Now that Baby Boomers have retired with generous pension plans and time on their hands and globe-trotting Generation X-ers have reached their thirties and forties, these two generations of high-spending, sophisticated travellers expect more from a holiday than a couple of weeks lying on a beach with a paperback. Hotels need to work that bit harder to guarantee bookings and they are becoming increasingly creative with ‘travel experiences’ that offer visitors more than a tan and some holiday snaps to take home with them. Georgian country house hotel Tilton House in Sussex offers bibliotherapy for literary types with a Reading Weekend in the Sussex countryside and Chalet Rosiere in the French Alps now has yoga workshops so guests can limber up and wind down before and after hitting the slopes.
Brand new eco retreat Cortijada Los Gázquez in the heart of the Parque Natural Sierra Maria-Los Velez in Andalucia takes the slow travel experience a step further as it offers art courses that are more than one-off packages designed to fill rooms. Owners Simon and Donna Beckman, both artists, tired of the London rat race and re-located to Andalucia four years ago with their twins Solomon and Sesame.
They converted the cluster of five old farmhouses (a cortijada) into a six-room boutique hotel respecting the rustic local vernacular but also appealing to modern design sensibilities. Thanks to solar panels, windmills and bio-mass wood boilers , the property is totally self-sufficient and functions entirely off-grid. Rain water is harvested from the roof, grey water is used to irrigate the garden, all food is locally-sourced and scraps composted.
But as well as respecting the environment, this boutique hotel celebrates it. Visitors are taught to sketch, paint or sculpt the surrounding landscape, flora and fauna by resident professional artists whose work is environmentally-inspired and who hail from as far afield as New York, California and Johannesburg. And if guests need a break from their sketchbooks and easels, there are mountain bikes available and a local, bi-lingual natural history guide is on call to lead hikes and bird-watching trips.
A 7-night art retreat at Cortijada Los Gázquez costs €850 including full board and tuition and a 3-night long weekend art retreat will set you back €366.
