The title of “Africa’s Greenest Hotel” might not sound particularly sexy on paper, but when you get up close to Hotel Verde, you might start to feel differently.
We had a really early flight to Melbourne at the end of last year, and the thought of waking up at 3am and driving along the notorious N1 ahead of a 30 journey seemed unappealing to the point of being unbearable. We decided to spend the night at Hotel Verde and start our holiday a little early.
There are so many cool and unique things about this hotel. Obviously, it’s right next door to the airport, which is great for those early morning flights. But the really cool parts are all the big and small details that make this hotel so uniquely light on the earth. From the living wall garden in the hotel reception, to the awesome eco-pool, which uses plants to recreate the natural system of wetlands to clean itself. There’s even an outdoor jogging track around the wetlands area.
There’s also the flat concrete roof with a vegetated roof garden, which creates a habitat for birdlife, encourages biodiversity and thermally cools the areas below through insulation and absorption. Energy-efficient LED lighting and motion sensors that activate the lights and a water tank that collects all rainwater are two more cool efforts to do as much as possible for the earth. It’s a really interesting model that I wish more hotels would adopt.
Our room was perfectly comfortable with every conceivable effort made to recycle, save water, go light on electricity and be good to the planet. We lounged around in fluffy robes, watched TV and ordered room service. The food was so good and the service was really really great. The next morning before our flight, instead of rushing around in the dark, we had a quick shower and took the hotel’s complimentary shuttle to the airport – it took about 8 minutes in total.
This hotel is really cool, convenient and affordable. And it’s a great place to start your trip. Turn off your emails, take a dip in the eco pool, order a cocktail and settle into holiday mode.
