travel

The benefits of a carbon-free vacation

This is my cousin Tom's idea of a vacation:

He takes a bus across the Golden Gate Bridge to Rodeo Beach. He's wearing hiking boots, jeans, and a windbreaker. He carries a small backpack, volume of John Muir inside. And a sandwich. He hikes up the Coastal trail to Wolf Ridge, bundled against the morning fog, then down to Tennessee beach. Seagulls caw and whirl. Sandwich, book, nap on the beach to the sound of crashing waves on California's north coast. Stretches, shakes the sand out of his hair, hikes over the ridge to Pirate's Cove, then down to Muir Beach. Checks into the Pelican Inn. Has a cold Lagunitas Lager and reads a few pages of Muir, soaking in the clawfoot tub. Down to dinner, then a nightcap with locals. Really, Jerry Garcia used to play here? And you filled in on harmonica? Nip of night air and impossible stars before turning in. And that's just day one. There are three more days until Olema.

A carbon-free vacation sounds pretty good, don't it? He's got tips, trail maps, and community here.

Survey says rich people want luxury!

According to an email we just received, eco-resorts have got to spiff up a bit if they want to attract "high spenders." Of 283 travelers surveyed, more than 60 percent would pay a premium for an eco-resort. But among the delicious tidbits: "Air conditioning and Internet access were the two most missed items if not available."

This comes courtesy of a company that's building "chic eco-homes" at the tip of a biosphere reserve in the Philippines. Sigh.

The transportation story at the heart of a history-making crisis

There’s a remarkable graph that has starred in blog posts and news stories with some regularity over the past year. It shows vehicle miles traveled in America over the last quarter century or so. For most of the period, the line rockets upward, straight and true, preparing to blast off the page. But then the […]

Ted Turner chats about his outsized environmental hopes and ambitions

  Ted Turner has always been — for better and for worse — a head turner. He revolutionized media with the first cable news station, CNN. He gave a cool billion to the United Nations. He won the America’s Cup. He married Jane Fonda. He bought the Atlanta Braves. He earned the moniker “Mouth of […]

With climate change bringing the heat, take a look at the next tourist hot spots

When we saw this list of so-called “Global Warming’s Winners” on ForbesTraveler.com, at first we thought, “Seriously?” And then we thought, “I sure could go for a cookie!” But after a quick snack, we reconsidered their hot-or-not travel judgments on places that stand to gain or lose from climate change, and made a few assessments […]

Maps, videos, and images from our cross-country travels

It’s been almost three weeks since I left Seattle to meet up with a total stranger and drive across the country in search of hope for a sustainable future. Well, hope we found — pretty much everywhere we looked. It was like a hope buffet, if you will, and believe you me, we tried to […]

Car camping with a Prius

Just returned from the annual five-day camping trip with about a dozen other families. This is a photo of a fully mature male Western fence lizard, also known as a blue belly because of the blue spot under the male's throat (my youngest daughter is the hand model). The spot is used to impress the ladies and as a warning to other guys trying to horn in. It only works for lizards, young male Gristmill readers, so don't get any ideas.

The propensity for chickens, lizards and alligators to fall asleep when you turn them on their backs and rub their bellies is a bug in their evolutionary programming. It's an operating envelope rarely encountered in nature, which may explain why they go off line when it happens.

Umbra on driving versus flying

Dear Umbra, My husband asked me this one the other day and I didn’t know the answer, so I thought I’d ask an expert. Which is the more environmentally friendly method of travel: 100 people driving their own cars (let’s assume non-hybrid vehicles) to a city three hours away, or 100 people flying in a […]

Staycation, all I ever wanted

"Staycation ... a portmanteau that combines "stay" and "vacation" and refers to a holiday that takes place either at or near home."

With gas well above $4 per gallon this summer, and with airlines raising prices and canceling flights because of high fuel costs, it's not too surprising to find a word like "staycation" gaining a toehold in the North American lexicon. Google now finds nearly 200,000 web pages that use the word -- most of them added within the last few months, if my casual browsing is any indicator.

But even back when fuel wasn't so pricey, some of my favorite vacations were spent within a 50 mile radius of home. It's easy to forget how many parks, museums, nature walks, boat rides, and all-around fun can be found close to where you live -- which makes a staycation a perfect opportunity to reconnect yourself to your home town.

So I'm curious: Is anyone out there planning a staycation this year? Where are you, and what do you plan on doing?