Chalet Ana – Eco Baby

As a travel writer, I am paid to be critical, but I find it hard to fault these eco apartments in Les Angles, French Pyrenees. Named after the couple's daughter, Chalet-Ana has clearly been created with love and is one of the few places I can remember staying in that felt like a real home from home. Four days after I left, my friend, who has very finely honed critical faculties, checked in with her partner, on my recommendation, texting me: 'Loving it, loving it, loving it'. This is the first time I have been inspired enough to write a report for Tripadvisor, where you can read my full review.

The Greening of LA

Visitors to LA can hire an electric car, stay in a green boutique hotel, eat locally grown produce at sustainable restaurants and even drown their ecological sorrows in an eco night-club. A million trees being planted over the next few years will result in a visibly greener city. The USA may be bringing up the rear in the fight against global warming, but Los Angeles offers a glimmer of hope. Its citizens are pioneers in going green, and use 30% less energy than their fellow Americans.

Good to Go

Driving around wealthy parts of LA, it can seem as if every other car is a Toyota Prius. These electric/petrol hybrids are the most fuel-efficient car on the road today and drivers of hybrid vehicles park for free at all meters in the city. Such vehicles are probably the best hope for the city with the highest per-capita car ownership in the world; LA may boast one of the US’s largest fleets of natural gas buses, but hardly anybody uses them.

The Green Carpet

Never one to ignore the latest trend, Hollywood has jumped on the environmental bandwagon with (sometimes misguided) enthusiasm. A joke circulating about one particular starlet has her gushing: ‘I love those Prius cars and I really want to save the environment… so I bought two’. Julia Roberts, a spokesperson on environmental issues, made much of installing solar powered panels on her home. Unfortunately, the house was an unnecessary, enormous new build that cancelled out the benefit of a thousand such panels. But film stars like Jennifer Aniston and George Clooney are turning away from gas-guzzling stretch limos and instead rolling up to LA’s Oscars in less-ostentatious hybrid ‘town cars’.

Eating to Save the Planet

Forget lactose-intolerant herbivores, the latest food fad to hit LA are ‘locavores’ – people who only consume food produced within a 100-mile radius. While you might not want to go that far, don’t miss sampling delicious Californian produce from farmers markets and gourmet restaurants throughout the city. At Lobster, diners can save two birds with one stone, tucking into Californian seafood and seasonal produce while sitting under a solar-panelled roof.

Eco Chic

Saving the planet no longer means wearing a hair shirt and no one knows this better than the glamorous Angelinos. In LA, green is very much the new black. Guests of the exquisite Venice Beach Eco Cottages can relax in non-toxic, sustainable luxury, and even an energy efficient hot tub made of plastic milk jugs, and congratulate themselves on the tiny carbon footprint resulting from their stay.

Drink to the Future

On sustainable wine-tours, you can travel in a biodiesal van, visiting vineyards that use organic and biodynamic techniques to grow their grapes. And, at the end of the day, you can make a paperless reservation for Ecco Ultra Lounge, the country’s first energy-efficient nightclub. Here, hedonists with a head for the environment dance in front of an eco amp and relieve themselves of the organic cocktails at the club’s waterless urinals.

This article appeared in the Spiral guide to Los Angeles

Europe's Trendiest Hotel?

I usually resist Valentine's day, particularly those over-staged, over-priced three course dinners that appear to be so popular with couples with nothing to say to each other. But this February 14th, my husband and I took off by bike to a new, local hotel in Bermondsey recently voted one of Europe's trendiest hotels in Tripadvisor's Travelers' Choice Awards.

And for just over a hundred pounds, we had a night, dinner and breakfast in not necessarily the most stylish or trendiest hotels I have stayed in in Europe, or even in London, but certainly one of the friendliest. That may not be a criteria that is automatically high on your list when choosing hotels; nor was it mine, but I have come to think it is just as important as location, facilities and certainly style. We arrived to a smiling face at reception and a welcoming bar/restaurant (this is somewhere I would spend time as a woman on my own) before landing in our well designed room. Having spent one gruelling evening in Las Vegas waiting for ice to be delivered (admittedly, the Venetian has 3,000 rooms, but it was also half an hour walk to the bar), I was delighted to receive our bucket in the Bermondsey Square Hotel within minutes.

I liked the way they provide keyboards for you to use with the flat screen iMac in the room, should you be here on business, and appreciated the girl in reception happily hunting for an umbrella for our foray into the winter drizzle. We had dinner in the Woolpack - a wonderful, genuine mix of very drunk locals fresh from a funeral, gaggles of gay guys sipping chilled sauvignon blanc and appreciative smokers inhaling deeply in the back terrace in the rain. We were glad to have avoided the flakey and pretentious Garrison that somewhat inexplicably insists on describing itself as a pub.

