Go Green Travel Green

Rotorua, New Zealand is the place to be for geothermal activity. There are more hot springs, thermal pools, sulphur spas, mud pools, and volcanic valleys than you can count. Determine whether Te Puia, Wai-o-Tapu, Waimangu, or Hells Gate is best for your trip.

We drove a Kea Campervan around New Zealand. Read our Kea Campers review to see what we liked, didn’t like, and what we’d do differently next time.

Hells Gate Rotorua Wai Ora Spa is one of New Zealand’s best geothermal parks. This post provides a review of the park, spa, and mud bath experience.

When backpacking in South America these are some of the best 5 activities to participate in. Be it hiking, surfing, or extreme mountain biking this post describes it all.

Hotel coupons aren’t quite as easy to come by as car rental coupon codes, but you can definitely snag some good deals. Hotels generally have two types of discount coupons and promotions. Discount coupons are actually coupons that you have to click through or know the code to redeem. Promotions are the deals that are [...]

These are the best car rental coupon codes and also the best ways to get a rental car (and coupon) for cheap or extremely discounted.

One fantastic thing about having a travel website is the number of emails we get with special travel coupons and discount codes. In the past we’ve shared some of these codes, like the Vayama International coupon code or our tips about Priceline Bidding. We’ve gotten some feedback on these posts thanking us for posting them. [...]

Review of Rainbow Springs plus pictures and information about the Kiwi bird in Roturoa, New Zealand. See photos of this noctural animal plus lots of other native birds.

Where were you on April 20, 2010?
Don’t remember? Me either. But perhaps we should have remembered where we were on April 20 when the BP oil rig exploded. The spill will impact our lives in the way many other infamous events have.
It would be easy to ignore the spill – treat it as something that [...]

Check out this photo we captured of the hot pools in Hells Gate on our recent trip to New Zealand:

(Don’t worry, we’ll tell you more about Hells Gate in an upcoming post.)

If you write or publish photos anywhere online, I highly recommend you read this short post.
While doing a bit of Googling this evening I came across several sets of Go Green Travel Green photos attributed to both my name (1 set) and Kimberly’s name (2 sets) on a TripAdvisor site called TripWow.
It’s a bit odd [...]

Thanks to everyone who participated in our contest week by commenting on our posts about Stainless Steel Cookware, Green Luggage, and Shades of Green at Home.  We used a random number generator to pick the winners. Here they are:

 
Amazon.com Gift Card: Suzanne
Good Life Water Bottle: Brooke
Eco Vessel Water Bottle: Jessiev
 
Lexus Dark Ride [...]

Let’s face it, the GreenDexes in many Lonely Planet guides don’t contain everything you want to know about traveling green in a country. Luckily, Dorian Yates is to the rescue with her Green Earth Guide Series.  These are the first destination specific, green focused, travel guides ever to be in print. We were sent free [...]

Want to win a $50 Amazon.com gift certificate, a stainless steel water bottle, or a Lexus discount card?
Two weeks ago we hosted Contest Week. We have 13 prizes to give away. And so far we only have 13 entries. You don’t have to be a math major to realize that your chances of winning [...]

Best of our New Zealand Trip. Our favorite foods, sites, and more.

Everything you need to know about green luggage including bag reviews and the best green luggage features.

Reviews and ratings of stainless steel cookware sets. Nonstick pans can kill birds and are likely bad for human health. Replace your old pans with stainless steel — know which pan to buy with these reviews.

Some early posts at Go Green Travel Green were part of a series called shades of green travel. This post is about how to incorporate shades of green at home.

Just a quick note for those of you with websites, blogs, businesses or anyone generally interested in making money online. (This has nothing to do with traveling or environmental issues – so if you’re not interested in entrepreneurship please disregard this short post.)
I’ve previously written about my experience with an online marketing course called Project [...]

We are in such great moods after a wonderful trip to New Zealand (more stories and pictures coming soon) that this week at Go Green Travel Green is Contest Week. All you have to do is comment on any of our new posts this week. The more posts you comment on, the more likely you [...]

