UK
Bloomfield House, Bath
Robert and Karen Barnard-Weston's elegant Georgian house is on a hill on the outskirts of Bath. Once the home of the town's lord mayor, Bloomfield is now a relaxed family home - the couple have five children, five cats and a dog. Guests can even bring their own well-behaved dogs if they wish. Walk up the honey-coloured steps and through the front door and you're in an unusual oval hallway, its walls decorated with peacocks and foliage - the house once belonged to a stage-set designer, who painted lavish trompe l'oeil throughout, giving the hotel a wonderfully theatrical air.
The Barnard-Westons have played on this theme, furnishing the rooms with antiques: "the best form of recycling," according to Robert. Each room is different, but all are light and clean with large beds, and some have views of Bath and the surrounding countryside. The breakfast room is comfortable and cluttered, with doors opening on to the garden filled with rescued plants that were destined for the council dump.
As Bloomfield House is a listed building, the Barnard-Westons have been unable to introduce some of the eco-friendly features they would have liked. However, they recycle everything from cardboard to cans; they use as many low-energy light bulbs as the chandeliers allow; and they use eco-friendly cleaning products wherever possible. They've also installed separate electric radiators in each room, rather than heating the whole house unnecessarily, and use electricity from renewable sources. Their car runs on a biofuel made from rapeseed oil, and guests who arrive by public transport receive a 10% reduction on their room rate.
Robert is an environmental consultant and lectures on sustainable tourism. He was co-founder of Bath's farmers' market and sets great store by providing guests with locally sourced food. He'll proudly point from the window to show you the proximity of the farm that provides the organic bacon and free-range eggs served at breakfast. You'll also have bread from a nearby bakery, and locally produced milk and honey. Breakfast tea and coffee is from fairtrade sources, and vegetarians are catered for as a matter of course.
· 01225 420105, ecobloomfield.com, £70-£140 per room per night B&B.
Primrose Valley Hotel, St Ives
A white-painted Edwardian villa with large windows, the hotel is hidden away in a cul-de-sac a minute's walk from Porthminster Beach. Inside, the building has been given a contemporary makeover by owners Andrew and Sue Biss, who have created sleek and simple interiors that complement the original architecture. There are polished wooden floors (Forest Stewardship Council-approved), funky furnishings and fresh flowers. The small bar serves Italian Illy coffee, Cornish cider, beer and wine.
Despite its air of understated indulgence, Primrose Valley is a hotel with a surprisingly small carbon footprint. Electricity comes from renewable sources, light bulbs are low energy and about 60% of all waste is recycled. The owners use eco-friendly cleaning products and provide hand-made Cornish soaps in the bathrooms.
Breakfasts are a real treat, the sausages, eggs, smoked goats cheese, yogurt, butter and milk all produced nearby.
· 01736 794939, primroseonline.co.uk, £85-£145 B&B .
Anna's House, County Down
The reed-fringed lake is home to moorhens, swans and herons. In the garden, with its secret nooks and thick hedges, you feel as if you're miles from anywhere, but Anna's House is just a 20-minute drive from Belfast. The house was originally a two-room cottage, but has been extended over the years into a large, comfortable guesthouse - run by Anna Johnson and her husband, Ken. The latest addition is a living area with huge windows and stunning views. It's cleverly and efficiently heated by a geothermal system. Energy is further conserved by solar panels, which heat the water and low-energy light bulbs; and the family car - a hybrid Prius. Eventually, the couple hope to have their own wind turbine.
They make a point of serving guests as much local and organic produce as possible. Breakfast is likely to include Anna's home-made bread and yoghurt and organic tea and coffee. The four guest rooms have Irish linen sheets, en suite bathrooms and Wi-Fi access. Two rooms have a balcony, and one on the ground floor has wheelchair access and a wet room (shower room) in addition to a private terrace.
The Johnsons' flower-filled garden is completely organic, including the vegetable plot. They also have another 18 acres of land that Anna plans to plant with indigenous trees and other species that will attract wildlife.
Stay here and you might find yourself just strolling round the garden or lying in the hammock among the pine trees, or spotting birds and butterflies. However, there's plenty more to see: the Mourne Mountains to the south offer plenty of opportunities for exhilarating walks, while birdwatchers will certainly want to head for Strangford Lough to see the migrating wildfowl.
· 028-9754 1566, annashouse.com, £70-85 B&B. See directferries.co.uk for sailings to Belfast.