I really liked the 'Meet the Street' section on the hotel web site – this an operation fully rooted in its local community. We got a free paper, unasked for late check out and a lovely breakfast with tea served in a brightly coloured teapot complete with knitted tea cosy. It is worth noting that the Bermondsey Square Hotel's friendliness isn't confined to its human guests: a doberman was being welcomed with a big smile for its five day check in just as me and my valentine were leaving. We can't wait to come back in the summer.

Olympic City

I live very happily in Hackney which is my favourite place on the planet, as you can see by reading my Hackney blog. My second favourite Olympic city is Rio, equally extraordinary and vibrant and with its own, undeniable social problems.

I have just been reading Alex Bellos in The Guardian – writing about the lovely, lilting language that is Brazilian Portuguese. Alex is author of Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life, a book I highly recommend, even to those like me who can't see anything beautiful about the game of football.

Most of us think of the beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana when we contemplate the cidade maravilhosa (the marvellous city), yet Rio's hinterland is perhaps its most exciting, and unexpected, aspect.

Rio’s striking green hills stretching right across the city are just one feature of its extraordinary geography. Sitting atop these morros (hills) are some of Rio’s most alluring sights, including the Cristo Redentor statue crowning the Corcovado mountain – one of the new wonders of the modern world. The charming hilltop neighbourhood of Santa Teresa with its enticing craft shops and restaurants, and the beautiful, sprawling Tijuca Forest are just two other delights to be experienced in this part of Rio.

The journey up (or down) the city’s vertiginous hills can be as enjoyable as the sights themselves. The ascent to see Cristo Redentor is one of the most memorable in Rio, particularly if you ride the little cog railway up the densely forested mountain. Santa Teresa’s little yellow bonde (tram) is a lovely, historic way to reach the unique bohemian enclave. While the spectacular national park of Tijuca is best explored by car and foot, the adventurous can choose to hang-glide all the way down to the beach.

All these vantage points offer breathtaking, birds-eye views of the rest of the city. Mirantes (view points) dot the Tijuca national park and the vista from Cristo Redentor encompasses the whole of Rio – all the way from the historic centre to the sands of the southern beaches. Plenty of spots, including the Parque das Ruinas Cultural Centre in Santa Teresa, offer a 360 degree panorama of the ‘marvellous city’ as it is so often justly called by its residents.

From the 16th century, people settled in the desirable neighbourhoods of Santa Teresa and Tijuca because these high green enclaves provided cool retreats away from the heat down below – and still do. Some of the residences belonging to royalty and the wealthy, including the parks and palaces of Lanjeiras, still remain and today function as fascinating reminders of the rich history of the area. However, by the 19th century, richer residents wanted to live in the lower parts of the city, which could more easily be connected to services such as electricity and water.

Today, many of Rio’s modern hilltop communities are favelas - often translated as 'slums' but this is an insult to the communities that live there. When the rich had evacuated the hills, new arrivals to Rio in search of work built makeshift houses that clinged to the mountainsides - on the only land they could get near to their job opportunities. One example is Rocinha and, while culturally fascinating and vibrant, it is not to be visited alone. Yet those who live in the favelas today enjoy some of the best views in Rio, and a real sense of community spirit.

This extract was taken from the Michelin Green Guide to Rio, which I wrote in 2009. I am also author of Thomas Cook's Travellers: Brazil and have contributed to Footprint's guide to Brazil. I am currently writing the AA Spiral guide to Brazil and the Essential Spiral Rio guide.

Where to Stay in Bulgaria

Bulgaria has a wide range of places to stay, from rural ‘home-stays’ in the interior to large, brash hotels on the coast. Bear in mind that ‘five stars’ may not mean the same as it would at home, especially when it comes to service. Although – particularly on the coast – accommodation standards are being dragged into the 21st century, the remnants of Bulgaria’s communist days linger on in the form of concrete blocks and surly waiters. Some of the more traditional hotels suffer from a somewhat faded grandeur with outdated décor and facilities. For this reason it is a good idea to book one or two stars higher than normal, particularly as prices are generally low.

There are lots of all-inclusive deals to Bulgaria, but the food provided in these packages is generally of poor quality, although this is improving. The Bulgarian tourist industry has cottoned onto the concept of ‘boutique hotels’, and you may see them advertised in some cities. Often these are just small and modern, but not necessarily chic or stylish. There are some great value friendly family-run hotels, many of which will only accept cash. Rates in these kinds of establishments will usually be quoted in Lev, while larger hotels will also quote, and accept, Euros. An antiquated price structure means that a room can often cost a third more for foreigners than for Bulgarians. Prices rise dramatically in the peak season, when they double, or even triple.

Both single and triple rooms are usually available across the country and one-bedroom apartments with a sofa bed in the sitting room will usually sleep four. Thanks to the current property boom in Bulgaria, privately owned accommodation is increasingly available for rental direct from owners.

The above was taken from the guide book I wrote to Bulgaria published by Insight. Read my Guardian article about people who've made their home in Bulgaria. You can also take a look at my lovely apartment to rent in Bulgaria (see photo, viewed from above) and read my Sunday Times guide to Buying Property in Eastern Europe.