The team recalls a visit to Madeira’s new spa hotel, the Saccharum, Calheta Marina…
Emerging from the scorched mountainside where a cockerel crows, the Saccharum strikes one as unexpectedly sharp and sleek a wedge of a building. Sturdy, giant but also tactile, much of its span stares away from its nearest hotel neighbour, instead glancing at the pretty, sun-dappled marina, then down to its black volcanic beach, and boldly across the Atlantic, which eventually laps the Canary Islands.
The property takes its name from the Latin for sugar. As the free museum, recessed beyond reception – which is flanked by a modern take on medieval candelabras – attests, Madeira was once the world’s largest exporter of ‘white gold’ until disease decimated fields. Three factories remain, dispensing sugar, molasses and white rum – the latter mixed with lemon and honey in local cocktail, ‘Poncha’. As the reddened sun slowly sets, the exuberant potion, poured over ice into highballs on the Saccharum’s top floor terrace lifts spirits, to the soulful vibes of a local band and rhythmic claw of waves below.
Offering refuge from that powerful sun at midday, Saccharum’s shaded interior, complete with elegantly-rusted apparatus from rummeries, and canes and woven chairs, is styled by Funchal-born, Nini Andrade Silva, who is also known for her upside-down scheme at the Aquapura/Six Senses resort in the Douro – where guests enter from the top floor. Although only open for a quarter of a year, Silva’s scheme for Saccharum’s lofty spa – home to one of four pools – has already been shortlisted for this year’s European Hotel Design Awards.
A haven for holidaymakers, with spacious, soft beds and long sunbathing terraces, the hotel is a jewel of this proud, naturally-beautiful subtropical, undulating island; it is considered in its design, but the characterful quirks, while ever present, are never obtrusive. Hence, we look forward to making our return to this calm corner of Calheta…
