There's not much point doing all you can to protect the environment and never getting out there to enjoy it. Summer is here - in theory, at least - so why not book a day off work and head for a green day out?
Here are some suggestions for entertaining and inspiring day trips with a conscience. Most can be accessed by public transport. Try using Transport Direct to plan your journey.
1. The Eden Project
The Eden Project sounds more like a legend than a reality: Tim Smit, after a peripatetic career in architecture, rock and roll, and landscape gardening, comes across a derelict Cornish claypit and transforms it, impossibly, into a huge botanical garden that draws visitors from all over the world. It even draws the odd rock band, as we saw when one leg of Live 8 was performed there back in 2005.
But it's also a solidly good day out, with plenty for kids to do: trails, play areas, and good, healthy food made with locally sourced ingredients (as much as possible).
The nearest station is St Austell, from which buses travel regularly to the project.
Open: every day except Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Cost: £14 for adults; £5 for children; £35 for a family.
2. Join a Green Gym
Established by the British Trust of Conservation Volunteers (BTCV) as a way of getting people out tidying ditches, cutting back nettles and repairing dry-stone walls, Green Gyms have even been cited as mental health aids.
They usually meet once a week for about three hours – you probably wouldn't be able to take much more.
There's a warm-up and a cool-down. It's hard work, and perhaps not for children, unless otherwise specified. But the sense of achievement and comradeship that comes from clearing a stretch of riverbank that has been used as a tip can't really be overstated. You can find your local Green Gym through BTCV.
Open: year round, depending on where you live.
Cost: free.
3. Findhorn
God bless Findhorn: hippies, nuns, hermits - all the stand-outs and one-offs of our society are drawn to this community in north-west Scotland, and they have created in the process an international Mecca for modern spirituality. Even if you don't believe in any of it yourself, it's still worth a visit, perhaps to see the exceptional eco-village, built on lines of community and communality, or perhaps to wander through the organic Findhorn gardens, famous for their extra-large vegetables. You may well find yourself wanting to stay on for a little meditation: the peace gets to everyone after a while. A Findhorn bus meets the train at Forres train station twice a day. For more information, ring the centre: 01309 690 311.
Open: year round, although only weekdays in winter.
Cost: free or £3 for a guided tour.
4. Earthships
Most modern eco-architecture attempts to remake the urban apartment in a greener spirit. This cannot be said - bless them - of the Earthships, designed by Mike Reynolds, which shoot off wonderfully either into the past, or, better still, the future.
It would be wonderful if these structures - which are embedded in the earth and use old tyres, solar panels and every available glint of passive solar power in order to be as near to carbon neutral as possible - could really be the zero-carbon homes Gordon Brown has talked about. The earthship in Scotland is now open to visitors seven days a week and is a 15-minute walk from Kinghorn train station. There is also an Earthship in Brighton, where visiting is still on a slightly more ad hoc basis.
Open: the Scottish visitor centre is open year round.
Cost: free.
5. Visit a farmers' market – or even a farm
Sadly this is the only kind of green day out that involves shopping: the consumer way of life is clearly incompatible with greenness (so put that plastic bag down NOW!). But the good news is that you are still allowed to buy food – as long as it's essential.
Farmers' markets came over here from the United States in the 90s, and they can vary considerably: there are those which have been taken over by craft stalls (avoid) and those which seem to specialise in very high-priced quiche and homemade pesto. But there are others – my favourites include Edinburgh, Lewes, Stoke Newington and Haverfordwest – where the food is straight from small producers and specialists, and you can find yourself chatting to a beekeeper for half an hour before you know where you are.
For those worried their children are not entirely sure which end the milk comes out of the cow, how about going down to the (organic) farm. The Soil Association lists a couple of hundred places to visit, such as Abbey Home farm in Gloucestershire, a wonderful place with a farmshop, cafe, animal tours, cookery classes, conferences (of a very green nature) and even a yurt if you want to stay the night. There's really no better way to experience the smells, sounds and atmosphere of a farm.
Open: times and days vary around the country.
Cost: free.
6. Apple Day
Just the idea of Apple Day gives one a sense of pagan festivals, folk roots that stretch back to our medieval forefathers, connectedness etc etc etc. In fact that's a load of rubbish – just as Santa Claus was invented by Coca Cola, Apple Day was invented in 1990 by Common Ground, but it has caught on like wildfire, and every year the number of Apple Day celebrations multiply exponentially.
You can find your nearest Apple Day (in October, because that's when it happens) on the Common Ground website.
Open: times vary around the country.
Cost: likely to be free.
7. Audley End
If you want to be inspired by what you can do in your garden without the help of slug pellets or weedkiller, a visit to Audley End, one of Garden Organic's demonstration gardens, is surely in order. Back in 1999 Garden Organic began restoring the gardens of this wonderful Jacobean house with the help of English Heritage. The results are just breathtaking – okay, so it may be wiser not to compare your own gardening attempts, unless you have a small army of gardeners that also works fulltime on your orchard.
Travel to Audley End station, and from there the gardens are a mile and a half up the road: they suggest taxi or bicycle.
Open: Wednesday-Sunday in summer; Saturday or Sunday in winter.
Cost: £9.20 for adults; £4.60; £23 for a family.
8. Centre for Alternative Technology
Once upon a time, a bunch of good old-fashioned hippies scrambled into a disused slate quarry in the heart of Wales, and decided that here they would pursue their vision. That vision – of a centre where alternative forms of technology could be explored and explained – has turned the Centre for Alternative Technology into a focal point in expertise in the rapidly growing world of renewable energy.
Some of the demonstration gadgets are for younger kids rather than playstation-educated teens. Spending a weekend there studying Walter Segal building techniques, or strawbale building, or wind turbines, is even better – it's a weekend of tranquility and refreshment. The visitor centre is about three miles north of the Machynlleth train station, so you can continue your journey by bus, taxi, bicycle or on foot. If you arrive by human-powered or public transport you will receive £1 off the normal entry price.
Open: year round, except over Christmas and New Year.
Cost: £8 for adults; £4 for children (minus £1 each if you arrive by bus, bike or foot).
9. Nature's World
Loads of educational challenges for teenagers and children on the subjects of renewable energy, recycling and sustainability, plus a hydroponicum – how weird, you really can grow flowers and vegetables without soil. Much work has gone into making Nature's World genuinely stimulating and interesting for kids, thankfully, and there are also good, big play areas to wear them out in when they're bored with improving their minds. The nearest train station is Middlesbrough, and buses travel regularly from there to very close to the entrance.
Open: year round.
Cost: £4.80 for adults; £2.50 for children; £12 for a family.
10. Bewilderwood
What a great idea: the UK's first environmentally friendly adventure park. Up in Norfolk they take their adventuring seriously: Bewilderwood is spread over 50 acres of marshland and woodland, and boasts tree houses, zip wires, jungle bridges, crocklebogs and boat trips … all created because the Bewilderwood people believe that children should be outside, climbing trees and scraping their knees. And so do we.
It's all forested without pesticides, and the wood used is sustainable, plus, for a very pleasant change, the food is healthy, delicious and organic. Wroxham is the nearest train station and from there buses go regularly near the site. Ask the driver to let you know when to get off.
Open: every day until November 4, except Tuesdays outside the school holidays.
Cost: £10 for adults and the over 5s; £45 for a family.
