Five tips for green travel

by Tom Johansmeyer on

1. Green your flight
Offset the carbon footprint created by your share of air travel, buy some carbon credits. Several websites can yelp you calculate your carbon footprint (such as TerraPass.com and ClimateCare.org), allowing you to take action. The offsets you buy will ensure that energy from renewable sources will be sent to the grid.

2. Book an environmentally friendly tour
Intrepid Travel has introduced “carbon offset” trips, designed to be eco-friendly without, frankly, sucking. This year, 38 of Intrepid’s 400+ excursions will be eco-friendly … close to 10 percent.

3. Give back a little
RockResorts has “Give and Getaway” vacations, where you can pitch in on volunteer projects – like trail restoration with the National Forest Foundation – in trade for discounted lodging rates.

4. Watch what you drive
If possible, carpool to and from the airport. Too often, we all fight for airport parking (and emit a bit of extra carbon) for no good reason. When you get to your destination, consider renting a hybrid.

5. Stick with your new green habits
When you get home from your trip, give back to a destination by donating to an organization such as Travelers’ Philanthropy … and try to turn a small experience into a lifelong habit.

Heathen in the Holy Land: How to get your free trip to Israel

by Aaron Hotfelder on

To read the previous entries in Gadling’s Heathen in the Holy Land series, go here.

Free trip to Israel, huh? What’s the catch?

Well, first off, you must be Jewish or have a parent who is Jewish. [I’ll pause while all the Gentiles find another post to read.] Still with me? Okay, you also must be in the 18-26 age range. If you meet both of these requirements, the Birthright Israel program wants to give you a free ten-day tour of Israel.

Is airfare included, you wonder? Yes. Everything is included. That’s what free means.

The purpose of Birthright Israel, according to the group’s website, is to “send thousands of young Jewish adults from all over the world to Israel as a gift in order to diminish the growing division between Israel and Jewish communities around the world; to strengthen the sense of solidarity among world Jewry; and to strengthen participants’ personal Jewish identity and connection to the Jewish people.”

Your trip will visit major Israeli cities like Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and take in famous religious sites such as the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock, and the Mount of Olives.

For any young person– well, any Jewish young person– looking to travel on the cheap, you can’t get any cheaper than this free trip with Birthright Israel. But be forewarned: the trips fill up early (in fact, summer 2009 trips are already full). The next trips will take place in the winter of 2009; check this site in August in order to apply.

For a full list of FAQs about the trip– including “If I meet my spouse on a Birthright Israel trip, do I get a free honeymoon?” go here.

To contact someone who has already gone on this trip, e-mail them at alumni (at) birthrightisrael (dot) com.

Are you turning into a traveling stereotype? Find out here.

by Aaron Hotfelder on

I’m halfway through cooking a dinner of Ramen Noodles at my three-dollar-a-night hostel in Mexico, and suddenly it dawns on me: I haven’t showered in two days, I have ten pesos in my pocket, and I slept in a cave last night. God dammit, I thought, I’m turning into a traveling stereotype.

To help you avoid the same dark path, I’ve composed a “Field Guide” to traveling stereotypes. If any of the following descriptions start to sound a little too familiar, put down your plate of Ramen Noodles and run. I said, Run, dammit!

The Frugal Backpacker

Description: You’re eager to see the world, even if you don’t exactly have the funds to pay for it. In fact, a person takes a leak with more forethought than you gave to your financial situation before this trip. You barely scraped together enough cash to fly standby to your destination, and your tentative plan is to return in the hull of a cargo ship. Your budget is roughly $2.50 per day, including approximately $0 for gifts for friends and family. Thirty percent of your body is composed of Ramen Noodles.

