2020 Editor's Choice Eco-friendly Hotels
Editor’s Choice Eco-Friendly Hotels
The Zetter - The 'Long Weekender' Special Offer
London
This hotel embodies not just cutting-edge design but a commitment to green policies that sees it pump water from its own borehole under the building. Built with timber from sustainable sources and fitted with air conditioning that cuts out when you open a window, it pledges to recycle all glass and paper.
The Scarlet - Complimentary Wine Flight Special Offer
Mawgan Porth
Plaudits pour in from readers for this seaside hotel that impresses not just for its striking modern architecture and views, but also its commitment to rain- and grey-water harvesting, it's biomass boiler, and its roof constructed from local sea thrift - popular with insects and butterflies.
Pendragon Country House - Two and Three Night Special Offer
Camelford
Walking is very much encouraged at this former vicarage, now B&B. Whether you choose to stride out over Bodmin Moor or along the coast path, owners Sharon and Nigel Reed can advise on routes. Back at base, there's a biomass boiler, solar thermal water heating and a delightful menagerie of wildlife in the garden.
The Old Rectory Hotel
Martinhoe
The building might be ancient, but the LED lighting and thermal insulation at this Exmoor hotel are emphatically not. Owners Huw Rees and Sam Prosser go the extra mile: staff are trained in 'green thinking', there's minimal chemical use in housekeeping and grounds, and guests are encouraged to explore using public transport, hired bikes or good old Shanks's pony.
Kylesku Hotel
Kylesku
Fishing boats land on the slipway outside this remote Highlands hotel so 'it’s more about food metres than food miles', say owners Tanja Lister and Sonia Virechauveix. The lobster and crab on their menus are creel caught, scallops are hand dived. Wild venison comes from the surrounding hills.
Underleigh House
Hope
There are nest boxes in the garden, newts in the pond and buzzards flying overhead at Vivienne and Philip Taylor's Peak District B&B. Eco credentials are boosted by an electric car charging point, solar power and locally sourced breakfasts.
Y Goeden Eirin
Caernarfon
Eluned Rowlands, your hostess at this welcoming B&B near Snowdonia, works hard to support the environment. You'll find solar panels, recycling instructions in your room and locally-sourced (and delicious) food at breakfast, some of it from Eluned's garden.
The Old Vicarage
Newtown
Take time to wander around the lovely wildlife pond in the garden of Helen and Tim Withers's former vicarage-turned-B&B. Salad leaves, herbs and vegetables are all home grown, and breakfast eggs are produced by their own hens. Guests arriving by electric car will find a charging point for their use.
Caemorgan Mansion
Cardigan
Renovation work at David and Beverley Harrison-Wood's 19th century Cardigan B&B included the installation of LED lighting, a solar power system, and a biomass boiler to provide all their heating and hot water. Now guests can soak in a hot bath with a clear conscience.
The Old Presbytery
Kinsale
'We have an eco-friendly policy' say Philip and Noreen McEvoy of their characterful town-centre B&B. Their water is heated by solar power, paper, plastics and glass are recycled and food miles are kept to the minimum, with local fish, cheese, eggs and bacon for breakfast. Even the coffee is roasted nearby.
2019 Editor's Choice Eco-friendly Hotels
Editor’s Choice Eco-Friendly Hotels
Argyll Hotel - Early Autumn Special Offer
Isle of Iona
With a Gold rating for green tourism, the owners of this small, informal hotel do all they can to ensure they are not a blot on their beautiful island landscape. They have upgraded insulation, use water flow meters and monitor energy usage. Visitors are encouraged to walk or to use public transport. Laundry products are biodegradable, and whenever possible the bedlinen is hung out to dry. There are bird feeders in the garden, home-grown organic produce for the table, with extensive use of local meat, fish and shellfish.
The Zetter - The 'Long Weekender' Special Offer
London
How many other London hotels have their own borehole to flush loos and cool bedrooms? Or an energy loop to heat your room as it cools the fridges? Open the window and the air conditioning will cut out. Soak in a bath laced with natural products – or soak up the natural light in the atrium. The Zetter is a founder member of the Sustainable Restaurant Association – serious about sourcing and sustainability, and yet so much fun!
The Scarlet - Complimentary Wine Flight Special Offer
Mawgan Porth
Guests glorying in the sea views at this adults-only hotel may be unaware that the prefabricated building has been positioned to make the most of the light and warmth of the sun, that the insulating sea-thrift roofing is a haven for butterflies, that sustainability governs every decision. No hospitality tray or in-room fridge? Too wasteful! Just ask and they’ll make you complimentary tea and snacks.
