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Tag: Green Travel View All Tags

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We've Seen The Future, And It's A Floating Luxury Hotel Airship

February 5, 2010 at 3:14 PM | by Omri | 1 Comment

Would you spend 37 hours on a trans-Atlantic flight between New York and London? What if it was on a space-age balloon designed to gently float above the ocean at almost 12,000ft and glide through the air at a leisurely 90mph, dipping lower if there was anything interesting and then rising back into the atmosphere to continue on its path? That's the vision provided by UK design company Seymourpowell, which has invented a 265m kite-shaped airship and dubbed it the Aircruise. The ship boasts a cutting-edge ecofriendly design, is powered by solar panels and hydrogen fuel cells, and has virtually no environmentally damaging emissions. And it looks mindblowingly awesome.

The predictable downside of course, is that a trip on the Aircruise isn't going to come cheap. If it was easy to use heated gas to lift things off the ground we would do it more often. But as we all know from looking at hot air balloons, you need a lot of space to carry just a little bit of weight. In this case, you need 330,000 cubic metres of hydrogen gas to hoist just 396 total tonnes, meaning that the Aircruise won't have much leftover room for people. Since a high cost per passenger was inevitable, the designers just went ahead and transformed the entire ship into a luxury travel "hotel in the sky."

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How You Can Actually DJ at Coachella This Year

February 3, 2010 at 10:35 AM | by cmb | 0 Comments

We’ve already told you how to get tickets to Coachella, but what if you want to perform at this year’s fest?

If you want to DJ at Coachella this year, all you have to do is get together a dozen friends who are willing to run on a hamster wheel in the scorching heat for 30 minutes. The eco-educational nonprofit organization Global Inheritance, that combines art, fun, and play to promote environmental issues, is sponsoring the Sweat Shop, an initiative that gives DJs a chance to spin while their friends ride bikes, turn hand cranks, and run on hamster wheels to power their equipment.

If you think you (and your friends) have what it takes to spin at Coachella, email sweatshopMIXER@globalinheritance.org with your website for consideration. If you’re chosen, you’ll need to send them a $50 deposit that you will get back if your friends can manage to keep your turntables spinning for 30 minutes.

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The San Diego Zoo Brings a Porcupine to New York to Talk Polar Bears

February 3, 2010 at 9:10 AM | by JetSetCD | 0 Comments

The famous San Diego Zoo is all over the news lately, what their baby panda and being the first zoo to get added to Google Map's streetview, but the good stuff just keeps on coming with the spring opening of their new Polar Bear Plunge exhibit.

Yesterday in New York, we swung by a hotel penthouse to say hi to a few of the San Diego Zoo's animal handlers and staff, who had brought some of the zoo's most portable critters to town (even though they had to take a cargo plane) for appearances on morning shows and the like. There were two endangered tortoises, as you can see above, but also a prehensile-tailed porcupine, who is just about the cutest thing ever and the subject of more photos after the jump.

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Take a Snow Day: Head to the Greenest Ski Resort In All the Land

January 28, 2010 at 9:44 AM | by cmb | 0 Comments

The Grand Targhee Resort, outside of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, just received another eco-honor. Skiing magazine has just named Targhee The Greenest Ski Resort as part of their Skiing's Green All Stars report. The honor was bestowed on Targhee for their efforts to reduce its emissions. The resort is retrofitting buildings, upgrading transportation and recycling programs, and constructing a greenhouse to grow fresh vegetables to help reduce the 2,958 metric tons of CO2 they use each year.

Targhee was also awarded Clif Bar’s 2009 Golden Eagle Award for Environmental Excellence by the National Ski Areas Association. “We got that award for our work on our greenhouse gas inventory,” Christina Thomure, Targhee’s director of sustainable operations said. “You have to report every source of emissions you have. Even when our employees go off site and travel, we report the mileage and estimate the amount of gasoline that’s used.”

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Fashion Week in Berlin Brings Out the Best in Green Design

January 21, 2010 at 4:20 PM | by JetSetCD | 0 Comments

Can you feel that electricity in the air? It's fashion...or rather, it's probably the static electricity of fashionistas donning their trendiest wool ensembles for winter fashion weeks around the world.

Just yesterday began the short-but-sweet Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Berlin. They won't be driving cars down catwalks, no, as Mercedes is only a sponsor, but Berlin is a welcome start to the fashion week season as the city climbs in cool factor.

After the jump, where the real focus is this year

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What Are the Top Ten Ethical Destinations?

January 20, 2010 at 1:25 PM | by Jennifer Kester | 0 Comments


Namibia

Ecotourism is all the rage, with people vacationing in those places that help preserve the environment and offer sustainable hotels and whatnot, but what about visiting countries that also strive to improve social welfare and human rights alongside the environment? The Ethical Traveler is on the lookout for just that, and has scoured the stats to see which developing countries are working hard to better themselves and came up with the top 10 best ethical destinations for 2009-2010.

The idea is that socially conscious do-gooder types can recognize and aid in these countries' efforts by spending their vacation bucks there. Find out which hot-spot developing countries are working to advance their people and environment, after the jump.