France
Perché dans le Perche, Normandy
This arboreal hideaway in the Perche - part of the Orne district of Normandy - is a posh treehouse ("perched in the Perche"), a comfy cabin built into a 200-year-old chestnut tree by Claire Stickland and her French husband, Ivan Payonne. The tree is on La Renardière (the Foxery), the 25-acre estate they manage as a natural haven.
The cabin has polished wooden floors and plenty of natural light. There's a bedroom, a sitting area with a little kitchen, and a bathroom. Greywater from the cabin, and from Claire and Ivan's house (a renovated 18th-century cottage), is purified through a succession of troughs containing volcanic rock, reeds and plants, before finally being channelled into a wetland area. Cleaning products are bio-friendly, and there are also eco-friendly toiletries in the bathroom. Waste is either recycled or put on the compost heap.
In the morning, someone will pop over with a basket of fresh local food, including organic butter and yoghurt, apple juice, home-made jam and seasonal fruit. In the evening, you can eat at a local restaurant, or picnic on camembert and cider from one of the region's pretty towns.
Le Renardière is within the Perche regional nature park and there's plenty of countryside to explore. You can walk, cycle or canoe - or attend a vegetarian cookery course at a nearby organic farm.
· 0033 2 33 25 57 96, perchedansleperche.com, €150 B&B. Nearest railway station is Le Mans.
L'Auberge les Liards, Auvergne
The property - part of a smallholding - is on the slopes of Puy de Liards, an extinct volcano on the outskirts of the village of Égliseneuve des Liards. The owners, Dutch couple Astrid Ursem and Walter Verhoeve, have created the guesthouse from two ruined farm buildings. The main house has two guest rooms, and a nearby building contains two "ecological" rooms constructed with natural and traditional materials. Insulation is provided by a mix of hemp, chalk, loam and hay - as well as soil collected from molehills, which they use to insulate the floor. The rooms are simply decorated, with natural colours and wooden furniture. Guests are provided with eco-friendly soap, there are low-energy lights and household cleaning products are biodegradable.
The guesthouse serves evening meals as well as breakfast, and much of the food is organic and locally produced. The couple will also happily cater for vegetarians. Bread comes from the local baker, eggs from their own hens, jams are home-made - often from brambles collected on their land - and lentils and cereals are grown nearby.
You can access several waymarked walking trails from the guesthouse, there are plenty of cycling and mountain-biking routes, and horse-riding centres nearby. If you want to explore more widely, the auberge can book a guided walk with a local English-speaking mountain guide. After all that exertion, you'll feel you've earned your glass of kir on the terrace.
· +4 73 96 89 44, lesliards.com, from €38-€69 room only. Nearest railway station is Issoire.
Italy
Locanda della Valle Nuova, Le Marche
The Savini family produce organic free-range beef and organic cereals (they have a small mill), keep free-range hens, make their own wine, grow a wide variety of fruit and vegetables and offer sleek contemporary guest rooms in a tranquil rural setting.
Their commitment to green living is comprehensive. The house, built in the 1920s, was restored in 1998 using traditional materials, with thick walls, double glazing and cork insulation. It is heated by a wood stove, as well as solar power; by 2008, they plan to have solar panels to supply their electricity. More energy is saved with low-consumption light bulbs, and there are recycling bins for plastics, cans and paper.
The food served is predominantly organic, seasonal and locally grown, and the family also collect wild herbs, sloes and nuts to use in cooking. You breakfast on home-made bread and jams, local honey and organic cheese, and in the evening enjoy freshly made pasta or the farm's own Marchigiana beef, accompanied by local wines and perhaps a home-made walnut liqueur. In the autumn, there's the possibility of delicious white truffles from the family's woodland.
If you're feeling active you can ride the farm's own horses, or take a dip in the outdoor swimming pool. The family will also give you plenty of information on walks and cycling trails, and the nearby Furlo Gorge nature reserve is home to rare orchids, raptors, reptiles and wolves.
· 0039 0 722 330303, vallenuova.it, €52pp B&B. Nearest railway station is Pesaro (connect at Ancona).
Casa del Grivo, Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Toni and Paola Costalunga's welcoming country inn is a relaxed family home and a smallholding run on natural organic principles. The house, with wooden shutters and a small balcony, was built around 1920 and has been renovated using hand-made bricks, local stone and chestnut beams, as well as natural varnishes. The guest rooms have traditional mattresses filled with wool and vegetable fibres. Only one has a private bathroom; the other three share two bathrooms.
