Holidays reachable by train
Green places to stay
Green Travel List: Visitor Attractions
The Deep Aquarium, Hull
The huge underwater aquarium housed within Sir Terry Farrel’s innovative glass and aluminium building overlooking the Humber Estuary is both a museum and an environmental and educational charity, which works on conservation programmes and marine research worldwide.
The underwater centre, known as a ‘submarium’, is divided into more than thirty aquatic exhibits, from shallow tropical seas to the icy depths of the ocean, and is home to over 3,500 fish including rays, octopus and 40 kinds of sharks. Green initiatives from 2005-2008 have reduced the aquarium’s draw on energy by a quarter. www.thedeep.co.uk, 01482 381000.
BeWILDerwood, Norfolk
Family adventure park inspired by the book ‘A Boggle at BeWILDerwood’ written by local children’s author Tom Blofeld. For kids it is den heaven: treehouses, zip wires, jungle bridges, boat trips and marsh walks in the land of Boggles and Twiggles. Over 70% of waste is recycled and the park has planted over 14,000 trees and upgraded local footpaths, bridleways and cycle paths. www.bewilderwood.co.uk, 01603 783900.
GreenWood Forest Park, Wales
Family adventure park in the foothills of Snowdonia with adventure rides, boat trips, magicians, pirates, face painting and craft making. Pride of place is the Green Dragon Rollercoaster, which uses the gravitational weight of visitors plunging downhill to provide the energy to pull the empty funicular cabins uphill. Arrive on foot or by bike, and you’ll be given a free drink, while local school groups who walk to the park are given free entry. www.greenwoodforestpark.co.uk, 01248 671493.
New Lanark Visitor Centre, Scotland
The focal point of the restored 18th century cotton mill village World Heritage Site that’s the gateway to the Falls of Clyde. The visitor centre has been awarded Gold from Green Tourism Business Scheme, it is home to Scotland's largest roof garden and a hydro-power turbine provides the energy to support 400,000 annual visitors. www.newlanark.org, 01555 661345.
Coed y Brenin Visitor Centre, North Wales
The Forestry Commission’s flagship adventure centre just north of Dolgellau is home to some of the best mountain biking in the UK. Waymarked technical trails and a newly opened family route radiate from the visitor centre roundhouse whose electricity is supplied by renewable sources and a woodchip boiler supplies the heating and hot water. Ten percent discount in the cafe if you arrive by train. www.forestry.gov.uk, 0300 068 0300.
Goodleaf Tree Climbing, Isle of Wight
Learn how to climb 60-ft oaks at this tree climbing centre in secluded woodland and you’ll be rewarded with views across the Solent to the South Coast. Run from the home of Paul McCathie, a kiwi-born aborist “who has been climbing trees professionally for over ten years”, you’re first given a safety brief and lesson in tying knots, then you’re strapped into a harness and shown how to shinny up the beanstalk. There’s five percent discount if you arrive on foot, by bike or public transport and a percentage of the company’s profit is donated to Trees for life (www.treesforlife.org.uk), which works to restore the Caledonian Forest in the Scottish Highlands. www.goodleaf.co.uk, 0333 800 1188.
Greenheart Ibiza / Casita Verde, Ibiza
Ibiza’s flagship ecology and family education centre run by volunteers at a farm a few kilometres northwest of San José. You can leave the kids in a supervised play school while you stroll around the centre, learning the ins and outs of alternative technologies and how to cultivate plants and herbs. If that sounds too much like hard work, you could just chill out with a massage at the natural therapy centre or sit drinking a healthy dose of Cassita’s own organic carob syrup looking out over the valley. Open Sundays only.
www.greenheart.info, +34 971 187353.
Zealandia, New Zealand
A wildlife-rich square mile, minutes from downtown Wellington, that’s part of an ambitious 500-year vision to restore native forest and wetlands to New Zealand’s mainland. A safe haven for endangered birds, Karori is now one of the best places in the country to see the elusive, flightless kiwi, especially if you go on one of the guided boat trips in the early evening where a naturalist show you where to find these shy, nocturnal creatures scuttling among the vegetation, as well as banks of glow worms and kaka bush parrots.
www.visitzealandia.com, +64 4 920 9200.
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