Coromandel Peninsula in pictures. Photos of our favorite sites in Coromandel including Hot Water Beach, Hahei Beach and Cathedral cove.

Tomorrow we travel to New Zealand.
We head from Minneapolis to Los Angeles (where we have a 3.5 hour layover) then switch airlines and board an Air New Zealand flight to Auckland. The flight from LAX to Auckland is 12 or 13 hours long and leaves LA at 10pm. I share this because numerous people [...]

Next week we’re headed to New Zealand - help us plan our trip!

In my quest to find the best travel shoes, KEEN was kind enough to send me a pair of Verona Mary Jane women’s shoes to review. They’re cute, comfortable, and make excellent travel shoes.

What I Like
Comfort and Arch Support
The Verona’s are extremely comfortable. They flex well and the arch support is better than average for [...]

We’ve written a ton about stainless steel water bottles; but as the school year approached I began to consider how I was going to transport tea to school. I would venture to say that the Contigo mug is the best stainless steel travel mug there is .… I would highly recommend these mugs as a gift this season for any traveler, student, or commuter.

Go Green Travel Green is going to Boston this weekend for Hostelling International USA’s Boston Travel Forum and Workshop. I’ll be presenting about the Green Travel program I’ve developed with HI Minnesota.
The conference is free and open to the public so if you’re in the Boston area, make sure you stop by for some [...]

Eco gadgets are most definitely a growth market now. Sure there are lots of gadgets that are a waste of time and money, but there are also some gadgets that are genuinely useful. In this article, Dan talks about 10 of his favourite eco-friendly gadgets that are designed with the green traveler in mind.

A review of Project Mojave - a project by Clay Collins that allows you to make money while traveling.

And so, I’m turning the reigns back over to Kimberly, who will be providing you with amusing travel stories, timely travel news, and relevant green travel news…. Calling Guest Writers For any writers, photographers, and/or bloggers out there — let us know if you have anything travel or environment related (best if it’s both!)

Our Back to School: Green Travel Basics series has ended. We hope you enjoyed the posts it included. If you liked the Green Travel Basics Series, be sure to check out our 25 Days to Green Travel Series too.

The best green cruises, green cruise lines, and how to be a greener cruise passenger.

How to Find a Travel Agent for Your Green Trip is part of our Back to School: Green Travel Basics series.
Every once in awhile you need a travel agent. Travel agents are great for a number of things when it comes to trip planning, especially for complicated trips. Tripology actually offers 101 reasons to use [...]

How to create your green travel plan. A complete roadmap to green travel.

Ultimate list of the top green cities in the world and the top green cities in the United States.

Carbon offsetting is a very common way to make your travels greener. But there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, or carbon offset companies each charging different prices and offering different projects. So, how do you know which carbon offset company to buy from?

There you have it, green air travel is still a bit of an oxymoron, but you can take a few easy steps to be a more responsible traveler when flying by plane.

A guide to finding the best hiking tours, including hiking tour companies and how to plan your own trekking tour.

What about the difference between eco-friendly travel and responsible travel? If you were looking for a trip that’s only eco-friendly you might take a trip that minimizes your impact on nature. But if you’re going to take a “responsible” trip you would want to make sure that your travels support the local economy and respect the culture.

Perhaps this time you want it to be a green vacation?Here are some of the best green vacation ideas we’ve come across…. While RVs may get terrible gas mileage, your vacation will make up for this because you’re not flying nor are you using resources such as electricity at a hotel.

As the most basic introduction to green traveling, we’ve put together this simple post about how to travel green in four easy steps. We believe that you should travel responsibly because it’s good for the environment, it’s good for local economies, and it’s good for you. Check out these posts for more about why you should travel green:

While most of our readers probably aren’t heading back to school this fall, we thought you might enjoy reviewing some green travel basics…. We’ll be covering some intro topics we haven’t yet addressed on Go Green Travel Green — like hiking tours, adventure tours, and simply “How to Travel Green.”

I compared the cheapest travel insurance companies to find the best price between 20+ travel insurance policies. Here are my results.

A guide to choosing the best travel medical insurance policy - including where to buy travel medical insurance, comparing, and which is the best.

