Sustainable, spectacular, and engaged with local communities, these lodges are tucked into some of the planet’s wildest places.
10. PRINCE OF WALES’S GUESTHOUSE
Hear wolves howl at night, while staying at the Prince of Wales’s Guesthouse in rural Transylvania.
9. TSARA KOMBA LODGE
Madagascar’s Tsara Komba Lodge is prime for spotting lemurs and chameleons.
From our partners:
8. JETWING VIL UYANA
Nature reigns at Jetwing Vil Uyana in Sri Lanka’s famed Cultural Triangle, home to the gray slender loris, among the world’s tiniest primates.
7. DUBA EXPEDITION CAMP
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY GREAT PLAINS CONSERVATION
The new Duba Expedition Camp, a partnership between Great Plains Conservation and the Okavango Community Trust in Botswana, offers a front-row seat to Africa’s majestic wildlife.
6. THE BRANDO
The Brando, in French Polynesia, is late actor Marlon Brando’s eco-dream brought to life, the private island is run on 100 percent renewable energy sources, including solar power and coconut oil. Guests can join naturalist guides to explore Tetiaroa atoll, once the sacred retreat of Tahitian royalty, with giant coconut crabs and temples.
5. LAPA RIOS
Costa Rica’s Lapa Rios has long been a conservation icon in this lowland tropical rainforest where you are sure to spot plenty of local wildlife.
4. CORAL CAYE
Director Francis Ford Coppola opened Coral Caye last year in Belize, surrounded by a rainbow of sea life.
3. SÁPMI NATURE CAMP
Reindeer herders share their wisdom about the Sami indigenous way of life at northern Sweden’s Sápmi Nature Camp.
2. SIX SENSES ZIL PASYON
At the new Six Senses Zil Pasyon in the Seychelles, guests can kayak to Ile Cocos Marine National Park.
1. TOPAS ECOLODGE
North of Hanoi in Sa Pa, Topas Ecolodge organizes treks into Hoang Lien National Park, a global biodiversity hotspot.
From a handful of rustic lodges committed to conservation back in the early 1990s, sustainable tourism is now transforming the global travel industry, and in the process helping to safeguard cultural and natural heritage, support environmentally friendly practices, and deliver economic and social benefits to local people.
Check here for the complete list.
This feature originally appeared in National Geographic.
From our partners:
