Your Holiday Eco-Travel Guide

Holiday eco-travel is easier than you may think. It can save you time, money, and stress while promoting the health of the planet Earth.

Eco Travel Idea for the Holidays #1: Take Public Transportation to the Limits with Hopstop or Google Transit

Linking local transportation systems may get your further than you think when devising an eco holiday travel route. Use www.hopstop.com to find connections within and between major U.S. cities. Hopstop offers eco travel routing for Washington, D.C., New York, New York Metro North, Long Island, New Jersey, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Using a combination of local metro, buses, Amtrak, and walking, plan an eco travel route that requires no automobile usage whatsoever this holiday season.

Directions from Chicago's City Hall to Boston's City Hall provided by the Hopstop system proved that it is possible to timely cross the USA using only public transportation and foot power: Take the 126 Bus from State Station in Chicago, get off at Canal in Chicago, walk to Amtrak station, take Amtrak to Washington, DC, transfer to Amtrak's Acela Express to Boston, get off in Back Bay in Boston, take the MTA Orange Line to State St. in Boston. The entire eco friendly travel adventure from Chicago to Boston takes 18 hours and 19 minutes. This compares to a total driving time of an estimated 15.5 hours, not including rest stops and not taking into consideration the major traffic jams inevitable during peak holiday travel periods.

Google Transit is still in Beta format but is available for finding transit links to, through and from the following U.S. cites as well as Japan and Vancouver, British Columbia: San Francisco Bay Area, Burbank, Humboldt County, Sacramento, San Diego, Thousand Oaks, and Orange County in California; Las Vegas and Reno in Nevada; Austin and Dallas in Texas; Eugene and Portland in Oregon; Hampton Roads in Virginia; Tampa in Florida; Honolulu in Hawaii; Duluth in Minnesota; Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania; and Seattle in Washington.

Eco Travel Idea for the Holidays #2: Bring a (Foldaway) Bicycle