Conde Nast 2014 02 UK PDF

FEBRUARY 2014 3.
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Contents
February 2014
Features
69 The Gold Standard
Our 24-carat pick of the worlds best

hotels, restaurants, bars and beach clubs
94
Morocco Sheikh it up in the

Sahara at an opulent oasis kasbah and
a secret tent among the dunes
102
Paris Join the cool, creative

revolution thats transforming a canal-side
corner of the French capital
112
Byron Bay An insiders

guide to the exclusive Australian outpost
thats a happy hippy haven at heart
122
PHOTOGRAPH: ALICIA TAYLOR
Swiss Alps The stakes are

high as new big-name hotels and revamps
make their mark in Europes top ski spots
Raw Vintage antique shop in Byron Bay

February 2014 Cond Nast Traveller 7
Contents
February 2014
21
In this issue
12 Editors letter
14 Contributors
21 Word of mouth Whats
creating a buzz around the world,
from Alaska to Beirut
36
28 Surf break The secret spot on

the coast of Peru thats a hit with the
wave-chasing crowd
45
42 Out of my comfort zone
45 Where to stay The St Regis New

York; Bed-hopping with Jade Jagger;
The Weekender in Oxfordshire;
Sally Shalams Great British Breaks
54 A letter from Tuscany, where

On the cover
Fregate Island Private
in the Seychelles, the
brand-new addition
to the Oetker
Collection of hotels
which makes this
years Gold Standard
8 Cond Nast Traveller February 2014
A-Z, throw away the road atlas:

let some of our best-loved literary
gures become your guides instead
145 Inside track Fatima Bhutto on

the many faces of Pakistan that never
make it into the news
148 A travellers tales Around the

world with screen star Hugh Jackman
36 Zoned in Abbot Kinney, Los Angeles 153 The experts The African-safari
A clumsy Brit takes on a nifty fouryear-old Brazilian as he tries to master
the graceful moves of capoeira. Plus,
tourist information for Treasure Island
58
134 Britain by the book Ditch the
a Chianti-fuelled lunch is a lesson in

history, love and family values
58 Style le The quirky accessory

designer who makes us smile, stay
warm with chunky knits and more. Plus,
Brazils latest coloured gemstone.
Men: cycling the Pacic Coast
Highway; the best travel kits to pack;
a postcard from San Francisco; and
how to get In the Mood for Love. On
the scene at The Redbury, Miami
guide to call for a bespoke family

adventure. Plus, wild encounters for
children in Australia and France;
gadgets to turn heads; match earthy
cavolo nero to a fruity Puglian red;
this months best new travel titles;
a space-age spa with an Asian twist
in Alicante; your travel questions
answered by our team
168 Competition Win a 6,500

holiday at Atlantis The Palm, Dubai
171 Reader offer Save 35 per cent

on a stay at The Sanchaya on Bintan
Island, Indonesia
188 View with a room Al Tarfa Desert

Sanctuary, Dakhla Oasis, Egypt
PHOTOGRAPHS: ALAMY; EVAN HANSEN; GETTY IMAGES; JESSICA SAMPLE; WIREIMAGE
134
28
Editors letter
he other week i was asked to give a talk to some journalists about getting
started in the business. I am sure I was supposed to be constructive. But all I
remembered about getting started myself was how much I screwed up. The
time my tape recorder didnt work in an interview with Cate Blanchett so
that I didnt get a single quote. The time I was asked to cover AA Gills restaurant
column and I riffed on food poisoning for 1,200 words. The commission I had from the
London Evening Standard to be the rudest hotel reviewer in the world, but which didnt
stand up to much when the law suits started pouring in. Once, as a young journalist on
another magazine, I got sent a dressing gown in the post. It looked cosy. I put it on. And then I fell asleep in
it on my desk in front of the editors ofce.
I remembered how I was once asked by a Sunday supplement to do an interiors piece on the Italian
country residence of Diego Della Valle, the chairman of Tods. I knew nothing about interiors. But that
wasnt the problem. On arrival in Milan I was picked up by Signor Della Valles chauffeur in a very smart
car that was entirely lined in toffee-coloured suede. It was a hot day. I was tired. And so I had a little snooze.
Some time later I woke to see that the pen in my pocket had leaked all over the back seat, covering the
suede in a sea of blue ink. I was mortied. And couldnt think what to do. Eventually, we arrived at the
restaurant where I was to have lunch with Signor Della Valle. The car stopped. I opened the back door.
At which point a huge juggernaut came rail-roading past, removing the entire structure from its hinges.
Everyone the chauffeur, Signor Della Valle, his assistant, the waiters who rushed out of the restaurant
was aghast. And yet not nearly as perplexed as they were moments later when it turned out that the driver
of the juggernaut, who didnt even have the good grace to stop, must have thrown some kind of ink bomb
onto our back seat as he ew past on his trail of peculiar destruction.
I think people liked my talk about journalism because it made them feel better about being a little lost
and confused too. So I was asked to do another talk on the same subject to a different group of people
starting out. I told them about how I used to supplement my pay by being a tequila girl in the evening
at corporate parties; how Id nish a days reporting by slinging a couple of holsters over my shoulders and
slamming some mean shots for a load of air hostesses from British Airways. About how, after Id had my rst
baby, I thought I was a hippy and that Id live the dream, blending food and writing a good novel. But the
novel was peopled by the most depressing characters I have ever had the bad fortune of coming across (my
husband), and making my own houmous had a certain pathos that was impossible to ignore. I didnt like
houmous. Nor did the baby.
Oh, how we all laughed. Oh, how transformative the experience of these talks has been. Its waved a
magic wand over my haphazard past, converting a palpable, low-level sense of missed opportunity into
something of a riot a hoot even.
This is the new issue of Cond Nast Traveller. For people who know, metaphorically or otherwise, that
yesterdays missed ight could easily be tomorrows great adventure.
Melinda Stevens
Editor
@MelindaStevens3
MelindaLP
Truth in Travel is this magazines promise to the reader to be an essential source

of honest, rst-hand opinion and must-have information. You can trust Cond Nast Traveller
to give you the unbiased inside track, with integrity and attitude.
All information and travel details are correct at the time of going to press and may no longer be so on the date of publication.
Unless otherwise stated, hotel prices are low-season rates and restaurant prices are for a three-course meal for two without drinks
Contributors
Inspired by this months Britain by the

book, we asked contributors to tell us about
their favourite place with a literary link
Anna Blundy Writer, A letter from (p54)

St Petersburg. I studied Russian at Oxford, and wandering the
Kate Maxwell Writer, Paris (p102)

Ivuivu, a ctitious Micronesian island thats the subject of my
friend Hanya Yanagiharas new book, The People in the Trees. Its a
jungly place full of weird ora and fauna that holds a terrible secret
Kate, former Europe editor of US Cond Nast Traveler, is one of our
contributing editors and editorial director of the Soho House Group
streets where the heroes of Pushkin, Gogol and Dostoevsky went

mad is terrifying and wonderful in equal measure. These days the
city is cashing in on it; you can eat at Dostoevsky Coffee House.
Novelist and trainee psychotherapist Anna is a former Moscow
correspondent for The Times. She lives in London and Italy
Pari Dukovic Photographer, Paris (p102)

Hemingways Paris, as described in A Moveable Feast, is
a rich source of inspiration. Walking through its streets, the
city invites me to take the next step in my creative journey.
Of Greek origin, and born and raised in Istanbul, Pari
is the staff photographer for The New Yorker
Danielle Pergament Writer, Surf break (p28)

Im partial to The Tomten by Astrid Lindgren and the bucolic
Swedish countryside. I spent summers in Smland. There was a
sense of magic there; it was a total fairytale. The legend of tomten,
tiny creatures that lived in the forest, somehow made sense.
Freelance writer Danielle is based in Brooklyn with her family
Last year I got to see Gore Vidals villa, La Rondinaia in

Ravello, where he entertained Tennessee Williams, William
Styron and Italo Calvino. Its position, clinging to the cliffface, said everything about Vidals love of living dangerously.
An accomplished skier, London-based Julian writes about
adventure and travel for the Financial Times
Alicia Taylor Photographer, Byron Bay (p112)

Doris Pilkington Garimara and Tim Winton capture the
essence of the Australian landscape beautifully. Their writing
reminds me of ancient places, of swimming at the Dalhousie
Springs, camping and waking up to the sounds of the bush.
Alicia grew up with a love of maps and cameras. She now
divides her time between Melbourne, Byron Bay and London
ILLUSTRATION: PHILIP BANNISTER PHOTOGRAPHS: HUGH DICKENS PHOTOGRAPHY;

PARI DUKOVIC; JASON FLORIO; JOHN HUBA; ALICIA TAYLOR
Julian Allason Writer, Swiss Alps (p122)
BEYOND
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It isnt just imaginations
that are exquisitely well fed.
A childrens dining program,

for your hungry sandcastle builders,
one of the many reasons why.
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Word of mouth
Whats hot in Detroit Paris Beirut Dorset Alaska Norway
PHOTOGRAPH: GARETH MCCONNELL/EYEVINE
EDITED BY FIONA KERR
BE MY
GUEST
Check into Wes Andersons latest crazy on-screen creation: a nutty hotel with a ve-star cast
or someone whose fear of ying meant he
used to travel from the USA to Europe by
boat, Wes Anderson isnt afraid to crisscross
the globe in his lms. His past tales take in
young love in New England (Moonrise
Kingdom), family drama in New York (The
Royal Tenenbaums), and a train trip across
India (The Darjeeling Limited). This month, the
directors whimsical eye alights on the ctional
Republic of Zubrowka in Europe between the
wars, home to a grand hotel and its legendary

concierge, Gustave H (played by Ralph
Fiennes). We looked all over for our ideal
hotel, says the producer Jeremy Dawson. We
wanted it to be a mountain spa resort like
Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic. Eventually,
in Grlitz, a Saxon town in Germany, we found
a run-down department store that was the
beginnings of what we were looking for. To
create the lavish interiors, Anderson and his
team toured some very smart spots. We

wanted the lobby to be a whole world,
with a barbershop, a bar a pastiche of all
the hotels we saw, says Dawson. The result?
A lm worth lingering over, a charmingly
silly story starring Jude Law and Bill Murray,
which hurtles through mountains, murder,
art theft, a prison break and love.
The Grand Budapest Hotel opens the Berlin
Film Festival on 6 February and is out on 7 March
CHILL SEEKERS
Just because its cold outside doesnt
mean you cant make a splash
ANATOMY OF A
CARNIVAL BODY
Shaping up for Rios annual party is a serious business. Brazilians
spend 11 times more money on beauty than the average Brit.
Heres how to look like a local. now go and practise your samba
BUM Bum-bum, bunda, a melancia
(the watermelon): its Brazils most
obsessed-over body part. The country
invented the butt lift, but top surgeon
Carlos Gomes de Almeida says that
injecting excess fat is out: Its about
enhancing what exists, the desire is
for rounder and more pert. Get
down to the gym.
HAIR Move over Brazilian

straightening, cariocas now swear by
cauterizao, a facelift for hair that
restores elasticity by sealing in
hydrating nutrients at the root. Make
sure you score an appointment with
stylist/socialite Dudu Castro e Silva.
www.crystalhair.com.br; about 50
TAN With Amazonian fruits such as
carambola and aa, Brazils coolest
suncare brand Sol de Janeiro smells
sweet. Layer up with top-seller Posto
Tan Brazil Nut Sun Protection Spray.
Available in the UK from www.
frescobolcarioca.com
FULL BODY Former carnival queen

Carla Campos trains everybody
from pro Sambdromo performers
to rhythm-less travellers in her

Samba Fit studio in Ipanema. In
the run-up to Carnival, her girls rep
100 squats morning and night
with weights of up to 10kg.
www.sambatcarlacampos.com.br
SKIN In a country where

dermatologists outnumber dentists,
dont skimp on the skincare. Stockpile
Casa Uxuas rejuvenating face cream
made from almescar tree sap, an
ultra-healing Patax Indian ingredient.
www.uxua.com; about 50
THIGHS Brazilians secret to
smoothness? Lymphatic drainage
massage combined with Heccus,
a machine that breaks down fat
cells using high-current ultrasound.
Try it at PrCorpo Esttica.
www.procorpoestetica.com.br
FEET Sambaed-out and tired of
Caipirinhas, head for the hills and
recover in the salt otation tank at
Botanique the countrys rst
100-per-cent Brazilian spa hotel.
www.botanique.com.br
LAUREN HOLMES
SNORKEL IN
ANTARCTICA
This month, for
the very rst time,
you can mask up
in Antarctica
and snorkel around
icebergs in
below freezing
waters with
penguins, seals
and colourful sea
stars for company.
A 10-day cruise, y
and sail trip costs
from 4,495 per
person; polar
snorkelling costs
600 (www.aurora
expeditions.co.uk)
DIVE IN NORWAY
SURF IN ALASKA
Feeling brave?
Now is the best
time to free-dive
with orca whales
(they dont like the
bubbles of oxygen
tanks), which
appear in pods of
up to 60 between
Sandnessjen
and Rrvik in
northern Norway,
attracted by the
huge schools of
herring that migrate
there in winter.
A three-day trip
aboard M/S Sula
costs from 1,700
per person, including
ights (www.
originaldiving.com)
It brings out a
pioneering spirit,
says photographer
Scott Dickerson
who has been
championing
surng in the USAs
northernmost state
for 15 years. With
most spots only
accessible by boat
or helicopter, we
ride waves that
have never been
surfed before.
A ve-day surf trip
aboard M/V Milo
costs from about
1,200 per person
(www.oceanswell
ventures.com)
the trends taking

off and those
runningoutoffuel
RWANDA
Big names including Aman Resorts are talking hotel
openings here, meaning all eyes are on this once
war-torn nation for much more than just its gorillas
ASIAN SKIING
The Winter Olympics swoosh over to South Koreas
Pyeongchang in 2018, Chinas ski industry is booming
and even North Korea is building its rst resort
LONDONS HOTEL SCENE

The launches keep coming: the Mondrian, The
Mercer (the name is still hush-hush), the new Firmdale
Ham Yard, and Corbin and Kings Beaumont Hotel2w
HOT DOGS AND BURGERS

Back away from the chilli-dog: the hipster fast food
is now pizza. Polpos Russell Norman is moving into
dough at his new joint and check out the Neopolitan
stylings of the Pizza Pilgrims boys
PAYING YOUR WAY

New crowd-funding travel site Trevolta (www.trevolta.
com) enables travellers to submit their ideas for
expeditions to raise funds from sponsors. So not
a trip to your summer villa in Ibiza then
PEACE ON PLANES
With even British Airways trialling onboard Wi-Fi,
the end of the 30,000ft switch-off is nigh.
BlackBerrys at the ready
PHOTOGRAPH: KAREN HINCHLIFFE
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Word of mouth
Its economy may have backred, but a new creative scene is forging Detroits future, says local Meghan McEwan
nce famed for motors and

Motown, Detroit has more
recently gained a reputation for
bankruptcy and urban decay. But look
beyond the empty buildings and there
is an alternate Detroit appearing one
buoyed by the creative energy of an artand culture-fuelled renaissance. And in
its wake, inventive restaurateurs are

emerging to feed the hungry crowds
who are coming back to the city.
One neighbourhood thats booming
is Corktown, a previously neardeserted stretch of Michigan Avenue in
the shadow of the abandoned Michigan
Central Station. Now its bustling with
the likes of craft-beer specialist Slows
Bar B Q, coffee shop Astro, and new
Italian restaurant Ottava Via. Other
newcomers include Two James (www.
twojames.com), the rst distillery to
open in Detroit since before Prohibition,
which sells a range of handcrafted
vodka, gin, bourbon and whiskey. Order
the bourbon-based Corktown Flip at
its industrial-style bar. Gold Cash Gold,
a restaurant opening this summer in a
former pawn shop, shows how far the
area is transforming.
New ventures are popping up across
town, too. On the border of Eastern
turtle soup with sherry and crme

frache. Later this year, look out for
Craftwork restaurant in West Village,
and Midtowns Standard on Selden.
Detroits favourite mixologist Dave
Kwiatkowski, who brought the craft
cocktail hotspot Sugar House to
Corktown two years ago, will also open
Wright Company, a booze-focused
downtown gastro-bistro.
And while the citys chefs are
looking for permanent homes, they
are experimenting with pop-up diners.
Track down Righteous Rojo (www.
righteousrojo.com) and Guns & Butter
(www.gbdetroit.com) for creative
meals starring local ingredients. Youll
nd them in spaces including the
design incubator Ponyride in Corktown
and the new Midtown Shinola agship
store, home of
American-made
bicycles, watches and
leather kit.
Artists Megan
OConnell and Leon
Johnson, who dish up
home-cooked meals and monthly
Book & Bread workshops in their print
shop, Salt & Cedar (www.saltand
cedar.com), sum it up best. We
grew not from a business model, but
from curiosity and need, says Johnson.
Where else can guests share a familystyle dinner guinea-fowl pot pie
and squash ravioli were on the menu
recently while learning to bind a
hand-sewn, soft-cover journal? This is
a Detroit moment, he says. Its all
about extending the family table.
Top, from far left:

soup and wine at
Righteous Rojo;
coffee at Astro,
and the specials
blackboard; Sugar
House, and a
cocktail. Below, from
left: Salt & Cedar;
Michigan Avenue,
with Gold Cash Gold
on far right. Centre,
the bar and a dish
PHOTOGRAPHS: ALAMY; EVAN HANSEN; JAMIE KOWALSKI;

AL RODRIGUEZ; DAVID SCHALLIOL; SBONNIE TSANG
Market, the oldest outdoor farmers

market in the USA, Joel Peterson
and Rebecca Mazzei have recently
added a caf to Trinosophes (www.
trinosophes.com), their art and music
venue that opened last spring, serving
warm doughnuts, Vietnamese-inspired
lunches and weekend brunch prepared
by guest chefs. We apply the same
ethos to the food as we do to the
music and art we let
whoever do whatever,
says Mazzei.
A few doors down,
artist Greg Holm is
putting the nishing
touches on his renovated
Art Deco space, soon to
house a French-inspired
restaurant, Frontera (www.
frontera1428.com). The
menu is full of reimagined
traditional dishes such as
Word of mouth
Among the young baristas ridding Paris of its bad-coffee rep, Thomas Lehoux
is a bit of a star. He trained at Cafothque, one of the rst places in Paris to
roast and grind its own beans, and until recently manned the Marzocco gear at Ten
Belles. Now hes co-founded his own roastery in the edgy 19th. If you go to the usual
corner cafs, its still hard to nd good coffee, he says. But because of the French
relationship with wine and gastronomy, the great thing is as soon as Parisians understand
that what were doing is special, theyre in. The roastery supplies beans from Guatemala
and Honduras to cafs across Paris, including new cocktails-and-coffee bar Lockwood
(run by Thomas brothers, Olivier and Christophe). And every Saturday, Lehoux and
his Giesen roaster are open to the public for tastings and some of the best cups of
coffee in Paris. Brlerie Belleville (www.cafesbelleville.com)
SOPHIE DENING
Pictured: Thomas Lehoux, on right, and his brothers Olivier and Christophe
Paris coffee tips

Dont know your single origin from
your crema? Mon dieu! (Thats
beans from one farm and the foam
on your espresso, FYI). Read on...
note fruity, hoppy and, yes,
winey notes
ask for a decaff or soya milk
slag off Italian espresso. Old
rivalries die hard
expect to get a decent coffee
before 8am. Where do you think
you are, Melbourne?
ask for your espresso bien serr
(strong) and add an Anglo snack
such as a teacake or sausage roll.
looked shocked if youre invited
to do some cupping (analysing the
aromas by sniffing and slurping)
look interested in extraction
times (how long it takes your espresso
to pour), ratio (amount of liquid out
divided by amount of coffee going in)
and reverse osmosis (a science-y
way to purify the water used) SD
Do
Dont
Do
Dont
Do
Dont
Do
Groucho
grows up
former retirement
home on the Dorset
coast isnt the most obvious
setting for the rst hotel
from Groucho Club alumni,
but when The Seaside
Boarding House opens
this summer in Burton
Bradstock, it will be more
cocktails than cocoa before
bedtime. The vision of
Mary-Lou Sturridge (the
Grouchos former managing
director) and Anthony
Mackintosh (the clubs
co-founder), the sevenroom clifftop clubhouse will
consist of a local, seasonal
restaurant, a snug library
and, of course, a bar and

dance oor. We searched
around the country for three
years to nd this spot, says
Sturridge. We want to bring
back the seaside hotel. The
vibe is Edwardian beach
house meets an Edward
Hopper painting. But will
there be late-night singsongs around the piano?
Although it is open to all,
we will be thinking of the
Groucho crowd, says
Sturridge. So yes, you will
always be able to get a drink
at 2am. JEMIMA SISSONS
www.theseasideboarding
house.com
Arabian
BITES
What do vampires listen to on holiday?

