Sustainable Travel & Ecotourism

Some of the best wildlife cruises are packaged by Oceanic Society Expeditions (tel. 800/326-7491; www.oceanic-society.org). Whale-watching jaunts and some research-oriented trips are also featured. You can swim with humpback whales in the Dominican Republic, for example.

Puerto Rico's varied and often hard-to-reach natural treasures have been conveniently packaged into a series of affordable eco-tours. AdvenTours, El Yunque (tel. 787/889-0251; www.adventourspr.com), features customized private tours with activities like bird-watching, hiking, camping, visits to coffee plantations, and kayaking. Aventuras Tierra Adentro, 268 Piñero Ave., San Juan (tel. 787/766-0470; www.aventuraspr.com), specializes in rock climbing, body rafting, caving, and canyoning, among other activities. Eco Xcursion Aquatica, Road 191, Km 1.7, Rio Grande, Fajardo (tel. 787/888-2887), offers some of the best rainforest hikes and mountain-bike tours.

Machias Adventures (tel. 888/427-3497 or 203/227-7337; www.machiasadventures.com) arranges adventure tours to St. Vincent, including hiking up a volcano, a day sailing with a crew, seeking out the huge variety of bird life, and hiking up a river canyon to a dramatic water pool -- a perfect pool for swimming. The cost of these 7-day jaunts is $2,500 per person, based on double occupancy.

Although one could argue that any vacation that includes an airplane flight can't be truly "green," you can go on holiday and still contribute positively to the environment. You can offset carbon emissions from your flight in other ways. Choose forward-looking companies that embrace responsible development practices, helping preserve destinations for the future by working alongside local people. An increasing number of sustainable tourism initiatives can help you plan a family trip and leave as small a "footprint" as possible on the places you visit.

Responsible Travel (www.responsibletravel.com) contains a great source of sustainable travel ideas and is run by a spokesperson for responsible tourism in the travel industry. Sustainable Travel International (www.sustainabletravelinternational.org) promotes responsible tourism practices and issues an annual Green Gear & Gift Guide.

You can find eco-friendly travel tips, statistics, and touring companies and associations -- listed by destination under "Travel Choice" -- at the TIES website, www.ecotourism.org. Also check out Conservation International (www.conservation.org) -- which, with National Geographic Traveler, annually presents World Legacy Awards (www.wlaward.org) to those travel tour operators, businesses, organizations, and places that have made a significant contribution to sustainable tourism. Ecotravel.com is part online magazine and part eco-directory that lets you search for touring companies in several categories (water-based, land-based, spiritually oriented, and so on).

In the U.K., Tourism Concern (www.tourismconcern.org.uk) works to reduce social and environmental problems connected to tourism and find ways of improving tourism so that local benefits are increased.

The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA; www.abtamembers.org) acts as a focal point for the U.K. travel industry and is one of the leading groups spearheading responsible tourism.

The Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO; www.aito.co.uk) is a group of interesting specialist operators leading the field in making holidays sustainable.

For information about the ethics of swimming with dolphins and other outdoor activities, visit the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (www.wdcs.org) and Tread Lightly (www.treadlightly.org).