Toni grows fruit and vegetables in the organic kitchen garden, and also has a vineyard from which he produces refusco, a dry red; tocai, a dry white; and verduzzo, a dessert wine.
There are walks, cycle paths and rivers to picnic by and the nearby medieval town of Cividale del Friuli, with its 15th-century cathedral.
· 0039 0 432 728638, grivo.has.it, €28pp B&B. Call in advance for pick-up from Udine railway station.
Spain
The Lodge, Andalucía
High in the Sierra Nevada national park, 25 minutes' drive from the nearest village and with no public services, the Lodge feels incredibly remote. It's a two-bedroom self-catering apartment on the first floor of a 500-year-old farmhouse owned by British couple Aspen and David Edge.
They run their two-acre farm as a research project, investigating small-scale and traditional farming practices. They grow all their own vegetables and fruit, and also keep sheep, chickens, geese and goats. If they've any surplus produce, they'll happily sell you some to cook in your apartment. But there may be little need, as a complimentary basket of items like home-made bread, fresh goat's milk and organic eggs is provided on arrival.
The apartment, like the farmhouse, is decidedly low impact. Heat is supplied by a wood-burning stove; electricity comes from solar panels, as does hot water for your shower. The bathroom has a regulated flushing toilet, but if you're keen to do the full "back to nature" bit you can always use the outdoor composting l00. There's no TV but there are plenty of books and board games, as well as a wind-up radio. A natural spring supplies drinking water, and there's a small plunge pool - a cloudy blue colour as it isn't treated with chemicals.
The Lodge is the ideal base for walking or riding in the mountains, while Lanjarón, the nearest village, has a market and shops, as well as a mineral spa offering various treatments.
· 0034 (0) 958 347 053, holisticdecisions.com, €370 per week (preferred minimum seven nights). Lanjaron is 50km from Granada.
Germany
mitArt, Berlin
It once housed the GDR's National Military Printing Press, producing a ready supply of propaganda. Now it's Berlin's first green hotel, offering a showcase for up-and-coming contemporary artists in the lively, cosmopolitan Mitte district.
The owner, Christiane Waszkowiak, started out running a modern art gallery that offered accommodation for the new artists she exhibited. Gradually, it grew into a small hotel. In 2005, she expanded the operation by moving to this turn-of-the-20th-century building, decorating the interior in contemporary style with eco-friendly paints and varnishes. The courtyard is filled with herbs, lemon bushes, fig trees and a banana palm. Rooms are stylish and uncluttered, with dark wooden furnishings, white bedding and, of course, contemporary artworks.
Electricity comes from renewable sources and cleaning products and guest soaps are organic and biodegradeable. Recycling of everything from plastics to cans is standard practice, and any waste organic matter from the kitchen is collected in separate containers for composting.
The cafe on the ground floor serves only organic food - sourced as much as possible from local suppliers.
The hotel provides information on things to do and see in the area, and Christiane is particularly knowledgeable on the local art scene.
· 0049 (0) 30 283 90430, mitart.de, €110-€180 per double per night B&B.
Morocco
Lalla Mira, Essaouira
Founded in the seventh century BC by the Phoenicians, Essaouira might never have changed had it not been for an 18th-century French engineer. His fortifications pleased the local sultan so much that he gave Essaouira its name: it means "Well designed".
Design is still important today as crumbling buildings such as the Lalla Mira hotel are renovated or renewed. On a side street off rue Mohammed el-Qorry, this modern building blends well with its older neighbours. Traditional chalk-plastering has been combined with modern technologies like solar power to create this eco-hotel. The hotel's hammam is the only original part of the structure and is the oldest bath-house in town.
Lalla Mira is named after a spirit of Gnaoua, the mystical musical tradition that draws huge crowds to the town's annual festival, held in June. Even without the festival, the streets are never quiet, but respite can be found on the hotel's roof terrace, where the superb views are accompanied by the tapping of traditional metalsmiths below. Its 13 rooms are simply equipped, and their organic, allergy-free bedding and kapok-stuffed mattresses make for a good night's sleep. It's not just the bedding that's organic; the hotel's restaurant uses produce from its own pesticide-free farm in the nearby hills.
· +212 24 475046, lallamira.ma. Dh436pp per night B&B. Train to Algeciras in Spain, then ferry to Tangier (book tickets at viamare.com), then train to Marrakech (oncf.ma) and bus to Essaouira. See seat61.com for train routes and times.
· Green Rooms, the first in a responsible travel series from AA Publishing, is due to be published on March 31, £14.99.
