Intelligent Travel

Biking Boston

There is no denying the physical and environmental benefits of bike riding, so the Massachusetts Commuter Rail’s reintroduction of a Bike Coach on their Rockport Line wins major points with IT— especially with our token Bostonian, who supports any actions that ultimately reduce the number of cars on Boston’s congested roads. This additional coach, which holds up to 39 bikes and 42 passengers, will be available on weekends throughout the summer ($15.50 round-trip) to transport cyclists to the beaches of the North Shore.

The Bike Coach is one of many efforts made by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to render its buses and trains more bike friendly. According to a recent MBTA press release, the company is working with MBTA’s Bikes and Transit Advisory Committee, MassBike, and Livable Streets Alliance to improve the accessibility of public transportation in the Boston area.

When the Sky goes Green

British low-cost airline easyJet recently revealed its plans to design a fleet of environmentally friendly short-haul jets that will be ready to fly by 2015. The “easyJet ecoJet” will emit 75% less nitrous oxide and 50% less carbon dioxide than today’s short-haul jets (like the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320), and for those who just want a little shut-eye while you fly, you can rest assured—the ecoJet will be 25% quieter, too.

Orbitz Adds Eco Options

Of all prefixes, Eco has been getting a good workout this season: eco-friendly, eco-investment, eco-conscious, eco-management, eco-anxiety, eco-mania. The buzz is everywhere and the word is out: Eco is in.

Here’s another to add to the list: eco.orbitz.com. Launched by Orbitz in April 2007, this is the latest in a string of travel sites that gives you (the consumer) the option to consider the environment when you travel.

For example, when you’re ready to hit the Caribbean for some snorkeling, eco.orbitz.com helps you choose a “green” hotel and/or volunteer in local conservation efforts. The site also lists eco-friendly destinations and has practical articles about what-in-the-world “eco-tourism” actually means.

Other popular travel sites that are green, but don't have the "eco" prefix, include:  Responsibletravel.com, IntrepidTravel.com, www.travelroots.com, and www.tribes.co.uk. Travel-industry giants Expedia and Travelocity also have programs that allow you to offset your carbon emissions.

Traveling Outside the Box

IT has nothing against the Great Wall or the Eiffel Tower, but when we travel, we’re looking to really experience a place—not just see its major tourist attractions. And, according to an article published in Newsweek last month, we’re not the only ones.

Tour operators are working to revamp their line-ups to please an increasingly picky (and eco-conscious) customer base, and CTS Horizons is one company that has really stepped up to the challenge. Among its extensive list of options in China is a trip to the canal town of Wuzhen. Daily Tai Chi, traditional cooking lessons, and the chance to simply wander the town and chat with the locals are just a few of the ways you can spend time during your nine-day trip. Also, CTS believes in responsible tourism and supports eco-friendly hotels and organizations (be still our heart!).

If you’re looking to use your time off as a way to make a difference and also do something truly unique, volunteering for an organization such as the Earthwatch Institute is the way to go. With expeditions to almost anywhere in the world, Earthwatch offers volunteers the opportunity to help researchers while they swim with whale sharks in Australia, uncover the remains of an ancient kingdom in England, or collect information on endangered deer in Patagonia.

Do you know of any other tour companies that are "traveling outside the box"? If so, please let us know in our comments box.

Traveling with my Mother

Instead of trekking through Tuscany in a tour bus, take the more sustainable route and try biking your way through the region. In the July-August issue of National Geographic Traveler, writer Joyce Maynard treats her youngest—and most independent—child, 23-year-old son Wil Bethel, to just that: a bike trip through the sun-dappled landscapes of Tuscany and Umbria. Her intention? That of any parent: to bond with a fully fledged offspring. She shares with readers the ups and downs, both physical and emotional, of pedaling her bike over hills and through dales while learning anew how to be with her free-spirited son. Here, IT shares Wil's version of the trip—mom and all:

At Fourteenth Street and Seventh Avenue in Manhattan a crowd gathered to watch a young man and a middle-aged woman engage in verbal warfare. Screaming, recriminations, lots of tears. That was my mother and me a couple of years ago, face to face for the first time in months, and just 30 minutes into a lunch date. I don't recall how the fight started. It finished, unresolved, when my mother walked north and I walked south. Par for the course.

