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.