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Green travel news from The Guardian

Mozambique: island-hopping by dhow on the Quirimbas archipelago

On Mozambique's stunning north coast, ancient dhows are helping to revitalise the local economy ? not through trade or fishing, but by taking tourists from one tropical island to another

Crawling out of a comfortable bed in the pitch-black isn't many people's idea of the perfect holiday experience. Then again, a 2.30am wake-up call on a beach on Arimba, one of the Quirimbas islands, is about as far from an ordinary hotel routine as one can get.

With our day's transport, a sturdy dhow fashioned from Tanzanian teak, just visible offshore, my guide Causemore Dzvene hands over a cup of coffee. The crew of the dhow are already beginning to dismantle the luxury camp they erected for me on the sand three days earlier; my modern dome tent, the shower cubicle, canvas dining marquee and its outsized deck chairs. I stand beside a driftwood fire, flames fanned by the Indian Ocean breeze, transfixed by the glorious canopy of stars overhead. High on caffeine, shooting stars streaking earthward, I've rarely felt so alive after only four hours' sleep.

We're up this early to catch the tide. Yesterday, at low ebb, the distant sea was a shimmering turquoise line, trapped between foreshore and sky, stranding our dhow on the littoral mud. Now it swashes the nearby mangrove trees and the dhow bucks and strains at its anchor below a bright sliver of moon.

By torchlight Dzvene and his retinue of assistants have soon collapsed the camp into an unfeasibly small number of plastic crates. A wooden dinghy ferries me toward the square stern of Vagabundo, our dhow. An arm extends from the gloom and I scramble aboard. It's time to go island-hopping.  

Hugging the Mozambique coast, the Quirimbas archipelago's clutch of 32 pristine coral islands and islets is a Unesco world heritage site stretching for 320km up to the Tanzanian border.

Vagabundo is the property of Ibo Island Lodge, a boutique, colonial-style hotel which opened on the island of Ibo, in 2006. Strategically located at the heart of the Quirimbas, for centuries Ibo Island was one of the most prosperous trading posts in this corner of the world. Three forts, a Catholic church and a grand array of dilapidated villas still pay testament to its commercial heyday at the turn of the 19th century. Pirates, ivory and slavery are all part of the island's colourful history.   

Given that history, it's hard to imagine a more fitting way to explore its aquatic backyard than by a vessel whose design has changed little over the last thousand or so years. Ibo fishermen still navigate the channels in dhows made from mangrove wood, ropes of coconut husk, a handful of nails and triangular sails sewn together from plastic sacks.

"The great fun of island-hopping by dhow is that our guests get to decide where they want to go," says South African lodge manager Rob McKenzie. "Each dhow can handle up to 10 passengers. They camp beside a beach, dine on seafood caught hours before, and go kayaking, snorkelling and nature walking. If they want to move, the crew simply packs up camp and they sail somewhere else."

"It takes a month to make a small fishing dhow," explains Ali Madu, a fisherman-turned-guide based on Ibo. "The most obvious feature is the triangular sail, known as a lateen, which is really good for small and medium-sized boats in the shallow waters of the Quirimbas. It gives them great manoeuvrability and is useful in winds too light for a square sail."

Crewed by ex-fishermen, Ibo Island Lodge's dhows are breathing new life into a tourist industry here.   

But the growth of Quirimbas tourism needs to be carefully managed, says Sean Nazerali, World Wide Fund for Nature support officer and former manager of the Quirimbas national park. "We can't support mass market holidaymaking here, nor do we want to. What we want is to bring in those visitors who are happy to pay more for a special vacation experience yet have a limited environmental footprint."

As dawn's pink fingers claw their way across the sky, Vagabundo is making stately progress toward Mogundula, an uninhabited island topped with palms and squat baobabs. While the crew relax on the narrow deck, Causemore Dzvene's sharp eyes pick out a couple of humpback whales in the rollers beyond the island's reef system.      

Juma "Papa" Chande, Vagabundo's grizzled captain, comes to sit beside me, an Ibo Island Lodge baseball cap perched rakishly atop greying stubble. "I was a fisherman for many years," he explains. "Now I work for the lodge. I'm happy because I can stay on the water, but I don't have to go out in bad weather. It's easier just being a captain. I can order the youngsters around."

Vagabundo is soon beached on a low sand bar washed from both sides by gentle surf. Crates are once more unpacked and another camp soon takes shape ? same layout, breathtaking new view. Causemore wanders off to hunt octopus for dinner.  My toughest decision of the day is whether to go snorkelling, kayaking, take photos or commune with the Kindle. By sunset I've managed to do it all.   

The Vagabundo and her cheerful crew embody an understanding of the sea that continues to unite the indomitable people of the Quirimbas. Today, as sustainable tourism takes off across the archipelago, many hope the timeless dhow can keep the local population and their idyllic environment on an even keel.  

How to get there
The nearest international airport to Ibo Island is Pemba, from where there are flights to Johannesburg, Dar es Salaam and Nairobi. Ibo Island Lodge transports guests to and from Pemba by air or road. Mozambique visas are available to UK visitors at Pemba airport (£50) 

Dhow trip
A six-day island-hopping by dhow itinerary with Ibo Island Lodge (iboisland.com) costs roughly £1,275pp, based on two people sharing ? it becomes progressively cheaper with more people or the longer you stay. The child rate is 60% of the adult price. This package includes three days' island-hopping, serviced camps, all activities and cultural tours, two nights at the Lodge, all catering and road/air transfer from Pemba

How to have a turtle-friendly holiday on Kenya's coast

Coastal development and tourism is badly hurting east Africa's natural environment. Here's how to minimise your impact

? How tourism is taking the turtles from Kenya's blue waters

? Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) says: "Leave only footprints in the sand and air bubbles in the water."

? Don't dispose of litter in the sea (or anywhere else other than a bin). It's illegal and dangerous to marine life. Turtles mistake clear plastic waste for jellyfish and can die if they eat it.

? Don't buy products that have been made from sea turtle parts. Guitars, ashtrays, jewellery and other products made from sea turtles are sold to tourists around the world.

? Help the recuperation process for thousands of sick and injured turtles by funding their rehabilitation, or sponsor a turtle or a nest.

? Don't support beachfront shops that are built illegally. By law, permanent structures cannot be built within 60 metres of the high-water mark. Report illegal activities and bad beach operators.

? Try to stay in resorts that have responsible beachfront management practice ? for example, banning bright lights that face the beach and can confuse nesting turtles, or keeping all beach furniture behind the high-water mark so that is does not present obstacles for turtles.

? Don't drive motorised vehicles on the beach. Compacted sand from vehicle use makes it hard for turtles to dig nests.

? Research marine tour operators and don't use those that disturb or harass wildlife such as dolphins.

? Avoid restaurants that serve undersized crabs and lobsters as this contributes to the species' demise.

? Don't buy shells or other marine products as this encourages the destruction of the beaches and reefs. The areas outside marine parks are threatened by excessive shell collection. Empty shells provide homes for hermit crabs and some fish.

? Snorkelling and diving are encouraged but under the supervision of KWS wardens who work closely with local tour operators and hoteliers to ensure strict adherence to the marine willdife code. Always check your operator.

? Don't remove, damage or touch corals. They are living organisms that take years to grow and support many species.

? Don't use flippers near corals as disturbed sand can choke the animals.

? Don't remove or collect fish, shellfish or coral from the marine park. It's illegal and will disrupt the ecosystem.

? Don't fish in the national park. It's is illegal, because parks provides a safe haven for fish stocks to breed.

? Hook and line fishing is allowed in marine reserves but prohibited in parks. Spear guns are not permitted in either.

? Write to the Ministry of Tourism, your country's ambassador to Kenya, KWS and the National Environment Management Authority to highlight any environmental problems you encountered while travelling. Report any infringement of the rules to park rangers or the managers of the hotel where you are staying.

? If you're visiting coastal forests, keep to designated tracks and paths. Take away all the litter brought with you. Don't feed wild animals or risk fires. Don't take away animals, animal products, plants or plant parts.

? In addition to the environmental considerations, don't sunbathe naked or topless as the east African coast is a predominantly Muslim area. Dress modestly outside the beach areas.

