Green vacations and eco friendly travel are becoming more and more popular thanks to the increased awareness about the importance of taking care of our environment and doing all we can as individuals to prevent global warming. So what can you as a traveler do to make sure your green vacations are to an eco friendly travel destination and not a place that tries to look ‘green’ but really isn’t? Check out the following tips from Tripbase about how to reduce your carbon footprint and then explore our top recommendations about where to go for the best green vacations. You’ll be on your way to enjoying a great green vacation.

According to the International Ecotourism Society (TIES), eco friendly travel is “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people.” TIES recommends following these eco friendly travel principles:

• Leave a minimal impact
• Use local guides or tour services
• Try to stay in local, eco-friendly accommodations
• Support local businesses that promote sustainability. This also supports the local economy.

Although some environmental activists maintain that staying close to home is the best way to do green trips (one overseas return flight produces about the same amount of carbon emissions as a car does over an entire year), there are downsides to that school of thought too. For example, developing countries rely heavily on tourism for development and carefully managed tourism can help fight poverty and promote growth. In addition, traveling far from home can provide long-lasting educational benefits and allow you to participate in local conservation and education efforts—especially if you’re willing to volunteer. Try to make sure that the parks and beaches you visit are truly interested in sustainable tourism, and verify that your accommodation is helping the environment by planting trees, using fewer towels, saving water etc. by giving them a call and asking them what they do to promote eco friendly travel and sustainable practices.

Camping and house swapping are also great ways to do your small part to make your green vacations better for the environment.

Another thing you can do is plan an eco friendly travel adventure to places where you can camp and use the car and fuel minimally. That type of green vacation has the added benefit of allowing you to explore spectacular nature in a sustainable platform.

On top of this, one of the best things you can do is support countries and parks in which green vacations and eco friendly travel are taken seriously. Visiting those regions will ensure that your tourism dollars are providing funding for sustainable tours, green trips and ecotourism growth in the future.

So where are the best places in the world for green trips, green vacations and eco friendly travel? Tripbase looked at a number of parameters in thousands of locations to come up with a list of the best places for a green vacations. We looked at how well these eco friendly destinations fared when it comes to education, conservation and research programs as well as the number of eco friendly trips they offer and eco friendly accommodations they have. We considered nature travel to well-known spectacular national parks reputed for their sustainable practices and volunteer programs as well as more off the beaten path, remote locales. For more information about each destination and personalized travel recommendations in each eco friendly travel destination, click on the links below.

1. Corcovado National Park Travel Recommendations (Costa Rica)

2. Morne Trois Pitons National Park Travel Recommendations (Dominica)

3. Yosemite National Park Travel Recommendations (United States)

4. Chiang Mai Travel Recommendations (Thailand)

5. Yellowstone National Park Travel Recommendations (Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana)

6. Galapagos Islands National Park Travel Recommendations (Ecuador)

7. Etosha National Park Travel Recommendations (Namibia)

8. Denali National Park Travel Recommendations (Alaska)

9. Fiordland National Park Travel Recommendations (New Zealand)

10. Nassau Travel Recommendations (Bahamas)

Happy Travels,
The Tripbase Team

i.e., where to get the most for your money abroad this year

From exotic islands with pristine beaches and coconut palms to bustling cultural capitals, these international travel destinations top Tripbase’s list of recommended best international travel destinations in 2008 for value. So whether you want romantic escapes on idyllic beaches in a tranquil environment or places with great natural landscapes, culture, shopping, nightlife and dining, these are the places that will give you the most for your money—from Africa to Asia and South America to Europe.

We looked at many parameters for each of our thousands of locations in order to come up with our best international travel destinations for value in 2008, including accommodation options, affordable entertainment choices, what kind of discounts are offered to travelers, and average costs to travel (per day averages include hotel costs) in these destinations—to name just a few.

To read more about each location in our list of the top best international travel destinations for value in 2008 and find useful information, including flight, hotel and car rentals as well as personalized travel recommendations tailored to you, such as where to stay and where to eat and what to see and do while you’re there, visit the Tripbase location page by clicking on the link.

