Moneysupermarket insurance experts have warned UK holidaymakers to make sure they are covered for all eventualities before heading out for their Easter holidays this year.

The promise of warmer weather and the chance to take children travelling while school is closed prompts many thousands of Brits to take a week or two off work at Easter. For some this means a chance to book a flight and head to warmer climes, while many others will be loading up the car and heading to resorts around the UK and Europe for activities like camping, cycling, youth hosteling and spending some time in the great outdoors.

For those making their holiday journey by car this Easter, the advice from moneysupermarket is not to take any risks, such as travelling without breakdown cover.

Moneysupermarket car insurance expert Bob Atkinson said: “There are no excuses for motorists not to take out a breakdown policy, if you are relying on your car to get you to your destination it makes sense to ensure you have a breakdown policy that will ensure you don’t end up with a trip spent stuck at the side of the road.

“Cover starts as soon you register, so there is still time to purchase a policy to safeguard your Easter travels. A range of products are available offering competitive prices for motorists. We don’t realise how much we depend on our cars until a breakdown happens, and not having adequate protection in place could mean your UK holiday comes to an early end.”

Many Brits will be using the Easter break as a great excuse to get their caravans out for the first time this year and drivers will need to be extra careful as they share Britain’s roads with a large number of motorists towing caravans.

Insurance cover for caravans is widely available, with public liability protection of up to £1.2 million on offer for as little as £88 per year with companies like E&L Insurance.

Bob Atkinson said: “The same principle applies to insuring your caravan as you would your car, and some breakdown policies will include this cover as standard. If this is not the case, taking out separate insurance is a must just in case something happens to it, or the driver.”

Of course, the risk doesn’t end when you arrive on your holiday. If you’re camping this Easter, your valuables could be much less secure than they would otherwise be, with only a canvas and a few zips keeping them out of the way of thieves.

Camping insurance is inexpensive wherever you look and, by using moneysupermarket.com to compare the best travel insurance deals then you can often save a lot of money while getting cover for any type of holiday including camping.

On the issue of camping insurance, Bob Atkinson advised: “Tents can be left unguarded for hours at a time, so it’s unwise to leave valuables lying around. Check with your provider about the terms and conditions of your house contents insurance policy to see if it covers you for possessions away from home. It may be something that you have to add to a standard policy so double check this with your insurer.”

Wherever you’re travelling this Easter, and whatever you’re getting up to while you’re out there, travel insurance is something not to be overlooked in an attempt to cut costs, according to moneysupermarket.

With policies available from as little as £9, the peace of mind and potentially huge savings to be made in the event of something going wrong make travel insurance well worth the relatively small outlay of cash.

The first pocket sized guide to provide at-a-glance information about where to stay, what to do and where to eat for the environmentally conscious has been launched in a venture between tourism body VisitEngland and eco-firm greentraveller.co.uk.

Hailed as a ‘green map’ the new guide provides information about hotels, cafes, restaurants, shops and attractions which adopt a green approach to their business. All pockets are catered for within the guide with big name brands, luxury locations as well as smaller enterprises all included as options.

The ‘Green London’ map was launched during Climate Change Week and it is hoped that it will encourage tourists and visitors to think more about the environment and how they can help to contribute to supporting sustainable tourism.

For those staying in the capital, there is a comprehensive hotel guide with each place being given a gold to bronze ranking for their green credentials, which are based on biodiversity, waste management and water and energy efficiency. The criteria are set out in the Green Tourism Certification guide, which includes top notch central London hotels such as The Savoy as well as cheaper alternatives. The Savoy is included as it has recently undergone a refurbishment which has refocused its efforts around environmentally-friendly facilities, whereas The Lancaster is included for the production of its honey from the hive on its rooftop and the Zetter offers guests fresh spring water from its own borehole.

However, it is not just hotels that are included in the guide. Restaurants, transport and attractions also feature. Eleven different eateries are included in the map, one of which, the Duke of Cambridge, is the first establishment in the world to receive the Soil Association certification for an organic pub.

In its transport section, the map provides advice on how to use the various forms of public transport, including the hydrogen-fuelled buses which form part of London’s fleet. For the more active, the option of hiring bicycles is also explained in detail.

The guide is available at no cost and can either be downloaded in pdf format or picked up for free in one of the eight tourist information centres around the capital. VisitEngland has plans to release further guides for other major tourist hotspots around the country in a bid to promote ethically sourced and innovatively run businesses, as well as those who use fair trade goods, demonstrating that environmentally friendly travel does not have to be expensive or inconvenient.

Sundrenched islands the world over are exploring the alternative energy possibilities in a bid to escape the money pit caused by the rising price of oil.

Despite alternative options for energy having been around for many years, it is only recently that island communities all around the world are seriously starting to consider what their options might be. The price of oil has spiralled upwards relentlessly, driven by many factors and putting pressure on smaller economies to find a cheaper solution.

Small islands have a poor environmental track record for energy use as the cheap electricity piped around mainlands is not available off shore. This results in islands relying on the so-called ‘dirty electricity’ provided by diesel oil. With both lighting and air-conditioning amongst the facilities reliant on fuel tankers, islanders are seeking a greener and cheaper way to provide the necessary energy.

