Inside One of the World's Hottest New Hotels, Vestige Son Vell
Plus, will Macron swim with poop?
One of my goals with this newsletter is to give readers an unvarnished look at travel experiences that get a lot of hype. It’s why I kicked off with a feature warning you all of the ills of Giverny. With hotels, I want to be able to showcase exciting properties but also protect your pocketbooks.
I’m in Menorca for a month, which presented an opportunity—a new hotel here has been popping up nonstop in my feed and has received glowing coverage in The Financial Times, the Times, Travel + Leisure, and others. Condé Nast Traveler even put it on its “Best new hotels in the world” 2024 Hot List
Named Vestige Son Vell, it’s a former aristocratic country estate that has been restored and turned into 34 rooms and suites. It’s one of the latest projects of centimillionaire Victor Madera and his wife, María Obdulia Fernández. For decades, they have been collecting and restoring historic homes across Spain and recently made the decision to turn their properties into a private version of Paradores (the state-owned chain of hotels housed in historic buildings rescued by the government). Madera made his fortune in the private hospital business, and according to the FT, sold his company in 2016 for €5.8 billion, of which he received €400 million worth of shares.
Vestige Son Vell is the group’s first and only hotel; it also owns a palace in Asturias and a villa in Menorca that are available as private rentals. A second hotel, Son Ermitá, also in Menorca, is opening soon.
Okay, let’s dive into what I thought of the hotel:
How Does It Look?
In case you’re wondering what gets a new property attention, especially one that isn’t part of a well-known group, it’s looks. And this property is breathtaking. The main house was a traditional farmhouse that an aristocrat from nearby Ciutadella enlarged in the early 1800s into a handsome neoclassical villa. It’s constructed of a warm, honey-colored local stone accented with lichen-colored shutters
If there’s one element that any hotel—in particular one looking to get attention on social media— should think about, it’s a signature pool. Nearly every non-city hotel I see blowing up has one that photographs well, and Vestige actually has a few. One involves a sort of French-style reflecting pool transformed into a sexy Hollywood Art Deco number with a navetta (rock mound used by farmers to store grain) as backdrop. Then there’s a giant one overlooking hay fields. And then a more decorative one in between the house and its outdoor restaurant
Inside the main villa, the aesthetic is mostly subdued, leaning into the country villa style. (In fact, I think some of the contemporary flair added here and there, like the deconstructed mirror in the bar, could be tossed and none would miss them). An elegant twisting staircase of lightly painted wood brings guests up to their chambers. The rooms are spacious and comfortable, with beautiful bathrooms of tiled floors, spectacular marble vanities, and freestanding tubs. One of the loveliest design elements is the floor registers, which are done in a slanted pattern to match that of the wide bricks covering the floor
There are only a handful of rooms and suites in the main house; the rest of the suites are in what used to be the outbuildings of the farm. These have been kept minimalistic and each comes with their own private terrace.
The biggest surprise, though, and what ended up being my favorite part of the experience, was the gardens. Immediately surrounding the house one finds a series of formal walled gardens, each offering up a different delightful twist. I ended up whiling away the sunset reading my book in the rose garden with a fountain gurgling next to me.
Surprisingly, none of the gardens were buggy when we were there.
Finally, the rear of the hotel stretches down a dreamy long country path immediately reminiscent of Gladiator, which brings us to …
Does It Have a Good Location?
While the hotel is far from the airport and down windy country roads, part of its allure is that, unlike a lot of the other high-end country house hotels here in Menorca, Vestige Son Vell has its very own cala (cove with a small beach) at the end of that country path. Unfortunately, it had a fair bit of trash likely blown in by recent storms. The Camí de Cavalls, a 185-kilometer path encircling the island of Menorca, runs between the hotel’s gate and the cala and guests can follow it to other nearby beaches, like that of Son Saura. The hotel is also close to Ciutadella, the historic capital of Menorca before it was moved to Mahon
How’s the Food?
The food is a bit of a mixed bag. Everything we had was good (especially the eggplant at lunch) but it’s all a bit fussy. I’m all for having fine dining at a high-end hotel, but given the remoteness of the property, sometimes you just want something simple for one of your meals. The prices are also essentially U.S. prices, which is typical of the restaurants at hotels here, whether it be Vestige Son Vell or Menorca Experimental.
The drinks were fantastic. The best pomada (a sort of Del’s Lemonade with gin) I’ve had was here, and a tomato and strawberry margarita that seemed sort of risky to me ended up being divine.
What Kind of Amenities Are There? How’s the Service?
Guests can take bicycles provided by the hotel, which is a nice way to access nearby beaches and roam the idyllic countryside. There is no gym, but there is a spa for massages and a morning yoga session. The hotel also can organize excursions, whether seeing calas by boat (which is the best way as things warm up, as they can get crowded) or visiting some of the villages and prehistoric sights on the island.
On Wednesday and Friday, the hotel does an outdoor movie in the gardens.
