Three eco-friendly adventure holidays

From climbing a volcano in the Azores to exploring the wilderness in Argentina.

(Image credit: Andrea Zanchi Photography)

All nine islands that form the Azores are the result of volcanic eruptions, says Trish Lorenz in Condé Nast Traveller. They emerged from the mid-Atlantic, “tiny atolls of black lava dominated by the mountains that spawned them”. One of the islands, Pico, looks like a child’s drawing from the air, “an islet in the middle of Cerulean water, the volcano I set out to climb at its centre”.

With the mountain “tinged red in the pale light” just before dawn, Lorenz and her guide set out. After reaching the first plateau, the landscape becomes “extra-terrestrial”, with “wrinkled, cooled lava and clumps of purple heather”. The stones become hot to the touch. Lorenz has the feeling she’s “scaling some vast prehistoric beast… after the huge grey boulders of its vertebrae and the smooth muscles of rippled magma”, she at last reaches its “snorting, breathing crown”. The view from the summit is “spectacular, a satellite’s map of the other isles” in the Azores. Trips from about £1,080 for two for six nights, azoresgetaways.com.

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Chris Carter
Wealth Editor, MoneyWeek

Chris Carter spent three glorious years reading English literature on the beautiful Welsh coast at Aberystwyth University. Graduating in 2005, he left for the University of York to specialise in Renaissance literature for his MA, before returning to his native Twickenham, in southwest London. He joined a Richmond-based recruitment company, where he worked with several clients, including the Queen’s bank, Coutts, as well as the super luxury, Dorchester-owned Coworth Park country house hotel, near Ascot in Berkshire.

Then, in 2011, Chris joined MoneyWeek. Initially working as part of the website production team, Chris soon rose to the lofty heights of wealth editor, overseeing MoneyWeek’s Spending It lifestyle section. Chris travels the globe in pursuit of his work, soaking up the local culture and sampling the very finest in cuisine, hotels and resorts for the magazine’s discerning readership. He also enjoys writing his fortnightly page on collectables, delving into the fascinating world of auctions and art, classic cars, coins, watches, wine and whisky investing.

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