Wendy Worrall Redal

Wendy Worrall Redal is never so happy as when she's planning her next trip -- or one for someone else. An inveterate traveler who has visited 45 countries and all 50 states, Wendy is a travel writer, seasoned tour director and custom trip planner. Travel, in Wendy's view, is the best avenue for cultivating personal discovery and compassion for others and the Earth. Alongside the global awareness that travel brings is recognition of the need for conscious tourism -- treading lightly upon the land, respecting diverse cultures, and ensuring a sustainable enterprise for future generations of explorers. Wendy's interest in ecotourism is complemented by her role as adjunct professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she teaches courses on environment, media and culture, and was formerly a staff member of the Center for Environmental Journalism. She holds a Ph.D. in communication with a specialty in media studies. Wendy is a regular contributor to Good Nature, the blog of Natural Habitat Adventures, an eco-travel company. She lives with her family in Boulder, Colorado.

For a lot of eco-minded vagabonds there is a temptation to dismiss a Hawaiian vacation as too packaged and predictable: tourists in leis and aloha shirts, skyscrapers and beach-goers crowded into Waikiki or chi-chi resorts where the main activity is sitting by the pool sipping mai-tais with a little umbrella poking out of a pineapple slice.

But an alternate Hawaii exists, offering the active nature-lover an idyllic tropical escape from winter’s grip. The Garden Isle of Kauai is lush and laid back, high on beauty and outdoor adventure, low on pretension and crowds. And low on cost, too, with many free and inexpensive ways to explore its natural treasures.

“Arise, shine, for your light has come!” These words from Handel’s Messiah resonate with meaning for me at Christmas. My own celebration is likewise enriched by the multitude of traditions around the world that honor the return of light to the world during the darkest days of the year.

In this era of relentless airline cost-cutting, it’s tough enough to fly these days, let alone during the holiday season when long lines, crowded planes and winter weather up the hassle factor. On top of those frustrations, almost every airline has now instituted a checked-bag fee, typically about $20 per bag each way.

I can still feel the Arctic air, sharp and clean. I can see the late-afternoon sunset, a glowing band of gold, then scarlet, then deep rose, lingering on the horizon. I can hear the yip of the sled dogs, avid to dash across the snow. But what remains most vivid in my memories of the past week is the image of my daughter’s face, nose to nose with an enormous polar bear.

As I hiked with my dog through prairie open space on a recent morning, we were both captivated by the wild creatures around us. In his case, it was the prairie dog colony; in mine, a long V of geese honking overhead. The swallows have left, and I haven’t heard a meadowlark since early September.

The last time I rented a car, I was able to help the environment by tacking on a mere $1.25 to my rental cost. Granted, I’m still driving and spewing CO2 — but that small amount allowed me to offset my contribution to the carbon emissions generated by the typical rental car: about 300 pounds.

I love harvest time. What more savory feast for the senses is there than a Saturday morning stroll through the local farmers market in September? Here in Boulder, Colo., I love gathering a basketful of Palisade peaches, pungent peppers, fresh-picked organic salad greens, and a big, sweet Rocky Ford cantaloupe (the melon equivalent of a vine-ripe heirloom tomato versus a pale January supermarket variety). And soon, I’ll add a jug of cloudy, fresh-pressed apple cider.

I knew I had a problem with my Facebook addiction when I kept thinking of last weekend’s camping trip as a series of status reports:

Wendy Worrall Redal

… swore she would not camp in a tent in the rain again, and here she is.

“Eco” as a prefix has gained some potent marketing cachet for all sorts of goods and services in recent years, not least for travel. Nearly every jungle accommodation in Costa Rica seems to bill itself as an “eco-lodge,” for instance, and ecotourism is promoted as an important, even essential, means of protecting species and habitats.

Disneynature’s acclaimed new film Earth presents the most spectacular 100 minutes of wildlife footage I have ever seen. The film reunites directors Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, who produced the award-winning BBC series “Planet Earth,” in a new venture that brings equally stunning images to the big screen.