A guide to finding, comparing, and buying the best backpackers travel insurance with cheap travel insurance prices.

How to choose travel insurance, the introduction to a short series about buying cheap travel insurance, including travel health insurance.

A review of Hotelly, a new hotel search engine that offers hotel reviews. How does it compare to the competition?

If there’s one thing you can’t leave for your next vacation without — it’s shoes. And given that, when traveling, you probably walk a good deal more than usual, it’s critical to have the best travel shoes.
So, we’ve compiled a list of what to look for in the best travel shoes.

photo credit: veggiefrog
Travel Sandals
There are [...]

But, honestly, I couldn’t find a way to justify shelling out $38 for Klean Kanteen’s 40 ounce bottle, when I had two perfectly good 18 and 27 ounce bottles that would do just fine…. However, you won’t get the same cap options that you do with a Klean Kanteen (such as flat top, etc.) And the New Wave Enviro Stainless Steel Water Bottle 40 ounces ships with a stainless steel top, not the plastic top that is worse for the environment and more common with the Klean Kanteen.

If you’ve ever been on a cruise, you know that there are countless cruise excursion options for each stop and they all cost a fortune.  If you’re looking for an Alaska cruise excursion that is a little less touristy than some of the bus tours, I would recommend seeing if your cruise ship offers a White Pass Train and Biking excursion.

We took a family cruise on the Ryndam Holland America ship. Specifically we took the Alaska Inside Passage Cruise which started and ended in Vancouver and stopped in Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, and Glacier Bay National Park.

Luggage scales seem to be all the rage these days. Well, at least that’s what the ads I’ve seen have led me to believe. And with the increased airline baggage fees for pretty much every single U.S. airline, and stricter weight policies — “You’re 3 ounces over, that’s $50″ — perhaps it’s time to invest [...]

Lately, I’ve noticed a number of city or state specific green tourism sites popping up…. Virginia was one of the first states I saw with a green tourism site.

Koi Fish Pictures from the Japanese Gardens in Buenos Aires, cute pictures of the fish with their mouths’ open.

Glacier pictures from the Argentina Perito Moreno Glacier in El Calafate and El Chalten Argentina.

A winner of the Camelbak SS (Stainless Steel) water bottle - the .75 Liter.

A list and reviews of the best green travel guides, including Fodor’s Green Travel Guide and the Lonely Planet Code Green.

We list the ways to may green flights more eco friendly. You can search for green flights using search green travel, you can bring a bottle, and more.

I’ve compiled a cheat sheet detailing exactly how to find cheap airline tickets. Depending on when you go, and where you go, there is a best search engine for you to help you find cheap plane tickets.

In case you missed this week’s posts about the new CamelBak Stainless Steel Better Bottle (BPA Free and Insulated) and the Stainless Steel Water Bottle Smackdown — we have a CamelBak to give away…. Next week on Tuesday be sure to stop by — I’ll be posting one of my favorite tips from How to Find Cheap Airline Tickets .

We’ve written so much about stainless steel water bottles — including about a Healthy Water Bottle, Klean Kanteen Stainless Steel Water Bottle, and CamelBak Stainless Steel Better Bottle — that we’ve decided to wrap it up once and for all with a Stainless Steel Water bottle smackdown.

A review of the CamelBak Stainless Steel Better Bottle including the insulated water bottle and the BPA Free .75 liter bottle.

It’s been an interesting week — I managed to dump sugar (about 3 cups of it) all over my MacBook last weekend. Luckily Apple vacuumed it out for me, but I’m still holding my breath.
A few links from around the web:
Nomadic Matt has put together an ebook about how to make money with your travel [...]

If you have kids, extra sensitive skin or spend a lot of time in the sun, I would highly recommend checking out UV Skinz. A review of UV Skinz Cheryl zip-up jacket.

The Miessence travel pack line includes (among other things): 2 Different Varieties of Shampoo (for normal to dry and normal to oily hair) Conditioner Hair Repair Hair Styling Gel Body wash Body Cream All of the products are products of Australia and Australian Certified Organic…. The down side of this is that you have to take the entire cap off the bottle to get shampoo out since you can’t squeeze the bottle to get it out of the flip-cap.

