Travel solutions: eco friendly breaks

Solar powered showers, locally sourced food and self-composting toilets: Time Out offers three options for eco-friendly tourists. Long-haul travellers may wish to consider planting a small wood to compensate

The pool at Lapa Rios, Costa Rica

 

UK
Gwalia Farm, Wales

Short haul
Okotel, Hamburg

Long-haul
Lapa Rios, Costa Rica

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UK
Gwalia Farm, Wales
While many hotel proprietors seem to think installing low-energy lightbulbs and dual-flush toilets is enough to qualify them for eco status, this traditional B&B in mid-Wales has a back-to-nature approach which goes a lot further. You need not fret about the food miles your breakfast has travelled: at Gwalia Farm it is more a case of food feet. The vegetarian breakfasts feature eggs and goats’ milk from the farm, home-baked wholemeal bread, and damson, blackcurrant or gooseberry jam from the fruit trees in the garden. Guests are welcome to help feed the chickens, milk the goats or collect eggs from the farm. Any foods that are bought in are Fairtrade, organic or locally sourced. During winter, heating and hot water are provided by a renewable wood-burning stove, and during the summer months solar panels supply all the energy needed for guest showers.

Rooms are simple but cosy and, despite the farm’s eco-credentials, there'’ not a wind chime or dream-catcher in sight. Instead you are met with good, old-fashioned B&B chintz, proving that not everything has to be new or, worse, New Age, to be environmentally friendly.

Combine your stay with a trip to Europe’s leading eco-centre, just a few miles away. The Centre for Alternative Technology (Macynlleth, 01654 705 950/www.cat.org.uk) is a seven-acre site in the foothills of southern Snowdonia showcasing the best in sustainable technology, with displays demonstrating how to harness renewable energy sources such as wind, water and sun. The centre is definitely user-friendly; facilities don’t come much more interactive than a self-composting toilet.

Getting there Euston to Macynlleth Saver Return ticket £51.40 (08457 484950/ www.thetrainline.com)
Staying at B&B at Gwalia Farm costs £25 per person per night (01650 511 377/www.gwaliafarm.co.uk).