It's Friday and time to unwind after a crazy week and what better way to wrap up Glam Slam's Green Week celebration than with some eco-friendly getaways. Travel and Lifestyle expert Stefanie Michaels (AKA Adventure Girl! www.adventuregirl.com) picks five favorite celebrity green getaways.
Fiji has long been the place for celebs to get away from it all. Namale Resort & Spa set on a pristine cove against the Koro Sea where rainforest meets ocean. It's the ultimate in privacy and a favorite eco-escape for Cindy Crawford, Russell Crowe, Nicolas Cage and Jennifer Aniston. Their all-inclusive world class eco-friendly resort extends to both land and ocean, where marine gardens are "nursed" around the resort sustaining their own "Namale marine life ecosystem". They've hired on an exclusive team of divers to keep their dive sites clean of debris. On land, they recycle, use eco-safe laundry detergents and have a "one-hour lights out" each week from 7-8 pm.
Rates from $825-$2,300 per night all-inclusive.
Check with www.namalefiji.com for current specials.
There were no two better choices for 'The Bachelor' star Jason Mesnick, than marrying his winning "rose" Molly Malaney and their wedding at the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, located 45-minutes south of Los Angeles on California's coast. This stunning earth-friendly, Mediterranean-style resort, perched atop the cliffs above the Pacific Ocean, set the scene for romance. Terranea offers guests standard rooms, bungalows, casitas and villas. A quite impressive "Destination Earth" task force, sources out environmentally sensitive products, local vendors and purchases fresh and sustainable foods grown locally.
Rates can vary with an average from $300-$1,200 per night.
Demi Moore and Cameron Diaz chose to stay at the ever-so-eco-friendly Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel in Peru. It's an 85-room/suite hotel set on 12 acres of Cloud Forest at the base of Machu Picchu Mountain. Cameron picked the owner's villa, complete with dedicated butlers. (Prices start at $844 per night.) Inkaterra's grounds are home to various eco and conservation initiatives, which guests can interact with first-hand. Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel currently holds the largest collection of native orchids in their natural habitat in the world and has also been a key player in the protection of the endangered Spectacled Bear (South America's only bear species).
Rates per night $394-844 per night.
The world-renowned The Lodge at Chaa Creek, set deep in the jungle, was one of the premiere eco-lodges in Belize, with its nascent beginnings attracting backpackers. Now a 5-star resort and spa, this eco-gem is attracting the likes of Heidi Klum and Helen Mirren, whose husband, Taylor Hackford surprised her with a stay at the lodge's Tree Top Jacuzzi Suite. Chaa Creek and its private 365-acre nature reserve, has won almost every green award possible, from Green Hotels of the Americas to Top Ten Eco-Resorts in the World.
Rates from $195-$595 per night.
Where do busy LA based celebs get away for the weekend? Central California's Big Sur and the intimate Post Ranch Inn. Environmental superhero Leonardo DiCaprio and 'American Idol's' Ellen DeGeneres have ventured north to experience this posh tree house hotel hidden in the redwoods, above the bluffs of the Pacific. Voted one of the "Greenest Accommodations in the World", every room at Post Ranch Inn provides a unique, romantic way to experience the beauty of Big Sur, with Mother Earth in mind. Sod roof structures, passive solar heating, low energy lighting, native and drought-tolerant plant landscape and biodegradable cleaning programs are just the start. They also boast the identification and protection of rare, threatened and endangered species, including Smith's blue butterfly and the California red-legged frog.
Rates from $550-$2,185 per night.