Green Travel List: Large Hotels, Worldwide

Hotel Sigiriya, Sri Lanka 

In the shadow of the ruined rock fortress, the 79-room Hotel Sigiriya could have been the last thing this ancient citadel needed. Yet the sensitive design of the hotel means it fits in with the spectacular landscape rather than lording over it. There are all the creature comforts you’d expect at a plush international hotel (from the swimming pool and lounge bar there are fabulous views of the rock), yet it has taken significant steps to keep its emissions down to a minimum, including the installation of a Gasifier to replace diesel firing of the hotel boiler, card key switches are provided for air-conditioning, and water is reused to irrigate the gardens. www.serendibleisure.com, +94 662 284 811.

Premier Inn, Tamworth 

Whitbread is the UK’s largest hotel chain with more than 580 hotels, but this is its first “green hotel”, which it says is a “test bed for sustainable technologies”. Ground source heat pumps cool and heat the 20-room hotel and restaurant, and the company says the solar panels provide energy to heat enough water for 1,000 baths a year. A similarly green 60-bedroom Premier Inn hotel with Beefeater pub restaurant in Burgess Hill is due to open in the autumn.www.premierinn.com, 0870 242 8000. 

Apex Hotels 

A small chain of smart hotels in London, Edinburgh and Dundee that has done more than most hotel groups to green up its act, from installing energy-saving lighting and insulation to using ozone in its swimming pools instead of chlorine. Judge Stephanie Draper of Forum for the Future said: “their efforts sound like a lot of things that every hotel should be doing anyway – such as replacing light bulbs or turning off the gym equipment and TVs at night - but they have taken things a step further, incorporating green roofs and energy reducing technology; they even have a green architect.”www.apexhotels.co.uk, 0845 365 0000.

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