The best new eco-getaways

There's a 95 percent chance Senior Editor Christine Sarkis is thinking about travel right now. Follow her on Instagram @postcartography and Twitter @ChristineSarkis.

Christine Sarkis is an SATW-award-winning journalist and executive editor at SmarterTravel. Her stories have also appeared on USA Today, Conde Nast Traveler, Huffington Post, and Business Insider. Her advice has been featured in dozens of print and online publications including The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, and People magazine. She has also shared travel tips on television and radio shows including Good Morning America, Marketplace, and Here & Now. Her work has been published in the anthologies Spain from a Backpack and The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008. She is currently working on a travel memoir.

The Handy Item I Always Pack: The Trtl Pillow. It's easy to pack and comfortable, and makes it so I can actually sleep on flights.

Ultimate Bucket List Experience: Seeing the Aurora Borealis from the comfort of somewhere warm, like a glass igloo or hot spring.

Travel Motto: Curiosity is an amazing compass.

Aisle, Window, or Middle Seat: Aisle all the way.

Email Christine Sarkis at editor@smartertravel.com.

See recent posts by Christine Sarkis

Outside Magazine has published a list of the best new eco-getaways. You can find the winners in the March issue or in this USA Today article.

What qualities make a getaway “eco”, you might ask? Based on this list, it looks like everything from energy-producing elevators and solar panels to the chance to hunt free-range elk.

Free range elk? Yup. At the Lodge at Sun Ranch in Montana, you can sleep in luxury cabins with dramatic mountain views, eat local organic food, get a massage, fish for trout, go horseback riding, or shoot elk. A little something for everyone.

The list also includes hotels in North Carolina, San Francisco, and the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa, which has earned a place as the only LEED gold-certified hotel in the U.S., and where you’ll find a copy of An Inconvenient Truth in every room. Which reminds me, I really want to copy and laminate this photo and put it up next to the light switches I regularly forget to turn off.

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