This Slate story and the accompanying video are pretty interesting. They tell of a remote village in Peru whose people had been living in... »
Socially conscious tourism
Being Ethical in Your Travels
You know all about the Mindful Tourist’s tips on how to be a socially conscious traveler. The Ethical Traveler is an alliance uniting adventurers, tourists, travel agencies, and outfitters — everyone who loves to travel, and sees travel as a positive force in the world. They believe that all travelers are, in effect, freelance... »
Cruise Ship Waste is Literally Crappy
By now those of you who are regular readers know that we’re not huge fans of cruises. Yes, there are those that may attempt to address their impact on the environment but while some eco-friendlier policies may be put in place, cruises will never be entirely socially conscious, if only due to the fact... »
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... »
Calling Poverty Tourism by its True Name
With the popularity of Slumdog Millionaire, we began to see more and more articles about poverty or slum tourism. Since it left a bad taste in our mouth, we did a little research (also known as sitting on our arse and websurfing) here and there but couldn’t bring ourselves to write a post about it… until... »
A Tourist’s Role in Archaeological Ethics
Remember the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan? This was in spring of 2001, before most people had heard of the Taliban. We remember it well and were horrified watching video of these incredibly amazing and larger-than-life sculptures that had stood for centuries being blown up by tanks and anti-aircraft weapons. This is... »
Playa del Carmen’s Alternative Alltournative
While Cancun is more associated with the spring break, beer-swigging crowd (a Ft. Lauderdale south of the border, if you will), its neighboring city of Playa del Carmen is more low-key and offers some unexpected ecotourism and socially conscious tourism experiences. When we went to Playa in 2000, the company Alltournative was only a year... »
Can Space Tourism Survive? God, We Hope Not.
The Space Review asks if space tourism can survive the failing economy. You probably heard about the first layperson in space but apparently this is now a trend among the rich and famous. If this isn’t the antithesis of socially conscious tourism, we don’t know what is. The demise of this type of “tourism” or... »
3 Ways to Get the Most Out of TripAdvisor
If you’ve used TripAdvisor only to check hotel availability, you’re missing out on a lot of what it offers. This post is not an advertisement for TripAdvisor; we don’t get paid by anyone to include or exclude their businesses (but if you’re looking to spend some money, call us!). We just want to share the ways... »
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... »
“Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven:” The Mindful Tourist Book Review
We have a beef with Amazon.com. After our fun read of Eat, Pray, Love, we were itching to get ahold of another good travel memoir. We did a little browsing on Amazon which recommended we check out Susan Jane Gilman’s “Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven,” their “Amazon Best of the Month for... »
