Eco-Truth vs Eco-B.S.

Earth Day is April 22 and you cannot open a magazine, watch the news, or view a web page without coming across some mention of it. After all, "global warming", which has to be the catchphrase of the year, is on everyone's agenda. No longer the domain of scorned tree-huggers, everyone has hopped on the Green Bus - and bought their carbon offsets to boot.

This is certainly true in the hotel industry, with both boutique and large properties pushing to keep up with the public's demand for "green". Most of us, admittedly, don't really want to change the way we travel. Opting for the bus instead of a transatlantic flight limits our options, and we still want to enjoy all the creature comforts we've come to associate with a luxury vacation. So it's really helpful when the hotels, airlines and travel agencies find ways for us to have our locally-sourced, preservative-free soy cake and eat it too.

But - how to be sure that you're not being fed a line of eco b.s.? With everyone scrambling to promote themselves as friends of the environment, some claims ring a little truer than others. We're not telling you you have to be eco-friendly when you travel - although we encourage it, of course, at the end of the day it's up to you how and where you spend your vacation. But if you're going to travel green, we want to make sure you're not getting duped by marketers who've just realized that today's buzzword can make for more visitors (and more of a different green in their pockets).

Over at Responsibletravel.com, we came across a great article by Justin Francis: 10 ways to tell if your eco-lodge is really eco. While all of the tips require asking questions of the management, the truth is you may be able to find some of the answers online. For instance, tip #1 tells you to ask if eco-friendly policy is written anywhere. While an urban hotel may not have this readily available on their website, many eco-lodges in nature settings do. Although the tips are geared towards eco-lodges, many of the questions can be asked of urban properties as well: how the building is heated and how they treat their wastewater are perfect examples.

So, to be sure that the earth's resources - and your good intentions - are not being wasted, do a little homework when planning your next trip. Check out all the tips at responsibletravel.com.

Dare to be Bare

When we visited St. Martin in the Caribbean 3 years ago, we visited a little isle off the shore named Ile Pinel. A sort of large sandbar, it had a beach restaurant or two, with lounge chairs from each restaurant dotting the shores. Children ran up and down the calm beach, enjoying the almost total lack of surf. It was great fun watching them, particularly since many of the tots were naked and completely carefree. And being on the French side of the St. Martin, in many cases, the moms were topless too.

While we'd never done the topless thing before, given that our 9-month old daughter was still nursing, all of a sudden it seemed like a fabulous concept. Instead of trying to be inconspicuous and looking all the more obvious for covering a baby in 90-degree weather, we were able to feed her in peace. No one looked askance or seemed to notice, and we're sure D appreciated being able to fall asleep with a sea breeze caressing her face instead of a blanket.

Thanks to Kelly Amabile over at Gadling, we've just learned that there's a guide to nude beaches for your, ahem, perusal. Aptly titled Bare Beaches, this book was originally published in Great Britain (who said the Brits were prudes?), and the authors also penned Bare Britain - interesting, because we would never have thought there was enough to fill a book about Britain alone.

While Ile Pinel was only topless, perhaps you're looking for even more freedom, and even if you may not feel that nude beaches are for young ones, many families visit them - and the beaches to accommodate them are out there. The book includes a list of the most family-friendly spots, and other cool lists include celebs who like to bare it all (which we rather figured was all of them, so it should be interesting to see who made the cut...) There's also a blog that posts continual updates, should your quest for a nude beach be so urgent as to demand immediate attention.

How's that for a family vacation idea?


Bare Beaches, $32 (including postage)
available at barebeaches.com

First Class Food in Coach

These days, ANY food in coach is a wonder, but good food is most likely not going to happen - certainly not on the airline's dime.

You're most likely accustomed to bringing at least a child's snack or two if you're traveling with children, but what about you? Are you noshing on Cheerios at 30,000 feet? If you travel out of Los Angeles area airports, there are far better options. Skymeals, a meal delivery service that will meet you right at the airport with your food, is changing how you dine in the sky.

Their meals are not inexpensive, but considering what passes for food on planes these days, they're well worth the cost, particularly for long flights (or long waits on tarmacs). A peek at the menu definitely gets the salivary glands watering: you can choose from entrees such as flash seared ahi tuna or shrimp & asparagus farfalle fra diavolo. There's also a nice selection of sandwiches, salads, appetizers and brunches, and even a SkyLight menu for those watching their weight (which we figure in LA is just about everyone).

Best of all: children are included! Yes, the little ones have their own menu, SkyKids, and it's not all junk. While you can never escape chicken fingers (delivered here as "crispy chicken strips"), they come with a healthy side of fresh fruit and broccoli & carrots. The kids' menu is small - 4 selections - but varied enough that you should find something on there that your child will eat. And since the company is actually a catering outfit and not just a delivery service, they'll also take special requests (within reason); if you or your child can't find something on here you like, they can work with you to create a meal you'd prefer.


