Goodmorning2U

Happy holidays fellow Flyertalk Luxury Hotel contributors!

I thought we might enjoy sharing amazing experiences with nature offered by luxury hotels we have enjoyed.

off the top of my head I can highly recommend the Four Seasons Hualalai with its outrigger program, allowing guests to swim with the dolphins and near whales, and its 4,000 plus fish salt water swimming pond, Kings pond.

What are your favorites?

FlyerEC

Many AMANs - Gani , Giri , Kora , N’oi , Wana ..

Then some FSs & Belmonds .

Lodges in New Zealand

Get to explore again in 2021 .. hopefully

Amazing Advent 2020 and a Blessed Healthy Joyous CHRISTmas all !!

erik123

For those that love nature, those activities are irresponsible. Best to seek out hotels that work with nature instead of monetizing animals.

KatW

Yes, some of these experiences are “manufactured” and injurious to living things. Not to mention UN-natural.

Then, there are the good ones:

BC Wildlife Lodges
​​​​​​​British Columbia Wildlife Lodges

NA Countryside/wilderness Luxury Venues
North American Countryside/Wilderness Luxury Venues

Pausanias

This sort of crass Disneyfication should be against the law.

RichardInSF

Let's stay away from political discussion in this thread. For that, there is an Omni forum.

Thanks, and happy holidays!

RichardInSF, moderator, luxury hotels and travel

Goodmorning2U

I’m sorry for any misunderstanding. I should have been clearer. These are all out in the wild experiences, with the exception of Kings pond, the dolphins and whales are not enclosed or being fed by guests or tourists. They aren’t hunted or abused or touched by anyone. It really nothing like Disney. Last year from the shore you could watch a whale father, a mother giving birth, and the father and then mother teaching the baby to swim. It could not be more respectfully done and instills a great sense of awe and love of nature to see it.

King’s pond is certainly a more curated experience. The fish are all healthy and live longer there away from predators than they would in the ocean. They have a marine biologist on staff and the water is constantly coming in from the ocean. Its so educational and enjoyable for the kids, and the adults to have this experience.

I’m curious about what nature experiences Amans offer? I’ve always heard great things.

FlyerEC

For the AMANs , it depends on which ones ..

Animal trekking , other treks - desert / jungle / volcano ( flying over or past enroute to like Wana too ) , etc , scuba diving , snorkelling , myriad of possibilities what sort of nature one is looking for . Long list .. Safari or bird / whale watching from Wella ?

The wait to return to an AMAN is about unbearable for 2020 ..
Was hoping to attempt for first time some hill ( mountain to me ) trekking in the N’oi reserve within the 12 days of CHRISTmas .. it is not to be as borders are closed . Likewise no snorkelling , etc at Pulo

Blessed CHRISTmas everyone - keep safe and well ( & posting here ) !

Dave510

Not sure if this quite counts, but Fairmonts in Canada are generally very well located. It's debatable whether Fairmonts count as "luxury" for this forum (especially non-Gold level rooms), but I think they do given their competition in the places they operate.

While you can stay off site, I think the view from your room, and the proximity to places like Banff and Lake Louise (allowing easy early morning access, when there aren't many other travelers) might count as extraordinary experiences?

offerendum

I would say most hotels in National Parks. North Island or Fregate Island comes to my mind, but also Al Maha, African Safari Lodges, American Wildlife Lodges etc.

Fc912

I went to Blackberry Mountain a few days ago - the setting is not as spectacular as some of the other hotels mentioned here and the “nature” experiences are pretty normal (eg hiking, fly fishing, horseback riding...etc) but the hotel can definitely be considered luxury even by the standards of this forum. In fact it’s probably one of the most well-run resorts I have experienced in the US.

I also really like The Point in upstate NY (even better now as they got rid of the communal dining experience due to covid).

Outside of the US, I enjoyed both Explora resorts in the Sacred Valley and Atacama Desert.

Goodmorning2U

I can add this resort for amazing experiences with nature.

we scuba dived with manta rays, and separately sharks, and the lagoon within the resort has stunning live coral and a plethora of fish who live there.

They also completely renovated their over water bungalows. Its an experience of a lifetime and was much more comfortable to get to than I had imagined.

Because guests when they come stay longer than most hotels and resorts, the team make a real effort to get to know you and make you feel at home.

Pausanias

You surely must be aware that to build the hotels out on the motus - the Four Seasons, IC Thalasso, Meridien etc - an entire marine environment was wilfully destroyed. I went to Bora Bora long before all these honeymoon havens were built. In fact, the government banned all development out there until the pressure to relent became too great. They did great damage and the rows of OWBs are a terrible eyesore to this most dramatic of all tropical islands. On a positive note, these hotels are striving to regenerate coral and are using expensive technologies to do so. But don't kid yourself that this is a natural environment. The reefs and the beaches out there are all man-made.

Ericka

Extraordinary Nature Experience + Luxury = Pretty much every trip my husband and I (and now son) have ever taken. Mountains. Forests. Deserts. Oceans. We love spectacular scenery and the critters that live there. We can’t possibly pick a favorite!

I’ll be following this thread, though and planning our next escape.

EuropeanPete

Is it really that simple? I never went to Bora Bora in the good old days, but as far as I can tell the lagoon is a natural sand lagoon which 1. provides for sandy beaches and 2. means that there never was much in the way of coral there in the first place. Bora Bora certainly appears to be very different from most hotels in the Maldives which are often built directly on a reef.