With better awareness of the harm that we are causing to our planet, there are many people who have started to take steps to ensure that they contribute positively to the environment. Towels are not being washed every day, the use of disposables is reduced and there is a drive towards less synthetic apparel too. But are we really that careful when we travel? The holiday mood does tend to make us a little carefree about all things, including our ‘green intent’. But if you think about it, it does not take much to remain green even as you travel. Check out some of these green travel tips that you could use.

Green Travel Tips Before Leaving Home

- Make sure that you turn all the lights off when you leave for a vacation.
- Unplug appliances such as the television, cable boxes and all other kitchen appliances too.
- Turn off the water heater and leave the thermostat at the minimum that you need for your indoor plants, if you have any.
- Close the water valve from the mains
- Ask for the newspaper not to be delivered for the number of days that you are away.

Green Travel Tips During the Travel

- Purchasing an electronic ticket is far more convenient and ecofriendly as compared to a paper one.
- When renting a car to get around, choose a hybrid model that is greener. This is a model that has two engines – one that runs on gas and another that runs on electricity. With no fear of being stranded due to the gas engine, the hybrid rental car allows you to save on fuel too. Fox Rent A Car offers  the Honda Insight Hybrid as an affordable eco-friendly rental car option!
- Pack light so that your rental car does not have to literally bear the burden of the extra luggage. Extra load means more fuel wastage.
- Try and not accelerate and decelerate the car and maintain a steady pace as much as possible. Just keep a little more distance to the car in front of you and this should be very easy, even in heavier traffic!
- Use the GPS to find shorter and more convenient routes rather than taking the freeway everywhere.

Green Travel Tips At the Vacation Venue

- Take advantage of the linen programs that hotels have initiated and do not ask for new towels every day.
- Turn of the air conditioner or heating, lights, and television when you leave the room
- Close the drapes to ensure no loss of heat from the room.
- Take the used bars of soap back home in the soap wrappers
- When you use the hotel sauna, fitness equipment, whirlpool or Jacuzzi switch it off after you are done.
- When buying gifts to take back home, choose items that are green. Souvenirs bought without much thought often land up in a corner of the house, never to be looked at again. Look for local handicrafts that are made out of green material.

Keep these green travel tips in mind and don’t lose your green focus even when you are traveling.

Our efforts of saving the environment, improving our behavior to help preserve the planet is important. So it shouldn’t stop over the Christmas holidays! So Fox Rent A Car gives you a few tips to go green during your Christmas holidays! Here are tips to help you be more green and still enjoy this great month of celebration.

Go Green with your wrapping

Christmas for most people, also often involves gift-wrapping. A good way to keep an eco friendly attitude during the holidays can start with this. You can go green with your wrapping by using paper made out of organic materials. If this might be hard to find another great solution is to recycle your gift-wrapping and gift bags. If you don’t have any, get creative! Make your own wrapping paper. By cutting and pasting images of catalogs and painting on newspaper and other paper material, you can create fun and colorful wrapping paper. You can also decorate a shoebox. Or you can use old and left over fabric, such as old curtains, or old sheets or shirts and create funky bags.

Go Green in your presents buying

Another way to go green during Christmas is by choosing the right gifts. A first step is to buy local. Then try to chose presents that are needed, useful and wanted. Food is always good. Buy organic, fair trade products. Chocolate, coffee, specialty cookies are always a warm gesture. You can also buy services rather than products. A Spa treatment , massage therapy, hair salon gift cards are becoming more and more popular. Speaking of Gift cards, they are another great idea of green gift. Instead of buy something someone doesn’t want nor need that will end up in the trash give them gift cards to stores everyone goes to, or where you know they usually shop…why not gift cards for green stores!
If you are crafty you can also make it yourself. Instead of buying a box of cookies, bake them yourself. Plus it will be much more appreciated knowing you put your time and effort in it! Finally, if you do buy clothes, chose brands supporting the green attitude.

Go Green Christmas Decoration

You guessed right! Keeping a green attitude over the holidays starts with how you decorate your house. Chose green, energy saving lights. Recycle your old lights and buy power efficient LED lights. They consume less energy and therefore are better for our planet, and still look just as good. Remember to put your lights on a time switch, so they turn off automatically during the night. For the tree, make your own tree ornaments or buy glass ornaments, rather then plastic. When you decide to make your own ornaments, it creates a fun and exciting memory with your children, saves you money, and preserves the world we like so much. Cut paper into snowflakes and make paper angels; bake cookies in various shapes and decorate them with icing to hang them on the tree; make snow flakes out of cotton balls, paint pine cones, there are hundreds of options to decorate your tree beautifully with self made ornaments… Here you can get some more ideas to spark your creativity for home made Christmas ornaments!
When you buy your tree, you have diverse choices: a fake tree with already included LED lights can be re-used over years and the light consume less power, or, a potted tree which can be planted and grow in your yard after Christmas.