Here’s your chance to win a $50 gift card and impact green travel. We’re helping to promote the CMI Green and BBMG first ever “Green Traveler Survey.”

Looking for a reusable bag, reusable shopping bag, reusable grocery bag, eco bag, or green bag? We’ve compiled the best green and eco bags to help you choose the one for you.

When I was finishing my master’s degree in community-based tourism and had worked all year with a rural community group in the small town of Quizarra, in Costa Rica, I had to start thinking about how I could help them create partnerships with an international tour operator…. The couple I accompanied from California said their favorite part was being in the community with the families, having lunch with them, learning how to make tortillas from scratch, taking a walk through beautiful primary forests on different families’ properties, and even riding in the back of their trucks!

Volunteer travel is an amazing way to see a place, get to know the locals, and leave a positive footprint. We volunteered while in Argentina, but there are plenty of local sites for volunteer travel.

Who wants to be able to make enough money — with little daily effort — to be able to afford travel forever?
I know I do.
My goal is to earn enough money to do whatever makes me happy and better able to help others — travel, volunteer, play tennis, go to law school.
This isn’t the usual [...]

12 Tips for Green Business Travel. Traveling green for business can be tough, but with these tricks and trips its easy to be a greener business traveler.

A reader recently asked me to go into further detail about the Klean Kanteen stainless steel water bottles including my likes and dislikes of their Klean Kanteen product. Here’s my Klean Kanteen Stainless Steel Water bottle review.

Our friends at the Conservation Law Foundation are hosting a giveaway this month. It’s an easy contest to enter — just send your favorite green tip and photo. Here are the details. Send the tip and picture to CLF. What You Win They have some really cool prizes — as a traveler I’d want to win 2nd place and get the Patagonia jackets and backpacks…. 2nd place: Patagonia Family Pack, which includes two top-of-the-line fleece men’s and women’s jackets, and two backpacks.

You can check out some of our popular posts via the tab on the right column or if you’re looking to start with the basics check out Green Travel 101 …. At Five Cent Nickel, Nickel writes How to Prepare for a Power Outage - Without a Generator Sarah Wozniak at The Green Radblog of Nico presents Waste and Reycling in a Nutshell: Don’t Throw it Out!

We have a few posting admin updates to start the week off with: I want to thank all of you again who purchased How to Find Cheap Airline Tickets …. We’ll be going back to our roots with the Tuesday/Thursday posts– focusing on green travel and travel stories.

We know that many of our readers are affiliated with the green travel industry in some way — running an eco-lodge, green hotel, volunteer tour group, etc. We’re thinking of starting two new initiatives and would like to know your thoughts: 1) A Free Guide: Greening Your Travel Business — A Consumer’s Perspective 2) A Free E-Newsletter for people working in green tourism initiatives. It would be from a consumer’s perspectives with roundups of what other travelers are saying online, resources, etc. Both of these initiatives would be a way for people in the tourism industry to hear directly from green travelers about what’s working and what’s not.

I love trying new restaurants, but this can get expensive, especially in the U.S. Luckily there are ways to save a huge amount of money, while supporting local businesses…. If you’re going to be visiting a new city (or even want to try a new restaurant in your own town), it’s worth choosing a few restaurants before you go and purchasing the gift cards through Restaurants.com.

We are extremely excited to announce that we were named one of the Times Online Top 100 Travel Sites for 2009!… Some others who were featured in the top 100 websites include: Gridskipper , Travel Rants,    Green Traveller, and Cranky Flier .

I do have one more cheap travel tip that I’ll be sharing with you tomorrow to conclude our series of Cheap Travel Tips. (It’s about how to save 80% while dining out in the U.S.) And then next week we’ll be back to our green travel coverage.

