{"id":17116,"date":"2014-08-28T06:03:33","date_gmt":"2014-08-28T06:03:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com\/stories\/?p=17116"},"modified":"2021-10-28T16:38:20","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T16:38:20","slug":"eco-travel-in-the-maldives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com\/stories\/eco-travel-in-the-maldives\/","title":{"rendered":"Eco-travel in the Maldives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Eco-friendly trips are a growing trend among travelers, and Alison Teal is an adventurer who lives, breathes, and travels with environmental consciousness. She is so passionate about traveling sustainably that she has created her own film and blog series, titled, \u201cAlison&#8217;s Adventures.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">The project allows Alison to travel the world and inspire communities to protect the planet with her mission of &#8220;Surf, Survive, Sustain.&#8221; This week she\u2019s embarking on an eco-trip to the Maldives as part of her pursuit to help bring awareness to the nation\u2019s environmental issues, and we\u2019ll be sharing stories and photos from her trip when she returns next month.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">In the meantime, with the hopes of encouraging you to embark on your own green travels, we caught up with Alison to learn more about <a href=\"http:\/\/alisonsadventures.com\/\">her adventures<\/a><\/span><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">\u00a0to the Maldives.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Alison\u2019s adventures<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Throughout Alison\u2019s childhood, her photographer father and yogi mother strapped young Alison on their backs and ventured to remote and eccentric destinations. Alison explored the world like a Tarzan child and grew up in a sustainable grass hut that would have made Robinson Crusoe proud.<\/p>\n<div class=\"full-width-image-container lansdscape-e81037a7-50ee-63e1-bbde-ff000073f150\">\n<div class=\"full-width-image-shadow\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"full-width-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/default-source\/user-matt-villano\/alisonsadvs_headerus-[size_1230x470].jpg\" id=\"landscape-e81037a7-50ee-63e1-bbde-ff000073f150\"\/><\/div>\n<div class=\"full-width-image-caption\">\n<p class=\"Title\">Photo by Sarah Lee<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Naked and Afraid<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Alison\u2019s knowledge of living off the land and her experiences in extreme corners of the earth made her an excellent candidate for Discovery Channel\u2019s recent series, <em>Naked and Afraid<\/em>. In 2013, Alison was filmed while surviving castaway-style on a deserted island in the Maldives. She was marooned in an uninhabited area, dubbed \u201cThe Island from Hell,\u201d which was covered in water bottles and Styrofoam. She told us, \u201cWe used it to help us survive on the show, but I couldn\u2019t walk anywhere without stepping on trash, and more washed up every day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Save the Maldives<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Haunted by the pollution and spurred by a passion to address the devastating trash problem, Alison decided to face the island again, this time on her own terms. She is back in the Maldives, and a big part of her trip is focused on encouraging environmental awareness. Along for the adventure are her partners in crime, photographer <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vivantvie.com\/Portfolio\/AlisonsAdventures\/\">Sarah Lee<\/a>\u00a0and cinematographer <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marktipple.com\/#0\">Mark Tipple<\/a>, to help document her mission.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">One stop on their journey will be to visit \u201cTrash Island,\u201d a landfill where hundreds of tons of waste are dumped each day. Towering piles of plastic, garbage, electronic devices, and paper cover this area. Some of the trash is burned. The rest is left to rot. Alison and her crew will receive exclusive access to this wasteland to showcase its troubling environmental effects.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Viewfinder Tip: When faced with the option of buying recycled products, look for items that transform plastic waste into functional items.<br \/> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Meeting with government officials is another item on the itinerary as Alison hopes to educate the community on ways to transform plastic waste into functional products. \u201cI want to provide massive awareness about the trash on the islands, and show how it can be made into other things,\u201d she said. \u201cCompanies such as Repreve recycle plastic waste and incorporate it into the products of popular brands such as Patagonia, North Face, Volcom, Ford, and Teeki.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Alison already is involved in this movement back in the United States, where she promotes Odina, an <a href=\"http:\/\/odinasurf.com\/about\"><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">eco-friendly swimsuit<\/span><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">\u00a0company<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\/><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Alison\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com\/Maldives.d6051084.Destination-Travel-Guides\">Maldives<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">adventure won\u2019t exactly be all work and no play. She explained, \u201cI want to explore this picturesque place, as well as feature what\u2019s happening to it.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">With this in mind, she plans to visit Baa Atoll. This biosphere is a place to spot some of the ocean\u2019s gentle giants\u2014manta rays and whale sharks roam in a protected slice of the preserve. As far as the \u201csurf\u201d aspect of her campaign, Alison plans to carve up Lohis Break off the island of Hudhuranfushi with her pink, \u201cGreen to the Core,\u201d surfboard in tow.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">With her eco-swimsuits, signature surfboard, and environmental mindset, Alison will take on the Maldives in a big, green way. And once she returns in September, we\u2019ll sit down with her again to <a href=\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/alisonsadventures\">share her adventures<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">and impart some environmentally-friendly travel wisdom.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>What are some of your favorite eco-travel destinations, and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Showcasing Alison Teal\u2019s eco-adventure to the Maldives<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1789,1813,1778,1788,1792,1776],"tags":[132,45],"authors":[2238],"class_list":["post-17116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure","category-beach","category-features","category-interests","category-nature","category-type-of-vacation","tag-photography","tag-surfing","authors-chloe-mulliner","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Eco-travel in the Maldives | Expedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com\/stories\/eco-travel-in-the-maldives\/\" 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