When I lived in San Francisco, I often overheard visitors say the darnedest things. “We have to see Alcatraz! And Ghirardelli Square!” Ugh. Seriously? Guys, you’re missing out: San Francisco is the capital of urban hiking.

I get it. With the trails of Marin and Pacifica just a short drive away, why bother hiking in a city? And just what is “urban hiking,” anyway? For those of us who habitually and deliberately plan travel, as well as a general lifestyle, around being car-free (guilty), it’s imperative to find a way to experience nature without driving to it.

Luckily, the hills, parks and even sidewalks of San Francisco provide ample opportunity for just that. One gluteal-busting walk from the Ferry Building to Ocean Beach shows that the word “hike” may even be an understatement within the city limits; this so-called walk is a bonafide butt and core workout. Luckily, the views, as well as the delicious food in which one feels justified to indulge afterward, more than make up for the scaling involved. In fact, one in-person look at these views, and urban hiking becomes one of the best reasons to visit San Francisco.

1. Filbert Steps, Telegraph Hill

Before you get there: If you find yourself in this part of town on a Saturday, be sure to fuel up at the Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market. Our picks are the chilaquiles from Primavera Tamales.

2. Jones Street & Green Street, Russian Hill

Where to go from here: Continue on Green Street toward Pacific Heights for more great views, or walk down the hill toward the Marina for great shopping and restaurants.

3. Alta Plaza Park, Pacific Heights

What to do, now that you’re here: Go early, and quietly sip on your coffee (stop at Jane on Fillmore on your way over), while you watch the dogs play in the off-leash park.

4. Sutro Heights Park, Sea Cliff

They call it “Land’s End” for a reason. Breathe deep, and give thanks.

Say hey to Amanda on Twitter or Instagram

Related on EcoSalon

Take a Hike: 5 More Great Tips for the Urban Explorer

From The Vault: Celebrating the Concrete Jungle

Will San Francisco Become America’s First City Without Bottled Water?

Top photo: Andrew Moore

Summit photos: Amanda Zantal-Wiener

The post 4 Views That Prove Urban Hiking is the Best Part of San Francisco appeared first on EcoSalon.

Improve your car-free commute or daily dog-walking experience with mobile apps that help you find the best streets for strolling.

The free Web- and Android-friendly Walkonomics app ostensibly scores streets in eight categories — including how pretty, how steep, how dangerous, and even whether a sidewalk exists — based on open data from governments and ratings by app users.

Essentially, though, Walkonomics’s mobile, crowd-sourced cartography recognizes walking as a means and an end.

The streets between our Point As and Bs make up small stories written as we go, where wearing high heels or holding hands with a toddler, not just distance, can inform the journey. Tourists might look for the easily navigable streets; for joggers, streets with crosswalks; for everyone, streets with restaurants, parks, or stores.

Studying and facilitating walking is Walkonomics founder Adam Davies’s vocation. He blogs about walking’s effect on the environment, society and individuals, and vice versa. He tweets walking stats and stories almost daily.

To Davies, simply walking could solve so much. Purchasing has its power, but getting out the door is among the greenest things we can do.

“Things like rising fuel prices and the growing obesity crisis and Generation Y, my own age group, who long to live in urban areas and not have to own a car because it’s better for the environment … All of these different things feed into getting more people walking,” Davies said. “There’s no downside to making cities and streets more walkable.”

Swelling interest from the streets up could make walkability a high priority for local governments and businesses.

“Places like Los Angeles and Houston, some of those big, sprawling cities — as normal people abandon cars or hire cars like Zipcar, cities like that are going to have to change to attract people to live,” Davies said.

So far, Walkonomics covers every street in San Francisco, New York City, and all of England. Davies used “open data sets” — with info on streets’ cleanliness, for instance — released by governments in the past three years as well as app-users’ ratings. The latter could grow Walkonomics’s coverage exponentially.

“You can add a totally new street onto the system and start rating it yourself,” Davies said. “We’re still building the community. Once the crowd sourcing is working, it will be self-policing.”

Think eBay seller ratings, where mass feedback shapes appeal. With one out of five stars — do want to go down that road?