Today I’m excited to announce the release of How to Find Cheap Airline Tickets: Mastering Airfare Search Engines to Get the Cheapest Ticket…. What You’ll Learn How to Find Cheap Airline Tickets will Teach You: The 2 Biggest Myths about Finding Cheap Airfare 8 (+ 3) Money Saving Tips Cheating the System with Buy and Hold The Cardinal Rule for Finding Cheap Airline Tickets How to Determine if You’ve Found a “Good” Deal

I’m incredibly excited to have transformed it from an idea I had two years ago to a system I created just for me, then to an awesome guide that will enable everyone* to travel more affordably…. If You Have Hundreds of Thousands of Frequent Flyer Miles - If you are a frequent business traveler and buy all of your airline tickets with miles, you aren’t going to benefit from this ebook.

When searching for plane tickets, you can save a ton of money by searching with flexible travel dates. Again, very few travel search engines allow you great flexibility when searching for flights. Usually the “flexible search” option is 1-3 days around your given date, but these search engines allow you the maximum flexibility — 330 days from today. The three best are FareCompare, Kayak, and Travelocity.

I’m Committed to Green Travel While flying isn’t the greenest way to get around, we advocate simple steps you can take to travel greener (learn more about our mission ) — even when you’re flying…. Too often I have lost money and time because I have spent hours searching for cheap tickets; I would search one day, then decide not to buy, then I search the next day, and maybe a week later, and then would miss a good deal because I waited too long or didn’t stay organized.

Today I have an exciting update to share: the price is going down. I heard from several readers who really want to buy the How to Find Cheap Airline Tickets , but $50 is a little out of the reach for them given the economy…. If you’re not happy with the ebook, just let me know within 100 days of the purchase, and I’ll refund your money.

Earth Movie Winner is Vicki whose favorite animal is the Koala Bear.

How to Find Cheap Airline Tickets will teach you to do two things: 1) Create an personalized, automated system for searching for plane tickets We know you’re busy and don’t have time to waste scouring countless search engines trying to keep track of the cheapest airline ticket that meets your time table…. How to Find Cheap AirlineTickets is a way for us to provide an awesome resource for people who want to signficantly reduce their time and dollars spent in searching for cheap airline tickets — and to do so in a way that helps us out financially.

The trick here is that you can “game” the Priceline Bidding system by adding zones that don’t have hotels in your class (e.g., if you bid on a 4 star hotel, add a city nearby that doesn’t have any 4 star hotels in it) details at   How to Beat Priceline Check Priceline’s Airline Statistics for the most popular routes to see savings (from Airfare Watchdog, Priceline Now Posting Bid Statistics ) Be patient…. (from About.com Priceline Bidding Strategies ) Priceline Bidding works best for 3 and 4 star hotels, not 2 star hotels and lower (from BidonTravel ) d

There is one thing that hotels don’t want you to remember when you book a room with them: You can (almost) always cancel your hotel 24-48 hours before you are scheduled to stay there. This means that if the hotel room price drops or you find a cheaper room at a different hotel, you can cancel and rebook for the cheaper price.

Look for an Airport Shuttle Choosing a hotel with a free airport shuttle can easily save $10-$50, and you’ll avoid the hassle of a cab or rental car. Find Hotels with Fitness Search for a hotel with a free fitness center to avoid shelling out extra cash to use the treadmill…. Check Parking (if you’re renting a car) If you’re renting a car or driving, you’ll save up to $40/day (depending on the city) by finding a hotel with free or reasonably priced parking.

The ebook won’t be for everyone; if you have plenty of free time on your hands or extra money to throw at the airlines, it won’t be for you…. Navigating the hundreds of airfare search engines isn’t fun and it’s incredibly time-consuming, so How to Find Cheap Airline Tickets will tell you exactly what you need to know and when you need it.

Disneynature is offering a giveaway to our readers: a prize pack valued at $60 which includes a canvas tote, a reusable grocery bag, a biodegradable tumbler, a tree seedling, and a fleece blanket…. Did I mention that for every person who sees the movie the first week it’s in theaters Disney will plant a tree.

