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ecoXplorer is edited by Evelyn Kanter, a professional journalist with more than two decades of experience as magazine and newspaper writer and photographer, radio and television news producer and reporter, and guidebook author and editor -- all focusing on travel, automotive, lifestyle, the environment, and your rights as a consumer.
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 2012 Honda Civic GX wins Green Car of the Year Award Nearly nine million US customers have purchased a Honda Civic since it was launched as a 1973 model, making it one of the most popular vehicles in recent history, for its affordable price, dependable handling, and gas-sipping fuel efficiency that earned it the “Green Car of the Year” award at the 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show, although that was for the top-rated GX natural gas model. There’s also a hybrid model.
In the conventional gas-powered line, the 2012 Honda Civic comes in your choice of four engines, ranging from a 140-horsepower 1.8 liter VTEC to a 197-horsepower 2.0 liter VTEC. The aero-enhanced Civic HF achieves an estimated highway fuel economy rating of 41 miles per gallon, nearly as good as the Civic Hybrid. The non-enhanced version gets a respectable 28 mpg city, 39 highway.
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 If cabin fever is setting in, check out these budget travel deals for spring getaways –
Half off Hawaii resorts –Castle Resorts & Hotels is offering 50% off stays during its Deals in Bloom promotion at its resort hotels and condos on Oahu, Maui, Kauai, Molokai, and Hawaii’s Big Island. These include –
- Waikiki Beach – Hokele Suites, affordable condos right in the heart of Waikiki. Studio with kitchen, from $85/night.
- Poipu Beach, Kauai – Castle Kiahuna Plantation & The Beach Bungalows, resort style condos situated on stunning landscape and famous Poipu Beach, one-bedroom Garden View Suite, from $189/night.
- Waikoloai – Halii Kai at Waikoloa, luxury villas and townhomes in world renowned Waikoloa Beach Resort. 2-bedroom Garden View Villa, from $285/night.
- Kihei, Maui – Castle Kamaole Sands, overlooking Kamaole Beach Park III, one of the best swimming beaches on Maui. 1-bedroom Suite, from $155/night.
Earn free nights at Best Western hotels and resorts — Stay three times, get a free night That’s the Best Western spring promotion to celebrate the brand’s 66th birthday. You have to be a member of the chain’s Best Western Rewards loyalty program to earn a free night, but it’s free to join. Earn the free nights if you stay three separate times through April 8, 2012, and get a voucher for a free night at a Best Western anywhere in the world.
Fourth night free in Bermuda — Pink Beach Club gives you the Fourth Night Free promotion when you book three, anytime during the month of May 2012. This promotion also gives you free daily breakfast, afternoon tea and a five-course gourmet dinner for every night of the stay. Rates start at $535 per room, per night, based on single or double occupancy in a garden view suite.
 Sandals beach resorts – Companion flies free to resorts in the Bahamas. Limited time offer.
Florida — Bid on unsold Florida resort vacation sites and save 50% or more. I’m not a big fan of vacation auction sites, but the travel deals on Florida Vacation Auction in partnership with the state’s official visitor agency, Visit Florida, so this is a legitimate auction site. Just know what you are doing before you bid on something.
Volkswagen is known for manufacturing fuel efficient cars, like the VW Passat, so it makes sense that VW builds them in an energy efficient factory. VW’s new $1 Billion manufacturing plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is the world’s first and only LEED certified green auto manufacturing plant.
 VW opens world's first LEED certified auto plant, in Chattanooga, where fuel-efficient 2012 VW Passat is manufactured Volkswagen saves both money and the environment with this green design, which is a model for eco-friendly, sustainable factory designs anywhere in the world –
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Indianapolis has a lot more to offer than the football and car racing. Sure, it’s world famous as the site of the Indianapolis 500, and getting worldwide attention as the site of Super Bowl XLVI between the New York Giants and New England Patriots, but that’s just for starters.
 Acoma Pottery (c) Evelyn Kanter Photographer - All rights reserved Indianapolis is home to one of the best museums in the country that showcases Native American history, arts and crafts, plus Western art. The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western is a beautiful, modern museum, located in White River State Park, in the heart of the city. If you appreciate the incredible workmanship and creativity of Native American crafts, including beadwork, masks, pottery, jewelry and totem poles — as I do — you’ll find the Eiteljorg Museum in the same class as the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian in New York City and Washington, D.C., the Heard Museum in Phoenix, and the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, all of which I have visited. The Eiteljorg collection includes tribal artifacts from the Southwest to the Northwest. There’s a special exhibit through August 2012 called Steel Ponies — a collection of historic motorcycles including one used by Evel Knievel for many of his famous jumps.
 Chihuly tower of glass at Indianapolis Children's Museum Indianapolis also has one of the best children’s museums on the planet. Children’s Museum Indianapolis has kid-pleasing exhibits on favorites like Barbie and Mr. Potato Head, plus extensive hands-on learning spaces and spaces to crawl through and around, and an antique carousel to ride around. Exhibits are built around a center atrium, at the center of which is a monumental, colorful tower of glass by artist Dale Chihuly — something more appreciated by the adults who visit than the kids. The museum is easy to find — just look for the huge dinosaur guarding the front entrance. It’s also an eco-friendly museum, with a green roof that saves energy. Click here for a virtual tour.
Of course, you should visit the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum, where hundreds of racecars are parked, including the 1911 Marmon Wasp that won the first race, in 1911, of course.
If you prefer trains to cars, then head to the Indiana Transportation Museum, to see restored, operating examples of steam, diesel and electric rail transportation from the early 1900s. There’s even the chance to take a ride on a historic former Nickel Plate Railroad.
