If you're looking to make your travel a little greener, you've got plenty of company. A 2023 survey from the online travel agency Booking.com showed that 76 percent of respondents want to travel more sustainably—taking trips that minimize impact on the environment and also respect and give back to the local culture.
Options are, in fact, proliferating for eco-conscious travelers as the global sustainable travel market takes off: It's expected to nearly triple in size over the next decade, from $3.3 trillion in 2023 to $11.4 trillion by 2032, according to Allied Market Research. The challenge is finding the destination that suits you best from all the choices out there—one that offers a winning combination of eco-friendly activities and accommodations and all the other factors you look for in a vacation, at a price you can afford.
To help you narrow your choices, Newsweek has identified five great sustainable travel destinations, at different price points. To make the cut, the places we chose had to meet the following criteria: All have strong government programs or laws in place to support environmental protection; they have businesses invested in ecotourism that provide accommodations and activities you can feel good about patronizing; and they are spots with tremendous natural beauty, so that you can remember what it is that we're all working to preserve.
Here are the top five sustainable destinations.
BELIZE
If you're looking for a vacation destination with lush terrain—rainforests, waterfalls and more than 200 miles of island-spotted Caribbean coastline—combined with diverse wildlife and rich culture, Belize delivers on all counts.
On land, the country shares the largest swath of jungle in Central America with Guatemala and Mexico. This tropical wilderness is populated by hundreds of bird species, such as keel-billed toucans and ruby-throated hummingbirds. In the sea, the second-largest barrier reef in the world runs the length of the country, supporting turtles and stingrays and attracting divers with the Great Blue Hole, an underwater sinkhole 1,000 feet wide and 400 feet deep.
The stunning beauty of Belize's natural resources is matched by the fervency with which the government, in partnership with community and business leaders, works to protect it. Nearly 40 percent of the country's land mass is under government protection via nature preserves and wildlife sanctuaries—all places that travelers can visit.
What Makes It Sustainable
"Belize has a great record environmentally and with human rights," says Jeff Greenwald, founder of Ethical Traveler, a nonprofit that seeks to use the buying power of the tourism industry to protect the environment.
In 2017, the country worked to restore the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, a significant part of the Mesoamerican Reef system—the largest barrier reef system in the Western world. After coastal construction and offshore oil extraction damaged the reef nearly to extinction, more than 450,000 volunteers worked with environmental agencies to ban offshore drilling and secure regulations that would protect Belize's mangroves, a staple of the country's ecosystem. In 2018, their efforts paid off and Belize's beloved barrier reef was removed from the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger.
What Makes the Experience
"There's so much to do that first-time visitors are often overwhelmed with the choices they have," says Greenwald.
Belize's Toledo Ecotourism Association offers tours and one- or two-night stays in Mayan villages that include experiences such as cocoa chocolate grinding, tours of cocoa farms and a traditional cooking or crafting lesson. Explore caves with underground waterfalls or spend an afternoon with a guide taking you through ancient Mayan temples. Hiking the waterfalls and jungles could lead to a crocodile, howler monkey or tapir spotting.
As for accommodations, eco-tourist lodges abound. Among them: Chaa Creek, powered by 156 solar panels; Copal Tree Lodge, which plants thousands of trees annually; or the Green Globe-certified Xanadu Island Resort, which employs green energy, composting, recycling and other environmentally sound practices throughout the property in addition to policies that support local restaurants, bars, tour operators and animal protection and preservation initiatives.
One U.S. dollar converts to about two Belizean dollars. With that favorable exchange rate, plus the short distance from the United States (just over 1,400 miles, or two-and-a-half hours by air, from the shortest point in Florida), Belize makes a great destination for those looking to keep costs low.
COSTA RICA
With more than 26 national parks, 58 wildlife refuges and 32 protected zones, Costa Rica alone comprises 5 percent of the earth's biodiversity, making this a great destination for travelers interested in the natural world.
It's also a global eco-conscious leader, one of the first countries to produce the energy it needs entirely from renewable energy sources, such as hydropower.
