Maybe you'd like to take up watercolors on your next vacation?
Photo: Cavallo Point

by Brook Wilkinson

Renaissance Man Mark Schatzker just got back from a month in Europe mastering the arts (or at least attempting to). It's a pity he hadn't heard about Cavallo Point's new learning vacations, for he could have accomplished much the same with a single trip to San Francisco, rather than an exhausting, expensive Grand Tour of Europe.

Cavallo Point, the new hotel at Fort Baker that I blogged about last week, will soon debut an extensive array of educational programs for overnight guests and day visitors, all led by some of the sharpest minds in their fields. Imagine getting running tips from ultramarathoner Dean Karnazes, cooking with chef Traci de Jardins of San Francisco's acclaimed Jardiniere restaurant, or discussing Buddhism with Robert Thurman, president of the Tibet House.

The programs fall into three categories: Adventure & Well-Being, Culinary Arts, and Creative Arts. You can find a full list of them here. (Personally, I'm dying to take cheese 101 with the owners of my favorite cheese purveyor, Cowgirl Creamery.) Most programs are 3 to 5 days long, range in price from $1,225 to $2,700--not including accommodations--and include meals with your "teacher," plus ample free time to explore the Bay Area. If you register for a program by August 1st, you'll also receive one free night at Cavallo Point. It's never too late to keep learning.

Cavallo Point, an eco-hotel across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, opens July 1.
Photo: Kodiak Greenwood

by Brook Wilkinson

Apparently no one ever told the owners of Cavallo Point that going green couldn't also be luxurious. They've gone and created a hotel that is quite clearly both, within shouting distance of San Francisco. Cavallo Point sits on the site of the old Fort Baker, right at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. In the 1990s, the fort was decommissioned and became part of the Golden Gate National Parks. It now begins its second life as luxury hotel Cavallo Point, with 68 historic rooms inside the old officers' quarters, and 74 contemporary rooms in new, solar-powered buildings.

What else is green about the place? Bamboo furnishings and ceilings, organic bedding and linens, 25% recycled (and 100% recyclable) carpets, blue jean insulation, and the like. The open spaces around the hotel are being restored with 30,000 native plants raised from seeds found on adjacent parklands, and the lodge supports the new Institute at the Golden Gate, which will be in charge of the site's environmental programming -- nonprofits and other green organizations qualify for a special Green Rate.

Speaking of special rates, CAVALLO POINT IS OFFERING AN EXCLUSIVE PACKAGE ONLY FOR DAILY TRAVELER READERS! Read on to find out more...

by Brook Wilkinson

If you book travel online (and is there any other option these days?), now you can contribute to your favorite charities at the same time. Start your search at Goodshop.com, choose a cause (anything from the ASPCA to your local elementary school), and then begin shopping at any of more than three dozen travel Web sites--Travelocity, Expedia, Budget Rent-A-Car, Delta, and the like. Every time you complete a transaction, a certain percentage or dollar amount of your purchase will go to the charity you've chosen. It's that simple! I'm kicking myself that I didn't find out about this until after I booked a flight through CheapTickets the other day.

Goodshop is a spin-off of Goodsearch, another site you might want to bookmark. This search engine donates 50 percent of its revenue to charity. Searches are powered by Yahoo!, and the proceeds go to whichever cause you choose.

Natural Habitat Adventures gets you up close and
personal with the disappearing polar bear.
Photo: Mike Bruscia

by Brook Wilkinson

As you've probably heard, the polar bear was recently designated a "threatened" species by the Department of Interior. This is a step up from "endangered," but means that they're headed in that direction. There are still quite a few polar bears left (found only in the Arctic, of course, none down at the South Pole), but the worry is that if global warming continues at the current pace, the bears' main hunting habitat--sea ice--could soon melt.

So, how to see these cuddly-looking guys before they're as rare as a black rhino? Two companies, both named to Conde Nast Traveler's Green List in the past few years, run trips that will get you up to polar bear territory. Go now, before it's too late.

Natural Habitat Adventures runs a variety of polar bear expeditions. Their "classic" trip visits the largest concentration of polar bears, outside Churchill, Canada, by tundra buggy. The Ultimate Churchill trip visits a polar bear den, the Tundra Lodge Adventure gives you longer days with the bears, and the Photo Tour promises to send you home with frame-worthy shots.

If you'd rather approach the bears by sea, Cruise North--the only Inuit-owned cruise line--runs several itineraries that give you a shot at seeing polar bears. The Baffin Adventure trip, for instance, visits Akpatok Island, a favorite summering ground for the bears.

Either way, you'll be traveling with an environmentally sound company. Natural Habitat Adventures is the first completely carbon-neutral travel company--they offset the energy used both on their trips and in their Boulder, Colorado office--and Cruise North runs a clean-up cruise at the end of every season.

He's rethinking this one.
Photo: AP

by Brook Wilkinson

Call me crazy, but I applaud American Airlines for their recent announcement that they will soon begin charging for each checked bag. Why? My reasoning for this is similar to the argument I use in favor of increased gas prices (yes, I do own a car, so I too am paying $4.25 per gallon right now). Let me explain.

We carry a horrifying amount of stuff with us when we travel. Every time I go to the airport, I see people dragging multiple suitcases, each large enough to fit about a dozen circus clowns. Some are clearly immigrants headed home with luggage full of gifts for their families--clothes and electronics and who knows what else that's cheaper in the U.S. than in Bolivia or Bangladesh. But the vast majority are people who can't go a week without a hair dryer, six pairs of shoes, and several wardrobe options per day.

