Travellers are able to support by booking their guesthouses, self-catering cottages, and exclusive lodges. Our pick? Glenfeshie Lodge. Dating back to the 1880s, the lodge has hosted royalty but until recently was noted for the deforestation around it. No more—the forests are slowly becoming lush again, a spectacle that you can witness for yourself.

Choose a community-centric destination

Based in the Sunnmøre region of Norway, travel company 62°Nord has always put community first. Founded by couple Knut and Line Flakk, 62°Nord has a small network of hotels and plenty of nature adventures deep in the Norwegian forest and fjords. The company builds its accommodation and experiences slowly, with a goal of retaining authenticity including all the quirks.

Case in point: Hotel Brosundet in the port town of Ålesund, which has a special room set within the 150-year-old Molja Lighthouse. A breakfast basked full of local goodies is delivered daily and once guests are ready for their day trip, it’s just a matter of going downstairs and local guides will pick them up right by the water and take them to a fishing trip, a fjord cruise or a wildlife sea safari.

Look for experiences that don't leave a trace

Perhaps the most community-centric, low-impact travel experience is one that doesn’t leave a permanent mark on the land and follows the local lifestyle. This is how travel is approached in most of Mongolia. Every year from May to October, Nomadic Expeditions set up camps in in two different regions: Bayan-Ulgii province in Western Mongolia and in Karakorum in Central Mongolia. Each camp has only seven gers or yurts, which are taken down completely in October when the travel season ends.

“About 30 per cent of Mongolia's population are nomadic herders and move two or more times a year from pasture to pasture with all they own including their homes, worldly belongings, and their animals. This way of life is at the heart of Mongolian culture—nomads have always lived off the land and in harmony with nature. Our wilderness camps beautifully reflect this Mongolian mindset,” says Undraa Buyannemekh, president of Nomadic Expeditions.

Related: The Mystical Wonders Of Mongolia Are A Perfect Setting For An Epic Adventure

Stay in hotels invested in the environment

While it’s a step in the right direction, it’s not enough for hotels to use glass bottles, metal straws and eschew plastic if they want to call themselves sustainable. If you’re looking for hotels that walk the talk, the recently launched Considerate Collection by Small Luxury Hotels (SLH) lists properties around the world that live up to their green claims.

SLH worked with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council and Singapore-based sustainable tourism management platform Greenview to come up with the criteria across three pillars—“community minded, cultural custodians and environmentally conscious”—on which the hotels are assessed. Only 26 hotels across 16 countries made the cut when it launched in October 2021, including Bhutan Spirit Sanctuary in Bhutan and Keemala in Phuket, Thailand.

Similarly, Preferred Hotel's Beyond Green also highlights hotels, resorts and lodges that are sustainable leaders, and recently released experiences that put nature first. This includes activities at the organic estate of Borgo Pignano in Tuscany, Italy, a luxury hotel sitting on 300 hectares of land. Guests can learn skills that bring them closer to nature when they return home: a primer on beekeeping, highlighting local traditional methods for extracting honey and beeswax, for example; as well as an introduction to gathering wild herbs and flowers with the in-house herbalist to learn about their healing properties and how to incorporate them into cooking.

Related: Lady Gaga and Adam Driver Were Here: The Lake Como Palazzo in ‘House Of Gucci’ Is Now on Airbnb