In shock-haired indie director Jim
Jarmuschs latest lm,ONLY LOVERS
LEFT ALIVE, deadpan bloodsuckers
Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton it
(by plane) to the bohemian interzone
of Tangier where they encounter the
spectral music of YASMINE HAMDAN.
A doyenne of Beiruts underground
electronic scene, Hamdan now
reinvents vintage Arabian songs, fusing
folk with electropop with a solo
album,Ya Nass, and an appearance on
Later with Jools Holland under her belt.
YASMINES BEIRUT HIGHLIGHTS
TO EAT A friend, Kamal Mouzawak,
set up Tawlet with a Make food not
war concept; women from villages
around the country bring regional
dishes to serve. www.soukeltayeb.com
TO DRINKMost rooftop bars here
have big bouncers and even bigger
queues; but not the Coop dEtat, in
Gemmayz, which is quite charming.
www.facebook.com/CoopBeirut
FOR AN ART FIXBeirut Art Center,
in a factory whitewashed from tip to
toe, has changed the way people look
at art here its introduced the sort of
edgy, contemporary work you never saw
in Beirut before. www.beirutartcenter.org
FOR VAMPIRESThe Luna Park. Its
like an Arabic-Brooklyn amusement
park on the Corniche, built in the
1970s and a real ghost town. I nd it
very exotic.
RICK JORDAN
Only Lovers Left Alive is released in the
UK this month.www.yasminehamdan.com
PHOTOGRAPH: NADIM ASFAR
Something brewing
PHOTOGRAPH: GETTY IMAGES
Surf break
THE WAY WE ROLL

When it comes to discovering the next big beach scene, always follow the surfers. Now the golden Pacic
coast of Peru is in their sights and therefore ours. By Danielle Pergament. Photographs by John Huba
he first thing you need

to know about Mncora
is that youre saying it
wrong. Its not Mncora.
Its man-cora. In fact, just commit
to the rst syllable and forget the
other two. Think of it as a homage
to a town predicated on the idea
of dropping out early and doing
whatever suits you.
Im here with my friend Lisa
to explore the just-explored-enough.
The hope and promise is that
Mncora will be Sayulita 20 years
ago. Or Malibu 50 years ago. Or
Oahu a million years ago. That is to
say, a surf spot undiscovered enough
to feel fresh and exciting, but still
able to provide turndown service.
Just over 500 miles north of Lima
and a stones throw south of Ecuador,
Paddle-boarding at
Lobitos, along the
coast from Mncora.
Opposite, pick your
board of choice
Mncora is a spit of a town that

is propped up by three things:
surng, good weather, and whatever
visitors it can get. On the drive
in, we notice the sameness it bears
to every other place in the world
built on the same three-legged stool.
The same skinny stray dogs; the
same corrugated-tin-roof shops
selling beer and laundry detergent;
the same kids with colourful plastic
beads in their hair; the same at
beaches, rolling waves, and milehigh palm trees. We feel as if weve
been here before. Isnt this that
place in Mexico with the big-wave
competition or the village in Jamaica
with the rustic motel and drug lords?
But we keep on driving, right
through town to a sandy road that
dips down towards the water. Up
ahead, something improbable

appears. Half a dozen structures
made from great expanses of glass
and stone that look like expensive,
exclusive spas strung out along
the coastline. We get out of our
Jeep, walk through the fortied
entrance, and there it is: a discreet
world of innity pools and daybeds
and endless views of a beach
seemingly half a mile wide. Its
a miniature, tropical Ian SchragerLand. Thats when we realised it
really isnt the same after all.
We check into the Mncora
Marina Hotel, go straight to the bar
and order two frozen Margaritas
and the delicious, ubiquitous local
bar snack: crunchy plantain chips.
The sky is uncharacteristically grey
and foreboding and Lisa and I
Surf break
have the place all to ourselves.

I ask Mariela, the sweet, roundfaced assistant manager of the
hotel, what its like during the high
season. Between 29 December
and 1 May, there isnt a room
available for miles, she says. The
travellers come from all over: Chile,
Argentina, Peru. What about
Brits? Not many. And Americans?
At this, she actually laughs.
Before one Margarita can
become three, Lisa and I head into
town. Town is basically a one-trick
hipsters some locals and looked

over the menu. Then over comes
Carlos, our tall, smiley waiter, who
looks as though he was about to
share an inside joke. Our specialty
is tuna, he says. Then he starts
laughing. Maybe this is the inside
joke? But everything is great.
Smile, nod, goofy giggle. He either
just smoked something or is the
worlds happiest server. (Over the
course of several meals I would
learn it is the latter.) Say Carlos,
who owns this place? I almost
Its gone from speck of a town with

waves to speck of a town with
waves and Cordon Bleu-trained chefs
pony. And the trick is La Sirena.
Theres the restaurant La Sirena
and the caf La Sirena, and despite
a dozen other bars and cafs and
restaurants on the same strip,
once we step inside La Sirena (the
restaurant) rickety chairs, low
lighting, tinny island music, the
smell of olive oil and fresh herbs
I am already planning to come
back for pretty much every meal.
We sit in the corner, watch the
tables ll up with bronze-skinned
have to shout over the din of the

crowd. Carlos gives me his smile/
giggle/head bob. Juan is the true
Mormon. Um Juan is a
Peruvian Mormon? There are
Peruvian Mormons? And hes the
true one? Who are the false ones?
The true Mormon? I ask, nonplussed and maybe a little freaked
out. Whos Mormon? Carlos says.
Juan, I say. Hmm. I didnt know
that. Carlos now looks at me as
if Id smoked something. He says it
Clockwise from
left: the pool at
the Arennas hotel;
horse-riding on
the hotels beach;
the minimalist
DCO hotel; surf
instructor Alan
Valdiviezo at
El Point
again, more slowly this time: Juan

is the new owner.
As it turns out, Juan Seminario
is the owner, but hes not new
(that Carlos!): he opened La Sirena
eight years ago after studying at
Le Cordon Bleu in Lima. Mncora
is a weird place, says Seminario
when we meet the next day. People
come here and theyre not so
impressed at rst. But after two or
three days, everything changes, and
they love it. Its magical. They feel
this energy and meet the people
and try the food. And of course,
theres the surng.
Surng is to Mncora what wine
is to Montalcino. Its the reason to
come. Its also the reason this place
has transformed in the last few years
from speck of a town with waves
to speck of a town with waves and
Cordon Bleu-trained chefs and hotels
with Egyptian cotton sheets and
waterfall showers. Its easy to see
why: the coastline is blessed with
gentle, consistent, year-round swell.
A few days in (two? three?
predictably, they blend), the sun is
out, the heat moves in, and Mncora
is starting to feel very zero latitude.
All over, there are the details that
remind you that youre in South
America: fresh ceviche, scrawny

horses, motorised rickshaws. But
down at the beach, surf culture
is surf culture. The centre of all
the action is El Point, a surfschool palapa where the cool kids
hang out. Twentysomethings with
brown skin, six-pack abs and
mirrored sunglasses lean against the
counter and do things like ash
the universal hang 10 sign without
looking ridiculous. They inhabit
a pre-melanoma, pre-crows feet,
very 1984-looking world.
El Point is run by Alan Valdiviezo
and his girlfriend, Evelyn Manzon.
Ive been surng in Mncora
all my life, Valdiviezo tells me as
I stand up a little straighter and
try to suck in my stomach. Behind
him, two surfers are waxing their
boards. Weve seen it get more
popular but Mncora keeps its
character. Hes right. A few Schragerlites cant transform the fundamental
nature of the place its still just a
lazy equatorial town populated by
people who surf a double overhead,
even if some of them are tourists.
A few feet away, two young women
walk down to the water in thong
bikinis. The surfers scoff. Alan
pfffts. Argentineans.
You can stop your exploring at

Mncora, or you can make it a
jumping-off point for a string of
laidback Peruvian surf towns. A
little further south is Los Organos,
known for its point breaks and
bigger waves, and about an hour
south of that is Lobitos, the badass
big brother of Mncora. Lobitos
is where you go when youre a
stand-up paddle boarder, a more
intense surfer, or both. Its a place
you come to strictly for the waves.
(Put another way, the beach is
gorgeous but the oil renery and
oilrigs can spoil the view.)
The surng in this whole area
is as good as anywhere and maybe
better because its not as crowded.
This is Cristbal de Col, the dark,
handsome, 20-year-old surng star
of Peru whose talents are splashed
across billboards all over the country.
Cristobal was world champion of
the 14-and-under division in 2006,
has won virtually every title Peru
can bestow on a surfer, and in 2012
made the Guinness Book of World
Records for most carves in a single
wave (34).
We are standing by the re pit in
the front yard of his house in
Los Organos, high up above the
Surf break
where Hemingway wrote Old

Man and the Sea. According to
something closer to fact, this is
where Old Man and the Sea was
lmed. Either way, at some
point the writer passed through
the small shing village of Cabo
Blanco, 15 minutes drive from
Mncora. The sh is as fresh as
can be, the beers are icy, and
the view is spectacular. Avenida
Principal A10, Cabo Blanco (+51
73 256 121)
A junior villa at
Arennas; right,
mototaxis outside
La Sirena caf
WHERE TO DRINK
roiling Pacic. De Col lives

here with his mother Marcel and
sister Nadia, a former professional
surfer I love surng but I hated
my face on marketing materials
and a rotating crew of friends and
relatives. If I told you to picture a
family of Peruvian surng gods these
are exactly the faces that would
come to mind, with big white smiles
and sandy, crunchy, sun-streaked hair.
The echoes of Bob Marley singing
Stir It Up seems to emanate from
them wherever they go.
Surng has been a part of our
culture since the Incas, de Col tells
me. There are waves all year, point
breaks, warm water, and no danger
because the sharks dont come to
the shore. Ive surfed everywhere
and there isnt a place in the world
as special as here.
The next morning, I wake up
before 6am, grab a cup of coffee,
and walk down to the beach. The
only other creatures awake are a
squadron of pelicans zooming inches
above the glassy surface of the
Pacic on the hunt for breakfast.
The day breaks perfectly, cloudless
and balmy. This is Mncoras magic
hour. Out to sea, I see a dark shadow
slowly break the pristine water.
Then its gone. Then another. Then,
at once, three humpback whales
breach the surface and a moment
later, without a noise, they disappear
into their own secret world, a quiet
world of warm water just off the
shore of this very special place.
La Sirena caf A few doors

down from La Sirena restaurant,
the caf is the casual, live music
iteration of Juan Seminarios
empire. Order a few chilled
Cusquea beers, then kick back
and enjoy the show usually a
couple of local guys who sound
an awful lot like Buena Vista
Social Club. Avenida Piura 336
(+51 73 258145)
Bed and boards

WHERE TO STAY
Hotel DCO This is the most
charming and boutique-y hotel
and somehow still retains the
character of the area. All seven
rooms face the ocean and the
master suite is especially slick,
with chill-out chairs on the balcony
and an enormous bathtub. The
hotel also has a plunge pool, a
spa and a bar that wouldnt look
out of place in Miami. +51 1
944 033780; www.hoteldco.
com. Doubles from about 165
Arennas de Mancora This is
the place to stay if you want
manicured lawns, palm trees
and a whole lot of service. Staff
are exceptionally eager to help.
The food may be a bit overthought (sauces and swirls and
vertical creations) but once you
nap away an afternoon on the
beach daybeds or spend an
evening in the hot tub, you wont
give a g. +51 74 225527;
www.arennasmancora.com.
Doubles from about 80
Mancora Marina Hotel
Going to bed in one of the
dozen rooms here is rather like
sleeping in a giant white Lego
house: the hotel is cube shaped,
has lots of right angles, and is
completely open in front giving
the impression that you could
snap it right on to another hotel
of the same shape. The whiteon-white rooms all offer stellar
views of the Pacic but the

pool and bar are the highlights.
+51 73 258614; www.
mancoramarina.com. Doubles
from about 110
WHERE TO EAT
Naylamp Restaurante
Youll get lost trying to nd the
Naylamp, down a sandy road
with no sign. This is part of its
charm, and dont give up: the
pizzas are absolutely worth it.
Santiago Solari, the chef and
owner, looks more like a surfer
than a Cordon Bleu-trained
chef. Actually hes both. Bring a
sweater (there are no walls)
and order whatever pizza hes
serving. Antigua Panamericana
Norte S/N, Los Organos (+51 1
998 107598)
La Sirena dJuan The hottest
spot in town. The space is
intimate and the staff are as
attractive as they are friendly.
Juan Seminario trained in Lima
before opening the restaurant
when he was 26. But dont be
fooled by his youth or propensity
to giggle. The food is fantastic.
You could eat every meal here
every day and not get tired of
the crisp vegetable salads, the
seafood pad thai or fresh tuna
ceviche. Avenida Piura 316
(+51 73 258173)
Restaurant Cabo Blanco
According to legend, this is
Atelier Resto Vino Bar

Atelier is like a miniature
Peruvian Williamsburg, with
eclectic furnishings, bartenders
with really long dreadlocks and
thumping reggae music. The
Margaritas are great and when
the rest of the town turns into
an outdoor disco around
midnight, this place still retains
its cool. Avenida Piura 360;
www.ateliervinobar.com
LEARN TO SURF
Alan Valdiviezo may look like
hes from a central casting of
bronzed surfers but hes also a
great teacher (+51 994 069
192; email alansurf85@hotmail.
com). Carlos Mogollons English
is shaky but he knows the waves
and a lesson is worth it just to
see him strut down the beach
like he owns it (+51 96 85 021
59; e-mail carlos_99_09@
hotmail.com). Maria del Pilar
Yrigoyen Arciniega, known
simply as Pilar, is the only female
surf instructor and maybe
the most respected. Email
pilarinmancora@yahoo.es.
GETTING THERE
Original Travel (+44 20 3582
4990; www.originaltravel.co.uk)
offers a seven-night trip to Peru,
with two nights in Lima at the
Hotel B and ve nights in
Mncora at Arennas de Mancora,
from 1,860 per person,
including ights and transfers
Zoned in Abbot Kinney,

The once edgy block may have gone more mainstream but its boho boutiques and
WORDS KIRSTY HATHAWAY PHOTOGRAPHS JESSICA SAMPLE
Clockwise from above: locals eat takeaway pizza from Gjelina; tuna tacos at Hotel Erwin; shopfronts on
Abbot Kinney Boulevard; a dish of octopus, morcilla and chickpeas from Superba Snack Bar; customers
near Intelligentsia Coffee; Superba Snack Bar at nightfall; the restaurants interior; Heist boutique
Los Angeles
sizzling foodie haunts mean its still a hot little hub for creative young things in California
EAT
Theres an urban New
York feel to the wood-clad
walls and vintage iron
chairs at local favourite
Gjelina. The pizzas
(smoked mozzarella, cont
tomato, jalapeo, rocket,
lemon and bottarga) are
some of the best in the
city, but be warned: no
substitutions can be made,
whether youre an A-lister
or not. 1429 Abbot Kinney
Boulevard (+1 310 450
1429; www.gjelina.com).
About 40 for two
Q If you want to mix it up a
bit, then the unusual menu
at The Tasting Kitchen,
overseen by much-feted
chef Casey Lane, is topnotch. The wine bar/
restaurant menu includes
dishes such as guinea fowl
with limoncello-blackpepper jam and duck
cont scramble with
sauted spinach. The
interior is just as enticing;
polished-concrete oors
wrap around 90-year-old
olive trees, wooden beams
hang overhead and tables
are fashioned out of old
butchers blocks. 1633
Abbot Kinney Boulevard
(+1 310 392 6644; www.
thetastingkitchen.com).
About 70 for two
Q Part vintage apothecary
and part modern industrial
warehouse, Local 1205
has all the foodie bases
covered. The deli counter
of this shop and caf sells

meats cured in house;
the seafood bar serves
oysters, clams and wild
Gulf shrimp. There is
also a wood-red pizza
oven, a spit roast and a
sandwich menu as long
as your arm. And lets
not forget a Californian
essential: fresh, cold,
pressed juices poured
into jam jars. 1205 Abbot
Kinney Boulevard (+1 310
396 6663; www.local1205.
com). About 25 for two
Q You wont nd tofu and
beans on the menu at
Caf Gratitude, a veggie
restaurant designed for
non-vegetarians. It attracts
a clean-living crowd with
upliftingly named dishes:
Transformed is a plate
of vegetable tacos with
guacamole, black beans,
salsa and cashew nacho
cheese; wash it down with
an Energized smoothie of
kale, cucumber, celery,
lemon, coriander, avocado
and jalapeo. Youll leave
feeling rightly virtuous.
512 Rose Avenue (+1 424
231 8000; www.cafe
gratitudevenice.com).
About 20 for two
QFor an authentic slice
of laid-back southern
California, head to
Superba Snack Bar,
with outdoor tables on
the street-side courtyard
and a super-fresh menu.
It serves charcuterie,
small dishes such as fried

duck egg with patatas
bravas, truffle vinaigrette
and tuna prosciutto, and
the not-to-be-missed
homemade pasta.
533 Rose Avenue (+1
310 399 6400; www.
superbasnackbar.com)
DRINK
A drinking den housed
in a shack, Venice Beach
Wines glows with candles
after sunset when patrons
sit on wooden stools to
sip international wines,
including a Sancerre
Domaine des Charmilles
Sauvignon Blanc, from the
painstakingly compiled
drink list. 529 Rose Avenue
(+1 310 606 2529; www.
venicebeachwines.com)
QYoull have to queue
to work out why LA
creatives love the brews
at Intelligentsia Coffee
so much. While the at
white may not have
arrived yet, its still a great
spot both industrial
and airy for a meeting,
especially outside on
the benches under a
living wall. 1331 Abbot
Kinney Boulevard (+1
310 399 1233; www.
intelligentsiacoffee.com)
SLEEP
Abbot Kinney isnt awash
with places to stay, so
even though the 119
rooms at the beachside
Hotel Erwin are simple,
ON THE FIRST FRIDAY OF EVERY MONTH

SHOPS, ART GALLERIES AND RESTAURANTS
IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD EXTEND THEIR
OPENING HOURS TO HOST THE WEST-COAST TAKE ON
FIRST FRIDAYS. THE STREETS BUZZ WITH ANGELENOS
WANDERING ABOUT AND TUCKING INTO GOURMET
GRUB FROM THE CITYS TOP FOOD TRUCKS.
Dont
miss
Zoned in Abbot Kinney, Los Angeles

its still the areas best

boutique choice. Regulars
love its vibrant rooftop
bar the only one on
the beach serving up
Lifeguards Lemonade
(organic cucumber vodka,
fresh lemonade and a
splash of pomegranate
juice) and hard-to-beat
sunsets. 1697 Pacic
Avenue (+1 800 786 7789;
www.hotelerwin.com).
Q If you want to do it
yourself, the cool selfcatering apartments
at Venice Breeze Suites
have great views over
Venice Beach. Each of
the one-bedroom suites
and studios has breezy
blue tiles, exposed brick
walls and smart chrome
kitchens. 2 Breeze Avenue
(+1 310 566 2222; www.
venicebreezesuites.com).
SHOP
Stepping into BAZAR is
like entering a treasure
trove of knick-knacks,
jewellery, antique furniture
and vintage clothing.
Owner Tina Wakino
travels the world to ensure
she has unique pieces
and can tell you a story
about each one. 1108C
(+1 310 314 2101)
Q A wonderfully airy
space on the corner of
Abbot Kinney and
Westminster, Heist stocks
a gorgeous mix of LA
designers and international
labels including Isabel
Marant and MM6.
1100 Abbot Kinney
6531; www.shopheist.com)
QSet up by a former
art director and fashion
photographer, Surng
Cowboys is where
designers ock for
inspiration, shopping
for everything from
old-school homeware
and retro surfboards to
a smattering of beachy
clothing. 12553 Venice
6611; www.surng
cowboys.com)
SEE
Supporting the areas
vast range of cuttingedge, artistic talent,
CAVE (Center for Audio
& Visual Expression)
presents a new exhibition
each month. Recent
shows here have included
the colourful work of
DevNgosha, a local
duo known for their
boundary-pushing murals
and ne art. 1108 Abbot
Kinney Boulevard (+1
310 450 6960; www.
cavegallery.net)
QFounded by Alexandra
Balahoutis in 2000,
fragrance shop Strange
Invisible Perfumes is a
compelling little space,
named after a line from
Antony and Cleopatra.
It has beautiful displays
and sells old-fashioned,
hydro-distilled scents
for men and women
that are hand-blended,
designed and bottled right
here in Venice. 1138
(+1 310 314 1505;
www.siperfumes.com)
DO
Head to Venice Beach.
Rent bikes, rollerblades
(or skates), beach chairs
and umbrellas, and
afterwards settle in for
some people-watching at
Perrys Caf (www.perrys
cafe.com). Alternatively,
book a surf lesson with
Peter Paris (www.gosurf
la.com): soon youll be
riding those ocean waves
like the best of the
Abbot Kinney hipsters.
Clockwise from left: the minimal interior of Gjelina on Abbot Kinney Boulevard;
a waiter at the restaurant; pizzas at Gjelina. Opposite, clockwise from top: a display
at BAZAR boutique; Linus Bikes; a tray of scents at Strange Invisible Perfumes
My Abbot Kinney
Adam McDermott, right
CO-FOUNDER LINUS BIKES
I love that this area feels like a community, unusual in LA. You
see the coffee guy surng and bump into friends on the street.
Ive been here for nearly six years and its changed from having a
couple of good restaurants to being a cosmopolitan yet casual
neighbourhood. I go to Zinque [600 Venice Boulevard] in the
morning as it does delicious breakfast sandwiches and is close to
my shop. I also love the sushi at Shima [1432 Abbot Kinney
Boulevard], which is a great space like stepping into a sanctuary.
For a Californian brunch, you cant beat the huevos rancheros at
3 Square Caf + Bakery [1121 Abbot Kinney Boulevard].
WHY LUX*
YOU MAY ASK?
BECAUSE OUR 2,018 TEAM MEMBERS
UNDERSTAND YOUR TIME IS PRECIOUS.
ITS WHY EACH ONE OF US HAS COMMITTED
TO MAKE EACH MOMENT MATTER...
ITS WHY WE WISH TO
HELP YOU CELEBRATE LIFE...
AND ITS WHY WE CREATED
A BRAND OF HOLIDAY THATS
SIMPLY MORE LIGHT-HEARTED.
THERE ARE 2,018 ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTION
BUT TO HELP YOU DECIDE, AISHA WOULD
LIKE TO SHARE ONE OF HER FAVOURITE
REASONS TO GO LUX*
Visit luxresorts.com
MAURITIUS ILE DE LA REUNION MALDIVES
LUX * ME
LUX* Me is an integrated
philosophy of wellbeing,
offering a step by step path
to an altogether healthier way
of life. Naturally, in addition to
al fresco classes, our personal
trainers specialise in pilates,
yoga and meditation classes
as well as tailoring programmes
to you and your requirements.
Now stretch!
Aisha Rahimbaccus, Spa Therapist
LUX* LE MORNE
OUT OF MY
COMFORT ZONE
THE VICTIM
David J Constables only
martial-arts training comes
from watching The Karate Kid
THE CHALLENGE
Getting to grips with Brazils
national sport, capoeira, in a
class full of small children
IM STANDING IN
a sweaty shed on the outskirts of
Salvador, Brazil. My knees are
knocking. My shoulders are heavy.
Theres no air-conditioning, and the
heat is stiing. My skin is rough and
peeling; the sweat stings my eyes.
I need water, but I havent got time
to nd a bottle of Evian. Theres
barely time for me to think. Hurtling
towards me is a four-year-old boy,
his eyes lit by the res of Hades.
If I retaliate and knock him out
sparko, what will become of me? Im
an Englishman in a distant land and
cant just go around punching kids.
He continues, his eyes narrowing,
then springs forward like a coiled
cobra, lifting a leg high in the air and
swiping it past my groin. He spins
a full 360 and sweeps his other leg
across the oor, demonstrating