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Kashmir Promoting Itself As Green Travel Destination Du Jour

December 23, 2009 at 3:44 PM | by Omri | 0 Comments

CNN recently ran a story about how war-torn Sudan would make a fantastic nature preserve, and now tourism officials in India's battle-scarred Jammu Kashmir state are trying to entice travelers with similar promises minus the reference to ongoing conflicts.

Environmentalists have long debated whether nuclear meltdowns are net positives because they get rid of people, and in theory the same kind of reasoning would hold for war zones. Now thinking that way is unseemly—people don't talk about wars in terms of their upshots—but that's all the more reason to go in and rebuild the areas with green travel tourist dollars:

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Around 15 Airlines Sign Up To Make Biofuels Less A Dream, More A Reality

December 21, 2009 at 8:39 AM | by kjb | 0 Comments

It’s been almost two years since Richard Branson first praised the benefits of coconuts as a possible alternative to fly his planes around the globe. Since then, there have been many different biofuel blends and several successful test flights. Companies are certainly trying their best to become the ExxonMobil of green fuel, and the marketing departments behind camelina and jatropha are trying to illustrate while their oily plants are the best. One company, AltAir Fuels, is having a little bit of success with it all, and they plan to partner with about 15 airlines to provide some green juice.

Airlines like Air Canada, Delta, JetBlue, and US Airways have all agreed to think about purchasing up to 750 million gallons of eco-friendly jet fuel from AltAir Fuels. Their magic ingredient of choice is camelina—sorry jatropha fans. The green travel juice will be made in Washington, and the company is hoping that 100 million gallons of fuel will be made each year, starting in 2012.

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Hertz Wants You To Drive To Eco-Friendly Businesses In Your Car

December 17, 2009 at 8:49 AM | by kjb | 0 Comments

Now that Hertz has their cars smelling so fresh and so clean, they’ve moved elsewhere to set themselves apart from the rental car competitors. They are getting friendly with Navigation Solutions to bring Greenopia to the driving masses. People love making green choices now more than ever, so Hertz is fully prepared to cash in on the green travel movement.

The addition brings the offerings of Greenopia—it’s like a Yelp for green business—to their current NeverLost navigation equipment. Together, drivers will have an earth friendly guide to locate businesses in major markets like New York City, San Francisco, and Chicago. We guess that means you’ll be able to find organic vegan smoothies rather than the nearest McDonald’s with just a touch of a button. There will be 11 different categories to help you pick out somewhere green to spend your green.

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KLM Loves The Color Blue, But They Are Also Keen On Green

November 30, 2009 at 12:09 PM | by kjb | 0 Comments

Last week while many of us were getting ready to run through the TSA gauntlet to visit friends and family, there were actually some people pretty pumped to be out at the airport. Reporters and airline executives were all excited to see what KLM Royal Dutch Airlines had up its sleeve regarding some new gas for one of its planes.

The airline tested out a blend of biofuel in one of its planes. This has been done on other airlines like Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand, but on this KLM test flight there were actually passengers aboard the plane. It wasn’t a normally scheduled flight, but the plane took about 40 passengers up into the sky to circle around for a little bit. One of the plane’s four engines used a 50-50 blend of the new green juice and regular old-fashioned airline gas.

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Tom's of Maine: Debatable Deodorant Strength But Now TSA-Approved

November 18, 2009 at 8:39 AM | by juliana | 0 Comments

If you consider yourself a green traveler, then you make sure your flight has been carbon neutralized, you request that housekeeping refrain from washing your sheets during your hotel stay, you eat at sustainable restaurants and you take public transportation whenever you can.

We're guessing that if you make this much of an effort when you're traveling, you're probably doing way more when you're at home. And we're guessing that if we peeked into your medicine cabinet we would probably find some Tom's of Maine personal care products stashed in there.

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Five Travel Gear Companies That Give Back To The World

November 6, 2009 at 9:45 AM | by kellycrabb | 0 Comments

We talk about Travel Gear a lot here at Jaunted, and issues like Green Travel just as much. Merging the two are some innovative companies, who specialize not only in producing eco-friendly travel products, but also giving back to their communities and promoting a positive image of a global citizen. Perhaps when you're looking for your next piece of luggage, a new swim coverup, or even a full-size tent for that camping trip, you'll remember that there are options out there doing good for the world while they help you enjoy your trip.

Without further ado, here are a few of those companies: Five Travel Gear Companies That Give Back To The World:

Matt & Nat
In case you didn’t know, this uber-hip Vegan handbag line out of Montreal makes fashionable bags and wallets and totes from recycled water bottles. In addition to being environmentally smart, designer Inder Bedi gives back to various charities throughout Europe, Canada and the United States. From battered women’s shelters to animal rights, Bedi cares. He also sees that hundreds of homeless people eat a vegetarian meal twice annually in their home base of Montreal.

Additionally, a dollar for every bag sold goes to the charity of your choice. Within the first quarter, the line has accumulated charitable contribution dollars exceeding $16,000. Our favorite item? A little perfect-for-your-passport Men’s Murse.

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