Hotel Bon Sol in Illetas in Mallorca has always taken its environmental policy seriously, even from its beginnings in 1953, long before the ozone layer scare stories.

Antonio Xamena, the original owner, loved nature and respected the natural world so began offering traditional Mediterranean hospitality that caused no damage.  Hotel Bon Sol, a former manor house on the old Bendinat Castle estate on a pine-clad hillside in Illetas, just west of Palma was originally the Xamena family home.

The house was sympathetically restored and later developed into a hotel business and expanded. Antonio Xamena showed incredible foresight and as his son Martin Xamena said “We were an environmentally-friendly concern, before the phrase was even invented!”

Belonging to The Association of Sustainable Hotels in Mallorca Bon Sol is committed to green practices in all areas of hotel management from being the first building on the island to use solar panels in 1968 to recycled shower water being used to flush the toilets.

Being concerned with how much CO2 the hotel was producing annually the Xamena family bought land equivalent to 240 football grounds and started to plant trees:  half teak and half local rainforest  trees. In 2009 more land was bought and tree planting is now in process.  The total amount of land under development is now approximately the size of 520 football fields with 230,000 trees.