? Jessica Aldred's trip was funded by Turtle Bay and Kenya Airways

How tourism is taking the turtles from Kenya's blue waters

A global hotspot for turtle-spotting, Kenya is facing a problem ? the tourists are destroying what they come for

? How to have a turtle-friendly holiday on Kenya's coast

It's another perfect day on Watamu beach in Kenya, as tourists sip lunchtime cocktails beside the pool and contemplate an afternoon of water sports. Down the road that runs behind the growing line of beach resorts, tourists watch two turtles that are flipping forlornly around shaded ponds in a rehabilitation centre.

Hetty Meggy, the project manager of Local Ocean Trust's Watamu Turtle Watch (WTW), is telling them about Shela, a green turtle hit by a tourist boat who now struggles with her buoyancy, and Chokoraa, a hawksbill whose intestines were "literally made of plastic" when he was rescued.

Of the turtles admitted to the centre, 62% are there because of human-related causes ? many associated with tourism. While people come to Kenya hoping to see turtles, increasing tourist numbers are putting pressure on the population. And fewer turtles will in turn mean Kenya's tourism industry will suffer.

Tourism has boomed along Kenya's 500km coastline in the past 30 years, as increasing numbers of European and American tourists have been attracted by the clear turquoise waters, white sandy beaches and abundant wildlife.

Much of the Kenyan coast has been developed, with beaches around Mombasa among the most heavily built-up coastal areas north of South Africa. Lamu, Watamu and Malindi are also established holiday destinations, while emerging areas include the Arabuko-Sokoke and Kaya coastal forests and the Tana delta.

Given that every eight tourists are estimated to create one job, this is good news for the local economy. But it's not such a welcome trend for sea turtles, who are seeing their nesting sites reduced by erosion, and who are killed by pollution and poaching.

Five of the world's seven species of turtle are found in Kenya ? green, hawksbill and olive ridleys nest along the coast, and the loggerheads and leatherbacks migrate through the waters. All five species of marine turtles found in African waters are listed by the IUCN as endangered or critically endangered. The world population is estimated to have declined by 80% over the past 50 years, and the WWF says trends indicate that in the next 50 years marine turtles may vanish from eastern Africa.

"Turtles are an indicative species. When you have turtles in the sea then it means the seas are healthy," says Douglas Maina, assistant project coordinator at Kenya Sea Turtle Conservation and Management Trust (Kescom), an umbrella organisation bringing together community-based turtle conservation groups. "Without them, the whole ecosystem can break down."

For millennia, turtles have come ashore between one and 10 times a year to lay their eggs on pristine, deserted beaches. But this ancient ritual is under enormous threat because the nesting and foraging sites where the turtles lay their eggs have become prime beachfront real estate.

"Coastal developments are one of the top five threats to sea turtles. Because of the loss of land, turtles may waste their eggs in the sea or lay them in an inappropriate location, reducing their chance of survival. The greatest problem is when an entire beach is affected by coastal developments," says Meggy.

Along many parts of the coast, souvenirs are hawked from semi-permanent illegal beachfront "banda" huts, which along with beach furniture and sand castles are hazardous to turtles. On some beaches, vehicle traffic compacting the sand has made it impossible for female turtles to dig nests. Boats motor in and off the shore, and music and lights blare from beachfront discos. Females turtles will not lay eggs if they are disturbed by bright lights, loud noises or people on the beach.

Hatchlings locate the water's edge by heading for the horizon, but house and street lights can make them crawl away from the sea. The odds for hatchlings are already slim ? only one in 1,000 make it to adulthood. "And humans are working against that every day," says Meggy.

Suitable nesting sites are being reduced by erosion from the construction of ports, jetties, marinas and hotels. Attempts to control the shoreline by building sea walls, dredging and sand-filling are destroying important feeding grounds, altering nesting beaches and causing loss of large volumes of sand.

Turtles are also being killed by water pollution, choking or starving after swallowing plastic debris. Heavy metals and tar balls from oil spills have been found in their systems. Rubbish on beaches can prevent hatchlings from reaching the ocean, and leaves them exposed to predators.

The potentially fatal disease fibropapillomatosis, which causes tumour-like growths on soft tissue, is also afflicting increasing numbers of turtles. The growths often cover the eyes of the turtles, causing blindness, which can lead to slow starvation because the turtles cannot see to find food. Though not yet scientifically proven, the disease has been linked to water pollution because many of the affected turtles were found near areas of heavy human use and terrestrial run-off.

"When I came here 10 years ago there was only one boat in the harbour. Now there are boats everywhere and the water is full of diesel ? you can taste it," said one tourist visiting Watamu.

And turtles are still being extensively exploited for their meat, oil and shells ? despite national and international laws.

All of these problems are compounded by the lack of comprehensive data on population size, nesting and foraging sites, migration and mortality. In the future, turtles will face emerging threats due to climate change.

At national level, turtles and their habitats are protected by four national parks and five reserves that come under the mandate of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and the Fisheries Department. In the parks, there is complete protection of natural resources, and the only activities allowed are tourism and research. Some human activities are allowed in the reserves.

At present, the law does not protect turtle and nesting and foraging sites outside protected areas, and this is where development is taking place.

Nesting sites are being spoiled by illegal development that is too close to the high water mark. "There are dollar signs in people's eyes when they think of tourists," says Meggy.

Conservationists say the development must be controlled. "There is a paradox ? we are trying to encourage tourism yet we must conserve the beaches. We have to advocate development that does not impact negatively on the marine environment," Maina says.

Experts say highly valued beachfront land is more likely to be owned by Kenya's political elite who have entered into partnership with foreign investors, than local people who have an interest in protecting the environment.

"Land issues along the Kenya coast land have been historically very tense, with deep-seated issues with absentee land ownership," says Fred Nelson of Maliasili Initiatives, who wrote a 2007 paper on coastal tourism trends in east Africa.

Turtle conservation and management is increasingly shifting to local communities, with the support of groups like Kescom. It supports 19 initiatives along the coast that carry out habitat restoration, beach clean-ups, collecting data, nest monitoring and education and awareness programmes.

WTW is a Kescom project, and Meggy says that because of its work, Watamu main beach has become one of Kenya's few safe havens for nesting turtles.

"Community-based conservation is a huge and important dynamic trend. It's early days, but it looks like Kenya is becoming a leader within east Africa for developing the legal framework for the community to take charge and manage its ecosystems," said Nelson.

"With any conservation challenge, the community has got to be involved in making and enforcing the rules and regulation. If it's all top-down it's not going to work. The government is not going to have the capacity or the will to police marine areas."

Responsible operators in the tourism industry are raising awareness of the plight of turtles among hotel, staff and beach operators. Damian Davies, general manager of Turtle Bay Beach Club in Watamu, which supports WTW with a monthly donation, said: "We are only too aware of the potential negative impacts of the rapidly developing tourist market and associated coastal development on the turtle populations in Watamu. We work to preserve the delicate ecosystem that is our beach, and we are always looking for new ways to further mitigate the impact of the development in the area."

The club's responsible beach management programme includes a ban on bright, seaward-facing lights, running beach clean-up programmes, plastics recycling projects and promoting good marine practice.

Tourists can also play their part after the holiday is over. "Tourists need to put pressure on the Kenyan government to enforce marine protection legislation. The marine parks and wildlife are not equally protected. People's main focus in east Africa is protecting elephants and cheetahs, but we must encourage the protection of all endangered African wildlife," Meggy says. "We must ensure that people do not destroy what they came to enjoy."

? Jessica Aldred's trip was funded by Turtle Bay and Kenya Airways

Birdwatching in Mexico's Yucatan - audio slideshow

Celestún in Mexico is one of those places where nature went slightly mad, creating huge numbers of species in a small area, including over 1,000 kinds of bird

The Guardian green travel list 2011

Going green needn't restrict your holiday choices. Here are this year's 20 most innovative eco-tourism projects, trips and places to stay, selected by an expert panel ? and you

Sleek contemporary furnishings and boutique bathrooms are all well and good, but for many of Britain's upmarket holiday companies ? not to mention their customers ? green credentials are now as important as designer add-ons. And it's not just the top end of the market that cares. B&Bs, guesthouses and self-catering cottages across Britain market themselves on their low energy use ? including whether they encourage guests to use public transport.