We didn't communicate for several weeks. When she finally called, my mother launched into entirely unexpected territory.

"This may sound crazy considering our recent history," she said, "but I want to propose a trip. Just the two of us."

"You and me?" I asked, incredulous. "Are you kidding?"

JuntoVenture Crosses North America

Sure, we do a lot of writing about sustainable traveling (and also practice it when we have the chance), but we've just come across a group of four who are really doing it. And we mean REALLY doing it. These four go by the name JuntoVenture and are traveling the length of North America (Death Valley to Alaska) to show the world that sustainable travel is totally feasible.

The group is using only eco-friendly clothing, food, transportation, and even hygiene products. The purpose of this trip is "to show people that they can take eco-friendly lifestyles on the road, and can have fun while doing it." Plus they're shooting video, creating podcasts, and blogging as they go. The end product will be a self-produced documentary featuring the footage they filmed along the way.

Here's a teaser from their blog (which is a must-read full of the snafus and victories on their journey):

Google Conquers Mass Transit

Eureka!  What Google did for driving directions, it's starting to do for mass transit, i.e. showing you how to get from Point A to Point B by using public transportation. It lets you "create your own transit trip, complete with itineraries and maps." Right now, Google Transit is available only for 12 U.S. cities (among them Burbank, Seattle, Duluth, Austin, Tampa, and Pittsburgh), plus, surprisingly, the entire nation of Japan, including all Japanese rail networks, domestic airlines, and ferries.

To use Google Transit, all you do is plug in where you are and where you want to go, and whether you want to leave now or later. For example, if I were at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and wanted to get to the Andy Warhol Museum, I’d just plug that in, and Google will give me an itinerary with three upcoming departure times and a Google map plotting the route (as well as a cute little walking stick figure and a bus).  If you want to leave or arrive at a certain time, you can specify that too. Google Transit tells you how long it will take to walk to the bus stop (about 4 minutes), what number bus (500) to take and when it leaves (12:25 p.m.), how long the bus trip takes (36 minutes), and tells you how long it takes to walk from the bus stop to the museum (“about 25 secs,” says the Google wise guy). How to get home? Press “Reverse Directions.”  For more info, they give you a link to the transportation provider; in this case, the Port Authority of Allegheny County. Couldn’t be simpler.

I found this on Google Labs, which gives you an enticing peek at what those brainiacs are up to next.

UNESCO? Let's Go!

This year’s newly chosen UNESCO World Heritage sites are an impressive list of places you’ve probably never heard of. With one obvious exception: The celeb of the bunch is Australia’s crown jewel, the Sydney Opera House. But get an eyeful of a few of the other cultural and natural beauties that made the cut:

• Primeval beech forests in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine and Slovakia.
• A magnificent Korean volcano
• An Ottoman bridge in Bosnia and Herzegovina
• A sandstone palace in Delhi, India.
• And IT's personal favorite: The fairy-tale-like stone forests of Shilin in China’s karst region. Seriously, this place looks amazing.

Eco-Friendly Happy Hour: DC Bar Goes Green

We're not going to lie: IT loves a bar with a good happy hour. And if the bar is eco-friendly? Well, we'd be fools not to show our support! Last week IT ventured over to Dupont Circle to investigate happy hour at Hotel Palomar's trendy Urbana Restaurant & Wine Bar. "Reminiscent of a modern-day Tuscan wine cellar," Urbana is earth-toned, sophisticated, and, last but not least, environmentally conscious.

In addition to its regular happy hour offerings on the Lounge Menu (we liked the Urbanito, a refreshing mix of 10 Cane rum, mint, apple juice, and lime juice for the reduced happy hour price of $8), Urbana gives customers the option of ordering from an Organic Wine List as well as an Organic and Sustainable Menu. We were impressed by the small but esoteric selection of organic wines from regions like Basilicata, Marche, and Veneto; IT thought about ordering the organic Elysian Fields Lamb Chop ($22), but our parsimony kept us at bay.   

