How Green is your holiday?

As Britain’s leading family holiday company with 35 parks around the UK, Haven Holidays takes great pride in looking after its visitors – especially as some may have travelled from far overseas undertaking quite perilous journeys.

And unlike most guests, when they arrive these visitors often stay for weeks or even months at a time!

Like most of us, they’re big fans of the seaside, but what they like most are the natural attractions rather than the swimming pools, state-of-the-art sports facilities and entertainment venues.

Visitors who regularly check in at Haven holiday parks include dingy skippers, marbled whites, clouded yellows and red admirals. These are just some of the many species of butterflies and moths that are regularly seen on the parks, particularly on the East and South coasts, during the summer.

As custodian of some of the finest countryside around Britain, Haven has a long tradition of caring for the environment. They even provide around 600 bird and bat boxes to encourage them to stay on their Parks.

Members of the David Bellamy Conservation Scheme since it started, many of Haven’s 35 parks have held the prestigious Gold Award for more than ten years.

The awards recognise excellence in waste management, recycling, saving power and water, links with the local community - and protecting the local wildlife such as those butterflies.

More recently, Haven was one of the first holiday companies to enter the Green Tourism Business Scheme which analyses businesses according to 150 rigorous criteria. To date, they hold 32 GTBS awards including two with the most sought-after prize, gold.

And every park has a Green Team who arrange all sorts of fun and exciting activities to help look after our countryside and coast – and holidaymakers and holiday home owners are always welcome to get involved.

Among the events are beach cleans, nature walks, path-making, installing bird and bat boxes. The Big Green Weekend which takes place at all Haven parks on July 15th promises to be bigger and better than ever.

This year the Wildlife Trust have partnered with Haven to devise a nature trail on each park as part of their Wildlife Detectives programme which encourages kids to discover all sorts of fascinating facts about our wonderful flora and fauna. And older children can follow an orienteering course to make the trail even more fun.

Haven Holidays’ Managing Director John Dunford said ‘Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do.’ Whether you want to minimize your carbon footprint by holidaying closer to home or just crave a more simpler, back to nature holiday – Haven might surprise you as one of the most eco-friendly holiday operators in the UK.

And booking a greener holiday doesn’t cost the earth. Breaks at Haven Holidays during May half term cost from £199 based on up to six people sharing a Standard holiday home at Haggerston Castle (in Northumberland), Wild Duck (in Norfolk), or Combe Haven (in East Sussex), arriving on 27th May for 3 nights.

Call 0871 230 1900 or click on www.haven.com


Fascinating facts and figures

• Haven recycled the equivalent weight of over 200 double decker buses in 2010.
• The carbon emissions Haven saved last year are equivalent to planting nearly 2 million trees or a car travelling around the planet 2,040 times, a total of over 51 million miles.
• There are 15 nature reserves and 16 nature trails across our parks.
• Haven have more resident park rangers than any other holiday company.
• 33 Haven parks hold David Bellamy Gold Conservation Awards.
• The woodland in the nature walk at Devon Cliffs dates back to the Ice Age.
• There are 130 species of birds at Primrose Valley – as well as wild garlic!
• Cornish choughs returned to Perran Sands last year for the first time in 70 years.