
Sunrise, Constance Prince Maurice, Mauritius
Luxury hotels can provide all the bells, whistles, furnishings, fittings and song-and-dance acts they want but the extras that come with nature add the lasting memories that today’s travellers want.
The gal thinks of the lark that rose and lowered, straight-as-a-line vertical, that provided musical accompaniment when on a dawn hike at Vivanta by Taj Madikeri, Coorg. Also in India, standing on the terrace of the Robert Burns Suite at Oberoi‘s Amarviläs and watching the colours subtly change on the Taj Mahal, oh so close…
Let us cross continents. In the US, the magic of Central Park‘s colours looking out of a bedroom window at Mandarin Oriental New York, at the Park‘s south-west corner, or from The Pierre, at the south-east corner. Switch to Austin TX, and watch the colours down at Bird Lake from room 739’s windows of Four Seasons Austin. Head north, for amazing snow scenes from one of the upper rooms of the nine-floor Fairmont Banff Springs.
Switch continents again, for the colour of a milk chocolate cake top as you fly over 300 miles of sand dunes in Namibia. Smooth the surface of the ‘cake’ as you fly over the Sahara, and Abu Dhabi’s Empty Quarter. And, wherever you, if you time such experiences to include a glorious sunrise or sunset – oh how lucky one is to be a luxury traveller, in hotels or not, in today’s world.