Accor launches Fairmont luxury experiences in North America — and you can pay with points

Sure, we always look for high thread counts, impeccable service and palatial guest rooms when booking a stay at a luxury hotel. But offering high-end experiences to go with the five-star service is increasingly a way to stand out among the competition.

Paris-based Accor — the hotel corporation that owns brands like Fairmont, Raffles and Sofitel — revealed exclusively to TPG how it plans to offer guests one-of-a-kind experiences at several of its Fairmont properties in North and Central America, as well some Sofitel properties.

The "Beyond Limits" offering aims to provide guests with "highly exclusive, immersive" experiences and kicks off this week. The program is expected to run through March of next year. The offerings range from an underwater ballet at the Fairmont Orchid in Hawaii to dinner, drinks and a symphony in a Riviera Maya cavern via the team at the Fairmont Mayakoba in Mexico.

While guests can pay in cash for many of the experiences, an Emmy Awards package (including a two-night stay) at the Sofitel New York is available exclusively to members of the ALL — Accor Live Limitless loyalty program — for 35,000 points for two guests. Members of the loyalty program are also able to book other select Beyond Limits experiences with points, but a company spokesperson told TPG award redemption rates aren't yet finalized.

You can check out other Beyond Limits offerings below:

• Symphony in a Cenote: Head to the Fairmont Mayakoba in November or January of next year and see how the team transformed one of Riviera Maya's famed limestone caves into a candlelit concert hall for dinner, drinks and a live performance. The package costs $250 per person and includes dinner, the symphony, cocktails and champagne.
• Pauoa Bay Underwater Ballet: Guests at Hawaii's Fairmont Orchid will have the opportunity to witness a "daring, mesmerizing" live ballet performance beneath the sea in February of next year. The price to attend is $175 and each performance is limited to seven guests each day.
• The Vertical Stage: Fairmont Century Plaza gives new meaning to stage fright, as the hotel's famed Los Angeles facade is transformed early next year into the world's first 19-story vertical dance floor for a troupe of gravity-defying performance artists. Pricing wasn't provided.
• Fire & Ice: Head to a tiny log cabin at the edge of frozen Lake Louise surrounded for miles by nothing but the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise and a wintry snowscape. Here, a master chef delivers an exclusive, intimate fireside culinary experience inspired by the Japanese cooking style of Robatayaki, for only 10 guests. Pricing wasn't provided for this experience at the hotel in Alberta; it kicks off in January.
• Christmas with Candace: "Full House" star Candace Cameron Bure, a former mainstay of Hallmark Channel Christmas movies and now with the Great American Family network, shares some of her favorite holiday tips at a special holiday tea and photo experience at the San Francisco Fairmont this December. Pricing wasn't provided for this experience.
• Haute O²: Head to the Fairmont Banff Springs in the Canadian Rockies for a pop-up oxygen bar at 7,000 feet. The experience, available exclusively to just eight guests per day, is meant "to refresh the mind, body and soul" from Jan. 11-24, 2023. The cost is $499 Canadian dollars, or about $364, and includes travel via vintage open-top bus from the hotel to the North American Chairlift.
• Enchanted Forest: Vancouver's Fairmont Waterfront's garden terrace has more than just views of the city and harbor. The terrace will be transformed into an "Enchanted Forest" this winter to give visitors a taste of the great outdoors — complete with trees, the smell of cedar and twinkling lights. Guests can expect this terrace-turned-forest to have luxury hotel touches like cocktails and a private orchestra performance — and a "surprise or two" around every tree. Pricing for the Enchanted Forest is $150 Canadian dollars, or about $110. The mysterious fun gets going in early 2023.
• Après Scottsdale: The North Pole meets the Sonoran Desert at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess in Arizona. "Christmas at the Princess" includes a Chateau Champagne with gourmet food, Champagne (obviously), private fire pits, live entertainment and views of a lagoon light display. Entry to the experience, which runs from Nov. 18 through New Year's Day, is limited to parties of two and four. Pricing varies (depending on the day and availability) from $399 to $599 for parties of two or from $799 to $1,199 for parties of four.
• Tea Noir: Head to Seattle's Fairmont Olympic for a "playfully dark" twist on high tea. The $185 per person offering is an evening event with sweet and savory tea-inspired offerings from Chef Eraj Jayawickreme. Let's just say they had us at tea-smoked duck breast, tea mousse with spiced apple cake and cocktails with — what else? — a tea twist. The experience begins this month and runs through March 2023.

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