A SkyKids Meal

Unfortunately, right now Skymeals is only operating in a limited area of California, so unless you live there or are headed there soon, you may not have the opportunity to sample their cuisine. But check back - the company's founders have said in the past that they'd like to expand, and we're hoping they do soon.

Allergy-Free Rooms

Electron photograph of rotavirus particles
courtesy of Centers for Disease Control & Prevention

Also in today's NY Times Travel section, an article about hypoallergenic rooms.

In a dual-purposed bid to help allergy-sufferers and stand out from the crowd, many hotels are now offering hypoallergenic rooms. (We've stayed in and noted many hotels that are offering special scents in the lobbies and rooms, and it had occurred to us that there might be some people for whom that must be awful.) Brands like Hilton, Wyndham and Millennium are rolling out hypoallergenic rooms in different locations across the country, sometimes devoting several floors to the allergy-suffering traveler.

While the trend may claim to help those who can't tolerate the plush down pillows that beckon most travelers to their beds, this movement is also, in part, an attempt to rise above the flatscreen TVs and WiFi access that are now considered de rigueur by savvy travelers. And with a recent Conde Nast Traveler article noting that even 5-star hotels had rooms awash in germs, it might not be only the chronic allergy sufferer looking for a cleaner room.

There are currently no standards in the industry for creating a hypoallergenic room, and some of the methods hotels are using seem more designed for marketing purposes than actual allergy treatment or germ removal. Still, some travelers have noted a difference in the air quality of their rooms, and say they are willing to pay the premium that hypoallergenic rooms often command in order to have a sneeze-free stay. For those that don't need to go to such lengths but would still like to fight the germs and nasty habits of those-who-came-before, check out the end of Conde Nast Traveler's article, which has several helpful suggestions on how to make your hotel room less of a health hazard.

Eco Eco Everywhere

Kermit sang that it wasn't easy being green, but boy is the media is out to prove him wrong.

We hadn't intended that today would all about eco, but we're finding ourselves bombarded with terms like "eco" and "green" everywhere we look. A recent visit to the newsstand showed several magazines with one of those terms on the cover, and we're not talking the usual suspects like Real Simple or Dwell, but reads like Town & Country, and Robb Report Vacation Homes. Green is definitely "in".

In the field of travel, the eco-friendly thing isn't exactly new, but now it's gone luxury too. Which is great, because it feels so brazenly wrong to be all Seventh Generation and Caldrea in your house, only to have housekeeping throw away a twice-used bar of soap when you're on vacation. On the other hand, in the past we weren't so keen on what was perceived as "eco-friendly" in the tourism realm: visions of rustic ill-lit cabins with hard bunks, no amenities, bad food and activities that all ran to "hiking" made us cringe. The only question was, would we die of sheer boredom or would the kids kill us first? We'll admit: when forced to pick, we've gone lux every time.

Thankfully, more and more options are cropping up, that are allowing us to have our cake and eat it too. Over at Forbestraveler.com, editors have identified the top 10 green hotels in America. Our previous post also noted an eco-friendly resort opening in Antigua. If you have any picks of your own, let us know about them...

Get on the Bus, Gus?

By now most of you will be familiar with the story of the Kulesza family, and if you're not, where have you been? Long story short, blah blah, the Kuleszas were on an AirTran flight in January when their daughter Elly threw a temper tantrum before takeoff and could not be calmed down. She refused to sit in her seat, which prevented the plane from leaving the gate according to federal regulations. Airline personnel finally ordered the family to disembark and left without them.

The Kuleszas were highly upset at being removed from the plane, saying they only needed more time to calm their daughter down. They refused AirTran's appeasement offer of free tickets, saying they'll never fly with them again. AirTran felt that it was fully justified in removing them, saying that the little girl's refusal to sit down was a safety issue that the parents clearly were unable to handle.

If you've been reading us with any regularity - and we hope you have - you know the two main tenets of our luxury travel "belief system." First, children should be allowed to experience some of the luxury and sophistication that their parents aim for when traveling. While we understand and agree that there are some places that should be off-limits for the pure sake of relief, it doesn't follow that all vacations with young ones should center around Disneyworld and theme parks. Parents who have built an appreciation for a certain quality of life should not have their few weeks of vacation time dominated by what Hollywood and Noggin interpret to be of interest to a child.

But lest you think we're being completely selfish, we assure you: we do have our children's interests at heart as well. As a matter of fact, we think that the best way to instill an appreciation for that same quality of life is to offer it to children on a regular basis. Yes, we're aware that, based on age, attention span and interests, some museums may have to get passed up, and some spas and restaurants may have to be saved for later vacations unless you've brought the nanny or a grandparent along or are willing to use the hotel babysitter. But we've found that with careful thought and planning, travel with children can incorporate many high-end establishments in varied destinations. And we've discovered that children will often rise to the occasion and take delight in much of what people assume would bore them or go unnoticed. In short, going outside the Happy Meal box is not only to our benefit, it's to the benefit of our children as well.

