Green Tortoise Adventure Travel

Green Tortoise (GT) is a unique and affordable adventure travel experience not soon forgotten. While many people think of GT as fleet of old buses converted with bunks in the back, it is so much more. It’s an adventure travel company that includes two youth hostels in San Francisco and Seattle, and trips to many different places, including: Alaska, the American Southwest, Burning Man, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, the Midwest, West Coast, Baja, and Belize, to name a few. The experience is not for the faint of heart nor for those who prefer adventure that comes with valet parking and those little mints on your pillow. You will meet wonderful and often unusual people who leave lasting memories and sometimes become friends.

My first Green Tortoise experience was a trip between Seattle and San Francisco. There were several stops along the way, including Portland and Eugene. We also stopped in Cow Creek, Oregon for dinner. There, the good people of GT started a fire and barbequed veggies and salmon. Delicious! Since it was after dark, the entire area (outdoors) was lit up and powered by a generator in an old bus beneath the hilltop where the cookout happened.

Afterwards, everyone got into a sauna heated the old-fashioned way: by a wood-burning fire, and then jumped enthusiastically into the creek. Soon were continued towards San Francisco.

Green Tortoise is for people of all ages and persuasions, not just folks who shop at REI or the local co-op. There is every kind of person, every color, age, gender, race, or combination thereof. It’s like a small community on wheels with a basic unspoken respect that seems to be adopted by all who are present.

Visit the Green Tortoise website for more information.

Here is wonderful slide show created by someone who shares my appreciation for the Green Tortoise experience.