Go Green with a better planning

Going green doesn’t happen over night and doesn’t happen alone. So let your invitees help you help the environment. When you organize your Christmas parties, plan ahead and provide a separate recycling trash for the rest and let them know what can be recycled and what goes into the regular trash. When you shop for your Christmas dinner, buy organic and local produce. If you guests offer help and want to participate, direct them to the right stores
Christmas also means connecting with your loved ones far away. Make your own cards, instead of driving to the store and buying plastic boxes of cards you will then throw away. If you don’t have the artistic gene in you, then buy them online, personalize them and print them at home. There are many websites offering great designs. And you can buy recycled paper to print them. Remember to ship them soon, so you don’t have to airmail them.

Note: You can also recycle your past gifts that you didn’t use or want by giving them to homeless shelters or the goodwill and other non-profit associations.

Having a great Christmas is not just about getting the family together, it is also about being together and helping together to preserve the world we live in. So go green for the holidays! And have a Merry green Christmas!

6 Green Travel Tips

It is important today to be aware of the harms we’ve done to the environment and start changing our habits to make things better for us, but also for the next generations. Think about it that way: we get to enjoy so many amazing breath taking natural wonders every day and do nothing to preserve them for the following generations. It is very important to change our habits in all areas of out lives, even while traveling. Find out how you can make your business trip or vacation a little green.

Green Travel Tip # 1: Pack Light

We all like to pack light and use those mini versions of our daily beauty products: a travel-sized tooth paste,  shampoo and conditioner, etc… but the truth is, these little packages are not environmentally friendly as the packaging creates much more waste then normal sized products. Avoid and leave them in the store. If you are traveling with your family, think about sharing the same shampoo, body lotion, sunscreen or other things!  Also, if you plan to stay in a hotel, you can always mention during your reservation that you will not need their toiletry items, and that there is no need to waste them by presenting them in your room. Packing light is also important in your effort to have a green travel. So leave the hair dryer at home, most hotels provide them! Make sure you plan your outfits to match one another and be interchangeable. It allows you to have enough clothes, and less weight. Fuel consumption largely depends on weight, whether it is your car or an airplane. Keep that in mind, when you pack your bags to travel green!

Green Travel Tip # 2: Go for Re-usable

A great way to travel green, is to bring some containers. If you plan on packing snacks and drinks, pack them in your containers rather than zip lock bags or other disposable containers. Do you realize how much pollution your zip lock bag creates? Try to diminish the trash quantity you produce. You can always wash the boxes and put other snacks in them instead. Take your favorite coffee travel mug. It is for “travel” right? Don’t be scared to look stupid asking to use your own cup at Starbucks. You might actually inspire some! Most coffee shops don’t sell them to leave them in a cupboard… buy it and use it again, and again! The re-usable also goes for your room in a hotel. Make it a habit to hang your towel to dry, and let them know you don’t need a new one each day… come on, who really changes towels everyday at home? Same for your sheets. Less cleaning = less soap = less containers used, but also = less water consumption, and polluted water! I am not asking you to stop being clean though!

Green Travel Tip # 3: Paper vs Plastic

If you can’t pack mostly re-usable cups, plates, boxes… chose paper over plastic. Especially if you go camping, paper can be burned in your camp fire, leaving little to no trash behind. If you end up using plastic, don’t change your daily routine just because you’re away from home. Keep your recycling habits along your trip. A green travel starts with good green daily habits! Find a recycling trash along the way to dispose of your plastics.

Green Travel Tip # 4: Rent a Hybrid

Ok, here is our  self promotion! We at Fox Rent A Car care about the environment too! That’s why we offer a Hybrid as a rental option and even give a 5% discount! Green travel, starts with the best vehicle for the environment. Rent a hybrid! There are many advantages in driving a hybrid. The main reason could be that it saves you money on gas while it also saves the air you breath. If the hybrid is not an option, then learn about 10 easy ways to save gas and therefore reduce not only your gas consumption, but your impact on the environment.

