Ecotourism Destinations
ECO Travel Trailer, Eco Friendly RV
If you prefer caravanning over hostels and hotels check out the Skamper Eco Travel Trailer. Weighing only 3000lbs, the latest light-weight mobile home is a great idea if you plan to cover large distances on vacation. All you have to do is lock the trailer on to the tow bar and sashay off to the sunshine.
Eco-RV are marketing it as a more ecologically-friendly mode of transport saying the seven-foot wide trailer is aerodynamically designed to reduce wind drag, thus increasing fuel economy but that’s pretty much where …
Date: January 24th, 2008 |
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Green Places to Visit in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland, a green getaway in the colourful sense of the word, is turning out to be something of an eco destination with travellers keen to discover the sunnier side of the once troubled province.
Yes, Northern Ireland has had problems and there’s still a little fine tuning going on but now that the peace process has been sorted and an independent government is in state the region is safer than ever before for travellers. In fact, it was voted as the safest region in the UK and the second safest country in the world by the United Nations.
Now visitors are heading to the North in their droves, curious to see what’s on offer. Trust me; it’s not all red-bricked housing and murals.
Date: January 16th, 2008 |
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Top 10 Eco-friendly Destinations
If you’re keen on going green this year and are thinking of booking an eco-friendly holiday, check out this list recommended by online travel community IgoUgo, (owned by Travelocity).
Editors of IgoUgo painstakingly reviewed journals posted by some of their 350,000 members. The comments listed are the traveller’s own.
Now where’s that bank I can rob?
1. Buck Island Reef National Monument – St Croix, US Virgin Islands
“The reef surrounding was named America’s first-ever underwater national monument in 1961 which, naturally, has resulted in an ecosystem so thriving and well-preserved that 30,000 visitors a year flock to see it, making it the single most popular attraction on St Croix. This was the highlight of our vacation!”
2. Sea Turtle Watching in Rekawa – Rekawa, Sri Lanka
“The reason we picked Tangalla in the first place was that a nearby beach, Rekawa, is Sri Lanka’s most popular beach for nesting sea turtles. At Rekawa, five of the seven species of sea turtle come to nest, with the most popular being the green turtle. We arrived at the beach at about 8:30 and by about 9:30, one of the staff had spotted a turtle.”
Date: January 10th, 2008 |
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Plans to Travel Asia? Bring Your Own Chopsticks
If you’re jetting off to Japan, make sure you pack an extra pair of chopsticks.
Every year, the average Japanese person chucks 200 pairs of disposable chopsticks. With 127 million people living in the country that’s a whopping 25.4 billion sets in total per year – or the equivalent to 90,000 tonnes of wood.
Japan has already outlawed the production of chopsticks within their own country and instead have them imported from China where it’s reported they’re made mostly from bamboo or timber that would otherwise be discarded. Or is it a move to shift the effects of mass logging to another country? A country where around 45 billion sets of chopsticks are made therefore must surely have some impact on deforestation.
But it’s when the chopsticks are used only once that the use of disposable chopsticks becomes a crying shame.
Date: January 8th, 2008 |
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Eco Friendly Accommodation in Italy’s Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Friuli-Venezia Giulia, or FVG as it’s affectionately known by locals, is a region in the north east of Italy which is often overlooked by travellers, regardless of its proximity to the frequently visited Venice.
History
Friuli-Venezia Giulia is the smallest region in Italy and was once ruled by the Austrian Hapsburgs and, for a short time, old Yugoslavia. Its diverse background has influenced the food, architecture and lifestyle of the Friuliari, making it a really exciting and interesting place to visit.
What’s so exciting about FVG?
Sitting on the borders of Austria and Slovenia to the north and east and hugged by the Veneto region of Italy to the west, Friuli-Venezia Giulia has a wealth of activities, sights and tours for travellers. There are forests with endless hiking and walking trails, alpine villages crammed with ski lodges and coastal towns in Trieste for those with a penchant for fishing or sunbathing. For the eco traveller, there are Albergo Diffuso.
Albergo Diffuso
Albergo Diffuso is the collective name given to a number of renovated alpine chalets dotted around seven different locations between Carnia and the highlands of Monet Prât. They aren’t found anywhere else in Italy.