Davies expects Walkonomics for the iPhone to be available for download in a couple weeks. –Mackenzie Mount

This article appears courtesy of Sierra Magazine

Mackenzie Mount is an editorial intern at Sierra. She’s cleaned toilets at Yellowstone National Park and studied sustainable cooking at The Natural Epicurean Academy of Culinary Arts in Austin, Texas.

Top image: jessleecuizon

The post Take a Better Walk with Street-Rating Mobile Apps appeared first on EcoSalon.

The best of EcoSalon’s stories this week.

When walking is healthy, slimming and free, why does so much of America still see it as…well, pedestrian? (Look, even our own language is prejudiced).  If you’re looking for inspiration to drag your shoes on and get rid of that roof over your head, you might find it here.

France’s farmer’s markets are a timeless feature of the country. Alas, if only that were really true, as it seems Paris’s independent open-air vendors are under siege from wholesalers and internationally-shipped organic foods. Can local farming maintain a hold on the French dinnertable?

If our walking quotes didn’t get your feet twitching, you might be in need of some map decor. Earlier in the week we directed you to some inspiring map art over at Curbly, but if you’re looking for more widespread inspiration, Pinterest is your friend here.

Get in motion, stay in motion – it’s the key to success, happiness and some really terrific photography.

Lastly, spare a thought for the inhabitants of Rome 2,000 years ago – it didn’t matter whether they got out into the fresh air or stayed at home, their environment was out to get them.

The post The Friday 5: Take To The Streets Edition appeared first on EcoSalon.

So take the first step.

“Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.”

-Steven Wright

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Image: D_P_R_

The post All Roads Lead Somewhere appeared first on EcoSalon.

Put your best foot forward.

A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. -Paul Dudley White

The best remedy for a short temper is a long walk. -Jacqueline Schiff

There is this to be said for walking: it’s the one mode of human locomotion by which a man proceeds on his own two feet, upright, erect, as a man should be, not squatting on his rear haunches like a frog. -Edward Abbey

My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She’s ninety-seven now, and we don’t know where the heck she is. -Ellen DeGeneres

There is nothing like walking to get the feel of a country. A fine landscape is likea piece of music; it must be taken at the right tempo. Even a bicycle goes too fast. -Paul Scott Mowrer

Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time. -Steven Wright

If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking. Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk. -Raymond Inmon

When I’m in turmoil, when I can’t think, when I’m exhausted and afraid and feeling very, very alone, I go for walks. It’s just one of those things I do. I walk and I walk and sooner or later something comes to me, something to make me feel less like jumping off a building. -Jim Butcher

Solvitur ambulando, St. Jerome was fond of saying. To solve a problem, walk around. -Gregory McNamee

All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking. -Friedrich Nietzsche

I would walk along the quais when I had finished work or when I was trying to think something out. It was easier to think if I was walking and doing something or seeing people doing something that they understood. -Ernest Hemingway

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in. -John Muir

Walking is the great adventure, the first meditation, a practice of heartiness and soul primary to humankind. Walking is the exact balance between spirit and humility. -Gary Snyder

Her pleasure in the walk must arise from the exercise and the day, from the view of the last smiles of the year upon the tawny leaves and withered hedges, and from repeating to herself some few of the thousand poetical descriptions extant of autumn – that season of peculiar and inexhaustible influence on the mind of taste and tenderness – that season which has drawn from every poet worthy of being read some attempt at description, or some lines of feeling. -Jane Austen, Persuasion

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me. -Noël Coward

Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow. -Henry David Thoreau

The true charm of pedestrianism does not lie in the walking, or in the scenery, but in the talking. The walking is good to time the movement of the tongue by, and to keep the blood and the brain stirred up and active; the scenery and the woodsy smells are good to bear in upon a man an unconscious and unobtrusive charm and solace to eye and soul and sense; but the supreme pleasure comes from the talk. -Mark Twain

Walking: the most ancient exercise and still the best modern exercise. -Carrie Latet

But the beauty is in the walking – we are betrayed by destinations. -Gwyn Thomas

Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. -Soren Kierkegaard

I haven’t got any special religion this morning. My God is the God of Walkers. If you walk hard enough, you probably don’t need any other god. -Bruce Chatwin 

My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing. -Aldous Huxley

I dream of hiking into my old age. -Marlyn Doan

When you have worn out your shoes, the strength of the shoe leather has passed into the fiber of your body. I measure your health by the number of shoes and hats and clothes you have worn out. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