"Everywhere you go, you're aware that there's a strong value on protection," says Greenwald. "And it's absolutely beautiful. It's a place where there are many, many opportunities to explore and enjoy in a sustainable and really delightful way."
What Makes It Sustainable
Costa Rica has introduced multiple sustainability initiatives over the past several years. These include land protection—over 25 percent of the country's 19,730 square miles are protected from future development—and incentive programs such as the Ecological Blue Flag Program, which evaluates each of Costa Rica's beaches on strict environmental criteria (like ocean water quality, waste disposal and tourist safety) and annually awards the Blue Flag only to those with a score of 90 percent or better.
Costa Rica's government-run tourism institute also promotes the Certification for Sustainable Tourism (CST), which gives a sustainability rating to hotels and tour agencies. Assessment criteria include electricity consumption, conservation actions, waste management and cultural protections.
What Makes the Experience
Stay at the locally owned Arenal Observatory Lodge, the only hotel located within the Arenal Volcano National Park, to support an organization that maintains almost 700 acres of natural forest and reforested areas. The Life for Life Hostel, meanwhile, started as lodging for volunteers protecting baby sea turtles. Its tours, from scuba diving to horseback riding to zip lining, support their sea turtle conservation project.
Costa Rica is known as the most expensive country to visit in Central America. For the budget-minded, though, there are ways to keep costs down, including taking fewer guided tours; going in the fall, which is the off- or rainy season there; and staying on the Caribbean side versus the Pacific side, which boasts a greater number of national parks, wildlife refuges and forest reserves.
PARK CITY, UTAH
When you think of a snow-blanketed ski vacation, you're probably already picturing Park City. Visit in the winter and you'll be skiing or snowboarding in the place ranked third in TripAdvisor's Travelers' Choice awards for Best Places to Ski in North America. In the summer, the mountains provide a top spot for hiking, mountain biking and fishing.
What you might not know, however, is the city's commitment to being a sustainable travel destination, one that shows how local charm can mix with green initiatives to create an unforgettable vacation experience.
What Makes It Sustainable
"So far, this is the most engaged destination I've visited," says Elaine Villatoro of the sustainably focused website Live More, Travel More. "They encourage and value businesses that have initiatives that help the community and environment."
Park City's City Council passed a sustainability plan in 2019 that aims for the city to hit net-zero carbon emissions and run on 100 percent renewable electricity for the entire community by 2030. Its current fleet of zero-emission buses makes it easy and cheap for tourists to get around without renting a car and it's already reduced the city's carbon footprint since 2005 by 70,000 tons—equivalent to taking 14,000 cars off the road for a full year.
Last year, the city also put in place an ambitious sustainable tourism plan that aims to give the same weight to community and environmental considerations as economic benefits in developing Park City and the surrounding county as a top travel destination. Eighty-three projects are currently underway, ranging from initiatives to implement sustainable water, housing, energy and transportation policies to investments in local organizations fighting climate change.
What Makes the Experience
For sustainable spots, Villatoro recommends having a night cap at Alpine Distilling (Recycle Utah's Business of the Year in 2022); eating treats from Ritual Chocolate, a small-batch chocolate maker that uses ethically sourced cacao from growers with high environmental standards; taking a naturalist-led walk on the Swaner Preserve & Ecocenter, a combined nature preserve, farm, state-of-the-art environmental education facility and wildlife refuge with 10 miles of trails; and a visit to the fulFILLed zero waste and refill shop.
As for places to stay, she says, you can't beat the Treasure Mountain Inn, which has won Utah's Business Recycler of the Year twice and donates 1 percent of revenues from every stay to the Summit Land Conservancy to protect open space.
PALAU
It doesn't get much more picturesque than Palau, located in the Micronesia region of the western Pacific Ocean. This collection of over 500 coral and volcanic islands, popping green out of the Pacific, attracts divers from around the world to its reefs and shipwreck sites.
No one feels the pressure of the sustainability clock more than island nations, and the 18,000 residents of Palau have found ingenious ways to make everyone part of keeping their country pristine for generations to come.
What Makes It Sustainable
You'll notice the commitment to building a sustainable future as soon as you land, with a stamped pledge in your passport promising that you'll act in an ecologically and culturally responsible way while there. The pledge is addressed to the children of Palau.
