Timeline

Before the trip

Options

Public transport and camping in Norway

Road-trip in Northern Finland

Motorcycling and staying in hotels/rental cabins

Our choices

A road trip to Northern Finland

By our own bus and motorcycles

Staying mostly off-grid

Choosing the next destinations on the way

Responsibility & sustainability

-Poor research before the trip

-No interest in sustainability & responsibility

-No interest in local culture or well-being

-No interest in environmetal impact

+Many travelling goals were brought together of well-being

+The planning quite early started to focus on domestic travel

Activities

Options

Independent travel

Sightseeing

Attractions

Towns in Norway and the coast

Guided activities

Museums

Nature centres

Our choices

Independent travel to attractions

On foot

Tour of Levi

Wilderness church

The peak of fell Salla and Kiilopää

Sightseeing

Daytrip to Norway

On motorcycles

Eating out

Crosswords etc.

Swimming in many lakes and rivers

Responsibility & sustainability

-No use of local services

Very little income for the local businesses

-Very little interaction with the locals

No interest in the local customs

Belittling the benefits of interaction

-Little familiarization to the attractions and their history

Too little time to carefully explore the attarctions

Cursory comprehension of the destinations

+Swimming in natural waters instead of spas

+Eco-friendly attractions

No waste

No emissions

Use of the marked and permitted trails

Travelling & accommodation

Options

Public transport

Our own bus

Motorcycles

Private car

Flying to Norway

Our choices

Our own bus

Car-transport space in the rear

Beds for 4 people and fully equipped kitchen

Needs power grid for electric devices

Also our motorcycles

Daytrip to Norway

Staying mostly off-grid "in the bushes"

Responsibility & sustainability

-Large carbon emissions on transport

Only half of the bus's capacity was used

Extra distance was travelled to avoid using the same roads twice

Lots of stuff were packed and not needed

-Took quite a big space on local parking lots when we stopped by, locals might have been annoyed

-Did not benefit the local businesses in transport or accommodation sector

+No need for external sources of energy

+Low emissions on accommodation

Sleeping bags instead of heating

No extra waste

But poor recycling

Low use of water

+No overcrowding

Off-season

Not the most popular destinations

Eating

Options

Eat-in restaurants

Take-away

Cooking by ourselves

Prepared food from the markets

Our choices

Cooking by ourselves

Car-transport space in the rear

Beds for 4 people and fully equipped kitchen

Needs power grid for electric devices

Eat-in restaurant

Cod and potatoes

In Norway

Breakfast buffet

All sorts and more

Responsibility & sustainability

-Cooking by ouselves did not benefit the local economy

-Grocery shopping in supermarkets and not especially selecting the local and season's products

-The buffet was a possible source of waste as they usually are

+The only restaurant meal was local dish in a restaurant of a small village

After the trip

Responsibility & sustainability

-We did not think about the trip for a long time

And when we did, we didn't think about the locals or our impact on local economies

I was not especially interested to follow news that related to the places where we travelled

Memorising focused on our experiences and what we gained

-We did not reflect our choices to our knowledge of sustainability and responsibility

The first course on tourism business made me think about my trips and my choices

Most of the trips have been as cheap as possible, since spending money has been associated with wasting and unsustainability in my mind

It is possible for tourists to make a change with small effort

+Some weeks after coming home I decided to visit the same places again with more time

+This course offers a chance to go through earlier trips and how our behaviour could be more sustainable (also in everyday life)