http://www.simplegreenchoices.com Green travel ideas from two environmentally conscious travelers Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:56:07 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The “Rich Coast” of Costa Rica is famed for its cloud-wreathed rain forests, unspoiled beaches, volcanic hot springs, and incredible biodiversity. It was the first country I visited that had embraced eco-tourism and as a result, it is a great place for a green vacation. Recommendations The Villa Blanca Cloud Hotel, ... http://www.simplegreenchoices.com/2008/06/26/ecotourism-costa-rica/ Keep Tahoe Blue! This ubiquitous sticker shows Tahoe’s green pride and the need to protect this environmentally sensitive area. The classic Northern California combination of a forest-ringed lake with frosty white slopes invites green travel activities such camping, hiking, and alpine skiing. For eco-conscious winter-sports, I suggest you check out ... http://www.simplegreenchoices.com/2008/06/19/keep-tahoe-green-or-is-that-blue/ Outdoor activities that are people-powered (such as camping and kayaking) are naturally green. You can expand your environmental horizons when you visit other places by planning activities around the area's natural resources or learning about the local ecosystem and how to conserve it. Here are five of my top ... http://www.simplegreenchoices.com/2008/06/12/top-5-green-outdoor-activities/ As we have discussed before, green travel allows the eco-conscious to reduce their impact on the place they’re visiting – usually by patronizing environmentally friendly hotels or purchasing carbon-offset vouchers for flights or lodging. (Vacation is considered a time to splurge, but the A/C, jet fuel, and fresh towels add ... http://www.simplegreenchoices.com/2008/06/04/getting-started-on-green-travel/ Back from an all-too-long hiatus, and I wanted to recommend a new site that really ties into a lot of things we've tried to do with SimpleGreenChoices. It's WholeTravel, a new website that's trying to integrate environmental criteria into travelers' decision-making process. For example, check out this page ... http://www.simplegreenchoices.com/2008/03/30/whole-travel/ Happy Holidays to all. Just wanted to check in and post a link related to a discussion we've been having on this blog the last week or so.  The folks at MarketingProfs had a very interesting post recently about how hotels play on travelers' emotions through environmental messaging rather than really doing the ... http://www.simplegreenchoices.com/2007/12/24/environmentally-conscious-or-exploitative/ The question at hand is: if I'm an environmentally conscious traveler, should I stay at a Hilton or a Marriott? Just to remind you that the idea here is that as a traveler, you wield an considerable amount of power with your wallet, so how should you use that ... http://www.simplegreenchoices.com/2007/12/21/hilton-or-marriott/ Recently, the Marriott Corporation initiated a program of reducing waste at the company's headquarters. It announced the new initiative by blasting a press release out on America Recycles Day to take advantage of the publicity opportunity, and then Bill Marriott blogged about it. The initiative consists ... http://www.simplegreenchoices.com/2007/12/18/marriotts-environmental-initiatives-parsing-bark-and-bite/ Last month, Travel + Leisure ran a story on its Top 15 green hotels in the world and the associated press release was picked up by a number of sources including USA Today. The list was assembled by the magazine in collaboration with Conservation International, which is dedicated to environmental ... http://www.simplegreenchoices.com/2007/12/10/tls-got-travelers-paying-green-for-green/ I've seen an angle in the media playing out over and over again in the past few months. Companies' internal research departments, independent polling agencies, industry-wide panels, and consumers themselves are all citing the same "struggle": customers like to think they're environmentally conscious, but when the rubber hits the ... http://www.simplegreenchoices.com/2007/11/21/speak-up/