Photo Friday: Tidal power device on test in Orkney

Orkney, Scotland, UK; June 2009

The series on stone-age Orkney was one of my favourite things I did on the blog last year. But the day or two I spent playing tourist came after several days working on a story that is very much rooted in the modern era.
The real reason I went to Orkney was [...]

Help clean up the cruise industry

Tell the United States Congress to pass the Clean Cruise Ship Act.
Last week I wrote about the environmental damage of the cruise industry. Wherever we stand on cruises, hopefully we all agree that they should be as environmentally friendly as possible. Right now, that is far from true. The cruise industry is largely unregulated and [...]

Blog Action Day: Why you should rethink that cruise

This post is my contribution to Blog Action Day, which this year is focusing on climate change.
We’ve heard it all before. Air travel is evil. If your vacation involves a plane then you are burning the planet.
While this may be somewhat of an exaggeration, it’s quite true that aviation is one of the fastest growing [...]

Best of the Web – Roaming Tales: Travel links for 17 August

Today brings another bumper collection of links to great travel content on the web. I hope you enjoy it – let me know in the comments. If I link to you below, please pay it forward and give link love to someone else.
Debates, trends & reflections
Island caretaker. I was less than complimentary in my recent [...]

Close encounters with Arctic wildlife

Travel article for Australian Women’s Health on a kayaking trip to Spitsbergen in the High Arctic in 2006.

By Caitlin Fitzsimmons
The seal reclined on the ice floe, its stumpy flippers looking slightly ridiculous against its tubby body. We stopped paddling and let the kayaks glide in silence for a closer look. The seal lifted its head [...]

Best of the web: Travel planning

A round-up of the best links from the blogosphere on hotels, transport, planning tools and advice.

Going to SXSWi (aka spring break for geeks)? Austin local and SXSWi veteran and speaker Sheila Scarborough shares her tips at Every Dot Connects on how attendees can get the most out of the conference and enjoy their time in [...]