Travel in your own way posts on Niigata Saitou Villa, a hundred year old stately home on the Sea of Japan.
And a separate post on a working farm / agriturismo on the party island of Ibiza.
A handful of tasteful gifts for women from Carryology.
The Cleanest Line asks why the beautiful huge tarpon have stopped coming to Homosassa, Florida.
Verdemode posts on how to visit Switzerland sustainably.
The FT posts a long piece about sustainable fashion: fashion is not sustainable and a lot of energy is spent on dressing up unsustainable practices. The supply chains have become too complex to say in an unequivocal way that a certain company is ethical or unethical. The Sustainable Apparel Coalition and Higg Co come off well.
Her Packing List publishes a full-family full-time onebag packing list. Mad skills.
Nomadic Notes visits the Evacuation of Saigon rooftop cafe.
The Cleanest Line chronicles snowboarder Marie-France Roy’s journey towards environmentalism.
The Cleanest Line explains what polyester is and how it’s used at Patagonia.
First sunglasses from the great Pacific garbage patch have been rolled out.
How narrative might save our lives.
The Professional Hobo gives travel clothing tips and advocates for Western Rise.
According to the Cleanest Line, using bison hide rather than cow leather is good for the environment, with lots of benefits to the ecosystems where bison graze. Patagonia (which produces the Cleanest Line) has some products using bison hide.
Packing Less reviews the Minaal Daily 3.0.
Travel in your own way reports on Booking.com’s travel predictions: mostly digital nomad and sustainability type stuff.
Never Ending Voyage gives some ideas for New Plymouth and Taranaki, New Zealand.
Patagonia is in nostalgic mood with a history of fleece and a retrospective written by beloved art director and photo editor Jennifer Ridgeway, who passed away a year ago.
Good Nature Travel posts on the state of elephant poaching: gradually reducing, though not quite fast enough.
Packing Less reviews the Zendure Supermini charger.
SeaClear, with partners across Europe, is developing robots to collect waste from the sea.
Gear
Practical Travel Gear reviews the Oboz Sawtooth II boots: lightweight but less durable than leather boots. They also cover the hemp Rackle Shoes.
Carryology checks out the Incase Bionic backpack, laptop sleeve and organizer. Highly sustainable, it’s made from plastic waste retrieved from the ocean.
Packing Less posts on the Explorer Rescue Swag portable first aid kit.
Experiences
Travel in your own way visits Ubud in Bali: rice, temples, coffee, and civets.
Environment
The Cleanest Line posts a story about cleaning up Wyoming North Platte River, once one of the most polluted rivers in the US.
The German all-electric airplane (“flying taxi”) is … here? Almost here? Here for demonstrations but not yet taking passengers?
Skills
A short guide to composting, which requires no work at all and in fact is very difficult to prevent. Composting efficiently without too much mess takes a little time and consideration. However, it can be done cleanly and properly even if you live in an apartment and are limited to house and balcony plants.
Gear
Her Packing List discusses the main travel towel contenders, including Rick Steves, PackTowl, and Sea to Summit, before ultimately leaning towards good old-fashioned Turkish towels or just sarongs and big scarves. That’s basically been my evolution too, except for the sarongs. I just pack a scarf now, which doubles as a towel from time to time.
Whenever towels come up, I think of the passage from one of the great travel novels: “A towel is just about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can carry.” It can be used to warm up, protect against fumes, signal distress, or provide psychological comfort.
I agree about the uses but it’s a scarf that does these things, not a towel. A scarf.
Meanwhile, The Professional Hobo posts comprehensively on anti-theft gear and tricks to keep you stuff safe.
And Packing Less reviews the Able Carry DayBreaker 25L: mostly positive.
Environment
Senator Tom Udall posts on The Cleanest Line proposing to protect 30 percent of undeveloped land and water by 2030. He says this ambitious goal is what is needed to combat climate change and mass extinction.
Experiences
Never Ending Voyage gives us lots of ideas for New Zealand’s North Island, whether you want to see it fast or slow.
Her Packing List features a guest post on a capsule wardrobe from a virtual lockdown trip to Italy. We’ve seen virtual trips before in this quarantine; this one comes complete with disappointing weather and the hassles of doing laundry on the road.
Nomadic Notes is staying in a bamboo room by the beach with a shared bathroom: Life’s a Beach in Bai Xep.
And Small Footprints Big Adventures has a guest post about Vienna from a local expat.
Skills
I never sharpened my knives because I was under the impression that it’s complicated and that I’d ruin my knives learning how to do it properly. Having read up a little bit, I now think that (a) it’s not complicated and (b) it’s possible to damage (or more like dull) expensive knives with a whetstone but sharpening rods and kitchen-drawer sharpeners are mostly idiot-proof. See here and here and here.
Experiences
Nomadic Notes discovers Vinh Hoa beach resort, a not-quite-developed beach resort in Vietnam.
And Travel In Your Own Way gets sidetracked into picturesque Sirnea, the “first tourist village in Romania.”
Gear
Carryology continues its awards season with the best accessories awards. I voted for the MiiR Pourigami – just three pieces of metal that click together for a coffee filter. This seems to me like a much lighter, better option than those travel cafetieres that lots of people bring.
Environment
Invasive mustard plants, introduced to California by eighteenth century Spanish priests, force delicate local plants to extinction and fuel wildfires.
Skills
There are lots of ways to work out if you don’t have your sneakers or gym stuff with you: tai chi, yoga, body weight exercises or just going for a walk.
Gear
Carryology predicts the travel and baggage trends for 2021: circular production, safe destinations and onebagging.
Her Packing List explores multi-use clothing, coming up with eight strikingly different outfits from four items: the Chrysalis Cardi, Encircled Evolve Top, Helene Clarkson Nadi Wrap and Helene Clarkson Aro Reversible Cigarette Pants.
Packing Less reviews the Quechua NH500 20L.
Carryology is open until 19 June for voting on best bags and other travel gear for their Eighth Annual Carry Awards.
Experiences
Are we supposed to be interviewing our parents?
Small Footprints offers some tips and resources for staying sustainable in Morocco.
In the Nomadic Notes post promised last week, Hoi An emerges from quarantine, a little less crowded but still vibrant.
The Professional Hobo posts eight tips for traveling long-term with kids: minimize activities, give the kids a say and make sure you have medical insurance.
The Cleanest Line goes running through the true wild of the Argentina side of Patagonia.
Gear
Carryology has gone through most of the gear makers and sellers to assemble everyone’s statements on Black Lives Matter and police brutality protests. I know there is some pushback against these corporate statements but it’s kind of moving to see them listed one after another like this.
Environment
Green Suitcase Travel reflects on the pandemic, including how we can try to make travel greener and more sustainable as we emerge from lockdown.
Good Travel Nature considers how best to organize cities for healthy nature, happy people.
Skills
Charlie On Travel shares her tips on how to read more while traveling: schedule reading time, use your local library’s BorrowBox, etc.
The Professional Hobo posts another in the financial case study series. Alex and Frankie have given up their New York City Jobs to travel around in a van: a good amount of savings and their websites bringing in some income.
Experiences
James from Nomadic Notes reports on his first trips since lockdown began: Hoi An, An Bang and Da Nang.