Interview with Ana-Belmond Miraflores Lima :
Number of Passengers:
Ana Lucia Felices – Belmond Miraflores Park – Lima
Where would you go for a great meal on your day off?
I love restaurants that focus on the food and don’t overcomplicate things. Quality ingredients combined with good cooking techniques often result in excellent food and Isolina (Barranco) and La Mar (Miraflores) are perfect examples of this. I love the simplicity, the quality and the buzz you feel in these places.
What is it about this city/place that inspires you?
Over the last decade, Lima has transformed into a culinary powerhouse, with a food scène introducing exciting new ingredients sourced from the Amazon to the Andes. When you have been travelling, people often ask you which places you have seen and which sights you have visited. Lima is the only city in the world where the first question is: “where have you eaten?”. It inspires me to look at food as a form of art and consider how Belmond can best express this in the hotel. Limeños look at food for experiences, not only nourishment.
If you had only a few hours here what could you not miss?
A walk through Barranco, a district that is known as the Soho of Lima and that hosts a vibrant art and fashion scene. Barranco is full of renowned art galleries, charming boutiques and coffee shops known for some of the best brews in the country. Wherever you turn, you can see colonial mansions once owned by Lima’s elite. After exploring, you can go for traditional ceviche in La Mar or Mercado or come to our hotel restaurant Tragaluz for some of the freshest most innovative seafood dishes in town…
Tell us something about the hotel that not many people know?
Due to our location, we have the most spectacular views overlooking the coastline and in 2016 we received an award for being the world’s most romantic resort. We can now offer wedding ceremonies on our pool deck on 11th floor, overlooking the beach, lush gardens below and you can marry as the sun set behind the Pacific Ocean
What is the most unusual request you ever received from a guest. How did you make it happen for them?
In the 10 months that I have been here, I have faced some very specific requests but nothing has come close to the unusual ones I used to receive while working in the Middle East
What is your favourite time of year to visit the hotel and why?
November to February during the Lima summer. The sun is out, the views are even more spectacular, you can feel the summer vibe throughout the city, the surfers dominate the ocean and the park in front of the hotel transforms into a social spot for families and friends to mix and mingle
Which of the otherBelmond hotels would you love to visit or work in?
I was lucky enough to have lived and worked in four countries for Belmond and visited a lot of our stunning properties. The ones that are currently on top of my bucket list are Belmond Copacabana Palace Hotel (Brazil) and Belmond Andean Explorer (Peru), the newest addition to the collection and the first luxury sleepover train in South America. One day, I would love to work in Italy
How has the hotel changed since you began and what improvements have you seen?
I wanted to give the hotel a more personal approach and the fact that our guest feedback scores have improved over the last 10 months are an indicator that we have managed to do exactly that. We are actively working on promoting our F&B outlets to the local market, resulting in a growing market share from outside guests versus guests of the hotel and also helping promote our links with the art and food scene in Lima which will appeal to the international globetrotter.
What makes you most proud about the hotel?
The team that I work with on a daily basis is skilled and dedicated. You can´t train somebody to be service minded, it’s either in your blood or not. I have helped build and find a team that is committed to providing exceptional experiences and I’m very proud of that!
