Carry On: How hotels are elevating staff expertise beyond a butler

Sure, the butler can unpack your clothes and a great concierge can score rare reservations and tickets. But these next-generation hotel staffers can make a whole new range of travel dreams come true.

Get your energy and dreams read by the Resident Shaman at Sense, A Rosewood Spa, at Mayakoba in Mexico’s Riviera Maya. Other traditional treatments on the Lost Remedies menu here include temazcal (sweat lodge) rituals, purification in the spa’s cenote or their Herbal Cure with ancient plant medicine.

Sandals Dunn’s River in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, has a Stargazing Concierge to guide your night sky watching from rooftops of the Coyaba Sky Rondoval villas. You can even request a custom star map of the constellations of the evening.

Keep the vacay vibes chill with the help of personalized disc libraries from the Record Concierge at the Leta Santa Barbara Goleta or the Westin La Paloma Resort in Tucson, Arizona, or curated playlists by the Director of Ambiance at L.A.’s famed Chateau Marmont.

Go beyond ticket requests and dinner reservations and explore local culture by getting a whiff of the Frankincense Sommelier scents at the Shangri-la Al Husn in Muscat, Oman. Or while away an afternoon sipping the offerings of the Tea Sommelier at the Baccarat Hotel in New York.

Pizza for the 1 percent

Spacca Napoli in Port Moody might just make Canada’s best pizza: it’s the only place in the nation, and among only about 1 percent of pizzerias in the world to receive the 3 Spicchi rating from Gambero Rosso. Cancel the trip to Italy!

Jetsetter

Those mini travel-size products are cute, but they’re usually made of wasteful single-use plastic and hold little product. “Shampoo and conditioner bars are long lasting and solid,” says Alexa Monahan, co-founder with Lisa Karandat of eco-friendly Good Juju products, “meaning you can bring them and use them anywhere you go.” The brand’s laundry strips and shave bars are other earth-friendly finds worth throwing in your carry-on, with no worries about running out or getting held up in security.

Travelling with your own products brings the familiarity and comforts of home to the road. Similarly, Monahan finds that scent can be particularly evocative of certain places and travel memories. “Some smells bring forth memories… like the way a whiff of lavender instantly transports me to the feeling I get after a yin yoga class, or how the smell of wet grass after it rains reminds me of a 10-day trek I recently did in the Italian Dolomites.”

Though the Vancouver resident acknowledges that her hometown’s green creds are solid, she notes that New Zealand and Costa Rica are high on her list to visit “and definitely stand out in promoting sustainable, regenerative travel.” Denmark, with its bike-friendly infrastructure in Copenhagen, also impressed her on recent travels: “You really feel the emphasis on living a greener, planet-friendly life in every corner of the city.”