Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
73
for those age 55 and over.
ElderTreks
(
&
800/741-7956
or 416/558-5000 out-
side North America; www.eldertreks.com)
offers small-group tours to off-the-beaten-
path or adventure-travel locations,
restricted to travelers 50 and older.
Recommended publications offering
travel resources and discounts for seniors
include the quarterly magazine
Travel 50
& Beyond
(www.travel50andbeyond.
com) and the bestselling paperback
Unbe-
lievably Good Deals and Great Adven-
tures That You Absolutely Can't Get
Unless You're Over 50, 2007-2008, 16th
Edition
(McGraw-Hill), by Joann Rattner
Heilman.
9
SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
In line with its reputation as a country of
extremes, Russia offers some of the best
and worst that nature has to offer. Vast
tracts of untouched Siberian forest and
wildlife, and pollution-choked cities with
little regard for recycling or emissions
limits. Its attitude toward transport is
similarly polar: Its trains and trolleybuses
carry millions daily and have offered effi-
cient, carbon-free travel for a century, and
most Russians do not own cars. But those
that do generally own the dirtiest kind:
fuel-thirsty SUVs and Hummers, or
Soviet-era models built when emissions
were of no concern. One positive develop-
ment is that the collapse in Russia's indus-
try in the 1990s means office buildings
and apartment towers took over factory
grounds that used to cough pollution into
downtown Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Navigating both cities with the envi-
ronment in mind is challenging but pos-
sible. Nearly every site listed in this topic
can be reached by public transport. Bikes
are available for rent in both cities.
In Moscow, try www.veloprokat.ru. (in
Russian only; 6 Shestaya Radialnaya
Ulitsa;
&
926/284-9232;
metro: Tsar-
itsino). It's in a garage. Bikes cost 800
rubles a day. They'll also deliver your bike
to you for another 600 rubles.
In St. Petersburg, try Skat Prokat, for
300 rubles a day plus deposit. (3 Glinka
Ulitsa, inside the Kitsport store;
&
812/
325-7198
).
None of the car rental agencies in either
city currently offer hybrids.
Few hotels or restaurants pay much
heed to environmental concerns. An
exception is the
Alexander House
in St.
Petersburg (p. 227). To be more certain
about the provenance and contents of
your food, try the open-air markets in
either city (Izmailovsky Market in Mos-
cow or Mikhailovsky Market in St. Peters-
burg are good options). The older women
camped out on the edge of the markets are
often selling goods from their own gar-
dens. For vegetarian dining suggestions,
see p. 67.
Though caviar is a centerpiece of Rus-
sian cuisine, the Caspian Sea sturgeon that
produce them are desperately endangered.
If you are keen for a taste, favor the red
caviar, or salmon roe, on many restaurant
menus.
Recycling has yet to catch on in either
city, as the excessive packaging we know in
the West came only recently to Russia. An
exception are Soviet-era machines that
allow you to exchange empty aluminum
cans for cash, though they are often out of
order. Recycling bins around Moscow are
marked with images of paper, glass, or
plastic but are often filled with other
debris.
The best way to stay “green” in both
cities is to visit their extensive parks.
Losiny Ostrov
in Moscow was a former
imperial hunting grounds and is the size of
3
