Holidays with Heart wins Health and Wellbeing business award

The Best Wellbeing Retreat 2024: Health & Wellbeing Award recognises Holidays With Heart’s commitment to providing a sustainable escape for their guests, where they can reconnect with nature and enjoy locally-sourced cuisine in Taroudant.

“We believe that travel should nourish the soul,” said founder and director Jane Bayley.

“Our team works tirelessly to create experiences that rejuvenate, inspire, and connect travellers with nature and local people.”

Jane Bayley, founder and director of HwH & La Maison Anglaise (c) Holidays with Heart (Image: Supplied)

The award is the culmination of a dream nurtured since 1992, when Jane – then a lecturer in Geography and Geology at Trinity St Davids – immersed herself in the ‘captivating’ landscapes of Morocco.

Having ‘fallen in love’ with the culture, people, fresh food, scenery, wildlife and weather, her passion for environmental issues planted the seeds of what was to follow.

Five years later – and with the support of the Moroccan government who recognised the potential for sustainable tourism – Jane took out a second mortgage to purchase a property then used as a guest house for the next 21 years.

“The locals quickly decided its name for us - ‘La Maison Anglaise’, she recalled. “We should have told them it was ‘La Maison Galloise’ (‘The Welsh House’)!”

“We envisioned a place where harmony with nature would be paramount. Our design obviates the need for heating and air conditioning as well as saving much of water, a precious resource in Morocco.

“Thanks to the help of Brian Mark, of St Dogmaels, a sustainable building expert with huge experience, the buildings incorporate innovative methods of water-saving and processing as well as clever methods of keeping the rooms warm in winter and cool in summer.

“From 1992 to 2018, our dream transformed into reality. Today, our ecolodge stands as a testament to resilience, community, and sustainable living.”

The building is a rammed earth construction, the method used to build both Taroudant’s Town Walls and massive aqueducts when it was the capital of Morocco and sugar production an important local industry.

Ten years after the project idea was conceived Jane bought a half-hectare plot by the town walls.

In 2018 she received permission to build a highly-innovative building based on traditional architecture and materials with added sustainable design features.

“Our aim is to make a difference to our guests’ lives as well as making a difference to the lives of people in ‘our’ area including through our charitable work,” she said.

“It earned us the name ‘Holidays with Heart’.”