And we’re off! 60 days on a whirlwind tour of the western US’ best luxury, ecofriendly properties and farm-to-table restaurants.
As many of you know, my other passion aside from educating people on natural health alternatives, is Travel! More specifically, travel to find hotels and restaurants that are striving to help protect and save our beautiful planet by implementing ecofriendly and sustainable initiatives. There is nothing more exciting for me than to be able to inform my readers about a great hotel that really cares about its effect on the environment – or a wonderful restaurant that sources locally and creates amazing seasonal dishes so we can eat healthier and more sustainably.
Anyone who travels frequently knows the frustration involved in trying to find the perfect location or hotel – let alone one that’s ecofriendly! You have to check Tripadvisor, Yelp, Jetsetter, hotel websites, Expedia, Travelocity and God knows what other websites to ensure that the lodging you choose actually lives up to the beautiful photography they have on their website that’s carefully plotted by their marketing department! After spending hours and days doing this myself for many trips, I thought to myself – wouldn’t it be awesome if there was just one website I could visit, where I knew the properties and restaurants had already been vetted by someone I knew and trusted. I actually vocalized this on many occasions to my friends and family and every one of them said – “Yes, that would be fantastic…Di, why don’t you do that?” Hmm…what a novel idea. So, I started my ecotravel department for Natural Nutmeg.
Fast forward a few years and here I am on this trip to gather information for a book tentatively entitled, “Eat, Sleep, Play, Thrive…in the USA: Finding America’s Best Farm-to-Table Restaurants, Ecofriendly Luxury Hotels, and Outdoor Adventure.” We flew into Denver on August 20th and will be traveling through Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona and New Mexico.
You can follow our trip on this blog, through Facebook on our fan pages and I’ll also be writing articles on the restaurants and properties we stay at that will be featured throughout the year in Natural Nutmeg and Essential Living Maine. I hope to provide you with some fantastic information about hotels and restaurants that are truly getting it right when it comes to ecofriendly initiatives and maybe you will be inspired to experience them yourselves!