Podcast Episode 4: Eco-Travel

Written by Rachael B. - September 22, 2015

This week’s podcast is a special bonus episode from our founders Tom and Vineeta Greenwood. While on their annual wholesome holiday, a road-trip to Belgium and Germany in their trusty friend, electric car ‘Zoe’, they share their thoughts on the wholesome businesses they came across on their travels.

In this episode, Tom and Vineeta talk about how, although it might seem like a hassle to travel by electric car, it was actually the most relaxing road-trip they’ve experienced, thanks in no small part to apps such as PlugSurfing. It also helped that there were several charging points at interesting spots throughout their journey, despite the fact that Germany especially, is not known for its electric car owners!

Finding food that meets Tom and Vineeta’s plant-based diet preference was made easy thanks to their favourite app Happy Cow, which also helped them to locate beautiful eco-friendly places to stay such as Haus Sonne, when they couldn’t locate a nearby Air BnB.

rsz_haus_sonne_in_the_black_forest_germany
Haus Sonne, a sustainable guest house in the Black Forest

If you’re planning a trip around Belgium and Germany and would like to travel sustainably, Tom and Vineeta offer their finds. They share some of their favourite restaurants, juice bars, places to buy food, organic soap that’s good enough to eat and even their favourite barefoot shoes and eco-freindly clothes shops, including where Tom buys his fully compostable Freitag jeans!

To find out more, including what surprised Tom and Vineeta about the trip, how Belgium and Germany’s approach to sustainability left them with a lot to be inspired about and their hopes for the future of travel, you can listen to using the player below or find and follow our Wholesome Business podcast on iTunes or Stitcher.

*Resources:

Barefoot shoes and eco-clothing
Armed Angels
Freitag
Kiss the Inuit (Bonn, Germany)
Knowledge Cotton
Recolution
Leguano
Today is a good day (Ghent & Antwerp, Belgium)
Uprise
Vivo Barefoot
Wunderwerk

Health food and Fair Trade
Alnatura Super Markets (Germany)
Contigo Fair Trade Shops (Germany)
Natur Reformhaus (Germany)
OHNE (Ghent, Belgium)
Tasty World (Belgium)
The Green Stream (Stuttgart, Germany)

Organic soaps
Anina Soap Creatories
Dr Bronners Magic Soap

Places to stay
AirBnB
Explorer Hotels (Germany & Austria)
Haus Sonne (Belchen, Germany)
Happy Cow
Hotel Goldenez Kreuz (Sonthofen, Germany)
Veggie Hotels

Travelling by electric car
Renault Zoe
Tesla
Plug Surfing
Blue Corner
Ladenetz
Charge Map
Ecotricity
E-mobility Centre (Donaueschingen, Germany)

Vegan/Vegetarian food
Beano’s Cafe (Folkestone, UK)
El Haso (Freiburg, Germany)
Greenway (Ghent & Leuven, Belgium)
Komkommertijd (Ghent, Belgium)
La Botaniste (Ghent, Belgium)
Mae’s (Bonn, Germany)
Super Jami (Stuttgart, Germany)
V20 (Lake Contance, Germany)
Warempel (Ghent, Belgium)