Aesthetic: Ebenezer Scrooge meets A Map for Saturday

  • Turn-ons: Free refills, haggling over miniscule amounts of money, sleeping in bus stations, raiding wishing wells (I’ve heard)
  • Turn-offs: Shampoo, any accomodation ending in the word “hotel” rather than “hostel”
  • Won’t go near: An ATM

The Business Traveler

Description: You travel with the joyless efficiency of someone who’s spent far too much time drinking overpriced cocktails in airport restaurants with names like “Blue Skye Bar and Grille”. You can visit a Panda Express at any airport in the world and order “the usual.” When taking your seat in a crowded airplane, you clog the aisle for several minutes while folding your sport jacket like you’re in the color guard at Arlington National Cemetery.

  • Aesthetic: Steve Forbes meets immaculate luggage
  • Turn-ons: USA Today, expense accounts, looking snazzy
  • Turn-offs: Crying babies, the middle seat
  • Won’t go near: Coach

The Over-the-Hill Backpacker

Description: Your grandchildren set up a travel blog for you before you left six months ago. It still says “Under construction. Come back soon!” You love sleeping in hostels but don’t understand why the kids have to turn their damn music up so loud.

You wake up before most of your fellow backpackers go to bed. You’re heartened by other backpackers who frequently tell you, “I hope I’m still doing this when I’m your age.” You inspire travelers pretty much wherever you go.

  • Aesthetic: Lonely Planet meets Centrum Silver
  • Turn-ons: Bran cereal, getting up early, bringing all your medication with you for the next six months
  • Turn-offs: Updating your blog, Florida retirement communities, loud damn music
  • Won’t go near: ‘Nam, Korea

The Luxury Traveler

Description: You’re still vexed by the fact that you can’t find ice cubes in Europe. As noted in The Onion, you frequently tell people that you “love Brazil” despite the fact that you’ve only seen two square miles of it. You stay away from street food because you’re certain it will give you some combination of AIDS and leprosy. Your main concern before a trip is what kind of rental car you’re going to get. You still have a travel agent for some reason.

  • Aesthetic: Conde Nast Traveler meets Samantha Brown
  • Turn-ons: Conspicuous consumption, bell hops, a detailed itinerary, blowing your children’s inheritance
  • Turn-offs: Hostels, street food, people who don’t speak English
  • Won’t go near: India, except Goa

Galley Gossip: A question about why flight attendants are paid twice as much as teachers

by Heather Poole on

Dear Heather,

Any time I go back to the rear of the plane and find flight attendants reading magazines, I am finding people off the job. You people are being paid roughly TWICE per hour what they pay the teachers who teach your children to read…How would you like to go into a classroom and find the teacher reading “Vogue”?

Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

I take it you had a bad flight. Perhaps you wanted something to drink or eat and got ignored by a flight attendant reading Vogue? If so, I’m sorry for that and I do hope it never happens to you again. As with every job there are always a few bad apples in the bunch, but you don’t really mean to stereotype all crew members based on one lazy Vogue reading flight attendant, do you? I hope not.

For the record, I seriously doubt that flight attendants get paid twice as much as teachers. While I do not know how much the average teacher makes, the average flight attendant is not making as much as it may seem. Oh sure on paper it looks like we have a cush job when we’re not shocking people back to life or landing in the Hudson River. And of course there are those of us who do have it nice, like flight attendants who are employed by a major carrier who have enough seniority to fly the best trips, working to amazing destinations like Japan, Rio, and Paris. But in reality the majority of us don’t have it that good. A lot of us don’t even get a layover anymore, and if we do, they’re so short we call them lean-overs, not layovers. Seriously, most of us do struggle to make ends meet and therefore have to pick up extra trips or work a second job on our days off just to get by.

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Don’t forget that flight attendants are only paid for flight time – not ground time. That means we are not making a dime until all passengers are seated, overhead bins have been closed, the aircraft door is shut and the airplane has backed away from the gate. Just last week I worked a trip from New York to Dallas and back to New York again, all in the same day, that, because of a mechanical in New York and a weather delay out of Dallas, I only got paid 6 hours and 15 minutes (flight time) for a 14 hour and 33 minute duty day. Do teachers go to work and only get paid half the time? I don’t think so. And when they are at work, are they constantly getting yelled at for situations that are beyond their control? And are they stuck in a flying tube at 35,000 feet for hours on end without a means to escape whatever could go wrong if something did go wrong? You tell me.

