While staying a night or two in a yurt might be more commonplace as you transit through Mongolia on the Trans-Mongolian Express, you don't need to head to such exotic spots to do so. In fact, according to a tip from Peter Greenberg, you can overnight in a yurt--those tent-like affairs typically used by wandering Mongolians--at Big Sur in California.
The Treebones Resort in Big Sur has 16 yurts and all of them are a lot more luxuriously equipped than their Mongolian counterparts. Some of them have an ocean view and all of them have queen-sized beds, electric lighting, a heater and hot and cold running water. They even have polished wooden floorboards, which is much more than the nomads would've been prepared to carry around with them. Additionally, there is a heated pool and hot tub on site, and a lodge building for dining.
Two things you should know: there is no cell phone access (which is probably a good thing for a vacation but you might want to know about it ahead of time); and you can't drive right up to the yurts so you'll want to pack light enough that you can carry everything you bring. If the yurts are booked out and you've got a tent, there are also five campsites available for hire.
On weekends or through the April to October peak season, there's a minimum booking of two nights. A full ocean view yurt for two people comes at $175 per night, or $155 if you only get a partial ocean view; some of the yurts can fit from four to six guests and start at $245 a night for four people. All of which is a lot cheaper than flying to Mongolia.
Another tip from the Peter Greenberg list of "they're really green" hotels has come our way in the form of the Lenox Hotel in Boston.
We've mentioned the Lenox before and complained about the slow elevators but now we've got a reasonable excuse for them. You see, the Lenox Hotel, says Peter Greenberg, was one of the first places to offset the air pollution and carbon emissions of 100 percent of its electricity. We figure that it might be trying to use a little less electricity to reduce the emissions and they've set the elevators to the slowest setting. It's still faster than using the stairs, but they're an alternative.
The Lenox is also green for another reason: "Waterless urinals annually save 180,000 gallons of water." We're not keen on thinking too hard about how the waterless urinals operate but hey, it's only the guys who have to worry about that really. Gals, you can do your bit by remembering to turn off any lights you're not using.
A recent Peter Greenberg spot on the Today Show website said something loud and clear that a lot of us probably already think: all those hotels who crow about being environmentally friendly because they don't wash our towels every day aren't really green, they're just saving money.
Greenberg's attack on hotels that pretend to be green goes on, but then he names a few that he really believes are doing a good eco-friendly job. A stand-out is the Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico. This Baja California destination is found on 3,000 acres in a valley just an hour's drive from San Diego, and it gets plenty of thumbs up for being particularly green.
Peter Greenberg has a whole list of environmentally friendly aspects of the Rancho La Puerta, and some of the highlights include
3.5 acres are actively cultivated to provide herbs, fruits and vegetables for Rancho La Puerta's dining hall ... An on-site waste treatment facility provides gray water for the drip irrigation system ...Tubular skylights provide high-quality natural lighting in guest rooms, gyms and spa facilities ... Guest-room showers and non-composting toilets use "low-flow" water conservation technology ... Rechargeable batteries are used throughout the Ranch.
And the list goes on and on. As Greenberg says, some hotels preach environmentalism and others simply get out there and practise it, like the Rancho La Puerta seems to do. Thumbs up from us, too.
As our little brother in travel arms just told you, Peter Greenberg was on NBC's Today Show this morning, calling out a couple Arizona hotels for piling on the "resort fees". The most egregious offender? The Tempe Mission Palms where Peter was subject to a $9.75 "hospitality fee". Guess some hotels feel their guests should pay extra for general hospitality. How lame.
Though Regis Philbin was the main stream media trailblazer in drawing attention to hotels where tips and fees are built into your bill, many times unknowingly, Greenberg did a great job moving the ball forward this morning. The important thing is to call out these hotels by name, so unsuspecting guests can become suspecting guests and get these charges removed from the bill before they even check in, or alternatively, just stay elsewhere. For the hotels, it is important to remember guests don't like feeling bamboozled. Be super up front about whatever fees you are going to charge and then the responsibility accepting such fees swings back to the guest.
We applaud Peter Greenberg for having the guts to call these hotels out by name and presenting the "gotcha" bill on the Today Show for everyone to see.
The Today Show's travel detective Peter Greenberg reported live today from the Grand Hyatt at the Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport about hotel theft. And he doesn't mean, people stealing your valuables out of your hotel room. No, he's talking about hotel guests that make off with more than just the shampoo and conditioner provided by the hotel.
Apparently, hotel guests steal up to $100 million a year worth of hotel goods, according to the American Hotel & Lodging Association. A general manager at a Holiday Inn told Greenberg that a couple once requested a room near the parking lot because they were moving and wanted their U-haul to be close to the room. The next day when housekeeping went to clean the room, every single thing in the room was missing. The couple had apparently loaded up their U-haul with Holiday Inn furniture and then split.
Yet the most popular item that guests like to steal is washcloths. Holiday Inn loses about 100,000 of these a year. Guests also kept stealing the remote controls at the Grand Hyatt in Dallas but it turns out those remote controls only work in the hotel. Perhaps this is why hotels started selling their wares on their websites. So if you really want the remote control from the Grand Hyatt, you can now buy it for $14 even if it still doesn't work outside the hotel.
Organizing our meeting with the famed Peter Greenberg, The Today Show's Travel Editor and The Travel Channel's Chief Correspondent, was pleasantly free of badgering. We didn't have to grease any palms, or do anything salacious to get backstage at the Today Show. Upon arriving at 30 Rock we were ushered in past security and envious audience members by Peter Greenberg himself--and you thought bloggers were just pajama clad jobless people. Alas, no Katie or Matt laden handshakes were forthcoming but no matter, we were successfully inside America's Top-rated morning show and eventually seated across their all-knowing travel editor in one of the abandoned dressing rooms.
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by amandak
