Our SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) is kicking in, so we’ve been looking for things to keep the spirits up:

• Travel + Leisure recently announced their 20 Favorite Green Hotels. We read a complaint that only one was in the US, but we’ll take what we can get and just hope for more closer to home…
• This link to unusually beautiful photos of Geneva reminds us that, relatively speaking, our winter is not so bad.
• Kids love silliness and honestly, so do we. Indulge them on Halloween or on your next vacation: go here and teach them how to say “oh my God, there’s an axe in my head” in several languages (including Klingon) .
• If your vacation photos elicit oohs and aahhs at their beauty, you’ll be interested in Photopreneur’s post on how to make money with your vacation photos.
• Finally, go global tonight with a list of Halloween traditions from around the world.  Happy Halloween!

Leading Hotels of the World now has a new website to match its new initiative: www.lhwgreen.com. The purpose? To contribute to sustainable travel initiatives via contributions to Sustainable Tourism International. When guests book stays at LHW hotels through the LHWGreen website - or mention the program when booking by phone - LHW will contribute money to offset the carbon emissions of visitors to member hotels.

Of course, the whole carbon offset thing is coming under scrutiny, with some skeptics noting that it provides travelers with the false sense that they’re really solving a problem when what needs to change is the behavior that leaves the Sasquatch footprint in the first place. If you’re a traveler really looking to make a difference, this easy solution may not be a complete answer for you: after all, the hoteliers themselves may or may not be indulging in more conscientious behavior, so you could be just “behaving badly” and paying a guilt fee. But since LHW plans to use the program to gauge the true “activist” tendencies and concerns of their guests, it may be a good way to let member luxury hoteliers know that the environment is indeed a concern, even to those of us who prefer a bit more “luxe” with our “eco”. And if that results in a more comprehensive program and more “green” policies on the part of the member hotels, that would be a good thing all around.

Earth Day is April 22 and you cannot open a magazine, watch the news, or view a web page without coming across some mention of it. After all, “global warming”, which has to be the catchphrase of the year, is on everyone’s agenda. No longer the domain of scorned tree-huggers, everyone has hopped on the Green Bus - and bought their carbon offsets to boot.

This is certainly true in the hotel industry, with both boutique and large properties pushing to keep up with the public’s demand for “green”. Most of us, admittedly, don’t really want to change the way we travel. Opting for the bus instead of a transatlantic flight limits our options, and we still want to enjoy all the creature comforts we’ve come to associate with a luxury vacation. So it’s really helpful when the hotels, airlines and travel agencies find ways for us to have our locally-sourced, preservative-free soy cake and eat it too.

But - how to be sure that you’re not being fed a line of eco b.s.? With everyone scrambling to promote themselves as friends of the environment, some claims ring a little truer than others. We’re not telling you you have to be eco-friendly when you travel - although we encourage it, of course, at the end of the day it’s up to you how and where you spend your vacation. But if you’re going to travel green, we want to make sure you’re not getting duped by marketers who’ve just realized that today’s buzzword can make for more visitors (and more of a different green in their pockets).

Over at Responsibletravel.com, we came across a great article by Justin Francis: 10 ways to tell if your eco-lodge is really eco. While all of the tips mention asking questions of the management, the truth is you may be able to find some of the answers online. For instance, tip #1 tells you to ask if the eco-friendly policy is written anywhere. While an urban hotel may not have this readily available on their website, many eco-lodges in nature settings do. Although the tips are geared towards eco-lodges, many of the questions can be asked of urban properties as well: how the building is heated and how they treat their wastewater are perfect examples.

So, to be sure that the earth’s resources - and your good intentions - are not being wasted, do a little homework when planning your next trip. Check out all the tips at responsibletravel.com.