You need special shoes for hiking – and a bit of a special soul as well. -Terri Guillemets

I have two doctors, my left leg and my right. -G.M. Trevelyan

Many people nowadays live in a series of interiors… disconnected from each other. On foot everything stays connected, for while walking one occupies the spaces between those interiors in the same way one occupies those interiors. One lives in the whole world rather than in interiors built up against it. -Rebecca Solnit

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day. -Henry David Thoreau

If I could not walk far and fast, I think I should just explode and perish. -Charles Dickens

Meandering leads to perfection. -Lao Tzu

ALSO CHECK OUT:

50 Quotes About Meditation And Yoga

40 Best Quotes About Solitude

30 Best Quotes About Staying Well Physically and Spiritually

30 Best Quotes About Nature

Want to see more quotes? Go here.

Images: Stephen Heron, Vinoth Chandar, Iryna Yeroshko

The post 30 Quotes About the Joys of Taking a Walk appeared first on EcoSalon.

To you doers of good, we say thanks. You clean up after yourself. You say kind things in YouTube comments. Your DIY projects make killer Christmas presents, and you always know where to get the best arepas. But sometimes, we really wish that you’d give it a rest. Need us to get more specific?

7. The Advice-giver. In his mind, he’s the only person in the world with access to the internet. And it’s his responsibility to make sure that you know everything he does. He’s just trying to help, so why are you getting so defensive? His favorite response to any good news is “Actually, did you know [that can kill you and everyone you love]?” For example, you just posted a video from your phone of your baby taking his first step. He writes: “Actually, did you know that the radiation from cell phones are probably the leading cause of peanut allergies today? Just a thought before you point that death ray at your baby’s head.”

6. The Experimenter. If you can cleanse it, she’ll pour lemon juice on it. If she reads an article about the evils of shampoo (“My God, they put chemicals in it?”), she’ll dump every bottle she has and buy a lesser evil. A pair of $90 running shoes designed to mimic the experience of not wearing shoes? She wears them to the farmer’s market. She drank raw milk every day until she gave up dairy, and whether she’s Paleo or vegan, you can bet she’s going to tell you exactly what she had for lunch today, whether you asked her or not.

5. The Petitioner. Every Facebook status is a link to another atrocity you have to learn about right now, followed by an online petition that will halt said atrocity immediately by adding your name to an instantly-generated email that will be sent to your local state representative. “You guys really need to sign this, or else they’re going to close Planned Parenthood forever and replace it with farm factories staffed exclusively by violent police officers and plastic bags.” Her profile picture is lilac today, in a mark of protest against a recent crime against human rights, and if you don’t know what crime that is, you’re clearly part of the problem.

4. Gwyneth Paltrow. For cupping, for GOOP, for cheating on poor Matt Damon and then killing everyone in Contagion – take your pick.

3. The Label-Free. “I don’t think labels belong on people. I’m pansexual. But honestly, even think that term doesn’t really begin to capture my shimmering, omni-gendered nature. It’s such a shame that we have to use such limiting means of communication like language to express something as fluid and subversive as sexual orientation. I actually prefer to identify as a ball of glitter that pulses and contracts with the cycles of the moon. Or a dolphin made of teamwork. I haven’t decided. Oh, I own four pairs of custom-made fairy wings; why do you ask?”

2.The Fundraiser who Needs Fundraisers for Self-Worth.

“Don’t forget that my 10K/Ironman/cross-country bike trip to fight/raise awareness for/cure AIDs/breast cancer/global inequality/child slavery/non-GMO seed banks is next week!”

“Oh, can I not just write a check?”

“Can a check fill my Facebook Charity Walk 2011 album with 50 unique crowd shots? Can a check send me monthly emails thanking me for doing my part and reminding me that this year we’re going to exceed our goal and they couldn’t do it without me?”

“I guess I just don’t see how giving to charity and exercise are related, other than they both generally seem to be good things. You don’t do push-ups to resist global food distribution inequality or anything.”

“So are you going to donate or what? 50% of all donations will go to race-day expenses and staff salaries, but the rest directly funds life-saving research. And Cancer Awareness apparel. But 3% of all sales from the apparel goes back into the research fund! Which is evaluated and redistributed at the end of the year by a team of paid accountants.”

