On agreeing to host Sky News Sunrise I knew I needed to start the job with fully charged batteries.
Breakfast TV is tough with 3am starts and a lot happening on air between 6 and 9am – you can’t miss a trick and my co-host, Eamonn Holmes, is a live wire. With him anything can happen so you need to be on your game.
I only had a few days before I was due to start so I didn’t want to waste too much time travelling and I wanted good weather in October – all signs pointed to Majorca, just over two hours away and sunny well into November.
Pretty as a picture: Sarah-Jane plays art critic with painter Alan Hydes, who lists local resident Andrew Lloyd Webber among his clients
Cycle gear: Sarah-Jane Mee shows off her Team Belmond kit during her 30-mile cycle around the surrounding countryside
With just a few days away you always feel the pressure to get it right not just on destination but with accommodation and activities as well. I find it hard to relax, which is what these few days were all about, so I needed plenty of distractions.
I chose Belmond La Residencia, a boutique spa hotel in the beautiful mountain village of Deia on the north-west coast of the island around 40 minutes from the airport in Palma. The hotel is part of the Belmond group, which operates the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express and Hotel Cipriani in Venice, so I knew that I could expect the best of everything.
What I didn’t expect was just how much awaited me on my short stay – I was there for 48 hours but I felt as if I was there for two weeks.
My first day involved sunbathing, (or, as I like to call it, ‘banking sleep’) and a massage and steam bath at the impressive hotel spa.
Mee said that La Residencia is an art gallery masquerading as a hotel as there are works by Joan Miró and little treasures around every corner
Belmond La Residencia is a boutique spa hotel in the beautiful mountain village of Deia on the north-west coast of the island around 40 minutes from Palma airport
Mee (pictured) hosts Sky News Sunrise alongside Eamonn Holmes
My therapist told me how she once visited as a guest and never left, it was easy to see why.
La Residencia is like a little community. Talking to the manager, Ulisses, I discovered a lot of the staff are into triathlons and cycling – fast-growing activities on the island.
I told him about my exploits cycling the first stage of the Tour de France in Yorkshire last summer and before I knew it I was given my own Team Belmond kit and one of the staff was guiding me on a 30-mile cycle around the surrounding countryside.
We enjoyed stunning views, perfect weather for cyclists and, more importantly, perfect road conditions – no potholes exist in Majorca.
La Residencia is an art gallery masquerading as a hotel: there are works by Joan Miró and little treasures around every corner. In the grounds you can explore bronze sculptures by one of the hotel’s resident artists, Juan Waelder.
The hotel has three other resident artists: the sculptor Waelder, a potter and the painter Alan Hydes, who lists local resident Andrew Lloyd Webber among his clients.
There are two fantastic restaurants to choose from, including the award-winning El Olivio, where they taught me the Majorcan way of consuming prawns... you eat the heads!
I was warned not to try that anywhere else – the prawns here are the very best quality. There’s also Café Miró where there is live music on the terrace and you can enjoy traditional tapas dishes made from local produce.
There was just time for a quick game of tennis with head tennis coach Shayne Tabb who said he would probably need a bit more time to get me ready for Wimbledon next summer – oh well, any excuse to come back. It’s going to be tough when that alarm clock goes off at 3am!
- Sarah-Jane Mee is on Sky News Sunrise every Monday to Thursday.