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There’s an interesting group of travel contests and sweepstakes to help save you the green in your wallet –
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 Cuba: colorful vintage cars and vintage buildings Cuba has been forbidden fruit for most Americans since the 1960s. But it’s easier to visit Cuba — legally — with a US Passport than you think, and part of the reason the New York Times names Cuba, especially Havana, one of the 45 places to visit in 2012.
I was there last year, flying legally on a chartered American Airlines plane from the Miami Airport. The plane was half filled with Cuban-Americans visiting their relatives, and the other half was Americans like me, with no relatives in Cuba, traveling with a humanitarian, religious or cultural group. That’s how I travelled – with my luggage stuffed with school supplies, vitamins, bandaids and toothpaste, to donate to the schools and clinics my group would be visiting along the way.
If you are a vintage car enthusiast — as I am — visit soon, before Cuba opens up and the wonderful 1940s and 1950s cars disappear. Some are junkers, held together with enthusiasm and ingenuity, others have been beautifully restored. Just like the buildings in Old Havana and Cuba’s other colonial cities, Cienfuegos and Trinidad de Cuba.
I rode in a restored ’57 Chevy convertible along the Malecon, Havana’s beach road, and snapped photos of Studebakers, Plymouths, De Sotos, and wood-paneled Ford station wagons that became known as ‘woodies’. I visited Ernest Hemiway’s finca, or country house, where he wrote much of For Whom the Bell Tolls, and paid homage to the beat up manual typrewriter he wrote it on. Even though I don’t smoke cigars, touring the historic Partegas factory, where they make the fabled Cohiba cigars, was fascinating. No photos are allowed inside, but it’s not to protect cigar-making secrets — it’s because the workers lost so much time posing for photos that cameras are no longer allowed. Visitors yes, cameras no.
Whatever your politics, visiting the memorial and museum dedicated to Che Guevara, in Santa Clara, is a must. Ditto the Museum of the Revolution in Havana, which traces Cuban history from the Conquistadors to Castro. It’s in the former Presidential Palace, where the office of former president Juan Battista is intact, just as he left it before escaping the revolutionary forces.
You can read more about my trip to Cuba on SmarterTravel.com. Here’s the link to the slideshow and story on ten reasons to visit Cuba now.
The North American International Auto Show — better known as the Detroit Auto Show — is underway now, with more new model introductions, including concept vehicles, than the public has seen in years. The auto industry is bouncing back, but even so, not everything is a hit. There are some misses. Here’s what the industry trade newspaper Automotive News gives a thumbs up, and a thumbs down, starting with the Acura NSX, which Automotive News calls the star of the show –
 Photo Acura NSX hybrid concept courtesy Toronto Star Acura NSX–The star of the show. This two-seat hybrid sports car blew folks away. There were whoops and hollers when the wraps came off. And it will be made in America, at the Honda factory in Ohio. Lottery ticket sales soared immediately.
Acura ILX–Acura has used the Honda Civic platform before, but the Integra and RSX never looked cheap. This looks like a warmed-over Hyundai Elantra, which certainly isn’t luxury.
Ford Fusion–The fascia lightly borrows from Aston Martin. The narrow greenhouse is sleek, and faux-aluminum interior details highlight the cleaned-up center console. The sweeping roofline makes for a narrow trunk opening, though.
Honda Accord Coupe–Take a current Accord, mash it with the Mitsubishi Galant, add over-blown fog-light cutouts. Honda should know better.
Lexus LF-LC--Gorgeously sculpted air intakes are everywhere, yet the coupe concept doesn’t look cartoonish. The LED headlight accents hint at the Nike swoosh. Just Do It.
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While all the news about the shiny new toys being introduced at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, let’s look at the flip side, at the ten cars that barely made a blip on the sales screen in 2011. All are great cars, many with top safety ratings. They just suffer from less desirable than another model from the same manufacturer, or a competing brand, plus the overall switch from larger gas guzzlers and SUVs to more fuel efficient models and versatile cross-overs. Here’s the list, compiled by Autoblog, which published the list just with price and sales numbers, but no reason for the poor sales. So those comments and opinions are mine.
 2011 Mazda Tribute, one of the ten worst selling vehicles of 2011 10. Subaru Tribeca, MSRP: $30,595, Units Sold: 2,791
- Wouldn’t you rather have a Forester or an Outback? Most Subaru buyers did
9. Mazda Tribute, MSRP: $20,555, Units Sold: 2,696
- Separated at birth from the Ford Explorer. Wouldn’t you rather have a Ford??
8. Mercedes-Benz R-Class, MSRP: $52,690, Units Sold: 2,385
- A super-sized station wagon. Longer wheelbase and more expensive than the popular M-Class SUV and redesigned GLK
7. Suzuki Equator, MSRP: $17,899. Units Sold: 2,127
- It sold that many? Must be the price.
6. Cadillac Escalade EXT, MSRP: $63,060, Units Sold: 2,036
- Other than rap stars and limousine fleets, is anybody still buying this super-sized SUV?
Read the next page to find out about the five worst selling vehicles of 2011. Surprise — not one of them is produced by by Detroit big three Ford, General Motors or Chrysler.
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Where’s Evelyn? March 2012
Lake Tahoe
February 2012
Los Angeles, Palm Springs
January 2012
Israel
In 2011
Courcheval, France
New Zealand
Los Angeles Auto Show
Stuttgart, Black Forest
Saratoga, NY
Pittsburgh
Washington, DC
Niagara Falls
Hershey, Penna
Fiji Islands
Anchorage, Alaska
Alyeska Ski Resort
Vancouver, Whistler
Vancouver Island
Speaking Engagements
PRSA Travel & Tourism Conf.
San Antonio, Speaker
ASJA Conference, NYC
Panelist on Writing Apps
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