The Grove - Three for Two Special Offer
Narberth
Amid gardens and meadows this 18th-century mansion is as green a hotel as you could wish. A biomass boiler supplies heating and hot water. A tree plantation will provide a sustainable source of logs. There is spring water from boreholes, a water treatment plant and reed beds, havens for wildlife, charging points for electric cars – and waste is substantially composted.
Pendragon Country House - Two and Three Night Special Offer
Camelford
Your hosts at this Victorian former rectory will provide maps to encourage you to walk. They have installed solar thermal water heating and a biomass boiler. Rain water is harvested to water outdoor plants. Cleaning products are phosphate-free. Birds, hedgehogs, moles and amphibians are made to feel almost as welcome as the paying guests. Produce is variously Fairtrade, locally sourced and organic. And if this all sounds rather earnest, worry not – it’s a delight.
The Old Rectory Hotel
Martinhoe
From the insistence upon local, organic materials to the use of local staff and contractors, the owners of this Georgian rectory burnish their ethical credentials. Retro-fitted insulation, rainwater harvesting for the kitchen garden, walk-in showers to encourage water-saving, a heat-recovery dishwasher, light dimmers and motion sensors are just a few innovations. Everything possible is recycled. Vegetable waste is composted, while other food waste sets the sheepdogs’ tails wagging on a neighbouring farm.
The Pierhouse
Port Appin
There are blue seas and green values at this loch-side hotel, where cycling and walking are actively encouraged, and birds flock to the nesting boxes and feeders. Cleaning products are eco-friendly, a biodisc septic tank disposes of waste water and sewage, towels and bedlinen churn in energy-efficient washing machines, with a pulley system for drying, while everything that can be is recycled.
Underleigh House
Hope
The helpful owners of this friendly B&B clearly love where they live, sponsoring a corporate member of Friends of the Peak District. They take pride in sourcing local produce, and encourage guests to explore the area by bike or on foot (though there’s a charging points for electric vehicles). They have installed a photovoltaic solar system. The garden is a wildlife haven, with bird feeders, nesting boxes, and a pond for Mr Toad.
Battlesteads
Hexham
From a carbon-neutral heating and hot-water system, to home-grown fruit and vegetables from the polytunnels, from wormeries that turn food waste to compost, to locally sourced organic toiletries, eco-friendliness is a part of the ethos at this pub-hotel. And in this unspoilt part of Northumberland, free from light pollution, the dark-sky observatory is a revelation.
Coes Faen
Barmouth
The very building feels organic, with natural rock built into this Victorian lodge reinvented as an exciting, cutting-edge B&B. Green innovations include computer-controlled biomass heating and low-voltage LED lighting, solar-panel water heating, charging points for electric vehicles. Breakfast ingredients are organic and locally source. Sustainability for sybarites.
2018 Editor's Choice Eco-friendly Hotels
Editor’s Choice Eco-Friendly Hotels
Argyll Hotel - Early Autumn Special Offer
Isle of Iona
‘Being here makes even a committed atheist feel holy,’ wrote a reader after a visit to Iona and a stay at this hotel, occupying a row of crofters’ cottages.
La Sablonnerie - Suite Upgrade Special Offer
Little Sark
‘Wonderful as ever,’ writes a reader this year, a regular returnee to Elizabeth Perrée’s 16th-century, whitewashed stone farmhouse in a beautiful part of this car-free island.
The Traddock - Tasting Menu Special Offer
Austwick
‘We have stayed many times, and it remains a favourite,’ writes a trusted reader after this year's visit to the Reynolds family’s popular, dog-friendly Dales hotel.
Cedar Manor - 3 for 2 B&B Special Offer
Windermere
‘A true gem in the Lake District.’ Readers this year had a ‘thoroughly enjoyable‘ stay at Caroline and Jonathan Kaye’s ‘fabulous‘ small hotel.
The Scarlet - Complimentary Wine Flight Special Offer
Mawgan Porth
Shhh! It’s adults only at this ‘truly special’ cliff-top hotel, which, say readers this year, ‘achieves a wonderful balance of chic luxury, tranquillity and culinary delight’.
Strattons
Swaffham
A tiny lane just off the high street in a bustling market town leads to a striking Palladian villa set by a circular courtyard of hornbeam trees.
