Country Guides Country Guide: Canada

Date Published:

29/05/2008

Nearby on the large (1,800 acre) resort, award-winning housebuilder Alpine Homes has just put the finishing touches to 87 properties at Timberline Lodges. The luxury condos are highly specified and eco-considerate too. Water conservation is practised through half-flush toilets and landscaping is undertaken only with native, drought-tolerant plants. Prices start from $569,900 (£320,000).

Canada's the place for a taste of the great outdoors

Across the way, Wilderness Homes, which is one of several housebuilders constructing at the resort, builds using 90 per cent local materials, including timber and stone. Sheep’s wool is used for insulation. The contemporary, luxuriously finished three storey townhouses at Wilderness Ridge are priced from €1.6m (£899,000); the apartments – each built on a corner plot of one of three buildings – are priced from $636,000 (£357,000).

A spokesperson for eco homes website www.whatgreenhome.com said: 'Across the range of housebuilders at Three Sister Mountain Village there are high levels of sustainability being practiced. All are built using local and sustainable timber, insulation values are high and energy-efficient heating systems are fitted in most homes. At Wilderness Ridge the use of sheep’s wool, aluminium (not plastic) down pipes and local sustainable timber are attractive eco-friendly touches.'

Heading further west along the main Trans-Canada Highway, Revelstoke Mountain Resort rises to a lofty elevation of 2,200 metres. With 27 ski trails, the $200m (to date) development is a masterplanned resort that ultimately will be home to 5,000 luxury suites, apartments, townhouses and estate homes. The first apartments, at Nelsen Lodge, will be completed this year. Prices start from $436,000 (£245,000).

Progressive eco-initiatives are part of the make up of a new phase, The Cabins, at Kicking Horse Mountain Village, located 10 miles from Golden on the edge of the Rocky Mountains. Director of Resort Sales & Marketing Michael Dalzell said: 'We will cause the minimal environmental impact when building The Cabins, and will be implementing many eco-friendly features into the homes.' The three bedroom, three bathroom contemporary styled homes are priced from $999,000 (£561,000).