Clayoquot Wilderness Resort in Vancouver provides guests with luxurious “tented” accommodations and five-star dining.

Tucked in the middle of nowhere on the west coast of Vancouver Island is an eco-safari retreat called Clayoquot Wilderness Resort, which can only be reached by boat or seaplane. While the accommodations at this resort are comprised of 20 tents, each offers every bit of the luxury you are seeking. This remote Canadian getaway has dining tents that offer five-star cuisine, massage and treatment tents, lounge tents and guest tents with fluffy duvets and antiques, all inspired by late 19th century Great Camps.

But behind the luxury there is a deep and meaningful commitment to restoring the land. Located on the Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Reserve Area on the banks of the remote Bedwell River, Clayoquot Wilderness Resort is committed to running in an environmentally sustainable manner with as low-impact operations as technology allows.

We love that every evening the Activities Director meets with guests personally to design their adventures for the next day, which depends on weather, tidal charts and animal sightings. The resort offers tons of activities so guests will never have a shortage of things to do in the wilderness.

If you go: While Clayoquot Wilderness Resort is only open May through September and guests are encouraged to make reservations in advance. Rates start at $4,650.00USD for three nights, and include return airfare from Vancouver to the Resort, deluxe tented accommodation, all meals, snacks and beverages (including alcohol), massage treatments and a wide array of guided adventure activities including instruction.

Places & Spaces is a travel guide that will inspire you to carve out a vacation on your calendar. All of the gorgeous locations and accommodations in our guide share our concern for the environment. From tent glamping to lavish built environments, fair warning, you’ll feel compelled to pack your suitcase.

VivaTerra, the leading retailer of distinctive eco goods for the home, is offering an Eco Escape to one lucky winner, provided by WanderTours.

Winning a trip anywhere is pretty cool. But winning a trip of your choice to an exotic destination? Now that’s what we’re talking about. From today through September 30, 2011, our fabulous sister site, VivaTerra, is offering a $5,000 eco escape to a grand prize winner, provided by WanderTours. The travel voucher can be used for either a scheduled tour or a custom tour, which will be created specifically for the winner.

WanderTours features both women-only and coed tours, and offers explorations that are as sustainable as humanly possible. Local guides are employed, making it an even better experience, and tour groups are kept small to reduce the impact on the countries they visit. The winner will discover some of the world’s most fascinating regions including Papua, New Guinea, Bhutan, India, Vietnam and Cambodia.

You must be 18 and a U.S. resident to win. Full terms and conditions are available on the VivaTerra website. Otherwise, what are you waiting for? Enter now!

Places & Spaces is a travel guide that will inspire you to carve out a vacation on your calendar. All of the gorgeous locations and accommodations in our guide share our concern for the environment. From tent glamping to lavish built environments, fair warning, you’ll feel compelled to pack your suitcase.

If you’ve got a lake house, count yourself a sitting duck for company.

In the summertime, there is nothing more coveted than a summer lake house to escape from the heat, the traffic and to commune with nature. But why not up the ante with a sustainably designed lake house? We found six that catered to our varied need for serenity, silence and superior design in times of summer chaos.

Envision yourself in one of these if you don’t have one of your own.

Designed by architect Todd Saunders of Saunders Architecture, this boat-inspired home is cozy and minimalist. Moreover, it flawlessly melds interior and exterior deck space in what looks like one broad, lovely, clean stroke from the roof to the dock of the bay.

Don’t let the grandness fool you. This modern lake house in Omena, Michigan is a fully sustainable LEED Gold certified home. Conceptually, the house was built with the idea that everything should be worked with and used as a tool, meaning the builders took energy and material use into account, as well as the trajectory of the sun and wind.

This eco house (called the Cliff House) in the Muskoka Lakes area of northern Ontario is off the hook, and off the grid. Designed by Altius Architecture, the house has breathtaking views care of floor-to-ceiling glass walls and the natural wood floors keep it homey. As mentioned, it operates off the grid and also features solar hot water and photovoltaic solar panels and clean-burning fireplaces.

The Clingstone House, made entirely from timber, is well over a century old. Today, it is owned by architect Henry Wood and has been re-vamped with modern eco technology including roof-mounted solar panels and a wind turbine to generate electricity. It also has rainwater-recycling, seawater-filtration systems, and composting toilets.

