St. Lucia + Slovenia
We just celebrated International Podcast Day by being guests on LIVE TV! We know, right?!? We were so excited to be asked to be guests on Suncoast View in Sarasota, Florida, which you can watch here!
We also have a trip coming up, we will be in Atlanta for the She Podcasts conference, so stay tuned to our Instagram to see what we are up to! And if you're looking for a fun hangout, remember we go live on our Facebook Group each Sunday night at 9pm EST! Join us!
Alison is obsessed with her Clarisonic Mia Facial Cleansing Brush. Her dermatologist recommended it after a rosacea diagnosis, and she noticed some impressive improvements in her skin immediately! If she wanted to up the luxury, she could purchase additional heads like this cashmere one, or this one that blends makeup for an airbrushed look! Can you say, Christmas list?!
In a whole other vein, Lulu's obsession is pickles. Alison affirms this obsession and asks Lulu what her favorite type of pickle might be. Lulu is unsure, just all of them, she says. Alison knows for a fact that her favorite pickles are the Vlassic® Snack'mms Kosher Dill Minis.
Alison wishes she had money to buy new mattresses. She knows you are supposed to replace your mattress every 8 years or so, and she couldn't tell ya how old hers are. Any mattress company want to sponsor an episode? Lull? Casper? Tuft & Needle? We can promise you Alison would be a great -and eager - spokesperson. Lulu needs a mattress topper to use on the bed in her furnished rental. She’ll take any recommendations you’ve got!
Lulu just has to go here in real life. Alison can come too, but if not, she IS GOING. Lulu picked out this locale solely for the resort she found. I mean, she's been researching luxury stays for nearly 100 episodes, and this place is a standout. The Jade Mountain Resort is an absolutely stunning spread of spaces amongst the hills rising up from the Caribbean beaches with spectacular views of the Pitons, two dramatically shaped mountains.
Also of note, the luxurious resort does not call their rooms, "rooms", or even "suites", but rather you stay in a sanctuary. You may think that sounds dramatic but the name doesn't even begin to describe it. Her chosen Galaxy Sanctuary is 2000 square feet and has a 900 square foot chromotherapy infinity pool. There is no fourth wall, so you walk straight from the bed into the living area into the infinity pool. One with the air, water, earth and sky! This is the kind of nature Lulu can get into. One with nature, but make it luxury.
There are no televisions, radio, telephones, wifi, or public cell phone use. You use a walkie talkie-esque device to contact your Majordomo, a type of butler that is available to you 24/7. He can arrange anything you may need, from transport to activities, to your meals. The dining options at the resort are plentiful, one of the options being to have your chef come and cook for you in your sanctuary. So for breakfast Lulu has a chef teach her how to make a Caribbean flavored dish or two.
After her leisurely breakfast its time for a leisurely activity. Well semi-leisurely anyway for Lulu, as an element she is choosing gives her a bit of anxiety. Good thing she is in paradise to ease that stress. She's going to go for a swim in her infinity pool - that is bigger than her NYC apartment by 3x at least, by the way - and is thinking she will try going for her dip in the buff. Nude. Naked. No one can see so Alison would totally do this and Lulu has listened to her talk about it enough that she is going to try.
After her swim, she has a 6-course meal in her sanctuary, served by her majordomo. With this service you can hire an acoustic guitarist, which on a romantic vacation sounds nice enough, but on her solo trip it sounds just plain awkward. She's spent half of her day in her sanctuary, and now she's thinking she'll stretch her legs a bit. And by stretch her legs she means just relocate, thanks to a car and driver from St. Lucia Executive.
Said driver drops her off at Hotel Chocolat for the Bean to Bar tour which is every bit as exciting as it seems. Unless you don't like chocolate, then perhaps not. The tour begins with a walk through cocoa groves where you get to pic a cocoa pod, and from it craft your own chocolate bar! How awesome is that? Craving chocolate just thinking about it? Yeah, us too.
