The Green Holiday Guide

A new green mega-resort in Greece opens next month.

When Navarino Dunes opens in Greece next month, it will be arguably the most eco-friendly resort on the planet.

The resort is the first phase of Costa Navarino, an audacious €1 billion (£835m) blueprint to turn Messinia, a little-known but spectacular pocket of the southwest Peloponnese, into the world’s greenest tourist destination. By 2020, expect 11 top-end properties, spread over three more discrete sites, with about 3,000 rooms, six spas and five golf courses.

Reports suggets that it will be gorgeous enough to rival A-list playgrounds such as Sardinia’s Costa Smeralda. And this is just the beginning.

More than €50m has been allocated specifically for environmental measures. Before the end of the year, enough photovoltaic solar panels will be installed on the mountainside to power a town of 20,000.

Two new reservoirs (filled by 2% of the winterrunoff of two local rivers) ensure that the entire operation won’t take a single drop of water from the local aquifer.

The largest geothermal field in Europe, with 76 miles of underground pipes, will reduce energy consumption from non-renewable sources by 66% and emissions by 80%.

And, naturally, it ticks all the boxes for energy-efficient lighting, protection of habitats, waste management and recycling (although, bizarrely, they forgot to mention getting guests to reuse their towels).

Its two hotels, the five-star, 320-bed Romanos (aimed at the honeymoon market and already partly operational) and the family-orientated, 445-bed Westin (which opens on July 1), are designed in clusters of low-rise villas, mimicking the layout of a traditional Messinian town. There is a mix of elegant marble mansions and rustic stone farmhouses, linked by the Agora, a “village centre” with shops, delis, restaurants, bars and an outdoor cinema. It should bustle nicely in summer.

Rooms are luxurious, but the emphasis is on outdoor living. Public areas are surrounded by cool reflecting pools, which, along with the planted roofs, are there primarily as part of the bioclimatic architecture’s alternative to air conditioning; by happy coincidence, they also lend a wonderful sense of space and tranquillity. At the various swimming pools, you can rent cabanas kitted out with televisions and minibars, dawdle at the swim-up bars or book an alfresco massage. If you prefer the beach, there’s half a mile of wispy dunes and wide-open shingle, and you’re right next door to Voidokilia, one of the most stunning bays I’ve ever seen. Or visit the freshwater lagoon, home to wildlife such as flamingos and peregrine falcons.

For kids, there’s a water park, a bowling alley, a high-ropes course, basketball, tennis and squash. There’s even a children’s hotel, where youngsters can sleep over in dorms while parents have a night off. For grown-ups, the first golf course has now opened, designed by Bernhard Langer. The resort also has a truly impressive spa.

Our easy to read guide to eco-friendly holidays

Want to go on holiday but want to do it ethically?
Well here’s how.Almost all holidaying is going to have some impact on the environment, this site is all about how you can minimise that impact and become a  more ethically responsible green tourist.

Below are some simple tips.

Avoid planes if you can
Why not take a flight-free holiday?
Or travel there by coach, car or plane boat or train.

Flying to Paris from London will create approx 244kg of CO2.
On the other hand, getting there by Eurostar only creates 22kg of CO2 per passenger.

Offset your Carbon Footprint
Plane travel is bad for the environment but you can ease your guilt by paying to offset your carbon use.
Click here for more details

Use Green Holiday Operators
The green banner is becoming more frequently used but truly eco-friendly holiday operators will pay considerable attention to everything from recycling, water use and energy efficiency in hotels to fuel consumption and the participation and just treatment of indigenous peoples.

Stay at Eco-Friendly Hotels
Many hotels are now doing their best to minimise their environmental impact. If you are travelling independently why not stay in one?
Click here for more details of eco-hotels.

Volunteering / Conservation
Why not combine your trip to foreign climes with some unpaid work, helping the community or environment?
Volunteer projects range from helping with turtle conservation in a remote part of Queensland, Australia to helping in panda reserves in China or working alongside local fishermen in Ecuador/Galapagos as they visit local islands collecting debris from coastal areas and beaches.
Click here for more details

More eco-friendly holiday tips.

Travelling by Car
If you are traveling by car, make sure you drive in a fuel efficient way.
Accelerate gently. Avoid harsh braking
Make sure your car is well serviced.
Make sure your tyres are  properly inflated.
Minimise your luggage – the more weight, the more fuel consumption

Travelling by Plane
Reduce your flying time by selecting the airline with the most direct route
Keep internal flights and stopovers to a minimum, since take-offs and landings release the most carbon.
Minimise your luggage – the more weight, the more fuel consumption.

