Green Travel List: Winter Activities

Inntravel

Specialist tour operator for walking, cycling, and winter holidays mainly in Europe but also in Morocco, New England, Canada and India. Many of its holidays use small locally owned hotels, which help sustain local economies, especially in remote, rural areas. Inntravel includes a 'rail inclusive' price for those holidays that are reached easily by train in a day from St Pancras International. The company has carried out a carbon audit of its eco-friendly offices in Yorkshire and in its final holiday documents, customers receive a page on environmental awareness, focussing on lighting, heating and laundry. See a typical Inntravel trip on greentraveller

Mountainbug Holidays, France

Based at an 18th-century stone chalet in the village of Barèges in the French Pyrenees, Mountainbug runs low impact snowshoeing trips that include tracking ermine, hare, isard and fox, and ski-touring programmes that are designed for skiers to discover the winter wonderland without using powered lifts, staying overnight in solar-powered mountain refuges. In Spring, the owners also run walking holidays focusing on identifying wild flowers, birds and butterflies.www.mountainbug.com, +33 5 62 92 16 3.

Iglu-Dorf, Switzerland, Germany and Andorra

Six Eskimo-style, low impact igloo villages available from the end of December to April in some of Europe's most famous ski resorts, including Gstaad, St. Moritz and car-free Zermatt in Switzerland, Zugspitze in Germany and one in Andorra. Tucked up in the igloos on foam mattresses and furs, you'll need to pack pyjamas and keep the down jacket to hand as the cocoons are not heated, red velvet curtains hang across the doorways and candles provide the only light. Wine is served on tap, drunk from polystyrene cups which are reused to reduce waste, and if things get really cold you can jump in the energy efficient hot-tub and wooden sauna. www.iglu-dorf.com, +41 41 612 27 28.

La Source, Swiss Alps

An former alpine Savoyard hay barn that has been converted into a 5-bed luxury chalet, five minutes from the Grand Massif ski area. The owners haven't skimped on creature comforts, providing a storage and drying room, a mini climbing wall, hammock, wifi and a wood-fired hot tub, yet it all comes with impressive eco credentials: the name refers to the mountain source/spring that supplies the lodge's water, the owners have recycled all the old wood into doors and cupboards, bought new wood from a sustainable timber yard (800m away), double insulated it with recycled newspaper, fitted triple glazed windows, a super efficient wood pellet burner and a wood-fired sauna. Travel by train, shared car, hitch or bike and you'll get a €100 discount in the winter and €50 reduction in the summer. www.sourcealps.com, +33 9 79 68 41 82.

Chalet Châtelet, French Alps

A luxury catered chalet in the Vallée d'Abondance near the Portes du Soleil ski area of the French Alps, including the beginner’s and family ski area at Drouzin le Mont. It's a newly built pine chalet with stone-clad honeycomb brick on the ground floor and log walls packed with lamb's wool, cork, wood-fibre and hemp for insulation. Electricity and hot water are solar-powered and the owners serve organic food cooked on a log-burning range. Also open in summer for hiking, canyoning and mountain biking. www.chalet-chatelet.com, +33 450 73 69 48.

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