After her tour she has dinner at Boucan at Hotel Chocolat, where everything on the menu has chocolate, cocoa, or cacao in the dish. For instance - whipped goat cheese with a floral edge of cocoa pulp, cocoa nib scandinavian-inspired rye bread - need we go on? She orders a glass of Bois Bandé rum rumored to have "magically invigorating" properties...it literally translates to "erect wood". Too bad this is a solo trip. Oh well, she enjoys a chocolate martini or two before heading back to her sanctuary.
Alison found this incredibly unique stay in Šentilj v Slovenskih goricah on Airbnb. The Karavla Private Villa is a former military building, and while it was totally renovated, they left a T-55 tank at the entrance for guests to admire. Alison describes it as very posh, yet tacky. She loves it. It also has a hot tub and a sauna, so that's pretty cool too.
Now, get ready for her cross-country day. Because she did not designate where she was going in Slovenia. The country. Between her stay and the activities of her day, let's just say it's a good thing she hired a car and driver from transfer.si, because she literally goes from one side of the country to the other in her day. Welcome to 10K Dollar Day, where you have an imaginary $10,000 and imaginary roads-with-no-traffic-where-driving-200+mph-is-safe-and-possible.
Her first experience sounds more like something our producer Ash would do. The Primal Panoramic Tour in the Pohorje forest has you walking barefoot, hugging trees, and making flower crowns. The experience ends with an herb and salt foot bath, a face towel, and tea and cake. Now THAT sounds more up Alison's alley.
For lunch her driver takes her to Ljubljana, where she found Cubo, the first Slovenian restaurant to published a cookbook and the only one that has published two. Even more impressive is their five course tasting menu of what Alison calls "artsy food" and Lulu understands to mean "fine dining".
Alison is beyond excited to visit The Predjama Castle, on a cliff near Postojna, Slovenia. The castle serves as the entrance to a cave system, and was built in the 13th century. You can book tours of both the Predjama castle and the Postojna Cave in which it sits, including stops at the Vivarium, an underground zoo! The zoo is an area of active research but also has areas to educate visitors about karstology - yeah...we had to click through several times to find the definition of a word in the definition, still don't understand - and speleobiology, a word which is much easier to understand. It's "the study of animals that live in caves".
That's a lot of information that may be of little to no interest to most, but in Alison's words these animals are weird and they don't even look real! That sounds interesting enough to check it out, though if you don't go for the vivarium, go for that castle!!
Alison was searching for mudding, like at a spa, but fortunately stumbled upon MUD Make Up Designory, which has products as well as training courses for beauty professionals. Alison is going to take a class on Airbrush makeup, so she bought a pack of 12 courses even though she can only attend one. So she spends $2188 to get educated on all things airbrush, plus $429 for the airbrush makeup set and $76 for the set bag to store all that makeup. She's going pro, you guys.
Alison decides to take in a bit of street art so heads to Metelkova, an abandoned Slovenian military barracks that has become a "punky-political art squat". If you are into discovering art scenes and are actually in Ljubljana, then for under $20 you can take a small-group walking tour of Metelkova and several other street art hubs.
On an art kick, Alison heads to the southwest part of the country to the resort city of Piran to check out the work of Nika's Tiny House. She paints hand-collected pieces of driftwood to look like tiny houses, complete with attention to tiny details. She releases a Colors of Piran Calendar every year, which features images of 12 tiny houses, photographed in front of the real-life Piran facades. Oh, because now Alison is across the country in Piran. Alison buys one for each of our 10K Dollar Baes. That might be the most she's ever dropped in a 10K Day on art, or souvenirs.
For dinner, Alison has her driver take her up the countryside to north western town Kobarid, where Hiša Franko is the destination. Their eleven course menu with wine pairing impresses Alison, as does their MO - “If you really want to experience the real expression of my cuisine, go with the flow and let us serve you our food, no restrictions, no limitations”. And that closes her cross-country day.
CHECK OUT THE CHARITIES WE FOUND IN THE CITIES WE VISITED:
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