2019 Editor's Choice Eco-friendly Hotels
Editor’s Choice Eco-Friendly Hotels
Argyll Hotel - Early Autumn Special Offer
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 Scarlet - 15% off Spa Treatments 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 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.
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 Zetter
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!
2018 Editor's Choice Eco-friendly Hotels
Editor’s Choice Eco-Friendly Hotels
Argyll Hotel - Early Autumn Special Offer
Iona
Iona Sound, frescoed with gently bobbing boats, provides a tranquil outlook for the row of crofters’ cottages that form this ‘amazing little hotel’.
La Sablonnerie - Suite Upgrade Special Offer
Little Sark
A horse-drawn carriage brings guests to this rose-covered, 16th-century farmhouse on a car-free island.
The Traddock - Tasting Menu Special Offer
Austwick
‘One of my favourites.’ ‘Deserves a glowing account.’ Readers are full of praise for the Reynolds family’s dog-friendly, people-friendly hotel in the Dales.
Cedar Manor - Midweek Break Special Offer
Windermere
‘We arrived hungry and tired, and came away feeling relaxed, recharged and utterly spoiled.’ Visitors celebrating a special occasion in 2018 at Caroline and Jonathan Kaye’s ‘impressive’ small hotel ‘felt welcome from the moment we walked in’.
The Scarlet - 15% off Spa Treatments Special Offer
Mawgan Porth
While families whoop it up at sister hotel Bedruthan (previous entry), grown-ups enjoy the serenity at this adults-only hotel and spa.
Strattons
Swaffham
Les and Vanessa Scott’s playful, Palladian-style house is all comfort and bonhomie.
The Pierhouse
Port Appin
‘Log fires were burning in the bar and residents’ lounge when we arrived on a miserable day,’ write readers this year, of a visit to Nick and Nikki Horne’s ‘very efficiently run’ hotel on the Loch Linnhe shoreline.
Underleigh House
Hope
A 19th-century cottage and barn combine as one exceptional B&B on private land within the Peak District national park.
Battlesteads
Hexham
Dee and Richard Slade’s hybrid of pub and hotel in the empty reaches of Northumberland again reached for the stars with its unique blend of sustainable hospitality and astronomy.
The Old Rectory Hotel
Martinhoe
‘It’s clear why so many guests return again and again.’ Huw Rees and Sam Prosser’s converted Georgian rectory, in large, well-maintained grounds, ‘is a haven of rural peace within easy reach of Exmoor and the sea’.
2017 Editor's Choice Eco-friendly Hotels
Editor’s Choice Eco-Friendly Hotels
Argyll Hotel - Early Autumn Special Offer
Iona
Iona Sound, frescoed with gently bobbing boats, provides a tranquil outlook for the row of crofters’ cottages that form this ‘amazing little hotel’.
The White House - Spring Three Nights for the Price of Two Special Offer
Herm
Visitors are not spoilt for choice of places to stay on this tiny, car-free island – they’re just spoilt at the island’s best and only hotel
The Scarlet - 15% off Spa Treatments Special Offer
Mawgan Porth
While families whoop it up at sister hotel Bedruthan (previous entry), grown-ups enjoy the serenity at this adults-only hotel and spa.
Pendragon Country House - Two and Three Night Special Offer
Camelford
‘Simply outstanding, bordering on the spectacular,’ writes a regular visitor to this Victorian former rectory with views of Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor.
Underleigh House
Hope
A 19th-century cottage and barn combine as one exceptional B&B on private land within the Peak District national park.
The Old Rectory
Boscastle
‘What a super place to stay for tackling some of the Coastal Path; it ticks all possible boxes,’ writes a Guide inspector in 2018 of Sally and Chris Searle’s historic B&B.
Bingham Riverhouse
Richmond-upon-Thames
Tourists should ‘forget fancy London hotels’, say readers, and instead head out to Ruth and Samantha Trinder’s hotel close to Richmond Park, with tranquil riverside garden and terrace.
Battlesteads
Hexham
Dee and Richard Slade’s hybrid of pub and hotel in the empty reaches of Northumberland again reached for the stars with its unique blend of sustainable hospitality and astronomy.
The Zetter
London
Handy for the Square Mile and the West End, this hip hotel conversion of a Victorian warehouse, in its 15th year, is on its best form yet.
The Old Vicarage
Newtown
Amid sheep-dotted fields, this red brick Victorian vicarage is run as a ‘heart-warming’ rural guest house. Helen and Tim Withers are liked for their ‘friendly efficiency’ and ‘dedication to quality’.
Hotels chosen in 2016
Editor’s Choice Eco-Friendly Hotels
The Green Park - Free Theatre Ticket Special Offer
Pitlochry
‘From the moment you pull up at this beautiful hotel, you are treated like royalty,’ writes a reader on a return visit to this Victorian country house on the shores of Loch Faskally.
Augill Castle
Kirkby Stephen
We hear a perennial chorus of approval from fans of Wendy and Simon Bennett’s family-friendly Victorian fantasy castle in the Eden valley, between Lake District and Yorkshire Dales.
Y Goeden Eirin
Caernarfon
Expect a thoroughly ‘warm’ ‘croeso’ at Eluned Rowlands’s B&B on the edge of Snowdonia. Welsh is the lingua franca of this converted cowshed, which is imbued with local culture and heritage.
St Cuthbert’s House
Seahouses
Regular Guide readers laud Jeff and Jill Sutheran’s B&B, forged from a ‘delightfully converted’ Presbyterian church, as ‘a perfect base for exploring this beautiful part of the north-east’.
Timberstone
Clee Stanton
‘Timberstone remains a great favourite,’ writes a Guide regular this year after staying at Tracey Baylis and Alex Read’s B&B in the undulating landscape immortalized by AE Housman.