WHEN YOU ARE THERE
Being a green traveller is not just about being kind to the environment its also means behaving ethically and responsibly.

Tourism is not in itself bad, it can be a major benfit for local people. So, buy locally – produce, services, souvenirs or guides – the more the local economy depends on visitors, the more important it is that you support it.

Respect the local culture and customs. Be sensitive to the local culture by wearing clothing that is accepted. Master  a few phrases in the local language – you will win yourself a good deal of respect and goodwill.

Be aware of people’s sensitivity to being photographed by always asking first.

Being a responsible traveller also means taking care with resources – especially in impoverished parts of the world, where ready supplies of water and electricity may be far less plentiful than at home.

if you want to give gifts to local people in developing  countries don’t give sweets. Instead bring clothes and pens, and ask your tour operator or driver to give them to community elders so that you don’t  encourage begging from children.

Volunteering is a great way to see the world and feel good about it!

Make sure when you are researching a conservation or volunteering holiday that you do your homework

- ask for written information on the proportion of the holiday fee which goes to the local community
- ask for details of the feedback from the local community leaders as to the success of the projects
- ask other volunteers what they thought, ask for advice from charities and NGOs.

One of the best ways to see the world and be kind to the planet is to WWOOF.

The concept of a “WWOOFing holiday” is simple: volunteers enjoy free food and accommodation at organic projects throughout the world in return for a number of hours’ unpaid work per day.
The WWOOFing movement was founded in the UK in 1971 and it has since grown to include over 6,000 hosts in 88 countries across the world. .
WWOOF originally meant “Weekend Workers on Organic Farms” but its has now  become “Willing Workers on Organic Farms” or “World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms”.
The meaning of the acronym has evolved alongside the movement itself. Founded in the UK in 1971, WWOOFing now involves more than 6,000 hosts in 88 countries.
Volunteer duties range from restoring walls and buildings to mucking out animal pens and digging up stoney ground.
It’s a fantastic world to make new friends and make the world a better place.

A fantastic eco resort on the island of Mumbo. Electricity free accomodation is in luxurious safari-style tents set on headlands that overlook the crystal blue water of Lake Malawi. Bathrooms have bucket showers and biodegradable soap and shampoo. There is a lovely sandy beach close by. Lake Malawi is a pristine wilderness. Its heaven!

Co2 is a greenhouse gas and is responsible for global warming.

Carbon offsetting involves calculating your CO2 emissions, sometimes known as your “carbon footprint”, and then purchasing ‘credits’ from carbon emission reduction projects. These projects have prevented or removed an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide elsewhere.

This eco-lodge is in a wonderful remote beachside location. However the needs of the local community have been carefully considered in recent years. With the help of guests over the last few years enough funds have been raised to build a local village school, supply books, and train teachers from the locality, who arrive by bicyce supplied from the fund. The school is sustainable, and the lodge encourages guests to bring out school supplies. The lodge also operates a medical facility for the local village, and will use their boat to ferry locals to hospital if there is a medical emergency. The lodge is close to Misali Island a marine park, and they are very involved in the conservation work of this area.

A wonderful experience that takes visitors to the heart of the rainforest and teaches them about sustainable living from food choices, conserving resources (water and electricity). Staff are from local communities and there is work with a local school.

The Danzante Eco_resort is a perfect example of how ecotourism and luxury can go hand in hand. The resort consists of nine rooms blended into a hillside overlooking the Cortez sea, and is solar-powered (it helps that the region gets an average 360 days of sunshine a year!). The local women are employed as cooks, and to provide spa treatments, with assistance given by the owners for proper training in the latter, and fair wages paid. The recipes follow traditional recipes and often uses ingredients from the organic resort garden, and is of a high standard. The local men are employed as guides for kayaking, hiling, and sea safari boat trips. Guests are encouraged to re-use towels, and turn off lights and the ceiling fan when leaving their room. Torches which charge up by vigourous shaking are provided in each room, plus candles, to try and minimise use of electricity for lights.

This eco-hostel uses state-of-the-art environmental science: wind & solar power, grey water and dry toilet systems and bat friendly paint and you can’t take your car. The hostel must be reached by train and then on foot. It may not be a five-star resort, but it offers something totally unique, is incredibly well thought out and is a haven for lovers of nature and peace and quiet, and for those who truly care about the impact tourism has on the environment. You leave everything just as you found it, even taking your rubbish away with yo