Now that I’ve been flying for 14 years, I make $30-something an hour, which is pretty darn good – except that due to FAA regulations I can only work so many hours in a day and so many days in a row. Not to mention when you add in the delays on the ground, the sit time between connecting flights, and the layover time at the airport hotels (per diem is less than $2), our hourly rate drastically drops. As for all those amazing layovers, they no longer exist. Mine average ten hours a night and all I usually have time to do is two of the following – eat, sleep, or shower. Keep in mind that this is unpaid time away from home, time that teachers are able to spend in the comforts of their own home with family or friends, actually getting important things done like a load of laundry, running to the grocery store, kissing their kids goodnight, those kinds of things.

Now I’m not saying that my job is more important, not at all, I’m just saying that it’s different and should not be compared to a job on the ground. Anyway, this is about flight flight attendant pay, not who has the worst job. I love my job and I’m sure teachers do, too.

And before I forget, Anonymous Writer, I do not read Vogue. Not that there’s anything wrong with Vogue, it’s just way too heavy to drag from city to city and gate to gate in my tote-bag to my layover hotel where I’d only have a few minutes to look at it before going to bed. However, what you may find me reading on the airplane is Vanity Fair. That’s because it’s the perfect magazine for a long haul flight due to the fact that it takes an entire six hours to get through, which is why I only read it when I’m commuting to work, not while I am at work – working. While I have been known to flip through a passenger’s discarded newspaper or celebrity gossip magazine while standing in the galley, I am quick to put it down if someone needs something from me.

Just because you’ve spotted a flight attendant glancing at reading material in flight does not mean you’ve found an employee “off the job.” Believe it or not, once the service is over there actually comes a time in flight where there may not be anymore more trash to pick up and passengers are settled into their seats and do not need anything else to eat or drink and have actually had all their connecting gate information sorted out. If there is a passenger who needs something that has not been provided, like a pillow or blanket (not that we always have them on board) the passenger will either stop us while we’re walking down the aisle and ask, come to the back of the aircraft and ask, or ring their call light which signals the flight attendants to put down their magazine or newspaper or lunch or liquor money they were adding up, and answer the call. Nine times out of ten that call is answered immediately.

Happy travels,

Heather Poole

If you have a question email me at Skydoll123@yahoo.com

Photos courtesy of (stewardess barbie) Heather Poole, (Vanity Fair) JacquieK

Through the Gadling Lens: what’s in my day pack?

by Karen Walrond on

Reader Nancy e-mailed me this week:

Hi Karen!

I was just looking at the ‘in my camera bag‘ sidebar on Chookooloonks, and wondered how you go about things when you‘re out taking photos…particularly when you‘re traveling. Say you‘re in a new city and decide to walk about and shoot for a while. Do you take your bag with ALL your lenses, etc? Assuming you don‘t, lol, how do you decide what to take with you? I thought that might be something you could cover on the Gadling Lens, but if not I‘d love to hear about it…the physicality of toting your camera gear. Thanks!

Nancy

As you might remember, late last year, I wrote a post about what I pack with me to go on a trip — and even then, commenters were stunned at the amount of stuff I took with me (and generally crammed into my carry-on roller bag, or on shorter trips, my Crumpler backpack). This week, I thought I’d share everything that I take in my daypack on a particular trip. Feel free to adjust for personal comfort and need.
1. My day-pack.

First of all, it might surprise you that while I’m a fan of large, roomy padded camera bags, I tend not to use them on day trips. Why? Because, in general, they’re heavy. And if I’m going to be out all day carrying a large single-lens-reflex camera with associated lenses, the last thing I want to do is carry a bag that’s going to add to the weight.

