With a nickname like Emerald City, Seattle has a solid claim on being green: it also made the top 20 for its parks (like Gas Works Park, on a former utility-company site), which cover about 10 percent of the whole city. One of the greenest places to stay is downtown’s Hyatt at Olive 8, the first LEED-certified hotel in Seattle thanks to its living roof, water-conserving plumbing and automatic electricity shutoffs. For some of the best locally sourced dining, try the vegan, gluten-free or vegetarian tasting menus at Wallingford restaurant Tilth, helmed by a James Beard winner and former Iron Chef (the local-chocolate-fueled Theo Chocolate Ganache Cake, by the way, counts as vegetarian, while the Theo Chocolate Sorbet is vegan).
No. 5 Providence
The Rhode Island capital placed near the top of the survey for having gorgeous old architecture and a historic ambience—a scenic form of recycling. Along the Pawtuxet River, the 163-room boutique NYLO Hotel is the first hotel in Rhode Island to operate with 100-percent Renewable Energy Credits. The city also ranked highly for its notable restaurants, like the seafood-rich Hemenway’s in the College Hill area, which donates 1,000 oyster shells a week to help build an artificial reef. Providence also placed at No. 3 for its coffee, like the organic and thoroughly-sourced javas at New Harvest Coffee Roasters or Dave’s Coffee Store.