas I explored previously, travel too rarely fits into simple categories of right and wrong.

I used to think sustainable travel would become easier once I learned enough.

That eventually there would emerge some kind of clearer map:

fly less,

buy less,

choose the greener option,

follow the right path.

Yet the more I try to travel consciously, the more I realize how many travel decisions exist in shades of grey rather than clear answers.

Sometimes the option that initially appears more sustainable carries hidden environmental costs elsewhere — through fuel consumption, accommodation, infrastructure, food waste, or the sheer distance traveled. And sometimes the greener choice depends less on ideology than on the realities of family life, geography, budget, or what kind of travel is realistic enough to sustain long-term.

Quick Summary: Sustainable Travel Trade-Offs

Cruises may sometimes produce higher emissions per passenger than flying.
RV travel is not always less sustainable than hotels and cars.
Carry-on travel can reduce aircraft weight but sometimes increase disposable waste.
Eco-resorts are not automatically greener than simple local accommodation.
Sustainable travel often depends more on slowing down and consuming less than on finding one “perfect” option.

Here are some of the sustainable travel dilemmas I have found myself wrestling with over the years.

1. Cruise vs Flying

For a long time, I assumed that flying automatically carried a higher environmental footprint than cruising. But the reality turned out to be more complicated.

According to the International Council on Clean Transportation, cruise ships can in some cases produce higher emissions per passenger than flying, especially when additional pollutants beyond carbon dioxide are taken into account. Yet aviation remains highly carbon-intensive too, particularly for long-haul trips and frequent travel.

Cruises combine transportation, accommodation, food, and entertainment in one place, which can reduce the need for additional hotels or flights between destinations. They also allow slower movement between multiple locations. At the same time, cruise ships consume enormous amounts of fuel and energy, and their environmental impact varies significantly depending on the ship, itinerary, and passenger behavior.

This became a very real dilemma for me when planning a Caribbean trip with my son. We ultimately chose a cruise instead of repeatedly flying between islands. Partly because it simplified logistics, partly because it reduced the number of separate flights and accommodations we would otherwise need.

And yet the decision never felt entirely comfortable.

The longer I think about sustainable travel, the more I realize how rarely these choices fit neatly into “good” or “bad” categories.

These days, when planning trips, I mostly ask AI to help estimate the footprint of different travel options. Not because I believe travel can become perfectly sustainable, but because I still want environmental impact to remain part of the conversation alongside safety, cost, and practicality.

2. Camping Car vs Car and Accommodation

This is another travel dilemma that initially seemed much simpler than it turned out to be.

For a long time, I actually assumed RV travel must automatically be the greener option. One vehicle replacing flights, hotels, restaurants, and repeated laundry cycles felt intuitively more sustainable to me. There was also something appealing about carrying your small living space with you through nature instead of depending on large hotel infrastructures.

But the reality, once again, became more complicated.

Camping cars consume large amounts of fuel, especially over long distances. Yet hotels also quietly consume enormous amounts of energy and water through heating, air conditioning, laundry, pools, cleaning, and food waste.

The answer depends surprisingly heavily on context.

A regular car combined with modest accommodation is often more sustainable for one or two travelers staying longer in one place. Yet for a larger family traveling together, cooking meals, avoiding flights, and staying in campgrounds rather than large resorts, an RV can sometimes compare more favorably than repeatedly booking hotels and moving between destinations.

According to Our World in Data, transportation emissions often depend more heavily on distance traveled and frequency of movement than on the exact travel format itself.

This is perhaps one of the sustainability lessons I keep encountering repeatedly: flying less, staying longer, and consuming less during the trip often matter more than finding one supposedly perfect mode of travel.

We experienced this dilemma ourselves. When traveling to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon, we chose a car and accommodation. But when exploring Yellowstone and the American Northwest as a family of six, we opted for an RV instead.

Neither choice is entirely environmentally pure. Both simply reflected different trade-offs within different journeys.

3. Carry-On Only vs Checked Luggage

I once assumed this was one of the simplest sustainability questions in travel.

Less luggage means lighter aircraft, and lighter aircraft generally mean lower fuel consumption.

But even here, the reality becomes more layered.

Ultralight travel can sometimes encourage disposability through miniature toiletries, excessive packaging, or repeatedly buying small travel-sized products. Hotel mini bottles and individually packaged convenience items may reduce luggage weight while increasing waste elsewhere.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), aircraft weight does influence fuel consumption and emissions. Yet the environmental impact of travel habits extends far beyond luggage alone.

Our family now mostly tries to travel with carry-on luggage only, especially for shorter trips. The exceptions are longer relocations or situations where checked luggage simply makes more practical sense financially or logistically.

Thankfully, many accommodations increasingly provide refillable soap and shampoo dispensers instead of endless miniature plastic bottles. Small shifts like these remind me how sustainability often evolves through gradual improvements rather than dramatic transformation.

4. Simple Local Hotels vs Vacation Rentals vs Eco-Resorts

This may be one of the travel dilemmas where appearances become particularly misleading.

Eco-resorts often market themselves through sustainability language, yet many involve energy-intensive luxury infrastructure, imported materials, swimming pools, spas, golf courses, and remote construction. Sometimes older local guesthouses may unintentionally consume less simply through simplicity rather than branding.

Meanwhile, all-inclusive resorts centralize transportation and services efficiently, but can also generate enormous food waste, laundry demands, and energy consumption. Vacation rentals may reduce some centralized impacts while simultaneously contributing to housing pressure, inefficient heating and cooling, and overtourism in residential neighborhoods.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, tourism sustainability depends not only on individual choices but also on broader infrastructure, local economies, resource use, and community impact.

During our recent family trip to Vancouver, I searched Booking.com for accommodations with sustainability certifications. There were only a few options available within the areas we wanted to stay, and unfortunately most were far outside our budget.

The experience reminded me how sustainability itself can sometimes become a luxury category — easier to aspire to than to realistically afford.

5. Fast Fashion Travel Clothes vs Rewearing Limited Clothing

There is now an entire market built around “travel wardrobes” and perfectly curated vacation outfits.

And I understand the temptation.

Travel often carries a subtle pressure to reinvent ourselves visually through photographs, social media, or the fantasy of becoming a slightly different version of ourselves abroad.

Yet buying new clothes for every trip creates its own environmental footprint through production, transport, packaging, and waste.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme on Fashion and Sustainability, the fashion industry carries significant environmental impacts through water use, emissions, textile waste, and resource consumption.

At the same time, constantly washing a very limited wardrobe while traveling also consumes water and energy.

Increasingly, I try to travel with fewer clothes, rewear more pieces, and resist the feeling that every destination requires a new aesthetic.

I think one facet of sustainable travel for me has been learning to feel comfortable being seen repeatedly in the same clothes — and realizing that most people probably notice far less than we imagine. And when they notice — so what.