So, for day trips, I tend to forego the Crumpler backpack (and certainly the roller bag) for a Kipling bag. I am embarrassed to admit that I have a considerable number of Kipling bags — and none of the girly ones you see on their website, either. When I’m out for the day, depending on the number of lenses I’m going to take with me, I either take my Kipling Lancelot shoulder bag (worn across my chest) or my Kipling Firefly backpack (which, in an abundance of clarity, I own in black). The reason I love Kipling? I love the fabric they’re made from, which I’m not entirely sure is of this planet. Because of the way Kipling makes their bags:

  • since the fabric’s so thin, it allows me to fold each of those bags to surprisingly small dimensions, which can be easily stowed in tight corners in my suitcase;
  • the fabric is astoundingly lightweight, so they don’t add to the weight of what I’m carrying. And when I’m out for 8 hours or more, every ounce counts;
  • the bags don’t look like camera bags, so they don’t advertise that I’m carrying expensive equipment;
  • the fabric is somewhat water-resistant, so the contents of my bag stay relatively dry — at least until I can make it into the nearest wine bar in the event of sudden inclement weather.

Just sayin’.

Anyway, the upshot is that I would recommend you take into account the weight of your daypack prior to purchasing, especially if you’re going to be out for hours at a time. Your back will thank you for it. And as far as the lack of padding — I honestly don’t worry about it. I’m just careful not to swing my bag into any hard walls, or drop it on concrete. I haven’t lost a camera yet.

Then, once I pull out my Kipling bag for the day, I fill it with the following (all fully-charged, as applicable):

2. My camera body.

These days, this means my Nikon D300, although I also own an older Nikon D200. If I’m traveling to a location which (a) is known for pick-pockets, or (b) is likely to be somewhat dirty (like, say, the beach, or the desert), I take the D200. But otherwise, I always default to the D200.

3. My camera lens(es).

I do own a variety of lenses, but one lens that always accompanies me, no matter the trip, is my 24-85mm automatic zoom lens. I love this lens because it is wide enough that I can get a pretty decent scenery shot, but telephoto enough that I can get a decent portrait as well. It’s a very good, all-purpose lens.

In addition to the 24-85mm, and depending on where I’ll be spending my day, I might add my 60mm micro lens. This lens is really beautiful if I want to take extreme up-close detail shots — so if I’m going to be spending the day in a place with really beautiful foliage and flowers, or any other place where there are small details, I’m sure to take this with me.

In the alternative, if I’m going somewhere where I’m going to want to take some intimate portraits of people in a crowded place — say, for example, some sort of festival, like Trinidad Carnival or La Tomatina — the only lens I might take with me that day (even to the exclusion of the 24-85mm) is my 70-200mm lens. This sucker is huge and SO heavy (which is why I don’t take any other lenses), but it takes beautifully intimate shots from relatively far away. And trust me, when you’re taking photographs of people hurling tomatoes at each other, you want to be far away.


4. A small point-and-shoot.

Chances are I won’t ever pull out my Nikon Coolpix, but I throw it in the bottom of the bag as a spare camera, just in case.

As far as camera equipment, that’s pretty much it! The rest of my bag likely has:


5. A Popout map

I discovered these awesome little maps when I lived in London — and there’s one available for almost every major city. They’re great for the major streets of the central part of the city, and they fold very small and tiny — so you don’t scream “TOURIST!” every time you’re looking up an address.

6. A small wallet with cash, one credit card and a cash card. ‘Nuff said.

7. My passport. I’m always torn whether to carry this around with me, or leave it in the safe. Sometimes I leave it in the safe, and take my driver’s license. Either way, I always have a copy in my suitcase.

8. My cellphone. Just in case. Also handy when I’m supposed to meet someone, and I’m running late (or he is).

9. Lip balm or gloss, and powder brush. Because, after all, I am a girl.

And that’s about it — and despite what it might look like, since I usually only have one lens (at most, two), it’s not as much stuff as you might think. Obviously, as I plan my itinerary for each day’s travel, the choice of lens changes, but must of the rest of the daypack stays the same.

Any questions? As always, please feel free to email them to me directly at karenDOTwalrondATweblogsincDOTcom, and I’m happy to address them in upcoming posts!

Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks.
Through the Gadling Lens can be found every Thursday right here, at 11 a.m. To read more Through the Gadling Lens, click here.