The dedicated honey-making efforts of bees have been highlighted at hotels and resorts throughout the world in a vast array of ways, including hands-on activities, classes, spa treatments and foods.
Some properties, including the following, recently have developed particularly innovative ways of blending honey into their offerings, which will be available to meeting groups in September, National Honey Month.
The Lodge at Woodloch, Hawley, Pennsylvania
Guests can enjoy the resort’s healing herbs and honey ritual, which starts with a warm drizzle of honey followed by a sugar and healing season herb exfoliation. Then, butter and essential oils are massaged into skin to leave guests feeling soft and smooth.
Sanderling Resort, Outer Banks, North Carolina
Sanderling bees’ output is used in Keeper’s Watch cocktail, which contains honey-infused bourbon, ginger ale and fresh lemon juice. It’s also in the liquid gold and honeycomb that is incorporated into the Outer Banks Cheese Tray of specialty cheeses from local artisans and in a custom candle.
Eau Palm Beach-Manalapan, Florida
Guests can enjoy treatments that utilize Eau Spa Signature Artisanal Honey, created by Palm Beach bees and hand-crafted by on-property Beekeeper, Bradley Stewart. They can enjoy a honey heel glaze and a bourbon bubbler scrub while sipping on a honey ale during a 45-minute pedicure or Honey Citrus Body Polish.
Calistoga Ranch, Auberge Resorts Collection, California
The ranch has five hives, with up to 30,000 bees per hive. Guests are invited to join the resident beekeeper for a class about the honeybees at Calistoga Ranch, the importance of their survival and how they help vegetables and flowers in Napa Valley. The bees create a mixed floral honey that includes orange blossoms, lavender, roses and rosemary from the garden and indigenous wild flowers from the canyon.
La Quinta Resort & Club, California
Spa La Quinta offers the 75-minute Glistening Agave Body Glaze treatment that begins with a dry brush exfoliation, followed by a deep tissue massage that uses agave oil made with organic sunflower seed oil, with traces of cherry and coconut milk. Guests’ hands and feet then are painted with a honey glaze serum, and placed in a steaming towel wrap for intensive, deep hydration.
Hotel Wailea, Maui, Hawaii
Hotel Wailea’s uses its five beehives to create a signature raw, unfiltered, GMO- and chemical-free honey that is used throughout the hotel in food and beverages. The honey will soon be used to create the hotel’s signature scent, crafted by Lather, an all-natural skin-care and beauty company.
Mauna Kea Resort, Hawaii Island, Hawaii
Guests at this resort, which includes Mauna Kea Beach Hotel and The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort, can participate in a one-hour tour that includes a walking tour of the bee hives, complete with beekeeper suits and a honey pull if the hive is ready to harvest; a demonstration of how the Flow Hive works; raw honey tasting and sampling of resort’s food and beverages that use the sourced honey; and a complimentary jar of honey made at the property.
Nanuku, Auberge Resorts Collection, Fiji
This resort boasts a hive housing 2,000 bees, all under the rule of Adi Kamica (Sweet Queen), the queen bee. Nanuku celebrates National Honey Month in style—under the guidance of the resident beekeeper, groups suit-up and pull honeycomb, then enjoy a honey-centric spa treatment and five-course honey-inspired dinner that includes Honey & Miso Roasted Pork Belly and a Honey-Caramel Poached Banana.
Hacienda Beach Club & Residences, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
The new Golden Honey Purification treatment begins with a gentle body exfoliation to renew the skin. Guests are then placed in a honey-based body wrap mixed with sage, cinnamon and ginger that helps to soften and smooth the skin while removing toxins. A head massage is then given to enhance relaxation. The treatment concludes with a full body cleansing essential oil massage, along with Hacienda’s custom tequila tea with ginger, lemon and honey.
