In the process of cleaning off my desk I came upon this article I had ripped out of Conde Nast Traveler on “green hotels,” appropriately called False Advertising. Just as half the products and herbal concoctions in Korea claimed to be “good for health” when I was there, every hotel with an ample PR budget seems to be falling all over itself to say, “We’re green!” Witness the writer’s experience in Costa Rica:

When I asked the manager of one so-called eco-hotel what makes his property green, he responded, “Well, for one thing, all of our rooms have air-conditioning, but mostly I think it’s the ocean view.” The proprietor of a similar establishment, when asked the same question, told me that her assistant manager was a volunteer firefighter in his spare time. Among the massive all-inclusive resorts and water-guzzling golf courses of the gated “Papagayo Eco-Development,” I spoke to reservationists who assured me of strong commitments to the environment on the part of their employers, but when pressed could point to nothing specific.

Unfortunately, it’s only fair for me to admit that the more luxurious a hotel is, the more wasteful it is usually going to be. A budget guesthouse isn’t going to have its own huge generators and the guests are probably not drinking eight plastic bottles of water a day from their always-on minibar. The guests there are going to use their sheets and towels more than one night—often they don’t have a choice! But a big hotel can do other things right when they’re getting $500 a night.

The article notes that Lapa Rios Ecolodge can afford to transport items 230 miles to a recycling center. Orient-Express carted decades worth of trash away from Machu Picchu when it set up operations in Peru and is at the forefront of keeping the area clean because of its Hiram Bingham train and the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge. A big new development I just visited in Honduras is the first one on its bay to recycle all waste water on site and use solar power to heat its hot water. These things cost money.

Some efforts don’t cost money though and are more a matter of attitude, of really caring what happens to the land and the people surrounding the place where tourists are sequestered.

I’ll leave it with this quote from the False Advertising article:

“I think it really boils down to one question: How does a business contribute to the conservation of the local community?” says Ronald Sanabria, of the nonprofit Rainforest Alliance. “If a business—even one in a city—can’t provide you with a concrete response, it’s not practicing ecotourism and there is no substance to any claim that it is. It’s up to the consumer to decide if that’s acceptable.”

We just posted a review of El Convento Boutique Hotel in Antigua, Guatemala. While Antigua is full of interesting hotels that are full of personality, only a few try to serve upscale travelers who are more concerned about service and pampering than the price. So El Convento, which just opened in February, is a welcome addition to the scene.

Like Antigua’s Lion’s Inn, El Convento was built from scratch rather than being a restoration job in a historic home. The architects and designers have done their best to give the illusion of gravitas though, with a strong attempt to make the structure blend in with the Convent of Las Capuchinas across the street.

On another note, we also just added two hotels in Guatemala City, the Vista Real Hotel and Westin Camino Real. Neither one has any chance of making a “best in the world” list anytime soon, but both are comfortable for anyone stuck in the capital for a night or two, especially if you pay the minimal premium to upgrade to a business class floor or a suite.

Here’s an encouraging article you don’t see to often: a piece on how savvy executives are booking vacations to places that are out of Blackberry and cell phone range. Many are coming to understand what most creative people have known all along, that you can’t come up with great ideas and come back truly relaxed if you’re still connected to home.

This communication overload may be why travel companies that specialize in rugged adventure journeys to the most remote locations around the globe are reporting substantial increases in business. “We’re seeing a lot more people in high-stress jobs really trying to go places where they can’t easily be connected,” says Steve Cox, executive director of the nature-travel company International Expeditions, which conducts trips throughout the world, everywhere from the Galápagos Islands to Uganda. “In some cases, they feel that they’ve been so driven in their professions that they’ve neglected their families, and so they want to travel together someplace where they can’t be distracted.”

I just spent a week in Honduras and didn’t spot a Blackberry until my last day and that was at the airport. People were blissfully diving, snorkeling, eating seafood, birdwatching, and checking out the ruins of Copan. Maybe they even forgot about work for a while. Yet something tells me their companies survived…

Earlier on this blog I posted a video of tour of Casa de Sierra Nevada, the top large hotel in San Miguel de Allende. But we have two other hotels with full reviews on Luxury Latin America: the stunning Dos Casas and the whimsical Casa Linda. Any of these three will make your stay in this picture-perfect city even more special.

There are plenty of other small hotels in San Miguel that have gotten loads of press and made the “hot list” of some magazine or another. We only like to send you to the best, however, so we’ve passed on the others. Oasis, for example, is a favorite because it photographs well (and therefore looks great in a magazine spread). When you take away the stylish decor, however, what you have left is four rooms and a roof deck, with breakfast and sunset cocktails the only things on offer once you leave your room. Plus we stopped by twice to check the place out and neither time was there anyone present who spoke any English. Yes, some of us speak Spanish, but we shouldn’t have to at $300 a night.