Earlier this year, we asked you to submit recommendations for sustainable travel experiences around the world. We received hundreds of nominations and, from those, our panel of eco experts (see below) selected a shortlist they felt best demonstrate innovations in technology, ways of running a business, design and style. These range from places to stay to transport initiatives, festivals, and adventure and conservation holidays. All are pushing the boundaries of what green travel means.

Little White Alice, Cornwall

Little White Alice is a gorgeous collection of six new self-catering cottages in Carnmenellis, Cornwall. Most impressive is the chemical-free swimming pool, emerald green and surrounded by local granite, with a reed bed filtration system. Beyond lie 25 acres of the property's own land, left wild, for rambling and nature-spotting, helped by a barn owl house and bat loft. The houses are a mix of wood and stone, sleeping two to eight; some have wood-burners, private decks, wet rooms and bespoke willow work, and there's an art studio offering lessons. A wind turbine produces most of the cottages' electricity, ground source heat pumps provide underfloor heating, and solar panels hot water.
? Cottages from £302 a week, 01209 861000, littlewhitealice.co.uk

Tregulland, Cornwall

At the edge of Bodmin Moor, Tregulland is a renovated self-catering pad, one of a new breed of eco-friendly upmarket properties. A stylishly converted stone barn and 15th-century cottage sleep 22 altogether ? they can be rented separately ? and are decked out with vintage furniture. The place is effectively off-grid for heating and water, thanks to a huge biomass boiler that keeps the indoor freshwater pool at a balmy 26C, as well as heating a steam room and outdoor hot tub. Its 16 acres of woodland stream and lake are great for spotting otters and migrating birds. If you can summon the energy to leave the sybaritic splendour, it's 15 minutes to the beach at Trebarwith Strand and a little further to Crackington Haven for cliff-top walks.
? From £3,600 a week for 10, 01566 770880, tregulland.co.uk

The Green House, Dorset

The Green House is a refurbished seaside hotel in Bournemouth that claims to be "the greenest hotel in the UK". It's very stylish, with mauve-and-cream rooms, flatscreen TVs and Bose sound docks, yet its eco credentials are impressive. Solid wood furniture was made using trees felled by storms or tree surgeons, rain water's harvested for irrigation, and the restaurant uses local, organic food, and only organic and biodynamic wines ? there's a vegetarian tasting menu too (£45). Energy comes from solar panels and a combined heat and power unit.
? Doubles from £140, B&B, 01202 498900, thegreenhousehotel.co.uk

Fattoria San Martino, Tuscany, Italy

If this B&B on an organic farm seems more stylish than the average agriturismo, there's good reason: owners Karin Lijftogt and Antonio Giorgini gave up jobs in the fashion industry in Milan to go into farming 20 years ago. They produce olives, saffron, wheat (for their own organic pasta) and honey. Having restored the 18th-century farmhouse using natural and organic materials, the couple now run it as a four-room guesthouse. Meals are organic, locally sourced and vegetarian; heating and hot water are solar-powered; and guests can relax by the property's natural pool.
? Doubles from ?130 a night B&B, +39 0578 717463, fattoriasanmartino.it

La Ruta Moskitia, Honduras

Jungle trekking, tubing, crocodile spotting and Miskito dancing are included on these adventure eco-tourism holidays in the Rio Plátano, a two-million-acre Unesco biosphere reserve in north-east Honduras. It's home to jaguars, monkeys, manatees and more than 300 bird species. Six indigenous communities host travellers in palm-thatched eco-lodges. They will transport you by dugout canoes through the rainforest as you tick off each adventure. Profits from the enterprise go direct to the villages.
? From $425pp for a seven-day "overland adventure", including full board accommodation and activities but not international flights or transfers. +504 8976 3004, larutamoskitia.com

Nature Travels, Sweden

Kayaking around the Koster Islands, ski touring on the Jämtland Triangle, and timber rafting down the Klarälven river are among the adventure holidays available with Nature Travels, a UK tour operator of small-scale, low-impact trips. It is operated in Sweden using local guides and services. Packages don't include flights; customers are encouraged to take alternative transport from the UK, such as the ferry from Harwich to Esbjerg, Denmark, or the train via Germany. More than 90% of its clients travel within Sweden by public transport.
?Five days' self-guided ski touring on the Jämtland Triangle costs from £286 per person including four nights' self-catering accommodation and maps but not transport or equipment (01929 503080, naturetravels.co.uk )

Sicilian Experience, Italy

Renovated stone cottages in the laid-back seaside village of Sant'Ambrogio near the Madonie national park are available to rent through a community tourism initiative that has breathed new life into this corner of Sicily. The scheme encourages locals, especially the young, to take pride in their heritage and promote local traditions. Organic gardening is flourishing and you can expect to find local olive oil, preserved vegetables and organic jams in your apartment.
? A week in an apartment for two with terrace and sea views costs from ?300. +39 0921 999011, sicilianexperience.com (a green flower icon marks accommodation that is part of this initiative)

Traidcraft Meet the People Tours, worldwide

Witness spectacular sunsets over the Himalayas, then explore the ancient city of Kathmandu, take an elephant safari in Chitwan national park then chill out in the lakeside city of Pokhara. This is just one of the whistle-stop itineraries on Traidcraft's novel sightseeing trips to developing countries. Other destinations include Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cuba, Peru and Vietnam. While exploring the country, you stay with the small-scale farmers who make fairtrade products.
? From £1,325pp for a 13-day tour of Nepal, including accommodation, most meals, transport and activities but not international travel. 0191 2651110, traidcraft-tours.com

Village Ways, India and Ethiopia

If you've dreamed of walking in the Himalayas but have been put off by the idea of strenuous high-altitude trekking, a Village Ways trip could be for you. Beginning at Binsar, a wildlife sanctuary in the Himalayan foothills, you take gentle, guided walks from village to village, staying in guesthouses and eating home-grown vegetarian food. Village ways offers walking holidays in five locations in India and two in Ethiopia; a project in Kenya is under way for next year.
? A nine-night trip to the Binsar region costs from £610pp, including transport, full board and guiding, but not international travel. 01223 750049, villageways.com

B-bug, Brecon Beacons

After winning the Green Dragon's Den competition at Hay Festival in 2010, the owners of the b-bug spent 2011 testing their innovative electric buggy ? with the help of tourists. It's designed to be a quieter, low-carbon means of travelling around the Brecon Beacons national park. The cute open-sided b-bugs have a fabric roof, a top speed of 30mph and a range of 20 to 25 miles. They're charged using electricity generated by local micro-hydro schemes and use only 3kWh for every 20 miles, which the owners say equates to only three miles in a standard car.
? B-bugs will be available to rent from spring 2012, prices and locations tba. 01874 665401, b-bug.com

Accrington Eco Station, Lancashire

The first truly "green" railway station building on the UK network opened in Accrington in December 2010. It was built from recycled stone, photovoltaic cells provide some of the station's electricity, hot water is solar-powered, and harvested rain water is used for flushing toilets. The building houses a ticket office (operated by Northern Rail), but its purpose is also to spread the green message, via an education resource centre.
? 0845 0000125, communityraillanc-ashire.co.uk

Glastonbury Festival, Somerset

Ticket-holders who arrived at the 2011 festival by public transport or bike were given a Green Traveller lanyard which gave them discounts on meals and T-shirts, and access to solar showers and compost toilets. The organisers admit these are small gestures, but as transport emissions account for more than 50% of Glastonbury's carbon footprint, this did raise awareness of the environmental impact of one of the world's largest outdoor gatherings.
? Details of the Green Traveller scheme for Glastonbury 2013 have not yet been confirmed. glastonburyfestivals.co.uk

California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, US

Set in Golden Gate Park and designed by Renzo Piano, this natural history museum went for sustainability rather than spectacle when it was rebuilt in 2008. Partly solar-powered and insulated with recycled jeans, it houses the world's largest all-digital planetarium, its deepest living coral reef exhibition, and a four-storey-high rainforest. But its prize exhibit is its 2.5-acre living roof, the largest swath of native vegetation in San Francisco.
? Entrance $30 adult, $30 children. +1 415 379 8000, calacademy.org

FARM:shop, Dalston, London

"The world's first farm in a shop", as FARM:shop Dalston describes itself, is an experiment in urban agriculture that combines a cafe and arts venue with a mini fish farm, rooftop chicken coops, indoor allotments and a polytunnel to grow as much food as possible in what was once a derelict shop. While the space hosts regular tastings, parties and events, the produce grown on the site is also served in the cafe, in dishes such as fresh tilapia with hydroponic chilli and tomato chutney. Devised by Something & Son, an eco-social design practice, it aims to roll out the concept around the UK.
? 07736 002006, farmlondon.weebly.com, open Mon-Saturday, 11am-5pm

