Three sexy eco breaks
12.04.2007, 11:02
Private eco-islands, eco-country houses, eco-spas, eco-golf; Susan d’Arcy shows how ‘eco’ can be gorgeous too
Would you love to take an ecofriendly holiday, but can’t face the hairy hemp bed linen and papier-mâché slippers? Don’t worry, there are plenty of hotels that know how to provide luxury and do their bit for the environment. Here are some five-star suggestions that will turn even climate-change sceptics green . . . with envy.
EILEAN SHONA, Argyll
Don’t wait for Richard Branson’s Necker to turn carbon-neutral – head for his sister Vanessa’s eco-chic island off the west coast of Scotland. The five-minute ferry ride to Eilean Shona seems to take you back about 100 years. It has no cars, no shops, no television; instead, you walk through moss-covered woods, chase waves on the bone-white beach and spot otters and red squirrels. The house oozes style, with Jackson Pollock murals in the dining room, a place where you’ll eat far too many plump oysters from the island’s own beds. No wonder JM Barrie loved it here.
PENRHOS COURT, Herefordshire
This 700-year-old manor farm in wild border country is like a walk through Architectural Digest. For the medieval A-frame construction, bent oak trees were sawn in half from top to bottom, then opened; there is also Elizabethan chequerboard flooring. The hotel has 15 bedrooms, some with four-posters. There’s an award-winning organic restaurant, and if you’re inspired by the nettle soup and elderflower cheesecake served there, you can sign up for cookery courses. How green is this valley? Al Gore has signed the guestbook.
STRATTONS, Norfolk
A Palladian villa just off Swaffham high street, Strattons is sumptuous: rooms have carved four-posters, a tented bathroom and stained-glass trompe-l’oeil panelling. The hotel also has the most delicate of ecological footprints: it even offers a 10% discount to guests who arrive by public transport. It’s a favourite haunt of Stephen Fry and Hermione Norris; apparently, Mick Jagger wanted to stay, but the hotel was full – and, of course, staff politely explained that they couldn’t bump another guest.