Stone Creek Camp on the eastern shore of Flathead Lake in Bigfork, Montana is more of a lakeside complex than modest getaway. The property, designed by Andersson Wise Architects, covers more than 15 acres and includes a cabin that dates back to the 1940s, which was preserved and renovated. It now has a main residence, a lodge, guest house, large dock and lots of green features. Constructed mostly from local materials, the main residence features an energy efficient sod green roof. Radiant floor heating heats the rooms and high performance windows reduce heat dispersion.

This naturally luxe cottage was designed by BjarkoSerra Architects. Located on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, what is most appealing about this lakefront house is that it blends so seamlessly into its natural environs. Moreover, while building this rustic getaway, not a single tree was cut or disrupted.

Images: One of Those American Girls; Saunders Architecture; BusyBoo; Design Stories; Trendir; Live Green; Bjarkoserra

I just returned from a seaside vacation, where the leisure-time activities included swimming, hiking, and being environmentally incorrect.

On the very first day at our rented seashore home, I unpacked the cooler we had brought to the beach – and without even thinking about it I began to toss empty Diet Coke cans into the trash. In my real life I am a fairly rabid recycler and would never dream of doing this, but on that day, I did it casually and instinctively, egged on by a small voice in my head that whined, “You’re on vacation – give yourself a break.” As small voices go, this one was relatively benign – it’s not like it was telling me to hold up a convenience store, or wear white after Labor Day. But I was shocked at how quickly and easily I could put my values aside just because I was temporarily away from home. Are my beliefs really that lightly held, that disposable? Apparently so.

In my defense, this was my first real vacation in two years. It’s been kind of a difficult time, what with career changes, mid-life crises, and hauling my daughter cross-country to look at colleges. Faced with a cooler full of sandy cans, a childish and petulant part of my character took over, stomping its feet and insisting that I shouldn’t have to do anything that resembled drudgery – even something as non-taxing as recycling some beverage containers.

Feeling a slight but lingering shame, I went on with my vacation and returned to the beach the next day. My family always looks for seals near the shore line – most times without success – but they were out in record numbers that day, coming closer to the beach than we’d ever seen them. Clownish, whiskered and incredibly sweet-looking, they dove in and out of the water, doing the sidestroke and goofing around. One in particular came right up to the shore and looked me straight in the face for an eerily long time. We bonded. We made crazy cross-species eye contact and in that moment I felt mystically (some would say obsessively) connected to that seal. I named him Frank.

Clearly he was not just a seal – he was nature’s perfect lobbyist and he quickly had me rethinking my lazy, selfish ways. As I stood at the shore, I vaguely remembered reading that ocean litter was largely made up of beverage containers. I cringed then, thinking about the cans I hadn’t recycled, and made a fierce and somewhat crackpot vow to improve my eco efforts.

I spent the rest of the day guarding the shore, giving dirty looks to anyone who looked like they might be on the verge of littering. “Don’t even think about it,” I hissed to a little boy who had the glazed, anxious look of a child who’s about to pee in the ocean. For me, there would be no more throwing out soda cans; I was newly committed to a pristine planet. I was making the world a better place”¦for Frank.

My daughter seemed surprised (and a little annoyed) that neither she nor her brother had ever inspired me with that kind of environmental zeal. This was an excellent point, and one that I deftly sidestepped but could not ultimately explain.

Except to say that Frank was one hell of a cute seal.

Image: nhoulihan

Just when I was starting to feel good about my DIY granola bars, along comes a couple with a do-it-yourself project that makes my attempt look small time. Portland, Oregon residents Mariah Morrow and Ryan Lingard built themselves a 130-square foot cabin in the mountains where they can retreat, relax, and go completely off the grid.

The couple named the cabin The Signal Shed and outfitted it with, well – nothing. There’s no running water or electricity and it relies on a wood-burning stove for heat. That said, this rustically luscious cabin is beautifully decorated and cozy.

Morrow and Ryan chose the location carefully so it would blend into its surroundings, then built it on a platform designed to protect the delicate foliage of the forest floor. Using recycled building parts and uncovered treasures on Craigslist, they built the structure in a mere two weeks. The cost? $57,000 which includes the price of the land.

For $1,000, you can buy the plans from Lingard and build the same cabin in your neck of the woods. Or, for $18,000, he’ll deliver a ready-built Signal Shed right to you. If you want a tiny, eco-responsible getaway of your own, you can’t top a cabin like this. While you’re there, you can practice making granola.