This island nation turns sustainability into a game with the Ol'au Palau app, a unique tourism initiative that rewards visitors for participating in activities or behaviors that care for Palau's culture and climate, such as adding culturally significant sites to your itinerary, dining on sustainably sourced local fare and answering quiz questions about Palau's biodiversity and culture. Your care is rewarded with deeper access to the island, letting you into places and experiences normally reserved only for locals. Whereas in most cases, the bigger the budget, the more opportunities, this app allows you to open up exclusive opportunities based on how you treat the environment and culture.
What Makes the Experience
"I think as a scuba diver, I found Palau to be the most exciting and magnetic destination," says Greenwald. "I've never been on more beautiful dives."
Sam's Tours is a Palauan-owned dive center with a zero-trace tour operator, meaning you leave the natural landscape the way you found it, with a no-disposable-plastics policy. Underwater, check out the Blue Corner, one of the world's top diving sites and swim in Jellyfish Lake, filled with millions of the creatures (don't worry—the stinging cells of the particular species in the lake are not powerful enough to cause harm to humans).
Above ground, you'll want to visit the Belau National Museum, the oldest museum in Micronesia, and Etpison Museum, housing indigenous art and artifacts, past and present. Stay at one of more than a dozen sustainable hotels certified by ETIC Hotels, a project that develops and encourages sustainable and ethical behavior based on international standards. Among them: the Palau Pacific Resort, which uses rainwater and wells, gets its power from solar panels and recycles plastic into oil for its tiki torches.
A $100 environmental fee will be added to the already long and expensive flight to Palau. With that, plus the higher cost of goods often found on island destinations, Palau can be a pricey but bucket list-worthy option.
BHUTAN
Cradled by the Himalayas, Bhutan is famously known as the happiest country on earth. Less well known: Bhutan is the only country in the world that is carbon negative, absorbing more carbon dioxide than it releases—a reflection partly of geography but also of its commitment to policies and practices that protect the environment.
That is part of the reason that Bhutan often makes lists of top sustainable destinations. But the more compelling draw is the diverse and unique experiences that the 100,000 tourists who visited the country this year got to engage in: seeing the hand-woven fabrics that are an integral part of Bhutanese culture; tasting the national dish of cheese and hot chilies; seeing the amazing array of wildlife (Bengal tigers, leopards, elephants, red pandas, monkeys and black bears, among others); enjoying active-travel adventures like hiking, trekking, rafting and mountain biking in lushly scenic settings; and meeting the only people in the world who measure their domestic success via a gross national happiness index.
What Makes It Sustainable
Measuring happiness "shifts [Bhutan's] priorities," says Jim Sano, vice president of travel, tourism and conservation for World Wildlife Fund. "And so, maintaining the culture, maintaining the integrity of their natural areas, is a big priority."
By constitutional mandate, at least 60 percent of Bhutan's land must be covered by forest. In practice, 70 percent of the country's land is protected under forest cover.
"You don't find that in any other country to that extent," Sano says.
A combination of low carbon emissions, carbon sequestration and hydroelectricity exports is what makes Bhutan the only country to be carbon negative. That sustainability does come at a cost to travelers, though, in the form of a daily Sustainable Development Fee, which may make this a trip you have to really save up for. However, they recently announced incentives for staying longer in the country that dramatically reduce the daily cost the longer you stay.
What Makes the Experience
Take a high-altitude trek to the base of Gangkhar Puensum, the tallest unclimbed mountain in the Himalayas. "You may be [one of] only a handful of travelers who go there a year, in contrast to the Everest Trail, which is 30,000 travelers a year," says Sano.
Get a taste of the Bhutanese culture of textiles, visit a 169-foot Buddha statue and experience the architecture in the capital city of Thimphu.
Then go west to visit the famous hillside Tiger Nest's Monastery, with its colorful prayer flags stretching over the valley, or east to tour the sacred valley of Bumthang, with its national parks and festivals.
Chances are you'll leave the happiest country on earth happier than when you arrived.
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