One of the obvious solutions is to harness the visible assets that many of the islands share: the sun, sea and ocean breezes. With access to all of the necessary natural resources to provide sustainable and clean energy, switching off the dependence to oil should be easy, right? Sadly this is not proving to be the case.

With many of the islands such small projects, attracting the attention of multi-national firms is difficult as the work involved is often not profit-heavy enough to be considered worthwhile. Some island communities are also struggling to raise sufficient funding, despite the cost benefits to the change in the longer term. With such small resident communities, many venues trying to set up green energy are finding they do not have the necessary knowledge amongst their experts, meaning that as well as the technology, consultants also need to be drafted in from overseas, increasing the cost further.

However, holidaymakers hoping to be able to visit islands who use sustainable energy sources may not be totally out of luck. Several islands all over the globe have committed to reducing their use of oil and fossil fuel and increasing their use of green energy. The Virgin Islands have pledged to reduce their carbon emissions by slashing their use of fossil fuels by 60% over the next 15 years. Bonaire, a former part of the Netherlands Antilles, has gone even further and has said that by 2015, just 4 years away, it will be 100% reliant on renewable energy.

Whilst islands may not be the most environmentally friendly holiday at present, it is possible to find a sun drenched, ocean bound destination that is actively promoting and introducing green energy with a drive that should be applauded.

Eco has become the new buzz word with many destinations and hotels being described as eco resorts or even ecofriendly. Googling the phrase returns a bewildering plethora of websites, but finding the link to environmentally friendly policies is somewhat difficult at first sight for some of the suggested links. So how do you tell whether a venue’s credentials truly are worth the eco-friendly sustainable paper they are written on?

In order to make sure any tourist revenue goes only to truly green resorts and not to lining the pockets of those looking to make a commercial gain out of a facade of green travel, it is worth taking the time to ask a few specific questions to sort the real deal from the pretenders.

First and foremost – does the hotel, eco-lodge etc have a written policy regarding their approach to not only the environment, but also the local culture? Any venture serious about its commitment will have taken the time to set out a charter.

The second thing to ask the owners is about local people – how many do they employ and in what positions? A responsible company will be attempting to promote true growth among local people and not just using them in menial roles for cheap labour. Are their guides locals? The use of local people to provide a guide service to tourists not only offers good employment in the area but is far better for tourists, being offered not only a true insight into local culture but also being informed of what will upset or offend communities or villages.

The accommodation should also be asked to explain how it sources its energy and how it deals with waste products. In the Caribbean coral and other endangered wildlife is being killed by raw sewage being pumped directly into the sea. Solar heating would be the energy source of choice, with its minimal impact on the environment.

Finally, ask the owners to describe how they get involved in the local community and what you could do during your stay which would benefit the area and be enjoyable. A truly eco-friendly establishment would have a long list of projects, completed, ongoing and future, which it should be willing to share with any interested parties.

Any resort which describes itself as truly green should be delighted to share its achievements with anyone who asks and, moreover, would welcome the opportunity to help weed out the imposters in the industry, which sadly are far too many, making a quick buck out of the hard work of others.

No, it isn’t a belated April Fools joke. Scientists are claiming that cars made from fruit could be on the market by 2013. With pineapple and banana two of the fruits leading the way, researchers in Brazil say they have made significant headway in using the fruits to produce an ultra-green plastic.

Plants are no stranger to processing, with wood fibres being used to produce paper for centuries, However, scientists have recently discovered that by processing fibres more intensely, microscopically small ‘nano-cellulose fibres’ are produced, an entity so tiny that 50,000 could lie side by side across a single human hair. These minute fibres are then used to reinforce other materials, in the same way that glass fibres are currently used to fortify plastic.

The new material is said to be surprisingly strong, with some of the fibres produced as solid as Kevlar, the material used to make body armour and bullet-proof vests. The plant-reinforced plastic is apparently more resistant not only to heat, but also to petrol, water and oxygen than any other plastics currently in production.

The researchers in Brazil claim the discovery could re-invent manufacturing and are hailing the discovery as the ultimate in green development. Scientists claim that the plastics produced could be eventually used for car engines as well as body parts, with the eco-friendly plastics the way forward for a society searching for green technology.

The study has examined many different plant sources and, so far, the raw materials with the most potential are pineapple leaves and stems, as well as curaua, a relation of the pineapple. Other promising fibres included those from bananas, coconut shells, agave plant sisal-fibres and another relative of the pineapple, the fique.

Although eco-friendly, the manufacturing process is costly but with just one pound of the new nano-cellulose material, researchers believe that around 100 pounds of the new super-strong green plastic could be produced.

Dr Alcides Leao, working at Sao Paulo University, spoke to the American Chemical Society about the research, saying, “The properties of the plastics are incredible. They are light but very strong – 30 per cent lighter and three to four times stronger than regular plastic. We believe that a lot of car parts, including dashboards, bumpers and side panels will be made of nano-sized fruit fibres in the future. For one thing, they will help reduce the weight of cars and that will reduce fuel economy.”

With increasing fuel prices and the pressure on the amount of oil being produced, any measures that reduce the amount needed will be equally welcomed by both environmental campaigners and motorists alike.