Whether you love whales, trees or indigenous people, few travel destinations seem to feel pristine. But for those who want to escape the tourist onslaught and shed the sense that you’re about the only one on the planet who hasn’t been to a particular place, take heart. Here are three eco-destinations that seek to inspire guests to do more to protect the planet while proving that sustainability and comfort can coexist.
It’s nice when an eco-escape can pamper the planet and us.
King Pacific Lodge
This floating wilderness resort on British Columbia’s central coast is open June to mid-September. For two years in a row, 2010 and 2011, it received the World Travel Award for North America’s Leading Green Hotel. The lodge not only composts and recycles waste, its main building was built from a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers vessel.
“When the Morita family, our Japanese owners, commissioned us to build a new lodge, they wanted us to make it as beautiful as the environment in which it will be floating. We found an ex-Army barge made of cedar and slate and floated it to northern B.C.,” said Pacific King Lodge President Michael Uehara, who has actively helped the local Gitga’at tribe protect the rain forest since he began running the lodge about 15 years ago. Uehara said sustainable tourism and partnerships with First Nations people led to the creation of the Great Bear Rainforest in 2006, 27,000 square miles of the world’s most intact temperate rain forest.
A stay doesn’t come cheap, however. Four nights for a family of two adults and two children at the all-inclusive 17-room lodge starts at $16,986 (U.S.). That includes organic gourmet meals, all beverages, daily guided eco-tourism activities, plus transportation from Vancouver. Among the activities are whale watching and wildlife tours, ocean fishing, hiking and kayaking, usually with native guides. Power is provided to the resort by a generator augmented by solar panels.
Guests can have a back-of-the-house tour to see how the lodge attempts to leave no footprint behind when the season ends. “When the buildings float away, nothing is left. … Whatever hasn’t been turned to compost or recycled is taken out by barge or float plane when the lodge is moved to Prince Rupert for storage during the offseason,” Uehara said.
Information: 888-592-5464, kingpacificlodge.com
Sandos Caracol Eco Resort & Spa
Just 45 minutes from the Cancun airport onMexico’s Riviera Maya, the 65-acre Sandos Caracol Eco Resort & Spa blends five-star hotel luxury with solar panels, LED lighting, recycling, composting and eco-awareness.
“One of the coolest things we do is to introduce a little bit of education on an archaeological, ecological and historical level about ancient Mayan culture,” said resort spokesman Jacques De Paep. “We have some temples within the resort, and it gives us an entry into lessons about living in harmony.”
An interactive display linked to NASA, called Sandos Planet, shows the impact of carbon and greenhouse gases across the globe. “We are well on the way to eliminating all plastic bottle use in the hotels. We have water coolers in the rooms with hot and cold water. … We advise guests on local flora and fauna, our compost making and the reuse of compost in our vegetable garden and so forth,” De Paep said.
A four-night stay for a family of four at the all-inclusive resort typically starts at $1,080. An adults-only area makes the resort popular for romance too.
Sandos Caracol emphasizes human power with established walking paths, bike paths and golf carts. Bikes are provided free for guests. “We have one of the only solar-powered golf carts operating in Mexico. Wherever possible, we use solar. We encourage walking; through walking you live in conjunction with flora and fauna. We have a marine biologist … on staff, and our engineer does eco and archaeological tours,” De Paep said.
The resort hires locals and encourages guests to use local tour guides. “The staff is involved in keeping the resort ecologically responsible. The people we work with are much closer to the land, much less urbanized. They live in villages and already don’t waste water,” De Paep explained.
Besides swimming, snorkeling and hiking, guests staying in May and June can sometimes see turtles hatching at night before making their way to the ocean guided by moonlight.
Information: 866-887-5601, tinyurl.com/6geoa3n
Wildman Wilderness Lodge
Located on the Mary River wetlands in the Northern Territory of Australia, the resort opened in 2011 as Australia’s first “recycled resort.” Grant Hunt, chairman and founder of Anthology, Wildman’s owner/operator, said key buildings came from the defunct Wrotham Park Cattle Station in Central Far North Queensland. Along with cabins and central facilities, most of Wrotham’s infrastructure, including generators, the water-treatment system, the sewage-treatment system and electrical infrastructure, was dismantled and hauled in to create Wildman Wilderness Lodge. In May, Conde Nast Traveler listed Wildman as one of its 60 picks on its Hot List 2012.
“When guests visit Anthology properties, we give them ‘nuts and bolts’ tours to show them how sewage is treated using a biodegradable natural enzyme. Wildman has 25 rooms and sends zero waste into landfills. We have 100 square meters of compost, and we use it all on the property,” said Hunt, who compromised and added air-conditioning to 10 of Wildman’s cabins. “The U.K., Italy and most other developed countries expect A/C if they are paying for a premium product. We wanted to do highly thematic safari tents with just fan cooling, but we realized they would not sell in the really hot humid months. Hence the A/C cabins as well,” Hunt said.
A four-night stay for four guests in a safari tent, cooled by fans, starts at $2,605 for lodging with full breakfast and dinner.
Activities at the resort include bird-watching, river and billabong cruises, tours in the Mary River National Park, quad bike tours and cultural hikes, often led by an aboriginal guide. Billabong is how Australians describe an oxbow lake that is created when the path of a river or creek changes.
Information: 011-61-08-8978-8955, wildmanwildernesslodge.com.