The San Francisco Recycling Sculpture Garden.

by Brook Wilkinson

I never thought I'd be recommending a city dump as a tourist attraction. But that was before I visited San Francisco Recycling & Disposal's "transfer station." The Pit, where the city's garbage is dumped every day before being trucked to landfills, is a smelly mess inhabited by scavenging seagulls. But just outside is a sculpture garden worthy of any city park. And every single piece of art in it is made from trash.

Abbott Lake, Virginia, along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Photo: Keith Lanpher/VTC

by Brook Wilkinson

Looking to stay close to home for this summer's eco-friendly vacation? If you're on the east coast, look no further than Virginia. The state's tourism office has recently launched VirginiaGreenTravel.org, a site dedicated to green attractions, hotels, and restaurants around the state. What's nice about this site is that the definition of green isn't limited to the great outdoors--though Virginia has plenty of state parks worth exploring. You can also find ideas for walkable city vacations in Richmond or Roanoke, and sun and sand in Virginia Beach. And if you're headed to the greater Washington, D.C., area, consider staying at either the Morrison House in Alexandria, or the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner in McLean; both Virginia Green properties were named to Conde Nast Traveler's 2008 Gold List.

To spot Virginia Green members on the ground, look for the following logo:

by Brook Wilkinson

Some of you might have followed the most recent Where's Brook? Contest on our sister blog, the Perrin Post. I was on assignment in Costa Rica, on a trip planned for me by Richard and Irene Edwards of GreenSpot Travel. I've known Richard since he worked at Wildland Adventures several years ago (he also lived in Costa Rica for many years before that). But what brings me to write about him here is his latest venture: the first-ever nonprofit travel agency, to my knowledge.

Richard and Irene have started GreenSpot in order to plan customized, luxurious trips to Central America while also giving something back to the local communities. All the profits from the trips they create--after the couple takes home a reasonable salary--will go to sustainable projects that they have started in Central America. The first such project is a used-clothing store in Costa Rica. The Edwardses and their clients will bring gently used items from the States to be sold there, and the profits from the store will pay for computers and environmental programs at a local school. Once the first store becomes financially self-sufficient, GreenSpot will plow its profits into opening other such stores in Panama and elsewhere.

Want to help? Of course, you could call up GreenSpot and start planning a trip to Central America. But if you've got some clothes lying around that you haven't worn in several seasons, you can give them a second life by mailing them to the following address:

GreenSpot Travel
Costa Rica School Project
4741 Secret Valley Drive
Billings, MT 59101

If you let Irene know that you're sending some clothes by e-mailing her at info@greenspottravel.org, she'll send you updates on the project's progress.

by Brook Wilkinson

The snows of Kilimanjaro are melting. The Great Barrier Reef is being bleached a ghostly white.

Some of our most beloved iconic destinations (yes, the very ones listed in Patricia Schultz's 1,000 Places to See Before You Die) are dying. And it's our fault, thanks to the twin terrors of global warming and rampant over-tourism.

That's the thesis of Disappearing Destinations, a new book by Kimberly Lisagor and Heather Hansen. Conde Nast Traveler contributor Pico Iyer sums it up well in his introduction:

"Nowhere looks quite so startling as when we first met it, and for a certain kind of traveler, every change is a change for the worse. . . . Many of the marvels of our collective inheritance are disappearing."

Most of us already know about the stresses on Mount Everest (a garbage dump of used oxygen tanks and abandoned equipment) and Venice (the city is sinking, thanks to the rising sea level brought on by global warming). But Lisagor and Hansen detail the dangers in some unexpected places--the Napa Valley, the Alps, Kenya's Maasailand. It's a compelling read, with a happier ending than you might expect: In each destination, the authors profile concerned citizens working to reverse the disappearance of our favorite destinations.

by Brook Wilkinson

So you got your May issue of Conde Nast Traveler in the mail the other day, ripped out the five hottest hotels that you just have to check out in the next year, and then settled down on the couch to read our article about the hottest trend in travel right now: Voluntourism.

No? I'll give you a few minutes, then meet me back here.

Okay, now you've read our introduction to voluntourism and how it enriched my trip to Cambodia. Want to know more? You came to the right place. Here are some more resources to help you plan your own volunteer vacation:

Read "The Most Important Question of All," by David Clemmons, founder of VolunTourism.org, to find out not if voluntourism is right for you, but if you're right for voluntourism.

If the answer is yes, check out Clemmons's "10 Tips from a Voluntourism Master" to guide you toward the right trip for your interests and abilities.

Finally, pick up a copy of Volunteer Vacations, by Bill McMillon, Doug Cutchins, and Anne Geissinger, a resource guide with sections on almost 150 different voluntourism organizations, indexed by cost, length, location, and type of work.

You're on your way!

Wilkinson in California with a
pre-production Nissan GT-R

by Brook Wilkinson

Do you really love a good road trip but feel overwhelmed by green guilt? Stop worrying and get in the car. That's right, I said it: Go ahead and drive. Why? Driving to a nearby domestic destination is far more ecological than flying across the ocean (not to mention you'll be better off spending dollars than euros).

I was thrilled to learn this tidbit in You Can Prevent Global Warming (and Save Money!), which was updated and reissued yesterday, in honor of Earth Day. Co-authors Jeffrey Langholz and Kelly Turner write, "You'll emit less carbon dioxide [driving] than you would by flying, no matter how long or short your flight is."

Now that you can start planning that summer road trip, read on for a few more tips that will help lower your gas budget, courtesy of Langholz and Turner.