Car Free Walks, UK

This is a website on which users share walking routes that can be reached by bus, train, coach or ferry. Grid reference, elevation profile and OS map link is given for each, with information on accommodation, pubs and cafes. Users can rate walks and add their own routes to the growing database. Prizes are offered for the best submissions.
? carfreewalks.org

Party Neuf, Monmouthshire

Party Neuf has pioneered the solar-powered music scene, providing non-fossil fuel energy for lights, PA systems and stages for 26 years at venues including Glastonbury. It also now runs the Croissant Neuf Summer Party near Usk, Monmouthshire, in August, generating all its power on-site from solar panels. It also uses biodegradable beer glasses and operates a post festival recycling clear-up. Last year's headliner was folk-rocker Ed Sheeran, and there are craft and healing areas, yoga and other workshops. Its claims that, on average, festivalgoers at last year's Summer Party generated 50% or less of the CO₂ they would have done if they'd stayed at home.
? Adults £88, children £35 (2011 prices). partyneuf.co.uk

Centre for Alternative Energy, Powys

Whether you want to learn about eco building or organic gardening, turning old fabrics into bags or finding hedgerow herbs, the Centre for Alternative Technology is the go-to place, offering short courses and accommodation in an on-site eco-lodge. CAT has evolved from a 1970s outdoor laboratory to an internationally renowned visitor centre, with dozens of exhibitions on just about every eco technology under the sun. There's a playground too, and it's an interesting place to visit even if you're not planning to live in a straw bale house any time soon. Come by train (the nearest station is Machynlleth) and entry is half price.
? Entrance £8.50 adult, £4 child. 01654 705950, cat.org.uk

Ewaso Lions Warrior Watch, Kenya

In Kenya's northern Samburu region, young men are trained to work in conservation as part of the Ewaso Lions Warrior Watch program, which aims to address the anomaly whereby the people who spend most time out in the bush are the ones who have least input into decision-making that affects that environment. Following training on data collection, ecology, GPS use, conservation, security issues, the value of wildlife, English, Kiswahili and arithmetic, the "warriors" report on wildlife sightings, poaching, and community and livestock issues. In return, Ewaso Lions provides a wage and meals. Nearby Sasaab Lodge supports two such "warriors".
? Suites at Sasaab Lodge cost from $545pp, including full-board accommodation and most activities +254 20 502 0888; ewasolions.org

Great Gorilla Project tour, Uganda

One of several projects run by Way Out Experiences, a UK-based volunteering holiday specialist, the Great Gorilla Project tour puts a neat twist on the usual conservation holiday. Volunteers don't record data or monitor animals directly. It's all about spreading the message about gorilla conservation by taking a two-week trip to Uganda to help screen conservation documentaries. The films are donated by National Geographic and the BBC, and shown via a pedal-powered cinema, to educate people in remote rural regions . On days off they can visit Ngamba Chimpanzee Sanctuary, go on a gorilla trek and visit the equator. More than 10,000 Ugandans watched the films in 2011.
? A 14-day trip with the Great Gorilla Project based at Mgahinga Gorilla national park costs from £2,150pp, including 13 nights' accommodation, transport and most meals but not international flights. 0845 371 3070, thegreatprojects.com

Regional good food guide, Spain

We were impressed by a guide to local food produced by Casas Cantabricas, drawing on its experience of more than 25 years of selling holidays to northern Spain. The aim is to help its customers find local ingredients from shops and markets, and to point the way to the best local restaurants, from tapas bars and country tavernas to Michelin-starred restaurants. Guests can pick up some "fried milk" in a village bakery, or head for Mondoñedo to shop at Rei de las Tartas, the King of Cakes. Each review includes recommendations and personal insights by its clients as well as staff who live and work in Spain.
? Food guide free to clients. 01223 328721, casas.co.uk

Richard Hammond chief executive and founder, greentraveller.co.uk

Dr Graham Miller head of school of hospitality and tourism management, University of Surrey

Dr Greg Stevenson founder of underthethatch.co.uk

Chris Johnson head of eco-tourism development, Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature, Jordan

? For the full shortlist see greentraveller.co.uk/green-list

Going the whole hog in Sicily

In search of the perfect sausage, novelist Peter Jinks travels to Sicily where, among the ancient beech woods, he meets his new best friend ? the black swine

We were standing beside an 11th-century abbey enjoying our first mountain views when my guide Rosario ruined the moment by mentioning that we'd be eating liver the next day.

What did liver have to do with anything? This trip to the Nebrodi national park in Sicily was all about finding the perfect sausage. The last liver I ate was in about 1978, more or less at gunpoint. Nevertheless, traumatic memories of school dinners quickly faded. The sky was so blue and clear up here. Later, at dusk, we would see a pair of eagles circling on the breeze.

Foreign visitors to Sicily bypass the Nebrodi and, superficially, it's easy to see why. The better-known Madonie mountains are quicker to reach from Palermo, and there aren't any obvious tourist attractions here. Many villages fall short of being picture-postcard perfect. Others show signs of a plasterer slipping off for lunch 10 years ago and forgetting to finish the job. But for dedicated pork lovers the Nebrodi mountains hold a trump card: they are home to an indigenous black-skinned pig called the suino nero. Once spurned by butchers because of its small size and thick coating of fat, this free-roaming pig is now enjoying a comeback. Having eaten yards of deliciously spicy Sicilian salsiccia over the years I was excited about what the suino nero could deliver in terms of sausage. Rosario Gugliotta, a representative of the Slow Food movement, offered to show me where to find it.

Longi was the base for our mission. Set in the heart of the national park, Longi is a fairly typical village for the area, with a pretty historic centre hidden behind more recent development. Mass emigration and an ageing population once threatened its existence but now, thankfully, the whole region seems to be coming alive with new ideas. Charm and eccentricity abound; passion, too. A beekeeper in a nearby village showed us how he uses his own sustainable honey to make natural cough remedies. A reclusive former celebrity hairdresser showed us his collection of ceramics made out of chocolate powder and then gave us a tour of the mountain farmhouse he's turning into a hiker's hotel. Perhaps confusingly for the modern traveller, money isn't what makes these people smile.

Wherever we went, natural beauty leaned in from all sides ? valleys, lakes and forests of beech waiting to be explored either on foot or, as the locals prefer, in elderly Fiats. On our two-day visit we saw various birds of prey in the sky and vultures housed in huge cages prior to being reintroduced into the wild.

After a long day's drive, and knowing that the next day would feature a great deal of pork, we'd asked for a light supper at Longi's osteria. Our host, Calogero, duly piled the table high with varieties of another local speciality: fresh goat's cheese. Fried courgettes and salad from his vegetable patch followed, and soon people at the neighbouring table, noticing the glaring absence of pork in our meal, were offering us slices of their own salami. That opened the floodgates. More salami arrived, followed by steaming plates of pig tripe in tomato sauce. Hardly a light dish, I mentally observed, betraying my lack of enthusiasm for innards in general. But the tripe went down shockingly well with a few glasses of Sicilian Nero d'Avola. An excellent Friuli grappa followed, which aids digestion, apparently. It definitely aided the short walk back to the B&B, which acquired a mystical floating quality.

The next morning, after an early start, we breakfasted on granita in the busy seaside resort of Capo d'Orlando, then cut inland once more, forging through bright sunshine towards the Fratelli Borrellos' pig farm, the unofficial standard bearer of the suino nero revival. Strangely, it looked and smelled less like a pig farm than a health farm, but soon shadowy troupes of piglets confirmed that we were in the right place. Each porcine family has its own large, airy plot among the trees with a stone pen called a zimma, where the animals can shelter from seasonal extremes. From the pig's point of view that extra layer of fat comes in handy during mountain winters. It also reaps dividends on the plate, as does all this healthy outdoor living. By the time we'd admired the farm's sun-drenched views of the valley and sniffed the maturing hams, hunger was setting in once more. Sausage time!

