22 THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT BELMOND

KEE@FSWMAG.COM
Now you know...

22 FACTS ABOUT BELMOND Last year, Hollywood star George Clooney hand delivered his tequila brand, Casamigos, to Belmond Hotel Cipriani, the first hotel in Europe to serve it. Raymond Blanc’s Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons has held two Michelin stars for 27 years, a UK record. 22,000 bottles of Champagne are served each year on board Belmond British Pullman and Belmond Northern Belle – that’s 130,000 glasses of bubbly! 160 whole Scottish salmon and 1kg of French truffles are served each year on Belmond Royal Scotsman. Belmond El Encanto is the first of our hotels to have its own cow. Ellie recently gave birth to a calf and the pair’s cheese is definitely worth a taste. Man’s best friend gets the five-star treatment at Belmond Hotel Splendido, where pets are pampered with grooming sessions and Swedish massages. 30 different types of vodka are served at Belmond Grand Hotel Europe, where a vodka sommelier is on hand to ensure the best possible vodka pairing experience. Nearly every U.S. President since Franklin D. Roosevelt has dined at the legendary ‘21’ in New York, including current President Barack Obama.   The beach at Belmond Maroma Resort & Spa is 1,200 ft long, equivalent in length to the size of four professional football pitches. In 2006, 1.5 million people watched the Rolling Stones perform at the largest ever concert on Copacabana Beach. Belmond Copacabana Palace built a dedicated walkway to the front of the stage, so the band could avoid the crowds. On average, 1.5 million litres of water per second thunder over Iguassu Falls. Belmond Hotel das Cataratas is the only hotel located within Iguassu National Park(pictured below). Guests can return from Koh Samui as expert Thai boxers, with daily lessons available at Belmond Napasai’s in house Thai boxing ring. An original Inca Wall and an Inca sandal were discovered during the restoration Belmond Palacio Nazarenas, a former 16th-century convent. The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express is a quarter of a mile long, plus an extra 20 metres for the engine- equivalent in length to 38 double decker buses. Renowned for its attention to detail, Hotel Ritz by Belmond’s new carpet is 300m2 in size and took 30 people four months to hand weave. The English writer, D. H. Lawrence, lived at Belmond Grand Hotel Timeo for four years, during which he wrote the world famous “Lady Chatterley’s Lover”        Altitude sickness is a thing of the past at Belmond Hotel Monasterio, the first high altitude hotel in the world to pipe oxygen into guest rooms. Five senior monks bless Belmond Orcaella and Belmond Road to Mandalay at the beginning of each season to ensure safe passage on the water. During a visit to Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel in 1999, it is said that the Dalai Lama requested his two all-time favourite treats at meal times – crispy fried chicken and ice-cream.   On board the Eastern and Oriental Express, nearly 2,000 Michelin standard meals are freshly prepared on board during a three-day Classic Journey from Singapore to Bangkok. Guests can have a conversation in whisper while on opposite landings at Belmond Charleston Place, thanks to the acoustics created by the Georgian staircase’s placement and the domed ceiling in the lobby. Couples staying at Belmond Sanctuary Lodge, the only hotel at the World Heritage Site of Machu Picchu, can have their marriage blessed by a local Shaman.