Sustainable Tourism at its Finest: Protect the Cinque Terre

With all the reading and research that goes into this blog (don’t laugh, we’re being serious!), it is rare that we come across something that immediately prompts us to start planning a trip complete with dates, travel arrangements, etc.  We read magazines, books, websites, and blogs all touting truly amazing places around the globe so why is it that a certain website has lit a fire under us to travel to Italy in September 2010? 

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Crete is Much More Than Just Beaches

We recently read this descriptive and informative article by Jane Foster of the Observer, about Crete and some out-of-the-way destinations there. 

Some villagers in the small town of Vamos decided to form a co-op, fixing up stone cottages to be used as guest houses, and offering cooking lessons in a renovated oil press, communal meals on a long wooden table outside, and hiking tours through the nearby hills past frescoed Byzantine chapels.

Spring is the perfect season for hiking in Crete as the days are mild and the meadows speckled with wild flowers. From the village, I set off along a marked trail leading through woodland and olive groves and past two 12th-century frescoed Byzantine chapels. It’s possible to join a four-hour guided trek along the length of the green rocky Diktamos Gorge.

If you come to Vamos in summer, the sea lies less than four miles away, with sandy beaches complete with water-sports facilities at Kalives and Georgioupoli. Autumn brings farm activities such as the grape harvest and wine-making from August through September, production of raki in October, and the olive harvest from November to late December, all of which guests are welcome to help with.

Thanks, Jane – our already long List of Places We Must Visit just got longer!

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Spain’s Volcanic Island of Lanzarote

The UK’s Times Online has a nice story about the late architect Cesar Manrique’s successful attempts to create socially conscious tourism in his home of Lanzarote, a small volcanic island off the coast of Spain. 

“In 1966 he returned to Lanzarote and said: ‘I came with the intention of turning my native island into one of the most beautiful places in the planet, due to the endless possibilities that Lanzarote had to offer.'”

“As a respected artist, he immediately campaigned for new laws to protect the island’s environment and prevent high-rise hotels. He was responsible for restoring ruined treasures as well as creating what are now some of Lanzarote’s leading tourist attractions.”

His own home, Casa Taro de Tahiche, has now been modified to serve as a museum and foundation.  Check out the complete article.

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The Mindful Tourist B&B Wishlist

Montreal

As you know, we love staying at Bed & Breakfasts because we get a chance to talk to the locals, feel more at home during our travels, and get away from the scratchy sheets and $22 pancakes of the typical big hotel. 

Earlier we promised you our list of Bed & Breakfasts where we would like to go.  This list is by no means exhaustive; feel free to write in the comments about those you’d like to visit yourself – we’ll put them on our to-do list.

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Your Answer to Finding Sustainable Tourism Around the Globe

Guest house in Sri Lanka offered by local WHL partner

The Mindful Tourist was just recently made aware of a global-yet-local travel company that is working to promote small accommodations for travelers.  As you know, our standards are quite high for these companies.  We have slammed others for presenting themselves as something they’re not (here, here, and here).

WHL started off as a project working to help small accommodations providers in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam to access and leverage the internet to market their properties in order to be competitive with larger chain hotels.  Since then, it has become its own company and now operates as a quasi-franchise type model with local partners in the destinations who do all the things best done locally (including working directly with the local accommodation providers and with travelers) and with WHL doing the things best done centrally (technology and web marketing).

While we do think the WHL website could be improved (it seems a little confusing and unwieldy sometimes), they are truly doing good work.  We recently had the opportunity to interview their CEO, Len Cordiner, based in Sydney, Australia (thus the adorable spelling of words like neighbouring, recognise, realise, and organisations! Ha – we kid because we love, Len!).

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New Travel Blog Grips the Nation

As news of a new travel weblog spread quickly across the blogosphere and more traditional media outlets, experts and laypeople alike could scarcely contain their excitement.

“This is just what we needed: another travel blog!” exclaimed noted Chanute, KS-based blogger Steve Powers. Powers added that he had become tired of reading about others’ accounts of their travels and this fresh perspective promised to be innovative and “really cool.”

The new blog’s working name is “My 2007 Trip to Munich” and the author is new-to-the-scene blogger Cindy Davis. Davis has already posted three photos of herself and some friends at a Munich bar with some German men they met there. They all appear to be quite intoxicated. Future plans are to add a “blogroll” with links to other sites that Davis enjoys and a “word cloud.”

As for Davis, she seems unfazed by all the attention. “I’m an artist and this is my art. I hope and expect my blog will add to the continuing debate about blogs and their impact on various issues such as the economic crisis, peace in the Middle East, political campaigns, global media, and China’s relationship to the West, among others.”

In response to that, all Powers could do was shake his head and smile.

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Eat, Pray, Love: The Mindful Tourist Book Review

We had resisted reading this book for a very long time.  It was too popular for us to like it, we thought.  Who hadn’t read this book, we thought?  Consider our snobby selves taught a lesson.  We liked it, we really liked it!

If you have been living on a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific with no internet, tv, etc. (wait, this is starting to sound good…) then it’s still unlikely that you haven’t heard of the Eat, Pray, Love phenomenon.  If you want a socially conscious travel take on this book, click through.  If you’ve heard enough of the book and the author, we feel you and apologize for making you read those three little words yet again.

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Best of BT March

At The Mindful Tourist corporate headquarters (i.e., the cardboard box under the subway bridge), we receive several travel magazines.  Our current favorite is Budget Travel.  While the name seems to be a bit of a misnomer (we don’t think what they report on is especially frugal), the fact is their writers do a very good job finding interesting locales – both domestic and abroad.  So, our newest monthly feature is The Best of BT.  Click through to see the best of March.

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Mindful Tourist’s Favorite B&Bs

Staying at a Bed & Breakfast is a nice way to meet the locals, get to know interesting areas of town, and feel a little more like part of the community.  However, with that feeling, you also leave more to chance.  Will your B&B look like your great grandmother’s couch threw up all over the walls, tables, floors, and bedspreads?  Will the neighborhood be more than a little sketchy?  Will your hosts not want to bond with you over wine in the evenings? 

We think it’s worth the risk.  Here are our favorite B&Bs and why we liked them.  And, because we know you’ll like this, we also included one that was one of the worst.

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