As the world shifts towards more sustainable living, our travel habits are evolving to match. Shakespeare's England, Warwickshire, with its picturesque landscapes, historic sites, and charming towns, offers perfect opportunies for eco-friendly exploring. Here are some tips to help you visit sustainably in Warwickshire, whilst making the most of our beautiful green, open spaces and enjoying the many things to do.
Sustainable Travel to Shakespeare's England
Considering our means of travel and choosing more sustainble options can help reduce carbon emissions and relieve pressure from the road networks. Shakespeare's England are proud to have partnered with You.Smart.Thing to help you plan your journey to Warwickshire with personalised low carbon active travel plans, which include public transport, electric vehicle charge points and accessible parking. Visit our Travel Information section to start mapping your journey!
Re-use not single use
We need to stay fed and watered when we are exploring, but single use drinks bottles, coffee cups and food packaging create unecessary waste. Recycling is great but Reusing is even better! By bringing your own reusable cups, water bottles and containers along you can help to reduce the huge impact that single use plastics have on our planet.
DID YOU KNOW? Single use drinks bottles and coffee cups are often used for less than 15 minutes, yet they can take more than 1000 years to degrade (if at all).
According to research conducted by the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, approximately 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups are used in the UK each year. This translates to approximately 7 million cups being discarded every single day. A great way to avoid adding to this is to bring your own!
Many coffee shops offer discounts to customers who use their own cups, so you can save some pennies whilst helping to save the planet. Carrying your own drinks bottles and bringing snacks in reusable containers is another great way of reducing waste. Ask shops and cafes if you can refill your water bottle when it runs low. Download the Refill App which helps you to find locations offering refills for everything from water, to lunch and snacks, groceries and cosmetics.
Visitors to Rugby can purchase their very own Rugby Town Takeaway Cup from the Visitor Centre, which makes a lovely souvenir and means you can enjoy a warm drink while you explore the historic town!
Support Local!
By choosing to shop and eat locally during your visit to Shakespeare’s England helps to support our local economy, and can be more sustainable too. Shopping locally helps reduce your carbon footprint by lowering food miles generated through the transportation of goods. Search for restaurants with seasonal menus using local produce – such as Billesley Manor and Mallory Court Hotel who are both proud to use home grown produce from their own kitchen gardens.
Taking home a local souvenir from your visit helps to support the many local producers and gift shops in Shakespeare’s England towns and attractions. Local honey, artisan spirits, chocolates and artworks make wonderful mementos – and remember to bring your own reusable shopping bag to take them home in!
Celebrate Sustainable Tourism Champions
Shakespeare’s England is home to many businesses who are committed to sustainability. Shakespeare Distillery are certified as a Carbon Neutral Business. They have reduced their CO2 emissions by 30% since becoming Carbon Neutral and continue to look for new ways of reducing their impact on the planet. The distillery sources local ingredients for their spirits, and have reduced the use of unnecessary packaging materials. They also offer a fantastic refill scheme so customers can return their empty 50cl gin bottles for a discount on a refill! Read more about their sustainable commitment here.
Not only do Stratford Butterfly Farm celebrate the natural beauty of our environment and protect the exotic butterflies and wildlife who thrive in our tropical rainforests, they have also adopted a host of practices to ensure they are reducing their impact on the planet. These include a £10,000 investment to have solar panels installed, using local suppliers wherever possible, stopping the sale of single use plastic bottled drinks in their shop, and the pupae they buy from the tropics is bought from rainforest communities and projects which provides a sustainable income for the local community and in turn protects the rainforest from being felled.
Share a journey
Shakespeare’s England covers a large area with lots to explore! Transport has a big impact on the environment, but by sharing a ride we can greatly reduce this.
Warwickshire boasts a comprehensive and efficient public transport system that makes green travel easy and convenient. There are direct trains to Shakespeare’s England from London, Coventry, and Birmingham, visit Chiltern Railways, Avanti West Coast and West Midlands Trains for times, prices and the best travel tips.
The local bus service is another excellent option for sustainable travel. Operators like Stagecoach and National Express run extensive routes covering the entire county. Opt for the bus to visit places not directly accessible by train, such as smaller villages and countryside attractions.
Cycling is an environmentally friendly and enjoyable way to discover Warwickshire's scenic beauty and there are several dedicated cycling routes to explore, such as the Stratford Greenway and the Warwickshire Cycleway. These trails range from easy, family-friendly paths to more challenging routes for experienced cyclists. Cycling allows you to explore at your own pace while reducing your environmental impact.
To really get to know the towns and villages of Shakespeare's England, we recommend exploring on foot! Try a walking tour of Shakespeare's hometown with Stratford Town Walk, whose guides gie a fascinating insight into the history of Stratford-upon-Avon.
If you would like to visit more rural destinations, a group guided tour is a great way of visiting new places and making new friends along the way! Go Cotswolds run their popular ‘Cotswolds in a Day’ minibus tours – they also offer pickups from Stratford-upon-Avon and Moreton-in-Marsh train stations.
Be a mindful guest
If you are staying locally in a hotel or guest house, question if you need to have your towels and bedding changing daily. Simple changes like opting out of daily linen changes can help to save millions of litres of water each year, and reduce the impact of transport and energy use from laundry services. Similarly, if you bring your own toiletries, try to avoid using plastic miniatures if you don't need to.
Become a sustainable champion yourself!
Even introducing a few simple swaps into your lifestyle can have a positive impact on our planet. As more people adopt sustainable actions into their travel plans, and share them with others, the movement will grow and they will become normal for everyone! Make sure to share your sustainable travel tips and lifestyle swaps through word of mouth and by using social media. We would love to hear some of your sustainable travel tips – please share them with us by tagging Shakespeare’s England on social media – you can connect with us using the links at the bottom of this page!
We love to welcome visitors to Shakespeare's England and by working together to retain the beauty of our wonderful places, we can protect and ensure that they can be enjoyed by future generations for years to come.
Don’t forget to share your sustainable stories and adventures with us on social media by tagging us in your posts and stories.
You can also leanr more about sustainable tourism in Shakespeare's England here.