Environment experts have shared tips on how best to reduce your impact on the planet while enjoying holidays this summer.
As much as holidays are the perfect chance to leave everything behind for a short while, the ravages of human made climate change are increasingly difficult to ignore.
Whether its record breaking temperatures in Spain, a French weather map that looks like a 2050 disaster film, or huge Portuguese wildfires, the signs are all around us.
While burying your head in the lovely cool, non-threatening sand is tempting, making small - or even large - adjustments to how you get away may be preferable.
The Mirror asked travel and environment experts for the tips when it comes to environmental holidays.
This is what they had to say:
Go house sitting
Moving into someone else's home requires little carbon heavy travel and yet feels like you're in a whole new, exciting place, Lamia Walker, founder and CEO of HouseSit Match, says.
"House sitters get free accommodation and a home, and pet owners get a free home and pet care as their part of the bargain," she said.
"House sitters sometimes bring their own transport, however, in most cases the house sitters use the owners' car if needed.
"Housesitting holidays have a light footprint on the planet. This makes your movement a light tread on the planet.
"You are using their home and facilities so nothing new is being created just for your holiday."
Avoid travel waste and offset
Jemma Finch, founder and CEO of sustainability platform Stories Behind Things, advises people to plan ahead to avoid creating unnecessary waste.
For example, the travel water bottle.
"It seems simple but this will eliminate your plastic wastage whilst being away," she said.
"Another tip would be, if you are choosing to fly to a holiday destination, to offset your carbon emissions generated through traveling.
"Investing in carbon offsetting programs can be an important step to combatting our impact whilst traveling."
It's worth noting that carbon offsetting programmes are controversial and are rarely, if ever, a complete substitute for lowering emissions all together.
Greenpeace has written extensively about the pitfalls of carbon offsetting schemes.
Go on a virtual holiday
If real world actions are getting too carbon heavy, then a perfect way to reduce your output is to go virtual - an essential emissions free way to explore the world.
A team of travel and virtual reality experts spent nearly two years working with professional tour guides to develop a library of 40 immersive 360° tours.
Jump into the platform and you can delve into pre-recorded experiences, ranging from city tours to kayaking adventures, with visitors able to look around, focus on whatever catches their eye, while listening to the tour guide.
Sign-ups to Virtually Visiting can indulge in free tours of India where you can explore Ladakh and Kashmir.
“As part of the launch, we will give visitors the chance to virtually travel around the world, starting with a whistle-stop journey of eight different countries in eight minutes," said Jonny Cooper, founder of Off the Map Travel, and Virtually Visiting.
“The platform also gives fair value to the tour guides and companies for their digital content. Having worked in the travel industry for so long we really felt this was a missed opportunity for them."
Go Sailing
While relying on the old fashion modes of transport may not exactly be fast, it's a sure fire way to cut your carbon footprint.
Sailing is, argues the people behind classic-sailing.com, "about the journey more than the destination, and you experience every nuance along the way from evolving coastlines to the ever-changing sea.
"Each mile travelled is both an achievement and a gift, working hard to harness the wind; a free and natural resource that sailors have been utilising for centuries.
"Travelling like this is transformative, and (you have been warned) highly addictive. Why sit in a high-speed metal box and miss out on all that passes below you?
"From a salty deck each wave, seabird and sunrise is experienced completely, and only by the lucky few on board."
Fly smart
Air travel is, more likely than not, the most environmentally damaging part of your holiday.
Even a completely full commercial jet, while being much less polluting per passenger than a private plane or half-empty 747, is one of the least-green ways to travel.
If you are going to fly, then perhaps try to reduce your emissions by taking a train to the airport rather than driving, or opting for a holiday that allows you to walk rather than rely on vehicles.
Services like App In the Air lets customers filter their flight searches by carbon emissions, so you can choose the least polluting option.
Lee Dobson, co-founder of Travel City, suggests travelling as light as possible.
He said: "Driving is also a big contributor to carbon emissions, so try to carpool or take public transportation when possible.
"Another thing to consider is the amount of stuff you bring with you when you travel. The more you bring, the more you have to transport, which creates emissions. So try to travel light and only bring what you need."
Go on an active green holiday
Many holiday companies are now offering actively green getaways for those who find peace and comfort in knowing they're helping to get the Earth back into shape.
Often these involve restoring the natural habitat in a certain area, such as the beach clear up holidays being offered by Away Resorts.
At the beaches by its nine UK parks Away Resorts is supplying beach cleaning equipment and information packs for holidaymakers so that they can play their part in beach clean-ups led by Surfers against Sewage.
Once tired of picking up bits of flotsam and jetsam, visitors can read the park's information material on carbon capture paper, use sustainable toiletries and sip a drink through a paper straw.
Have you got any good eco-friendly travel tips? Let us know in the comments below.
