Intelligent Travel

Pico Iyer Challenges First Class Flyers

In a recent Los Angeles Times op-ed aptly titled "Globalism at 35,000 feet" writer Pico Iyer asks, "How much would you pay to enjoy six hours away from your fellow humans, in a chair that reclines? $1,500 an hour—or even more?" Baffled by the ludicrous price of a business class flight, Iyer wonders why anyone would pay $9,600 for a business class ticket from New York to London when coach sets you back just $500. Here's the crux of his critical (and very amusing) article:

It begins with the inequity of prices. Those paying thousands for the upper deck of the jet effectively set up a gated community in the air, in which people from other classes are not even allowed to visit their restrooms. It continues with the startling inequality of services—and the unsurprising fact that the countries that often score highest for quality of life (Singapore, Australia, New Zealand) also are the ones that offer the most comfortable coach habitations in the sky.

Travel Responsibly

If you're working toward being eco-conscious but aren't ready to ditch the training wheels, U.K.-based responsibletravel.com has all the tools you need for vacationing carbon-free. We especially like their mission statement: "A responsible holiday gets you closer to the real country & supports local people & the environment." Sound familiar?

As on most travel booking sites, you can search by date and location, or if you're looking for ideas choose from cultural tours (a Cambodia Water and Moon Festival trip), honeymoon ideas (a Masai Mara luxury safari camp), volunteer travel (rescuing captive gibbons in Thailand), and more. You don't have to skimp on comfort to go "green": Check out their eco-luxury vacations in Egypt, Borneo, India, Kenya, and more.

Before you travel, responsibletravel.com suggests you:

- Plan your route to minimize carbon emissions—travel by train and bus wherever possible and minimize flight changes.

This Week's Blogger

Yep, only one this week. Thanks to assistant online editor Mary Beth LaRue's typing frenzy, IT was able to sustain itself through its first week. Phew.

Welcome to the New IT

IT’s back. Back with a new look, a new focus, and a new name to match. The blog that was launched as Inside Traveler stays IT. But now IT means something that’s truer to what we care most about: Intelligent Travel.

What does “Intelligent Travel” mean? We think it's about exploring the intersection of authentic and sustainable travel. We want to showcase the essence of place, what's unique and original, what locals cherish most about where they live. And we want to highlight places, practices, and people that are on the front lines of sustainable travel—travel that preserves places’ essential uniqueness for future generations.

Our new mission is rooted in what the National Geographic Society stands for: inspiring people to care about the planet. Traveler and IT also want you to experience and enjoy the planet. And now we’ll help you journey with greater sensitivity to the impact your trip has on a place and its inhabitants.

Sometimes we'll celebrate, sometimes we'll criticize. But we'll always try to heighten awareness about what's really important about travel: finding great places, experiencing them fully, and leaving them no worse for your visit.

Intelligent Travel will pursue this new mission with a full bag of tricks both old and new. We’re keeping the things you loved about the original IT (great writing, reports from Traveler staff and contributors, reader input) and adding a ton of things you (and we) have wanted for a while: photos, comments, thematic and geographic categories, our very own RSS feed, a search engine, and a pretty logo.

We’re excited to get the ball rolling, but we don’t want to do this alone. The new IT wants your thoughts, ideas, reactions, and, most important, your experiences. Let’s get IT started!

Into the Wild in Alexandria

Every Washingtonian needs a way to unwind. (There’s a war on after all, and our fair city is its nerve center, conducting the chess moves from afar.) My newest favorite method is to rent a kayak with friends or kids on a weekend afternoon, and paddle—guilt- and carbon-emissions-free—the quiet tidal backwaters of the Potomac River. Just south of town, in Alexandria, the Belle Haven Marina rents kayaks—no experience necessary.

Sleeping Green

We're not exactly sure what "being green" means, but we associate it with Priuses, Whole Foods, and An Inconvenient Truth thanks to its use in a bombardment of marketing campaigns over the last two years.

The problem is that this undefined and overused buzzword has migrated unregulated to the hotel industry. Hotel owners can change a few lightbulbs, adopt a recycling plan, and call themselves "green" while still washing towels daily and using toxic cleaners on bathroom countertops.

In "How to Find a Hotel That’s Truly Fit for the Eco-Friendly," Washington Post writer Gary Lee interviews Glenn Hasek, editor and publisher of Green Lodging News, who has been working to define what "green" should really mean in the hotel industry. An excerpt for your consideration:

This Week's Bloggers

Emily King, National Geographic Traveler's assistant to the editor and IT co-founder, is surprised at how good orange and green look together in IT's new design.

Researcher and IT co-founder Jessie Johnston says "I told you so." She also wants to take a quick moment to thank all of IT's readers for their support this last year. This is her last week as IT co-editor before taking off for new adventures in Ghana. She'll be blogging from there; IT will tell you where once she's got it up and running.

Assistant online editor Mary Beth LaRue thinks Jessie should be less longwinded. She's also psyched about her new IT responsibilities.

And senior editor Norie Quintos needs a break from all this blogging. She's going kayaking.