queixada (a roundhouse kick). Hes
the Capoeira Kid, a mini-ninja with
an innocent smile but piston-fast
limbs. Theres nothing I can do. Hes
kicking my arse.
The shed in Praia do Forte is full
of these little assassins, all jumping
about, cartwheeling and spin-kicking.
An obvious amateur, Im paired
with the youngest in the group,
Vitor. Hes wearing a baggy white
vest that hangs over his knees. The
HURTLING TOWARDS ME
IS A FOUR-YEAR-OLD
BOY, HIS EYES LIT BY
THE FIRES OF HADES
oldest is no more than 15, a svelte

girl as bendy as a contortionist and
as lethal as Bruce Lee.
Vitor is seasoned in the art
of Brazilian capoeira and has
no tolerance for my slow adoption,
laughing each time I attempt
a cadeira (sidestep lunge) or a
(cartwheel). Its fun at rst, we
josh and laugh, but his patience
soon runs thin; and although
he cant speak any English (and
my Portuguese is appy), its
obvious that Im a nuisance to him.
Hes practising four evenings a week
and Ive strolled in looking for a
touristy snapshot of Brazil.
Capoeira is not about contact,
but the smooth application and
delicate artistry of movement; its
martial arts meets dance. But Im
TOURIST
INFORMATION
FOR
Treasure Island
from Kent, home to a thousand
morris dancers. My ailing limbs
and acute movements were forged
on the dance oors of Londons
discotheques. I resort to twerking,
so at least Im seen doing something.
I didnt think there was any
need to prepare. According to my
girlfriend, Im pretty exible, and
Ive watched tons of karate movies.
Its the sticky heat and repetition
of kicks, swings and lunges that
and bruise and prod the kids on

either side of me), we perform the
choreography. The instructors calls
grow more demanding the hotter it
gets, and the pace quickens. Dozens
of little bare feet brush against the
concrete oor, I can feel the heat
rise. The kids have barely broken
a sweat and Im in a drippy splutter,
wheezing and struggling to rise
from the crouch position. Every
child is wide-eyed and curious
A GROUP OF GIRLS AT THE FRONT GIGGLE.

IN MY FRUSTRATION I WANT TO FLIP THEM
THE FINGER BUT THEYRE JUST KIDS
gets to me. Its like Bikram yoga
in a crowded nursery. Vitor knows
Im not conditioned, and with the
vibrancy of youth and a ash
of kiddie meanness he picks away
at my foreign weakness.
To make matters worse, and
even more uncomfortable, I am
inappropriately dressed. My shorts
are trendy and snug, but have
little give, and hold me back from
full leg extensions and snappy
hip movements. My choice of
underwear a classic sportsmans
irritation is worse still. If you
opt for loose and airy, you run
the risk of exposure, and in a
room full of children Id likely be
beaten and deported should such
a revealing mishap occur; but if
you decide on tight-tting and
secure, the material tends to bunch,
causing tear-inducing discomfort.
I experience the latter.
Standing in rows, an arms width
apart (so my adult elbows bash
as they bounce on the spot and

sweep their arms in majestically
expressive movements, spinning
and leaping like crickets.
Our instructor, Kiko, pauses and
walks over to check my condition.
This only draws the attention of
the others, and a group of 10-yearold girls at the front giggle. In my
frustration I want to ip them
the nger but theyre just kids,
so I scowl. Vitor shakes his head.
Kiko is big, brutish and imposing;
hes been practising and teaching
capoeira for more than 25 years.
He is tall and strong, with the
presence of a cage ghter. He has
a manicured afro, and the veins
pop from his biceps like strands of
knitting yarn. He demonstrates the
ginga, the basis of capoeira a
crouch, sidestep and sweep behind
with the leg. My attempt is more
like blind samba. He looks at Vitor.
Vitor looks at me. I look at Kiko.
Im just a lost cause.
WHERE IS IT? Somewhere off the

coast of Spanish America. Its exact location is
a well-kept secret, albeit one known to almost
every old sea dog in Bristol. Apart from one
excavation, the island is largely pristine, with
excellent waves for surng and panoramic views
from Spyglass Hill. The tropical climate means
timbers are unlikely to be shivered.
WHAT TO PACK 1 Your sea legs.
2 A compass and GPS. 3 A sense of humour
and bottle of rum. 4 Some temporary tattoos
BRING BACK 1 Both your sea legs.
2 Enough gold to retire an honest man/woman
WHERE TO STAY Choose between a
rustic-chic cabin run with boot-camp discipline
or a more ramshackle campsite known for its
rum cocktails and late-night carousing (note:
there have been complaints about a noisy
parrot). Rowing races and other beach pursuits
are often organised between the two. Other
options include an eco-hippy beach shack run
by eccentric millionaire Ben Gunn, with locally
sourced food (oysters, roast goat), and Davy
Jones Locker but try to avoid sleeping here.
TRAVEL ADVICE Only one tour
operator goes here, Trelawney, which runs
cruises from Bristol on a schooner called
Hispaniola; guests are usually invited to help
sail and play at being cabin boy. Facilities are
provided for disabled passengers. Despite the
islands relative isolation, several visitors have
ended up staying permanently. RICK JORDAN
Where to stay
Reviews of the month in New York Whitby Gloucestershire Plus Jade Jagger
PHOTOGRAPHS: CORBIS; BRUCE BUCK; RON GALELLA COLLECTION
EDITED BY PETER BROWNE
Clockwise from above:

the St Regis New York
in 1926; entrance to the
Fifth Avenue Suite;
the Royal Suite
Late 1940s: the writers aunt, mother

and godmother at the Metropolitan
Opera after a cocktail at the St Regis
EXCLUSIVE FIRST REVIEW
YOURE THE TOP
The St Regis New York was where Reggie Nadelson learned about being
a grown-up. So how would she feel about its recent makeover?
1968: Salvador Dal and his wife Gala,

who lived in suite 1501 at the St Regis
New York for more than a decade
When i was a new york child, many

of my pals and what pretentious little
kiddies we were wanted nothing more
than to live like Eloise at the Plaza hotel.
I, however, had other ideas: I would be
Reggie at the St Regis. So much cooler.
My Aunt Shirley, who had been a glam
girl reporter, always took me to that
fabulous hotel on 55th Street off Fifth
Avenue for hot chocolate and pastries
after a little light toy shopping at FAO
Schwarz. Sometimes, she and my mother

nipped in for a drink before the opera.
Later, when I was at college and fancied
myself a complete sophisticate, I drank
in the King Cole Bar, where they say the
Bloody Mary was invented in 1934.
I was such a devotee of 1920s and 1930s
New York I liked to think the famous
Maxeld Parrish mural of Old King Cole
in the bar had nothing to do with the
merry monarch, but somehow referred
Where to stay
Below, the bathroom in the

Presidential Suite. Far left,
the Royal Suite. Bottom,
watercolour of the new-look
King Cole Bar and Salon by
Bill Donovan
1978: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Eartha Kitt at a

party held by Barry Manilow at the hotel
to Cole Porter. The St Regis was that

kind of glamorous.
The glorious 1904 Beaux Arts hotel
was built by John Jacob Astor, who died
on the Titanic. It recently had a complete
overhaul, but is intact still, the building
a New York landmark. Inside, scores of
Waterford chandeliers still glitter from
painted ceilings. You can post a letter in
the original ornate letterbox in the lobby.
When I stay the night (and how
delectable to stay over at a grand hotel
in your own city), the bedroom has palegrey-and-white Regency striped silk wall
coverings, a dash of navy-blue velvet, a pale
grey, crushed-velvet sofa, an immense bed
with exquisitely soft linens. In my private
entrance hall, the oors are black-andwhite check, and the bathroom is done in
pale marble with underoor heating.
The addition of new technology means
theres a little screen by your bed from
which to control pretty much everything
heat, light, door locks (and the doors
all have real bells!). But they could not
nd me a DVD player that worked. I had
imagined spending the afternoon in bed,
sipping Champagne and watching Radio
Days, Woody Allens movie set in the
next to me are still eating their cakes

from tea. At another table, a handsome
trio are digging into a bowl of macaroni
cheese, a favourite of new chef John
DeLucie, who has done it at a number
of chichi restaurants around town.
It works. Theres a younger but still
worldly crowd that loves the hotels
elegance and discretion but also likes the
informality. They want the shared plates,
the bar snacks (lobster sliders, samosas,
meatballs); they want to relax as at home.
Yet, among the hipper, younger guests in
big-label jeans and sweaters, I spot a couple
I had imagined spending the afternoon in

bed, watching Radio Days, in which
Diane Keaton sings in the King Cole Bar
But, rather unexpectedly, this grand
and gracious hotel does not have a formal
dining room with white-linened tables and
elegant service. Instead, in an area off the
bar, you can have breakfast, lunch, tea and
dinner on chic but bare tables. When I sit
down at 7pm for some supper, the people
of the hotels silver-haired, old-money fans

in navy blazers; so theyre still coming back.
I have only one real nit to pick. In that
lovely ground-oor area, now known as the
King Cole Bar and Salon, the entire evening
throbbed with thumping club music. Im
guessing people like it now, which makes
me feel like a grumpy old woman.
Either way, I will always adore the St
Regis for its landmark style and I can still
imagine a soundtrack by Cole Porter, and
Aunt Shirley sipping cocktails, instructing
me in the art of glamour.
ST REGIS NEW YORK, TWO EAST

55TH STREET AT FIFTH AVENUE,
NEW YORK (+1 212 753 4500;
WWW.STREGISNEWYORK.COM).
DOUBLES FROM ABOUT
765 INCLUDING BREAKFAST
PHOTOGRAPHS: BRUCE BUCK; RONALD GRANT ARCHIVE; WIREIMAGE
1972: Al Pacino and Diane Keaton

in a scene from The Godfather, lmed
in a bedroom at the St Regis
1930s and 1940s in which Diane Keaton

sings Cole Porters Youd Be So Nice to
Come Home To in the King Cole Bar.
Everyone in the St Regis is in the
care of a butler. Mine, Olivera, is just
about perfect, neither too friendly nor
obsequious. Coffee? Any time. And it
is fresh and strong. Need something
pressed? No problem. Downstairs, the bar
remains, the mural intact, the place cosy
with leather and wood. Or you can drink
in the nearby lobby with its replace and
comfy chairs. (They could do better than
wasabi nuts with the drinks, though.)
JAMAICA
SAINT LUCIA
ANTIGUA
BAHAMAS
GRENADA
BARBADOS
SANDALS
EMERALD BAY
GREAT EXUMA, BAHAMAS
ONE OF A KIND RESORT

O N E
Greg Norman designed

championship golf course
FOLLOW US ON
O F
Red Lane Spa Massage
K I N D
Unlimited Scuba Diving
E X P E R I E N C E
Check yourself into the Jewel of the Caribbean, and
you wont be disappointed. Complete with a Red Lane
Spa^, a sanctuary for mind, body and soul offering
classic European spa rituals with the truly distinct essence
of the Caribbean; wrap this with sumptuous Suites, some
with Personal Butler Service, land and water sports such
as a Greg Norman-designed championship 18-hole golf
course and unlimited scuba diving*, plus nine gourmet
dining options on offer. We even include tips & taxes
for you. As we like to sayLove is all you need,
the rest is Luxury Included.
TO BOOK THE WORLDS LEADING ALL-INCLUSIVE RESORTS
Call 0800 742 742 | Visit sandals.co.uk | See your local travel agent
^Treatments at cost. *Certied divers.
Where to stay
BED-HOPPING WITH JADE JAGGER

The globetrotting rock n roll jewellery designer tells Francesca Babb about her most treasured haunts
MANDARIN ORIENTAL,
HONG KONG
This is easily one of the best luxury
hotels I have ever stayed in. The
attention to detail is immaculate, and
I love the Anglo-Oriental design of
the rooms. I could have spent all day
in the spa. And the concierge really
looks after you, which always makes
a huge difference in a city you dont
know.www.mandarinoriental.com/
hongkong. Doubles from about 380
CASA DE MADRID, MADRID
Casa de Madrid was originally a

private home, and it still feels that
way. Its in the city centre, opposite
the opera house, and there are great
restaurants all around. It has seven
rooms, designed with inuences from
various parts of the world. I had to
have a look at all of them, as each one
is so individual. www.casademadrid.
com. Doubles from about 150
SEXTANTIO LE GROTTE
DELLA CIVITA, MATERA, ITALY

We came here for our honeymoon.
Matera is one of the oldest inhabited
cities in the world, set in a canyon
with the most startling views. The
hotel is in an incredible former
monastery built in the sixth century
utterly romantic and unchanged.
It has the most delicious food I
have ever tasted in Italy. www.
sextantio.it/grotte-civita. Doubles
from about 85
SAMODE PALACE,
Matera is an
amazing place.
I fell so in
love with it,
I even started
looking at
houses there
JAIPUR
Jaipur has long been my
place of work. This is
where my craftsmen are
based and where I nd
the gemstones I use in
my jewellery. Samode
Palace, 30 minutes drive
from town, is a feast for
the eyes, with its elegant
frescos and architectural
details dating from the
Mughal Empire. Being
here draws out my creative
spirit. www.samode.com.
Jade Jaggers new online shop can be visited at www.jadejagger.com

HOTEL FASANO
RIO DE JANEIRO
The Fasano, facing Ipanema beach,
has anold-fashioned glamour. It was a
pleasure every evening to watch the
sunset from the rooftop bar, looking out
over the city and the ocean. The staff
were friendly, and I loved the local beauty
products and ip-ops that came with
the room. This is a perfect boutique
hotel in the heart of the city. www.
fasano.com.br. Doubles from about 530
RATCH?
NOT UP TO SC
hotel,
at an unsuitable
lf
se
nt
If you nd your
wa
u
yo
y
wh
ly
ain clear
ly.
you should expl
ick
qu
e
d somewhere els
.
to leave and n
ce
en
sil
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t in sufferin
Theres no poin
THE WORLD IS OUR HOME

YOU ARE OUR GUEST
Look forward to the sort of relaxed, deep sleep in the air youd usually only expect on
the ground. We guarantee fully-at beds with direct aisle access in Pearl Business Class
on all long-haul ights. When you y Diamond First Class, retire behind the doors of a
private suite, in a luxurious leather 68 bed with a turndown service. Why do we go to
such lengths? Because you are our guest.
PARK AVENUE
AT YOUR
DOORSTEP,
THE CITY AT
YOUR FEET
loewshotels.com/regency-hotel
800.23.LOEWS
OPENING NEW DOORS.
Where to stay
SALLY SHALAMS GREAT BRITISH BREAKS
I will always remember my rst morning
in Whitby, waking in the milky dawn of a
blustery mid-winter day to views of sea, sky
and absolutely, wonderfully nothing else.
Considering we live on an island, its incredible
how few places I have stayed where this is
possible. But here, in Vanguard (www.
homeaway.co.uk), one of two former
lighthousekeepers cottages on the North
Yorkshire coast, you really feel the force of
the ocean and rejoice in being an islander.
We queued at lunch, as visitors to Whitby
do, for sh and chips at the Magpie Caf,
where nothing has changed since the 1970s,
possibly earlier. Because it was during one of
the towns Goth weekends (in tribute to Bram
Stoker who found inspiration for Dracula in
Whitby), everyone else in the queue was
wearing heavy make-up and black crushed
velvet. I felt underdressed in denim and a mac.
Clutching my sh and chips, I disappeared
into the Old Towns labyrinth of cobbled
streets, high above the misty harbour on the
east bank of the River Esk. Here, hiding among
the shops selling Whitby jet, the wickedly
black gemstone beloved
by Victorians, I found
the Shepherds Purse,
which somehow pulls
off selling tea, coffee
and sandwiches
alongside bang-ontrend clothing. Just
along Church Street in
Wesley Hall is Bobbins,
an extraordinary knitting
shop, which specialises in traditional patterns

for shermens ganseys (the local name for a
jersey), a reminder that this is still a working
port with a shing eet. As is Fortunes, the
140-year-old smokery thats little more than
a hole-in-the-wall on Henrietta Street, where
I stopped for a bagful of kippers to take home.
The tiny Cornish town of Fowey is another
place to relish winter, and I love the kitsch
of Upton House (www.upton-house.com).
But next time I go, I want to escape to the
Sea Room (www.boutique-retreats.co.uk) at
Ropehawn, a hideaway for two reached only
by boat or wooded footpath. The town is
peppered with cool spots, from the Old Quay
House for coffee or dinner at its Q restaurant
to gorgeous interiors emporia Brocante and the
Webb Street Company. And then theres
the lovely antiquarian bookshop Bookends
of Fowey. I long to curl up beside the Sea
Rooms wood-burning stove with a copy of
Frenchmans Creek and a mug of hot chocolate.
Somewhere else almost off-grid I fancy
checking out in the depth of mid-winter is
John OGroats on the Caithness shoreline
in Scotland. Its where glamping-in-nature
pioneer Natural Retreats has built its latest
eco-lodges and restored the old hotel, the
northernmost in Britain, called The Inn at
John OGroats (www.naturalretreats.co.uk).
A pity, perhaps, that it has been teased into
apartments rather than a full-service hotel or
pub-with-rooms, but theres a spa treatment
room and a library with a giant antler
chandelier, and it does look a lot like Troms,
in all its stark, jewel-coloured deance.
PHOTOGRAPHS: ALAMY; MARSHA DUNSTAN; FOUR CORNERS IMAGES;

