Ethical and greener travel: the best new European trips for 2024
17.01.2024 - 12:07
/ theguardian.com
/ Best New
Global campaigner the Conservation Collective is making waves across the Mediterranean, helping visitors protect the region’s increasingly under-pressure ecosystems. Its Sicily Environment Fund supports local hiking company Astrid Natura and Collettivo Rewild Sicily to train more walking guides, who will focus on the benefits of rewilding. Walking tours with qualified naturalist guides can also be booked with federescursionismosicilia.it.
With the Spanish government announcing that it will protect Andalucía’s Doñana national park wetlands from intensive farming, there’s never been a better time to visit. Here, it’s possible to experience five ecosystems in one day. Habitats provide refuge to over 200 threatened bird species and are also home to almost 100 lynx. Travel Counsellors organises bespoke trips to the region, including train travel and guided tours with a local biologist.
Nature connection is a dominant theme at a flurry of new retreats. Somerset regenerative estate 42 Acres will host one-day workshops and retreats this year (from £100), including “wild medicines” and “potent plants”. It also offers self-guided but fully catered retreats (from £175pppn).
More hands-on nature activities in the UK include a new Lens on Nature experience at North Yorkshire’s 1,200-hectare (3,000 acres) Broughton Sanctuary, including birding, habitat spotting, wild swimming, tree planting and working with the woodland management team (£150 a day for a group of six; cottages sleeping four to 11 cost from £500 for three nights). Further north, the recently opened dolphin-spotting facility Greyhope Bay in Aberdeen offers one of the best chances of seeing bottlenose dolphins from shore and hosts regular nature workshops.
Trees for Life’s rewilding weeks sell out quickly, but new dates for the autumn will launch by the end of January. New this year is a Trees for Life week at RSPB Corrimony in Inverness-shire, helping to restore the landscape after devastating wildfires last summer. If campaigning is more your bag, join a Right to Roam Mass Trespass; the next event promises to be family-friendly and will take place on Dartmoor on 24 February – where a challenge to the right to wild camp is destined for the supreme court.
Mindful of overtourism and climate commitments, many European destinations are getting visitors on bikes, footpaths or public transport this year. Valencia, European Green Capital for 2024, is a great example, with more than 125 miles of bike lanes and 70% of the population able to use green space five minutes from home. Ecobnb’s Zalamera Bed & Breakfast (doubles from €95) is close to Valencia’s old town, making exploring by foot easy, although bikes are also available.
In more rural destinations,