In a whirlwind of competition between online travel agencies, Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity have all dropped their booking fees.. No Booking Fees at Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, Hotwire, Cheap Tickets and Priceline. Through May 31, 2009, that is. The big three online travel agencies have decided to “temporarily” drop their booking fees. Some exceptions apply, including Orbitz which will still have fees for multi-carrier itineraries (e.g. a Northwest flight connecting to American Airlines flight)

   Here are some he sites that will have lights out on Saturday night: Toronto: CN Tower Rio de Janeiro: Christ the Redeemer Statue Sydney: Opera House Hong Kong: Symphony of Lights Show Moscow: Moscow State University Paris: Eiffel Tower Cape Town: Table Mountain Check out some photos from last year in Sydney: Sydney Before Earth Hour    pthe FAQ’s of the Earth Hour Site: 10…. For many businesses in city skyscrapers or for many government buildings the lights are turned off at the end of the business day the Friday before Earth Hour and won’t go back on until that Monday morning, so the event will be more of a fade to gray than an abrupt shift to black.

Here are 5 ways that traveling with the weather will make your travels more eco-friendly: Packing Less Warm weather means that you need to pack less…. No Air Conditioning/Heat If you time your travel with the weather, you can visit most countries during a season where you won’t need heat or air conditioning.

Apologies for the slow posting schedule.

However, if you’re ever planning on visiting the country there are two other key things to note and they are so important they warrant a separate post…. So, when you head to Argentina make sure you either plan to visit the ATM frequently, bring US Dollars to exchange, or (and I hate to suggest this) bring Traveler’s Checks.

We haven’t linked to green travel articles a Upgrade Travel Better tackles the status of Supply and Demand in Hybrid Rental Cars Indie Travel Podcast has a number of solid tips in the Tread Lightly Podcast I frequently wonder about starting a soap recycling program through hotels given the amount of soap that must be thrown out each day; so I was glad to read about Holey Soap at Graham’s Travel Blog…. Traveling the Green Way writes about the time it takes to book a ticket online when Taking the Train in Europe The Green Workplace lists 10 Green Travel Tips Nomadic Matt offers some quality ideas on what to do with a Staycation The New York Times has an interesting article about Eco-Nuns in New York City And if you’re not yet sick of reading about the economy Thomas Friedman has a column about how the recession could lead to more sustainable ways.

Here are some average costs in US Dollars: Lodging: Dorm bed: $10-$15 /bed /night Double Room: $30-$50/room / night Apartment: $35+ / night Food Empanaada $0.75-$1 Steak: $8-$10 Salad: $3-$6 Ice Cream Cone: $3-$4 (Surpringly expensive when compared to other food) Bottle of Wine (in a Resturant): $7 and up Pizza: $7-$15 Coffee: $1-3 Transportation (Getting Around Argentina) Local Bus: $0.30-$1.50 Taxi: Varies Immensily (see note below) City to City Bus: $40-$75 Plane City to City: $175 and up Activities Park Entarance Fees (for Iguazu Falls, Punta Tombo, Penninsula Valdes, etc) $12-$15 Museums: $5-$15 Day Trips and Guided Tours: $40-$60 Note: Prices are significantly more expensive in touristy towns — especially those in the South…. In El Chalten, the cheapest Lomito was $10 US. Similarily, we paid about $5 US for a 15 minute taxi ride in Buenos Aires.

There are plenty of travelers who visit a country or region specifically to sample local cuisine — pasta in Italy, wine in France, or steak in Argentina …. The following foods are known to be high in antioxidants, lower cholesterol, reduce your risk of heart disease, control blood sugar, and/or prevent cancer. The worlds healthiest foods.

For vegan or vegetarian travelers, maintaining a strict diet while traveling can be extremely challenging. Luckily there are plenty of places where vegetarianism is commonplace and even encouraged (specifically in Buddhist countries). Here are 10 countries where vegetarian travelers should have an easier time finding vegetarian restaurants (listed alphabetically):

Have you ever walked into a pharmacy in a foreign country and wondered what exactly you were buying? While common pharmaceuticals are available in most countries, sometimes you’re better off trying an at-home remedy before you experiment with an unknown medicine.Here are 11 everyday foods and the common traveler’s illness they are known to help cure. I’ve posted this two ways, first by food and what it treats, and secondly by the illness and what will alleviate it.