HOTEL surprises are not new – something brought to or waiting in your room, sparkling wine at reception even – but at The Reserve you can expect the unexpected.
No spoilers to follow but be assured that within minutes of stepping onto the tarmac after your plane lands in Madeira – and continuing later in the limousine that slips you away from the airport – there will be delights.
Infinity pool
The Reserve owns its name, signalled by the separate entrance on the driveway into the Savoy Palace hotel. After being greeted in the lobby, you are whisked up to the 16th floor where reception is accomplished in cosy comfort at the exclusive Jacaranda Club.
By now, you will have met a member of staff – officially known by the unwieldy acronym GEPA (Guest Experience Personal Assistant) – who remains your primary point of contact. A high degree of customised service is the signature feature of The Reserve and it is reassuring that there is someone you know who is there to deal personally with all aspects of your stay.
Entrance to The Reserve
Bedrooms have designer-cool features like supersized balconies – especially in the corner-room suites with their own bathing pool – that maximize light and Madeira’s seascapes while retaining utmost privacy. Aesthetically pleasing details, like the fresh flowers placed between the double sinks, add to the overall tone of discreet luxury.
From the balconies, the gentle curves of the Savoy Palace’s exterior are pleasingly pronounced and a similar undulation – intimations of ocean waves lapping around the North Atlantic island of Madeira – is noticeable in the corridors and on the ceiling of the Jacaranda Club.
Lobby
Staying at The Reserve allows guests to enjoy the restaurants and pool facilities of the Savoy Palace but when it comes to breakfast there is an elite experience at the Jacaranda Club: four pages of an à la carte menu – including a dozen kinds of toasts and a delicious purple acai bowl of fruits – as well as buffet offerings.
Pau de Lume, the Savoy Palace’s main restaurant, has an invitingly casual style and a high-temperature Josper oven that imparts beef cuts and roasted pumpkin with smoky flavours. For outdoor dining, poolside Alameda is an attractive spot for light lunches and early dinners – salads, pizzas, fish – shaded from the sun by exotic-looking plants hanging from above.
For more adventurous meals, Galaxia on the 16th floor – with star-like lighting befitting its name – has ocean and island views and tasting menus which, if the wine pairings option is chosen, provide a tasteful education for anyone thinking the only wine from Maderia is the eponymous fortified kind.
I opted for the vegetarian tasting menu and it was of an exceptional and purist quality. Two desserts, a ‘virtual’ banana and a tangerine, should not be skipped (they are on other menus in Galaxia); a sense of humour in the kitchen transposed flawlessly into a dessert (right down to the label on the banana).
Being spoilt for choices, there is another fine-dining experience on the 16th floor where, under a wavy ceiling and with only eight tables, Nikkei brings a persuasive introduction to the pleasures of Japanese food and – desserts are clearly a speciality in the restaurants – an ‘explosive’ pineapple dessert.
For live music there is the Vimes bar downstairs, open until 11pm, and for anyone new to Madeira’s speciality drink this might be the place to try the mighty poncha cocktail.
Dessert at Galáxia
The Laurea spa, with treatment rooms galore, a halotherapy room, sauna, jacuzzi, ice fountain, champagne and nail bar, and fitness center, plus heated indoor and outdoor pools, is unsurprisingly one of the largest to be found in Portugal.
An infinity pool on the 17th floor, with access only from the Jacaranda Club, is strictly for Reserve guests to enjoy their own infinity pool which, facing west, is a place to linger for sunset moments.
Departing from The Reserve is as flawless an experience as arriving there: limousine, fast-track at the airport and a small lounge to wait in for your flight.
by Sean Sheehan
Rooms from £597 a night (corner-room suites from £813); for more information, see The Reserve. More than one airline flies to Maderia and for trains to Stansted Airport see Stansted Express.