Carbon Neutral & Verifiable

In 2008, LRB Flagship, which owns the brands Pure Adventures, Discover France, and Cycling Classics is continuing its commitment to the environment and to conservation. We joined Sustainable Travel International (STI) in 2006 and starting purchasing the carbon offsets to make tours carbon neutral for all tours in 2007. We are continuing again in 2008. Some may ask, "What does this mean, exactly?"

We are pleased to say that because we buying offsets through STI, we have verifiable projects that are making measurable differences. Our program in 2008 is the purchase of Green-e Certified Green Tags; they are USA Renewable Energy projects. Specifically: Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) Green Tags are also known as renewable energy certificates (REC) which are market based commodities representing 1,000 kilowatt hours (1 Megawatt hour) of electicity generation from renewables such as solar, wind, hydro, and biomass. The tags meet strict criteria including Green-e certification. (http://www.green-e.org/) The following projects are receiving support from the dollars we contribute when you purchase a tour:

White Creek Wind Project - 205 MW wind farm in Roosevelt, WA. USA
Condon Wind Project - 49.8 MW wind farm near Condon, OR. USA
Foote Creek Wind Project - multi-phase wind farm in Carbon County, WY. USA
A host of other wind projects located in the USA are also recipients; for a full list and details, please visit the STI website on this link.

What else does LRB Flagship do to minimize environmental impact?

1. we eliminated brochures in 2003; all of our tour listings and details are online, among these pages, and we make every effort to be available quickly by email and phone to answer questions so as to make brochures unnecessary for booking a trip.

2. travel documentation is sent electronically cutting down on huge amounts of paper and shipping.

3. tours are mostly self-guided which means that support vehicles are not in service most of the time.

4. in the host country, we do our best to work with suppliers and properties that also adhere to ecological, low impact ways of doing business. It certainly isn't always available, but where it is, we try to reward those businesses with your patronage.

5. the staff and owners do their part to live lightly and conserve. We are not eco-warriors, just concerned citizens of the planet doing what we can to rethink how we get things done. We believe that a little contribution by everyone will make a big impact and doing so doesn't require an unreasonable sacrifice.

We are putting money behind our convictions. Certainly, carbon contributions from a cycling and hiking tour are very small by comparison to other forms of travel. Nonetheless, we are pledging $9000US worth of offsets to make our trips carbon neutral, and we don't see this as negligible and something to be considered when comparing our tours to the competition. We hope you believe in the value of this and take pride in knowing your trip isn't making the planet worse!

New Cycling Tour in Belgium

Think of Belgium and 3 things come to mind: cycling, beer, chocolate! Or, if you are a war history buff, then maybe that comes in top 3 as well. So, the home country of the greatest cyclist Eddy Merckx forms the basis for a new challenging cycling tour we have designed for 2008.

In the past years we have tried under our brand Cycling Classics to get people to the actual Spring Classics in April, but that only saw limited success. So, for 2008, we open up the travel dates from April through September and offer a self guided trip any time. The routes are challenging and include the cobblestones of Tour de Flanders as well as some of the key climbs of that one day classic. We also incorporate the Eddy Merckx cycling route as well, and pack it all into a complete 4 night/ 5 day package! It is somewhat similar to our more leisure cycling trip listed on Pure Adventures, but the rides are much more challenging: longer, harder, and 'classic' - just like the pro spring races!

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DL Airlines to Start NYC-LYON June 3

Delta airlines will start direct service from New York to Lyon on June 3, 2008. This is apparently in response to strong demand. The new service will get people to the foot of the Alpes much quicker and with rail access available from Lyon St Exupery airport, its easy to go north or south by TGV.

This new date of June 3 is 6 weeks earlier than planned. The new space is now available for booking.

New Tour: Hiking Amalfi Coast

Naples & the Amalfi Coast conjure up images of the easy life along the beautiful Mediterranean coastline of Italy where sun, sea, and easy living rule. Well, perhaps but don’t forget that famous Mediterranean cuisine an the wine! More than that though for visitors, the Amalfi Coast is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and combined with the historical center of Naples and the site of Pompei this trip offers so much to see and appreciate all the while hiking the countryside.

This is a new trip introduced for 2008 and is operated as a self guided format. Pure Adventures specializes in self guided hiking and cycling tours and has published articles delineating the differences between self guided, guided, and self contained trips. In high Euro value times, the self guided formula is a great option to visit Italy and keep costs under control.

The tour starts in Naples with an arrival transfer and orientation to a lovely 4 star hotel in central Naples. From here the first hikes include Vesuvius, Pompeii and the Isle of Capri. Participants then get a transfer to Minori on the Amalfi Coast and from there can enjoy hikes to discover Ravello and its historic Duomo. There is Positano and in between the villages are hikes among coastline and impressive sites such as the Saint Dominic Monastery perched along the mountainsides.
This weeklong experience ends with a transfer back to Naples. Priced at 1255 euros per person (approx $1800US), the trip includes deluxe 4 star lodging, transfers, ferry boats, breakfast daily, local logistical and technical support, route maps and cue sheets as well as detailed pre travel information and Italy travel services. See http://www.pure-adventures.com/tours/hiking-amalfi.php for details and booking.

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Coincidentally, a big Canadian tour company announced a new Amalfi Coast Walking tour this week also. Their guided trip price? Over $8500 per person. !!!

