best hotels of the world( Southern Ocean Lodge Kangaroo Island, Australia )

Green Hotel. New Zealand took the luxury-lodge limelight years ago. Now, with the opening of Southern Ocean Lodge, on Kangaroo Island, a sparsely populated wilderness a 30-minute flight from southern Australia’s Adelaide, the Aussies have retaliated with their very own “superlodge.” Unlike most Kiwi properties, Southern is contemporary in design—and it’s extremely green to boot. The 21 spacious suites cascade down a ragged cliff face overlooking remote Hanson Bay; they’re outfitted with limestone floors, artwork by island artisans, and outdoor terraces complete with daybeds. Though owners James and Hayley Baillie purchased a nice swath of the wildlife-filled island, they developed only 1 percent of their total acreage, leaving the rest of the land in a trust to protect it against future development. The lodge itself operates sustainably: air-conditioning is not required, as the property was constructed to take advantage of natural weather patterns; it has an advanced water-management system; and energy usage is kept to a minimum. Each guest is informed of the resort’s sustainable management policy upon check-in, underlining how integral conservation of the surrounding environment is to the resort’s philosophy.