About

Why we started WanderEthic

The first time I came home from a trip with a tote bag full of single-use plastic, I sat on my kitchen floor and laughed at myself. I had spent two weeks in a country I was supposedly visiting “responsibly,” and somehow I had still come home with a sack of receipts, mini shampoo bottles, plastic cutlery, and seven souvenir keychains made on the other side of the planet. I knew better. I just didn’t know how to do better while I was actually moving.

That’s the gap WanderEthic exists to fill. Not the lofty version of sustainable travel where you give up airports and become a permanent slow nomad. The practical version. The one where you’re leaving for a long weekend in twelve days, you’ve never thought about your toiletries before, and you’d like a clear answer on what to put in your suitcase.

We don’t believe sustainable travel means traveling less. We believe it means traveling better, with the same wonder, and a fraction of the waste.

What we cover

Every story we publish lives inside one of our six editorial pillars: Sustainable Packing, Eco-Friendly Accommodations, Responsible Transportation, Local & Ethical Travel, Waste-Free Travel Habits, and Beginner Sustainable Travel Guides.

Each one is a working part of a real trip, packing, getting there, where you sleep, who you spend money with, what you throw away, and what you do when you have no idea where to start. We try to write the article we wish someone had handed us on our first slower trip.

How we work

We pitch internally. We outline against real reader questions. We test gear by using it on actual trips, often for months before we mention it on the site. Our drafts get fact-checked by the editor who didn’t write them, and any external claim has to point at a primary source we can read in full.

We don’t accept paid placements, “sponsored” articles, or trips in exchange for coverage. When an article includes an affiliate link, it goes through products we already use ourselves and we say so up front. You can read more in our editorial policy and affiliate disclosure.

The values we won’t bend on

• Reader before revenue. If a piece doesn’t help the reader, it doesn’t run, no matter how many search terms it might rank for.
• Specific over vague. “Pack reusables” is a poster, not a guide. We tell you which reusables, in what size, for what kind of trip.
• Local voices first. When we cover a destination, we lean on the people who live there. We pay our contributors fairly and credit them clearly.
• No greenwashing. We will tell you when a hotel’s “eco” credentials are mostly a sign on the wall.

Behind the site

WanderEthic is an independent publication. There are no investors, no parent company, and no agenda beyond the one in the byline. We work from Lisbon, Vancouver, and whatever rented kitchen table happens to have a good internet connection.

Get in touch

If you have a story to pitch, a correction, a question that isn’t answered anywhere on the site, or a place you think we should know about, our inbox is open. We answer every message ourselves, usually within two business days.

Thank you for reading. Travel slowly out there.

– Hardik Jha, Editor