It is often said that “it’s not the destination, but the journey that counts.” I have never fully subscribed to this theory, at least when it comes to travel. In my experience, there are some destinations that involve a long and unrewarding journey but make up for it in the end.

On the other hand, there is a valid point to the expression. From an environmental standpoint, the way you travel is much more important than where you are going. There are also some trips where the journey itself is far more than a way to get from A to B.

Rail fits the bill on both counts. It is an environmentally-friendly way to travel, while the world’s best train journeys are breathtaking in their own right. The Trans-Mongolian railway is not the fastest way to get from Beijing to Moscow, but thousands of people do it every year. The Rocky Mountaineer in Canada even has a glass-domed roof in the dining car, the better to admire the stunning mountain views as the train takes you from Vancouver to the ski resort town of Jasper.

Yet, according to Wanderlust, the best rail journey in the world is in Scotland. The magazine included a rail journey category in its travel awards for the first time this year. The stretch of railway from Glasgow to Mallaig – where you can get a ferry to the famously beautiful Isle of Skye – won by a wide margin of votes. It got the gong for the stunning scenery, beating rail trips to Lake Titicaca or Machu Picchu in Peru, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway in India, The Ghan from Darwin to Adelaide in Australia and others.

I took part of this trip in reverse recently, from Mallaig to Crianlarich, the junction in the Highlands where you can transfer to the Glasgow-Oban train. My, oh my. I can see why it won.

I spent most of the first half of the journey dashing from one side of the train to the other, marvelling at the sheer rocky hills rising to my left and the silvery lochs (lakes) surrounded by greenery. At this time of year the foxgloves are in bloom, providing a flash of purple along the train tracks. As we went deeper into the Highlands, we passed through peat bog scattered with white fluffy flowers waving in the wind, known aptly as bog cotton, framed by the blue of distant mountain peaks.

At Glenfinnan we passed over a giant viaduct, well known to Harry Potter fans. In summer you can actually go on the Jacobite steam train transformed into Hogwarts Express for the movies. It does a once-daily trip from Fort William, at the foot of snow-capped Ben Nevis, to Mallaig and back, but you need to buy a special ticket and book in advance.

There is no fuss about the West Highlands Railway – for ticketing purposes it’s just a normal part of the ScotRail network. My ticket to Crianlarich cost £23.60 on the day of purchase – it’s often cheaper when you buy in advance.

Rail is a fantastic way to see Scotland. The train journey from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh is also extremely scenic, though not a patch on the West Highlands Railway. Major cities such as Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen are well-connected with each other and with England. It is only a five-hour journey from Glasgow to London and there are sleeper services from London to most major Scottish cities.

Sometimes it definitely is the journey that counts.

Images: piglicker, paradiseconnections, brianholsclaw, ipoh

Imagine being cast away on your very own desert island … a coral cay lush with greenery and bird life and fringed with white sand. Day after day you would swim in the clear blue ocean and spot giant green turtles, manta rays and rainbow-hued fish and coral.

This was the reality of my recent holiday on Wilson Island on the southern tip of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. It genuinely was a desert island – all the water had to be brought in by boat – but this was not an episode of Survivor.

I guess this is what you call “glamping” – glamorous camping. Our so-called tents were really canvas cabins with wooden floors, a double bed with heavy linen, a wardrobe and a deck with a hammock and ocean views. We also had hot showers, a chef to cook gourmet meals three times a day, and champagne and nibblies on the beach at sunset each evening.

Before the Green-Eyed Monster makes you start throwing things at me, I hasten to add that I am unaccustomed to such luxury on my vacations. This was my honeymoon and we were happy to splurge. While it might sound terribly exotic, it was actually relatively local considering I’m Australian and my wedding was in Sydney.

I was drawn to Wilson Island because of its natural beauty – particularly the fact it was a turtle breeding island and known for its fabulous snorkeling right off the beach. It’s part of the Capricornia Cays National Park and Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The last thing I wanted was for my presence to harm the ecology of this natural wonderland.

Tourism can be a mixed blessing. In many places around the world, including Australia, natural beauty has been destroyed or diminished by over-development. Yet tourism makes conservation of this beautiful part of the world not just morally desirable but also economically viable – no mean feat given the amount of oil estimated to be buried beneath the reef. About 1.6 million people visit the reef every year, delivering revenue of more than $AUS1 billion.

The Great Barrier Reef has thousands of islands; some of them are quite developed, while others are closed to humans and you risk a fine of thousands of dollars even stepping on to the island.

I was impressed by the balance at Wilson Island. There are only 12 guests allowed on the island at one time, plus two hosts who do all the cooking and cleaning. There are no permanent buildings on the island and the tents are scattered to give maximum privacy. The water is brought in and the grey water is shipped back out again (while the sewage is held in sceptic tanks). There is no power generator on the island – the hot water and limited electricity in the kitchen and communal long tent all run off solar power. (Luckily there’s plenty of sunshine in this part of the world). All the garbage is shipped off the island and the bottles and paper are sorted for recycling.

