I have just got back from two weeks in Crete and thought I would tell you about the Hotel I stayed in. It was very proud of the efforts it is putting into the environment and ensuring that it does everything possible to reduce waste and save energy.

The hotel is the Agapi Beach Hotel in Amorudara near Heraklion. The first time I went there was sixteen years ago and I decided this year I would go back with my family. I had trouble booking it at first as only one UK company is linked to it and I didn't want to book in Euros, as the exchange rate is so poor.

The hotel was as I remembered it and my family was one of only four British families staying there. It was very multi-cultural, with the majority of guests being Russian or German. However there were also guests from France, Belgium, Italy, Holland, The Ukraine, Korea and Sri-Lanka. There were probably other nationalities there but as nearly everyone seemed to speak English, it was hard to tell. It's when you go to a place like this that you realise how lucky we are that other countries teach English as a priority subject and how behind we are in learning other languages. The hotel was even offering Greek lessons.

The areas that the hotel made priorities were

1. Natural resource conservation measures.

2. Water heated by Solar Panels (obviously much easier in Crete than Croydon)

3. Financial support for the protection of endangered species.

4. All construction and renovation had to use local materials

5. Recycling

6. Protection of beach and air quality

7. Education of Staff and guests.

The first thing I noticed when I went into my room was that the majority of the bulbs were energy saving ones and that the power could only be on if the magnetic key was in its slot, so that you couldn't leave the room without turning off all the lights. Like most hotels now it requested that guests use the towels more than once, so that detergents and electricity wasn't used unnecessarily. The solar panels obviously worked as we were never without hot water.

The recycling facilities were also excellent, throughout the complex there were containers for recycling glass, paper, cardboard, cans and plastic. There were also collection points in the lobby for used batteries, showing information about the projects that would receive money when the batteries were sold on.

However rather than just encouraging recycling the hotels policy was not to sell drinks in plastic bottles or in cans. All drinks were served in glasses and