The best sustainable travel hotspots to visit in 2023

Now you have your environmentally sustainable swimsuit you’ll need somewhere environmentally sustainable to wear it!

We’re all dying to get out there and travel the world again, but we want to do it in a sustainable way too, visiting destinations that have a social conscious and actively protect their natural environment.

Luckily for us there is actually a globally recognised index for sustainable destinations! The Global Destinations Sustainability Index is a rating system for holiday destinations based on their performance in areas such as the environment, social factors and sustainability. So, all you need to do is pick one and start packing!

Here are our favourites:

Gothenburg, Sweden

Gothenburg actually came out on top in the Index rankings with a whopping score of 93 out a possible 100. It has already been named in the list of climate neutral cities in the Europe, and is actively working to achieve 95% environmentally certified hotel rooms and 97% of public transport running on renewable energy by 2030.

Not only that, but the summer days are endless (well almost – 18 hours of daylight on summer days), and there’s a really great mix of world-class restaurants and culture in a city that’s small enough to be snuggled nicely in a beautiful natural setting as well.

Plus, if you base yourself in Gothenburg, you can also easily visit six of the other top ten sustainable destinations as they’re all in Scandinavia too!

Goyang, South Korea

A little closer to home Goyang is the green heart of South Korea with a rating of 78/100, putting it at number 18 on the worldwide list.

Goyang has no less than 68 green spaces across the city and you can explore them on one of the 3,000 bikes in their share bike network which extends out across the entire city. Plus, you’ll be pleased to know that the city actively measures air pollution too, which is lower than other cities of the same size thanks to all that green space!

Once you’ve given your legs a bit of a workout, you can hit one of the huge shopping malls for a spot of retail therapy.

Melbourne, Australia

If you don’t want to dust of the passport but would rather explore in your own backyard, then Melbourne makes the ideal environmentally friendly destination. Coming in at number 20 on the worldwide list with a score of 73/100, Melbourne tops the Australian cities for sustainability.

Not only is Melbourne actively working to implement an impressive and wide-ranging sustainability plan, but it has also been named as the world’s most liveable city in some rankings, and is considered one of the safest cities too.

There’s not enough room in this post to talk about what you can do in Melbourne – culture, coffee, restaurants, coffee, beaches, coffee, sport…

Did we mention the coffee…? 😉

So start booking those carbon offset flights and get out there in 2023!