1. The Office Watchdog. We’re not sure who you are, because you seem to operate under the cover of darkness, but we see the trail you leave behind. The suspiciously chipper notes in the kitchen (“PLEASE BE SURE TO WASH ALL DISHES AS SOON AS YOU’RE DONE USING THEM – THANKS!!!!” and “DO NOT PUT FOIL IN THE COMPOST BIN; SOME OF US HAVE TO GO THROUGH IT AND CHECK FOR NON-BIODEGRADABLE ITEMS :)”) belie an undercurrent of rage and bile so potent it nearly chokes you. Please seek help.

Image: Fanpop

The post The 7 Do-Gooders Who Drive Us Crazy appeared first on EcoSalon.

CicLAvia reminds us what city streets would look like without all the cars.

In early October, 10 miles of roads in East Hollywood, Downtown L.A., East L.A. and in between were closed down for regular traffic. Instead of cars and SUVs, cyclists, skateboarders and pedestrians took over the streets for a day of clean, fossil fuel-free fun. An estimated 130,000 people hit the streets for this third edition of CicLAvia, which has become a day of celebration for Angelenos from all walks of life. Even the city’s Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, put on his helmet and pedaled along, calling the event a good break for a city that’s “addicted to the single-passenger automobile.” All along the now-expanded course was music, food and games, like dodge ball and street chess. That certainly sounds like more fun than being stuck in traffic behind an angry SUV driver, don’t you think?

In a city so dependent on its ever-growing web of freeways CicLAvia serves as an important reminder what a future without cars may look like. Participants ranged from avid cyclists happy to be able to ride through their city without fearing for their lives to families who see it as an opportunity to have some fun-time together while getting some exercise. “This is so fun for us, being able to get out here on our bikes and enjoy the streets of our city without having to constantly be on the watch for cars and buses. The kids love it, and I feel good knowing that they’re safe,” said one father who was riding with his two kids.

I asked Joe Linton, Organizer for CicLAvia, why an event like this is important for the people of LA? “There are quite a few reasons,” he says. “Generally, CicLAvia is seen as promoting greener transportation choices and promoting public health through physical activity. It also promotes local business. The biggest reason is just getting folks to experience public space — bringing people together, where we can all look each other in the eye and interact with each other, all in the same egalitarian public realm.”

Joe also shared his best tip for Angelenos who are looking to use their bikes for transportation rather than pleasure: “Bicycling and walking, do both at once — it’s pleasure and transportation. I’d encourage beginner bicyclists to start small. Most of our trips are fairly short and very easy to bike — try biking a couple miles to get to a restaurant, a video store, or a movie theater.”

Speaking of walking, this event also marked the launch of CicLAvia Walks, a new initiative intended to “provide participants with opportunities to slow down and discover the many architectural, cultural, and culinary gems along the route.” Including walkers is a good step in the right direction, since it also involves people who may not have access to or be able to ride a bike. From the looks of the crowds yesterday, CicLAvia Walks seems like a welcome addition to the festivities.

So, were the streets being shut down or were they actually being opened up? That’s the big question here. I think we can guess what the 130,000 people who attended will say. Giving people access to the streets of their city is important not only to promote alternative forms of exhaust-free transportation, it also provides residents with a sense of community — well-needed in a city where most people spend a large part of their day alone in cars. What if every major city center was transformed into a car-free zone on weekends? “It’s already happening,” says Joe Linton. “Bogota, Quito, Guadalajara, Mexico City and others all do weekly events. Lots of cities in the U.S. and Canada are following suit.”

So what can we do to make that happen locally? “Get involved in your local open streets event — donate, volunteer, organize,” says Linton.

CicLAvia was inspired by the ciclovía (which means “bike path” in Spanish) movement in Bogota, Colombia, which began nearly 30 years ago and is now a weekly event with 80 miles of car-free streets. Los Angeles launched its first CicLAvia, which attracted an estimated 100,000 participants, exactly one year ago today. This third edition of the event was successfully crowd-funded through Kickstarter, which tells us that people are behind the car-free cities movement in a big way.

