Botanique Hotel & Spa, nestled amid the untouched hills and mountains of Campos do Jordão, Brazil, and situated in between Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, will open in November 2012. Set on 700 acres, the intimate retreat recognising Brazilian nature and modernism, comprises eleven private villas and six suites. Additionally there will be the first 100% Brazilian spa in the country, as well a dramatic restaurant, private movie theatre, stables with Olympic standard horses, library and cookery school. The intimate retreat – a vision of owner Brazilian entrepreneur, Ricardo Semler – is the first of its kind in the country showcasing the best of Brazil with indigenous design, furnishings, culture, cuisine, and experiences. The architectural design is truly breathtaking incorporating huge river stone boulders, towering walls of glass and exposed steel offering expansive and unobstructed views of the valley.
The interior design has been curated by several of the country’s most revered interiors experts such as Adélia Borges and the furniture and artwork have been commissioned from some of Brazil’s finest emerging and established designers and artists to create a unique collection.
Overlooking the valley, the hotel’s eleven private villas and six suites are each individual in design. Each villa has an elaborate private garden measuring at least 600m2 whilst the suites are located in the main building around the spa and Mina restaurant. Daily room rates include food, Brazilian wines and wine tastings, minibar, beverages, all activities and experiences, gratuities and laundry.
Throughout the property, rare local materials have been used in the build such as locally sourced chocolate slate from a singular mine which only reaches the correct colour once every seventeen months. Three ton rocks from the local river have been used in the walls, natural-coloured stone, soaring triple height glass walls, and massive wood beams that have been reclaimed from 120 year-old farms in Minas Gerais.
Perched on the ridge, offering 180° views of the mountains and valley, Mina restaurant under rising star chef Gabriel Broide, will serve modern contemporary Brazilian cuisine with an all-Brazilian wine menu to match. The hotel will have a cult Brazilian wine cellar with a Reserve list featuring some of the most exclusive and iconic wines in the world. It will be one of the rarest collections of curated wines available.
Cut into the hillside, the eight-room 10,000 square foot Spa at Botanique is an all-Brazilian spa with signature treatments encompassing ancient native healing and relaxation rituals. Influences include afro-Brazilian and Native Indian treatments as well as Brazilian dance and martial arts. There will be eight specialised treatment spaces and relaxation suites as well as an indoor pool and dry and wet saunas.
Experiences include a forty seat cinema which transforms into a couple’s love seat for individual showings, Olympic standard horses in the stable, an outdoor swimming pool and soft bottom lake, tennis professionals and 600 thread count linens. There is a stone lined library that showcases the finest literary works of the country containing multi-lingual translations for all to enjoy. Furthermore guest luggage can be picked up the day before arrival from hotels in Sao Paulo, where it is unpacked, ironed and clothes hung in the suite and delivered again after a guest has left. The aim is to offer a genuine retreat, so much so, that no vehicles are allowed within 1km of the hotel. On arrival guests are whisked to the hotel in an electric buggy.
The guest experience begins the moment a guest books to stay at Botanique via the “Curador da Experiências.” One of the fifteen highly-trained Curadors becomes the point-person for the guest from before their arrival, through check-in, and though the duration of their stay in an unobtrusive and discreet manner. All guest communication regarding dinner reservations, wine tastings and arranging local activities is organized through the Curadors, as opposed to being outsourced to different departments of the hotel.
