Adventure travel in southern Florida

by Jamie Rhein on

If you’re looking for the sort of travel that gets your heart pumping a bit and you feel as if you’re whole body is engaged in your vacation experience, look to Florida. That’s the idea behind the on-line and print publication South Florida Adventures.

Whether you like to take to the water or are a dry land type person–or want to combine both, the round-up of the publication’s10 top stories of the year is an excellent place to start searching out ideas for adventurous travel. Here are eight of the stories that are specifically travel related. The other two are profile pieces.

Each of these sound quite worthy of combining into an adventure travel week where you could easily combine them into one vacation. I’d say you’d end up with a unique perspective of this part of Florida as a result.

[from Travel Briefs in Columbus Dispatch]

King bed comes with wheels at some hotels

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Hotels naturally have trouble going green. Think about the really granular details of how they operate; there’s a lot that you might miss. How often do you see a bar of soap you used once replaced with a new one? Rolls of toilet paper are swapped when only a fraction is used. You have the option to use sheets or towels more than once, but the choice is yours … and how often to you choose to shower green? Nonetheless, some properties are making progress.

Several hotels are now offering two wheels instead of four. The Bowery Hotel in New York, Gansevoort South in Miami, James Chicago and Element in Lexington, MA have picked up stylish bicycles to entice guests to pedal rather than drive. Bikes from Jamis and Trek are included in this fusion of social responsibility and conspicuous luxury. Gansevoort, committed to matching the bikes’ aesthetic with that of its Miami backdrop, has opted for bikes from Puma-that glow in the dark.

Of course, the biggest problem that environmentally-friendly programs face is behavior. Hotels are loathe to force guests to change their behavior. And, who can blame them? No company wants to roll the dice on customers’ willingness to adapt. So far, the results seem positive. Element has had to order another nine Trek hybrids.

The jury’s still out, but let’s all cast a vote for pushing pedals.

Bike sharing comes to Honolulu

by Brenda Yun on

If there isn’t enough to cheer about already, there will be plenty to cheer about in Hawaii come early summer 2009. Bike sharing, a venture that is quite popular in European cities like Barcelona, Paris, and Dusseldorf, will take shape along the south shore of Oahu! Even though I already own a bike, this makes me (a Honolulu resident) giddy as a schoolgirl because I can’t wait to people watch (in other words, check out the hot surfer dudes biking to and fro) and I am hoping this will make the horrendous traffic in town a little more bearable.
Designated bike racks will be placed in Waikiki, Ala Moana, Aloha Tower, and Downtown, and bikers pay on a sliding scale (there is a daily to yearly pass, as well as a usage fee up to $8 for two hours). The proposed bike sharing plan comes from Momentum Multisport Hawaii owner in Kaimuki who wanted to capitalize on the successes of similar programs on the mainland and abroad.

Transportation options are changing here in Honolulu with the Super Ferry to Maui, the Boat to Kapolei, the Rail in the works, and now Momentum B-Cycle ready to coast in the year. It’s no wonder that, according to the United Health Foundation, Hawaii consistently ranks among the top five healthiest states in the U.S. This year it jumped to number two behind Vermont.

Find out more about the Momentum B-Cycle sharing project and check out a map of proposed rack locations by clicking here.

Turn your bike into a moped for $124.99

by Jerry Guo on

Ever wanted to bike across America or at least get out of your town for the weekend? I love biking, but dread climbing uphills, so perhaps what I would really love is getting a moped.

And for those who are rather adept with a toolbox, you can build your own for $124.99. What you get is a 50 cc engine, which is approximately 3-4 horsepower. Yes, that does sound pretty weak, but the product description claims that’ll get you 25-30 mph, which is actually quite fast. If you don’t believe me, see the video below.

To check out the engine kit, see here.

Wanna Ride in the Tour de France?

by Josh Lew on

Unless you are willing to dedicate your life to either training or discovering undetectable performance-enhancing drugs, chances are you won’t be competing for that yellow jersey. Maybe you could get a job as one of those guys who rides on the back of a motorcycle with a camera. Or you could just travel to France during the race and take in the proceedings through a haze of wine and cheese.

But there is another option. A tour operator called Ciclismo Classico will run an 8-day bicycle tour that follows the exact route of a portion of the Le Tour ’09. Before you go searching the internet for any chemicals that can help you on the trip, you should know that the 8-days are designed for casual enthusiasts; the kind of people who are comfortable in the saddle of a bike, but who lack the huge legs and emaciated upper bodies of top cyclists. The average day will mean a 50-mile pedal, roughly half of what the pro riders complete. In addition to that, those on the trip will get to watch some of the actual race.

via Wandalust