Many bed and Breakfasts help preserve history through architecture and decor, providing guests a trip to the past. But now many innkeepers are helping to preserve the planet’s future by running eco-friendly bed and breakfasts. A few bed and breakfasts run completely “off the grid,” and many are located in beautiful natural settings, where the innkeepers are mindful to blend in with the environment. From simple items such as using organic cotton for the bedchambers to planning a hearty breakfast using items grown organically on the property, these bed and breakfasts owners do their best to respect and preserve Mother Nature.

Surrounded by more than 40 acres of wilderness, you will literally bask in the beauty of nature at Huckleberry Tent and Breakfast in Sandpoint, Idaho. You read it correctly, it’s a tent. But these tents won’t remind you of roughing it at scout camp. Think Ernest Hemingway or Theodore Roosevelt minus the big game hunting. The luxurious canvas tents have floors made of wooden planks and soft, comfortable beds. There is even a kitchen and wood stove. Each morning the innkeepers serve a hot breakfast, as well. You can pick wild berries, hike along nature trails or just relax and enjoy mountain views at your campsite. Lake Pend Oreille is nearby and offer swimming, boating and fishing.

The Arbor House, An Environmental Inn in Madison, Wisconsin, was drawn, built and maintained to sustain. The architects planned around the root system of surrounding trees and the contractors used non-toxic lumber cut from sustainable forests. Light shines on the solar-powered roof and through the recycled glass windows, while heat and cold stay out of the well-insulated walls. The beds are made with organic, unbleached cotton linens and washed with biodegradable cleaners. Here a return visit is considered recycling.

Organic, organic, organic. That is the theme at Mast Farm Inn in Banner Elk, North Carolina. The idyllic grounds serve as location for organic vegetable and flower gardens. Without using pesticides or chemical fertilizers, the innkeepers produce a bounty of vegetables, many of which fill the plates at the historic inn’s award-winning restaurant.

Have a sniffle-free vacation at Natural Bed & Breakfast in Tucson, Arizona. The innkeeper is especially sensitive to the needs of his guests, offering as allergen-free an environment as possible. Pets and smoking are banned at this Arizona bed and breakfast, and guests are asked to remove their street shoes after entering the inn, as well. Air purifiers are used throughout, but chemicals are not used either on the grounds or inside the inn. Breakfasts feature healthy foods, many of which are made from organic ingredients.

Melitta Station Inn once served 19th-century guests as a stagecoach stop. Now the Santa Rosa bed and breakfast offers guests rooms decorated with antiques and period charm, as well as being environmentally friendly. For several years, the bed and breakfast has run on solar power via a 6-kilowat solar array and special daylight pipes that reduce the dependence on artificial light.

These eco-friendly inns provide warmth and hospitality, as well as the knowledge that your next vacation need not leave a huge environmental footprint. You’ll find that it is easy to be nature-minded both at home and at play.

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