Five sustainable travel destinations for a greener trip

Singapore

A City in Nature with its mission to bring nature (back) to urban areas, plus vertical gardens and better connected green spaces all part of a wider Green Plan 2030, Singapore isn’t just a slick, modern metropolis. Gardens by the Bay is Singapore’s premier urban garden, with 1.5 million plants, and a sky walk connecting the towering solar-powered trees. Out of town, visit car-free island of Pulau Ubin to cycle and walk along boardwalks, past disused quarries, kampongs (traditional villages) and enjoy the birdlife and peace of the Chek Jawa Wetlands.

Head to Open Farm Community urban farm and restaurant near Singapore’s Botanic Gardens (also worth a stop) to feast on seasonal fish from Lombok, farm-grown okra, and chocolate sake fondant, with a focus on local and organic Southeast Asian ingredients. Sample the wine list that includes lesser-known domains and forgotten grape varieties, all made chemical-free. At Bollywood Farms (and culinary school), you can tour the farm, visit the museum, and eat at the Poison Ivy Bistro (the banana cake is heavenly). For fine dining, Michelin Green Star restaurants Fiz and Seroja both pay homage to Singapore’s heritage and the food of the Malay archipelago. Singapore’s Chinatown and Little India are packed with small, independent restaurants, while the open food courts/hawker centres serve up everything from Hainanese chicken rice to laksa, a spicy coconut noodle soup. An interesting experience is the Future Food Tour, a chance to meet some of the city’s innovative chefs and entrepreneurs and try local food and drink (and a handful of surprise stops en route).

Where to stay: The biophilic-designed (an approach that maximises natural elements) Park Royal Collection Marina Bay is the city’s first ‘garden-in-a-hotel’ with Southeast Asia’s largest indoor sky-lit atrium, with over 2,400 plants, trees and shrubs, and a rooftop urban farm which supplies the hotel’s farm-to-table restaurant, farm-to-bar, and even farm-to-spa.

Doubles from £285, check availability at panpacific.com or booking.com

Garden hotel Pan Pacific Orchard is another homage to nature, with four, large plant-filled terraces and over 100 plant species across the property, creatively designed by architect firm WOHA known for blending the environment into its designs.

Doubles from £249, check availability at panpacific.com or booking.com.

Valencia, Spain

Europe’s Green Capital in 2024 has long been integrating green living, eating and working into its DNA. With three ‘green routes’, around 200 kilometres of cycle paths, and virtually flat terrain, it’s easy to bike (and walk) between sights such as Valencia cathedral, CAC (City of Arts and Science) museum, UNESCO-listed Lonja de la Seda (Silk Exchange) and the Art Nouveau-design Central Market. The market, alongside Mercado Colón, is a top spot to pick up local produce for a picnic – fresh bread, regional cheeses, speciality hams, plump olives – much of it grown in La Huerta, the 120 square kilometres of fruit orchards and vegetable plots surrounding Valencia. Head to Turia Park, the east-west, nine-kilometre city park; once a flooded riverbed, it’s been transformed into a much-loved communal outdoor space.

If seasonal and surprising is your bag, K-MoNEt by Huerta y Huerta in the upscale Russafa neighbourhood serves Mediterranean fusion food based on what’s available in their huerta (allotment). Also in Russafa is Michelin-starred La Salita; it’s excellent for vegetarians thanks to the creative culinary mind of head chef Begoña Rodrigo. In the fishing district of Cabanyal, head to Mercader Cabanyal for local food, prop-up bars and food court-style dining, and stay for the sunset from Las Arenas beach. South of Valencia are the beaches and forests of Albufera Natural Park and Albufera Lake – Albufera is where Spain’s paella bomba rice is grown. In nearby El Palmar village, you’ll find local, family-run restaurants and arrocerías (rice restaurants), several claiming to serve the best paella; mostly you can’t go too far wrong. Arrocería Maribel and Arrocería El Rek serve up good paellas, focus on low food miles and support local fisherman and growers.

Where to stay: Calling itself the only ‘historical monument hotel in the city’, you can see Gothic arches, a 2nd-century Roman mosaic, and remnants of the 13th-century Arabic city walls at the 25-room boutique Caro Hotel in a 19^th-century palace.

Doubles from £188, check availability at booking.com or thomascook.com

Less than half an hour outside the city is Parador de El Saler, one of Spain’s many state-owned heritage hotels. By the coast and using renewable energy, it champions regional dishes, has created a sanctuary for Mediterranean turtles, and its on-site Natursenda trail introduces guests to local biodiversity and the work being done to reintroduce long-eared owls and hedgehogs.

Doubles from £95, check availability at booking.com

Placencia, Belize

Its Central American neighbour Costa Rica is quite rightly lauded for its green credentials, but Belize on the Caribbean coast and the region’s second smallest nation, has plenty to offer – including the bird sanctuary of Half Moon Caye, Central America’s first marine protected area, Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary, and Cockscombe Basin, the world’s first jaguar preserve. There’s a rich cultural heritage, of Mestizo (Spanish Indian), Kriol (African European), Garifuna (Black Caribbean) and Indigenous Mayam influences, and sights such as the Maya temples of Lamanai and Xunantunich, and atmospheric town of San Antonio with its local market and Cahal Pech archaeological site.