Calling Canadian Cyclists - From Belgium with Love

The excerpt below is from a Canadian client who points out some of the highlights on our Belgium cycling tour which can be seen at this link:
http://www.pure-adventures.com/tours/cycling-belgium.php

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(photo: daily ceremony at Menin Gate)


Canada and Belgium have a special relationship going back to the two great World Wars. This tour will take you to Ypres where you can pay respects at Passchendaele, Sanctuary Wood, and the monument to the formation of the Princess Patricia Light Infantry first formed in 1914 and still serving in such places as Afghanistan. The moving nightly ceremony at the Ypres Menin Gate will reveal to you the names of over 6000 Canadians whose bodies could not be found after the battles. Tyne Cot Cemetary,a Commonwealth site, shows the care Belgium has put into remembering soldiers who defended it in the Great War. In Brugge a cab driver turned off his meter and drove us to "Canada Bridge" where Canadian Soldiers defended Brugge from Nazi incursion during the 2nd War. Along the Canal from Brugge to Ghent World War Two bunkers still exist right beside the cycle path. Belgium has the best marked cycle routes in Europe, good food and lodging, and wonderful people. We also toured the Loire/ Cher in France and it should not be missed either.
My wife and I have passed mid-sixties and hope our legs hold out for at least one more tour. The question is what can we choose that can compare with our experiences in Belgium and the Loire. If you choose Belgium I challenge you two read a book about Ypres or Paschdaele first. If you choose the Loire read "Suite Francaise" by Irene Nemerosky (a 2007 best seller in Canada).
Happy riding and thank you Pure Adventures for planning great routes..

David Stallwood

Taking Your Cell (Mobile) Phone Abroad

On our self guided tours we are always available by telephone for support, help with logistics, and technical matters or needed changes and service. Since it is self guided, and there is not SAG vehicle, the way to reach us is by phone. We are in the local area, but if you are in the countryside and more than a short walk to the nearest village, then you want to have your mobile phone. We offer rentals to most of our clients - depending on where you live, but many are wanting to bring their own phones. Here is some very useful info published by the Los Angeles Times written mostly for Americans, but it is certainly useful for others as well:

http://travel.latimes.com/articles/la-tr-info3feb03

Will my cellphone work abroad?
That depends on your destination and the type of phone you have. A GSM (Global Systems for Mobile communications) phone is the most widely used cellphone network. The largest service providers in the U.S. are AT&T and T-Mobile. GSM phones will work in Mexico, Canada, Europe, Australia, Africa and most of Asia and onboard some cruise ships. If you are traveling to South America, check with your provider.
What do I need to do in advance of my trip?
Once you determine that your cellphone will work at your destination, call your service provider and make sure you have turned on the option for "international roaming."
How much will it cost to use my cellphone to make and receive calls abroad?
A lot. AT&T, for instance, charges $1.29 per minute for standard international roaming to Canada, Mexico and Britain (www.wireless.att.com/travelguide). If you are planning on doing a lot of international travel, you might consider signing up for a plan with reduced rates. With AT&T, it costs $6 per month and drops to 99 cents per minute.
What about renting a cellphone with a local number for my destination?
This can be cost-efficient if you plan on making local calls or receiving a lot of calls. Many countries don't charge for receiving calls. You can rent a cellphone for delivery to your home address in the U.S. using a service such as Playa del Rey-based Cellular Abroad (www.cellularabroad.com). Many airports abroad have shops where you can rent a phone and return it on your way home. The advantage: You have a cheap way of receiving any calls and making local calls. The disadvantage: The people calling you from home incur long-distance charges.
What about SIM cards?
For the technologically unafraid international traveler, a SIM card may be a good solution. It's a small, removable chip in your cellphone that contains information about its phone number, and it can be programmed with a prepaid number of minutes of use. A SIM card will provide you with a local number for the country you're in. You install it on your personal cellphone. The caveat -- and it's a big one -- is that the cellphone must be "unlocked." Check with your cellphone provider to see whether your phone is unlocked and, if not, whether it can be.
Can I use text messaging on my cellphone abroad?
Yes, assuming your phone works in the country you are traveling to and international roaming has been enabled. But it's not cheap. AT&T, for example, charges 50 cents per text message sent.
Can I check my e-mail using a data-enabled cellphone abroad?
You can check your e-mail with your Blackberry or iPhone while abroad, but it can get expensive fast. AT&T charges about 2 cents a kilobyte of data. An e-mail of about 100 words of text only is about 4 KB, so that'll set you back only 8 cents. But adding attachments or a photo can crank the size up to 1 MB (1,000 KB) or more -- or $20 for one e-mail with a large attachment.
OTHER WAYS YOU CAN STAY IN TOUCH
What is VOIP and can I use it abroad?
Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) is the acronym for phone services such as Skype ( www.skype.com) and Vonage ( www.vonage.com) that use computers and the Internet for making phone calls. Using VOIP while abroad is probably the cheapest way to stay in voice contact. A call on Skype to a U.S. land line anywhere in the world is only 2 1/2 cents a minute. Even better, calls between Skype members are free. Travelers can make calls using their VOIP accounts from any computer with high-speed Internet access that has the software.
Do I need a computer to make VOIP calls?
No. If you have a Smartphone or phone with Windows Mobile, you can download Skype to it and make VOIP calls whenever you are connected to a Wi-Fi network. (Apple iPhone users, unfortunately, are out of luck for now. Apple doesn't allow third-party applications on its phone.) Skype also offers Wi-Fi phones for between $100 to $150. I tried a Netgear phone on my home network, and the quality was equivalent to a cellphone. It works with any open Wi-Fi network and with secured networks to which you have access.
How can I find Wi-Fi hot spots?
JiWire ( www.jiwire.com) has a listing of more than 220,000 free and paid Wi-Fi hot spots in 135 countries.
How can I find Internet cafes while traveling?
Internet cafes are a great way to cheaply check e-mail and keep in touch. They are virtually everywhere in cities of any size in Europe. You can find them by checking at Cyber Cafes (www.cybercafes.com), which has a database of more than 4,200 Internet cafes in 141 countries, or World66 (www.world66.com).