The Old Rectory Hotel
Martinhoe
The ‘attentive hosts’, ‘friendly’ ambience and the ‘very beautiful’ situation are the standouts at this Georgian rectory in ‘what must be one of the most tranquil places in the whole country’.
The Pierhouse
Port Appin
‘In the most beautiful position, with sea, islands and mountains in full view,’ this former Victorian piermaster’s house stands ‘right on the shores of Loch Linnhe’.
Underleigh House
Hope
‘Near the end of a quiet cul-de-sac lane’, within the Peak District national park, Vivienne and Philip Taylor welcome guests to their farmhouse B&B, ‘overlooking the beauty of Hope valley’.
Battlesteads
Hexham
Formed from an 18th-century farmstead, Dee and Richard Slade’s hybrid of pub and hotel in the empty reaches of Northumberland is liked for its unique blend of sustainable hospitality, ‘beautiful grounds’ and ‘amazing dark sky observatory’.
2017 Editor's Choice Eco-friendly Hotels
Editor’s Choice Eco-Friendly Hotels
Argyll Hotel - Early Autumn Special Offer
Isle of Iona
‘Being here makes even a committed atheist feel holy,’ wrote a reader after a visit to Iona and a stay at this hotel, occupying a row of crofters’ cottages.
The Zetter - The 'Long Weekender' Special Offer
London
A design-led boutique hotel with impressive green credentials (it pumps water from its own 1,500-foot borehole), this former Victorian warehouse embodies the renaissance of East London.
The Scarlet - Complimentary Wine Flight Special Offer
Mawgan Porth
Shhh! It’s adults only at this ‘truly special’ cliff-top hotel, which, say readers this year, ‘achieves a wonderful balance of chic luxury, tranquillity and culinary delight’.
Pendragon Country House - Two and Three Night Special Offer
Camelford
We can’t say whether King Arthur stabled Llamrei in the equestrian centre next door, but the once and future king lives on in this small hotel near Tintagel, named after Uther Pendragon.
The White House
Herm
The ferry from Guernsey brings guests to this tiny, car-free island; the one and only hotel sends a tractor for their bags.
Underleigh House
Hope
‘Near the end of a quiet cul-de-sac lane’, within the Peak District national park, Vivienne and Philip Taylor welcome guests to their farmhouse B&B, ‘overlooking the beauty of Hope valley’.
The Old Rectory
Boscastle
‘A super place. The real deal.’ Praise from Guide insiders for Chris and Sally Searle’s B&B, in the rectory where Thomas Hardy courted Emma Gifford.
The Old Vicarage
Newtown
In the Cambrian mountains, set back from the A483, this red brick former Victorian vicarage-turned-B&B has been praised for its ‘atmosphere of heart-warming hospitality’.
Bingham Riverhouse
Richmond-upon-Thames
A change of both name and feel for Bingham Riverhouse this year, its ‘more traditional, opulent style’ replaced by ‘something more informal and friendly’, say our inspectors.
Battlesteads
Hexham
Formed from an 18th-century farmstead, Dee and Richard Slade’s hybrid of pub and hotel in the empty reaches of Northumberland is liked for its unique blend of sustainable hospitality, ‘beautiful grounds’ and ‘amazing dark sky observatory’.
Hotels chosen in 2016
Editor’s Choice Eco-Friendly Hotels
The Green Park - Free Theatre Ticket Special Offer
Pitlochry
Bright gardens, dotted with sculptures, and a sweep of lawns tumble down to a private lochside terrace from this Victorian country house, where many thoughtful touches ‘set the hotel apart’.
Augill Castle
Kirkby Stephen
'A very special place.’ ‘Utterly charming.’ 'It’s not the Ritz, but you will feel like a lord.’ Lavish and frequent praise in 2019 for Wendy and Simon Bennett’s Victorian fantasy castle in the Eden valley.
Y Goeden Eirin
Caernarfon
The promised welcome in the vales is extended by Eluned Rowlands at this converted granite cowshed-turned-characterful B&B with views to Snowdonia and the Menai estuary
St Cuthbert’s House
Seahouses
On the edge of this seaside town, a ‘lovingly converted’ Presbyterian chapel dedicated to Northumberland’s patron saint is run as a 'superb' B&B and occasional music venue by enthusiastic owners and 'great hosts' Jeff and Jill Sutheran.
Timberstone
Clee Stanton
‘We are greeted as if we are the most important people in the world,’ says a regular guest at this Shropshire B&B, lovingly created by Tracey Baylis and Alex Read from two 300-year-old cottages.