ADAM GIBBARD; JAMES RAM; PIP RUSTAGE
This month our expert wanderer heads to the coast

for a head-clearing blast of wild mid-winter
Get blessed at
a celestial wedding
in Madurai
Where The Past Comes Alive
DIPR/948/Display/2013
For Information, bookings and

details of TTDCs Tours,
Contact : Tamilnadu Tourism,
Tourism Complex,
No. 2, Wallajah Road,
Chennai - 600 002, INDIA.
Call : 91-44-2538 3333 / 9857,
Fax : 91-44-2536 1385
Visit : www.tamilnadutourism.org,
E-mail : ttdc@vsnl.com
For online booking log on :
www.ttdconline.com
www.mttdconline.com
in Madurai.
the Meenakshiamman Temple
happily here to this day at
Lord Shiva and they reign
really wants. Meenakshi wed
a girl always gets what she
the Cosmic Dancer. Of course,
a young princess desired
Thousands of years ago,
A letter fro m...
Over the course of a lunch built on garden-grown ingredients and age-old ceremony, novelist
Anna Blundy is taken back in time by a landowning grandfather. Illustration by Philip Bannister
onno is 94. He spends
most of the
day sitting in a white
plastic chair at the
end of his garden
and gazing out over the sparkling
bay at Castiglioncello, a slight
smile on his face. When it is sunny
he wears a white vest, shorts
and what may once have been a
straw hat. It is now reduced to
a threadbare skullcap but when
the Ukrainian maid, Nadya,
produces a selection of headwear
in the mornings he invariably
chooses this one. At lunchtime
Nadya brings out Chianti, made
from Nonnos own vines, in a glass
water bottle and sets it by his
place under the trees in the dappled
shade. She cuts the bread and
doles out the pasta. Nonnos son,
himself already 60 years old, sits
at Nonnos right-hand side and
the teenagers, chastened by their
grandfathers very presence, skulk
into their places around the table.
When, and only when Nonno says
Buon appetito, everyone must
respond, Grazie, altrettanto, and
then the meal can begin.
Good olive oil (Which is not
fattening, Nonno insists with a
nger wag) is passed round the table
and Nonno clears his throat. He
quotes Seneca, Cicero and Virgil in
order to support his ideas about the
family, about stability and about
the importance of ceremony. Nonno
was a lawyer, as was his father and
as is his son. If you go into court
with no gown, no ceremony, no
tradition then who are you to send
someone to prison? he booms. Out

to sea some children squeal from
bright yellow kayaks.
Nonno was in divided Berlin
after the war, Stalins Moscow
and Leningrad in 1950 and once
he was invited to London to speak
at the Houses of Parliament. But
mostly he wants to talk about his
wife. We were promised to each
other as children. We were together
for 80 years, he says. She was an
incredible woman. Tears spring
to his eyes as he remembers her
Friday minestrone.
After the Fascists put 10 families in
his family house, Nonno worked 30
to make the teenaged girls proper

women of the house (their mother
ran away from the medieval
household to Rome years ago), the
young people sit rolling their eyes
and sneaking glances at their
phones under the table.
Nadya starts to clear. There will
be rabbit (locally caught, brought
by friends), green beans from the
vegetable patch and then watermelon
and donuts, fried earlier by the
children. Later there will be coffee,
brought out in the silver pot
wrapped in a white linen napkin
and poured reverently, black as oil,
into tiny china cups.
Nonno would have known old men and women who

were born and raised in the mid-1800s. I am
from another world, he says
years to buy the palazzo back, room
by room. They put a dance oor in
my garden! he said, waving his arms
in rage. Its just a story now. But to
have lived through it. To have seen
it all. To see Roberto, my friend
since I was a baby, stabbed for being
a landowner. Imagine! Can you?
You have to be strong, he says.
You have to be strong to accompany
four children to the cemetery. The rst
was just 10 months old. I wish I had
shown him more affection. I didnt
know we would lose him. Tears ow
down his face and he wipes them
away, angry. Three other children
were lost in the ood of 1966.
Bored of the old mans talk, his
strict rules about not exercising for
four hours after a meal, his efforts
Nonno was brought up in an

aristocratic landowning tradition
that probably seemed old-fashioned
even 94 years ago. His grandmother
married at 16 and had 21 children,
only 10 of whom lived to adulthood.
He would have known old men
and women who were born and
raised in the mid-1800s. I am
from another world, he says, and
it is true. But when you have heard
the stories, drunk the Chianti (as
pure as spring water) and felt his
dry hand grip your arm in a
passionate grief for the horror of
the past and a desperate longing
for its sweetness, he just seems
right about life. And if he isnt,
well, he says; The Pope in Rome
will forgive us.
Reader
Offer
Alexandra
THE
GREAT
What do you get when you partner the Best of British

with the Best of French? A combination of LaurentPerrier champagne and a double Michelin-starred dining
experience at Hlne Darroze at the Connaught, of course
PHOTOGRAPHY
very so often a champagne comes

along that sets the grapevine
a-twitter. Laurent-Perriers Alexandra
Cuve Ros Vintage 2004 is such
a champagne. Originally created as
a unique cuve for the late Head of
House at Champagne Laurent-Perrier
to present to his eldest daughter on
her wedding day, the eponymous
vintage is now marking its 25th
anniversary. And what a way to do
it: this latest vintage is an original, creative blend that stands out for its complexity
and depth. Little wonder, given that it is made from the finest Champagne Grand
Cru growths, including Ambonnay, Verzenay and Tours-sur-Marne, reflecting LaurentPerriers exceptional standards of assemblage. Owing its unique style to an original
process, macerating together pinot noir (80 percent) and chardonnay (20 percent)
grapes, the result is rich, fruity aromas permeating throughout a wine that
encapsulates finesse and power. Having aged for eight years, this Alexandra
Cuve Ros Vintage 2004 is now at its prime.
THOMAS ROHDE
panelling, and a dramatic chandelier, all gold, black and white, softly
illuminating the room. Next, the Alexandra Cuve Ros Vintage 2004
a magnum of it, ideally, overflowing with rich, fruity aromas tinged with
hints of delicate spices and dried rose petals, yet still retaining a delightful
delicacy of flavour. Titillate your nose with hints of wild strawberries and
redcurrants, followed by notes of candied citrus. Prime your palate with its
elegant finesse, great minerality and soft, dry texture leading into a long
finish indicative of berry fruit. And then prepare yourself for the culinary
coup de foudre that is Hlne Darrozes menu at the Connaught.
And what a menu it is: think signature dishes such as Gillardeau oyster
tartare with caviar dAquitaine jelly; le poulet jaune de chez Monsieur
Duplantier; le sole de Douvres; le boeuf Aberdeen Angus De Chez Allens
of Mayfair; and even an antique, fire engine-red Berkel meat slicer serving
jambon noir from Gascony straight off the bone. Next come the cheeses
by master fromager Bernard Anthony. And finally another trolley, this time
overflowing with desserts (note the stunning silver cutlery adding a touch
of drama to the presentation, created by the Traditional Arts, the school
set up by HRH Prince of Wales to preserve some of Englands finest
craftsmanship). Accompanying it all is, of course, a wine list of astronomic
and gastronomic proportions: 2,000 references and counting, as the
Connaught Cellar grows to 30,000 bottles, including some of the finest
wines in the world (with, naturally, a suitable medley of Alexandra Ros
magnums and other Laurent-Perrier classics in the line-up). And rounding it
all off is the Armagnac Trolley, a signature feature from Darrozes restaurant
in Paris, with over 44 vintages from 1904-1994.
And what better way to enjoy the queen of champagnes than in the realm of the
queen of French cuisine: Hlne Darroze at the Connaught. Darroze is, after all,
the only double-Michelin starred female chef patron in the UK and, as a fourthgeneration descendent of a long line of chefs, a veritable blueblood of French fare.
Reinforcing the legendary Mayfair hotels 114-year-old legacy of fine dining,
Darroze combines traditional produce from her native Les Landes in South West
France with some of the finest ingredients from the British Isles. She received a
Michelin star just six months after opening at the Connaught and a second in
So much to savour, so little time. Spend the night at the Connaught the
2011. As Darroze herself says: It was a huge honour to be awarded two Michelin
great British classic, part of the Maybourne Hotel Group, whose guest
stars for my restaurant at the Connaught, and this reflects my teams dedication to
rooms, suites and interiors have been created by some of the world's finest
achieve the best. I live by the philosophy that the ingredients are the stars and you
designers and craftsmen. The result: a legend among hotels, brought into the
must treat them respectfully. Champagne Laurent-Perrier and Hlne Darroze:
21st century while preserving its authentic elegance, distinctive personality
a delectable duo. So step into Hlne Darroze at the
and intuitive style of service. Tres, tres bon.
Connaught and begin your Anglo-French sensory
R E A D E R O F F E R D E TA I L S
extravaganza. First, the visual treat: the extraordinary
For details on Laurent-Perriers Alexandra
dcor designed by Parisian-based designer and
Cuve Ros Vintage 2004 and other
QLaurent-Perrier: The first 30 Cond Nast
architect India Mahdavi that simultaneously pays
champagnes visit bloguk.laurent-perrier.com;
Traveller readers to book and quote Alexandra
homage to the Connaughts English heritage
twitter.com/champagneLPUK; facebook.
Ros 2004 will receive a complimentary glass
of Alexandra Cuve Ros Vintage 2004 when
originating in 1897 while weaving in a playful
com/LaurentPerrierUK. To make your
ordering from the la carte menu at Hlne
display of colours and geometry; feminine tones of
reservation, visit the-connaught.co.uk
Darroze at the Connaught.
crme gold and lilac; original mahogany wall
or call 020 7107 8847.
T RAVELLER PROM OT ION
Style file
ON TREND
All around the globe, Fiona Lintotts hits for the month of February
I PRESENT TO YOU... YAZBUKEY

It was a silver sh, which turned out to be a
handbag, that rst caught my attention and
introduced me to this Turkish accessory
designer. Here Yazbukey lets us into her playful
and crazy acrylic-and-Perspex world
Show off
Dont hold back on where
you wear this seasons new
head-turning sunglasses
Partying at Papaya Playa, Tulum. 156,

Stella McCartney at David Clulow
Selfridges (+44 20 7318 3313)
Detoxing at COMO Shambhala Estate

Bali. 310, Sportmax x Cutler &
Gross (www.cutlerandgross.com)
ON ROUTINE
I sleep for four hours a night, its more than enough.
My mornings start early; I shower, apply creams, and
take a spoon of coconut oil followed by hot water and
lemon. I do Pilates three times a week. I always put
on red lipstick and heels: only then can I face the day.
ON SPAS I go to Turkish baths in Istanbul

each month for a scrub and a massage. The
Kili Ali Paa Hamami, built in the 16th century
by Mimar Sinan, is a magical place. In Paris I go to
Harnn & Thann Spa on rue Molire and ask for
Yumi, the Japanese masseuse with miracle hands.
ON TRAVEL
This month Im in New York, but for the most
part I am based in Paris and Istanbul. Im used
to travelling, my father was an ambassador so
wherever I go I feel at home. Ive just

returned from the Beldi Country Club
in Marrakech. I desperately seek the sun
thats the goal on holiday and I prefer
small hotels with no children and no noise.
When Im in Paris or Istanbul I party all
the time, so when Im on holiday I barely
speak and keep my sunglasses on.
ON DESIGN
The rst step for my collection is always
colour. Right now Im obsessed with accessories
from Lagerfelds era at Chlo. I like vintage
pieces by artists Claude Lalanne and Line
Vautrin, and Schiaparelli jewellery. For interiors
I love Clignancourt ea market in Paris and Im
really into Rifat Ozbeks Yastik line of pillows.
Yazbukey accessories are available from www.
shopbop.com
Eating breakfast pizza at Grand

Africa caf, Cape Town. 175,
Burberry (www.burberry.com)
Staying at the new Alila Jabal

Akhdar, Oman. Solar sunglasses,
POA, Dior (www.dior.com)
ILLUSTRATION: HANNAH GEORGE. PHOTOGRAPH: FRANCO PIZZOCHERO
Tweeting from a private jet.

Swarovski Reectors, POA,
Fendi (www.fendi.com)
Channel the knit wit

The Phat Knits installation by Dutch designer Bauke Knotterus conrmed
that oversized knits have leapt from fashion into interiors and now occupy
all manner of space in our lives. Get inspired by the ice-cream palette of
RCA graduate Xiao Lis silicone knitwear and the merino-wool and mohair
pouffes by Aleksandra Gaca (available from www.discover-deliver.com).
And for the latest wool trends check out the Italian blog www.feeltheyarn.it.
Buzz words GLAM SLAM

BEFORE
Im back from ... Tuscany

Where 14th-century Villa di Geggiano was the
backdrop to my Fitness Renaissance.
On the strength-building programme created
by trainer of the moment Drew Perrott, who
bares an uncanny resemblance to Wolverine, I cycled up hills
for hours, ran among olive groves and jumped into
an ice pool while surviving on snacks of
seeds and fennel from the kitchen
garden. The four-day challenge has given me
a renewed focus on my tness and
awakened an unfamiliar feeling of
wanting to keep up the running
(plus, its an excuse to buy new
trainers). www.drewperrott.co.uk
AFTER
Inspired by...
The Gucci S/S 14 show where models
sashayed out to Arcade Fires Reektor. To
look this effortlessly cool, you need to plan
meticulously: go the extra mile.
Also refer to...

The Sutherland Suite at The Connaught,
where there are Burberry trench coats
in the wardrobe, a grand piano in the living
room and three minibars.
David Baileys Stardust exhibition:
sponsored by Hugo Boss and showcasing his
biggest ever collection of work. It opens on
6 February at the National Portrait Gallery.
Dressing up at LApoge: theres no need to
ski to stay at this Courchevel 1850 hotel, just
hang out at the bar and sample the cocktails.
The new Daniel Hersheson salon on
Londons Conduit Street: go for Cut 3,
prescribed to be worn with a pout.
Style file... jewellery

MAKE A SPLASH Everyones talking about a bright young stone from
Brazil the worlds coloured-gem hotspot. Its a jewel that throws
out extraordinary refracted light. Dive right in, says Jessica Diamond
Cher Dior
Exquise earrings,
Dior Joaillerie
(www.dior.com)
Necklace, Harry
Winston (www.
harrywinston.com)
Ring, De
Grisogono (www.
degrisogono.com)
Ring, Theo
Fennell (www.
theofennell.com)
Fly By Night Batmoth ring,

Stephen Webster (www.
stephenwebster.com)
ts often said that the Paraiba tourmaline is the colour of a

swimming pool. Should you clap your eyes on one, you will
see that, in fact, it is shockingly blue and seemingly lit from
inside with a luminescent glow. In gemmological terms, the
Paraiba is a baby, only discovered in 1989 in the Brazilian state of
the same name, and its introduction into the mainstream market has
Ring, Tiffany
been slow. A global obsession with white diamonds during the 1990s and
& Co (www.
tiffany.co.uk)
the scandal (and subsequent suspicion) surrounding the heat
treatment of emeralds saw the use of coloured gemstones fall dramatically.
But as fashions have changed and condence has returned, a new
spectrum of colour is embellishing the world of ne
jewellery, and this tourmaline is nally having its moment.
From Harry Winston to Theo Fennell and De
Grisogono, most jewellers are revelling in large
carat weights, making the Paraiba their central
focus, and a few, including Dior and Chanel,
are setting them with other stones to painterly effect,
Camlia Patchwork ring,
Chanel (www.chanel.com)
both tone-on-tone and clashingly, contrastingly bright.
All prices on application
PHOTOGRAPH: SLIM AARONS/GETTY IMAGES
The Paraiba tourmaline trend
Give us your body for a week

and well give you back your mind
We designed the BodyHoliday to be an active beach holiday experience

based around four key pillars relaxation, rejuvenation, exercise and diet.
Together we believe they play a key role in achieving a sense of balance
in life and provide the ingredients for the perfect holiday.
The award winning health & wellbeing holiday in St Lucia, West Indies
0203 096 1608 www.thebodyholiday.com
Style file... men

EDITED BY
DAVID ANNAND
DO IT IN STYLE
had been working as a detention delegate in Gaza City for the

Red Cross, a tense and claustrophobic experience that involved
many hours of being cooped up in a secure residence. Yearning
for space and fresh air, I decided, once my contract was up, to
cycle from Canada down the west coast of the USA to the Mexican
border, despite not having really been on a bike since I was a schoolboy
in famously at Cambridge. It turned out this is an established thing to
do, and there are special maps that detail the safer scenic routes and a
whole community of riders, although it was quiet when I did it in spring.
Things didnt get off to a dream start. After a few pleasant days spent
with friends in Vancouver, I set off and got lost immediately in the citys
suburbs in the pouring rain and ended up sheltering for two days at a
Holiday Inn in a rather unlovely strip mall. Undeterred, I nally made it
across the border into Washington and
began my journey in earnest. All the way
down the coast there are special campsites,
the temporary home to riders and hikers
as well as Americas large community of
modern-day hobos, ex-hippies and drifters
who would assemble at night around the re
and tell stories about the Sixties.
Theres a great cycling fraternity. I often
found myself at a bar with other riders sharing
beers and tips on surviving Route 1 with its
erratic pensioners in mobile homes, or cycling
alongside incredibly friendly Americans who would act as informal guides,

telling me interesting things about the bald eagles that circled overhead.
The whole trip was stunning, but its incredible highlights included:
the days spent on the tranquil Avenue of the Giants, an enormous
redwood forest in northern California; the views of the ocean full of seals,
sea lions and whales at Bodega Bay, one of Hitchcocks favourite places
to shoot; and the unbeatable experience of riding into San Francisco over
the Golden Gate Bridge. After six weeks and 1,900 miles of uphill struggle
in an unyielding leather seat, I arrived at the Mexican border not at all
looking forward to nishing. Cycling such a distance on your own,
rhythmically pedalling, is a strange, meditative experience and its
completely addictive. Next time, though, Im going to do it with a mate.
www.adventurecycling.org
THE BOOK Three Men on the Bummel by

Jerome K Jerome. A bummel may technically
be a journey that returns to the starting point,
and Jeromes three men from the boat may be in
Germany not California, but a hapless Englishman
embarking on such a bike ride should pack this.
THE DOWNLOAD Tour de France by
Kraftwerk. This hymn to the joys of cycling is an
electro classic that settles quickly into a hypnotic
repetitive loop: perfect for pounding the pedals.
PHOTOGRAPHS: MATTHEW BUCK; MOREY MILBRADT; THE NET-A-PORTER GROUP
Aid worker Aidan King has lived in Syria, Cairo and

the West Bank. For time out he goes hobnobbing with
hobos on an epic Pacic Coast Highway bike ride
Members of the in-the-know moisturising

class are rarely seen without the Essential
Travel Kit by New York company Malin + Goetz.
Appealingly androgynous and Scandinavian
looking, its a clever carry-on for weekend
wanderlusters arming themselves against the
Alpine cold. www.liberty.co.uk, 20
TRAVEL SETS
Until they reach about 25 most men
have a wash bag which contains a
toothbrush, two packs of Alka-Seltzer and,
if theyre really on the ball, some sunscreen.
But this tends to end when brushing your
pegs is suddenly no longer enough to get
you going after the night before. Firsttime help is at hand in Molton Browns
handy little London Edition starter pack.
www.mankind.co.uk, 40
If your idea of grooming on the go is

more Terry-Thomas moustache
maintenance, then this Dapper Gentleman
Grooming Kit by Aussie aces Aesop, right, looks
just right tossed insouciantly alongside two
Savile Row suits in your Dunhill Explorer holdall.
On Jeeves! www.mrporter.com, 110
Davids postcard from... The Mission, San Francisco

So were in the corner store, my wife and I, buying
something innocent, a bottle of water I think. And we
turn down the aisle to the fridge where we discover the
chap in this photo deciding, it seems, between Juicy
Fruit and regular chewing gum. He is wearing a leather
apron and killer heels (and, rather sweetly I thought, a
schoolboyish backpack, although the mind boggles at
what it might contain). His body is the kind of body we
dont have in England. I have seen billiard balls with
more hair. We follow him, obviously. It turns out hes
heading to the Folsom Street Fair, which is a bit like
one of those royal wedding street parties that people
throw in places like Chipping Sodbury, just with more
nipple piercings. Its an annual event, a gathering of
Californias fetishists, exhibitionists and those who like
being walked around on a lead. Unlike our friend, not
everyone there has the hard chassis of a 25-year-old
gym freak, but that doesnt stop them wearing pretty
much nothing at all, apart from, say, a gimp mask or dog
collar. I dont know how well the public ogging would
go down in Chipping but there were plenty of recycling
bins, which was nice. www.folsomstreetfair.com
GET THE LOOK: IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE

Heading to Hong Kong? Take a tip from Tony Leung on how to stay slick in the city
From left: Clubmaster sunglasses, 125, Ray-Ban (www.mrporter.com); Oxford shirt, 125, Gieves & Hawkes (www.gievesandhawkes.com); Gold Fit
jacket (part of suit), 1,030, Dolce & Gabbana (www.matchesfashion.com); silk tie, 135, Herms (+44 20 7499 8856)
Style file... on the scene
A classic car in Miami.

Cataclou wedges, 465; Valou
bag, 995, both Christian
Louboutin (+44 843 227
4322). Freesia top 425; skirt,
695, both Temperley
London (www.temperley
london.com)
A South Beach lifeguard.

A king room at The
Redbury. Neverfull bag,
925, Louis Vuitton
(+44 20 7399 4050).
Sunglasses, 285, Fendi
(+44 20 7838 6288)
PHOTOGRAPHS: JULIEN CAPMEIL
Bikini, 18
Odabash (+ 0, Melissa
44 20 7730
1234)
Where to wear: The Redbury, Miami

Floridas candy-coloured, neon-lit
hub is on a roll with a high-glamour
hotel launch. By Thea Darricotte
ry
, Mulber
ss, 750
Bee dre 0 7491 3900)
(+44 2
iami can barely keep up with itself. New hotels are multiplying with
crazy abandon: the Metropolitan by COMO, the Edition and 1 Hotel
South Beach are all on the horizon for this year. But rst out of the
traps is the Redbury, the East Coast spin-off of the LA original. Both were
designed by photographer and music-video director Matthew Rolston but
here, instead of Hollywood glitz, he has channelled a Fifties vibe: rooms
have vinyl collections curated by Capitol Records to play on vintage
turntables, and retro black-and-white shots of the city line the walls. Theres a
huge rooftop pool and behind the bar, rattling his silver shaker, is Michael
Jack Pazdon, a magic man with cocktails. Pull up a chair, order something
fruity and take in the sea view. www.theredbury.com/southbeach
, 765,
Roller boots y Hedi
nt b
Saint Laure sl.com)
w.y
w
(w
Slimane
18K gold
SOUTHAMPTON LAKE TEGERNSEE SYLT PALM BEACH

and all my international jewelers at: www.tamaracomolli.com
PHOTOGRAPH: OLIMPIO FANTUZ/SIME/4CORNERS
FREYto roam
Vast, powerful, beguiling and unique Russia is a cultural

goldmine. The gifted artists of FREYWILLE have chosen to
celebrate the countrys exceptional talents in their latest collection
he artistic signature of FREYWILLE is

distinctive its in the blaze of vivid colour, the
quality of 24 carat gold and the intricate design
of each precious piece of handcrafted jewellery.
And so it is with the master jewellers Passionate Russia
collection: evoking both the heritage and folklore of
a complex and captivating nation, the range is an
intriguing mix of whimsical and spirited design.
Renowned for exploring previous epochs and taking
inspiration from cultures rich in creative traditions, the
craftsmen at FREYWILLE ingeniously breathe new
life into historic motifs. Their team of in-house artists,
goldsmiths, designers and experts of ne enamelling
create the timeless masterpieces exclusively in Vienna
at the original production house where the company
was rst founded in 1951. This unique blend of
classical art and fashion has established an unrivalled
niche for the company in the luxury jewellery industry.
The FREYWILLE artisanal practice comprises of

more than 80 meticulous steps taken by 100 pairs of
hands in the sculpting of just one of its accessories.
However, it takes an exceptional idea to launch this
painstaking process. Passionate Russia was born from a
respect and admiration for a country and its treasures
but also the passion of the artist to create a magnicent
work that endures. The idea evolved into the companys
latest concept: the disciplined work of the jeweller
would echo the wealth of Russias cultural achievements
in music, literature, art and ballet.
Each of the four designs of the Passionate Russia
collection is a tribute to the artistic prowess of this vast
continent. Broadly, the jewellery ensemble characterises
the colour, magnicence and vitality of the nation.
When appreciated individually, each masterpiece
reveals one exceptional detail of Russian heritage
skillfully chosen by the artists at FREYWILLE.
The icon of the wooden Matryoshka Doll is used to

stunning effect on the My Matryoshka bracelet. In
homage to femininity, the enchanting features of the
doll are exquisitely drawn and brought to life with
warm, radiant colours. The sequence of dolls is
playfully depicted in a variety of sizes with lustrous
gold bands framing them. In this piece, the famous
Russian folk emblem known for its elaborate
craftsmanship is given a fresh incarnation as an
elegant accessory.
elaborate craftsmanship
The Russian love of nature is romantically embodied
in the Golden Kalinka design. A profusion of owers
intertwine and bloom with a riot of colour across the
wrist the intricacy and beauty of the artwork is a
breathtaking showcase of the FREYWILLE enamel
specialists work.
Main image:
The magnicent
backdrop of the
Schnbrunn Palace,
Vienna, Austria
As with all masterpieces, one could gaze at it endlessly

and continue to nd new ourishes.
In Slavic folklore, The Firebird is a majestic and
magical creature with brightly glowing plumage
special feathers that continue to emit light even when
plucked. A fairytale passed from generation to
generation, The Firebird became the muse for several
Russian literary works and even a popular ballet.
Chosen by FREYWILLE artists as a motif for the
third piece in the collection, the Glorious Firebird was
born. A mystical peacocks red and golden hues are
luminous against a strong metallic background
to dramatic effect.
The nal adornment in the Passionate Russia range
is a tribute by the jewellers to one of the worlds most
celebrated cultural marvels Swan Lake. Using
harmonious colours and dynamic pictorial curves, the
resultant aesthetic combines the grace and drama of
the ballet. Silhouettes in voluminous white tutus
appear like a chain of delicate owers surrounded
by gold, red and blue embellishments.
The Passionate Russia collection is a perfect expression
of the FREYWILLE humanistic philosophy. Each
unique piece of handcrafted art gestures to the
brilliance of Russias luminaries and the legacy they
have left behind. The limited collection is distributed
exclusively to FREYWILLE boutiques in 35 countries,
reaching a loyal clientele that expect an inimitable
creative spirit from the famous Austrian jeweller.
Once again they have delivered a truly artistic global
message: the story and the passion of Russia.
For more information visit freywille.com
GLORIOUS FIREBIRD, LUNA

