Luxurious? Exotic? Sun-kissed? As someone who reads and writes about travel a lot, it’s hard to sound original. Some of the best and most descriptive words become trite and lose their meaning when overused in the extreme. Here’s a list of them from The Traveler’s Notebook. Check out the comments, too, where lots of travel writers included their own least favorite words.

Marketers in all industries are constantly looking for that fresh new word, and we’re not above making one up. Lately I’ve seen this one emerge: Eco-Lux (or Eco-Luxe or Ecoluxe ). It seems to mean ecologically-friendly luxury. My first exposure to it was through one of our Panama resort competitors. I thought it was cute. Maybe too cute. But the fact is we’re all desperate to express similar ideas in a unique way, so I gave them props for finding it (or making it up).

Now I see “Eco-Lux” everywhere. A Google search for ‘eco-lux’ OR ‘eco-luxe’ turns up over 96,000 results. Just on the first page you can find it describing every kind of product: fashion, bedding, spa, paper goods…its reached Ebay, too. Check out this eco-lux house in Seattle. You can become a fan of ecoLUXE Lifestyles on Facebook. This fall there was an Eco-Lux Expo in New York where members of the green media came to learn about hundreds of eco-lux products. Get this — there’s a new TV show on the Travel Channel. It’s called (you guessed it) Ecoluxe!

So, I predict that we’ll all be seeing a lot more of this word; that it will become bigger and bigger…and then burn out, making next year’s lists of overused words (or maybe the year after that). It’s a shame, because ecologically-friendly luxury is what Isla Palenque is all about. But I have to continue my search for those forgotten or under-used words in order to describe Isla Palenque in ways that are as unique as the island itself. I might even make one up.

"Eco Lux" architecture in Seattle