Hotel Cerro de Hijar, Spain

The hotel is just an hour inland from Malaga in a remote part of Andalucía that’s yet to be touched by the sprawling development creeping up from the Costa del Sol. There are four suites and 14 large bright double rooms with the kind of mountain views you’d only expect to see after a day’s hiking; I could see all the way to the sea from my balcony…
Solar panels soak up the warm Andalucian sun.
Photo © Richard Hammond.

There’s excellent local Andalucían food served in the restaurant (below), and while it’s a relatively large country hotel with an outdoor swimming pool, all the rubbish is recycled, and each year the three Spanish owners have introduced a new eco feature, such as solar heating for the water and a waste water irrigation system.

Two kilometres down a winding mountain road is the spa village of Tolox where there’s a natural bathing pool fed from a mountain spring. From the hotel, you can hire a local guide for walks and explore the Sierra Nevada National Park by bike or on horseback.

Right: Local Andalucian food tops the menu. Photo © Richard Hammond.

· 0034 952 112111, cerrodehijar.com. Rooms from €66, breakfast €8, dinner from €35. Bikes €10 a day, horse-riding €12 an hour.

An edited version of this article, by Richard Hammond, was first published in the Guardian.