Ethical Holiday Preparations

Booking your holiday

We have a new guide to travel booking companies which will be a great help when planning your holiday. It gives top tips on how to travel without flying, sustainable travel and accommodation options, and alternatives like working holidays.

Holiday clothing

Whether you need a new pair of trunks or some trainer socks, few of us can get away with going away on holiday without buying at least one new item of clothing, usually to replace the moth-eaten gear that hasn't seen the light of day for 12 months. 
 

Check out our guides to high street clothing and alternative clothes stores for the best places to buy your summer holiday wear.


Best Buys

There is an abundance of exciting sustainable and affordable fashion brands, from established brands to new start ups and secondhand options. We recommend lots of best buys in our guide to ethical clothing brands including Brothers We Stand* for menswear. 

To find out more about in the ethical clothing brands guide, read the Who's Who in ethical fashion article.

Holiday read

We all like a good book (or ebook) to take with us on holiday. 

Check out our guides to e-readers & tablets and bookshops to find the best alternatives to Amazon and the Amazon Kindle.

As well as supporting your local independent bookshop (if you have one), you can also buy your books online from places like Hive Books* which will then donate to local bookshops with every purchase. 

Sunscreen

It is important to pack the sunscreen to protect you from those rays. 

Check out our guide to sunscreen to help you find a brand that works. 

Buy vegan and organic sunscreen from Green People* which is a recommended best buy.  

Digital Cameras

We all love to snap away when we're on our holidays. 

While there are no truly ethical camera brands available some manufacturers are more ethical than others.

In our guide to digital cameras we recommend Sony’s more environmentally friendly models whch are free of Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs).

We also recommend avoiding Nikon which is the subject of a boycott call by Viva! for selling telescopic sights for hunting rifles and promoting hunting, particularly big game in Africa.

You can read more about optics companies and the hunting industry in our influential special report.

Sandals

Make sure you soak in the sights wearing an ethical pair of sandals.  

A number of the recommended and best buy brands in our guide to shoes, make sandals, including vegan options.

Travel Insurance

The insurance industry is guilty of indirectly financing everything from tar sands to the sales of arms. Luckily, our guide to travel insurance has found a growing number of companies offering an ethical policy on investment. 

Bon voyage!

Don't forget to check our guide to travel booking companies when planning your holiday!

*Ethical Consumer makes a small amount of money from your purchase of these brands. This goes to fund our research and campaigning. We ethically screen all the sites we link to.