Green Travel Tip # 5: Farmer’s Market

Shop local and eat fresh, organic, and seasonal produce. That is another great tip on having a green travel. Why buy plastic wrapped veggies and fruits when you can get tasty, fresh ones at the local farmer’s market? Also, you can reduce your carbon footprint, as the produce is from local farmers. It was not shipped in from far away places, which consumed a lot of energy. Think about it: Do you really need asparagus all year round? Eat it, when it’s in season! It will taste much better and is fresh! Find out when and where they happen in the city you are traveling to, and take advantage of meeting locals and experience the life out there!

Green Travel Tip # 6: Smart Choices on Souvenirs

Another point to think about how to make a trip a green travel is how to choose souvenirs or presents. It is always great to have something that reminds you of that amazing trip you took last year, or to bring mom a special gift to make her feel special too. But choose carefully. We all have those knickknacks in drawers we end up throwing away after letting them collect dust for a while. So instead of buying some cheap plastic souvenir, buy something you will really enjoy and want to keep, or something useful. Think about local art, take pictures, clothes, all these things can also remind you of your dream vacation, while also being useful and natural.

This is a short list to improve our habits and move toward a more environment friendly attitude. Green travel is getting more and more important for our planet, but it is also important to start at home. So think green, live green, and enjoy our beautiful world by protecting it more every day.

What do you do to travel a little greener? Share your tips with us!

Fox Goes Green: the Hybrid as a Rental Choice.

Fox is proud to inform you about a new choice in its listing of car models.  The hybrid,  Honda Insight, is now available!

Fox Goes Green
FoxRent A Car is concerned about the future of our planet.  Aren’t you? This is why Fox Rent A Car promotes  the new Hybrid as an option for your car rental. Pushing the importance of making our choices more green to ensure future generations can experience what we  enjoy daily on our planet is a major concern today. Fox Rent A Car participates in this trend and incites you to be concerned as well. By promoting the Hybrid, Fox Rent A Car underlines the importance of reducing gas consumption and pollution, and increasing an environmentally friendly lifestyle. The Hybrid car option is a campaign in favor of our planet’s future; it is a campaign for better and smarter choices. Be part of it! Help Fox Rent A Car to support the transportation revolution – go green!

About the Hybrid
The Hybrid car is a new fuel efficient car that gives you better mileage for less gas consumption. The Hybrid is working with of two engines, one engine burns regular gas, the other uses electricity. Hybrid cars are better for the environment as they produce less fumes. It is also better for you since it is more fuel efficient, you will spend less on gas and the engines are much quieter than. Find out more about the Hybrid Cars here and read the Pros of Driving a Hybrid.

The Honda Insight
Fox Rent A Car gives you the green choice to rent the new Honda Insight Hybrid! Tempting, right?  This great elegant and cutting edge style car will seat comfortably 5 persons and also has room for 3 medium size suitcases in the trunk. More than spacious, this car also offers great gas mileage  – 40 to 43 mpg – and is all powered up! (You can also get a better feel for it on this review page.)

Why renting the Hybrid?
The Hybrid is more than a rental. It is a whole new driving experience. Think Green! Chose the hybrid because of its comfort, its fuel efficiency, but also because it is better for the environment. Also look for the promotions that Fox Rent A Car offers. Reserve your Hybrid now and get 5% off your car rental.

Make smarter, greener choices, let Fox Rent A Car help you to make your trip a little greener…. rent a Hybrid!

Advantages of Hybrid Cars

Car companies are offering and promoting more and more  hybrid cars…. so what is this all about anyway you ask yourself. Well it’s one of those great advantage of  technology and development that make your life easier and better! Let me tell you the advantages of driving a hybrid car.

Cut Fuel Costs
Imagine saving money while driving your car! This is the number 1 advantage to drive a hybrid. Driving a hybrid car can actually cut your fuel cost in half! A hybrid car has two engines: an electric and a regular gas fueled combustion engine. Your car therefore has two sources of power. Electric power is much cleaner than fuel power, so you are not only saving money, but also the environment!

Hybrid Tax Credit
You will say, okay saving money on gas is good, but is it really worth investing in a hybrid for this. And I will say wait!  There is more! More than just decreasing your gas expenses, the government is supporting the green cause by giving a Hybrid Tax Credits to hybrid owners… Find out more about Hybrid Tax Credit here. So now your hybrid can save you money two ways: lowering your gas and taxes expenses.

Go green
We are all aware now that our cars are an important factor that harms our environment. Thanks to its double engine, the hybrid creates less fumes, and therefore less pollution. Driving a hybrid will diminish the greenhouse effect through lower fuel consumption and reduce your carbon foot print. Driving a hybrid can give you a clean conscience about driving!e The electric engine even charges itself through breaking and the gas engine,  so you don’t even need to recharge it!