Bummed to miss it? The next CicLAvia event will be on April 15, 2012. Keep a look-out on CicLAvia’s events page for details and get those bikes ready.

Participant photos courtesty of CicLAvia’s Facebook page.

The post CicLAvia Gives Bikes & People the Right of Way for a Day appeared first on EcoSalon.

As a fellow writer friend of mine recently said, “City = landscape. Treat it that way.” Sometimes we’re so caught up in doing the right things to get away from city life that we forget how rich the urban landscape itself can be. We all know that we should be making an effort to spend more time outdoors, but if you’re not lucky enough to live with acres of, say, a protected wildlife refuge in your backyard, it can be difficult to find the time to invest in driving a few hours just to take a quick hike. Which is why I love the concept of urban hiking.

Yes, I am fully aware that the words “urban hiking” can easily be equated to “walking,” but somewhere along the line we lost respect for this simple, yet energizing and fun, activity. Urban hiking is taking the simple human function of walking and turning it into a vehicle to slowing down and truly exploring the nooks and crannies of new cities, and even our own neighborhoods that we think we know like the back of our hands.

Sometimes the best adventures are right down the street, and we’ve got a list of tips and suggestions to make sure you find them, and enjoy yourself while you’re at it.

1. Plan a fruit hunt.

Spring and summer are quickly approaching, and you know what that means? Fruit picking season. Finding fresh fruit isn’t limited to rural environments, there are plenty of cities filled to the brims with fig trees, apple trees, plum trees and beyond. Urban fruit harvesting groups have popped up around the country with one simple goal: making use of fruit that would otherwise go to waste.

Many cities have fruit groups that even provide maps. Two such projects are Forage Oakland and the Philadelphia Orchard Project. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, check out Fallen Fruit. And if you can’t find a local organization that maps out fruit hot spots, take an afternoon to explore a neighborhood and make your own.

2. Pack a picnic.

There’s no point in going hungry on your urban hike, and packing a picnic allows you to do two things: prepare a tasty, organic meal and explore a local park. Figure out ahead of time where you want to spend your lunch hour and plan accordingly. Then fill your backpack with a gourmet picnic. How about a Quinoa Salad with Dried Cranberries and Pumpkin Seeds partnered with a fresh baguette and some goat cheese? Just make sure to pack reusable utensils and drinking vessels.

3. Keep a detailed urban hiker’s travel journal.

Take time to truly appreciate your local urban surroundings and start documenting them. You don’t have to be a Picasso or Proust, just willing to take a couple of notes and sketches now and then of what you’ve seen and done. Journaling lets you explore your creative side and also gives you a reference point for places you might want to remember later.

4. Don’t dress to kill.

Nobody said urban hiking adventures meant dressing in dowdy sweat pants and muddy trainers, but you should still probably keep the heels at home. That being said, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be looking good while staying comfortable, and there are some great eco-picks out there if you’re looking to inject a breath of fresh air into your urban hiking wardrobe. Check out our From Yoga to Yardwork picks for starters.

5. Take friends!

Make your urban hike a girl’s day out. Plan a shorter itinerary to allow for a slower pace – more talking equals less walking – but that hits a few key hot spots: cute cafe for lunch, a local bakery for afternoon coffee and a corner bar for evening cocktails. If you’re having trouble thinking about where to go, pick a theme for the day: Boutique Shopping, Urban Parks, Undiscovered Food Carts, etc.

Each week here at EcoSalon, the editors choose a post from the archives that we think you’ll love. The original post can be found here.

Images: Ewan-M, ginnerobot, Anna Brones, Anna Brones, mugley, Let Ideas Compete

The post Take a Hike: 5 More Great Tips for the Urban Explorer appeared first on EcoSalon.

Did you know that nobody in Washington, D.C. is overweight? Also, people are fat because they are lazy slobs, period.

Get hip to this: people used to walk more, back in the “Old Days.” They also died of syphilis and croup and had slaves, but whatever. New fattie James Polk blames his freshly expanding waistline on a recent move from Washington, D.C. to suburban Mississippi, where “overly-ample ‘waddler[s]'” are carted to “the front door of Wal-Mart” in an article titled “Fat People Don’t Walk” at the New American Village. Because fat people don’t walk, they just get airlifted to their next donut, amirite?

