Located on a blindingly white sand beach, backed by lush tropical vegetation, surrounded by palm trees and towering baobab trees, Eden Lodge clearly picked its name well. Its remoteness—the nearest urban center is a tiny village—makes it a superb place for holidays. There are no distractions, just the crystal-clear ocean, the beach and the forest.
Eden Lodge is a luxury eco-lodge, an incredibly important pilot project in Madagascar. Everything about the lodge was designed and constructed with sustainability in mind, a project set up in collaboration with the local communities. Its key message is that “real luxury has nothing to do with the superfluous; it mostly means high-quality service in a rare and long-lasting environment.” Since its opening, this lodge has kept winning prizes and awards, including those for the world’s best sustainable hotel, one of the top 10 eco-lodges in the world, best sustainable hotel in Madagascar and in Africa, the Green Africa Award and the Responsible Tourism Trophy. Additionally, this is the very first Green Globe certified hotel in the country and the world’s first 100% solar-powered hotel.
It is set in the middle of a protected nature reserve and overlooks the gorgeous tropical Nosy Be archipelago. This is a paradisiac place, a place where guests can sunbathe or enjoy drinks with their toes in the sand, a place where sea turtles come to swim with people, a place where wild lemurs run about, a place home to the most colorful of parrots,…
Accommodation is available in eight lodges, which are somewhat of a mix between luxury tents and traditional wooden buildings. With their thatched roofs, they blend in wonderfully with their natural surroundings. The lodges are built with locally sourced materials, such as the trunks of fallen trees, coconut leaves and Anjanojano stone.
Eden Lodge gets its water from the nearby hills of Madagascar, from whence it is pumped by solar-powered pumps. In the wet season, rainwater supplies both the lodge and the nearby village. Wastewater is filtered by dead coral and coconut. In terms of other waste, nearly all of that is either composted or recycled—glass is reused, useful metal is refurbished as pots and pans, plastic bottles become placemats. As mentioned earlier, this is also a 100% solar-powered lodge—it is completely carbon-neutral.
This superb accommodation is truly one of the best in the world. In addition to keeping a clean conscience during their vacation, guests can take part in a variety of outdoor activities, ranging from windsurfing and sea kayaking to scuba diving and snorkeling. At the lodge, a professional and dedicated team provides meals and drinks, and offers massages and other revitalizing treatments.
