diary of a 5-day instameet at heritage resorts - mauritius
TRANSCRIPT
DIARY OF A 5-DAY INSTAMEET AT HERITAGE RESORTS
5 premium tastemakers and digital influencers recently attended the first Heritage Resorts Instameet and the hashtag #HeritageResortsInstameet was created for the occasion. They stayed for 5-nights and made the most of what Heritage Resorts, located on a 2500 hectares estate, had to offer.
Here’s a diary of how it all went.
DAY 1We are excited to meet and greet Vicky, Kathy, Mareen, Daisy and Faye at the reception of Heritage Le Telfair. They are accompanied by Tanja, who is our PR account manager from Germany. Despite the long journey, they all look very pleased to be here and have positive first impressions of Heritage Resorts.
Check-in and freshening-up done, we go for lunch at the beach restaurant ‘Le Palmier’ as nothing says more ‘Welcome to Mauritius’ than lunch feet in the sand with a beach view.
We get introduced to the girls (at the exception of Mareen and Faye, on whom the long journey took its toll and who were unfortunately not well enough to join us ):
Daisy lives between Morocco and Germany and is predominantly a Travel Fashion blogger.
Vicky and Kathy are two best friends from Austria, who each have their blog, in addition to a joint fashion and lifestyle blog, ‘The Daily Dose’.
It’s warm and sunny so the girls order light summer dishes with refreshing drinks, while chatting on what we have in mind for the #HeritageResortsInstameet. As I’m giving a primary introduction of the estate, we’re all getting very enthusiastic by the prospect of seeing the 2500 hectares of experiences offered by Heritage Resorts through the eyes of these unique Instagrammers.
Post-Lunch, we are joined at reception by Mareen and Faye for a proper tour of Heritage Resorts via golf buggies. The first stop is evidently at the utmost pride of Heritage Resorts: the Heritage Golf Club, an 18th-hole championship golf course which hosted in 2015 the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, first golf tournament tri-sanctioned by the Sunshine, European and Asian Tours. The girls note that participating in such a major golf tournament at a beach resort must have been quite a pleasant experience for the pro golfers and their families. Indeed it was.
As we want to show the many accommodation options of Heritage Resorts, we head off to ‘Heritage The Villas’, the luxury villa complex located behind the golf club. We visit a 3-bedroom villa overlooking the golf course, designed with its private pool and equipped with its barbecue area and golf buggy to get you around. The perfect gem if you’re looking for an intimate family holiday with a golfing touch!
The next stop is ‘Le Château de Bel Ombre’, a 19th-century mansion- turned evening-restaurant which is standing magnificently at sunset. The #HeritageResortsInstameet girls are particularly in awe before the 200 year old Banyan tree adorning Le Château’s garden.
We end our tour of Heritage Resorts at the C Beach Club, which is located right beside Heritage Le Telfair and which boasts two restaurants, bar, gigantic pool, sunbeds, love nests and a boat house offering all different kinds of watersports.
At sunset, an apéritif beautifully set up on the beach gives us the opportunity to sit around and get to know each other. We meet Mareen, a sometimes-vegetarian blogger from Cologne and Faye, a vegan British blogger who used to live in Paris.
Dinner tonight is set up under the VIP tent by the beach facing the Gin’ja, the Pan-Asian restaurant of Heritage Resorts, complete with a teppanyaki and expansive sushi offering.
It has been a very long day for all of us so, after a tantalizing dessert, we all agree on an early night. The comfortable beds of Heritage Le Telfair will be just the retreat that we need.
DAY 2 After a leisurely buffet breakfast at Annabella’s, day 2 of the #HeritageResortsInstameet is kicked off by a golf initiation at Heritage Golf Club. Kathy and Vicky, our Vienna girls are both sporting attires which bring a whole new meaning to Golf Chic.
Over lunch at the club, these gorgeous and inspiring women and I discuss social media trends while our bellies are being spoilt by delicious salads and tuna carpaccios.
The remaining of the day is dedicated to making our guests experience what the island lifestyle is all about. The tranquil afternoon hence starts with a 90-min coco spa treatment: Coconut milk Foot bath, body scrub with coconut oil and coconut powder, Moisturizing and anti-ageing facial scrub with water and coconut powder, coconut oil body mask and hair treatment.
