The idea of learning something new while on vacation is nothing new. Hotel guests have been perfecting their golf swings and swirling wines for decades. But there’s a new trend among hotels to offer ever more in-depth and hands-on learning. At hotels around the country, you can live your fantasy of becoming an artist, or a British pastry chef, or a master mixologist — even if only for a day.
Here are 10 hotels offering creative, hands-on workshops guests won’t soon forget.
Hotel workshops can help guests bring their destination home with them.
When a guest spends a truly memorable vacation abroad, they long to recapture that feeling once they return home. They find themselves trying — and probably failing —to make paella and patatas bravas after a week in Barcelona. Offering thoughtfully planned and locally focused hotel cooking classes allows guests to carry home a permanent piece of vacation.
- Luxury hotel Il Salviatino in Florence takes guests out in the woods to learn the art of truffle-hunting. Local experts, working with dogs that are trained to sniff out the fragrant fungi, show hotel guests how to collect truffles, cook with them and appreciate their intense flavor.
- Guests can live their “Great British Baking Show” fantasy in the British Pudding Master Class offered at Claridge’s in London. Chefs teach guests to make the classics: bread & butter pudding, sticky toffee pudding, crumble and steamed sponge pudding (which must taste better than it sounds).
- At Sofitel Luang Prabang in Laos, the hotel chef takes guests out of the kitchen for a crash course in Lao cuisine. “Classes begin with a trip to the local market to pick up fresh ingredients (an experience in and of itself) where you will learn about all the different produce and spices that make up Laotian cuisine,” Oyster reports. Back at the hotel, guests work together to create a multi-course meal, then take home a recipe book.
- It’s not just food that guests want to recreate at home. Guests who admire the lush woodland gardens at the Cashel House Hotel in County Galway, Ireland, are invited to get down in the dirt. They can spend two or three full days studying the art of gardening design, planting and maintenance with plant expert Ciaran Burke.
Choose activities that are a unique match for your brand.
Guests can take classes in cheese-tasting or tennis anywhere. When developing your own programs, ask yourself how workshops can reflect your property’s brand. Do your staff members have special areas of expertise?
- The Quirk Hotel in Richmond, Virginia (home of Hamilton Beach Commercial) is a hip, creative place, so a liquor-infusion workshop was a natural fit. A staff instructor guides participants through selecting, cutting and combining flavor ingredients, such as spices, herbs and fruits, then bartenders help them create custom cocktails. The process requires three days, so the hotel offers the program as a series of breaks for conference attendees. And it’s lucrative; Quirk grossed $3,000 from doing the workshop for a recent meeting group, Hotel F&B reports.
- Ranch life is synonymous with smoky meat and campfires, so guests love the BBQ Bootcamp at the Alisal Guest Ranch and Resort in California. Grilling techniques, spice blending, wine pairing and more are all covered. The experience has proved incredibly popular, selling out twice a year and bringing in more than $55,000 per session. That success didn’t happen by accident. The hotel hand-picked a few loyal guests to attend the first boot camp, knowing they would enthusiastically spread the word.
Make hotel workshops just plain fun.
While some guests are looking for serious culinary training, most want an experience that’s quick, entertaining and Instagrammable. These hotels have the right idea:
- The Bavarian Inn in Frankenmuth, Michigan, offers a pretzel-rolling class. Thousands of guests pay $5 to spend 45 minutes rolling pretzel dough, looping it into the perfect knot, and then chowing down after it’s baked.
- At the Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe, professional marshmologists teach guests how to sear and smash the perfect s’more, using housemade marshmallows and high-end ingredients. They call it marshmology, and it’s a perfect fit for the resort’s family-friendly, outdoorsy brand.
- The Chocolate Boutique Hotel in Bournemouth, Dorset lets guests paint their self-portraits in chocolate. We’d love to see the results, especially after a few glasses of cava… Another popular workshop lets guests use chocolate to create their own stiletto high heel.
- The Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas began offering AntiGravity Aerial Yoga classes last year. Aerial yoga is a low-impact workout in which participants dangle in soft fabric swings, stretching, spinning and even meditating mid-air.
What’s your most popular hotel class or workshop? Tell us about it and we may feature it in a future post.
