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The Glow Guide to Winter sun hotspots

We all love a dose of Winter sun. Here’s our hotlist of year round sun destinations packed with vegan and vegetarian cafés to refuel and rejuvenate.

Bali – Winter temperature: 31C

Bali is hot year-round and is cheapest during November – April. This is due to the rainy season, but don’t be put off. Think short, sharp tropical bursts and glistening jungle and waterfalls. It’s ideal for a Winter sun healthy getaway.

The Indonesian island is a plant based heaven with a clutch of Glowcations dotted around the main tourist areas.

Vibe: volcanoes, designer pools, temples and luxe hotels

Our favourites are:

The smoothie bowl heaven Kynd Community in the luxury beach resort of Seminyak. Don’t miss out on the bespoke mango letters and the juices.

If you’re visiting cultural Ubud, head to Moksa specialising in raw, vegan food with it’s own permaculture garden.

If boho Canggu is more your vibe, then Motion is the go to plant based fitness spot. They support local farmers and sustainability and have an extensive range of organic food options including Paleo, Keto, Alkaline, Vegan and low sugar.

 

Dubai – Winter temperature: 26C

This desert city is not only a stopover hub, but at only 7 hours flight time from Europe, an increasingly popular Winter sun destination. Home to the world’s tallest building and the globe’s largest man made island, Dubai likes to break records.  With an 80% ex pat community, the Aussie brunch scene and plant based eating is also booming. The hotels are first class and so are the growing number of plant-based cafés.

Vibe: white sand, skyscrapers, glitz and shopping

With much of the Dubai eating scene based around hotels and malls, brunch power duo, Tom Arnel and Serg Lopez, have created a stable of independent cafés catering for plant based overs.

Our favourites are:

The white tiled original Tom and Serg  in Al Quoz, AKA the brunch destination in town. All food is fresh, free range and wholesome with plenty of vegan and vegetarian options from smashed avo with fried pine nuts to the salted caramel french toast with blueberry poached pear.

The Downtown bakery and café The Sum Of Us with knockout detox juices and açai bowls, chai puddings and breakfast bowls. Savouries include shakshouka and mushroom quesadilla.

Finally, just two blocks form Umm Suqeim beach, is the laid back, flip-flop friendly Surf Cafe. The menu is massive with an inventive vegan section plus sensational salads, açai and poké bowls.

Phuket – Winter temperature: 31C

 

Thailand has literally hundreds of islands to choose from for Winter sun, but for a healthy café fuelled trip you can’t beat the original castaway fantasy of Phuket. Lying on the west coast, (which has the best weather from December to March) it has over 36 beaches from buzzing Patong to the chilled charm of Nai Harn.

Vibe: chic beach shacks, turquoise sea, sunsets and spas

Our favourite Glowcations lie in the south:

In Phuket Town, The Gallery Café has traditional Thai architecture and a beautiful courtyard – perfect for sipping on a matcha latte or their signature design your own juice and all day breakfasts. There are two other branches on Phuket one in Chalong and one in Rawai.

Also in laid back Rawai we love to sink into in the armchairs and sofas of The Origami Café and indulge in delicate Vietnamese rolls followed by a cooling Nana Bowl, a protein packed fruit smoothie bowl.

Finally, there’s Wilson’s ticking the beach shack box. Our go to dish is the Garden salad with added poached egg and avo. They poach eggs to perfection here and they also make a mean turmeric latte.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Sum Of Us, Dubai

With an 80% ex-pat community, the international brunch scene is booming in Dubai. Tom Arnel and Serg Lopez – the brunch power duo behind the must visit Tom and Serg  – have added The Sum Of Us to their cool brand.

The Sum Of Us takes the concept of their more famous café to a new level.  “We thought let’s do a coffee roastery, because we’ve got great people in coffee, let’s do a bakery because we’ve got great people in bakery, so that’s why it’s called The Sum of Us”.

The location

Located around the back of Sheikh Zayed Road’s furthest stretch of hotels, this spot is pretty urban.

It fills a much needed gap in the lack of good brunch and dinner spots in this busy area.

The crowd

When we visited for dinner, it was a mix of locals, international tourists and ex -pats.

The space

The café is large with a spacious eating area spread over two floors, plus some outside seating in the shade.