The service was by and large very friendly, and Gary, who runs guest relations, was enthusiastic and full of great recommendations for the island. In a situation typical of a lot of new luxury hotels, there is a bit of an allocation issue as one minute you can’t find anybody to help you (especially by the pools where the bars are situated far from the seating) and then next, there are a dozen staffers for just a few guests.
Okay, Okay, But Is It Worth the Price?
For our room in the villa we paid $358, which to be honest felt like a steal. Looking at the prices for the coming week and beyond, it’s the tourist season, so rooms are starting in the $700s and up. It’s then a question of whether or not you’re the type of person who wants or needs to stay in an upscale hotel and how Vestige stacks up against the other options
The biggest difference between it and a place like Menorca Experimental or Torralbenc is the quick access by foot to a cala. On top of that, having visited some of the other properties for lunch, drinks, or dinner, the gardens at Vestige (which will only continue to get more beautiful as they fill in) are better.
DEPARTMENT OF GRIEVANCES
I will be glued to my screen on June 23rd when Paris Mayor Ann Hidalgo and French President Emmanuel Macron are supposed to swim in the Seine in advance of the Olympics to show it’s clean. Did they not notice the joking (or is it a joke?) campaign on social media, #JeChieDansLaSeineLe23Juin, in which people will poop in the river on that day in protest.
It seems like half my feed the past couple days has been people arriving in Barcelona for Primavera Sound. When Coachella rolled around a month ago, I saw way less of it than I had in previous years. Which wasn’t surprising after headlines earlier this year revealed that they were having trouble selling tickets. There are likely a multitude of factors why one festival does well and another doesn’t, from who is performing to normal fluctuations of what’s cool and not cool.
It’s just a hunch, but it seems to me that part of this is just that things in the U.S. have gotten wildly expensive without any increase in quality, whereas Europe (and Japan) is often an affordable high-quality playground.
You saw this with people flying to Europe to go see Beyoncé and Taylor Swift perform. For the past couple winters, news outlets are filled with stories about how it’s cheaper to fly to Europe to ski than to go to any of the big spots in the U.S. Japan, which used to be seen as a high-quality/high-cost destination, is now a high-quality/low-cost one.
You’re also seeing this play out with airlines. Aviation reporter Ned Russell noted the other day that part of American Airlines’ struggles right now are that they emphasized domestic U.S. travel over international, and soft domestic demand is hurting it big time. Meanwhile, the other major airlines that beefed up international routes aren’t hurting in the same way.
Anecdotally, I also saw this in Newport, Rhode Island the last two summers. Whereas during COVID the town was packed, ‘22 and ‘23 felt languid—a gut feeling backed up by numbers that weren’t exactly eye-popping. Even the National Parks with all their crowding still remain below 2019 visitor numbers.
Louis Vuitton hosted a welcome dinner to kick off its shows for resort wear in Barcelona at La Fábrica, the home and office of the late architect Ricardo Bofill. It’s a heavenly space, a testament to the mind and versatility of one of the greatest architects of the second half of the 20th century. But I am a bit bored and tired of the rapaciousness with which deep-pocketed fashion houses seem to gobble up every interesting space, filling them with logos and money and general babbitry.
I really enjoyed this feature by Alexander Sammon on surfing the world’s largest indoor wave pool at the American Dream mall in New Jersey. It’s the right balance of skeptical but not snobbish or cynical, and filled with lots of wonderful asides and cultural history. Much, much better than the unimaginative “Crying Myself to Sleep on the Icon of the Seas” that The Atlantic ran.
I find all the branded residences except for those by luxury hotels to be a bit silly. (The reason I get having hotel-branded ones is that I once did a hard-hat tour with the developer of the Zaha Hadid tower in Miami and he explained that one of the biggest selling points of luxury apartments is the service. And certain hotel brands equate to certain kinds of service in the public eye.) So it was kind of hard not to snort when I saw the news that Elle magazine is opening a branded residence in Miami. But, you know what, whatever it takes to keep the media alive!
TRAVEL INDUSTRY NEWS
This summer is the end of outdoor dining in NYC as we know it
Giant pandas are returning to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.
…It also booted the executive behind many of its recent ill-received strategies.
If you live in Los Angeles, go see Turandot at the Los Angeles Opera, if only to ogle the phantasmagoric sets designed by David Hockney in the early 1990s.
Cruise operators are offering discounts on journeys launching from the U.S. (This could be seen as an issue with demand, as part of what I wrote about above where Americans are spending their money, or just that older ships need help being filled when you have things like the Icon of the Sea hitting the water).
Person dies after falling into engine of departing passenger jet at Amsterdam airport, and authorities are now saying they deliberately climbed into the engine to kill themselves.
Soho House, which doesn’t make money, rejected a bid that was reportedly at a “substantial premium.”
Speaking of annoying fashion house collaborations, Louis Vuitton is reopening its seasonal restaurant at Saint-Tropez’s White 1921 Hotel and Dior is taking over part of the Beverly Hills Hotel.