Image by Evgeni Dinev

Today we have a tip for those who use home exchange as part of their efforts to travel green. We have posted before on how home exchange itself helps reduce the environmental impact of vacation (or any) traveling, and we mentioned as well that planes have the highest rate of CO2 emission per traveler.

But sometimes you just have to fly. When you face such a situation it is best to choose a non-stop flight. This lowers CO2 emissions because there is extra fuel consumption during take-off and landing. There are several ways to find and book a non-stop flight, but for the Internet fans here is a list of search engines to help you find the best non-stop flights:

FareCompare - http://www.farecompare.com/ The option to view nonstop flights only is given in the results page.
Kayak - http://www.kayak.com/ Just mark the “Prefer Nonstop” checkbox. It has a downside: it shows best fares found by other Kayak users in the last 48 hours, so seats may not be available.
ITA Software - http://www.itasoftware.com/ You do not need to register, you can use the search engine by logging in as a guest and then mark “nonstops only“.
Travelocity - http://www.travelocity.com/ You will need to use the Advanced Search Options and mark “I prefer nonstops“.

Another plus of this list: They all allow for “wider” flexible travel search which means you can save a lot of money too. Usually, flight search engines offer a flexible search option but narrowed to a few days around your given date, but not these. For example, Travelocity allows you to select “Exact dates” or “+/- 1 to 3 days” or “Flexible dates” which shows you fares up to 330 days ahead. In ITA Software you need to select “Month-long search” for their flexible search.

Other options for non-stop flight search:

Bing - http://www.bing.com/travel/flights
BookingBuddy - http://www.bookingbuddy.com/
Expedia - http://www.expedia.com/
Orbitz-  http://www.orbitz.com/
Trabber - http://www.trabber.co.uk/
SideStep - http://www.sidestep.com/