As it is a national park and a marine park, guests are reminded not to interfere with nature. The rule is to look but not touch – to take only photographs and leave only footprints. That can be hard. If you come at the right time of year, as we did, you might see baby turtles hatching and racing for their lives down the beach. With seagulls circling overhead and reef sharks lurking just off the beach, ready to snack on tasty baby turtle, it can be tempting to give Mother Nature a hand. It is important not to succumb to the urge so that the eco-system of the reef can keep its natural balance.

If you find yourself in this part of the world and you are looking for a romantic break, then I recommend you check out Wilson Island. When we booked, they were offering five nights for the price of four. While the price of $AUS700 per night seemed steep at the time, it is all-inclusive. And when they say everything is included, they mean everything. It includes a free boat transfer from nearby Heron Island (also a nice island but more of a family resort and much, much bigger), all your food including picnic hampers if you prefer not to eat communally, an open bar stocked with copious amounts of wine, beer and spirits, and use of a wetsuit, mask and snorkel, flippers. Even the sunscreen is free. We actually ended up spending more money in total in six days on Heron Island than five days on Wilson Island, though admittedly that included two dive trips at Heron.

The Great Barrier Reef is considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World but like so many of Earth’s treasures it’s under threat from climate change.

UPDATE 5/28/2009 Wilson Island is certified under Australia’s Eco Certification Program. The resort is closed from 26 January to 28 February for the bird nesting season.

The writer and her husband took the holiday in a personal capacity and paid for it in full.

Images courtesy Caitlin Fitzsimmons

A tourism paradox plagues beautiful Costa Rica, the must-see destination for every family I know. Its highly visited parks, like Manuel Antonio, depend on visitors to keep the bulldozers and loggers out, yet the growing crowds pose an obvious threat to the protected birds, iguanas and sloths, not to mention the monkeys in the trees people aren’t suppose to feed.

As a result, this original capitol of eco-tourism is taking steps to reduce the impact, capping the number of daily visitors to Manuel at 600 during the week and 800 on weekends and holidays to give the animals a break. According to a travel report in the Vancouver Sun, park officials are even closing down to the pubic on Mondays, just another way to tame the traffic jams along the narrow trails. “Costa Rica’s most popular sites are at risk of being overrun by tourists tripping over each other in their search for solitude and unspoiled beauty,” says the report.

Part of slowing down the traffic is literally to slow down the traffic. In this regard, you could say Costa Rica has come full circle from 20 years ago when I first traveled there.

Just two weeks after my met my now husband, Edwin, he invited me join him on his own planned excursion to the region. It seemed sooo remote and exotic to me back then – I kept the trip a secret from my family. Political unrest was plaguing Central America at the time and I didn’t want my mother making a fuss and raining on my cloud forest fantasy. Little did I realize my biggest problem wouldn’t be an intervening Jewish mother or angry junta, but traveling with a virtual stranger in a crude rented Jeep down unpaved mountain roads for an eternity to reach our destinations.

I recall breaking down and crying en route to a hidden-away beach town called Montezuma, as the 5th hour of winding roads approached with no soda (roadside cafe) in site. “Are we ever gonna get there?” I bemoaned to the handsome Jeep driver whom I had grown to detest on the road trip.

“Montezuma looked so close on the map, but it ended up taking all day to basically travel the distance from Berkeley to San Francisco,” recalls Edwin, a noted skeptic who also was worn down by the time we pulled into the Ylang Ylang Beach Resort. If anything depicted the “old Costa Rica” it was this funky haven of surf bums and German tourists. We were convinced a few ex-cons were among the mysterious hammock potatoes lounging between trees. I coped with water on the floor of our shabby chic bungalow and dining at the El Nano Banano cafe which showed movies on a large outdoor screen at night. We watched Goodfellas. Yes, all of this fine romance and I marred Edwin, anyway.

In the years since our rugged adventure, Costa Rica became the “it” spot – and travel became manageable. A posh, 153-room Four Seasons sprang up along with other four-star resorts, and nearly two million people booked trips annually to Monteverde, Manuel Antonio, and the other attractions on both the Pacific and Caribbean coasts. The country took dynamite to the hilly terrain to make it easier to travel in those ubiquitous Jeeps, adhering to the notion if you blast it they will come.

But according to the Sun, eco-tourism has halted the road smoothing projects, so it’s back to four hours to cover 30 miles. Costa Rica remains a leader in eco innovations, such as the zip-line rides through the rainforest and its commitment to protecting 25 percent of its land from development. The tourists bring in twice the revenue Costa Rica can make exporting coffee and bananas. It needs us, and we can do our part by opting for sustainable travel.

According to eco travel consultants, we can shun the big corporate route and stay at inns that grow their own fruits and vegetables and hire local workers. And try to spread the wealth by opting for small-scale tours and visiting sites off the usual tourist path so large crowds don’t spoil your commune with nature.

I have to say I was pleased to learn that Montezuma hasn’t lost its quirky charm. The resort still has those little bungalows and plays nighttime movies. Best yet, it donates a dollar a day per person to the Asepaleco Foundation toward conservation efforts.

Images: baxterclaws, law_keven