Date: January 3rd, 2008 |
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Green Places to Stay in Northern Ireland
It’s hard to convince people to go to the North of Ireland sometimes, too many believe everything they read and see in the media. It is a rugged, weather beaten, beautiful, unspoilt territory that’s been rarely travelled.
Residents, though, know they’ve got a potential tourist goldmine on their doorstep and have been ready and waiting for the past 30 years.
Are you ready to ramble?
Omagh Hostel, County Tyrone
This friendly, family-run hostel near the Sperrin Mountains in County Tyrone is the most environmentally-conscious hostel you’ll ever come across.
The accommodation is not fussy or fancy but it’s clean, comfortable and welcoming and rates highly with eco travellers.
Greenie Points: Opened since 1991, Omagh Hostel is a working organic farm employing a number of sustainable and eco friendly practices, too many to mention them all but enough to achieve the coveted EU Flower Ecolabel.
Check out their website for more eco information.
Dorm beds: £12 pp
Private Rooms: £15pp
Camping: £12 /tent
Date: January 17th, 2008 |
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Book Review: Slow Travel by Mari Rhydwen
Slow Travel by Mari Rhydwen
Allen & Unwin, 2004
If, like me, you’re constantly thinking of packing it all in to travel the world, read this book at your peril because you might end up doing just that.
And it’s exactly what author Mari Rhydwen and her husband, Allen, did. They sold their home in Western Australia, bought a yacht and set sail on a voyage around the Indian Ocean for three years, stopping at various islands and ports that few will ever visit.
Slow Travel is a journey of discovery and reveals in great detail how wonderful it is to shake loose the shackles of the everyday rat race and dive head long into your dreams.
Date: January 13th, 2008 |
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Japan Halts Hunt on Endangered Humpback Whales
A few months ago Eco Travel Logue reported Japan’s intentions to cull 50 humpback whales and 50 fin whales in addition to their yearly quota of 300 minke whales, all in the name of research – somewhat dubious research.
Good news; after international negotiations this week Chief Cabinet Secretary of the International Whaling Commission, Mr Nobutaka Machimura, announced that Japan have reneged on their slaughter of the threatened humpback, for the time being.
Japan has agreed …
Date: January 10th, 2008 |
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New Solution to Deforestation in Sumatra’s Rainforests
Due to the world’s demands for palm oil, timber and pulp an area the size of 300 football pitches is felled every hour in the rainforests of Sumatra.
Commercial loggers seek out Sumatra’s highly prized Dipterocarp, a hardwood tree, which fetches a princely sum on the international market. Then, illegal loggers move in to compete for the best of the leftovers, locals clear land for farming or development and sometimes areas are burned to clear undergrowth, frequently causing catasrophic fires, so that new companies can set up palm oil or commercial pulpwood plantations.
Few give a second thought to the consequences of this mass clearing. Certainly not those of us who use cosmetics every day, paper to write on or demand the best wooden flooring in their bespoke designed house. Now the lowland forests of Sumatra are regarded as some of the most threatened in the world.
Date: January 8th, 2008 |
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Kahuzi-Biega National Park, Home to Africa’s Mountain Gorillas
In a desperate attempt to save Africa’s dwindling wildlife from poachers, ranger John Kahekwa of the Congo’s Kahuzi-Biega National Park set up a community-based conservation programme in the hope of encouraging ecotourism.
Originally a tracker at the park, Kahekwa was responsible for taming lowland gorillas, in a way. He would ‘habituate’ them to the presence of humans so tourists could visit and became so successful that he could eventually pick out and name around 155 animals. He now looks after 600,000 hectares of prime mountain forest on the east side of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has been recognised as a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1980 and more unfortunately as a World Heritage Site in Danger since 1997.
As local populations grew the fine line between people and animals became less distinct. Traps laid for game sometimes trapped gorillas and other animals and poaching was rife. ‘Keep Out’ signs were ignored and when, in 1993, Maheshe, the adult silverback depicted in blockbuster movie Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey, was killed there was wide-spread agreement that Kahuzi-Biega was just not working as a wildlife reserve.
Date: January 2nd, 2008 |
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