All the "green" hotel stuff -- not washing the sheets and towels every day, planning to start an organic-produce-buying program -- just doesn't seem like a good enough gift to the world this year. Not when barefoot vendors in ragged clothes are still hawking jewelry outside big, luxurious resorts, and schoolkids in nearby villages can't get their hands on a book.

All the buzzwords are confusing: ecotourism, geotourism, ethnotourism, sustainable tourism. They've become so ubiquitous they're nearly meaningless.

New Zealand may have the title of King of Adventure Sports, but you don't have to go clear to the end of the southern hemisphere to find excellent adventure travel options.

Cabarete, located on the Dominican Republic's north coast, is a quickly developing adventure sport haven with an eco-conscious twist.

What makes Cabarete a destination for adventure?

According to world-champion kiteboarder and Cabarete resident Laurel Eastman, it's the fact that "there's a sport for every type of person and a sport for every type of weather."