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October 07, 2004 New Article: Takeoffs and Landings The Wall Street Journal, October 8, 2004 A growing number of organic farms are opening their doors to overnight guests, but the price of gathering eggs from the chicken coop can be higher than you think. At the Apple Farm in Philo, Calif., an organic orchard with a weekend cooking school, guests pick their own tomatoes and pears, cook with 80 varieties of apples, make fruit chutneys and gather eggs from the coop. The cost: $350, not including overnight accommodation. Fitzpatrick Winery lets guests participate in its fall "grape crush" for $450; year-round activities include pruning vines, barreling, bottling and fermenting. And at Joie, a self-described "gastronomic guest house" on a 50-year-old pear-and-apple orchard in south-central British Columbia's Okanagan Valley, $1,445 gets you cooking classes in the outdoor kitchen, a chance to pull up your own lettuce from the garden and five nights in the bed-and-breakfast. Other working farms have fewer luxuries. At Ozark Forest Mushrooms' shiitake-cultivation workshops in Missouri, travelers should come expecting backwoods nature, says co-owner Nicola Macpherson. Here, guests pay to pick mushrooms and fell trees. "We rent out a couple of cabins on the farm with basic bunk beds," says Ms. Macpherson. "It's very rustic." Swing-State Gridlock In the run-up to the New Hampshire primary, some hotels in the state raised their rates by as much as 75% and were still booked to capacity. The House on the Rock Resort, in Spring Green, Wis., got a hefty boost from the 100-plus Kerry staffers who were on the road with the Democratic candidate. And this week's vice-presidential debates in Cleveland spurred an uptick in demand for hotel rooms there, with the Intercontinental, Marriott and Ritz-Carlton all reporting full occupancy. Another potential travel problem: Traffic can be obstructed and redirected by the candidates and their motorcades. A visit by the first lady prevented motorists in Royal Oak, Mich., from using the streets near a campaign stop on Aug. 9. And in early September, John Edwards brought a bit of gridlock to his stumping in suburban Milwaukee. To find out if your visit to a town or city coincides with a campaign stop there, check the main candidates' schedules at www.johnkerry.com/ontheroad and www.georgewbush.com/calendar. To avoid potential headaches, don't drive along main streets. For security reasons, police often don't release motorcade routes in advance, leaving drivers unable to plan. Odds & Ends October 01, 2004 New Article: Takeoffs and Landings The Wall Street Journal, October 1, 2004 It ain't easy being green, but California's government is trying to move the state's hotels in that direction. The new Green Lodging Program, which launched this week, includes a Web site listing hotels that comply with a range of environmental standards. The standards for the program were developed by the state's Integrated Waste Management Board, which heads several sustainability projects. It says an average-sized hotel in California purchases more household products in one week than 100 families do in one year, and uses 218 gallons of water per day per occupied room. In all, the state's hospitality industry spends $3.7 billion a year on energy. Some of the new standards include: recycling systems, eco-friendly cleaning agents, landscaping methods that require less water and amenity dispensers instead of individual bottles and soap bars. The site (www.ciwmb.ca.gov/epp/greenlodging) currently lists 26 hotels, including Disney's Grand Californian in Anaheim, the Intercontinental Hotel Mark Hopkins in San Francisco and the Westin Los Angeles Airport. The site was initially intended for the benefit of state workers (who are encouraged to book rooms in "green" hotels when they're traveling on state business), but is now available to the public. "Anything a hotel can do to reduce waste is a real blessing," says Roni Java, a representative of the Waste Management Board. "It's very difficult to install a new landfill. No one wants to live next door to one." The state based its standards for the new program on the Hotel Triton in San Francisco. The hotel uses low-energy bulbs, water-saving devices and amenity dispensers to reduce packaging waste. There are in-room recycling bins for guests to use, and ammonia and bleach have been eliminated in favor of non-toxic, environmentally safe products. The hotel recently signed up celebrities, including Woody Harrelson, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Andy Dick to design "Eco Rooms" at select hotels. A percentage of proceeds from these rooms go to the stars' environmental charities. The U.S. trails Europe in the environmentally friendly department, according to Greg Madsen, editor in chief of TravelOrganic.com, a Web site that lists organic and eco-friendly accommodations, restaurants and shops. "The focus here is more about bottom-line operational costs" and less about consumer demand and health and safety, says Mr. Madsen, adding that travelers in search of green lodgings are likely to have better luck with B&Bs and inns than chain accommodations. Odds & Ends |
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