You arrive in style, transported by the hotel’s limousine service; your check-in is smooth, housekeeping have already selected your choice of non-feather pillows and the chef has been in touch to tell you that a vegan menu has been prepared for you, there’s even vegan champagne being served in the executive lounge. So far, so good, it’s the perfect vegan luxury travel experience with every detail covered until you go to freshen up in your bathroom and the luxury amenities that fill the shelves aren’t vegan.
This essentially means that the products available, which might well be top end and high quality, contain ingredients derived from animal sources and may even have been tested on animals.
But a vegan stamp of approval guarantees that your shower gel, shampoo and conditioner are made from plant sourced ingredientsand they have not been tested on animals, something that is close to the heart of many.
Mostvegans are used to not being able to make use of the amenities offered when they check into their favourite luxury hotel or resort; its just something that is accepted as part of vegan travel.
But times are changing.
We are coming across more and more hotels and resorts on our travels that are offering their guests vegan amenities; high quality, top end products that are free from animal products and by-products and have not been tested on animals.
Our 3 luxury hotel brands which offer their guests vegan amenities are 3 of the biggest brands in the industry and they arent just providing boutique amenities that you can only find in small specialist shops either. This means that after you’ve fallen in love with them during your stay, you can treat yourself when you get home too. Each of our 3 hotels featured have partnered with a luxury plant based supplier of fine bathroom amenities to ensure the next time you head to one of their hotels or resorts you can experience every part of their luxury offering, safe in the knowledge that you aren’t contributing to animal testing or exploitation.
InterContinental Hotels & Resortslaunched their partnership withAgraria back in 2012,and guests can now enjoy ‘Lemon Verbena’ amenities at each of their 170 properties worldwide. With a shared heritage dating back to 1970 when Agraria opened their first boutique in the same neighbourhood asthe InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco, it appears to be the perfect partnership.
The products are light and uplifting with that lemon verbena scent having a fresh and energising effect after using them.
We love the Agraria Lemon Verbena range and recently got to enjoy them at the multi award winning InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort in Vietnam. This was one resort where attention to detail, creative architecture and a stunning location came together to make one of the best resorts in the region and the Agraria products were well at home here.
TheGrand Hyattare also perfect choice for vegan travellers with their choice of in-room amenities coming from theJune Jacobs Spa Collection. There’s a wide range of products to sample including a facial cleansing bar and a body balm as well as the usual shower gel, shampoo and conditioner. The June Jacobs philosophy is all about using natural, plant-based ingredients; you won’t find any nasty parabens, petrochemicals or any synthetic dyes or fragrances, only plant’s in their purest form. The products really do their job and feel like they are stripping impurities away as you use them and fragrances from the use ofingredients like green tea and cucumber are all that’s left to linger.
We came across the fabulous June Jacobs products atGrand Hyatt Taipeiwhere we got to sample some of the range in this centrally located city hotel. The rest of the experience was very vegan friendly and so these vegan amenities, worthy of any top end spa, were a perfect fit for this property.
Check into one of theConrad Hotels & Resortsproperties around the world and you can select amenities from the funkyTara Smithcollection for your bathroom. These products have been tested on film stars (extra glamour factor anyone?) and are certified by the Vegan Society which means they get a vegan label on them to make it easy for you to spot their vegan friendliness. Tara’s ethos drives her to use natural, organic ingredients and to eliminate animal cruelty in the creation of her range, adding years of experience as a hair stylist to the stars to create products that are high end salon quality.
We first discoveredthem during a trip to theConrad Baliwhere we were able to customise our luxury experience when staying in their exclusive Conrad Suites wing. In addition to enjoying the amazingly spacious suites, infinity pool with four poster beds and a vegan afternoon tea to write home about, we also got to indulge in the lovely Tara Smith products which definitely increased the luxury factor for us.
Veganism is a lifestyle, it’s not just about the food that’s on your plate and so it’s important for luxury hotels and resorts who want to make all their guests feel welcome, to provide options to use cruelty free vegan products during their stay. Not only does this increase levels of customer satisfaction but it lessens their environmental impact, slowly but surely. Plus, in our experience, these luxury vegan products are not only more healthy as they are chemical free, but are also a wonderful indulgent treat to use.