In the peninsula town of Placencia, Dr Lyra Spang’s Taste Belize food tours are an excellent introduction to the diversity and cultural heritage of Belizean cuisine, and the keen focus on local. You might tuck into homemade tamales, steamed corn dough filled with meat, cheese or beans, stop at Carmen’s Kitchen for salbutes (fried tortillas) and pork tacos, try Kriol rice and beans in homemade coconut milk at roadside Miss Geneva’s Fine Foods, before finishing up at locally run beach bars Barefoot Beach Bar (run by two sisters) or Tipsy Tuna for cold Belikin beers. North of Placencia is Hopkins village, a cultural centre of the Garifuna community, where a Garifuna Cultural Immersion Tour includes a cooking lesson with the chef; you might prepare spiced coconut-based hudut soup, grilled fish and traditional mashed plantain; otherwise, try the over-water Swinging Armadillo Beach Bar & Restaurant for dishes inspired by Garifuna and Belizean influences, such as fresh lobster in local spices, casava, and sweet potato pudding.

Where to stay: Built around a tropical garden that’s home to resident green and black iguanas, K’in Resort’s rooms and cabins have lamps made by local craftspeople from recycled wood, bedspreads and fabrics by a local seamstress, and door frames from local stones. The pièce de résistance is its beach pool built from sustainable chukum tree resin.

Placencia’s Green Globe-certified Itz’Ana Resort has put in place rainwater collection, smart tech and solar power, and its organic vegetable garden inspires the restaurant’s seasonal, seafood-focused menu. The resort also supports community projects, a manatee conservation programme, and the Marine Conservation Camp for local children.

Western Uganda

Wildlife conservation and community tourism are at the heart of travel experiences in this part of the landlocked East African nation of Uganda, where the Great Apes are the big attraction for trekkers in Kibale National Park (chimps), Bwindi Impenetrable Park (mountain gorillas) and Mgahinga National Park (mountain gorillas and golden monkeys). Here, supporting local guides, porters and projects goes a long way, and many lodges offer hospitality training programmes, champion local ingredients in their restaurants, and support community projects.

At Kibale National Park, enjoy a pre- or post-trek coffee with a Ugandan mandazi (doughnut-esque bread) or a Rolex (omelette-stuffed chapati) for lunch at the on-site Café Kibale, a training café run by the Great Lakes Foundation which puts students through a six-month training program that includes barista training, food hygiene and food prep. Book a community tour at the nearby Bigodi Wetlands Sanctuary, a haven for around 200 bird species, and enjoy a meal with a local family; community walks, homestays and guided wetlands hikes are also available. After gorilla tracking in Bwindi, enjoy a Gorillini cocktail or a bite at the Bwindi Bar which trains local disadvantaged youths in hospitality and tourism, while in the town of Kisoro near Mgahinga National Park, don’t miss the Coffee Pot Café for delicious pizzas, sandwiches, cakes and coffee; it also has a shop selling local and regional crafts.

Where to stay: The luxury Volcanoes Safaris lodges near the national parks of Kibale, Bwindi and Mgahinga, are a treat to stay in, designed with local materials and drawing on local art and fabrics. They also employ all-local staff, support education programmes and Indigenous communities, and menus champion Ugandan dishes such as Filinda bean stew with matoke (green banana) and pork with jackfruit, alongside European ones.

Also taking a community empowerment stance is Uganda-owned Primate Lodge in Kibale, built from local materials and using solar-powered electricity, while Agandi Uganda Eco-Lodge near Bwindi has simple, beautifully designed African cottages, Ugandan-style huts, ‘tree nests’, and a campsite. Meals use local ingredients, many from its own garden.

Dominica

Over two-thirds rainforest, Dominica (not to be confused with the, also beautiful, Dominican Republic) is often dubbed the ‘nature island’. Rivers, streams, lakes and waterfalls explain its lushness, but it’s a volcanic isle too, of mud pots, geysers and the legendary Boiling Lake, a wonderful if testing hike. Low-impact adventures include kayaking, snorkelling, and whale- and dolphin-watching, and 170-plus bird species, 1000+ flowering plants and 300-plus miles of trails in Morne Trois Pitons National Park (the eastern Caribbean’s first UNESCO site) add to its bounty. And if shopping for souvenirs, look out for beautiful basketware crafted by the Indigenous Kalinago people.

Dominica’s colonial French, English and Spanish influences are evident in its Creole-style cuisine; this is the place to enjoy fresh grilled marlin, mahi-mahi and lobster, Dominican broth with seafood, chicken or callaloo spinach, and carb up on dasheen/taro (root vegetable), plantain and sweet potato. Inland, the rainforest views from French-Caribbean inspired Zeb Zepis Bistro near Emerald Pool in the middle of the island are worth the trip. Open for lunch only (Thu to Sun; cash only), the seasonal menu might offer tuna tartar, grilled snapper with green pepper sauce, and stuffed crab, with many ingredients from its own gardens. Wellness resort Jungle Bay’s Calabash Restaurant & Bar has a daily changing menu that includes Dominica Delight, fresh fish served with local root veg, veggie curry roti wrap, and its signature Jungle Bay Green Salad. Some of the best food-and-drink experiences are the impromptu ones – a rum punch at a roadside bar, dinner in a beach shack, or cold Kubuli beer at a kiosk.

Where to stay: Find organic food, yoga and meditation, and a nature-focused spa at Rosalie Bay eco boutique resort, where, from March to September, you might see turtles lay eggs on the beach or witness hatchlings as part of its turtle conservation programme.

Doubles from £171, check availability at booking.com

Inland, stay at the gorgeous Papillotte Wilderness Retreat with its own herb and medicinal garden, waterfall bathing and hot mineral pool.

For a splurge, try off-grid, solar-powered eco-resort Coulibri Ridge in Petit Coulibri, its orchard and farm supplying its farm-to-table menu. The hotel also runs two non-profits; one on animal welfare, the other rebuilding after Hurricane Maria.

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