ECO DESTINATIONS

Excellent Eco-conscious Places to Visit with Kids

BY ETHAN GELBER

Recent years of restricted movement have provided helpful clarity about what families love to do when they can travel away from home. One big priority is visiting places that value green spaces and emphasize humanity's role in preserving the environment, especially communities and cultures with strong connections to nature. Here's a handful of welcoming, familyfriendly North American destinations that take this to heart.

SOUTHERN MAINE

New England is full of natural areas but Maine's long, island-spotted seaboard and hilly hinterlands – the Southern Coast, Portland, Midcoast and Down east – constitute one of the largest and most alluring. Acadia National Park is the crown jewel, with 158 miles of hiking trails, but outdoor land and water-based activities are encouraged everywhere, including the numerous family-ready preserves and state parks in many habitats. In towns, farm-to-table foods, regional crafts using recovered materials, sustainable local businesses, and environmentally aware hotels and tour operators abound.

Washington, dc

In striking counterpoint to government gridlock over climate change policy, the District of Columbia is America's foremost sustainable city by many measures, not least its easy walkability, 7,800 acres of parkland (the most of the U.S. 's most populous cities), list-topping LEED-certified buildings, including hotels (DC is the world's first LEED Platinum city), and numerous locavore restaurants. There's no shortage of educational, socially responsible and diversity-focused sites along the National Mall, and, further afield, greenleaning cultural attractions such as the Woodlawn and Hillwood estates.

Asheville, North Carolina

Asheville has firmly embraced responsible tourism. This should come as no surprise, given the small city's hip and progressive environmental sensibilities. In 2021, a local Action Leadership Forum convened to explore weaving equity and resiliency into sustainable tourism to reinforce it as a positive force for all. Visiting families are spoiled by the greater area's verdant beauty in the Western North Carolina Nature Center, North Carolina Arboretum, and many miles of nearby hiking trails. Farmers markets and farm-to-table restaurants round out the health-conscious offering.

Western National Parks

No list of green-centric travel in North America is complete without national parks. On a mission to educate and inspire this and future generations, they are the ne plus ultra of responsible eco-conscious travel. Out in the west, the largest and most famous parks, like Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, and Zion National Parks in the United States, and Canada's Jasper and Banff National Parks, always pack a particularly potent ecological punch, reducing car access, encouraging shuttles and providing informational programming to foster environmental education and park preservation. For full impact, camping/cabins and fireside meals admit a true sense of nature, day and night.

conscientious canada

Educational tourism experiences are increasingly the rule in Canada, whether guided by nature appreciation, social awareness or First Nations communities. Winnipeg (Manitoba) hosts the astounding Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the world's first museum dedicated to the subject, and Oak Hammock Marsh, a premier birding hotspot with an awardwinning interpretive center. In Saskatoon (Saskatchewan), Wanuskewin is a newly refurbished heritage park devoted to the cultures of the Northern Plains Indigenous peoples. Vancouver's Stanley Park and Capilano Suspension Bridge Park capture culture and nature together. And that's just the beginning, as the country works towards reconciliation with its Indigenous First Nations, Inuit and Metis people.

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