Obsura Day — take a staycation and discover something new!

“Obscura Day is an international celebration of unusual places. It is a day of expeditions, back room tours, & exploring hidden wonders in your own hometown.” This is the third annual day run by Atlas Obscura an online aggregator of “the world’s wonders, curiosities and esoterica.”

There are strange tours happening in the USA, Europe, Austrailia and New Zealand — according to the map on their website. They have a search function for your to find events near you, but I didn’t see a full list of events.

I would recommend taking advantage of some super discounted tours with Context Travel — like the catacombs in Naples or Nazi terror in Berlin. They have things running in Paris, New York, Boston, Naples, Berlin and London for just 5 dollars/euros/pounds. These tours normally cost 40 to 100 euros, so this is a great deal. Check out their list here.

Take peak at what last year’s event was like around the world:

Covoiturage ridesharing — making driving a little greener

Carpooling -- affordably moving more people, in fewer cars. image from covoiturage.ca

Trains are expensive, low-cost airlines always fly from inconvenient airports, and the buses take forever.  Fortunately, ridesharing websites like www.covoiturage.fr provide a cheap, easy, green solution.  Log in and search when/where you want to travel and make contact directly with those offering cheap extra spaces in their cars.

The first time I decided to make reservation for a rideshare through covoiturage, I did hear my mother’s voice in the back of my head telling me never to get in the car with strangers.  My nerves were quickly soothed, however, when I saw how official the website is and how many people are registered users.  There’s even a comments section, so if you have a good/bad experience riding with someone, you can share that with other potential travellers. I’ve travelled in France and Switzerland with covoiturage and had only good experiences.

So next time you’re making reservations, check out covoiturage.fr or their sister sites www.blablacar.com in the UK or www.blablacar.es in Spain.  Especially for last minute reservations, this is a great way to find cheap rides.  There are even options for daily commuters in and around cities, which means more people in fewer cars — a great way to add green into our daily travels.

What other rideshare sites are you using to coordinate your travels?  I’m sure there are many others around the world,

Non-Sustainable Travel – Changing our Vocabulary

Sustainable is a word we thrown around a lot. Sustainable development, sustainable practices, sustainable engineering — sustainable tourism. While it’s an important conversation, I can’t help but wonder, why would we ever want something that wasn’t practical, profitable and able to last? That, however, seems to be the norm.

When we talk about travel in general (or development, or engineering), we are often talking about non-sustainable travel; and we talk about it as if it is normal.

When sustainable travel comes up, it seems like something out of the ordinary, something for do-gooders, something more expensive, or more complicated. Sustainable travel generally has a good connotation, I think, but it is definitely not the norm.

Why do we accept that travel is unsustainable, unless otherwise specified? In this way, we are saying that it’s OK that every few weeks you see another news story about bad labor practices in hotels or environmental problems caused by tourists or tour operators — even sometimes by those trying to have low impact. Or we celebrate victories in battles that shouldn’t ever need to be fought, like hotel worker being paid a reasonable wage?

Green Luxury at Hotel Crillon in Paris – More than just marketing?

The Green Globe, the celebrity-celebrated American affiliate of the Green Cross, certified the luxurious Hotel de Crillon for their sustainable practices.  Apparently this happened in December (I assume this means December 2011), but there’s been some recent news coverage about it.   They cited Crillon’s commitment to the local community, using recycled paper, basing their menu selections on locally available products, and even donating food daily to the Foyer de la Madeleine, a volunteer-run restaurant.  The hotel also encourages tourists to take eco-friendly tours around Paris.  If you check out the Crillon’s twitter feed, you can see that there are a few eco-friendly tips and tweets about the Crillon working with NGOs. The Concorde Group, of which the Crillon is a part, has a nicely-designed and conveniently vague page about sustainable development.  The Crillon also has undergone a major restauration this year, taking care of what already exists instead of building new, a lesson to be taken to heart by the tourism industry in the developing world.

Hotel Crillon by Night -- Luxury goes green in Paris

It’s nice to see big players like the Hotel de Crillon getting more into the sustainable tourism game, even if it is just some tour recommendations and chic bags made of recyclable materials, like these that launched at the beginning of the month. It is a struggle in the luxury industry, because high-end clients want high-end experiences, which often mean limos instead of walking or public transportation, and towels washed every day.

It is hard to really know through internet-type research how sustainable the Crillon actually is or how much it is just rhetoric from the Concorde Hotel Group, but there seems to be some progress happening. The little steps of encouraging guests to be more aware of their impact and being involved in the local community are certainly important, but can they also be dangerous? How much do they serve as a placebo though, making us feel good and complacent about travel which still has a high impact?  How big does a step in the right direction really have to be?  Perhaps these little steps are enough for now, as long as they keep going down the sustainbable path and don’t stop short because of luxury demands, which don’t want to bend to sustainable practices.

My, what a lovely palace! Palais des Nations in Geneva

Make sure to go on a windy day, so that you get the full effect of the 193 flags...Palais des Nations entering from the Pregny Gate in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Palais des Nations is more like a city than a palace.  The United Nations Headquaters in Geneva is part museum, part enormous office building and part international conference site.  Walking in through the flag-lines path from the Pregny gate where the number 15 tram leaves you, you feel like any person you pass may be a world leader.  In fact, they may be.  For the Human Rights Council that happened last month, many heads of state and ministers attended to represent their countries.

Once inside, it can be easy to get lost.  There are press conference halls, permanent and temporary art exhibits, several restaurants, even a bank and a post office.  There is a public gallery over room 20, which is the main meeting room with a modern art ceiling, where you can watch see UN major debates taking place.

Palais des Nations Salle 20 -- Do you think the ceiling distracts them when they're talking about important international issues?

If you’re less into the international politics scene, you may want to take a tour. The building has an interesting history, and several tours are available daily, depending on the time of year.  Check the schedule for exact times.

Oh, and don’t forget your passport!  Plan to arrive a little early to check-in and pass through security.

The How To:

What:  Palais des Nation – UN Geneva Headquarters

Where:  Nations stop on the 15 tram

When:  Times vary by season.  Most of the year there are tours at 10:30am, 12pm, 2:30pm and 4pm

How much: Entrance is free; Tours cost 12 francs