Think industrial vibes with high ceilings, stripped back bricks, light wood and metal tins with cutlery on the tables.

There’s also a take away and the on site Rise and Dawn bakery (with a window through which you can watch the bakers at work). Plus, a central bar with pastries and fruit and veg infused water on display.  At the entrance is a boutique florist which fits in perfectly with the abundant hanging plants.

The little things that make the difference…

The straws are made from corn and advertise the fact that they are not plastic. They are 100% biodegradable and compostable. The casual vibe and friendly staff.

The fresh juice test

They have a choice of four smoothies and three detox juices. We chose the Forever Cleanse juice – a orange, carrot, turmeric, sweet potato and lemon mix. It was crisp, refreshing and delicious. You couldn’t taste the sweet potato due to the lemon, but it was good to know it was in there.

We also tried a house made rose and peach iced tea which was very pretty and tasted good too.

What we ate

As we visited for dinner, we just missed out on choosing from their breakfast menu which finishes at 5 pm.

It features a fab choice including açai bowls, toasts and chai pudding.

We ordered the Tsou Bowl a combo of cauliflower, sweet potato pickle, black rice, spinach, marinated feta, pumpkin seed, freekah, beetroot hummus and za’atar. It tasted good and was very filling. Plus, we chose the less filling, but tasty Kale and Avocado bowl. It was spiced up with smoked almond, fennel, cherry tomato, feta, black sesame and a yoghurt dressing. There’s also lots of options for meat eaters.

What we’d go back for…

The breakfast menu and vibe.

The bill

Detox juice  AED31
Iced tea  AED27
Tsou bowl  AED54
Kale and avocado bowl  AED62

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Surf Café, Dubai

 

The Surf Café is a rare thing in Dubai. A chilled out haven with great food and a genuinely casual vibe just two blocks from the beach.

Whether suited and booted for the office or still sandy in flip flops from the beach you’ll be welcome.

The location

This café is one of the increasing number of artisan eateries on the bustling Jumeirah Beach Road. It’s handy for Kite Beach, the Wild Wadi Amusement Park and it’s close to the spectacular Burj Al Arab.

The space

The eatery is on the first floor and you can take the stairs or a lift. Although you can’t see the nearby sea, the light, airy design more than compensates. It has chic surf-styled decor, hanging plants and even the odd tree or two.

Two walls are virtually all window and white-washed brick completes the rest of the space.

There are lots of tables and a handful of tables outside, (although I don’t know if it would ever be cool enough to sit at them and it was 40 degrees when we visited). There are a couple of sofas downstairs in a long hallway where you can wait for your friends or a cab. There’s WiFi, and some tables have plug sockets.

The little things that make a difference…

The friendly staff, the speedy service  and the quirky cacti ceramics on the tables. We also liked the cool music track.

The fresh juice test

There’s a choice of five juice mixes.

We went for the Orange Kicker, a perfect combo of carrot, orange and ginger which arrived in its own decanter.

Plus, we ordered  a simple orange juice from the choice of five fresh juices. There’s also a wide smoothie selection including three açai varieties.

 

We we ate

The Surf Café has a massive menu which is displayed on a tablet for ease. It features: an extensive açai bowl (eight plus a make your own option) and sushi menu; and a breakfast selection with GF and vegan pancakes, oats and toasts alongside more traditional fry ups. We visited at lunch and chose from the “lunch and dinner” menu which adds poké bowls, a variety of pan-Asian options, Tacos and salads into the mix.

With menus of this size, quality often suffers, but that’s not the case here.

We chose two salads-  a goats cheese and rocket salad with fresh figs, caramelised walnuts and honey vinaigrette and a quinoa and pesto salad mixed with romaine, yellow peppers, red onions, cherry tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella. Both were delicious, but the goat’s cheese salad was a bit light on the cheese and not as filling as the quinoa salad. So we added a side of sweet potato fries to fill up. They were super crunchy and did the trick.

What we’d go back for…

We’d love to try the breakfasts, especially the açai bowl selection and the smoothie choice was very tempting. And we loved the chilled vibe.

 

The bill

Orange Kicker  28AED
Orange Juice  24AED
Goat’s cheese salad  63AED
Quinoa salad  63AED
Sweet potato fries  21AED