The Hotels That Could Keep Running Even If the World Outside Switched Off

Pacuare Lodge in Costa Rica reports 100% clean energy generated on site: three hydroelectric turbines and 204 solar panels, with battery storage.

Three Camel Lodge in the Gobi desert runs a 73.2 kWp solar system as its main electricity source during the operating season, and over 50% of its supplies are bought within a radius of about 50 miles.

At Adrère Amellal in the Siwa oasis the rooms are not connected to electricity at all, and lighting at night is beeswax candles and lanterns.

Nimmo Bay in Canada generates electricity from a hydro system fed by creeks and waterfalls, and more than half the resort is built on floating docks so that no forest has to be cleared.

Origins Lodge in Costa Rica gave up air conditioning entirely and relies on altitude and architecture for natural cooling.

Mashpi Lodge in Ecuador is actually connected to the national grid, and uses tourism revenue to fund a 3,200-hectare reserve and the restoration of a further 1,200 hectares.

If we had to pick one place that explains this whole article, we would probably start here.

Pacuare Lodge sits inside the Costa Rican rainforest, beside the Pacuare river. And what makes it interesting isn't only the isolation. It's what happens behind the scenes.

The hotel reports that all of its electricity comes from clean energy generated on site. The system currently includes three hydroelectric turbines and 204 solar panels, and the electricity is stored in batteries. Even the electric golf carts are charged from the energy the system produces.

Suddenly the river you're looking at over breakfast isn't just a pretty view. It's part of the infrastructure.

Hot water in the suites is heated by solar energy. Sewage is treated in dedicated systems to limit pollution of the river, and the hotel also uses biodegradable bathroom products.

And here comes the part that interests us even more. Eggs, chicken, cheeses, proteins and fresh produce are bought from nearby communities. Organic waste goes to compost, and other materials are separated and sent for recycling.

This is not a completely closed system. And that matters to say. But it is already far beyond a "green hotel".

In the Gobi desert there isn't much room for waste. Water is a resource. Food is a resource. Electricity is a resource. Distance is a resource.

Three Camel Lodge is built around an idea that nomadic Mongolians knew long before the world started using the word sustainability: you cannot consume as though resources never run out.

A 73.2 kWp solar system serves as the lodge's main electricity source during the operating season.

But it's the waste that tells the more interesting story here. In an area with no formal recycling infrastructure of the kind we know from big cities, the hotel created a system that sorts materials and sends recyclable ones to appropriate facilities. Organic waste becomes compost that feeds the hotel's greenhouse.

And what do you eat in the middle of the Gobi? More than half of the supplies, services and ingredients are bought, where possible, within a radius of about 50 miles of the hotel. Some of the produce is grown in the greenhouse on site.

The hotel has a well, and it doesn't serve only the guests. According to Three Camel Lodge, the well also supplies water to thousands of animals belonging to nomadic herding families in the area.

And here there is an important point. A genuinely sustainable hotel cannot exist as a rich island in the middle of a community poor in resources. If it uses local resources, it has to be part of the local system.

And then we reached a place that turns the whole renewable energy conversation on its head.

At Adrère Amellal (opens in a new tab), in the Siwa oasis in Egypt, the rooms are not connected to electricity. This is not a fault. It is the idea.

At night the rooms are lit by beeswax candles and lanterns, with the desert sky above them. The hotel describes itself as a place that does not depend on electricity, air conditioning or room service.

And that forces us to ask a slightly uncomfortable question: is the best way to produce green energy always to find a new way to generate electricity? Or is the answer sometimes simply to consume less of it?

What is the hotel built from? Earth. Sand. Salt. Olive wood. The construction blends into its surroundings instead of trying to import the architecture of a modern city into them.

And air conditioning? There is none. The desert architecture and the local materials are part of how the building copes with the climate.

And what is around it? Siwa itself is an extraordinary natural system, with hundreds of freshwater springs fed by the Nubian aquifer.

On the isolated coast of British Columbia is an entirely different example. Nimmo Bay Wilderness Resort (opens in a new tab) is surrounded by water, forest and waterfalls. And here water once again turns from scenery into infrastructure.

A hydro system fed by creeks and waterfalls, with a small dam and a Pelton wheel, supplies, according to the hotel, clean energy for around 85% of the year. Tap water is filtered and treated with UV light.

Sewage is treated too, so that it turns back into clean water, and the hotel uses food sourced responsibly and locally wherever possible.

And there is one more small, brilliant detail here. Instead of clearing a large area of forest to build infrastructure on land, floating docks were used.