PIENA ON ANCHOR CHAIN, 746
SWAN LAKE, DIVA BANGLE, 770;
MY MATRYOSHKA, DIVA BANGLE, 770
MY MATRYOSHKA, LUNA
PIENA ON ANCHOR
CHAIN, 601
MY MATRYOSHKA, DIVA RING, 318

SWAN LAKE, DIVA RING, 318
MY MATRYOSHKA, MINI-CREOLE
EARRINGS, 572
GOLDEN KALINKA, APHRODITE MANCHETTE, 770
LAND
OLD
FLORA
Traverse by train or explore on foot,

mountain bike or horseback....but
get out there on terra rma for an
epic adventure.
From Prehistoric rock art to the Zulu

battleelds. Its impossible not to
be both moved and inspired by the
heritage and history of this nation.
Rich, riotous Namaqualand daisies

are one of the most dramatic
natural sights during August and
October.
DIVERSE SOUTH AFRICA
SEA
YOUNG
FAUNA
Marine magnicence where the

mighty Atlantic and Indian oceans
merge.
Malaria-free there is no doubt

this country was made for family
adventures. From sunrise to sunset,
with so much to do your loved ones will
never be bored.
For an in-depth insight into wildlife,

visit conservation projects, notch
rhino, track elephant and meet the
researchers and rangers who guard
these endangered species. See rsthand how your support can help
conserve both habitat and wildlife for
future generations.
Use our 25 years of expertise

to go beyond the ordinary for a
unique South Africa experience.
Call us for insight and advice.
Book before 28th February 2014 and quote

SA2 to receive a one-way Complimentary
Upgrade on British Airways.
0845 0756114
southafrica@steppestravel.co.uk
*World Traveller to World Traveller Plus only. Travel

before 31st September 2014. Applicable to 2 persons
travelling and subject to booking class availability.
Minimum booking value 5,000. T&Cs apply.
THE
GOLD
TANDARD
2014
S
PHOTOGRAPH: RODRIGO MORAGA ZUNIGA
From a wild, empty lake shore in Tasmania to the dizzy heights of a Bangkok
skyscraper, we bed down, drink up, eat out and dive into the worlds top spots.
These are our evergreen all-time favourite places
Tierra Patagonia in Chile

69
THE
GOLD
TANDARD
2014
CITY
HOTEL
MANDARIN ORIENTAL
HONG KONG
70
COPACABANA PALACE HOTEL
RIO DE JANEIRO
Stepping through the doors of the Copacabana always feels like the start of
an adventure, even if youre stopping for a coffee. When it opened in 1923 it
represented the very height of sophistication in an exotic tropical paradise.
Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner and Carmen Miranda ew in to laze under the palm
fronds and gamble all night in the gold-leafed ballrooms. That old-school
glamour is still here, twinkling away, while everything around it has changed
(neighbouring Ipanema is far more fashionable than Copacabana these days).
Its current owner, the Orient-Express group, recently spent $15 million to make
sure the neo-classical beauty gleams brighter and whiter than ever, but the
real secret to its enduring success is the service. With more than 600 staff, there
is never a shortage of waiters, or eagle-eyed housekeepers to dust cobwebs
from 254 high-ceilinged bedrooms. The three impeccable restaurants take care
of both businessmen and bikini-clad beauties (the lunchtime seafood buffet
in Pergola is sensational), while a new boutique, Villa Copa, leaves no excuse for
sloppy swimwear not that the pool boy would bat an eyelid. +55 21 2548
7070; www.copacabanapalace.com. Doubles from about 459
PHOTOGRAPH: GUILLAUME DE LOUBIER
Theres something about this hotel which

stays with you long after you have left. It
weaves its way into your heart until your
memories of it become a place of refuge, a
calm amidst the storm. Perhaps it is the
omnipresent service how wonderful to
return to that childlike state of being looked
after. In the cloakrooms, the water is run
for you, the crisp linen laid out; step out of
the pool and you are met with slippers and
a warm towel; the waiter in the glamorous
M Bar, with its views over the dazzling Hong
Kong skyline, remembers just how you like
its signature cocktail of 24-karat gold,
elderower, crme de violette and Champagne.
It could also be the soothing spa, where
tensions are pummelled away and meridians
realigned, or the choice of restaurants from
Cantonese to Michelin-starred French. But in
the end it is simply a state of mind, where you
know that everything is right with the world
while you are here. And if it isnt, theyll x it.
+852 2522 0111; www.mandarinoriental.com/
hongkong. Doubles from about 415
THE GREENWICH
NEW YORK
Staying power isnt the norm in Downtown

Manhattan, where a new hotel seems to pop
up every other week; but Robert de Niros
Greenwich Hotel (a relative veteran at six
years old) has pulled it off. Thats because it
gets everything right, from the TriBeCa
location, where the West Side evening light
bounces beguilingly off cobblestoned streets,
to the Andrew Carmellini restaurant, Locanda
Verde, which serves spot-on rustic Italian food
(pappardelle with bolognese ragu and solo di
bruna; roasted Brussels sprouts with pancetta
and pecorino) and treads that tightrope
between sceney and cosy like a Cirque du
Soleil old-timer. The 88 bedrooms are all
slightly different, with leather and velvet sofas,
antique silk rugs and bathrooms lined with
either Moroccan tiles or Carrara marble. Public
spaces (for guests only) have a gentlemans
club vibe and are hung with paintings by
De Niro senior; an open re crackles in the
drawing room in winter, and theres an outside
terrace for summer. The biggest boon of all
is the lantern-lit Shibui Spa, which incorporates
a pool and a 250-year-old Japanese bamboo
farmhouse. Its the perfect place to take a
break from this non-stop city and its prying
eyes as Miley Cyrus, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer
Aniston and every other famous guest would
agree. +1 212 941 8900; www.thegreenwich
hotel.com. Doubles from about 390
CITY
HOTEL
THE TAJ MAHAL PALACE, MUMBAI
INDIA
The brilliant service at the Taj Mahal has meant maharajahs have
always felt at home here and famous Westerners George Bernard
Shaw, Barack Obama, Mick Jagger have stayed in their droves. But
local couples have also courted over tea here, got married in the
ballrooms, popped in for a pedicure. In 2008 the world watched in
horror when terrorists attacked, but the Taj rose phoenix-like, better
than ever. It has always been a world to itself, a proud monument on
monumental scale: the dozen restaurants, bars and cafs include Wasabi
by Morimoto for sushi, Souk for tagines and Kraft Marsala for superb
Indian. Theres a lovely pool and spa, a nightclub, the best English
bookshop in town, and the most impressive staff and waiters in India.
The interiors are as diverse as the country, a mix of aristocratic European,
Mogul, Anglo-Indian; try and stay in the newly refurbished old section,
which includes the Ravi Shankar suite where photos of the Beatles in India
cover the walls (George Harrison was given lessons by the sitar master
here). A few steps from the Taj is the Gateway of India, where it all begins.
And ends. From the hotel you can see where Lord Mountbatten, the last
Viceroy of India, tipped his hat as he left, and glanced back. +91 22 6665
3366; www.tajhotels.com. Doubles from about 160
THE SIAM
BANGKOK
There is something thrilling about Bill Bensleys instantly classic

monochrome scheme: the striped cane chairs placed out for a
sundowner on the wooden slatted pier, the chequerboard marble of
the bistro oor, the crisp sheets and plumped-up cushions in the
bedrooms, even the white towels rolled up in neat piles on sunbeds by
the Bathers Bar are edged with black piping. Its precise and considered
and fantastically smart Asian cool rather than Asian overkill and
with its private-house vibe makes this hotel the most brilliant bookend
for a trip to Thailand, somewhere to decompress. You can kick back for
days on end here: there are two terrically good restaurants (one set
in a 100-year-old original Thai teak house), a vast and deeply cosseting
Opium spa with a hammam and Sodashi treatments, an authentic
Muay Thai boxing gym, a library chock-full of fascinating historical
mementos and a museum-worthy art collection, and a screening
room with vintage cinema chairs. When you do want to venture out,
instead of bracing yourself for a tedious traffic jam in a taxi, you can
hop onto the hotels sleek, grey, canvas-topped longtail boat and whip
all the way down the Chao Praya to Sathorn Pier. There can be no
better way to stay and see the city. +66 02206 6999; www.thesiam
hotel.com. Doubles from about 355, including breakfast and boat transfer
72
BEACH
HOTEL
HOTEL SAINT-BARTH ISLE DE FRANCE
CARIBBEAN
PHOTOGRAPH: CATHERINE SUTHERLAND
At rst glance, there is something classically beautiful, rather Graeco-Roman,

about the Isle de France. The white lobby, with its unadorned white columns
and angular white sofas, frames a square view of the deep blue sea and the lighter
blue sky. The rooms are decorated with lovely prints of uted shells and pointed
amphorae. Zeus himself would feel at home here, if ever he grew weary of
Olympus and felt in need of a Caribbean break. The calm interiors are a wonderful
retreat from the hot sun, but Isle de France is all about the outdoors. The hotel
sits on Flamands Bay, arguably the most perfect beach in the world. The bay is as
curved and shiny as a scimitar, but at the same time its as soft as pillows beneath
your bare feet. Even the craggy nearby islands seem to have been carefully placed,
as if by a meticulous stylist with an eye for seascape design. Take an early-morning
stroll to the western end of the beach and back. Its a wonderful way to set
yourself up for rolls and coffee, and for a new day on the island of St Barths.
+590 590 27 6181; www.isle-de-france.com. Doubles from about 430
THE
GOLD
TANDARD
2014
BEACH
HOTEL
FREGATE ISLAND PRIVATE
SEYCHELLES
On Frgate, nature and ne-tuned artice coexist. Eat lunch on the terrace of your teak villa,
with its private innity pool, louvred doors and artfully scattered frangipani owers, and a row of
tiny, berry-bright birds sit along your veranda rail, hoping to steal your bread. And if you venture
out into the wilderness, one moment youre sidestepping a giant tortoise and the next youre on a
platform 100 metres up a tree, eating breakfast (cooked on a barbecue and winched up) from
a table spread with damask as white as the fairy terns wheeling below. Frgate Island Private is at
once a grand hotel and a conservation project. It has white-sand beaches strewn with purple
cowrie shells the size of kiwi fruit, its own airstrip, solar-powered buggies for bumbling around the
blossoming woodlands and a restaurant where the produce of the immense vegetable garden is
transmuted into luscious oddities such as ylang-ylang scented hollandaise. This is Never Never
Land with great service and a clear conscience: the hotels takings fund the regeneration of the
islands ecosystem. +49 6151 734 75144; www.fregate.com. Doubles from about 1,615
THE
GOLD
TANDARD
2014
S
NIKOI ISLAND
INDONESIA
LA SULTANA OUALIDIA
MOROCCO
Winston Churchill said Marrakech was the most

lovely place in the world; if he were around today
he might prefer Oualidia, a dreamy spot on the
edge of an Atlantic lagoon where minutes turn to
hours with the ebb and ow of the languorous tides.
From the hotels beachfront terraces you can see
the spray of the mighty breakers across the dunes
and the monkey-puzzle trees that sprout above the
pretty blue-and-white houses in the village. Ponder
it all from beneath a grass-thatched parasol on a
pontoon jutting into the water, or while oating in
the aquamarine innity pool. The hotel is built of
local stone and has 11 rooms; it specialises in quiet
intimacy with drinks round the replace in your room,
a hot tub for two on your terrace, lobster picnics on
a private beach or served re-side from a Berber
tent. There are vigorous scrub downs and massages
in the spa and the food is exceptional: oysters, spider
crab and sea bass are the house specialities and are
bliss with a glass of crisp Mogador white from the
nearby Val dArgan winery. +212 524 388008; www.
lasultanahotels.com. Doubles from about 220
Nikoi is a tiny isle in the South China Sea encircled by soft white sand; it looks
like a Tropical Island screensaver. Although just 50 miles from Singapore, it
takes almost three hours to get here, by scheduled ferry and transfer boat, and
then you turn your watch back an hour. With only 15 beachside villas very
beautiful, made from gigantic beams of driftwood topped with jaunty, ylang-ylang
grass roofs there will never be many fellow-guests around. The eco-footprint
on this pristine knoll has been carefully considered (sustainability website
TreeHugger gave it a Best Eco-Resort gong in 2012) and in truth there is very
little to do other than embrace the peace, snorkel in the sea and enjoy fresh
seafood pastas or Indonesian curries at the sandy-oor, open-air restaurant.
Between meals, theres always a jar of cookies and a bunch of bananas at the
bar, a whimsical shack made of wood and bamboo, which is manned by a friendly
man nicknamed Yogi, as talented at entertaining children as he is at making
cocktails. And what could be more blissful than a bartender with babysitting
skills? +65 3158 2119; www.nikoi.com. One-bedroom beach house about 180
KAYA MAWA
PHOTOGRAPHS: CAMERA PRESS; MICHEL FIGUET; DARREN SOH
MALAWI
Its name translates as Maybe Tomorrow, reecting the easy

charm of one of Africas most intriguing beach hideaways.
Built on the south-western shores of Likoma Island on
Lake Malawi, it started turning heads three years ago when
new owners James Lightfoot and Nick Brown transformed
it with the help of a $1-million investment. Lightfoot and
his wife Suzie have taken the hand-crafted shell and turned
it into something extraordinary: a tiny dot in remote
Central Africa capable of taking on the big-gun resorts of
Mauritius and Seychelles. Each of the 12 rooms is different,
but all have polished concrete oors and big beds dressed
with fabrics from Suzies Katundu Textiles workshop, where
women hand-stitch miniscule shells and beads onto soft,
washed linens. Guests can take quad-bike tours of the
villages and visit the incongruous, century-old St Peters
Cathedral, but Kaya Mawas real appeal is undoubtedly as
somewhere to unfurl in the sun, drink ice-cold South African
Chenin Blanc and feast on grilled chambo sh, safe in the
knowledge that, as a well-rested Scarlett OHara knew only
too well, tomorrow is another day. +265 9993 18359;
www.kayamawa.com. Doubles from about 400
75
THE
GOLD
TANDARD
2014
COUNTRY
S
SAFFIRE FREYCINET
TASMANIA
Until three years ago, Tasmanias Freycinet Peninsula,

with its pristine beaches, secluded bays and spectacular
mountain formations, was something of a local secret,
even though its only about two hours drive from Hobart.
All that changed when Saffire Freycinet opened, duly
transforming this slice of undiscovered wilderness into one
of Australias justiably hottest destinations. The hotel is
basically a sophisticated reimagining of the humble
Tasmanian beach shack. But what a shack! The majestic
main building, with its arching ribs of polished Tasmanian
wood and curves of glass, resembles a gargantuan stingray
from some angles, a wave from others; 20 self-contained
suites are built into the regenerated bushland, all with
decks facing the bay. Hugh Whitehouse is in charge at
the Palate restaurant, drawing on local cool-climate wines
and produce, such as truffles and the red samphire that
covers the bayside rocks. There are 300 days of sun
here per year, but when the nights get cold youll nd a
sheepskin-covered hot-water bottle hidden in your bed.
+61 3 6256 7888; www.saffire-freycinet.com.au. Doubles
from about 1,050, including breakfast, dinner with drinks
and all activities
PHOTOGRAPHS: FREDERIC DUCOUT; PETER WHYTE
HOTEL
LES FERMES DE MARIE
MEGEVE, FRANCE
A century ago, when Baroness Nomie de Rothschild

decided shed had her ll of St Moritz, she impulsively
chose the sleepy, sunlit village of Megve to build an
exclusive ski resort. But after ve decades of glam glory
(these are the powdery slopes where Audrey Hepburn
meets Cary Grant in Charade, after all), the fashionable
set moved on and Megve fell from grace. At least until
local couple Jocelyne and Jean-Louis Sibuet turned
things around by opening Les Fermes de Marie in 1989,
a 70-bedroom hamlet of nine interlinked chalets made
with materials salvaged from 100-year-old farmhouses.
Splurge on a suite, a plush cocoon of soothing whites and
muted greys with country antiques, beamed ceilings and
open replaces for winter (although this is a mountain
refuge for all seasons, with wildower-covered hiking
trails, and an indoor and outdoor pool). The real draw is
the spa, where signature treatments include an energising
edelweiss-honey facial. But for the complete renedrustic experience, a slice of the Alpin restaurants raclette
and blueberry pie should be compulsory. +33 4 50 93
03 10; www.fermesdemarie.com. Doubles from about 150
77
COUNTRY
HOTEL
SEXTANTIO ALBERGO DIFFUSO
ABRUZZO, ITALY
The fortied medieval hamlet of Santo Stefano di Sessanio is a tight cluster of stone
towers in the wild region of Abruzzo. In the Middle Ages it was prosperous thanks
to wool production, and was for some time connected to the Medici family. Today,
roughly a third of the village belongs to Daniele Kihlgren, a modest, Swedish-Italian
entrepeneur who spent about ve years and several million euros reinventing it as
an albergo diffuso (a hotel with bedrooms in several buildings). Its the kind of place
that will appeal to the time traveller in all of us: in Abruzzo, pagan rituals are still
practised and centuries-old hermitages lie hidden deep in the mountains; and
Sextantio itself with its worn stone oors and low ceilings, some with ancient
smoke stains feels older than anywhere imaginable. Into this deep seam of history
Kihlgren has inserted seamless infrastructure, designer lights, sleek glass-enclosed
rain showers and Philippe Starck loos. Typical Abruzzese meals, such as maccheroni
alla chitarra, are cooked by villagers using traditional recipes and ingredients, and
supper, served in the candle-lit, restored stone hall, feels both mystical and thrilling.
After a few glasses of Montepulciano dAbruzzo, you can almost see the ghosts.
+39 0862 899112; www.sextantio.it/santo-stefano. Doubles from about 85
THE PIG
HAMPSHIRE, UK
PAWS UP
MONTANA, USA
Well, this is proper country. Grasses tall
as ladders; rivers that run through it; shiny
black Angus cattle like full stops on pages
and pages of elds. This is ranching, but
souped-up to the max, with private houses
and hot tubs, an entire tented spa camp
and sensational steaks to go with full-thottle
Martinis. You wont have a minute to spare
here, theres so much to do: herd cattle,
quad bike, white-water raft, ride on gorgeous
steeds through clouds of butteries and
daisies with heads as big as hands. Each night
therell be a singalong or a jaunt on a horse-
drawn caravan to a certain spot in the river

for barbecues and smores. Children throw
sticks and catch crickets and pet goats and
make new friends; adults nd themselves on
the most extraordinary adventures, covered
in dust, yelling like banshees, and secretly
hoping that Max, a cowboy with his jeans
pulled up high over his bottom, will take notice
of their skills. Its the most super-slick, highenergy lodge in the Wild West and its brilliant.
www.pawsup.com. Brown + Hudson (www.
brownandhudson.com) offers a four-night stay for
a family of ve in a River Camp at the Resort at
Paws Up from 8,500, including some activities
and all meals. Excludes international ights
PHOTOGRAPHS: CHRIS CALDICOTT; SEAN FENNESSY;

STEPHAN GLADIEU/FIGAROPHOTO/CAMERA PRESS;
DAVID NICHOLAS GIRALDO; STEFANO SCATA
There was never any doubt this bolthole would bring

innovation to the New Forest when it opened in 2011.
With Hotel du Vin creator Robin Hutson at the helm,
how could it fail? Call this a hotel, or a restaurant with
rooms (26 in all, some in the main house, a former
hunting lodge, others in refashioned outbuildings).
What really matters is that The Pig gathers our current
obsessions under one roof. Artisan produce? Food is
sourced nearby or homegrown; guests are encouraged
to stroll through the walled kitchen garden with enough
raised beds to make Monty Don weep. Retro chic?
Settle yourself into the bar where distressed leather
chairs, mismatched vintage glasses and a snifter of
Fernet Branca will deliver the country-retreat vibe
youve been dreaming of. Add a smokehouse (kippers
for breakfast), a treatment room in a shed (smells by
Bamford) and muddy woodland walks to preface
menus (wild-mushroom soup; roast wood pigeon
with sloe sauce), and you have the very denition of
modern-British weekend perfection. +44 845 077
9494; www.thepighotel.com. Doubles from 135
THE
GOLD
TANDARD
HOT
RE TAURANT
2014
THE TOWN MOUSE
MELBOURNE
Theres an art to creating a local restaurant.