Best Beach Destinations 2008 for Value
1. Kingston travel recommendations (Jamaica)
2. Bali travel recommendations (Indonesia)
3. Cape Town travel recommendations (South Africa)

Best Asia Destinations 2008 for Value
3. Bangkok travel recommendations (Thailand)
4. Kuala Lumpur travel recommendations (Malaysia)
5. Beijing travel recommendations (China)

Best Africa Destinations 2008 for Value
1. Cairo travel recommendations (Egypt)
2. Essaouira travel recommendations (Morocco)
3. Tunis travel recommendations (Tunisia)

Best Central and South America Destinations 2008 for Value
1. Buenos Aires travel recommendations (Argentina)
2. Mexico City travel recommendations (Mexico)
3. Rio de Janeiro travel recommendations (Brazil)

Best Eastern Europe Destinations 2008 for Value
1. Warsaw travel recommendations (Poland)
2. Budapest travel recommendations (Hungary)
3. Dubrovnik travel recommendations (Croatia)

Best Middle East Destinations 2008 for Value
1. Istanbul travel recommendations (Turkey)
2. Amman travel recommendations (Jordan)
3. Nicosia travel recommendations (Cyprus)

In our next blog, we’ll share with you the Tripbase team’s recommendations for green vacations and eco friendly travel, i.e., where to go for the best green vacations in 2008.

Tripbase is still in development, but we’re working on improving our algorithms every day, so if you have comments and criticisms for us, we’d love to hear from you.

There has never been a better time to visit U.S. cities for international travelers. With the low dollar, it’s a great time to take advantage of affordable travel to the United States. These best value travel destinations in the U.S. are easy to reach from international airports because of the abundance of direct flights, which makes getting there less expensive and time-consuming. On top of that, these best value travel destinations have the widest range of accommodation options, affordable entertainment choices, package vacations, and great discounts for travelers on airfare, flights, hotels, and car rentals. These are Tripbase’s best value travel destinations in the U.S. for international tourists that live up to their iconic statuses as incredible, “must-see” urban landscapes. Best of all, they offer a great range of entertainment, nightlife, shopping, dining, urban parks, attractions and a plethora of choice when it comes to lodging.

Best Value Travel Destinations 2008 for International Travelers:

1. Los Angeles travel recommendations
With everything from white, sandy beaches where volleyball nets abound to urban spaces like the Griffith Park that overlooks the entire city and the Hollywood Walk of Fame to free art museums, LA has plenty of affordable entertainment, a wide range of accommodations, and plenty of flights to Los Angeles to choose from.

2. Las Vegas travel recommendations
All-inclusive packages usually include flights to Las Vegas and offer excellent deals on upscale resorts to entice gamblers, but you can also enjoy a wide range of street entertainment along ‘the strip’ without ever spending a dime.

3. Chicago travel recommendations
With music festivals, parks, museums and even beaches, Chicago offers visitors a wealth of inexpensive entertainment options as well as plenty of accommodation choices.

4. New York travel recommendations
With loads of flights to New York, Central Park, cathedrals, ferries and plenty of museums as well as a huge number of accommodations and inexpensive, ethnic dining make New York a great choice for value.

5. Miami travel recommendations
Sizzling with beautiful people on stunning beaches by day and in top-notch nightclubs by night, Miami is jam-packed with entertainment options, restaurants, and accommodations. Enjoy historic art-deco buildings and monuments as well as gorgeous beach parks.

Happy Travels,
The Tripbase Team

In our upcoming blogs, we’ll be sharing with you Tripbase’s top Best Value Travel to International Destinations.

Welcome to the Tripbase.com blog,

We’d like to thank all of our dedicated users for all the fantastic feedback we have received since our launch.  We are hard at work making improvements and changes to make sure this product gives you the user what you really want.

In the meantime, our computers have been crunching and processing the plethora of travel information available from travel industry databases, travel websites, and travel blogs, and we wanted to share with you some of our exciting findings here in our blog.  All of these findings and much more will be integrated into Tripbase.com in the near future, but we wanted to give our dedicated users a sneak peak at some of the more interesting results.

We’re going to tell you about destinations you’ve never heard about, and we’ll share with you some exciting things about destinations that you have heard about… we’re also going to share some industry information, including a few things that I’m sure nobody wants you to know.

Tripbase.com is still in alpha because we really want to publicly launch only once we are satisfied that the product it truly excellent, so please give us feedback… the more the better.   We know that we’re missing some stuff and we’ll be publishing information about places that are not yet up on the live site… but we just couldn’t keep all the good secrets to ourselves.  We feel the need to share what we’ve got.

Enjoy the site,
Reuven Levitt
CEO / Co-founder
Tripbase.com