However - and this is a big however - we think that our first tenet is extremely dependent on our second tenet. Call it 1A, if you will. On second thought, it should really be the first tenet, because without it the other one is moot. And that is, that children should be well-trained and well-behaved. We would say "when traveling", but to be honest, your hopes of having a well-trained child when traveling are slim to none if he's uncontrollable in day-to-day life. Now, we're not of the old school of thought that says children should be seen and not heard and all that nonsense. But there seems to be a new style of parenting - or non-parenting, if you will - where people are loath to set rules for their children and prepare them to be civil adults by showing them how to be civil children. If your child is kicking the seatback, shrieking, running up and down the aisles, or throwing tantrums, and you either won't or can't get him to stop, then maybe he shouldn't be traveling. We can safely say he shouldn't be traveling to the places we're writing about. But many would say he shouldn't be traveling anywhere.

And that's exactly what is happening. People have risen up across the blogosphere to say that children should not be on airplanes at all. That's the most ridiculous thing we've ever heard, frankly - airplanes stopped being any sort of "privilege" a long time ago. But with bratty behavior as the norm these days, it's no wonder that many people have come to expect the worst when they see a child traveling; they often get it, in spades. And unlike in a restaurant or hotel, there is no escape on a plane.

We're not fearful that banishment will happen on airlines any time soon, but we are afraid that the more poorly-trained children there are, the fewer hotels, resorts and restaurants there will be that welcome the behaving ones with open arms: how do they know when you make your reservation whether your child is a hellion or an angel? To the Kuleszas' credit, they do admit that Elly wasn't behaving very well; they just think that the airline mishandled the situation. And we're not saying they are bad parents - even the best toddler has bad days and meltdowns from being tired, and God help you if it happens while traveling. For that reason, we won't come down on the side of the airline or the Kuleszas on this one: we've seen airline personnel take an unnecessarily combative approach to many situations since 9/11, and we've also seen a frightening dearth of parenting skills in the last few decades. But on the general topic of children and travel, we can't stress it enough: please, please - do yourself and your children a favor and teach them to be considerate of other people. Whether you're visiting Mickey Mouse or Claridge's, there's nothing wrong with knowing how to say please and thank you. With understanding that kicking someone's seat bothers the person in the seat. With comprehending that being loud is offensive and unnecessary in most situations. With knowing that the airplane/airport/restaurant/hotel lobby is not a playground to run amok in. A child who is walking and talking is old enough to start learning these things, and teaching them will enable you to travel with less fear than those who play Russian roulette every time they take their children out in public. And it will earn you the gratitude of travelers - and travel personnel - everywhere.

Roughing It But Not Really - AKA "Glamping"

It's time to plan your next vacation. The children have come up with the brilliant idea of going camping. You, on the other hand, had visions of spas, room service and a general atmosphere of luxury. You are, it would seem, at an impasse.

Au contraire. Welcome to the growing trend of "glamping", which we first read about via Gadling. Coming from the term "glamorous camping", glamping is putting style and pampering into camping. This is something we find to be totally agreeable, and the only question is, what took so long?

It's really not that new of an idea: people have been going on safari like this for years. Now, the concept has come out of Africa, so to speak, and has really taken off with our friends across the pond. England is rife with companies offering "glamping" supplies, from white Indian-style tents made in Pakistan to jute carpets that will protect pedicured feet from the earthy floor. It seems that someone got wind of Kate Moss glamping, and now the world has run amok with copycats who, of course, need to be similarly accoutred.

In the US & Canada, the movement has gone beyond the bespoke tent to offer full-fledged vacations that include pampering previously unheard of while camping. The oft-mentioned Clayoquot Wilderness Resorts & Spa in British Columbia offers camping the way it should be done (see their lovely tents above and below). Especially enticing are the family suite tents, which come with queen-bed, convertible chesterfield with queen mattress, and a lounge area with a game table. Add in luxurious down duvets and area rugs you'd happily grace your floors with, and this really isn't so bad, now is it?

But wait, you say. It's all fine and good to speak of sleeping in luxury, but will I emerge from the woods looking like something out of a horror movie? Have no fear - here you'll find hot water for showers as well as power for hair dryers. Even wireless internet is doable here, should you find the need to be less connected to the outdoors and more connected to, say, this blog. (And yes, they have modern composting toilets that we are sure will not require the use of anything so rustic as a page from the NY Times.)

We have already decided that we must go glamping, if only for the sheer fun of indulging in something with such a ridiculous name. And we must admit, at Clayoquot the activities offered are fun for both us and the children: kayaking, biking, and bear watching are just a few, and how much better to retreat to a downy mattress in a luxurious tent when you're done? Whatever you call it and wherever you do it, camping "in the manner to which we've become accustomed" is an idea whose time has come, and we'll be looking for more places to pursue this new trend in travel.