We leave for Hawaii in a little over a week and I thought it was time to tell you about the places we have decided to stay and what went into the choices we made. And with Hawaii, the choices are as endless – traditional high-end resorts, eco-lodges, private rentals, camping, and more. I’m here to tell you that you can stay in any one of these places and still have earth-friendly lodging.

After we made our first decision on what island to visit (see story here), the next choice was to determine the best location to spend our time. In the end, we have decided on two very different ends of the spectrum in lodging, a private vacation home and a high-end resort.

Our first stop in the trip is the Big Island of Hawaii. We have previously stayed on the Kona side of the island for a week and spent limited time at Volcano’s National Park. We enjoyed the hiking and diverse natural resources at the Park and surrounding areas, so we decided to base ourselves on the Hilo side of the island.

With the Hilo side of the Big Island selected, we do worry about having quite a bit of rain fall. With a little research, we were able to find a small property that offered five vacation homes for rent on the more “sunny” point of that island. It will be interesting to see if the weather there is different than the area more north of Hilo. Our choice is the Kapoho Oceanside Villa.

A rental house works great for as an earth-friendly base of operations for a number of reasons. With the on-site washer/dryer, we can reduce the amount of clothes we bring for our two week trip. Every bag not only costs us money to bring, it also causes the airlines to use more fuel. Also, we forgo daily maid service, and choose when to launder our sheets and towels. This is also less resource intensive.

On the other hand, we are staying in a location directly on a national protected reef and we recognize that some in the island would prefer this area to be undeveloped. We see this as an opportunity to be careful with this delicate resource and teach others how to be careful as well. For instance, we are particular about the sunscreen we use in the water, although it is not a required on the property, recent research has shown chemical based sunscreens to be bad for coral reefs. We plan to use sunscreens with physical filters, which reflect instead of absorb ultraviolet radiation instead of chemical sunscreens.

On our next location, Maui, we took a 180 degree turn in our lodging and have chosen to stay at the Ritz Carlton Maui. On paper, the Ritz Carlton Maui’s environmental policies are the strongest we’ve seen in any resort property. When developing the property, the Ritz realized there was an ancient Hawaiian Burial Site on their proposed hotel site. They decided to move the hotel site, setting it farther from the beach then their local competition, in order to preserve the site. Also on the property are extensive hiking trails and the Kapalua Arboretum Rainforest.

In place of a traditional kid’s club, the Ritz launched Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ambassadors of the Environment program, providing a range of excursions with trained naturalists including snorkeling sessions, hikes and more. In addition, Executive Sous Chef Marc McDowell has an organically-managed gardens that supply 100% of the herbs used at the resort, as well as many of the vegetables and some fruits.

In addition to these practices, the Ritz Carlton Maui appears to be a beautiful resort. We are excited to see if these programs and the overall property, live up to their billing.

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