Free Sail in Seattle

If you happen to be in Seattle on a Sunday afternoon, you can take a free ride in a historic wooden boat like the Puffin, a tiny steam-powered launch built in 1906. The Center for Wooden Boats restored this antique craft, along with several traditional wooden sailboats, rowboats, pedal boats and canoes that you can rent on other days of the week as well. You can meet their artist-in-residence, a master Haida carver, and help him carve a traditional cedar dugout canoe on Sundays between 1 and 4 p.m. The Center is located at the extreme south end of Lake Union about five minutes north of downtown Seattle by car. (FYI: I came upon the Center for Wooden Boats when I was reading about the Cornstalk Institute and the  Festival of the Great Unknowns music jamboree in Albuquerque. Thanks Gadling!)

Adirondacks Land Deal

IT applauds the Nature Conservancy for recently purchasing the last big piece of privately owned timberland in the Adirondacks. The $110 million transaction not only protects 161,000 acres of pristine wilderness from future development, but involves a working forest agreement with the local paper mill, a century-old institution that employs 850 people.

The agreement, which allows selective tree cutting to continue for 20 years, proves that preserving open spaces does not have to compromise local ways of life. And, had the conservation group not intervened, the tract would probably have been split up or sold for development, ruining its largely unspoiled forests, mountains, lakes, rivers, gorges, and bogs.

Keeping IT Close to Home

Just uttering the word "vacation" conjures images of sandy white beaches, mountain treks, and nine-hour road trips. But, what if it meant staying home?

National Geographic's Green Guide recently featured a piece on vacationing carbon free in your own city. Instead of housework, chores, or to-do lists, seek out local adventures like searching for the best sangria in a Spanish neighborhood or the top sushi in Chinatown. Or, how about hitting up the farmers market to prepare an outdoor feast, or taking advantage of free art gallery admissions on a weekday morning when you're usually at work? If you hadn't noticed, IT has this policy down pat: Check out all of our backyard vacations!

From the Green Guide:

"Alan Durning, executive director of the environmental non-profit Sightline Institute, wanted to unload some of that [eco-]guilt when he embarked on a year of living car-lessly (and he continues to live that way, five months after his experiment ended). Despite being free of four wheels, he and his family worked in a few vacations, his favorite being a week spent...without traveling at all. Rather than taking a train or renting a car, they stayed at home and became tourists in their hometown of Seattle.

Amtrak Adds Luxury Cars

IT's always been a bit partial toward trains, so we had to share this news: Amtrak recently announced that it has teamed up with GrandLuxe Rail Journeys to offer luxury accommodation on popular Amtrak routes. Beginning this fall, seven exclusive GrandLuxe cars will be attached to the back of select Amtrak trains.  GrandLuxe passengers will be pampered with five-course meals, private cabins, live music, and all the luxuries of a fine hotel. Routes will include Amtrak’s California Zephyr from Chicago to San Francisco and the Silver Meteor from Washington, D.C. to Miami. The partnership was made in response to increasing train ridership and to introduce a more appealing option to travelers who want a bit more out of their rail vacation.

But fine dining and fluffy pillows come with a hefty price tag: a one- to two-night trip will cost between $789 and $2,499 per person.

Our opinion? Trains are over 17% more energy-efficient than airplanes, according to the Transportation Data Energy Book. And while air travel is unarguably the fastest way to get around, it can also be the most frustrating. Customer satisfaction with the airline industry is lower than ever, due to tight cabin space, the seemingly neverending list of security-checkpoint rules, long lines, and mishandled (or missing) luggage.

Tourism and the Big Melt

As soon as we saw March of the Penguins, a few of us began charting a course to the nearest coast of Antarctica to see the lil' waddlers. Having shed more than several tears over the baby penguins, you’d have thought we’d be organizing a new protection agency. Instead, we looked at cruise routes that offered ice walks and penguin peeping.

Good thing we wised up.

Tourism to the polar regions has grown significantly over the last decade. Some say that these folks aren't just visiting to dance with Mumble and Ramon from Happy Feet, but rather to witness the effects of global warming.

In "Tourism Threatens Antarctica," The London Times writer Oliver Tickell explains:

This year 33,000 people will visit the Antarctic region, up from about 7,400 a decade ago, according to the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators, which promotes responsible tourism practices.