5 Travel Products That ACTUALLY Make a Difference!

You can make a difference, depending on what you pack for your travels. The travel products you decide to travel with can make a huge difference in your comfort, efficiency, and impact. If you're looking to reduce your impact while exploring the world, this video is for you. Today, I'm sharing five sustainable travel essentials that are better for the planet and perfect for life on the go. Let's start with an item that is used often when is an item that often gets overlooked when it comes to its impact on sustainable travel. Towels. I can probably bet that at some point on your trip or vacation, you will use a towel, whether that is post-shower, bath, or just a day at the beach. Believe it or not, those fresh towels that you are using come with a price of resources, and that is water and energy. One way to be a more sustainable traveler when it comes to your towel use is to limit how many towels you use. When I'm staying at a hotel, I'm very comfortable reusing a towel more than one time. Another thing you can do is bring your own towel and just use that for the time of your trip. Here are a couple options I like to pack, starting with the sand cloud towel, which is the perfect item for a day at the beach. This towel literally repels sand. You don't have to worry about bringing home a bucket of sand after a day at the beach that got caught in the fibers of your towel. But beach days aside, this towel dries quickly, being made from 100% Turkish organic cotton. Also, for its size, it packs down pretty small and can fit great in a carry-on. Sand Cloud also donates 10% of its profits to marine conservation. Now, I understand that packing your own towel is not ideal in every situation, especially if you are a one-day traveler because there's just not enough space. For those of you who are in that camp, I would recommend trying out the Sea to Summit dry light towel. Packs super small and is lightweight. It fits pretty much anywhere and dries very, very quickly for those of you that are always on the move. It's made of 80% recycled polyester, 20% nylon microfiber. They come in all different sizes, as small as a hand towel or as big as a beach towel, depending on how you plan to use it. We have personally found this towel to be incredibly useful in hostels and on hiking and camping trips. So, bringing a towel can be a great way to help save on water and energy. Now, this next product is not a formal recommendation as being that I have not actually had a chance to test it out yet, but I just got these Rumpel blankets, which hopefully are going to be great for some trips that we have planned this summer. But the reason I'm mentioning these is because I was super impressed with the amount of commitment and effort they put into creating sustainable products. Like, one of these blankets is made of up to like 60 plastic bottles. So, they use recycled materials. Again, just a company that seems to be doing all the right things when it comes to sustainable materials. And that's a good note. There's a lot of companies out there that are doing some great things to create sustainable products. And with that mission and purpose in mind, it can help you decide what products you want to invest in. But anyway, more on these coming up in the future. Speaking on saving water and energy, another great way to be more conscious in that department is to wash your own clothes while you travel. We have often done this just in our Airbnb or hotel sink. This practice has given us the peace of mind to pack less and also provides us with the feeling that we are doing a bit of good to be more sustainable travelers. One piece of technology that has really helped us with this clothes washing experience has been the Scrubba Wash Bag. Not sure that you can even classify it as technology being that it is super simple, but it has made washing clothes an experience that is a little bit better when we're on the road. This bag is also great for just storing your dirty laundry when you're traveling. So, you don't contaminate your dirty clothes and clean clothes in your suitcase. If you have any products that you would recommend that are either sustainably made or reduce your impact, I would love to hear from you down in the comments. If you're enjoying this video so far and getting value out of it, also please give it a thumbs up. I would really appreciate it. This next travel essential may be pretty obvious, but it has a very big impact on our environment. A reusable water bottle. A reusable bottle helps you to avoid buying single-use plastic bottles, which are one of the biggest contributors to pollution around the world. Over time, this simple swap can prevent hundreds of bottles from ending up in our landfills or oceans. Also, if you are somebody who travels regularly, you know how much money this also saves you. So, having your own water bottle saves our planet, saves you money, and saves you from getting dehydrated, which we know is not ideal when traveling. As we just mentioned with the plastic water bottles, I don't think it is a secret that single-use plastics are causing us some issues when trying to be sustainable. A travel utensil set is another way that you can limit your use of single-use plastics. Having your own reusable utensils means that you can skip the disposable plastic ones when you're eating out or grabbing food on the go. I will say I am not perfect at this, nor even close to perfect, but I do travel with a spork that gets used from time to time. The spork also has come in handy not only as an alternative to plastic, but also when there's not even another option. One other product I would like to mention that is not mine, but Meg's, which is her final straw. Personally, I don't drink out of straws, so this is not something I pack, but if you like drinking out of straws, this might be a consideration for you. It comes in this nice travel case with a cleaning brush. This straw is made from stainless steel with an inner elastic material made from platinum silicone. The case is made from recycled plastic. It can be a great way to reduce your waste as well as get the satisfaction of drinking out of a straw when you're traveling. We often find ourselves doing some shopping on our travels. A reusable bag has been really helpful in those situations, not only from a functional perspective, but also to avoid using plastic bags. Reusable bags fold up tiny and weigh nothing, but they're lifesavers for groceries, souvenirs, or even laundry. Plus, they reduce the need for plastic bags wherever you go. There are a lot of options on the market, but as I've mentioned in my other videos, we really like the Peak Design Packable Tote. It is very lightweight and packs small. It is made from 70D nylon fabric shell that is 100% recycled post-industrial nylon, which is a lot of words for saying that they used recycled materials, which is nice. I know it's basically a glorified grocery bag, but we really like it. I'll be the first to say I am not perfect at this. I still forget things. I still make less than sustainable choices sometimes, but I try. And I really believe that when each of us makes small changes, even imperfect ones, it adds up. So, if you're looking to travel more mindfully, just start where you are. Swap one thing, then another. It's not about being perfect. It's about doing what we can when we can. Thanks for watching, and again, if you have a favorite sustainable travel product that I didn't mention, I would love to hear from you down in the comments. 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