21st October 2010 - La Residencia www.laresidencia.com, on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, is a luxury hideaway surrounded by 32 acres of land historically farmed for olives, carobs, and oak. The hotel has just launched an exciting new project aimed at restoring the previously untended mountainside in which it is nestled to its former glory.

During the last century, when focus moved from agriculture to tourism, the land that surrounds the hotel was left untended. However, recognising the increase in demand for locally sourced and organic produce, La Residencia has taken action to restore this land and bring back the crops that would have traditionally grown there. The hotel has signed a contract with the local agricultural Cooperative, and work has already begun to clear the terraced olive groves of unwanted pine and undergrowth. The trees will be pruned correctly, ensuring a new harvest of olive oil in December and another in January.

Unwanted wood from the clearance will be stored in a woodpile for the hotel’s fireplaces during the winter season and a field of almond trees has been planted with the hopes that they will bloom for a summer harvest next year.

La Residencia has created a dedicated three night Olive Oil package to offer guests a chance to take part in this special project. This package will include accommodation, daily breakfast, a short introduction to olive harvesting and an opportunity to hand pick the olives that will then be pressed into oil. Also incorporated in the package is a Citrus Olive Siesta beauty treatment at La Residencia’s spa, a traditional Mallorcan lunch at a mountain refuge within the hotel’s land, and a three course dinner at El Olivo where guests will be able to taste various olive oils. As a mark of thanks to those participating in the clearance and harvest, the hotel will create a personalised sign in the guests’ name for the olive tree that they have tended.

The Olive Oil package is available from 18 November to 18 December 2010 and costs 1,230 Euros (approximately £1,081) based on two people sharing and including VAT.

ENDS/….

Orient-Express, (NYSE: OEH, www.orient-express.com) the name behind an elite collection of travel experiences, first came into being in 1883 as one of the world’s most exciting and indulgent train journeys. Today that evocative name also embraces hotels, cruises and other luxury rail adventures in 24 countries, across five continents. The Company has offered exceptional luxury travel experiences since 1976, when it first purchased Hotel Cipriani in Venice and then shortly afterwards, recreated the celebrated Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, linking London, Paris and Venice, along with other European cities. Today, the company owns or part-owns and manages 50 businesses, 41 of which are highly acclaimed hotels, each unique in style, from the Mount Nelson in Cape Town and Rio’s Copacabana Palace, to the Grand Hotel Europe in St. Petersburg and Maroma Resort & Spa on Mexico’s Riviera Maya. There are six luxury tourist trains, two river cruise operations and ‘21’, one of New York’s most iconic restaurants.

For further information, please contact Vicky Legg or Sara Mirza at Orient-Express on 020 7921 4069 or vicky.legg@orient-express.com or sara.mirza@orient-express.com