Destinations

A feature about sustainable and authentic destinations around the world.

Klaus Melbye, director of the Wadden Sea Centre, surveys wildlife at a dike in Wadden Sea National Park.

Sustainable tourism: Can visitors save Denmark’s Wadden Sea?

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Denmark’s Wadden Sea National Park is pioneering radical climate adaptation by considering strategic retreat instead of building taller dikes. The UNESCO World Heritage Site spans Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands, hosting up to 15 million migratory birds annually on the East Atlantic Flyway. Sea levels could rise 1.5 feet over the next 50 years. The park encourages tourists to forage invasive Pacific oysters that displace native blue mussels, with free guided oyster tours running from October to March. The conservation strategy operates entirely through voluntary partnerships with local landowners.

The Burgruine Trifels in Southwestern Germany's Palatinate region, which is undergoing a green transformation.

Germany has a 150-year-old rule about forests. It may be the sanest idea in travel right now.

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Southwestern Germany’s Palatinate region demonstrates how sustainable tourism can work in practice. The area combines 130 medieval castles with Germany’s only cross-border UNESCO biosphere reserve. Local foresters developed the sustainability concept Nachhaltigkeit over 150 years ago, establishing one core principle: never extract more wood from a forest annually than it can naturally produce. This simple rule of consuming only what you produce now guides everything from fungus-resistant grapevine cultivation to circular economy oil mills that repurpose press cake waste into high-protein food ingredients.

eastern germany rostock

In eastern Germany, Rostock is on a quiet green journey

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From the top floor of Dock Inn, a hotel made of shipping containers with a commanding view of the harbor and dockyards, you might see a ferry bound for Sweden sliding silently by in the distance. Beyond it, there are the dense forests of the Steilküste, a coastline with steep cliffs plunging into a cold sea.