That is the commitment of Paradores, offering leisure and peace options close to nature, with proposals that delve into sustainability and without renouncing the culture, gastronomy and quality accommodation that the company has accustomed us to in its most 90 years of history.
It is no longer just a matter of traveling and spending the night. Staying in any of the Paradores establishments incorporates the history and culture of the place into the traveler’s experience, as well as its local context, its natural environment and its biodiversity, the people who care for it and their customs.
In addition, the company’s effort to integrate sustainability and clean technologies in all its processes has led it to achieve, for example, that all the electricity it consumes in its establishments is renewable, the elimination of single-use plastics in the rooms and the implementation of initiatives that combat food waste, such as the proposal to diners that they take away the remains of the menu in sustainable packaging.
This commitment of Paradores to the planet and its sustainability was consolidated in 2019, when the public company set out to lead the fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations to make the world a better place. within a decade. In fact, it has been working for a year to reduce its carbon emissions, with the aim of achieving neutrality in the near future.
For nature lovers, in addition, the tourism concept of the public hotel – unique in the world and strongly linked to sustainability – provides the pleasure of discovery, thanks to its commitment to cultural and environmental dissemination.
This discovery can also be experienced by participating in any of the interesting actions for the protection of nature and biodiversity that paradores organize in collaboration with fifty conservation NGOs, for example.
“Nature for the senses”, in Cangas de Onís (Asturias)
Going for a walk from the Parador de Cangas de Onís, the old San Pedro de Villanueva Monastery, which is located on the banks of the Sella River and surrounded by the spectacular Picos de Europa, is already an unforgettable experience.
In addition, thanks to the alliance between Paradores, local companies and the managers of natural and cultural resources, the hotel is promoting sustainable ecotourism in which nature is the protagonist of vacations and even the traveler’s rest.
On the other hand, this initiative has as a collateral benefit the generation of wealth, employment and roots in what is now defined as “emptied Spain”.
The experiences that are part of the program, carried out in collaboration with the Global Nature Foundation, have common elements: they are easy to do on foot, they are close (no more than an hour from the Parador), they can be carried out throughout the year and they are managed based on sustainability criteria.
The “Nature for the senses” project will also cover a score of Paradores, starting with those in Bielsa (Huesca) and Villafranca del Bierzo (León).
Parador de El Saler (Valencia): hotbed of biodiversity
The Parador de El Saler is located in an exceptional place between the Albufera Natural Park and the Mediterranean Sea. It can be considered the paradigm of the sustainable hotel. The water is heated with solar energy and all the water used by the clients is treated to irrigate the golf course, whose buggies are also charged with solar energy.
In addition, the center carries out different actions to conserve the flora and fauna of the environment and help preserve endangered species. For example, their initiatives have reintroduced the long-eared owl, the Mediterranean tortoise, the sea turtle or the ground urchins onto their land. In addition, they have already planted more than two million seeds and two thousand native plants.
Last February, volunteers from the NGO Xaloc, Paradores and the Center for Forest Research and Experimentation (Wildlife Service) of the Generalitat Valenciana introduced five endangered species into the hard fields of the Parador de El Saler. The objective is to create a reservoir of biodiversity and, when the plants take hold and grow, the Valencian Parador will become the only seedbed of these species in all of Spain, where the seeds will be collected to try new populations on the Valencian coast.
In addition, each year they host the Tortuga Camp: volunteers from the NGO Xaloc settle for days (sometimes up to weeks) on the Parador grounds to protect the nest of loggerhead turtle eggs, a species declared vulnerable, to protect them and prevent them from predatory animals or human activity could endanger them.
Parador de Argómaniz (Álava): vegetable garden and composting
Another of the company’s initiatives to align itself with sustainability is composting. Several inns – among which the one in Argómaniz, in Álava, and those in Ávila and Córdoba – have decided to give a new life to the organic waste they generate and have installed composters on their land, where they reuse so much waste from the food such as pruning debris from the gardens. The organic matter spends between eight and twelve months in these containers until the garden is composted and to renew the soil of the organic gardens.
In the gardens of the paradors it is increasingly common to find orchards, given the importance of the consumption of local and proximity products. Aromatic herbs, vegetables or fruits are planted in them that complement the local gastronomy and reduce the impact of the transport of these goods.
Cazorla (Jaen): nature classroom
The Parador de Cazorla has had a Nature Classroom in place since 2009. It is an exhibition and explanatory space on the biodiversity, flora and fauna of the Natural Park where this parador is located. It also organizes annual nature and environment photography contests.
Santo Estevo (Orense): cleaning the forest
The Parador de Santo Estevo collaborates in forest cleaning campaigns, and in the protection and identification of native trees. In addition, it develops and proposes hiking routes with a map made by the hotel itself with three trails in the region.