You want the neighbours to feel they can
drop by for a glass of wine after work, as
well as attract groups who are after the
whole shebang. The Town Mouse in Carlton
hits exactly the right note. At rst glance,
it appears to be more bar than restaurant,
and the wine list is certainly interesting and
egalitarian, with an orange wine from
Campania, for example, plenty of lesserknown Australian drops and Austrian
Grner. But chef Dave Verheuls menu is
highly rewarding, with intelligent dishes
that treat the ingredient as king and are as
pretty as a picture. Curls of shaved sousvide calamari are served with oyster cream,
dill and fermented apple juice, and the
gaminess of venison tartare is tempered by
sweet disks of nashi pear and pops of ginger.
A feast for all the senses. +61 3 9347 3312;
www.thetownmouse.com.au. About 80 for two
LUCIFER
URUGUAY
With a name like Lucifer, one hardly expects to

nd the Garden of Eden, but this tiny restaurant
in the village of Garzon is heavenly, with only
about six tables and pastel-painted chairs set in
a little garden shaded by ancient fruit trees. Its
the love child of fresh-faced chef Lucia Soria, who
worked with Francis Mallmann (Argentinas most
celebrated chef) for more than nine years,
most recently at Mallmanns restaurant down the
road in Garzon, about a half-hour drive from the
boho beach village of Jos Ignacio. Now happily
cooking in the garden behind her modest home,
Soria serves up daily-changing dishes, including
a tangy gazpacho made with freshly picked
cucumbers and parsley, and perfectly grilled
prawns with bagna cuda and potato salad, all
inspired by the bounty of the day. Soria has also
just opened a second restaurant in Montevideo
called Jacinto. +598 099 255 249; www.restaurant
lucifer.com. About 45 for two. Cash only
79
HOT
RE TAURANT
S
THE CAVALIER
SAN FRANCISCO
Attached to the buzzy Hotel Zetta, this is

Anna Weinberg and Jennifer Puccios
gorgeous take on a traditional British club,
with wood-panelled hideaways and tonguein-cheek taxidermy. In the beautiful front
bar, lined with 12ft arched windows, leather
banquettes and cathedral lanterns, there
are inventive cocktails such as the Barrister,
made with Buffalo Trace bourbon, Nardini
Amaro, white vermouth and Bndictine
liqueur. Weinberg also serves what is possibly
the citys best burger: juicy with tomato
chutney, English cheddar and mustard,
accompanied by the perfect crisp of thricecooked fries. Other classic comfort dishes
include Sunday roast chicken with horseradish
mashed potatoes, minted peas and beans.
The latest addition is an all-day breakfast
menu (bacon sandwiches with watercress;
devilled mushrooms on toast) sure to be a hit
with jet-lagged hotel guests. +1 415 321 6000;
www.thecavaliersf.com. About 70 for two
LAFAYETTE
NEW YORK
Even before it opened in April 2013, this super-sized Frenchie seemed

poised for greatness. First there was its location, on a sunny corner
right in the heart of NoHo, just off the Bowery, which now feels like the
epicentre of Manhattan. Next was Andrew Carmellini, New Yorks
gastronomic golden boy, a cool, relaxed and good-looking chef/patron
with no attitude and a great track record (Locanda Verde and the
phenomenally successful Dutch). And the vibe? On the one hand,
Lafayette feels brand new, with its virgin blue-and-white tiles and
as yet uncreased chocolate-leather banquettes, while simultaneously
looking as if it has been here forever. As for the food, its excellent:
home-made charcuterie, short-rib ravioli, Moroccan lamb, braised
beef cheeks with cockles all served by smiling and eager staff.
+1 212 533 3000; www.lafayetteny.com. About 90 for two
THE COMMUNE SOCIAL
SHANGHAI
Having swiftly unveiled a succession of restaurants across Asia and London,

British chef Jason Atherton has created a second buzz-worthy spot in Shanghai.
The Commune Social follows his familiar deformalised-dining formula, with
no reservations, no service charge and placemat menus. Husband and wife
Scott Melvin and Kim Lyle oversee the cooking in a restyled 1920s British
police station north of downtown. Guests gather around the kitchen-front
Tapas Bar for Mediterranean-inspired dishes such as ciabatta topped with
silky sea urchin and pepper butter, and grilled lamb cutlets drizzled with
spiced olive juice. Savoury cravings sated, they simply relocate to the Dessert
Bar, where pastry chef Lyle artfully assembles delicate sweets, including
peanut ice cream with red fruit and salted caramel. A rooftop cocktail bar
serves post-dinner drinks with views over the tree-lined street. +86 021
6047 7638; www.communesocial.com. About 70 for two
80
MOMUFUKU
TORONTO
David Chang took his Manhattan-based Momufuku empire

global when he launched this Toronto outpost in a glass cube
that dropped into the citys restaurant scene like a cool drink
of water. Each of the three storeys channels a different food
experience: the ground-oor Noodle Bar elevates the humble
ramen (the chewy noodles share a bowl with silky broth, crispy
pork belly, sh cake, and slow-poached egg) for cool kids and
businessmen perched on backless stools at white oak tables.
Then theres Nikai for drinks, Milk Bar for desserts and Daish
for sharing platters. On the third level, Sht has 22 seats at
a black granite chefs counter for a 10-course dgustation
menu, which includes an incredible 36-hour-cooked veal cheek.
+1 647 253 8000; www.momofuku.com. About 30 for two
THE
GOLD
TANDARD
2014
S
THE CLOVE CLUB
LONDON
Before it became an ambitious 95-seater restaurant and bar beloved of the

cool crowd and the critics, the Clove Club was a kicking supper club, where
Johnny Smith and Daniel Willis combined their love of bouncy music
and fun times with sure-handed service and food from the best unsigned
chefs of a generation. Several pop-ups and some crowdfunding later, they
have teamed up with chef Isaac McHale in Shoreditch Town Hall, where
47 buys one of the citys top tasting menus. Cult snacks (oh the buttermilk
chicken and pine salt; ooh the wood-pigeon sausages), brilliant cocktails,
their own bread and charcuterie, and generous yet rened plates of beef
rib, heritage pork or grouse make this a sensational destination with bags
of charm. +44 20 7729 6496; www.thecloveclub.com. 94 for two
BONES
PARIS
PHOTOGRAPHS: BAUER SYNDICATION/CAMERA PRESS;

DJAMILA GROSSMAN; PEDRO PEGENAUTE; CESAR RUBIO
Youre in for a good time at the hottest bistro in north-east Paris:

theres a raucous bar at the front of the bare-bones room (hence
the name), an Australian, James Henry, the former head chef
of nearby Au Passage, at the stove, and a troupe of youthful waiters
taking orders. But dont let the laid-back vibe and loud music fool
you into thinking the food isnt haute serious, because it most
certainly is. The well-paced tasting menu starts with amuse-bouches
such as duck heart with gremolata, before graduating to heftier
dishes including a succulent pork chop, and ending with tarte tatin
and jasmine ice cream. The produce is seasonal and local, and
everythings made in house, including the wafer-thin charcuterie and
the bread and butter, which Henry bakes and churns himself. The
drinks list includes natural wines and craft beers. +33 1 980 75 32 08;
www.bonesparis.com. About 70 for two
RIVEA
MOGG & MELZER
ST TROPEZ
BERLIN
At the foot of St Tropezs landmark neo-Provenal Byblos hotel, Alain

Ducasses latest venture is a chic but casual version of the now defunct
Spoon. It cleverly targets pre-clubbing grazers, style hounds and
die-hard foodies alike. The draw: tasty tidbits of regional comfort food,
meant to be shared among friends on a balmy summer night. Served
on the terrace (furnished with deep seats for late-night lounging), the
staggering assortment includes octopus salad and sardines contes in
basil, and mini-pizzas heaped with mozzarella and rocket. For heartier
appetites, chef Vincent Maillard also whips up elegant main dishes such
as blue lobster with artichokes, linguini with clams, spit-roasted duckling
and seared Sisteron lamb with aubergine. And for dessert, how about
an orange-ower-infused tarte tropzienne with an ooze of custard?
Sublime. +33 4 94 56 68 00; www.byblos.com. About 150 for two
Thanks in part to the citys fast-expanding population of expats

from Israel and the USA, Berlin has seen a small boom in
Jewish-inspired restaurants. On Auguststrasse, formally the heart
of Berlins Jewish quarter and now the centre of the cool Mitte
neighbourhood, is the renovated Jewish Girls School. With four oors
of galleries and restaurants, its home to Mogg & Melzer, which
specialises in juicy pastrami sandwiches. The creative, international
crowd at this tiny caf furnished with funky mid-century nds
perfectly reects the owners, a DJ-turned-chef and a nightclub
promoter. Its popular for lunch but also for a quick supper before
a Mitte art crawl; in the warmer months theres a rooftop table and
views over the beautiful New Synagogue on Oranienburger strasse.
+49 30 330 060770; www.moggandmelzer.com. About 20 for two
THE
GOLD
TANDARD
2014
WILDERNE
SS
HOTEL
AMANBAGH
INDIA
Relaxation and Rajasthan rarely go hand in hand; most travellers blast through it in a blur
of palaces and forts, jewellery ateliers, textile bazaars, tiger-spotting and elephant-back
rides. Thank goodness, then, for Amanbagh, a gentle retreat in a peaceful rural hamlet
just two hours drive from Jaipur. Designed by Amans American architect Ed Tuttle,
this is a contemporary take on a Mughal palace, built of rose-pink sandstone and
marble by Rajasthans master craftsmen and artisans using age-old techniques. Mornings
are heralded with abundant birdsong and the sound of bells and chanting from the
nearby Barakhambi Hindu temple. There is an easy, distinctive sense of place: nearly
all the staff come from neighbouring farms and villages and guests are encouraged to
explore the countryside by bike, horse or even camel. Chef Bhargava Naresh creates
spectacular meals from organic produce grown in the gardens, including biriyanis from
his hometown of Hyderabad. (For those needing some respite from Indian spices theres
a superb Western menu.) Private dinners are served in a chhatri (a small domed building)
overlooking a lake, where hundreds of ickering candles light the evening, and gentle
melodies are provided by Raghuveer, a master ute player. It is all utterly, impossibly
romantic. +91 1465 223333; www.amanresorts.com. Doubles from about 640
82
MINARET STATION
NEW ZEALAND
PHOTOGRAPH: CHRIS CALDICOTT
Set sky-high above the western shores of Lake Wanaka in New Zealands spectacular Southern
Alps, the countrys rst tented lodge is part of the Wallis familys 65,000-acre beef, deer and sheep
station. This is classic Lord of the Rings territory, made all the more extraordinary by its limited
access (helicopter only) and opportunities to heli-ski, trek, sh the pristine waters of the Tasman
Sea, or even accompany Matt Wallis on a scenic chopper ight over Fiordland, landing on
Dragony Peak for a grandstand view of the gloriously named Mount Aspiring. There are four
authentic, insulated safari tents tted with wall-to-wall, home-grown sheepskin carpets, heavenly
possum throws and underoor-heated bathroom pods that were air-dropped into place. Wooden
decks have warming braziers and hot tubs for starry nights (there is no light pollution here). At the
mountain kitchen, reached by wooden walkway, there are open res where guests gather for
meals prepared with fresh local produce including home-reared beef, lamb and venison, washed
down with ace New Zealand wines. +64 3 443 5860; www.minaretstation.com. About 1,000 per
tented suite per night including all meals, drinks and guide services. Helicopter transfers from
Queenstown or Wanaka about 900 per person
SS
WILDERNE
HOTEL
S
SAND RIVERS
TANZANIA
TRAPPERS HOTEL
NORWAY
This is the most sensational place from which to experience the silent snowscapes,
lilac-blue light and polar bears of the Arctic: a 16-room outpost from Basecamp Explorer
on the island of Spitsbergen. A hip interpretation of a trappers station with sackcloth on
the walls, reindeer antlers, sealskin cushions and tree-trunk bunks lit by shermens lamps
the hotel is insanely cosy, soberingly stylish, and beautifully evocative of the islands
whaling, hunting and exploring past. Top spots are the Cognac Loft museum with its
windows in the ceiling for gazing at the Northern Lights, and a long dining table beneath
a map of Arctic exploits where you can sit on log chairs and pretend youre planning an
expedition. As, indeed, you might be: perhaps to Isfjord Radio, a 1930s radio stationturned-boutique hotel with cashmere throws and a piping-hot sauna, 100km across the
ice by snowmobile; or to Ship in the Ice, a 100-year-old schooner with 10 cabins, 60km
away by husky-drawn sledge. Finding this level of comfort in such a brutal wilderness
is surreal; the fact you that you can experience it over a long weekend from London is
mind-boggling. +47 79 024600; www.basecampspitsbergen.com. Doubles from about 165
The conservationist, hunter and walking-safari expert

Richard Bonham opened this fantastic camp in the
early 1990s on a prime spot in the Selous Game
Reserve, where the Ruji River bends lethargically
on its long course to the Indian Ocean. It has been
expanded and smartened up over the years, with
the addition of suites and a handsome private satellite
camp, Kiba Point; but the intrepid spirit of Bonhams
original remains. The eight thatched guest bandas, set
high on wooden platforms overlooking the river, are
open-fronted, low-key and utterly in harmony with
the environment; birdsong and the baritone chuckle
of hippos is the constant, mesmerising soundtrack.
Of course there are vehicles for game drives, but the
point of this place is bush walking and learning to see
the wilderness through the eyes of knowledgeable
guides. The Ruji River, too, is ripe for exploration:
a crack-of-dawn boat safari to Stieglers Gorge, past
crocodiles opping into the churning water, will
paint vivid memories to last a lifetime. As will a night
away from camp, sleeping under the stars on the edge
of a lake after a hot bucket shower and candle-lit
supper. Sweet dreams are indeed made of this.
www.nomad-tanzania.com. Doubles from about 560
TIERRA PATAGONIA
CHILE
The little-travelled road from Puerto Natales to Chilean wilderness lodge Tierra Patagonia laces
through marvellous, archetypal Patagonian sheep country before ending at a simple red gate, the
only man-made feature in a vast landscape of broad bowls and sweeping valleys. Its a tribute to
architect Rodrigo Ferrer that the lodge itself, with its 40 bedrooms smartly done out in lenga
beechwood and natural wool, is near-invisible from above. A two-storey, plate-glass window
dominates the impressive principal salon; bedrooms, too, drink in that view of big sky and tufted
grasses, the bright-blue waters of Lake Sarmiento and the jagged peaks of Torres del Paine. The
owners, the American-Chilean Purcell family, set out to provide extreme comfort in testing
terrain, a refuge for guests to return to having braved buffeting Patagonian gales by day, rambling
with expert naturalist guides. And how brilliant it is to come back at dusk to a peppered-beef
supper paired with a glass of mineral-rich Matetic syrah, and then to sprawl on a lambswool sofa
and gaze out as the setting sun picks out the Torres granite-and-basalt peaks. +56 2 2370 5301;
www.tierrapatagonia.com. Doubles from about 2,800 all-inclusive for a three-night minimum stay
BEACH
CLUB
S
MACAKIZI
BODRUM, TURKEY
PHOTOGRAPH: RODRIGO MORAGA ZUNIGA;

JO WEINBERG
Only sand is in short supply at this ineffably chic beach club. Glamour,
Champagne and exuberance abound at a party thats been rocking for 35
summers. Terraces and decks cascade down through an olive grove to the sea;
gossip from Istanbul pervades the outdoor living room with its squashy sofas.
On the dance deck below models in glittery bikinis sway to exotic sounds. Sea
level is for sunning and disembarkation from superyacht tenders. It is like being
a member of a relaxed and decidedly cosmopolitan club, complete with a spa.
Chef Aret Sahakyans braised octopus carries the endorsement of Richard Gere,
Sharon Stone and Bruce Willis. +90 252 311 2400; www.macakizi.com.
Signature cocktail, Turkish Martini, about 9
BAR DA RO
BAHIA, BRAZIL
Follow a driftwood sign simply marked R, along a winding dirt path out of Barra
Grande, until you arrive at the delta where the warm, wide river drifts lazily into the
bay. Higgledy-piggledy painted chairs and tables with bright, home-made cushions sit
under delicate palm trees and split-bamboo shelters. Cheerful staff with huge grins and
no English point proudly at the display of fresh-cut fruit begging to be whizzed into juices
and cocktails. Laze over ice-cold beers (the Brazilian-on-holiday breakfast of choice)
to the samba backbeat in the warm shallows of the river, your oating table anchored
to the banks by a rope wrapped around a heavy stone. Admire the fashionably tattooed
crowd in tiny metallic swimsuits as they arrive by paddle-board to eat on ultra-light
tempura, goujons of snapper in crisp, rosemary crusts, and most importantly, handcooked crisps, still warm from the pan. Caipirinhas about 6; hand-cooked crisps about 4
85
THE
GOLD
BEACH
TANDARD
2014
CLUB
EXPERIMENTAL BEACH
IBIZA
The setting is glorious, right at the very end

of the salt ats, along a dusty bumpy lane that
youre sure must lead to nowhere. Out here
at Cap des Falc, on the edge of a deserted
pebbly stretch, the funky French dudes from
the Experimental Cocktail Club gang have
set up their rst beach outpost. Its the
grooviest spot to open on Ibiza for quite some
time, joyfully far removed from the Blue Marlin
scene, where girls wobble in the sand on
absurd high heels. Here everyone is barefoot
and chilled-out. Theres the strum of an
acoustic guitar as the sun goes down, punchy
cocktails are poured into heavy crystal glasses
and handsome waiters serve Padrn peppers
and plates of salty Iberian ham under a string of
fairy lights. +34 664 331 269; www.eccbeach.
com. Cocktails from about 10
SALT BEACH CLUB
SHIMMY BEACH CLUB
BARCELONA
CAPE TOWN
When Mediterranean summer madness begins, invariably during the

spring, Barcelona natives avoid the crowds of Ibiza in favour of staying
at home and slipping off to Salt instead. The W Hotels latest addition
to a seemingly never-ending portfolio of venues is this snazzy bar
and bistro that takes a more relaxed approach to the ve-star seaside
experience. Sure, the Veuve Clicquot is free-owing and Isabel Lpez
Vilaltas dining room slicker and more polished than its neighbours, but
its the natty little beach hut in the sand with the pale-wood deck that
makes it so special. Hop across the boardwalk, where powder-soft white
sand has been shipped in especially, and ing yourself into one of the
vintage easy chairs for a pineapple Mojito and a one-off sunset session
courtesy of DJs en-route to the White Isle for the season. +34 93 295
2819; www.saltbeachclub.com. Cocktails from about 9
Looking for a low-key beach shack with a footwear-optional vibe?