At 6 p.m, we meet the girls for an aperitif at the ‘Infinity Blue bar’, located a 5-mins beach stroll away at the sister hotel, Heritage Awali. The Infinity Blue is Heritage Resorts’ most popular bar and it’s easy to see why: Besides having an extensive list of tropical cocktails & serving champagne to the all-inclusive guests, it lives up to its name with endless views over the ocean, making it the perfect spot for sundowners.
The Cocktails drunk and the sunset photos shot, we head to the adjacent Zafarani for dinner. This colourful restaurant specializes in North Indian cuisine and if I were to describe every dish savored that night, we’d be here for hours so let’s fast forward to Day 3!
DAY 3
Today is an early start as we are going for a boat ride.
Unfortunately we do not get to see any dolphins (rare thing but it can happen) but the ocean views of the south of Mauritius are breathtaking and the snorkeling session fascinating (Bel Ombre’s lagoon has 4 different coral habitats and around 70 fish species).
Back on land, we have a Mediterranean-style lunch at the C Beach Club followed by a laid-back afternoon on a sunbed by the pool, punctuated by Stand -up Paddle, Kayak and laser sessions.
Prior to dinner, we meet for an aperitif at the elegant Cavendish Bar, an English Club- style bar featuring classic English sofas and wing chairs, a snooker table, a library, cigar cabinet and of course a large selection of drinks.
Tonight’s dinner is at the Annabella’s, Heritage Le Telfair’s main restaurant. It offers a table d’hôte menu and the girls were delighted to watch the dishes being prepared from the traditional open kitchen.
DAY 4
One of the many perks of being located on a 2500 hectares estate is the number of activities available. What’s planned for today is a buggy tour of Frederica Nature Reserve with a stop for a swim at the waterfall.
It is however pouring so we all agree that spending the morning relaxing in an ocean-facing suite is far being an unpleasant plan B. But, fashion bloggers being fashion bloggers, they all jumped on this pause for an improvised photo shoot.
Before lunch at the Infinity Blue, we stop at Heritage Resorts’ newest beach bar, the ‘Coco Shack’. Nothing beats fresh coconut water to cool you down on such a humid day.
In the afternoon, the girls are picked up by Mautourco, a local agency representing international tour operators and who are, among other things, excursion specialists. The girls visit all the Instagram-worthy spots (Gris-Gris, Ilot Sanchot, the sacred lake Grand Bassin, Macondé and at one of the most beautiful tea plantations on the island, Bois-Chéri). The excursion is led by a tour guide who, with her in-depth knowledge of the history of Mauritius and her fluency in German, French and English, makes quite an impression on the girls. Sharing the Mauritian heritage is at the core of our DNA so once the girls are back from their tour, we are quite happy to indulge in conversations around their newfound knowledge of Mauritian history, geography and culture.
For the last dinner of the #HeritageResortsInstameet, we chose Heritage Resorts’ most emblematic restaurant: Le Château de Bel Ombre. Housed in an imposing and superb historic mansion, Le Château serves fine Mauritian cuisine with ingredients sourced from the terroir: pheasant, venison and wild boar hunted from our very own Frederica Nature Reserve and goyavas, watercress, taro roots, coconut and papayas grown on the estate.
We end the evening with a Mauritian rum tasting at the Cavendish bar.
FINAL DAY
The final day of the #HeritageResortsInstameet starts with a Pilates session featuring Geraldine Cantin, an instructor from Paris who came exclusively for one of Heritage Resorts’ ‘Wellness Breaks’ – a concept where international wellness experts spend about a week at the resort coaching guests in collective and private wellness workshops, ranging from yoga, qi gong, Pilates to Breathing and Laughing yoga.
The remaining of the day is a mix of brunches, photo shooting, spa sessions, pool time and a brave attempt by Vicki and Kathy to go on a buggy tour of Frederica Nature Reserve (only to be forced by the bad weather to turn back. See the clip).
It is now time to bid farewell to Vicki, Faye, Kathy, Daisy, Mareen and Tanja. We are genuinely sad to see them leave but the show must go on.
See you soon ladies, it was a real pleasure to have you at Heritage Resorts.
Source: http://www.heritageresorts.mu/blog/diary-of-a-5-day-instameet-at-heritage-resorts.html
