Many people are trying to reduce their carbon footprint in any way they can. While easier to do at home than while traveling, reducing your carbon footprint can still be done while you are on a vacation.

Most of the time, these tricks and tips you can use to be greener, also end up being a lot easier on your wallet as well. Staying green on your vacation will put more green in your wallet. If you are planning on taking a vacation to South America, there are a few ways which you can go green at the same time.

One way to reduce your carbon foot print en route to South America, is to pack very wisely and lightly. The heavier baggage is on the plane, the more fuel the plane has to burn to stay in the air. Packing lighter reduces the amount of weight on the plane and therefore how much fuel it needs to burn.

Plan very wisely for your vacation and only bring a few outfits which can be mixed and matched together to create enough different looks for an entire week. Packing lightly will not only reduce the amount of fuel the airplane uses but it also means that you pay less for the fees of airline baggage.

Another green travel tip is to buy reusable travel sized bottles instead of disposable travel sized toiletries. By buying your toiletries in bulk from a wholesale store, you will still be able to use those products at home and fill the travel sized bottles up with your favorite products for your vacation.

These bottles can be reused for multiple vacations and trips, which saves the landfills and environment from collecting all of the empty disposable bottles that you may have used instead of the reusable ones.

South America gets very hot, and is usually very warm all year round. For warmer climates you will need to drink tons of water to avoid getting dehydrated. Instead of buying water bottles while you are on your trip and accumulating empty bottles which get tossed in the trash, use the same concept as you did with the toiletries.

Buy a large gallon sized water jug from the local grocery store, and keep one water bottle which can be refilled as you drink from it. This saves on the cost of buying individual water bottles and it saves the environment from collecting these empty plastic bottles as well.