A weekly roundup of EcoSalon’s top stories.

Places & Spaces: Canvas Hotel is a visual vacation, never mind a cyclist’s dream hideaway. Based in Southern Norway, the adventure starts the moment you arrive.

Lady Gaga on EcoSalon? In Shade Grown Hollywood: The Conscious Mind Of Lady Gaga, writer Kathie Butler says “Lady Gaga is on the way to becoming an icon of post-feminist sexuality. But is she a confident cultural attaché to our own fantastical fantasies? Or she is more of a mouthpiece of modern times, a voice raging against homophobia and discrimination?” We explore Lady Gaga, aka Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta’s level of consciousness.

With Japan still reeling in the wake of an 8.9 magnitude earthquake that sent a 30-foot wall of ocean water onto the Fukushima-Daiichi plant on the coast of Japan, we find ourselves asking if there are more viable options than nuclear as we watch radiation leaking from core reactors. In The Nuclear Option, writer Stephanie Rogers reviews the pros and cons.

In her weekly Green Plate, writer Vanessa Barrington’s column Is Urban Farming The Next Green Cottage Industry? asks if urban farming is a viable career for our younger generation and a dependable source of food for city dwellers.

This week, our editor’s column The Insider’s Guide To Life: Bite Me dives into female bullying, giving important tools to empower one to bite back. Ost writes: “Who on earth are these people? Tina Fey called them Mean Girls, and they are everywhere, no matter how grown up we get. Naively, I had approached my very first bully with the plucky optimism of a community fundraiser. Soon, she needed me and my reliable niceness, and when you get to that point it’s a short trip to toast. I was but the earnest wheat germ, she, the flaring toaster.”

EcoSalon was just nominated for Best Style Twitter Feed! Like us enough to cast a vote? Then go here!

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Canvas Hotel is a playground for adults (and bicycles).

Southern Norway is home to the enviable Canvas Hotel, sited on an island in a small lake, surrounded by big adventure. The Canvas Hotel is no ordinary hotel, the simple yurts take a backseat to a passion for peddles. This destination is about bicycles, offering courses, riding, trails, and training that ranges from beginners to skilled experts.

The adventure starts the moment you arrive. You will be picked up at the nearest train station or airport; your luggage will be transported for you while you jump on a bike and savor your first spin into camp.

After you conquer the granite trails on two wheels, head back to the yurts and plunge into the lake for a refreshing cool down. Then soak in the healing powers of a sauna (disguised as a yurt) or saturate your tired muscles in a designer hot tubs. The bathtubs are portable, so you can relax and soak anywhere you like (I would go for the floating platform suspended above the lake).

Just in case your definition of vacation includes indulging your palate, you’ll be relieved to hear the food at the Canvas Hotel is local, delicious, and hearty. The aim of the chef is to delight your appetite and fuel your rides, so there is no shortage of taste or quantity.

The playful atmosphere of the hotel is evident in this phrase from their website, “You don’t stop playing because you get old, you get old because you stop playing.” Who wouldn’t want to play here?

Rates start at $900/day – indulgent food, scintillating adventure, two wheels, pedals, and a generous guide included.

This is the fourth in our seven-part series, Places & Spaces at EcoSalon, 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.

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