From eco-lodges to beautiful bike rides...

The first stage of the Grand Tours Project (see my previous post about it, Planet Bicycle and the Grand Tours Project) finished on the weekend - the 3,388km Giro d'Italia bike race around the coast of southern Italy and onto the icy, snowy mountain roads of the north.

That means that my 21 daily eco stories on the Grand Tours Project website - which cover everything from eating sustainably to electric cars - are all done now too. They'll be live until the end of the last grand tour on 15 September, but for now I thought I'd reprise three of my favourite posts, on eco travel:

Treehotel's Mirror Cube, Sweden

The green room: 10 of the world's most beautiful eco-lodges

It wasn't long ago that eco-lodges were the domain of hard-core conservationists who didn't mind roughing it for the sake of the planet. Times have changed and eco-lodges aren't what they used to be - they're better, way better. Following are 10 of the best - as beautiful as they are environmentally, socially, culturally and economically sustainable. Read more.

The Tour de Timor

Ride on - 8 of the world's best adventures on two wheels

No matter how you look at it, or where you look, bikes are booming, with cycle-friendly cities, bike rental schemes, rail trails (disused train lines converted to bike paths) and guided cycling tours all over the world. It's just as well cycling has a small carbon wheel-print. In the spirit of low-impact travel, here's a hand-picked selection of eight of the best adventures you can have on two wheels. Read more.

Avenue de Baobabs, Madagascar

Now you see them ... 7 precious places to see before they disappear

You've heard of endangered species. Now there are places endangered by climate change and its handmaidens: deforestation, ocean acidification, rising sea levels, extreme weather events. 

Glacier kayaking in the Arctic

For some of these places, it's best to admire them from afar than to visit them. For others, first-hand experience can be a good idea. Not to pay our last respects or witness the end of an era, but to motivate us to become advocates for their protection. 

In this way "climate change travel" as it's now called, can be a moral duty to the Earth, as long as the benefits outweigh the carbon footprints (offsetting flights and travelling responsibly go without saying). Following are seven of the world's most precious places to see, before it's too late. Read more.

The next grand tour is the big one, the Tour de France, on 1-21 July 2013.
See you there.