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Ecotourism > The Inn at Folkston
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 Roger and Genna Wangsness were traveling to Florida from their home in Alexandria, Va. in 1997 when they discovered that the small town of Folkston, Ga., a.k.a. the "Gateway to the Okefenokee Swamp," offered no bed-and-breakfast. The next year, they opened The Inn at Folkston in a 1922 heart-pine bungalow on Main Street.
The eclectic room themes--garden, nautical, Indian, Scandinavian--and the delicious bowl-shaped apple pancakes aren't the only distinctive features of this charming B&B. The vegetarian innkeepers, who met in Iran in the 1960s while serving in the Peace Corps, have adopted a number of practices recommended by the Green Hotels Association. (The Inn at Folkston was the first GHA member from Georgia.) Kitchen waste is composted for pesticide-free herb and vegetable gardens. Guest rooms are equipped with unbleached cotton shower curtains, low-flush toilets and guidelines for conserving towels and bedding. Shade-grown, organic coffee is served with breakfast, and employees use only environmentally-safe cleaning products.
"Our staff noticed it immediately," says Genna Wangsness. "When they were spraying and cleaning things, they weren't coughing and choking from the fumes."
For more information call 888.509.6246 or see www.innatfolkston.com. The inn's environmental programs can be found at www.innatfolkston.com/motherearth.htm.
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