Keep looking. Since it opened to much fanfare in December 2012,
Shimmy Beach Club has become Cape Towns hottest place to see,
be seen, soak up the sun and swim. Disembark from your car, boat
or helicopter, and youre greeted by oor-to-ceiling windows that
yield views of a slip of white sand anchored by a freestanding innity
pool and the dark-blue waters of the ocean beyond. The vast space
is minimalist and spare, save for a scattering of glittering chandeliers
and a sliver or two of lustrous blue wallpaper. The crowd sets the
scene, day or night, with the citys best-dressed and best-looking
sipping on cocktails. You can kick off your sandals when you get to
the sand, but they had better be Louboutins. +27 021 200 7778;
www.shimmybeachclub.com. Strawberry Daiquiri about 3
10.7
FORMENTERA
While everyone is nudging in front of each others Sunseeker

to anchor at the best spot in the overcrowded waters off Illetes
Beach, and busting a gut to get a table at Juan y Andrea for a plate
of humdrum paella and the teeny-tiny chance of being there at the
same time as Beyonc and Jay Z, the cooler crowd is kicking back
here. White directors chairs sit in the shade beneath a bamboo
awning, looking out to a shock of turquoise sea. Tables are laden with
magnums of crisp Provenal ros in dripping ice buckets, platters of
fresh sashimi chef Masahito Kanayama hails from Osaka and bowls
of hand-made tortellini. If you want to op on the beach afterwards
theres a little gathering of beds and umbrellas down by the water; but
at the weekends, lunch is long-haul, stretching well into the early
evening with rounds of espressos turning into calls for jugs of sangria as
the music notches right up. www.10punto7.com
86
THE
GOLD
TANDARD
S
SOMA PROJECT
2014
GOA
Aswem Beach is the epicentre of boho chic in Goa; Jade Jagger has a
home here and the nearby restaurants and shacks attract the Gypset.
SOMA is modelled on the lounge bars of Ibiza and Mykonos and set
within a coconut grove on the shores of the Arabian Sea. Its relaxed
during the day, with guests lounging in private cabanas; the energy shifts
at sunset when DJs get to work. SOMA Sundays are now legendary:
members of political dynasties mingle with a clued-up crowd of artists,
designers and models, and the odd tycoon can be seen jumping off a
yacht to wade ashore and order a SOMA Chiller, made with gin, cranberry
and apple juice, fresh fruit and topped with lemon soda. Its quite a scene.
+91 982 239 5522; www.facebook.com/somaprojectgoa. Cocktails about 5
THE SAILING CLUB
KEP, CAMBODIA
Its pretty obvious why this tiny, waterfront town was once fondly
known as Kep-sur-Mer. This is where the St Trop set built their
modernist holiday homes in the 1960s and 1970s, and they still
come. The club, once a weatherbeaten shermans cottage, has
duck-egg blue timber walls, and simple, white-painted wooden
tables and chairs. Slender girls with tousled hair and silver rings on
their toes oat about like nymphs, cocktail-in-hand, wearing Chlo
and Isabel Marant. Like the buzzy crab shacks along the seafront,
the dining area is stilted over the water; ying sh plop in and out of
the water alongside the pier, which icks out like a lizards tongue
towards Vietnams Phu Quoc. It is a sensational setting for cracking
into the mighty claws of blue swimmer crab fried with green pepper
from Kampot, and big, fat squid from the Gulf of Thailand. +855 78
333685; www.knaibangchatt.com. Cocktails from about 3
PHOTOGRAPHS: DARREN SOH; CHRIS WISE
CAFE DE LA MUSIQUE
TANJONG BEACH CLUB
BAHIA, BRAZIL
SINGAPORE
At some beach bars everyone else seems to have met before on Warren
Beattys yacht. Not so Caf de la Musique. Whether its because its
stuck out on the tip of a peninsula in isolated Barra Grande, or that
the Bahian people are some of the friendliest and irtiest in the world,
theres a real sense of camaraderie here. All kinds of smiley people come
to lounge around on the rough wooden furniture, drink fruit Daiquiris and
then, when the sun goes down and the coloured lanterns that swing from
the palm trees are illuminated, dance on the sand at the waters edge. The
owner is more into jazz than four-to-the-oor, and the music is brilliant,
working its way up from Serge Gainsbourg dub and jazz to Tropicalia.
Smile back, and youll nd yourself invited to the party of the weekend.
+55 73 9957 1400; www.facebook.com/cafedelamusiquepontadomuta
On the far edge of the island of Sentosa, Tanjong feels a million

miles from the hustle of Singapore, yet its just a 15-minute drive
from the citys marina. Australian brothers Christian and Julian Tan,
the duo behind Singapores most vibrant hangouts, have set up
shop on the islands best stretch of beach, with sand imported
from Malaysia and Indonesia. The club features laid-back, LA-style
minimalist design, with long wooden tables leading out to a sleek
pool and huge beds on the sand. By day, people in the know slip off
here to sunbathe and sip on thirst-quenching cocktails, such as the
signature Tanjong Sling. By night, DJs play to a cool, thirtysomething
crowd who come to party with sand between their toes. +65
9750 5323; www.tanjongbeachclub.com. Tanjong Sling about 10
2014
CLA
IC
S
SS
THE
GOLD
TANDARD
RE TAURANT
LE MIRAZUR
MENTON, FRANCE
Built into a lush hillside above the sea at Menton, this
luminous restaurant a sleek, multi-level structure of glass
and chrome surrounded by tropical plants sits bang on
the Italian border. Headed by Argentine-born chef Mauro
Colagreco, the restaurant won its second Michelin star in
2012; the inspired Mediterranean food is an exuberant mix
of vegetables and fruit decorated with owers and wild herbs
and drizzled with specially concocted lemon olive oil.
Colagrecos ever-evolving trio of xed-price menus are
seasonal, with some ingredients plucked from the terraced
garden across the road. After a mini-shot of yellow gazpacho
come starters such as asparagus salad and grapefruit,
followed by perfectly cooked fresh cod with fennel sauce
and curry-spiked mascarpone mousse, then coconut ice
cream for pudding. Book a table on the terrace for the
sweeping vistas of Menton Old Town and the harbour.
+33 4 92 41 86 86; www.mirazur.fr. About 115 for two
TEGUI
BUENOS AIRES
Five years after it opened in Buenos Airess hip Palermo district, Germn
Martiteguis third restaurant is thriving behind its black door on a
graffiti-scarred block. The handsome interior still draws comment, the
one-storey townhouse stripped back to resemble a vault, opening to a
spot-lit kitchen of steel and bleached wood at the rear and a cluster of
banana palms in a side courtyard. But it is Martiteguis ability to embrace
both tradition and innovation that appeals to international and local foodies.
The ve starters and ve mains change weekly, and include updated local
classics such as veal tenderloin with a potato, egg and chimichurri garnish
or crisp grilled sweetbreads matched with blood sausage and apple
sorbet, as well as memorable de autor (signature) dishes including red
tuna, seared and served with raspberries and rocket. +54 11 5291 3333;
www.tegui.com.ar. About 75 for two
88
CAELIS
BARCELONA
Barcelonas Palace Hotel (formerly the Ritz) opened
in 1919, and its belle-poque glory is unmistakable,
from the grand lobby and wood-panelled cocktail bar
to the sensational gilded ballroom, home to chef
Romain Fornell. Here, painted ceilings dripping with
crystal chandeliers are framed by carved plaster
cornices, and royal-purple banquettes and decadently
spaced dining tables are interspersed with lavish ower
arrangements, making it the most glamorous dining
room in town. Fornells food nods to the new-wave
without being off-the-wall: an inspired craysh
capuccino with wild asparagus, or an unexpected
suckling pig with hot radishes and peach ice cream top
the bill. Barcelona residents sneak off midweek for a
long lunch, a treat made all the more delectable at the
eight-cover chefs table in the kitchen. +34 935 101
130; www.hotelpalacebarcelona.com. About 150 for two
UBIQUITOUS CHIP
NEW YORK
Founded in 1971 to assert that Scotland had a cuisine, this resolutely

independent-thinking restaurant sits in a cobbled mews in Glasgows
student-swamped West End. Its surprisingly verdant, with tables spread
around a ower-lled courtyard and an upper level for less expensive,
brasserie-style food. The menu champions Scottish produce
Galloway venison, scallops from Islay but thats only the means to a
sublime ending: richly satisfying dishes that are so thought-through its
agony to make a choice. Classics such as tuna tartare, monksh and
haggis come with an intriguing supporting cast, such as, respectively,
Bloody Mary tomatoes, peanut milk and turnip cream. Exciting wine
pairings make this a favourite for young couples and graduation-day
celebrations, but with the premises also housing a pub, cocktail bar and
roof terrace, The Chip is equally welcoming if youre only after a wee
drinkie. Oh, and maybe some of that Arbroath-smokie pt with oatcakes.
+44 141 334 5007; www.ubiquitouschip.co.uk. About 85 for two
Many of Manhattans best-known restaurants eventually succumb

to stuffiness or cheesiness or even worse, chainication but
Gramercy Tavern continues to feel elegant and New Yorky after
20 years. Thats largely thanks to its gracious staff: the waiters are
warm and charming, but not chatty, and youll never hear the matre
d raise his voice no matter how hostile the walk-in diners might be
(no reservations are taken for the bar room). The food is comforting
and cosy and procured from New Yorks immediate environs, with
both the bar and dining room featuring dishes such as decadent
duck-liver mousse tempered by zippy pickled vegetables, delicately
poached black sea bass with calamari, and thick chowders avoured
with roasted peppers, octopus and mussels. For pudding, the
savoury-sweet blueberry corn ice-cream sundae with toffee popcorn
is a house favourite. +1 212 477 0777; www.gramercytavern.com.
About 55 for two
LOCANDA CIPRIANI
VENICE
PHOTOGRAPHS: RODRIGO DIAZ;

CATHERINE SUTHERLAND
GRAMERCY TAVERN
GLASGOW
Even though Hemingway hung out here writing Across the River and into
the Trees, this little outpost of the famous restaurant empire has stayed
tucked out of sight, off the track that leads travellers to Harrys Bar and
Cips Club. All the way out on Torcello, this is the loveliest Cipriani by far,
set in a blossomy walled garden in the shadows of the 11th-century Santa
Maria bell tower. Tables, laid with thick, crisp, white cloths, stand under
pergolas heavy with Virginia creeper. Lunch is a completely authentic
Venetian repast: wafer-thin beef carpaccio, creamy seafood risotto, fat
little craysh straight from the lagoon, washed down with a carafe of vino
locale. Afterwards, make a beeline for the front seats of the vaporetto: the
journey to Fondamente Nove takes just under an hour, passing Burano and
Murano on the way. Kick back and enjoy the views. +39 041 730150;
www.locandacipriani.com. About 85 for two
CLA
IC
RE TAURANT
S
SS
STUREHOF
STOCKHOLM
In a town where many restaurants are closed

on Sundays, Mondays, holidays and the whole
of July, Sturehof is like an old and dependable
friend. Open every day of the year, usually from
lunchtime until 2am, its as good for a treat of
oysters and Champagne served by a dapper
waiter in a scarlet tunic as it is for a live band
and late beers in O Baren, its music venue
tucked away behind the restaurant. In summer,
smartly dressed Swedes crowd into the outdoor
area every weekday evening for whats referred
to as en afterwork. Sturehof has been going
strong for more than a century and youll often
see several generations of one family marking
some milestone in the dining room. The Sunday
menu is a steal (for Stockholm) but its hard to
resist pushing the boat out for the spectacular
seafood platter, because it always feels like a
special occasion when youre here. +46 8 440
57 30; www.sturehof.com. About 80 for two
NERUA
BILBAO
Lunch at this superb restaurant at the Guggenheim Bilbao could begin with green-tomato
juice distilled into a clear jus, the essence of midsummer. Then cod skins, curled and spiced
like prawn crackers. Chef Jos Alijas food is every bit as adventurous as Frank Gehrys
architecture. Mixtures are magical and cooking techniques molecular: cuttlesh infused
with green coffee beans, pigeon with pea shoots, sea-urchin pasta cut with the astringent
woodiness of eucalyptus leaves. His laboratory kitchen is like stepping into an episode of
Breaking Bad, with Basque cooking put through the chemistry set. The dining room is
minimalist deluxe, with white tablecloths, Gehrys plaited Hat Trick chairs, crystal decanters
and tall-stemmed glasses. Dishes are presented like works of art: buttery rich prawns on wilted
endive in a coconut and asparagus broth; liquorice ice cream on a smudge of burnt olive
branch. Nothing is left to chance. + 34 944 231 724; www.nerua.com. About 155 for two
KAPPO SAKAMOTO
KYOTO
This tiny Michelin-starred kappo (counterstyle) restaurant is like a magic box. Hidden
within a nondescript block in the Gion
district of Kyoto, it looks onto the Shirakawa
River. Inside, all is elegant simplicity, with
tatami mats and a sleek wooden bar. There
are two low tables, but the place to sit is at
the counter, facing the spotless kitchen.
Here chef Ryuta Sakamoto prepares a
succession of 15 or 20 exquisite seasonal
dishes as he chats to his six counter-side
guests. He speaks perfect English. Everything
is orchestrated to suit your appetite, from
the refreshing jellied spring vegetables with
sesame sauce to the delicious signature dish
of Furi-Yuba: warm tofu skin dipped into
seasoned dashi with wasabi and spring onion.
Add the sake tasting for the dreamiest of
Kyoto dinners. +81 75 551 2136; www.
gion-sakamoto.com. About 190 for two
90
ST JOHN BREAD & WINE
LONDON
The iconic, the inuential, the beyond reproach St

John in Smitheld, though all of these things, is
arguably not Fergus Hendersons greatest hit. Two
miles away, on the edge of Old Spitalelds Market,
Bread & Wine, the restaurant he opened with
Trevor Gulliver in 2003, feels like the true HQ
of honest yet exciting English cooking. It is a
utilitarian space in a former bank, with hat pegs
painted white like the faade and walls virtually
the only decorative ourish. Eat as much or little
as you like from a thrillingly terse list that proceeds
from rock oysters and crispy pigs skin and tarragon
to quail and aioli, ox heart and horseradish, often
a crunchy kohlrabi salad, a whole crab to crack into,
then onglet, plaice or skate. Madeleines are baked
to order, and the ercely Francophile wine list is
headed up by St Johns own-label Minervois. The
true English avours mean this a bright pin in the
map for international chefs; Londoners love its
terric prices and ageless cool. +44 20 7251 0848;
www.stjohngroup.uk.com. About 65 for two
THE
GOLD
TANDARD
COCKTAIL
BAR
2014
JANES & HOOCH
BEIJING
Beijings bar scene is undergoing a style

shift, and this 21st-century remodelling of
a 1930s New York speakeasy is the leader
of the pack. Set across two compact oors
in the trendy South Sanlitun village, its
dark, brooding interiors are hewn from
untreated wooden beams and brick, with
chocolate-leather-topped bar stools
downstairs and comfy sofas in the upstairs
lounge. Dont be shy, this is a place to sip
and be seen: as the clock ticks beyond
midnight, the crowd swells with postshift chefs, media mavens and Chinese
models. The unhurried bartenders pour
a stellar selection of bourbons and mix
mean Prohibition-era cocktails; the New
Fashioned (walnut-infused Zacapa rum with
home-made Angostura and cacao bitters)
is a tangy uplift of the old classic. The gritty
jazz and blues soundtrack completes the
cross-century fusion of buzzing Beijing
and Depression-era Big Apple. +86 10
6503 2757; www.janeshooch.com. New
Fashioned cocktail about 10
THE ZETTER
TOWNHOUSE
LONDON
If you fell down a rabbit hole, you couldnt end

up anywhere more fantastical than the cocktail
lounge at the Zetter Townhouse. Its bold. Its
bonkers. Everything in here is authentic, unique:
heavy wooden furniture; plum velvet upholstery;
deep red and vibrant blue walls. Collections of
curios, everywhere. Gilded-framed oils on the
embellished walls. A prim, stuffed cat wears a
dress of dupion silk. In youre ushered, even in
summer, to warm your nether regions beside the
re by staff who are probably more attractive
and entertaining than the friends youve come
here to meet. Talk to them about what you like
to drink and theyll recommend something with
horseradish vodka or jasmine gin, created and
curated by Tony Conigliaro, so every single one
is dependable and delicious, and costs less than
a tenner. A delight. +44 20 7324 4545; www.the
zettertownhouse.com. House cocktails 8.50
BUCK AND BRECK
BERLIN
Like many cool bars of our time, this one is hard to nd. You might
wander up and down the Mitte neighbourhoods Brunnenstrasse several
times before triple-checking the address and nally ringing an unmarked
buzzer next to a faux art gallery with a sign in the window that says
Sorry, were closed. Once the tattooed barman does come to the door
and says he has a place for you inside, youll feel extremely special as
youre led into a small, black-walled room with space for just 14 people
around its shiny, dark-wood bar (and thats it theres no standing
allowed). The house cocktail is a heady concoction made with cognac,
absinthe, bitters and Champagne, but all are meticulously made, strong
and served in small glasses atop starched linen squares. Perhaps the
biggest treat is that you wont see sele-taking, Instagraming or
tweeting: whip out your mobile phone and youll be asked to put it away.
No phone; www.buckandbreck.com. Buck and Breck cocktail about 10
LIDKOEB
COPENHAGEN
Europes design capital, where even the streetlamps are mid-20thcentury classics, deserved a cocktail bar that looked the part, and
in late 2012, it got one. Lidkoeb, in the Vesterbrogade district, is
arranged over three oors of an 18th-century building, with a large
outside space for those endless midsummer Nordic nights. Still,
its the interior thats the killer here (and lets face it, its dark in
Copenhagen more often than its light). The exquisite main room has
a bar backed by graphic tiles and hung with pendant lamps, sheepskindraped wooden benches and classic posters on the walls; theres a
cosy room upstairs with leather seating and a kitsch-cool palm-tree
lamp. The bartenders are as talented as they are friendly and do
ingenious things with mescal and more. Try the Forrsbobler, with
Four Roses bourbon, St Germain, lemon juice and Champagne.
+45 3311 2010; www.lidkoeb.dk. House cocktails about 10
AER ROOFTOP LOUNGE
MUMBAI
Mumbai, one of the worlds most densely populated cities, is high-energy,

high-style and increasingly high-rise, with cranes at work 24 hours a day
building a new vertical landscape. The AER bar at the Four Seasons
Hotel Mumbai is the highest rooftop bar in India, and it has extraordinary
vistas across the city and out to the Arabian Sea. The look is minimalistmodern and the mixologists world-class, including Varun Sudhakar,
recently named the countrys best bartender. The extended happy hour
(5.30pm8pm) features half-price Champagne and cocktails and
delicious snacks. Among the Indian-inspired drinks is the Madras Caf,
with vodka, curry leaves, passion fruit, pineapple and a hint of coffee.
Once the sun sets and the skyscrapers light up, local DJ Fatbat creates
an upbeat club for the Bollywood glitterati and chatterati to party. +91
22 2481 8000; www.fourseasons.com. Madras Caf cocktail about 10
92
GARDELS BAR
SYDNEY
There is a louche rockabilly vibe at this cocktail bar above Argentine

grill Porteo in Surry Hills. Named after Carlos Gardel, Argentinas
greatest tango musician, it has a relaxed mood set by fashionable
matre d Sarah Doyle, resplendent in full Fifties skirt and blonde
coif, and bartenders in pinstriped trousers and slicked-back quiffs.
Not that the creative crowd kicking back on aged Chesterelds
listening to anything from soul to rock mimic the staff, but they
certainly appreciate the quality service. When it comes to the
drinks, everything is handmade, including the fruit sorbet (added to
gin and sparkling wine in the Sgroppino). For something different,
order the Peanut Manhattan: peanut-infused and duck-fat-washed
rye whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters. +61 2 8399 1440;
www.gardelsbar.com. Peanut Manhattan about 10
REPORTS FROM: JULIAN ALLASON COLIN BARRACLOUGH JONATHAN BASTABLE GARY BOWERMAN PETER BROWNE KAREN BURSHTEIN FIONA CAULFIELD JENNY CUSACK
SOPHIE DENING LAURA FOWLER LANIE GOODMAN LAUREN HOLMES LUCY HUGHES-HALLETT CARRIE HUTCHINSON LISA JOHNSON SARAH KAHN SYBIL KAPOOR
EIMEAR LYNCH HAZEL LUBBOCK MARY LUSSIANA KATE MAXWELL REGGIE NADELSON NONIE NIESWAND SALLY SHALAM ISSY VON SIMSON MELINDA STEVENS
TARA STEVENS NIGEL TISDALL BONNIE TSUI LEE TULLOCH JEREMY WAYNE JOANNA WEINBERG TRICIA WELSH STEPHEN WHITLOCK GISELA WILLIAMS
COCKTAIL
BAR
THE
GOLD
TANDARD
2014
S
MOON BAR
BANGKOK
This place at the Banyan Tree Bangkok should

be on everyones list for sundowner drinks.
The burnt-orange, lilac and blueberry sunsets
are exquisite, and this deantly rooess rooftop
bar, 61 oors above the Thai capital, provides
a top-row seat. Indeed, it occupies a space
formerly used as a helipad. The sense of
elevation is enhanced by both its square
compactness and the absence of view-inhibiting
walls. Understated lighting renders the
360-degree city vistas even more impressive,
although anyone with a fear of heights will
understand why its sister restaurant is named
Vertigo. Many a memorable Bangkok night has
begun on a Moon Bar stool or, more thrillingly,
at a wooden table at the terrace edge, with
vertical views to the streets way down below,
clutching a Moon Romance cocktail (melon
vodka, crme de menthe, peach and lime juice
served on dry ice) as if this really is the summit
of the world. +66 2 679 1200; www.banyan
tree.com. Moon Romance cocktail about 10
KAKEN
THE THIRD MAN
STOCKHOLM
NEW YORK
In Stockholms small but ercely competitive cocktail scene, Kken is

several shakes of a Boston glass ahead of its rivals. Its success is due to
equal parts atmosphere and excellence. Hidden behind a door and down
a corridor at the back of Niklas restaurant, it has wood-panelled walls,
attering lighting and clubby leather banquettes, as well as bartenders
who know how to mix everything from classics to cutting-edge cocktails
but who havent forgotten the art of holding a conversation. All this plus
knock-out snacks, such as baked salsify with Grana Padano. Full credit goes
to manager Mathin Lundgren who has encyclopaedic cocktail knowledge
and vintage charm. And he mixes a great Fangs Fizz: his own concoction
of gin, lemon, grenadine cream and soda water served in a mini milk bottle
with a paper straw so you can fool yourself into thinking its a healthy
choice. +46 8 20 60 10; kaken.niklas.se. Fangs Fizz about 10
Restaurateurs Edi Frauneder and Wolfgang Ban have channelled their

native Austria with this cocktail bar on the eastern fringe of Manhattans
East Village named after their favourite lm noir. Its a rustic but sexy
spot, dimly lit, with exposed-brick walls, wooden booths and extravagant
vases of bud-laden branches. The bar has a loyal following of fashion
folk (one of Ralph Laurens offspring is an investor) and well-groomed
couples, an indie playlist thatll have you reaching for Shazam and,
unlike many of its neighbours, a decibel level conducive to conversation.
The unusual cocktails include the Dowey Laugh, a gin-based take on
a Pisco Sour, and the Harry Lime, made with liquor of the moment,
mescal. Go here before or after supper at sister restaurant Edi & the
Wolf, a few doors down: it serves the best Wiener schnitzel in town.
+1 212 598 1040; www.thethirdmannyc.com. House cocktails about 10
LE GOLDEN BAR
PHOTOGRAPHS: PETRINA TINSLAY; CHRIS WISE
FES, MOROCCO
The labyrinthine Fs medina, with its swirl of streets and souks, can
cause sensory overload. So where to get a drink? Enter Le Golden Bar,
which sits at the top of the Palais Faraj like an eagles nest, the medina
laid out below. At night it looks like a twinkling Milky Way of lights
concealing unimaginable treasures. Most of the areas smart hotel
bars tend to be deserted, but the Art Deco-inspired Le Golden Bar is
always buzzing with a mix of stylish locals and visitors snuggled into
vertigo-inducing, moss-green window seats. Who knew an expertly
made Kir Royal, Bloody Mary or Manhattan could be yours in this most
conservative of Moroccan towns? And if hard liquor doesnt rock your
boat, try one of the excellent Meknes wines or a Casablanca beer. As
they say on the ground: besseha. To your good health, you deserve it.
+212 535 635 356; www.palaisfaraj.com. House cocktails about 10
THE DESERT HAS

