Opened in 2019, Athens' first five-star ecological hotel hasn't forgotten the first rule of its line of business: location.
It offers a clear view of the Acropolis.
Just as clear is its design, including lots of wood.
Even from the outside, the BC Athens Hotel makes a statement for sustainability.
Hotel owner Paul Efmorfidis has made it his mission to place greater value on nature.
And he'd like to teach his guests to do the same.
We banned plastic completely, now we implement that plastic is not allowed, even to come, for whatever means, inside the hotel.
It is difficult, because you go to the privacy of our clients. But at least we say to our people, please take care of the environment.
Of course, it all starts with the beds: they're made of all-natural materials.
Most of the soaps and shampoos come from bamboo or gourd dispensers.
The fitness equipment in the spa section was specially built for the hotel, all from wood, of course.
And: it will also wash your laundry as you work out!
Over 200 kilometers west of Athens on the southern Greek peninsula the Peloponnese, a local shipping magnate has fulfilled a dream
by opening two sustainable 5-star hotels with several bungalows right on the coast.
It's an ecological dream.
This resort is well integrated in nature. It is not like having the hotel and the nature, the one next to the other, everything is together.
We cannot even see the buildings. It is so well integrated in trees.
Only a small part of the 11-hundred hectares has been developed.
The golf course has kept its original olive trees. None were felled, but several thousand were transplanted.
Both the trees and the golf course need plenty of water. It comes from a vast reservoir, all carefully planned by scientists.
The stored water also benefits local farmers.
It's an artifical lake that collects water from the local river. And uses approximately one procent of its total run-off to irrigate the golf courses.
It's an example of a sustainable infrastructure because through this water tank
we are able to irrigate the golf courses without using any groundwater.
Environmental protection takes high priority at the Costa Navarino Resort.
Towards the south-west of the Peloponnese, loggerhead sea turtles come ashore to lay their eggs.
The beach is closed at seven p.m. so they won't be disturbed at night.
School classes from all over Greece visit a multimedia exhibit here that explains the vast diversity of the region's flora and fauna.
We have seals, we have sea turtles of course, we have whales and dolphins,
a little farther than Costa Navarino, and all these are under protection. And even the smallest creature, we try to leave it be.
One of Greece's smallest and most unusual ecological resorts can be found on Serifos, one of the Cyclades islands.
Architect George Zarifiou has converted the ruins of a former mining settlement from 1910 into a hotel complex.
First, he conducted research to see how the buildings originally looked — and what materials were used.
I was trying to find the local workers who know better than us the island.
They knew about the winter, they knew about the summer about the winter, the rain.
It was an experience of many generations there. So we have to look at them, and to have a new look of the Greek traditional architecture.
Every room is designed individually. Here, the cliffside is actually integrated into the room.
The rock goes down to the bedroom, and it is so impressive to wake up and look on that.
Visitors here aren't looking for luxury so much as unique surroundings.
We liked the fact that it had the history of a minery, and they kept the houses the way they were.
And the fact that they used all this natural materials, which makes it very trendy as well. That's in a very casual way.
Greece now offers many ways and places to take a sustainable trip in style.