My top tips for travelling more responsibly

Responsible travel isn't about going without, it's about choosing better. I often find that the best food, the most interesting journeys, the experiences you'll still be talking about years later, they tend to be the ones that also happen to do some good for the place you're visiting. And some of the most luxurious properties in the world are also the most sustainable: the finest hotels, lodges and experiences are usually the ones that care most about where they operate.

In simple terms, responsible travel means minimising the negative impact your trip has on the planet and the destination, and maximising the positive. It sounds complicated and worthy but it really doesn't have to be. There are some very simple things we can all do to make our holidays more sustainable.

Here are my top tips if you want your holiday to do a bit more good. I promise none of them will feel like a sacrifice. Most will make your trip better.

Before you go

1. Choose where you stay carefully

Look past the green logo on the website. What you want is evidence: published sustainability policies, measurable targets, proper certification. Then ask the question most people don't: who owns this place, and where does the money go? A locally owned or family-run hotel is far more likely to employ local people, source food and materials locally, and care about the patch of the world it sits on. A hotel proud of its answer will tell you. A hotel that goes quiet has also told you. Of course, if you book through me this part is already done. Vetting properties is part of my job.

2. Fly less, stay longer

Your flights are usually the biggest chunk of your holiday's carbon footprint. So one brilliant two-week trip beats three rushed long weekends, for the planet and for you. Once you're there, try to avoid internal flights where practical. Trains, ferries, buses: they're often the more interesting route anyway, and some of the best travel stories start with a slow journey nobody else bothered to take.

When flying is unavoidable, and often it is, there are still small things we can do. For every holiday you book with me, I plant a tree for each traveller through Trees4Travel, which plants native trees in reforestation projects that also provide income for local communities. It doesn't cancel out your flights, and I won't pretend it does. It's one small, practical thing we do together. If you'd like to plant more, I'll send you the link.

3. Learn something before you land

A few words of the language, a bit about the customs, the basics of what's considered respectful. You're a guest in someone's home. Arriving with curiosity rather than assumptions changes everything about how people receive you.

4. Pack smart

Every extra kilo on a plane increases the fuel burned, so travel light where you can. But there are a few things worth making room for. A refillable water bottle saves hundreds of single-use plastics over a two-week trip. A tote bag means you never need a plastic bag at a market or shop. Reef-safe sunscreen, anything without oxybenzone, protects the coral you've travelled thousands of miles to see. And decant your own toiletries rather than relying on miniature disposable bottles. Small swaps, barely any effort, and they add up fast.

While you're there

5. Step outside the resort

Eat and shop locally. This is one easy way to make sure your money is benefitting the destination rather than going to an international offshore company. Your money goes where it should, and the food and experience are nearly always better.

6. Book experiences run by the people who live there

Local guides, local drivers, local cooks. They know a place in a way no international operator can replicate, and your money stays in the destination. The guide who grew up there will always show you more than the one who read about it. I always prioritise local guides and experiences on my itineraries, and often these experiences contribute to local conservation or fund community projects through partners like Planeterra.

7. Ask before you photograph someone

It costs nothing and it matters. People are not scenery. A smile and a gesture go a long way, and if the answer's no, that's the end of it.

8. Hold animal experiences to a high bar

Wild animals should be wild. The best wildlife experiences let you watch them in their own habitat, at a respectful distance, getting on with their lives. If a place lets you ride, pet, hold or pose for a selfie with a wild animal, there's cruelty in it somewhere, however nicely it's packaged. Elephant rides, lion-cub petting, swimming with captive dolphins, performing-animal shows: walk away from all of it.

Look instead for genuine sanctuaries doing rescue and rehabilitation, or wildlife watching where your visit funds the conservation rather than undermining it. Keep your distance even when you're tempted closer, lose the flash, stay on the marked paths. If you're ever unsure whether something passes, ask me. This is the part of travel I know best.

9. Get involved

The experiences my clients rave about for years afterwards are almost never the ones they expected. They're the morning spent tracking rhino on foot with an anti-poaching team. The afternoon learning to cook from a grandmother in her own kitchen. The snorkel where a marine biologist taught them to tell a healthy reef from a dying one. Doing beats watching, every time.

So get stuck in. Photograph a whale or dolphin and upload it to Happywhale, where your holiday snap helps scientists track migrations across entire oceans. Spend a morning planting coral, or counting turtles on a nesting beach with the people protecting them. Join a village cookery class and eat the results. Walk with a local guide who can read the bush like a book. Help out on a beach clean and feel unreasonably proud of one bin bag. These things cost you almost nothing and give you the stories to come home with.

I can build experiences like these into every itinerary I plan, so just ask. Wherever you're going, there's a way to leave it a little better than you found it.