Raja Ampat is a group of islands on the western tip of Papua in Indonesia, famous for its diving experience. Most of the world’s coral reefs biodiversity and rare species of marine life can easily be found in an archipelago.
There are 612 islands, but four are the major islands Waigeo, Misool, Salawati, and Batanta. Estimates by conservation groups show that the diversity of marine life in Raja Ampat is among the highest in the world, with over 1,300 species of fish, 700 species of mollusks, and 537 species of coral.
Raja Ampat is one of the few places on the planet where you will see such a wide range of marine life in their natural habitat.
With its location in the great Coral Triangle between the Indian and Pacific oceans, Raja Ampat offers a snorkeling experience you’ll never forget. While scuba diving, you will find wobbegong, dolphins, manta rays, turtles, whales, nudibranchs, lionfish, sea dragons, giant trevallies and so much more.
The reefs of Raja Ampat are in perfect condition, with many giant corals, purple corals, and sea squirts, hard coral tables, deer antler corals, green and brown moose antler corals.
Experience the joy and relax of sailing with a boat in the style of a traditional Melanesian outrigger.
One of the best diving spots around here is Batu Lima (Five Rocks). Check rates and availability:Raja Ampat Dive Resort
Papua Explorers is an eco-friendly dive resort in a traditional Indonesian setting with quick access to some of the best dive sites in Raja Ampat. Papua Explorers is located near the Dampier Strait, where many of Raja Ampat’s best dive spots are located. You’ll enjoy beautiful views of the ocean and rainforest, while you tasty some of the most deliscious traditional Indonesian cuisine
Papua Explorers is one of Raja Ampat’s latest resorts but has already built a reputation for exceptional service, amazing natural experiences and a commitment to conservation and sustainable practices.
Over-water bungalows in a unique location between a wide sandy bay and a mangrove fringed lagoon. The view from the tops is amazing, but first you have to climb lots of stairs.
You can see an iconic karst island seascape from the top. These mushroom-shaped rocks are towering from the unnaturally blue and crystal clear water.
Kri Eco Resort opened in 1994 with traditional houses built with local materials from the jungle and each contains two rooms and a sitting area.
Great food and a relaxed friendly atmosphere in a peaceful location. Kri Island is located on the northwest tip of West Papua in Indonesia, about 2 hours by boat from Sorong. If we have to describe it with a few words is golden sand surrounded by clear shallow waters.
Pianemo Island is one of the most epic spots in Indonesia and one of the most picturesque spots in Raja Ampat. You will witness a terrific landscape made up of turquoise waters underneath a blue sky, representing the raw beauty of this destination. It is also popular due to its karst hills and stunning underwater scenery.
Hiking is also very popular thing to do. There are several karst hills, on which tourists can climb.
Most of the Raja Ampat Diving Liveaboards include Pianemo viewpoint in their itinerary. You can compare liveaboards and to check the availability and pricing of the tours from their website.
Want to learn more about sustainable travel? Check our other posts about sustainable travel.
Costa Rica is a small country in Central America bordered by Nicaragua, Panama, the Pacific Ocean, and the Caribbean Sea. Nearly 30% of Costa Rica is protected as a national park, wildlife refuge, or private reserve.
Costa Rica is inhabited by 5 percent of all of the world’s species. During your eco-vacation, you can see coral reefs, cloud forests, and mangrove estuaries. Costa Rica is one of the world’s frontrunners in sustainable travel, and while you’re here you can book ecologically friendly tours and hotels.
The benefits for the local economy through environmental tourism go to local communities and replaces industries harmful to the landscape as logging and mining. You can either go on your own, or you can join an organized eco-tour.
The eco-tours available in the country, causing a minimal impact on the environment, offered in Costa Rica attract people who have a common interest in nature, culture, and wildlife. These tours provide environmental education, allowing tourists to get involved in conservation projects.
But with so many options for things to see and do, it can be hard to decide which of the many Costa Rica eco tours is right for you.
One of the best ways to explore all of the beauty of Costa Rica is a few nights stay at one of the country’s jungle lodges.
Costa Rican coffee has grown to be much more than an economic boost to the local culture and plays an important role in the history of coffee. Some of the reasons Costa Rica produce quality coffee beans are the combination of ideal conditions such as higher altitudes, fertile soils of volcanic origin combined with cool climates and steady rainfall.
100% of the coffee produced in Costa Rica is arabica beans.
