Qadisha Valley, Lebanon There are places in this world that urge you to pause, and Lebanon’s Qadisha Valley is one. As the day ends over this historic landscape, you look around and sense that the sun has set here for thousands of years, well before you were born, and will continue to set long after...

You’ve saved your money, packed your bags and are ready to embark on a new adventure. Through all the planning, the same image came to mind: the perfect beach. Whether rocky, sandy, tropical or wild, beaches conjure up images of vacation and relaxation. But how do we know if that perfect beach is clean? I’m...

Want to run away and live in a sustainable treehouse community? Go to Finca Bellavista in Costa Rica. You can build your own stilthouse or other "arboreal dwelling", as long as it abides by the community guidelines , which include such things as small square-footage structures, getting rid of waste through a compact biodigestor, and...

Last week, the online travel search engine Travelocity announced that a new partnership with EC3 Global has enabled them to display more green hotels in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond . As green/eco awareness increases, so too does the need for ethical travelers to be able to find those businesses that adhere to morals and...

We like to think that as we travel the world, we leave it as we left it or better. However, an upcoming documentary by Pegi Vail , an anthropologist from Columbia University, looks at the impact that decades of backpackers have had on cultures, economy, and the environment in parts of Thailand, Mali, and Bolivia....

We all have them, whether it’s the extra time we could have spent in a destination, or bringing far too much gear on our travels. Many times, travel regrets don’t stick with us for very long after we return home. When they do, they can be a lesson for future trips. One of my biggest...

This morning I read about a hotel that's under construction. There's an art museum going up around the corner, and the hotel is designed to complement it by displaying contemporary art in the rooms and common areas. Construction is partly financed by a local nonprofit focused on downtown revitalization. The husband-and-wife operators are excited --...

Travelers with a preference for environmentally sustainable practices don’t have a wealth of resources when on the road. As with travel in general, it’s often necessary to carve together information from a variety of sources—from books and magazines to online resources to word of mouth. Sometimes it’s like a treasure hunt to find the ideal...

Western manners don't teach us how to respond to non-Western hospitality. I'm talking about generosity that's over-and-above what we're used to. The sort of generosity where saying please or thank you is shunned as unnecessary, or even taken as slightly offensive. India is famous for its hospitality, and lately I've been feeling confused about how...

Leon, Nicaragua I have several regrets in life, and here is one: I didn't ask if she was okay. It was late on a cold January night and I was standing alone at the Trocadero, looking at the Eiffel Tower. At some point, through the faint and assorted sounds of the city, I heard sobbing....

We all have different souvenir styles. Some focus on shot glasses, others on local crafts, and some folks shop for home electronics or clothing while on vacation. There are travelers who prefer unconventional mementos , like recorded music, rubbings, or even words. And plenty of people follow the advice: “Take only pictures, leave only footprints.”...

The news is full these days about a "green revolution." Is it really the wave of the future? Or is it actually a return to the past, when living in harmony with the environment was standard practice? The Tokyo expat magazine Metropolis published excerpts from a new work titled Just Enough: Lessons in Living Green...

When you’re researching a trip, it’s not always easy to determine whether your tour operator or hotel cares about sustainable travel. And when you’re paying a middleman instead of giving your money straight to a business in your destination, you may not know how much of that money goes to the local communities. Some tour...

Not long ago, my friend and colleague Lauren Grodstein contacted me for a story she was writing about ethical travel. In the process of answering her email questions, I realized that I have misgivings about the rhetorical level at which we generally discuss ethical travel issues. Hence, my answer turned into a rant of sorts...

In the days leading up to Mardi Gras a couple weeks ago, I fielded some strange questions from camera-clutching visitors to the city of New Orleans, where I've lived off and on the for past year-and-a-half. Though the post-Katrina streets of the French Quarter had grown encouragingly festive and rowdy in anticipation of Fat Tuesday,...