Investment
Finally it has been proven that hybrid cars are more efficient than conventional cars and have a much higher resell price. So it is a good investment on the short and longer run.

So why not drive a car that gives you economic advantages while also being eco-friendly and help decrease the oil consumption? Fox Rent A Car is conscious about saving the environment and supports clean technologies. We offer to all our customers a 5 % discount on all Hybrid car models. If  you are still hesitant to buy a Hybrid, take it on a test ride for a weekend and see for yourself if it is the right choice for you!

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10 Tips to save Gas

10 Tips to Save Gas

When I first got to California I could fill up my tank with $11. Today, this obvious history! I bet you are just like me wondering what to do to save money while improving you gas mileage. So what can you do? Follow these 10 tips to safe gas will help you get a better gas mileage while saving money.

Check your tires
Check your inflation! More than providing you safety, a well inflated tire can help you improve your gas mileage and reduce your overall miles per gallon consumption. It will gives your tires better grip since more of the tire surface will touch the road. Moreover , the right  pressure will make your tires to last longer and ensures a safe trip – even on slippery roads.

Regular maintenance
A car is a machine, it needs to be taken care of, maybe even more than a regular machine since most of us use it every day.You can maintain your car while saving money on gas and stay within a low budget. Oil changes are available for low costs. To increase your gas mileage it is important to keep track of your oil change; a good benchmark is to change your oil every 3000 miles. Also, check the air filter of your car. This is something you can easily do yourself and it will improve  the functioning of your car and also decrease your gas consumption.

A little breeze doesn’t hurt
Roll down your windows when the heat is tolerable. Save the Air Conditioning for the hottest days. But be aware, AC will actually be more fuel efficient while driving over 55pmh, since the windows at higher speed create a drag that decrease your gas mileage.

Save you breaks
Don’t drive faster than you need…. To stay out of the technical terms, just know that breaking can burn as much gas as accelerating. Plus getting back to your previous speed will  consume even more fuel. Respect the speed limit, keep the security distance to the car in front of you. It will allow you to anticipate better, break less and stop burning your gas with the constant the break/acceleration game.

Get gas on Wednesday
You should avoid filling up your tank during the weekend. It is true that gas prices usually go up then. Wednesday is recognized as the best price day!  Also, remember to fill up your tank no later than 3 days before holidays… prices always increase then as well. One more note on “good timing” to fill up your tank: Get gas in the mornings or evenings. It’s cooler and reduces evaporation and fumes.

Get off the freeway
Today the GPS gives you a great opportunity to find alternative roads, or even short cuts that can help you get from point A to point B without entering the freeway. Getting stuck in traffic is actually the biggest waste of gas, as you are burning your fuel without moving forward. Don’t be afraid to take small roads and highways that can save you gas. Getting of the freeway is also the more scenic option to get to your destination. See beautiful landscapes, little towns and drive on winding roads rather than spending your day in a huge traffic jam!

Think healthy
Instead of driving 2 minutes to the store, looking for parking, locking your car it might be faster and of course much healthier to just leave the car at home to run your errands. Walk or use your bike to get to places nearby. Leave you car at home sometimes and stay in your neighborhood. On parking lots get used to walking and stop moving your car from store to store… park in the middle! And if you feel like helping the environment as well, (which is good for your health too) take advantage of public transport once in a while! Especially in cities, it can often be the cheaper alternative as you also safe the money for parking!

Use the best gas grade for your car
Follow the instruction in your car manual to select the suggested gas grade for your car. The most expensive option doesn’t always mean it is the most fuel efficient choice for your car model. You can save a few cents here and there as well when you chose the right gas grade for your car.

Your trunk is not a storage space
The heavier the car is the more fuel it burns. You will have a better gas mileage if you keep your car as a transport tool and not as an extra storage space. So only leave the stuff in your car that you really need and put those beach chairs, extra clothes and water bottles at home unless you use them.

Park in the shade
The sun heats up your car and creates evaporation of  liquids – your gas as well! Find a spot in the shade, even if that means walking a bit more. Diminish the fume evaporation and help preserve the environment! And, come on! who really likes to enter a steaming hot car after being parked an hour in the sun? Shade will keep your car a bit cooler; you might not even need to turn on the AC…

Saving gas does not only mean saving money, but also the environment. Fox Rent A Car supports Green Driving and saving the environment. Fox offers a special 5 % off on all Hybrid car rentals. If you have more advice on how to save gas, let us know and we will add it to our list!