Environmentally friendly holidays are growing in popularity. Many travelers seek destinations that somehow give back to the environment. Tourism Review presents five exceptionally environmentally friendly European cities ready to welcome any eco-conscious holidaymaker.
Copenhagen is one of the green cities considered a pioneer in terms of sustainability. The city is to become the world's first CO2-neutral capital by 2025. In addition to a striking number of parks, there is a particularly large network of cycle paths - 55 percent of the population use their bicycles for their daily journeys. Tourists are also invited to explore the city by bike.
Visitors can also steer solar-powered boats through the Copenhagen canals or swim in the clean harbor. There is even a year-round plastic ski slope on the municipal waste incineration plant.
As is well known, the locals rarely leave their bicycles behind in the canal city - allegedly there are more bicycles than inhabitants. If you still have to switch to the car, then please switch to the electric car. Amsterdam was one of the first cities to have hundreds of charging stations set up, even the garbage is collected by electric trucks.
Souvenir-shopping can be done in one of the lovingly furnished vintage or second-hand shops, and without any waste, you can shop in the countless unpacked shops.
The Swedish capital is regarded as a role model in the fight against greenhouse gases and air pollution; already in 2010, it was named Europe's first green capital. Many buses and taxis run on biofuel here. The city plans to be completely free of fossil fuels by 2040, and today its entire electricity requirements are covered from renewable sources.
Anyone interested in ecological architecture should pay a visit to the Hammarby Sjöstad district: from the start of the construction in 2004, environmentally friendly measures such as energy generation from household waste were implemented. 80 percent of the routes there are covered by public transport, by bike or on foot.
Iceland also attaches great importance to environmental protection, as it has one of the most beautiful and worthy of protection landscapes in the world - geysers, fjords, and volcanoes included. The island has a good public bus network and Reykjavík itself, one of the green cities, is crossed by many cycle paths. In addition, the country wants to manage without fossil fuels from 2050; 85 percent of the economy is already based on renewable energies. But this is easier for Icelanders than for the others because natural resources such as geothermal wells are used to supply Reykjavík with energy.
The Portuguese capital received the European Green Capital Award 2020 this year. Lisbon is particularly sustainable in terms of mobility: car traffic in the city is limited, but more than 500 charging stations for e-cars are available. Since 2017 there has also been a bike-sharing programme with two-thirds of e-bikes for the hilly city.
Travelers can stay in sustainable accommodation facilities built of biodegradable building materials. There is also a wide choice of environmentally friendly vegan restaurants to discover.