3 Eco-Friendly Resorts You Need to Visit

With Earth Day right around the corner, it’s the perfect time to consider an eco-friendly resort for your next trip. Check in with responsible luxury and enjoy a sustainable family vacation with one of these top brands worldwide, year-round.

Hyatt Regency Aruba Resort Spa & Casino

Aruba is already an idyllic destination, but with the added green initiative spreading through top hotels and resorts, Hyatt Regency Aruba is at the forefront of the sustainable movement.

Check out the Hyatt Thrive Program, using solar energy to heat the hotel’s water and the Embrace Project, which maintains the beauty and authentic cultural elements of the resort. Take a dip in the freshwater lagoon, or bring the kids to Camp Hyatt and enjoy a holistic spa treatment.

ITC Hotels

Known as the World’s Greenest Luxury Hotel Chain, the hotel’s credence and tagline, “responsible luxury,” holds up. Everything about ITC Hotels is designed to lower the carbon footprint of guests and the resort while focusing on eco-friendly elements such as sourcing renewable energy, on-site water bottling services, solar panels, vertical gardens and constant audits and improvements to uphold a higher standard of travel.

Photo: Maria Feklistova | Dreamstime.com

Enchantment Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona

The deserts of Arizona long emanated healing properties, relaxation and tranquility, but add in sustainable practices of the eco-friendly Enchantment Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz., and you have yourself a “green” vacation destination. Bring the kids, get away with friends or retreat on your own to Boynton Canyon, surrounded by historic Native American influences. Visitors pay a $5 fee for guided biking tours, hiking and outdoor adventures giving back to the Boynton Canyon Preservation Fund, preserving the red rock landscape.

Go a step further and teach the kids all about nature preservation, sustainable travel and the importance of protecting our environment with Camp Coyote, for kids ages 4–12. Early education is vital in sustainable practices and the kid’s camp makes the experience enjoyable as well as informative. Watch as they engage in fun, educational activities complete with science experiments and canyon exploration. Enjoy some of the resort’s “green” efforts yourself with organic wines, local goods available on site for purchase and key cards made from renewable crops. Enchantment Resort composts landscaping materials and strictly uses biodegradable cleaning products around the hotel, just to name a few.