The government gave anyone who wished to grow the beans their own land and plants to get started and the industry quickly surpassed tobacco and cacao as the leading crop.
Whitewater Rafting Down the Pacuare
Rafting on the Pacuare River – rated one of the most exotic and scenic rivers in the world is an amazing experience due to thrilling rapids coursing through rugged canyons and verdant tropical rainforests.
The Pacuare is home to colorful toucans, parrots, sloths, frogs and morpho butterflies. You’ll experience some of the best whitewater that Costa Rica has to offer.
The river has been divided into three sections, the Upper Upper Section, the Upper Section, and the Lower Section. The most commonly rafted section is the Lower Section.
Arenal Volcano is an active andesitic stratovolcano in north-western of the country. Arenal is considered a young volcano and most active of all the volcanoes, and it is estimated to be less than 7,500 years old. It is one of the few historically active Costa Rican volcanoes along with Poás, Irazú, Miravalles, Orosí, Rincón de la Vieja complex, and Turrialba.
Travelers to Arenal will still enjoy its bountiful sights, sounds and activities— there are mountains to be hiked, lakes to be fished and rivers to be floated. If you are visiting this area consider an exciting and scenic trip to the national park surrounding Arenal.
Many visitors do not realize that Arenal National Park is actually home to not one, but two volcanoes.
Manuel Antonio was listed by Forbes among the world’s 12 most beautiful national parks. Located on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, Manuel Antonio is easily one of Costa Rica’s most famous tourist attractions. It’s the country’s smallest National Park, complete with exotic toucans, lizards, howler monkeys.
This park has impressive landscapes and several coves with many white-sand beaches and lush foliage amidst great mountains and forests. our beaches are contained within the limits of the park: Manuel Antonio, Espadilla Sur, Teloro, and Playita.
The Central American squirrel monkey, Panamanian white-faced capuchin monkey, black spiny-tailed iguana, green iguana, common basilisk, white-nosed coati and many snake and bat species are also common in the park.
Mario Boza lead the effort to preserve the region and to have the government declare the volcano a protected area.
Active volcanoes are the most exciting features of Costa Rica’s geological composition. The Poás Volcano is an active 2,708-metre stratovolcano in central Costa Rica and is located within Poas Volcano National Park. It has two unique crater lakes – lake Botos to the south is an inactive crater with cold clear lake water and the north is Laguna Caliente, a mile wide volcanic crater filled with water so acidic that no plant or aquatic life can survive.
Tamarindo Estuary Kayaking Tour, Guanacaste
This tour gives you the unique opportunity to enjoy the spectacular views of the beautiful mangrove in Tamarindo and observe the wildlife. You can observe abundant wildlife of the tropical dry forest while learning about the unique ecosystem of the mangrove forest. You will see brown pelicans, brown booby, magnificent frigate birds, and neotropical cormorants.
During your tour, you can stop and have a deeper explanation of the local flora and fauna, specifically the famous local Guanacaste trees, Costa Rica’s National tree.
Tortuguero is a village on the Northern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica in the Limón Province. Tortuguero National Park can surprise you with its network of canals, rivers, lagoons, beaches, and dense rainforest here are interlinked. You can explore these canals and observe the wildlife by boat, kayak or canoe and it makes it a great and relaxing way to experience nature.
Its beaches are famous nesting grounds for sea turtles, including endangered green turtles. The surrounding rainforest is also rich with wildlife with many bird species. During September and October many local “guides” will offer tourists the opportunity to watch turtle nests hatch.
The National Park is also host to an incredible biodiversity of insects, resident and migratory birds, and mammals, including jaguar and four species of monkey.
Some of the tours also includes a stop at the world-famous Wildlife Rescue Center, a not-for-profit organization that rescues wild birds and exotic animals, helps them rehabilitate and then releases them back into the wild.
The passion of the owners, the dedication of their staff and the generosity of volunteers and donors makes everything possible.
It was established in 1978 as a biological reserve, but due to the growing popularity after 1990 its status was changed to a national park. Carara is one of Costa Rica’s most popular National Parks, mostly because it is located close to San José.
You can watch for the 150-200 scarlet macaws that nest and feed throughout the reserve. There are two hiking trails in Carara. Bordering the Pan-American Highway, this park is unique as the Amazonian and Mesoamerican ecosystems.
This national park has 10 of the most uncommon and rare hardwoods in the country.
Also, it can be found in the park many pre-Columbian archaeological sites dating back 2,000 years.
Leatherback Turtles National Park was established in 1991 to protect Leatherback turtles species from extinction. The park is part of Caravan’s Costa Rica eco tours.
Leatherback turtles can grow as long as six feet and weigh up to 1100 pounds or more. Along with the Olive Ridley and Hawksbill turtles, Leatherback turtles use this area of Costa Rica as their annual nesting grounds and each year thousands of turtles return here to nest.
Although sea turtles live most of their lives in the ocean, adult females must return to land in order to lay their eggs. Scientists believe that nesting female turtles return to the same beach on which they were born.
The flora in the area includes mangrove trees that are greatly common and for instance monkeys and crocodiles can be observed in the park area. The park is the ideal place for hiking and after that sunbathing and relaxing at the lovely Playa Grande.
During your visit to the park you are not allowed to use flash cameras or flashlights, and to approach a turtle.
Featured image photo credit: Coral Blanche Hummer / Flickr
Singapore, an island city-state off southern Malaysia, is a global financial center with a tropical climate and multicultural population. It is among the most favored tourist places in the world. The tourism industry in Singapore is a major contributor to the economy of the country. The total number of tourists in Singapore per year continues to grow and in 2010 was more than 11 million, which is more than the population of the country.
According to a report, the average stay per visitor in Singapore is 3.86 days.
Singapore in Sanskrit means “Lion City”. According to the monks, the city gets its power from the lions that once supposedly roamed here.
Singapore, declared its independence in 1965, an island with over 5 million inhabitants and only 700 square km, has one the prize Asia’s greenest city in 2016.
In this post, you’ll learn more about Singapore’s unique approach to environmental sustainability.
Sustainable Living in Singapore
The Marina Barrage, the world’s largest urban hydro dam reservoir, is transforming Singapore’s downtown city core.
With well water resource and waste management, the Singapore government has focused also on stimulating land developers to incorporate green technology into the design and construction of all new buildings or renovate older buildings to the new standards. The government puts efforts to make green buildings mandatory in the near future.
The tourism industry involves the hospitality sector in it and hospitality has a great impact on the environment and natural resources of the country. Hotels, food, and beverage companies should take great care of the natural environment around them.
The country attracts the world’s top eco architects and uses the latest and innovative technologies in developing eco-construction large-scale projects for green zones and sustainable architecture. A great example of this are the skyscrapers built as sustainable ecosystems – Fusionopolis, Solaris Tower or the EDITT Tower integrate vegetation for cooling, generate solar power and transform wastewater into biogas.
Leveraging tourism to promote sustainable development will require a tough balancing act between development and sustainability.
The government of Singapore has provided funds for tourism development in the country and its goal is to triple the incomes from tourism. Such an example is the state-funded project, where a vast eco-tourism zone is creating in a bid to bring in more visitors with a jungle for a bird park, a rainforest park and a 400-room resort to create a green tourism hub.
The new bird park – which will replace an existing one elsewhere in Singapore – will feature nine aviaries, while the rainforest park will have walkways among treetop canopies.
Singapore has already established itself as a global leader in sustainability, with hosting international events such as the World Cities Summit, Singapore International Water Week, Singapore International Energy Week and Green UrbanScape Asia to gather together world leaders and share best practices water issues and urban environment.
Companies have focused on creating immersive and meaningful experiences for travelers and sustainable tourism, or eco-tourism is quickly becoming a big part of it.
“Travellers these days are more affluent and largely looking for never before experiences. They are well educated and conscious about not leaving carbon foot-prints behind as they travel. Sustainable tourism is, hence, getting more popular as it comes with this feel-good factor of giving back.” – said Alicia Seah, Dynasty Travel’s director of marketing and communications.
Singapore’s eco-friendly hotel business is booming and some examples for that are the tri-tower Marina Bay Sands Hotel or the organic terraced ParkRoyal.
One major characteristic for the country is the little to no corruption, and this combined with a liberal government, the higher percentage millionaires and a hugely successful economy, is a model of urban environmental sustainability. The country scored near-perfect Yale EPI ratings in health impacts, air quality, water resources, sanitation, agriculture and climate, and energy.
“By being clean and green, our aim has been to show that our country is well-run,” says Mr. Khoo Teng Chye, executive director at the Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC)
Other popular eco-tourism destinations include the Maldives, Australia, Thailand, Bali, as well as Guilin and Lijiang in China
Want to learn more about Greenland? Check our other sustainable travel posts.
