Whole Travel Blog

Tree Hugger recently did a feature on Museum of Nature by Ilkka Halso.  I thought it was really cool and have shown the photos below.  To read more about it, check out Tree Hugger.  Photos came from ilkka.halso.net

Many cities have set up initiatives that reach out to lower income homes to help them become more energy efficient.  Haya El Nasser writes in USA Today that houses in lower income areas often use older, less efficient appliances and are not well insulated.  Some of the most recent efforts to lower energy consumption have come in more affluent areas and public buildings.  In several cities organizations have been giving free energy audits, CFL lightbulbs, and other energy savings devices.

In Denver an initiative called Greenprint Denver was started by Mayor John Hickenlooper.  The director of Greenprint, Michele Moss Weingardener, states that a look at utility data and found that the “highest energy-using neighborhoods [were] the [the ones with the] lowest income.”  Volunteers have travelled around the areas supplying people with CF bulbs, programmable thermostats, and insulation around doors, windows, and water furnaces.  Obviously, energy usage goes down, but it also helps these indivuduals save money.  To read more about these intriuging programs, click here.

*photo by connor.molloy

Recharging electric cars has always been a bit of a pain to get done, but in the Bay Area, it is about to get a lot easier.  The mayors of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland have plans to spend up to $1 billion to put up a service network to make charging your electric rig a lot more convenient.

Better Place, a Palo Alto company backed by private investors, will be building the system.  According to SFGate.com, “The firm proposes installing thousands of parking-meter-size plugs in homes, lots, garages, and shopping centers for an electric fill-up.  Also planned are battery swapping spots, where a depleted power package can be switched for a fresh one withing minutes.”

The article is not clear as to whether the electricity used at the recharging stations will come from renewable sources.  To read the full article, click here.

This Thanksgiving try altering your traditions to be kinder to the environment.  A couple of articles offer suggestions to make your Thanksgiving celebration more “green”.  Many of the articles focus on some common themes such as: buy local, organic ingredients, avoid using disposable dinnerware, compost your scraps, and minimize your travel.  But some of them offer some things you may not have thought of like using soy candles, not buying special decorations that you will throw away afterward, and do a vegetarian Thanksgiving.  Check out a few of the articles we found…

Tree Hugger

US News and World Report

Planet Green

Earth First

Week of November 26, 2008

This week’s pick is the Old Repeater’s Station located near Hadrian’s Wall in England.  This Bed and Breakfast is in an old farm house that promises to be quaint and charming.  The prices are reasonable - starting at £22.50 per person per night for a shared bunk.  Add a full English cooked breakfast for an extra £2.  Given the state of the dollar, this is a very reasonable price.

The main attraction in the area is Hadrian’s Wall which was “designated a World Heritage Site in 1987 and is the most important monument built by the Romans in Britain. It is the best known frontier in the entire Roman Empire and stands as a reminder of one of the world’s greatest civilizations.”

image take from www.hadrians-wall-bedandbreakfast.co.uk

Rattray Head Eco-Hostel

With tough economic times, it makes a lot of sense to think about how you spend your money when you travel.  Many have learned how to stretch a tight budget and travel for months on hand.  Who are these masters of travel you ask?  Backpackers.  In a recent MSNBC article, a few tips for cheap travel are revealed.  Hopefully you can employ some of these on your next trip in order to make your dollar last a little longer.  A few of the tips are listed below, but click here to read the full article.

One of the major tips is to stay in a hostel.  There are many hostels on the Whole Travel Site, below are a few…

Rattray Head Eco-Hostel - Rattray, Scotland

Pululahua Hostal - Pululahua, Ecuador

Omagh Hostel - Tyronne, Northern Ireland

Help someone make their crazy idea about green innovation become a reality!  The X Prize Foundation is putting on a contest that will give $25,000 to the person who dreams up the best new green-tech idea.    The winning idea will then be the basis the next X Prize, whose winner nets $10 million, and presumably makes great progress in solving the global warming situation!  There are three videos proposing different ideas that the public gets to vote on.

The three ideas include: developing a super battery or “ultracapacitor”, giving the $10 million to the community who manages to reduce its energy usage by the most over 2 years, and creating an affordable off the grid house.  To view the entries and vote, please click here: X Prize Foundation.

A little bit more information about X Prize Foundation from their website: “An X PRIZE is a $10 million+ award given to the first team to achieve a specific goal, set by the X PRIZE Foundation, which has the potential to benefit humanity. Rather than awarding money to honor past achievements or directly funding research, an X PRIZE incites innovation by tapping into our competitive and entrepreneurial spirits.

There are many types of competitions and awards around the world, but an X PRIZE is in a class by itself. What sets us apart from other non-profit organizations is our ability to frame a challenge and incentivize a solution in a way that our efforts and funds are multiplied exponentially by the teams who strive to compete and win the prize.”

An eco-cabin near Seattle, WA.

There’s a new trend emerging across the United States - eco cabins. Now, this isn’t what you’re thinking - some tent shack in the woods - it’s more of an experience that blends old with new, traditional styling with modern materials and design. Recently reported in the NY Times, these types of cabins are becoming more and more popular as people search for a retreat from their usual city routine. Author Michelle Kodis was quoted in the article saying:

“Given our busy, techno-heavy lives, people are seeking places where they can rejuvenate and connect to nature.”

That’s how we picture an ideal vacation, and for those people who don’t have their own eco-cabins, or just want to explore a new part of the world with this type of experience, there are quite a few places to look. There’s duPlooy’s in Belize, Crescent Valley Eco-Lodge in New Zealand, and Barahona Coralsol Resort in Dominican Republic. We’re looking forward to seeing more and more of these types of cabins becoming available around the world - what a way to experience local culture and appreciate all that nature has to offer!

It was about a year ago the first time I saw the Battle at Kruger video from Kruger National Park in South Africa. If you haven’t seen this before, you need to watch it all the way through. The people on this safari truly had the experience of a lifetime, watching a pride of lions battle a herd of buffalo with a few crocodiles thrown into the mix. I saw this video again yesterday when a friend who is traveling through Africa sent me some info on Kruger National Park, and it made me wonder if we had any of these trips at Whole Travel.

After looking around on the site, I found Ebony Lodge among the results. It’s a high-end safari resort located on 18,000 hectares of prime game viewing land, has a health spa and can get you face to face with an elephant when you step out of the shower. It would be amazing to get a viewing like the Battle at Kruger, but I’ll be happy enough just to get up close and personal with a giraffe or elephant.

In a recent New York Times Article, writer Elisabeth Rosenthal highlights the intruiging bicycle sharing programs available all over Europe.  She claims that in Europe there are “only two kinds of mayors: those who have a bicycle-sharing program and those who want one.”  Paris’s program might be one of the largest as it boasts some 20,000 bicycles.  One of the things that makes the programs so successful is the ease of use by customers.  Not only do the programs inundate the cities with massive amounts of bikes, access to the bikes is easy - Riders can access the bikes at computerized stands by using electronic cards that can deduct the rental fee right from their bank account.

Rosenthal suggests that the programs are not as successful in the US because of “issues like insurance liability, a stronger car culture, longer commutes and a preference for wearing helmets.”  To read the whole New York Times article, please click here.

Photo by: Lourdes Segade for The New York Times