Across at the farm's trattoria the meat course was tempting even to those of us who'd indulged in too much pasta. Primed for the perfect sausage moment, my fork flashed forwards. But the sausage it speared, to my surprise, was actually a bit thin and timid-looking. It proved to be firm under the tooth and mild ? almost bland ? on the tastebuds. Where was the jag of red pepper one usually encountered in Sicilian sasizza, and the fragrant tang of fennel seed? Voicing doubts, I was assured by my lunch companions that this was how a grilled (as opposed to fried) salsiccia ought to be: slim, uncluttered, true.

Hmm. But aren't all encounters with so-called perfection a little disappointing? Gazing platterwards I selected a thin slice of meat, slightly charred at the edges but softly yielding under the blade of the knife. In the mouth it was heavenly. I moved on to the chop, whose fatty rind had a smokiness that rendered it exceptional. But the cut I'd just eaten a moment ago ? now that was special.

"So did you like the liver?" asked Rosario.

? B&B Katoio, Longi (+39 338 396 8169, nebrodi bandb.it) charges ?80 for bed and breakfast. To buy black swine products contact Trattoria Borello, Contrada Forte Sinagra (+39 094 159 4844; trattoriaborrello.it). Osteria Vinebrio, Longi (+39 388 358 9144). Villa Rantù, near Militello Rosmarino on the edge of the Nebrodi mountains, charges ?80 for a double room B&B, half board from ?62pp (+39 094 172 8648; villarantu.com)

Travel Awards 2011 winners

The full list of winners announced at this year's Guardian, Observer and guardian.co.uk Travel Awards

This year must have been one of the most challenging yet for the travel industry. It was a year of tumultuous events ? earthquakes in New Zealand, protests and uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the return of the ash cloud, debt problems in Greece and other parts of Europe, and rioting at home. Any predictions about travel trends at the beginning of the year ? the growing appetite for travel in the Middle East, for example, with the launch of new flights into the region ? appeared to be on shaky ground just a few months in.

On a brighter note, the trend for booking holidays with small, specialist companies continued to grow. Social networking has also come of age, with readers showing an increasing interest in holidays that involve meeting and interacting with local people. And though allegiance to some destinations and tour operators may have shifted, readers seem as keen as ever to travel.

Here's our full list of winners.

Ethical travel award

Winner: Sunrise Festival

This small British festival, held in Somerset, really impressed us with its commitment to sustainability, but not at the expense of fun. Festivals have never been more popular, and are typically a huge litter-generating, electricity-consuming exercise in wasteful excess. Yet Sunrise has shown that they don't have to be this way, proving that you can host a wild, hedonistic party, with loud music, light shows and a raucous crowd, without impacting on the environment. The festival policy is based on wanting to "live in harmony with the earth" and making changes at grassroots level in the hope they will inspire others. Watch a video of the 2011 festival here.

Best travel Website

Winner: Airbnb

Very few websites can claim to be game-changing ? but Airbnb has been exactly that. It banked on the idea that people would be happy to open their homes to strangers, for a fee. They were right... in a very big way. It's seen an 800% grown in service in the last year, and been valued at more than $1bn. According to a TechCrunch post last year, "on any given night in New York there are more people staying in homes via Airbnb than there are rooms in the biggest hotel in Manhattan". Not bad for an idea dreamt up by three post-grads in a San Francisco living room in 2007.

Favourite UK city

For the 12th consecutive year, Edinburgh has held on to its title as the UK's favourite city. Neither the historic charms of Durham and Bath nor the vibrant arts scene and nightlife in Newcastle and Liverpool are a match for the cultural dynamism and austere beauty of this Scottish city.

1 Edinburgh 2 Durham 3 Bath 4 Newcastle 5 Liverpool

Favourite overseas city

Tokyo proved that its meteoric rise to the top of the city charts was no fluke by hanging on to the title for the second year running. Now the dynamic city is facing one of its biggest challenges yet, trying to persuade tourists to return in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami that hit the north-east of the country in March. Though Tokyo is 200km from the site of the disaster, visitor numbers have taken a big hit. This prompted hoteliers to cut hotel rates by as much as 50%, with the result that this notoriously expensive city is affordable for many visitors for the first time.

1 Tokyo 2 Sydney 3 Cape Town 4 San Francisco 5 New York

Favourite European country

Once again the clean air, good living, mountain vistas and outdoorsy appeal of the Alpine countries and Scandinavia dominate the top 10, with Switzerland winning back its crown from neighbouring Austria after being knocked off the top spot in 2010, and Sweden quietly creeping up the table to take second place.

1 Switzerland 2 Sweden 3 Austria 4 Germany 5 Italy

Favourite long-haul country

At the start of this year, Japan was anticipating that 2011 would be one of its most successful ever for tourism ? a fact reflected in our survey results. But on 11 March, disaster struck: a devastating earthquake and tsunami in the north-east of the country. Though much of the country's infrastructure has returned to normal, it is feared the damage to Japan's tourism industry will take longer to repair, despite enticing discounts being offered by hoteliers and tour operators to encourage visitors to return.

1 Japan 2 Maldives 3 Peru 4 New Zealand 5 Vietnam

Best travel agent

A previous winner in this category and last year's runner-up, Journeys à la Carte, has reclaimed its crown this year. The independent travel agent has earned a loyal customer following for its expertise, impartial advice and commitment to personal service, a fact that's reflected in its impressive score of 99.8 per cent.

1 Journeys à la Carte 2 Travel Counsellors 3 Co-op Travel 4 STA Travel 5 Flight Centre

Best online booking service

This new category reflects one of the fastest-growing sectors of the travel industry: online bookings. The honours go to i-escape for its tantalising collection of hand-picked places to stay around the world.

1 i-escape 2 Saddle Skedaddle 3 Directski.com 4 Erna Low 5 HF Holidays

Best tour operator ? large operator

Heading the large operator category for the second year is walking specialist HF Holidays, which has also branched out into city breaks, activity holidays and guided tours.

1 HF Holidays 2 Riviera Travel 3 Voyages Jules Verne 4 Direct Holidays 5 Trailfinders

Best tour operator ? small operator

It's all change in the small tour operator category, with McKinlay Kidd, a Scotland and Ireland specialist, coming up trumps with its enticing programme of itineraries, ranging from West Coast Seafood Trails to Hebridean Wildlife Adventures.

1 McKinlay Kidd 2 Wild Frontiers 3 Saddle Skedaddle 4 Audley Travel 5 Milestones Tours

Best short break operator ? large operator

Hertfordshire-based HF Holidays, a not-for-profit co-operative society, takes the big prize, closely followed by long-haul specialist Trailfinders.

1 HF Holidays 2 Trailfinders 3 Riviera Travel 4 Voyages Jules Verne 5 Superbreak

Best short break operator ? small operator

Cycling specialist Saddle Skedaddle has pipped last year's winner, Original Travel, to the post. New entry Mr & Mrs Smith brings a bit of glamour to the list with its mouth-watering portfolio of sexy boutique hotels.

1 Saddle Skedaddle 2 Original Travel 3 VFB Holidays 4 Kirker Holidays 5 Mr & Mrs Smith

Best ski company

Proving that small is beautiful for the third year in a row is Peak Retreats, which takes its guests off the beaten piste to hidden resorts and villages offering an authentic Alpine experience.

1 Peak Retreats 2 Erna Low 3 Directski.com 4 Exodus 5 Mark Warner

Best cruise line

Uniworld River Cruises, a boutique river cruising specialist, is making waves in this category, coming from nowhere to overtake cruise world leviathans such as Silversea, Cunard and Celebrity.

1 Uniworld River Cruises 2 Cunard 3 Viking River Cruises 4 Voyages of Discovery 5 Noble Caledonia

Best UK hotel

It's official, The Hoxton is still hip. The combination of great-value rooms and a cool east London location is proving a winner with our readers. City Inn's rebranding last year has not affected its fortunes as the group hangs on to second place under its fresh new name, Mint Hotels.

1 The Hoxton 2 Mint Hotel 3 Sofitel 4 Hotel Du Vin & Bistro 5 Malmaison

Best overseas hotel

This year's winner, Dubai-based hotel group Jumeirah, continues ts quest for global domination with new five-star properties scheduled to open in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Kuwait, Azerbaijan, the Maldives and Mallorca in the next 12 months.

