Wellness, The Westin way

The Westin Cape Town's City Art Run wends its way through The Waterfront

If you’re staying at The Westin Cape Town, there are no excuses to fall off the wellness wagon. You might argue that all decent hotels have gyms or spas of some description, but this hotel group has racheted the whole wellness concept up a notch or five to an all-encompassing experience.

I was recently invited for a taster of the hotel’s wellness innovations to coincide with #GlobalRunningDay. The blurb on the brochure says,”…every aspect of your stay is designed to ensure that you leave feeling better than when you arrived.” And this promise did live up to expectations, I’m pleased to report.

The Cape Wheel

The hotel group has created the Stay tagline and linked it to different pillars of overall wellness. The ones I got to experience included:

• Stay Nourished, which is the trademarked SuperFoodsRx menus incorporating nutritious whole foods.
• Stay Energised refers to the hotel’s reinvigorating bathroom experience of rain showers (we don’t mention long baths in Cape Town), warm and fluffy bath robes and the inhouse White Tea Aloe bath products.
• Stay Rested which includes the Sleep Well menu featuring foods known for their sleep-inducing qualities you can order as room service.

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The other pillars are Stay Fit, where you can hire New Balance workout clothes and shoes for a nominal fee, Stay Productive which encompasses The Westin’s workspace offering, the Stay Healthy menu for kids and the Stay Longer concept of extended breakfast hours and late Sunday check out for weekend guests.

My stay kicked off with checking into one of the newly-refurbished Club suites. The décor somehow marries functionality with opulence. Done out in relaxing muted tones, there’s a nifty little desk space for the workaholics among us, a coffee bar and the ubiquitous hotel bar fridge. The bathroom is next level, with a shower cubicle that is only slightly smaller than my bathroom at home.

After dumping my overnight bag and a swift inspection of the drawers and wardrobes (as you do in a hotel room), I headed up to the Club Lounge on the 19th floor for the complementary drinks and snacks on offer, while taking in the panoramic views. There wasn’t much of a sunset, being one of those murky, drizzly Cape Town days, but the glittery lights of the Cape Wheel in The Waterfront were a very pretty sight.

Then it was back to my suite for my in-room dining experience from Stay Rested menu. Again, pure indulgence, never has healthy looked or tasted so good. The meal was delivered on white linen, with each course nestled under a silver cloche. Just like the movies. I started off with the slow cooked pork with pineapple chutney and smoked apple aoli, mains was organic salmon tataki with steamed green beans, mango salsa, Asian slaw with radish and ginger dressing, and to round it all off sour fig and apple cobbler with thyme and olive oil gelato.

Salmon tataki

But, I’ve left the best to last. Oh. My. Word. The bed and the pillows are just heaven. It was literally like sleeping on a cloud. There's even a small vial of lavender essential oil on the bedside table to dab on your temple and wrist to ensure a blissful slumber.

The ultimate in sleeping comfort

So, naturally, it was very hard to drag myself out of bed the next morning, which fortunately dawned bright and sunnyish for The Westin’s Urban City Art Run. This 5km curated run takes you past 12 of Cape Town’s most notable art pieces, starting off with Egon Tania’s life-size figures in Roggebaai Square then into The Waterfront and where we passed some of the familiar landmarks such as Nobel Square, the colourful rhinos and, of course, the iconic Zeitz Mocaa and the surrounding thought-provoking outdoor installations, then back to the hotel.

Save the rhino

My stay was rounded off with a yummy breakfast in The Club Lounge, before returning to the real world.

My final take out. It’s definitely easier to do wellness, when it wrapped up in luxury.