Travel Picks: Top 10 green hotels by Travel + Leisure

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Travelers adopting a green lifestyle at home expect hotels to be environmentally sound, prompting rising numbers of hotels to go green.

Travel + Leisure Magazine joined forces with Conservation International to develop a green-hotel assessment questionnaire about water and energy conservation, eliminating waste, and supporting local habitats and communities to come up with a list of 15 favorite environmentally friendly hotels.

A complete list of hotels with the highest environmental standards appears in the November issue of the magazine that is published by American Express Publishing Corp.

Here is a list of their top 10:

* Spice Island Beach Resort, Grenada

The property's water is solar-heated, the bulbs are energy-saving compact fluorescent, and the pool is treated with salt instead of chlorine.

* Sonveva Fushi Resort & Six Senses Spa, Maldives

This collection of luxury villas has pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half by next year and achieve carbon neutrality by 2010.

* Tiamo, Bahamas

This solar-powered 11-bungalow hideaway uses less electricity a month than an average U.S. household. It also has a ban on unsustainably harvested seafood and a program to host visiting biologists.

* Whitepod, Switzerland

The geodesic domes at Whitepod's camp may be electricity-free, but they keep things cozy with plush organic bedding, sheepskin throws, and fireplaces fuelled with sustainable harvested wood.

* Devil's Thumb Ranch, Colorado

With 16 airy timber cabins and a soon-to-open lodge, each heated and cooled entirely with fireplaces, only one percent of this 5,000 acre ranch has been developed, leaving the rest free for guests -- and elk, moose, bears, and beavers -- to roam.

* Chumbe Island Coral Park, Zanzibar, Tanzania

Designated 13 years ago as Tanzania's first managed marine protected area, the park is one of the region's most diverse reefs. A ranger program educates locals about marine ecology and prevents illegal fishing, while Chumbe's rooftop rainwater-collection system and solar-powered lights keep the resort in harmony with nature.