Greek and Green: the Levendis Estate on a Ionian Island

Practice what you preach as they say, one basic way we can change the impact of our travel is picking hotels that act responsibly and might also improve their bottom line as a consequence.

A good place to start is Eco Hotels of the World which provides a guide of the best places they could find.

Their most recent pick is the Levendis Estate which they describe as "a 7-acre organic farm offering eco-chic, family friendly and romantic holidays on the shores of the Greek Ionian island of Ithaca. Perched on a hillside of the northern-most tip of the island, Levendis is a working Estate which has produced organic olive oil for four generations".

The property (picture above, from their site) also produces in organic fashion, almonds, walnuts, figs, pears, apricots, plums and citrus. and has its own vegetable and herb gardens.

The estate added 4 houses to accommodate families.

In Eco-hotels thin on the ground, Jill James (Responsible Traveler, FT, April 21) offers her 3 top picks.

They are The Orchid (Mumbai, India) which details what they call their Envirocontent, Fairmont  Hotel (Vancouver, Canada) and The Howard (Edinburgh, Scotland).

Want to add your own undiscovered gems, share with us.

That's it for Green Day #25

Related: Polluters with a Conscience: Business Travel and Conferences