1 Jumeirah 2 Mandarin Oriental 3 Oberoi Hotels & Resorts 4 Ritz-Carlton 5 Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts

Best economy airline

This year we pitted long-haul and short-haul specialists against each other in just two categories, with some interesting results. Singapore Airlines is the clear favourite in this new merged sector, with an impressive score of 94%. Of the Europe-based airlines, Aer Lingus fares best, coming fifth.

1 Singapore Airlines 2 Emirates 3 Qantas 4 Malaysian Airlines 5 Aer Lingus

Best business airline

It's all change in this category with Etihad, Air New Zealand and Qatar Airways toppling long-standing favourites Singapore, Emirates and Virgin from the top three.

1 Etihad Airways 2 Air New Zealand 3 Qatar Airways 4 Singapore Airlines 5 Cathay Pacific

Best ferry company

First prize goes to Caledonian MacBrayne, which sails to 24 destinations along Scotland's spectacular west coast, serving tourists and locals alike with its great range of Frequent Traveller, Island Hopping and Day Trip tickets.

1 Caledonian MacBrayne 2 Brittany Ferries 3 Irish Ferries 4 Isle of Man Steam Packet Company 5 Northlink

Best train company

Eurotunnel has pipped Eurostar to the post this year, with both cross-Channel operators sitting pretty ahead of the rest of the field.

1 Eurotunnel 2 Eurostar 3 Chiltern Railways 4 Gatwick Express 5 East Coast Trains

'This is the way Fiji is supposed to be, and we want to keep that' ? audio slideshow

Two hundred miles east of Fiji's main island, the Lau archipelago is spectacular and remote ? with one flight a week and one place to stay. Kevin Rushby is one of just 20 annual visitors to this old slice of the South Pacific

Watts Towers: LA's weird masterpiece

The Los Angeles suburb of Watts is notorious for the 1965 riots ? and for one of the world's great public artworks

In the same week as the UK riots, a small group gathered 5,500 miles away to remember the Watts riot that began on 11 August 1965. That riot also led to a national outcry, an inquiry and pledges of reform ?

But little has changed in the decades since then in Watts, a poor black suburb just south of downtown Los Angeles. It is all sun-baked concrete and small bungalows behind iron fences. The district does, however, happen to be the home of one of the world's great public artworks: the Watts Towers.

Built by a semi-literate Italian immigrant named Simon Rodia, who worked alone for 33 years from 1921 to 1954, the Towers are a 15-minute Metro ride from the city centre. I got off at 103rd Street, expecting to see the Towers ? the tallest of which is 99.5 feet ? but I had to cross the tracks and walk down a dusty road until they appeared around a corner, three minarets sparkling in the morning sun.

For years, the Towers were closed to the public, caught in a political limbo of funding and restoration. Today there are tours but few Angelenos visit. My guide was Dakota, a piano student at the Charles Mingus Center (Mingus was raised in Watts), part of the modern Arts Center built beside the Towers in 1970 and one of the few positive legacies of the riots. The Center has a gallery showing African-American works, stages LA's oldest annual jazz festival and offers classes in painting, sculpture, music, dance and film animation to local youngsters, taught by professional artists.

Rodia's surprisingly small, triangular site contains the footprint of his modest house (since burned down) and 17 tower-like structures including an outdoor oven and the font where Rodia performed baptisms and weddings, though he had no religious status or affiliation. He built the towers with hand tools as his only equipment. An adjacent railway line (also long gone) was his anvil: he placed metal on the tracks for passing trains to flatten it.

Low walls around the site are studded with blue milk of magnesia bottles in wave formations and more than 25,000 seashells. The three tallest towers are like masts waiting to sail back to the home Rodia left age 15 in Nola, where every year they hold a Festa dei Gigli. The Gigli ? huge lilies made of papier maché and wood that are paraded around the town for the feast of St Paulinus ? look a lot like Rodia's towers.

Rodia was 46 years old when he started to build. Using nothing but found objects, he was the ultimate recycler. His decorations are broken bottles, mostly 7-Up and Canada Dry green; old crockery collected for him by local children (when they weren't vandalising his work) and tiles. Many tiles came from the Malibu tile company where Rodia worked for 10 years.

A taciturn man, the nearest Rodia ever came to explaining his masterpiece was to say, "I had in mind to do something big and I did it." Typically, at 75, after a fall, he gave the house and the towers to a neighbour and moved away without a backward glance to live the last 10 years of his life with his sister in northern California. It was only when the neighbour sold out to a would-be developer that the City of Los Angeles became aware of the towers and promptly ordered their demolition on safety grounds. Campaigners saved them by devising a strength test. A crane tried to pull them over but the crane and its steel hawser buckled, not the Towers.

Like Rodia's personality, his Towers have proved an awkward legacy for LA: who should pay for their upkeep? And do they symbolise the division or reconciliation between rich white west LA and poor black east LA? This year the LA County Museum of Art took over the conservation effort, a move to which Rosie Lee Hooks, the Watts Towers Arts Center's redoubtable director, gave a cautious welcome.

To stand inside one of Rodia's towers and look up through the spider web of steel and concrete made me dizzy, like standing in a dream. As Hooks told me: "Watts is still a challenged community but what Simon teaches us is the power of art to change things."

1727 East 107th Street, +213 847 4646, wattstowers.org, tours Thurs-Sat 10.30am-3pm, Sun 12.30pm-3pm, adults $7, children aged 13-17 $3, under 13s free

Cycling worth £3bn a year to UK economy, says LSE study

Report says industry employs 23,000 and generates £500m for the state annually, as manufacturers see sales rise by 28%

Cycling generates nearly £3bn a year for the UK economy, according to a report from the London School of Economics. The figure includes £51m in revenue for British manufacturers from the 3.7m cycles sold in 2010 ? a rise of 28% on 2009.

The gross cycling contribution of £2.9bn for the economy takes into account factors such as bicycle manufacturing, cycle and accessory retail and cycle-related employment.

Commissioned by the broadcaster Sky and British Cycling, the report said every cyclist in the UK has a "gross cycling product" of £233 annually.

Employing around 23,000 people, the UK cycling sector made a £500m employment contribution in 2010, including more than £100m in income tax and National Insurance contributions last year, the report said. A total of 208m cycle journeys were made in 2010, with a net addition of 1.3m more cyclists taking to their bikes compared to the previous year, bringing the total to 13m.

Of these new cyclists, half a million are now cycling regularly. New cyclists alone contributed £685m to the UK economy, with existing regular cyclists representing a total market value of £635m. The report also showed that regular cyclists take 7.4 sick days per year, compared with 8.7 sick days for non-cyclists.

It added that a 20% increase in cycling by 2015 would save the economy £207m in reduced traffic congestion, £71m in lower pollution levels and £52m in NHS costs.

Dr Alexander Grous, of the LSE, who conducted the research, said: "The good news is that structural, economic, social and health factors seem finally to have created a true step-change in the UK's cycling scene."

The transport minister, Theresa Villiers, said: "The government is committed to encouraging cycling as a healthy and enjoyable way of getting around. It helps reduce congestion, gives children more opportunities for exercise, and it can play a part in the fight against climate change.

Stewart Kellett, British Cycling's recreation director, said: "This report is further evidence that when more people get involved in cycling there are measurable benefits to the individual, their family, their employer, the environment and the economy as whole."

Ian Austin MP, vice-chairman of the all party parliamentary cycling group, said: "This important report shows that encouraging greater participation in cycling can bring not only social but economic benefits for Britain."

? Cyclebabble: Bloggers on Biking is available from the Guardian Bookshop for £5.99 (RRP £7.99) with free UK p&p. Visit guardianbookshop.co.uk or call 0330 333 6846.

Relax - a gap year's supposed to be fun

The despair-cobbled road to working life looms, so why be sensible now? Forget doing good works or improving your CV ? just have a blast

Given that the current climate for the recently released graduate is akin to that of an expendable crew member trapped in an air lock with the Predator, it's entirely understandable that every last scrap of free time should be devoted to furthering chances of future employment. The urge to hang around hopefully by the photocopier at a City law firm or carry trays of coffee enthusiastically round an advertising agency while sporting an impossible haircut must be overwhelming. But to anyone experiencing this urge I say stop. Stop in your bloody tracks.

There is a good and fine reason why gap years are called gaps. They're supposed to be what they say on the tin. They're a hiatus from the madness. You've just spent every year since your memory began in formal education. You've been hunched over books, writing essays and taking exams since TIME BEGAN.