Presumably, thin, black-clad city dwellers are always jogging chicly to their next Urban Funk Double-Dutch slash Brazilian jiu jitsu class/exciting laptop-necessitating job/rooftop garden party. The article is couched in terms of “city planning” and “medical costs” and “I’m really just concerned about your health here, guys,” (which, worry less, okay?) but it’s swimming in fat – and poverty-bashing. Apparently it’s bad enough to be fat, but going to Wal-Mart while being fat is unpardonable and merits public shaming.

Look, walking more is great. It’s good for you, it doesn’t pollute, it frees up resources – I’m all for walking. I’m all for being healthy and active. But putting fat/poor/tasteless/rural on an oppositional axis to slim/attractive/urban/culturally-and-morally superior is not only incorrect, it’s cruel.

I’m not sure what the point of this article is supposed to be. Let’s rebuild Los Angeles to fit an East-Coast gentleman-of-leisure’s specifications? Force calisthenics on Southern rural-dwellers with few resources? Reproduce widely-disseminated stereotypes about what fat people must be like? Or just point and laugh at all those dumb fatties at Wal-Mart?

Image: kayugee

The post No, <em>This</em> Is Why You’re Fat appeared first on EcoSalon.

Yes, I am fully aware that the words “urban hiking” can easily be equated to “walking,” but somewhere along the line we lost respect for this simple, yet energizing and fun, activity. Urban hiking is taking the simple human function of walking and turning it into a vehicle to slowing down and truly exploring the nooks and crannies of new cities, and even our own neighborhoods that we think we know like the back of our hands.

Sometimes the best adventures are right down the street, and we’ve got a list of tips and suggestions to make sure you find them, and enjoy yourself while you’re at it.

• «
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• »

1. Plan a fruit hunt.

Spring and summer are quickly approaching, and you know what that means? Fruit picking season. Finding fresh fruit isn’t limited to rural environments, there are plenty of cities filled to the brims with fig trees, apple trees, plum trees and beyond. Urban fruit harvesting groups have popped up around the country with one simple goal: making use of fruit that would otherwise go to waste.

Many cities have fruit groups that even provide maps. Two such projects are Forage Oakland and the Philadelphia Orchard Project. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, check out Fallen Fruit. And if you can’t find a local organization that maps out fruit hot spots, take an afternoon to explore a neighborhood and make your own.

• «
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• »

2. Pack a picnic.

There’s no point in going hungry on your urban hike, and packing a picnic allows you to do two things: prepare a tasty, organic meal and explore a local park. Figure out ahead of time where you want to spend your lunch hour and plan accordingly. Then fill your backpack with a gourmet picnic. How about a Quinoa Salad with Dried Cranberries and Pumpkin Seeds partnered with a fresh baguette and some goat cheese? Just make sure to pack reusable utensils and drinking vessels.

• «
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• »

3. Keep a detailed urban hiker’s travel journal.

Take time to truly appreciate your local urban surroundings and start documenting them. You don’t have to be a Picasso or Proust, just willing to take a couple of notes and sketches now and then of what you’ve seen and done. Journaling lets you explore your creative side and also gives you a reference point for places you might want to remember later.

• «
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• »

4. Don’t dress to kill.

Nobody said urban hiking adventures meant dressing in dowdy sweat pants and muddy trainers, but you should still probably keep the heels at home. That being said, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be looking good while staying comfortable, and there are some great eco-picks out there if you’re looking to inject a breath of fresh air into your urban hiking wardrobe. Check out our From Yoga to Yardwork picks for starters.

• «
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• »

5. Take friends!

Make your urban hike a girl’s day out. Plan a shorter itinerary to allow for a slower pace – more talking equals less walking – but that hits a few key hot spots: cute cafe for lunch, a local bakery for afternoon coffee and a corner bar for evening cocktails. If you’re having trouble thinking about where to go, pick a theme for the day: Boutique Shopping, Urban Parks, Undiscovered Food Carts, etc.

Each week here at EcoSalon, the editors choose a post from the archives that we think you’ll love. The original post can be found here.

Images: Ewan-M, ginnerobot, Anna Brones, Anna Brones, mugley, Let Ideas Compete

The post Take a Hike: 5 More Great Tips for the Urban Explorer appeared first on EcoSalon.