The World’s Top 10 Green and Eco-Friendly Hotels

Staying in an eco hotel is an excellent way to lessen your holiday’s carbon footprint if you enjoy a side of sustainability with your activities. We’ve selected 10 of the most stunning eco-friendly hotels in the world for you to choose from, ranging from jungle retreats to beach cottages.

Going green has another significant advantage: eco hotels are frequently found in the world’s most distance, off-the-grid locations, where hiking, cycling, and kayaking are practically on your doorstep. We’ve selected ten of the world’s top eco-friendly hotels, ranging from eco lodges hidden in national parks to tented camps where you can sleep beneath the stars.

Our options range from low-cost lodging to the pinnacle of luxury, but they all commit to using eco-friendly building materials, consuming water and energy in a sustainable manner, sourcing food and resources locally, and respecting (and sometimes even improving) the local landscape and wildlife.

Kagga Kamma, South Africa

At Kagga Kamma, where open-air bedrooms and cave-style apartments are constructed straight into the pink rock formations of South Africa’s Cederberg Mountains, you might feel like you’ve arrived on Mars. Kagga Kamma runs its unique wilderness retreat using ecologically friendly power sources such as solar electricity.

Spend the night under a star-studded sky (light pollution is non-existent here), then spend the day hiking or mountain biking on the numerous routes that crisscross this stunningly gorgeous country, keeping an eye out for native wildlife ranging from aardvarks to zebra. After a day in the wilderness, you can relax in a natural rock pool at Kagga Kamma.

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The Scarlet, England

Grown-up, seductive, and sumptuous aren’t usually words associated with eco hotels, but the stylish, adults-only Scarlet in Newquay in Cornwall manages to be all of them. The clean lines and large glass windows in the modern, ecological architecture convey the ever-changing ocean into the deceptively modest bedrooms. The quaint restaurant serves locally produced Cornish fare, but the finest part is outside, where a seaweed-strewn natural outdoor pool and two wooden hot tubs dangle loftily over Mawgan Porth Beach.

The Scarlet Hotel supports Surfers Against Sewage and CoaST, Cornwall’s sustainable tourism program, and has a list of 111 ways it strives to be eco-friendly, demonstrating tremendous attention to detail.

Borgo Pignano, Italy

Borgo Pignano is the definition of Tuscany. Views of miles of undulating hills dotted with cypress trees reaching all the way down to the Mediterranean can be seen from any window at this award-winning sustainable hotel. This 18th-century estate is bordered by 750 acres of olive trees and vineyards, making it ideal for calm walks, horseback rides, and leisurely cycle trips.

Borgo Pignano is dedicated to preserving its beautiful surroundings; the villa was built with eco-friendly materials and is powered by solar panels, and the majority of the food is sourced from the hotel’s organic farm and vegetable gardens.

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Campi Ya Kanzi, Kenya

Can you go on a sustainable safari? Campi Ya Kanzi is here to provide an answer to that query. This multi-award-winning boutique ecolodge is located in the heart of Kenya’s heartland, a 283,000-acre Maasai-owned reserve with an eternally changing panorama of savannah, volcanic summits, and cloud forest.

Campi Ya Kanzi strives to live in harmony with its breathtaking surroundings; hot water and energy are generated by solar panels, rainwater and wasted water are recycled for the benefit of local wildlife, and the lodge offsets each guest’s carbon footprint. A total of 16 guests can stay in a mix of luxury villas and tented cottages at the same time – either way, true wilderness with lions, leopards, and giraffes is all around you.

Eco Beach Resort, Australia

Eco Beach is both in name and in nature. At this sprawling resort on Western Australia’s Kimberley coast, you can choose from roomy eco villas linked by elevated wooden boardwalks, eco-friendly tented rooms, or a stay in the Beach House, right on the edge of the ocean, where kayaks and paddle boards are available for use.

Because of the powerful Australian sun, the resort may be solar powered all year, and water and drinking water are supplied by the hotel’s own bore hole. During certain times of the year, you can see whales out at sea and flatback turtles on the beaches.

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Cuixmala, Mexico

Step directly off the beautiful sands of Cuixmala Beach on Mexico’s Virgin Coast and into the eccentric beauty of this luxurious hotel. Cuixmala, the former residence of eco-warrior millionaire James Goldsmith, is now a genuinely luxury hotel with an equally serious commitment to working in harmony with nature.

Stay in the main villa or one of the small lodges scattered throughout the grounds and prepare to go exploring – wildlife abounds on the 30,000-acre estate (which is also a UNESCO biosphere reserve), and you can meet the resident zebras, help out on the estate’s biodynamic farm, which supplies 90% of the hotel’s food, walk along miles of hiking trails, or meet the new arrivals at the estate’s own turtle hatchery.

Mashpi Lodge, Ecuador

Enter Ecuador’s Choco rainforest, and you might come discover the magnificent Mashpi Lodge among the 3,200 acres of spreading ancient jungle. Mashpi has received a slew of honors for being one of South America’s – and the world’s – top green hotels, and you’re truly immersed in nature here, with big windows overlooking an environment home to over 400 species of birds, trees, and frogs.

The lodge was built with as little influence on the environment as possible, and it encourages local residents to work in conservation rather than traditional logging. What can you do in Mashpi? According to the lodge, “get ready to trek down hidden paths, splash through rivers, rise at dawn to spot rare birds, or fly high above it all aboard our Dragonfly canopy gondola.” A resident biologist can also take conservation-minded tourists on walks to receive a scientist’s perspective on the cloud forest ecology.

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Shinta Mani Wild, Cambodia

Explore the Cardamom Mountains of Cambodia to find this unique eco camp, where 15 magnificent tents serve as the ideal base for hiking in the surrounding tropical jungle. Shinta Mani Wild is a conservation success story: purchasing this land helps to spare it from logging and turn this river valley into a wildlife corridor, and staying here is a significant vote for ecotourism in a country where conservation efforts are critical to tourism’s future.

The Shinta Mani Foundation is also committed to assisting local communities by providing assistance with schooling, small business sponsorship, and sustainable farming. Splash out and enjoy kayaking or tubing down the vast river before retiring to your luxurious tent and falling asleep to the sound of the adjacent waterfall.

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Fogo Island Inn, Canada

‘Atmospheric’ doesn’t begin to describe Fogo Island Inn, which is located on a ‘island off an island’ – Fogo Island, to be precise, off the shore of Newfoundland on Canada’s eastern coast. This contemporary architectural wonder, perched on stilts directly above the ocean, is also a green hotel befitting of its untamed natural surrounds.

The hotel was built with environmentally friendly materials, has a recycling program, employs solar and wood-burning energy sources, and serves wonderful local and organic food. This hotel truly seems like you’ve reached the ends of the planet, whether you sit and watch icebergs float by out to sea or go kayaking among them.

Tierra Patagonia, Chile

This hotel is unlike any other on the planet. Tierra Patagonia is a sustainable eco resort on the outskirts of Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park, and its stunning architecture makes this sweeping structure appear to have landed from outer space.

The hotel was designed and built with locally sourced materials and is operated with the least amount of environmental effect feasible. Tierra Patagonia’s simple luxury makes it the ideal starting point for exploring some of the world’s top hiking and cycling trails among Torres del Paine’s majestic mountains and rolling meadows.

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