Looking down
There are vertical gardens, as exemplified by the gorgeous grounds at Rocco Forte Collection’s Hotel de Russie in Rome. There are also near-vertical hotels, an example being Jumeirah Port Soller Hotel & Spa on Mallorca. The building snakes in and around the clifftop with sensational views of the Tramuntana Mountains behind – their highest peak is Tossala Verds, rising to just under 4,000 ft. In front of the hotel is the Mediterranean, with Port de Soller down to your left. This was an audacious luxury hotel design when it was commissioned from Arditecnica, and the original developers must have lost bundles. It was picked up, says the gal, by German office and residential giant DEKA Immobilien.
Jordi Tarrida
And it is they who are now benefiting, since they leased the 120-room hotel to Jumeirah. Although it closes November through to mid-March, it does very well for the rest of the year, with about 40% repeats. Top market is the UK, then Germany, and Scandinavians are growing. The Korean honeymoon business has discovered this hotel, too, although the new husband-and-wife pairs only stay one night, just enough time to take hundreds of photos, says hotel GM Jordi Tarrida. Right now he is just finishing a complete-hotel buyout by a financial company, but I was able to see one room. Designed by Peter Silling, it is completely different from what he has produced at, say, Ritz-Carlton Berlin.
Fabulous hand-cut fries
That is the skill of good design, however. There is a lot of skill at this hotel, actually: TripAdvisor comments are full of praise for how the hotel works (no fewer than 22 elevators certainly help Housekeeping and Room Service), and comments also continually praise the staff. Jordi Tarrida says he wants guests who want reasonably modern relaxed luxury, and the same attributes could be applied to his employees, who number 250 in high summer. I liked servers’ attractive pale blue patterned overshirts, so sensible in this gorgeous weather. I loved the burrata with Mediterranean vegetables and hand-cut, skin-on fries. And, like many guests, I really appreciated that some of Caproig’s dishes, including an outstanding tuna and avocado tartare, are marked Restaurants Against Hunger, meaning a euro is given to charity every time this dish is chosen. Now back to the view – SEE THE VIDEO BELOW