You're probably a bit tired. Oh look. What's that in the distance? It's the dark and brambly pathway to the rest of your working life. It's covered in the cobbles of despair and smells of ennui. Why in the name of HELL do you want to get on it without tossing yourself to the wild winds of gay abandon first? Smash the emergency glass, press the big red button and just STOP. Step off the Yellow Brick Road, get mixed up with some flying monkeys and throw yourself into all manner of trouble. Trust me. IT'S YOUR LAST CHANCE.

I took a gap year. I managed to be in an earthquake, got sprayed by a skunk and found myself in a never-to-be-repeated scenario whereby I was kidnapped by a dwarf in a red Ferrari. I was penniless, had nothing to sleep in and gave serious thought to actual begging. But this is what being young and stupid is about.

It's all part of the grand scheme of things. You've got the rest of your life to be sensible and responsible. Let your hair down, say farewell to rhyme and reason and go and shit yourself on a bus. Chances are you will learn more about yourself than you ever will sitting behind a desk sucking a ballpoint pen. You'll see the world and you'll come home with a rucksack full of stories and experiences that you can draw on for the rest of your life.

I had not one penny when I went on my gap year. I did a couple of jobs here and there to get me from A to B but I was footloose and fancy-free. And I can happily declare that despite the hardship, despite the total madness, I had the time of my tiny life. My gap year made me the person I am today and no amount of work experience will ever give you the joy of a summer sprawling ahead of you with nothing but an open road and not the first clue what you're going to do from one day to the next.

So forget about being sensible. Forget about money. You've got the rest of your life to earn that. Take a deep breath and go wander through a meadow, swim an ocean, cross a desert, climb a mountain, traverse a continent, come back broke and I can guarantee you'll be nothing but fulfilled and happy.

Glamping in Mongolia

Mongolia, home to the yurt, is now offering luxury camping in sustainable, nomad-run gers in remote Khan Khentiii

There's something ironic about Britain's current obsession with glamping. Tipis in Tamworth, sheds rebranded as "romantic shepherd's huts", safari tents where the closest you'll get to big game is a squirrel. If a Mongolian nomad were transplanted to a Cotswolds field tomorrow he wouldn't know which yurt to knock on first.

But turn the tables, and Brits who love the posh pitch would find the real thing rather less than glam. Yurts (or ger as they're called in Mongolia) are the functional, felt-lined abodes of central Asian pastoralists. In a country the size of western Europe, half of Mongolia's population still pursue their ancient nomadic traditions, scattered like seeds across the landscape.

Most tours to Mongolia involve hit-and-run jeep itineraries that bounce from one beauty spot to the next, overnighting at ger hotels ? essentially steppe Travelodges that sleep four to a tent on iron-framed beds. These dusty digs lack eco-credentials, burning rubbish and employing diesel generators. As for creature comforts ? well, there are plenty of sheep.

But, recently, a tiny number of local tour operators have established sustainable, nomad-run ger camps on the Mongolian grasslands that target the luxury, eco-aware adventurer.

"Can I take your bag?" Never has such a question seemed so delightfully incongruous. A car has deposited us on a remote, sun-drenched meadow carpeted in pale edelweiss. A dozen bone-white ger fan out in front, blue mountains dissolving in the distance. All is silent save for the clockwork chirp of grasshoppers.

This is Jalman Meadows, a luxury ger camp nestling in the Khan Khentii, a protected wilderness region between the capital, Ulan Bator, and the Siberian frontier. Within these well-watered valleys and wolf-ridden mountains, the mighty Genghis Khan was born, started an empire and now lies buried. And here I am, ready for some royal pampering.

A king-sized bed dominates our spotless ger, bound tightly in sheep's wool blankets. Wooden chests ? the furniture of pastoral people ? line the periphery, hand-painted tangerine orange and sky blue. "Filtered river water for drinking, unfiltered for washing," instructs Batdavaa, the camp maid and cook, as she points to the sink in the corner. "If you need more, Yellow Horn will fetch it for you."

Yellow Horn, it turns out, is a shaggy, mild-mannered yak. When he's not chomping grass, he reluctantly hauls water up from the gurgling Tuul river nearby. He belongs to Alexander, local nomad and husband to Batdavaa. Alexander takes care of camp logistics, chopping wood for the stoves, maintaining the ger and butchering sheep and goat from his flock for dinner. His sons tend to several stout grassland ponies, and take guests on horse treks into the mountains.

But there's no obligation to attempt anything so adventurous. On day one, we ramble across boggy grassland aiming for the nearest hills. From higher ground, the views are epic: endless acres of rolling green, punctuated every so often by little pixels of white felt. Wild strawberries grow in clumps on the hillside, and occasionally a marmot pops his head out of a burrow. Black-eared kite swoop past so low and languidly we count their wing feathers. The air is sparklingly clear, and life is good. In fact, it's about time for a drink.

Jalman Meadows is full board, and even out here in the wilderness the restaurant ger is amply stocked with cold beers and wine (from a solar-powered fridge). The tent is the setting for all meals, though lunch can be packed up if you're planning an excursion. Breakfast is a dairy-fest of fresh milk, natural yoghurt and a deliciously thick clotted cream called urum, spread thick and yellow on warm bread. In the evening a communal, three-course dinner centres on mutton and goat, either steamed in an urn banquet-style, or cooked in little dumplings called buuz. Almost everything is local; the concept of food miles largely redundant.

"If you want a shower, come find me," Batdavaa had told us. She requires 10 minutes' warning to light the stove in the compact shower ger, which heats up a tank of Tuul river water that you pump out by hand. Stocked with biodegradable soap and thick towels, it's an innovative, low-impact luxury.

At night the warmth slips away and a silver landscape of galaxies comes into being. The candlelit "library ger" has snug sheepskin slippers, armchairs and a comprehensive collection of books on Mongolia, including an English translation of The Secret History of the Mongols, a 13th-century record of the great Khan's life. Apparently he killed his half-brother aged just 10 in a row over hunting spoils.

As we retire after dinner, Batdaava has already lit the ger stove, and we settle down in glorious silence save for the crackle of wood and the moaning of the wind across the steppe. It's a wonderfully snug, even smug, feeling knowing that the entire camp could be packed up and carted off in a day, a few flattened patches of grass the only echo of our habitation.

It's the mobility of the ger design that Jan Wigsten, the Swedish founder of Nomadic Journeys, a travel company that offers trips to Jalman Meadows and several similar camps, reckons is the future of glamping in Mongolia. He's even coined a new word for it: "Gerscape".

"This year we've started setting up ultra private camping trips where guests can traverse the steppe with their own personal yak or camel-drawn caravan operated by local herders, and accompanied by a cook. Each night the ger is pitched, the stove is lit and guests sleep in collapsible beds. Or for the truly adventurous, we open up a small airstrip and fly people into the great Mongolian void. What makes it better is not that it is posh, just more private ? 365 degrees of pristine emptiness." 

? Full board at Jalman Meadows through Nomadic Journeys (+976 11 328737, nomadicjourneys.com) costs from £370pp for three nights based on double occupancy, excluding flights and visa fee. The price includes group transfer from Ulan Bator, three hours away by car. Air China (airchina.co.uk) flies to Ulan Bator from Heathrow from £700 return in spring and summer. Private "gerscapes" start at around £4,000pp for seven nights, including private charter flights, staff and facilities. The season runs from June to September. A two night stay at the camp features as part of Explore's (0844 499 0901) small group tour in Mongolia. The two-week tour costs from £2,657 and includes return flights, accommodation on a bed and breakfast basis, all transport, 15 meals and the services of a tour leader, local guide and driver, with departure dates in June, July and August, 2012.

Philippines' nuclear white elephant becomes anti-nuclear tourist attraction

Completed in 1985, the Philippines' Bataan nuclear power plant has never been used ? and now activists hope to turn it into an eco tourism destination

Environmental groups hope that a mothballed nuclear power plant on Bataan peninsula will become a major tourist attraction and earn green dollars for the country.

An exploratory eco-tour for journalists, nature lovers and adventure sports enthusiasts has already been launched at the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), 100 km west of the national capital, with support from Greenpeace and local non-government organisations (NGOs).

The plant, which was completed but never fuelled, is considered the Philippines's biggest white elephant.