This is exactly the thinking we were looking for in this article. Not only "how do we compensate for the damage we're doing?" but "how do we avoid doing it in the first place?"

Origins Lodge (opens in a new tab) does something I love. Instead of boasting about an unusually efficient air conditioning system, it simply didn't install air conditioning in the lodges.

The high location gives cooler nights, and the architecture was designed to allow natural cooling.

The pool isn't heated either. The jacuzzi is heated with wood from trees that fell naturally on the estate. And the hot water in the rooms? Tanks heated by solar panels.

And what do you eat? The hotel has its own organic garden, and ingredients from it reach the kitchen. Alongside it, the hotel works with more than 30 local suppliers, and 95% of the staff come from the nearby town.

And what happens to the waste? Organic waste becomes compost. Glass, paper, plastic and cardboard are recycled or reused.

Even the bathroom products are made on site, partly from Ylang-Ylang plants growing on the estate, and put into refillable bottles.

And here the picture starts to become clear: real sustainability in a hotel is not one technology. It is a system of dozens of small decisions.

Mashpi sits inside the Chocó forest in Ecuador, within a reserve of more than 3,200 hectares.

The place is engaged in conservation, scientific research, reforestation and support for local communities. It treats all sewage before returning it to the environment, cuts single-use plastic and runs systems for recycling and waste reduction.

But here is why we put it in this article. Mashpi is not off-grid. Its electricity comes from Ecuador's national grid, which is based to a large degree on hydroelectricity.

And why is that interesting? Because that is exactly the distinction we want to draw. A hotel can be exceptional at conserving nature and still not generate its own energy. And that's fine. But we mustn't confuse the terms.

Sustainable. Regenerative. Renewable. Off-grid. Self-sufficient. These are not synonyms.

So what does Mashpi do instead? The stay funds conservation and research inside the Chocó forest. The hotel reports more than 1,200 hectares in the process of reforestation and new species documented through research in the area.

In other words, there is an entirely different model here: the hotel isn't only trying to take less from nature. It is trying to fund its restoration.

We set out looking for hotels that live off nature alone. And we were looking for a binary answer: self-sufficient or not. On the grid or off it. And then we discovered that reality is far more interesting.

Pacuare takes flowing water and sun and turns them into electricity. Three Camel Lodge uses the sun of the Gobi desert, grows some of its food and returns organic waste to the soil. Nimmo Bay uses creeks and waterfalls. Origins asks whether air conditioning is needed at all.

Adrère Amellal asks an even more radical question: who said we need electricity in the room in the first place?

And Mashpi reminds us that a hotel can be connected to the grid and still use the money that comes from tourism to protect thousands of hectares of forest. And that changes the definition.

The answer is: almost never completely. And that is perhaps the most important thing in this article.

Even the most self-sufficient hotel still needs medicines, spare parts, equipment, staff, building materials, technology and sometimes food that comes from outside. A hotel is not an island.

Which is why the phrase "100% self-sufficient" should set off the same red light for us as "100% sustainable".

The better question is: how little does the hotel need to take from outside in order to give a guest an exceptional experience? And that is where something much bigger than an eco-hotel trend begins.

For decades a luxury hotel tried to show us how much it could bring to us. Italian marble. French wine. Fruit flown in from half a world away. Twenty degrees of air conditioning in the middle of a desert. A heated pool while the temperature outside is freezing. Endless water. Endless light. Endless energy.

But the interesting hotels in this article offer an almost opposite definition. They ask: what is already here?

Is there sun? We'll make electricity from it. Is there a river? We'll use its flow. Are the nights cool? Maybe we don't need air conditioning. Are there farmers next to us? Maybe there's no need to fly a tomato thousands of kilometres. Are there local building materials? Maybe the hotel doesn't need to look as though it was copied from Miami and dropped in the middle of a desert.

And that question could change more than hotels. It could change the way we think about luxury.

Because perhaps in twenty years the most impressive hotel in the world won't be the one that can bring you everything. It will be the one that can give you everything, while barely needing the world outside at all.

Some of the hotels in this article are in very remote areas, so you need to check in advance not only flights but also the final transfer to the hotel, luggage limits on domestic flights or special transfers, suitable travel insurance and access to medical care.

Visa & Entry requirements vary by each traveller's passport and citizenship, so they should be checked with the official immigration authority of the destination country.

And before setting off for an isolated area, also save the local emergency numbers, your insurance details and the details of the embassy or consulate of your country of citizenship.