Eco Travel

I’m writing from Pergolaccio, a 300-year-old stone farmhouse near the Umbrian hill town of Todi.  Here in the center of Italy, it’s unusually verdant after a cold, wet spring.  Today, though, the sun is out: warming the breeze, drying the dew, backlighting the rose petals on the arbor, dissolving the blanket of mist that fills ... read more

A couple of months ago I wrote about some of my family’s favorite adventure vacation spots. Well, since it’s turning out to be a long, hot summer with no break in gas prices in sight, I thought I’d share a few more laid-back locales that are big on nature adventure and family fun. Lewis and Clark ... read more

One of the current casualties of global warming is the size and scope of many of the world’s glaciers. From the Arctic to the Andes, many of these moving tongues of ice are melting faster than at any time in the past 10,000 years, when they were formed during the last Ice Age. While glaciers ... read more

Nothing heralds the start of summer like the long Memorial Day weekend. If you’re headed for the mountains or desert, to camp or hike or otherwise soak up late spring’s backcountry beauty, take a look at a few eco-minded travel gadgets to make your nature escape simpler and less impactful on whatever corner of the ... read more

Ecotourism is one of those emergent buzzwords that’s slippery in terms of definitions.  Usually understood as a sustainable approach to travel that both respects and protects natural environments, ecotourism is also associated with preserving local cultures – and it’s in that vein that I send this post from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, ... read more