View from Lost Trail Lodge
Brits and Americans are turning to eco-holiday homes, eco-lodges and time shares. It is senseless to own a property standing empty for six months of the year, but there is an alternative — from converted stately homes in England, to purpose-built rented cabins in California, retreats are springing up to satisfy both your limited budget and your conscience.
Lost Trail Lodge in California’s Sierra Nevada near Donner Memorial State Park, the Lodge is a series of four private cabins connected to a shared kitchen with private Jacuzzis, and wooden lofts where kids can sleep. There are large windows looking out on snow-covered trees, and stone hearths that always glow with a wood fire. There is no Internet, and you bring your own food on the mile long hike to get there.
Lost Trail Lodge, Tahoe West Company, 8600 Coldstream Trail, Truckee, Calif, (530) 320-9268; www.losttraillodge.com . Rates are $69 a person a night. Two-night minimum. The Web site has listings for places to rent equipment.
Trelowarren Estate
The most innnovative of all these developments is on the Trelowarren estate in Cornwall.
Owner Sir Ferrers Vyvyan has also started the restoration of the estate