SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL • EXPERIENCES • 63

[ EXPERIENCES ]

LEAVE
ONLY
FOOTPRINTS
Done badly, there aren’t many industries with as much of
an environmental impact as travel, but these breaks are
putting sustainability, ecology and regeneration top of the
agenda, from wild safaris to catamaran cruises and more

1,000 900kg 3,505m

Acres of eco Plastic collected Altitude of
reserve at Sani by Vakkaru hotel leopard-watching
Resorts Halkidiki in the Maldives town Leh in Nepal

T
HE GLOBAL OUTLOOK is so Words by
often overcast with doom and ESCAPISM TEAM

gloom that it can be easy to lose

track of how far we’ve come. In the
past, the most important features of a hotel
stay would inevitably be a flatscreen TV,
decent room service and comfy pillows.
And just two decades ago it would be hard
to imagine that travellers would be touting
sustainability and ecological measures as
one of the most important facets in choosing
where – and how – they travel. Yet here we
are in 2022, staring down the proverbial
barrel, and surveys are saying that 83% of
travellers believe that sustainability is vital.
SUNDOWNERS:
While greenwashing is a real thing and The Grumeti Serengeti
hotels across the world have cottoned on to River Lodge in
the fact that sustainability is an indispensable Tanzania gets guests
up-close and personal
part of modern-day marketing, it’s heartening
with safari animals,
to see operators, tourism offices and with a focus on
properties across the planet jump > conservation initiatives
 SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL • EXPERIENCES • 65

LIFE’S A BEACH: [left] Luxury sailing holiday worth breaking a few proverbial plates for.
operator High Point Yachting’s chartered tours go Sani Beach offers a Double Room from €129 per
big on renewables, and also offer beach clean-up days night on a half-board basis; sani-resort.com

LIVE YOUR FANTASY

implementing systems to reduce waste, cut The Torridon, Highlands, Scotland
out single-use plastic and rely less on fossil Fun fact. George R.R. Martin was inspired to
fuels. And that’s not the only point of sale name the primary setting of Game of Thrones
(sail?) – many of its boats have been fitted – Westeros – after the remote Wester Ross
with world-class onboard technology and region of the Scottish Highlands. For anyone
top-end solar panels to generate their own au fait with the country, they’ll know it offers
electricity. Optional beach clean-ups are also some of the most immaculate wilderness in
a great way to give back to the great blue Europe, and for luxury hotels, The Torridon
sea, and with travel itineraries across the is the gem in its crown, a Scots baronial
Mediterranean, the Caribbean and French castle overlooking the limpid waters of the
Polynesia, there are plenty of stunning sandy eponymous loch. The hotel has launched
stretches to make pristine. a whole raft of sustainability initiatives
Crewed catamarans start from £10,000, to work in harmony with and preserve
£15,000 for gulets and £50,000 for super the nature in which it thrives. Single-use GET SOME ALONE TIME high-tech shower recycles water immediately
yachts. For more information, go to plastics have been strictly verboten, a brand Loggers Lodge, Lapland, Sweden back into the shower system, ensuring
highpointyachting.com new energy-efficient kitchen powered by Sustainability goes hand-in-glove with minimal wastage. Waste is handled by a
renewable energy has been installed, and Loggers Lodge, which bills itself ‘as a simple mini treatment plant that exceeds the strict
HOLIDAY ENERGY biomass has become a main source of energy cabin in the woods sympathetically elevated guidelines from the Swedish Environmental
Sani Resorts, Halkidiki, Greece throughout the property. More than half with sustainable technology’. The one- Protection Agency. The main heating in the
Sani Resorts has become a watchword of the produce used at The Torridon’s two bedroom cabin, set within five kilometres lodge and the extra bedroom unit is via an
amongst overworked urban parents looking restaurants is produced on its on-site farm of forest in northern Sweden, was originally energy-efficient air source heat pump, and >
to get away from it all. Laid amongst and kitchen garden, and further ingredients built as a temporary home for itinerant
> on this bandwagon. Check out these great inaugural 12-day rail holiday to Puglia in the rocks of the Kassandra Peninsula in are sourced from the surrounding area to loggers in the late 19th century. It’s recently
initiatives from operators around the world. southern Italy by way of a two-day journey Halkidiki, the Greek resort offers seven support the local community. been renovated top-to-tail with luxury and
RETURN OF THE YAK: [above] The Torridan in
via Basel and Milan, with an electric rental kilometres of pristine beachfront and Rooms at The Torridon from £350 per night on sustainability front and centre, and the the Scottish highlands offers the chance to get back to
car awaiting travellers in Bari to bring them 20km of trails amongst its 1,000 acre a B&B basis; thetorridon.com latter has led the way in every decision. A nature; remote, unspoiled beauty in Swedish Lapland
REDUCING IMPACT to small scale accommodation nearby. In a eco reserve. As one of the forerunners of
phrase, its feet are firmly on the ground. luxury family travel and a hotel that has
Available from summer 2023, €1,550 per person; played host to successive generations of
GO FLIGHTLESS elizawashere.co.uk children, Sani is taking steps to safeguard
Eliza Was Here, Puglia, Italy their future through a comprehensive
Commercial flights emit roughly twenty TAKE TO THE HIGH SEAS suite of sustainability initiatives. Having
times the amount of CO2 per passenger High Point Yachting already secured 100% renewable energy
than train travel, and are one of the Centuries before the internal combustion for electricity, the Sani Green programme
primary movers of CO2 emissions for the engine, the sail was king of long-distance will see the property establishing a triple
contemporary traveller. Luckily, many travel. Sailing is undoubtedly one of the zero goal: to be net-zero by 2030, as well
operators are taking this in stride and most sustainable means of covering ground as zero-plastic and zero-waste by 2024.
adapting their offerings to promote more (or, well, water) with trace emissions, but Other achievements of the dedicated Sani
sustainable, responsible means of transport. that doesn’t mean that there isn’t room Green programme include reducing water
Eliza Was Here, a Mediterranean-focused for improvement. High Point Yachting use in the last five years by 48%, reducing
travel agency that prides itself on steering has jumped at the chance to push the single-use plastic by 80% since 2013, as well
travellers away from mass tourism, is envelope with sustainable boat chartering, as recycling rates of over 90%. To us, that’s
one such business. Opting out of CO2
compensation and offsetting, it’s instead
looking into sustainable aviation fuel, or HAVING SECURED 100% RENEWABLE
SAF, which emits at least 75% CO2 than
fossil kerosene. Additionally, Eliza Was Here ELECTRICITY, SANI RESORTS HALKIDIKI IS
has been pivoting to focus increasingly on
alternative means of travel, particularly COMMITTED TO BEING NET-ZERO BY 2030
by train. The company has introduced an