"Greenpeace supports the decision to finally turn the BNPP into something more practical: a monument to remind people of the inherent dangers of nuclear power," said Francis de la Cruz, campaigner for Greenpeace in Southeast Asia.

"There really is no point in trying to revive it as a power plant, which will only cost the Filipino people more ? not just in terms of rehabilitation and operation, but also in terms of health, environment impacts, disaster preparedness, and sustainable development," de la Cruz said.

Greenpeace initiated the tour after the Department of Tourism (DOT) announced its intention to transform the plant into a tourist attraction.

DOT director Ronald Tiotuico announced that the plant would be included in a tour package as a "reminder of how nuclear energy throughout the world menacingly threatens the quality of life of the people if handled incorrectly."

The tour package will also include historical sites and beach resorts in the Bataan area.

Part of the tour took visitors close to a massive reactor where uranium was supposed to be installed.

Ding Fuellos, a social development management practitioner who joined the tour, said everyone was excited to enter the facility since it was normally off-limits to visitors.

"It was the first time I saw a uranium capsule and a nuclear reactor. Now that is something that I can tell to my kids, and grandchildren. It is one for the books," said Fuellos.

But apart from curiosity the tour is an opportunity to display a feat of engineering and scientific prowess. Fuellos added that the tours could be an alternative tourist destination with social significance.

"Following the Fukushima tragedy, I think it would be a good tourist attraction for all Filipinos, especially high school and engineering students, local government personnel and officials, and advocacy groups concerned with policy and development management," Fuellos told IPS.

According to de la Cruz there are only a few guides around the plant, so special arrangements need to be made. Day tours catering to large groups are facilitated by the National Power Corporation and include a 20-minute presentation on nuclear power and a 45-minute guided tour. "We are meeting with tour organisers who have expressed an interest in following through with the eco- tours in Bataan including the BNPP," de la Cruz told IPS. "We are hopeful that groups that have the expertise and the experience, can take this on." The 2.3 billion dollar nuclear power plant, completed in 1984, never went into operation due to its proximity to subterranean fault lines and insufficient safety analyses. According to Greenpeace, to this day Filipino taxpayers continue to pay almost a million dollars annually for its upkeep.

Several points of tourist interest in the region are being developed. The area is close to a marine turtle conservation centre, and a week-long turtle festival is usually held there in November by conservationists.

The area also has several beaches, a World War II memorial, farms and nature trails.

The BNPP will not be the first mothballed nuclear plant to be turned into a tourist attraction. A nuclear power plant in Kalkar, Germany, was turned into a theme park in 1995. The plant, which was never operated after completion in 1986, receives some 600,000 tourists a year.

After the Arab Spring: the view from Morocco

The Casablanca-based writer and film-maker visits Marrakech where tourists are staying away and there are bargains to be had

Morocco is a kingdom very different from its neighbours. There's no deranged dictator or marshal law and, most of the time, the tourist favourite makes the news for all the right reasons. The Arab Spring has passed Morocco by, but that doesn't mean the kingdom hasn't had its share of trouble.

On 28 April, the popular Café Argana in the heart of Marrakech was ripped apart by a terrorist bomb. Both tourists and locals were killed in an event that sent shockwaves through the country, the region, and beyond. The immediate result was that the city suffered terribly from cancellations. After all, tourism is based on perceived safety.

Last week I drove to Marrakech from my home in Casablanca, to see the effect of the explosion for myself. I had been sitting at Café Argana just five days before the bomb, and had been amazed then at the huge numbers of European tourists. In the great square of Djemaa el-Fna, which the cafe overlooks, the visitors were packed in cheek by jowl.

Visiting again, I was shocked by the complete change in this former tourist honeypot. Gone were the crowds of lobster-red British and the French people. Where they had been shuffling forward past the acrobats and storytellers, the sun-baked flagstones were bare.

I got talking to a snake-charmer wearing a thick woollen djellaba robe. He had a fatigued-looking cobra hooked around his neck, and the roughest hands I've ever seen. "Tourists are like pigeons," he said, jabbing a thumb out to the square. "One bang and they all fly away ? roost somewhere else. But like all birds they'll be back. I promise you that."

At the edge of the square, a policeman offered me a glass of sweet mint tea. In a thick accent, he whispered: "Tell your countrymen that Marrakech is the safest place in the world. Marrakech good. No problem in Marrakech!"

As I wandered around, I realised that he was quite right. After all, there's nowhere so safe as a city in the wake of an isolated terrorist bomb. Tourism is Marrakech's bread and butter, so no stone has been left unturned in keeping foreign visitors safe.

But, even better still, with tourists cancelling in their droves, there's nowhere that can boast more impressive deals. Boutiquey little riads in the medina's labyrinth are offering prices of lifetime, as are some of the high-end hotels in the new town.

At Winston Churchill's glorious old favourite, La Mamounia ? renovated to perfection two years ago ? I met a couple from Bath. They had matching Panamas and perma-tans. The husband, Rory, glanced listlessly up from his newspaper. "Safe as houses out here old boy," he said in a clipped tone. "Got in last night. Bloody brilliant. Booked as soon as we heard about the bomb."

I asked Rory if he wasn't just a little bit nervous. "Nervous of what?" he replied with a gasp. "If I want to be nervous of something, I'll attempt to cross the road at Marble Arch."

? See ilove-marrakesh.com/index_en.html for details of riads, many of which may be willing to negotiate discounts at the moment

Self-catering review: Slattenslade Cottage, Parracombe

An eco-home in Exmoor national park has a fab location, but there's no excuse for cheap bedding and small sofas

We can't arrive at our weekend bolthole before 3pm, which is all the excuse our group of friends needs to meet over a pub lunch. We leave in convoy, snaking up a ridiculous hill ? not a route for the faint-hearted ? before disappearing down another wooded lane in the direction of Lynton, spotting the homemade sign for Slattenslade.

This eco-home is the first new house in Exmoor national park for many years. Co-owner Harriet Wilson is waiting to show us around. Her other half, John Hughes, built it using reclaimed Delabole slate on the roof, and cladding the walls in reclaimed stone set in lime mortar.

We traverse the double-height kitchen to two downstairs bedrooms then climb up to the first-floor sitting room, the third bedroom (which has its own shower) and a sort of minstrels' gallery. There is hand-crafted oak everywhere. It's like Hansel and Gretel's house, among the oak trees, ferns and wild campion.

The position, above Woody Bay, is steep, to say the least ? the "garden" is a series of decked terraces and hand-built dry-stone walls. Harriet points out a circular area at the top, beyond a water feature. They are going to add a wood-fired hot tub. Now you're talking, I think to myself (and also, "Pity it's not in already.")

There is underfloor heating and an integral music system (not up and running yet). Water is from a spring, and power comes via a ground-source heat pump and solar panels.

"The beauty of this time of year is that we can go for a walk at five o'clock, come back at seven, and it'll still be light," says Bea. Which is exactly what she and a couple of others do ? heading down to Woody Bay ? while some remain to sample fat strawberries, clotted cream and fresh scones from the overflowing welcome hamper on the pine kitchen table.

"I've never seen so many lights," says someone at supper. "Those are LED, very energy-efficient," says another. Problem is, while there are enough ceiling lights for a footie stadium, we are without dimmers or lamps anywhere. Later, we gather upstairs by the glow of the woodburner on sofas we wish were bigger and squashier.

No light pollution. Not a sound at night. Pity the beds aren't better ? buying cheap mattresses and supermarket bedding is a false economy in a rental house.

The view from one bedroom window is of a vacuum cleaner and spare beds in the garage, we lack bedroom chairs or anything pretty, and the "steam cabinet" in the main bathroom, for all its jets and knobs and metal bits, is in reality a short, uncomfortable bath.

Of course spending a couple of days off-grid is all very worthy, but actually I fail to see what difference staying in an eco-house makes to one's holiday. As long as the lights and the hot water work, it's going to stand or fall on the same things as any other holiday cottage. There is no doubting the skill that has gone into the construction of Slattenslade Cottage, but the overall appearance is utilitarian and, as ever, it is the finishing detail that makes all the difference.

On the other hand, the location is fab, beside walls of greenery, and between moor and sea. Children will not care one jot about any of our caveats. If you want a country break that isn't drowning on a campsite, I reckon this is it.