ALWAYS BEEN THE
PRESERVE OF
TRAVELLERS KEEN
TO SEE THINGS THAT
ARE NOT THERE:
MISGUIDED EXPLORERS,
HOPELESS ROMANTICS,
MISFITS, VISIONARIES,
OBSESSIVES, THE
DECEIVERS AND THE
DECEIVED. . .
WORDS BY STANLEY STEWART
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JENNY ZARINS
n the great square of Jemaa el Fna in Marrakech, where

magicians, musicians and storytellers compete for the
attention of the evening crowds, I met a man from the
Sahara. He wore the light-blue robes of the desert and sat
cross-legged on a mat. His patch was just across from the
Caf de France, between a snake-charmer and a slightly
deranged singer whose voice was an advert for a tobacco ban.
In this raucous assembly the man from the Sahara was a quiet
presence. His goods spoke for themselves. His mat was covered
with rare and extraordinary items. There were gnarled and twisted
roots, bits of shell, three turtles, one of them still alive, strands of
animal hair, a few lengths of gazelle antler, an entire cobra skin,
the intact bodies of two dried iguanas, and a brown lumpy thing
in a bowl that he assured me was the left testicle of a bull camel.
These oddities were cures for everything from rheumatism
to impotence, from atulence to simple bad luck. Displayed
on chipped dishes and on grubby squares of cloth, many were
potions as well as remedies. A number were key ingredients in
the practice of black magic.
What lent them credibility, to the anxious townsfolk of
Marrakech, was their provenance, the fact that they came from
the desert. On the far side of the Atlas Mountains, the Sahara
stretches away like a magic kingdom, a world of mysteries and
marvels, a forbidding and splendid place where nothing and
anything seems possible.
Its name comes from the Arabic Sahra al Kubra the Great
Desert. At about 3.5 million square miles, the Sahara is the
size of the USA but with the population of Norfolk. Stretching
3,400 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, it is one
of the worlds most spectacular and most familiar geographical
facts. Everyone carries its image in their own personal atlas
of the imagination, along with the Himalayas and the South
Pole. But few people have actually been there. To this day, the
most reliable means of crossing the Sahara is by camel.
To readers of Paul Bowles, the trajectory of the journey
into the Sahara is a familiar one. It begins with innocent
curiosity on the coast and ends with disorientation, delirium
and Debra Winger locked up in a harem in some remote
oasis. The desert has always been the preserve of travellers
keen to see things that are not there: misguided explorers,
hopeless romantics, mists, visionaries, obsessives, the deceivers
and the deceived they love all that emptiness. With a camel
and a decent map of wells, any self-deluding fool can project
his fantasies on that blank heart.
ut times have changed. You no longer need to be a

Tuareg with a big turban or a fanatic with a tiny grasp
of reality to contemplate the desert stars. A host of
travel operators have made inroads into one of the
worlds last great adventures, providing the kind of stylish
elegance normally found on upmarket East African safaris. You
can now sleep under Saharan constellations in more comfort
than can be found camping in the Lake District. Few places
offer such a stark contradiction to all that we know about
the world. Inhospitable and threatening, the desert seems to
promise some kind of purity, a clean and exhilarating antidote
to confusion and compromise. It is a place of continual surprise,

but its greatest surprise is that it is only four hours ight from
London, making it closer than New York.
In the square in Marrakech, my new friend the magic-potion
salesman offered a couple of words of advice about the Sahara.
Believe nothing that you cannot touch, he said. The desert is
a world of mirages. Rely on nothing until it happens. The desert
is a place of false dawns. And never buy a camel testicle unless
you have seen it being removed in front of you. The testicle
market, it seems, is ooded with fakes.
The next day I drove south across the Atlas Mountains over
the spectacular Tizi-n-Test pass, dropping down the far side
paradise, a sudden earthly paradise of green shadows and

bubbling water, of blossom scent and birdsong. In Skoura,
donkeys and bicycles meander along dusty lanes, through
date and olive groves, around almond and g orchards, past
adobe walls and heavy wooden doors. Sailing like galleons
through Skouras waves of greenery are a dozen or more
kasbahs, Moroccos equivalent of the feudal castle. The most
famous is Amerhidil, whose narrow, tapering towers appear
on the old 50-dirham note.
Kasbahs may have been built for defence, but their architecture
is really a fortication against wives. Moroccan sheikhs tended
to overdo it on the wife front, and the rambling kasbahs were
BELIEVE NOTHING THAT YOU CANNOT TOUCH,

IM TOLD. THE DESERT IS A WORLD OF MIRAGES
through rocky canyons to Ouarzazate, the Moroccan gateway
to the Sahara and the lm capital of North Africa. Epics from
Lawrence of Arabia to Gladiator have been lmed here. Beyond
the town the road swung eastwards along the Dads Valley, the
Valley of a Thousand Kasbahs, a wilderness of volcanic rock and
limestone pinnacles. To the north, the ramparts of the Atlas were
sinking into late-afternoon shadow. Rivers come and go here
as unpredictably as rain showers in Orkney, encouraging a string
of oases. The largest and most delightful is Skoura.
For centuries desert travellers, admittedly a little demented by
the sun, have likened the arrival at a Saharan oasis to reaching
the result. The buildings sprawled because the harems did.

They contained secret passages and hidden chambers because
family arrangements required a good deal of discretion. And
because there were so many wives, extended families became
very extended indeed. It is reckoned that Amerhidil currently
has more than 300 owners. With such complex and disparate
Above, from far left: exterior and interior views of the guest tent at Dar
Ahlams desert camp near Iriki; the sprawling kasbah of Amerhidil, the
best-known building in the Skoura oasis; one of the original kasbah doors
opening onto a guest bedroom at Dar Ahlam. Previous page: a bedroom,
a lamp-lit corridor, lunch in the gardens and a stairway at Dar Ahlam
ownership, it can become impossible to get agreement

about change or development. Thus many of the kasbahs
are falling into picturesque ruin.
Dar Ahlam is a rare exception. Built in 1920, it was one
of the last of the great Skoura kasbahs. It is now one of
Moroccos most exclusive hotels, having been renovated
in 2002. A blank and formidable exterior of pis walls loomed
over the lanes. A huge wooden door creaked open and
I stepped into an Arabian Nights world of labyrinthine
passageways and intimate salons, of fountained courtyards
and cushioned alcoves. Terraces led outside to lush walled
gardens, like miniature versions of the surrounding oasis.
Steps climbed to roof terraces with panoramas over the tousled
heads of palm trees to the Atlas Mountains.
Kasbahs are a kind of theatre, an elaborate set with unexpected
entrances and exits, a fantasy narrative in a fairy-tale castle.
At Dar Ahlam the metaphor extends to meals. Guests eat
independently, at a time of their choosing, but the location
is always a surprise. At lunch I was ushered to a low table
surrounded by bolsters and cushions, laid out in a grassy aisle
between ancient olive trees swathed in long bolts of silk. In
the evening, dinner awaited me in a room full of candles, a host
reptilian hide bounded by distant, skeletal mountains before

God got around to all the decorative ourishes that soften
other landscapes. The plains stretched away to unfathomable
distances. It was impossible to say if a range of low hills was
one mile or a hundred miles away. Mirages began to appear,
glistening lakes, oating trees, permanently out of reach.
So emphatic a geographical fact, the Sahara suddenly seemed
strangely unreliable, not so much a physical entity as a trick
of the light, a quirk of the imagination.
After an hour or so came the sand dunes, away to our
right, riding like smooth humpbacked whales in a at sea.
Suddenly, the driver veered off the track and into their midst.
Porters materialised like desert genies to unload my bags.
Then a waiter arrived and led me up the sandy anks of a
long ridge where tea was laid out on a low table. A tumbling
confusion of dunes, golden in the late-afternoon sun, stretched
away as far as I could see.
My tent lay in one of their hollows. The size of a small
chalet, it was Saharan chic: Berber rugs, wrought-iron lanterns,
a double bed covered with piles of cushions, a palette of
neutral colours. There was a bathroom attached with a
clever water system to allow for desert showers, and a rather
IN THE CHILLY NIGHT THE SAND WAS STILL WARM.

IT WAS LIKE LYING ON AN ELECTRIC BLANKET
of wavering ames multiplied by enormous wall mirrors.
I found breakfast in a grove of gs, the table straddling a
small irrigation channel so tea, eggs, fruit and honey were
accompanied by the soothing burble of water.
To the untutored eye, the Dads Valley may seem like
desert, at least beyond the connes of its oases. But the real
Sahara still lay some way to the south. The kasbah is an elegant
stepping-stone. Five hours away, in the pristine sand dunes of
Iriki, Dar Ahlam owns a private desert camp that offers guests
solitude in a style few travelling sheikhs could have equalled.
The following morning I set off for the real desert with
my guide in a four-wheel-drive. We took the road south over
the Tizi-n-Bachkoum pass, through a wilderness of craggy
outcrops and deep gullies, of narrow gorges and bare hills.
Away to the west the heights of the Anti-Atlas stood out
against slate-coloured skies. Here and there, where the valleys
widened, there was a sudden greening as meagre water courses
allowed palms and olives and gs to grow in carpets of grass.
We stopped for lunch in a palm grove and picnicked on
roast chicken, salad and a bottle of ros, watched by a couple
of urchins and a trio of bemused goats.
By the time we got to the military outpost of Foum Zguid,
we had emerged from the hills onto vast, arid plains. The
Sahara was taking charge of the landscape. Just beyond the
town, we left the paved road for desert tracks, passing a
small caravan of nomads resting beneath thorn trees while
their hobbled camels grazed on scrub.
We were crossing the gravelly plains known as hamada.
The earth on the rst day must have looked like this a dry,
Opposite, a hammock in the gardens of Dar Ahlam. Following page,
clockwise from top left: bathroom essentials at Dar Ahlam; the
swimming pool and gardens viewed from the rooftop; a bathroom
at Dar Ahlams tented desert outpost; the hotels Indian Suite
nifty chemical loo. In the world of Saharan travel, I was

obviously in club class.
I spent the last hours of the day clambering among the
dunes, as smooth and inviting as freshly fallen snow. Late
sun raked across their ribbed faces. Shadows pooled in their
hollows. Along their crests the sharp line between sun and
shadow seemed to be the only precise element among these
uid, wind-carved shapes.
When night arrived with equatorial quickness, a man appeared
carrying a dozen lanterns, laying them carefully across the sand
slopes, marking out avenues between my tent and the outposts
of my evening. After a shower, I followed the lanterns to a carpet
where I reclined on bolsters with an aperitif while the stars
thickened above me. Another trail of light led to a dune valley
where a candlelit table awaited. Waiters melted out of the darkness
with a series of spectacular dishes a spicy lentil soup known
as harira, a Berber tagine, and a heavenly concoction of orange,
grapefruit and carrot all served with a crisp Chablis.
Later, I lay on the dunes above my tent, smoking a cigar,
gazing at the stars. The lanterns had been taken away, the night
was black, and the sky was clearer and closer than anywhere
on earth. Though the air was chilly, the dunes were still warm
from the days sun. It was like lying on an electric blanket.
I burrowed my bare feet into the warm sand, and gazed
up at innity. Here is the real reason you should come to
the Sahara. We all like to brush up against something much
bigger than ourselves, much greater than the connes of
our own understanding. It lends our existence meaning, it
lends our lives weight.
The desert is humbling all that vastness, all that hostile
landscape the size of a continent but even the Sahara is
dwarfed by its own night skies, the endless constellations, thick
as grapes, far too remote to understand.
MAP: ANDREW MACGREGOR
GETTING THERE
The Ultimate Travel Company
(www.theultimatetravelcompany.
co.uk) offers a ve-day stay in
Morocco, with two nights at
Dar Ahlam and one at the hotels
camp in the Saharan dunes.
It costs from 2,450 per person,
including all meals and drinks
at Dar Ahlam and the camp,
ights and private transfers.
Extensions can be arranged to
any destination in Morocco.
For a less expensive desert-camp
experience in the same area,
try Maroc sur Mesure (www.
camps-nomades.com). Its
tents are about four hours from
Ouarzazate, or 40 minutes by
four-wheel-drive from Tazzarine,
and cost from about 125 a night.
THREE MORE
DESERT SAFARIS
EGYPT Siwa oasis
When Alexander the Great
needed a break, he headed for
Siwa, the remote oasis in Egypts
Western Desert. Travel was tricky

in those days: Alexander and his
companions almost died of thirst
and were lost in a sandstorm on
the way there. Siwa is still a bit
of a hike; it is six hours by road
from Alexandria. Isolated from the
rest of Egypt, it has evolved its
own distinct dress, traditions and
dialect. A number of small hotels
have opened in recent years, but
the best is still the Adrre Amellal
(www.adrereamellal.net), which
is a cross between the asceticism
of a Cistercian monastery and the
luxury of a Turkish seraglio. This is
the sybarites Sahara no trekking,
no travelling, just lounging, spa
treatments and candlelit dinners
beneath the desert stars. Doubles
cost from about 375, including
all meals, drinks and activities.
Alternatively, Bales Worldwide
(www.balesworldwide.com) has
an 11-day Egyptian tour including
three nights in Siwa, as well as
visits to Cairo and Alexandria,
from 1,895 per person.
OMAN Wahiba Sands

In the northern corner of the
sultanate, this sea of sand
stretches for more than 10,000
square kilometres from the
mountains to the Arabian Sea.
The vast landscape has been
sculpted for thousands of years
by a south-west-blowing
monsoon and shamal trade winds
coming from the east. By day
the towering dunes uninhabited
save for a smattering of roaming
desert tribes glow neon orange
and ery red; at night all is serene
as a starry canvas stretches out
above you. The Ultimate Travel
Company (www.theultimate
travelcompany.co.uk) offers
self-drive itineraries into the
Wahiba Sands, travelling in a
four-wheel drive and sleeping in
Bedouin-style tents in the shelter
of the spectacular undulating
dunes. This is part of a 10-day
trip which also includes Muscat,
the forts and souks of Nizwa, the
hill villages of Jebel Akhdar,
the seaside town of Sur, a visit

to spot turtles, and the Arabian
Gulf coast; it costs from 3,065
per person, including ights
from Heathrow.
TUNISIA On foot
For those who like their desert
to be within striking distance of
the beach, Tunisia is the answer:
it offers the opportunity to have
a Mediterranean beach holiday
and a Saharan safari on the same
trip. The coastline has a string of
low-key resorts built in traditional
style on splendid beaches. Inland,
Tunisia is quickly overtaken by
the desert, where Exodus (www.
exodus.co.uk) organises trekking
holidays. Its eight-day itinerary,
including ve nights camping
in the desert with meals cooked
on an open re, passes through
an epic landscape of dunes and
wadis and includes a visit to the
ruins of the Roman fort at Ksar
Ghilane. From 949 per person
including ights.
kicking
upA
storm
Theres an unruly
mob rocking the oh-so
chic status quo in
Paris. And theyre
intent on one thing:
having a riotous good
time. Kate Maxwell
joins the creative crew
of artists, writers
and designers lighting
up the coolest
corner of the city
Photographs by
Pari Dukovic
103
ow, parisians are loud. It was 10.15pm on a

Thursday night at Bones, a restaurant in the 11th
arrondissement, and the din was making it difcult to focus
on the menu. A group of girls, one wearing a large black
hat, another a oral headband, were screeching and
convulsing in the bar in front of the dining room.
I had seen plenty of Paris since I rst ventured across
the Channel as a bespectacled 13-year-old on a school
exchange, but I had never seen anything this, well, lively.
Even just a decade or so ago, on romantic Eurostar
weekends with my boyfriend, the only place in Paris I
could nd open after midnight was the Buddha-Bar, a
vermillion-and-gold Tardis that felt about as French as a
bhang lassi and about as cool as my mothers book group.
Now here I was again, this time surrounded by the
exuberant clamour of people having fun.
Frances economy may be ailing and its politics in stasis,
but its youth culture is nally catching up with the rest
of the worlds. The place to nd it is in a cluster of once
sleepy arrondissements in the north-east of Paris, where
social and economic forces have combined to create a
vibrant hipster crucible with its own internationally
inected yet unmistakably French take on cuisine, bars,
fashion and art. The centre of Paris is a museum. Its for
tourists, grafti-artist-turned-hotel-and-club-king Andr
Saraiva told me when I met him at his Htel Amour, which
occupies a former brothel on the edge of the ninth. Most
heavy on marble and serves mind-blowing small plates

such as squid-ink risotto. But it was the crowd that
made it for me. They wore the international uniform of
check shirts, ad specs, bright-red lips for her, beard for
him but in a way that was unequivocally, undeniably
French. Parisian ipsters, which is what they call them
here, take haute street style to another level. They may
have spent 2,000 on their outt and two hours in front
of the mirror, but youd think it was thrown together
between drags on a Gitane.
Of all the Parisian fashion houses channelling the
je men fous vibe of the hipsters (even Saint Laurent,
under new artistic director Hedi Slimane, got all rock
and roll last season with a black leather collection), its
Isabel Marant who does it best. Walk along the Canal
St-Martin on a sunny Saturday afternoon, unwrap your
takeaway pastry from Du Pain et des Ides on the
Amlie bridge, stride up to the nosebleed Parc de
Belleville in the 20th (which has, by the way, one of the
best panoramas of the city, with the Eiffel Tower, the
Centre Pompidou, Notre Dame and the Panthon all
lining up in the distance), and you will see the designers
look if not her clothes.
Marant opened her rst store in the 11th arrondissement
in 1998, but its only in the last few seasons that she has
become a global phenomenon, due partly to her wedge
sneakers, which have been endlessly imitated, and some
Frances economy may be flailing and its politics may

be in stasis, but its youth culture is finally catching up with
the rest of the worlds
Parisians dont feel comfortable there, and licensing laws
mean only multinationals can afford to open bars and clubs.
As property prices have risen, young creative types have
gradually fanned north of the shop-and-gallery-choked
Marais and the ninth arrondissement into the 10th, 11th,
19th and 20th, traditionally the preserves of working-class
families. This wave of graphic and web designers, artists,
writers and fashion folk are transforming this corner of
Paris into a scene thats both gritty and chic, creating an
unmistakable style and sense of endroit.
I couldnt miss it at Le Dauphin, a Rem Koolhaas
designed wine bar in the 11th arrondissement that is
bashed-up leather ankle boots so popular in north-east

Paris that I saw fewer women not wearing them than
wearing them. Many of Marants designs are derivative;
still, having them makes you feel like the coolest kid in
class. Add the fact that she produces perilously few of
anything and you have fashionista crack.
Fortunately, there is much to distract the Marant addict
in this part of the city. The Canal St-Martin, for one.
Commissioned by Napoleon I to provide Parisians with
fresh drinking water, it was paid for with a new tax on
wine. Later, it became a transportation artery and was
threatened with the cement mixer when boat trafc declined
Opposite, on Alexandre III bridge in Paris. Coat, 1,091; scarf, 399, both Isabel Marant (www.isabelmarant.com). Shirt, 202, Alexander
Wang at Selfridges (www.selfridges.com). Gloves, 155, La Crasia (www.lacrasiagloves.com). Leopard-print bag, 184, Meredith Wendell
(www.meredithwendell.com). Previous pages, top, POR, Tom Ford (www.tomford.com). Shorts, models own
105
in the 1960s. The stalwart little waterway survived, however,

and in the last decade it has become the HQ of Pariss resident
breed of hipster.
Flanked by shuttered, Haussmann-style stone buildings
that evolve into modern, grafti-blooming blocks as it bends
north-east, the canal has a grey-green hue that matches the
leaves of the plane trees lining it and the patina of the iron
bridges which cross it. And standing on one of those bridges on
a sunny Saturday afternoon, I got the eyeful I was hoping for.
Girls reading paperbacks and wearing peasant blouses like those
I saw in Matisse paintings at the Pompidou (and on the rails of
Isabel Marants nearby shop on rue de Charonne), their legs
listing over the edge of the canal. Gangly guys propping xie
bikes against the bridges and unwrapping baguettes and pt.
The streets branching to the west and east of the canal are fertile
ground for boutiques, coffee shops offering free Wi-Fi and a
formule meal, and wine bars such as Le Verre Vol, a relative
old-timer (it opened in 2000) where I had a glass of white
Burgundy and a perfect plate of sardines.
n art scene far from the one in the Marais, both in

distance and substance, is unfolding in the 20th
arrondissement, in working-class Belleville, amid the
residential townhouses, primary schools and cafs bordering
the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont. Belleville has long attracted
an arty set, but in the last decade there has been a
deliberate attempt to establish a community away from the
shiny, commercial Marais, where, I was told, any sense of
solidarity between galleries has been lost.
People go shopping for clothes in the Marais, and they stop
in a gallery and buy something, but the art is almost incidental,
said Samy Abraham, who opened his own gallery in Belleville
two years ago. You have to make a conscious decision to come
to Belleville, so the collectors here are better informed. I chose
Belleville because I wanted to be close to galleries and gallerists
of the same generation as me, to be part of something new, he
said. When I arrived here, I immediately felt supported by the
other galleries. Its like a collective, and its exciting.
That excitement is discernible in every gallery, and it rubs off.
I dont really like conceptual art, which is the prevalent genre
here. Most of it leaves me cold, probably because I dont
understand it, and the froideur gallerists tend to exude doesnt
exactly encourage me to ask for help. Not so here. Antoine
Levis gallery is the most recent addition to Belleville; he works
almost exclusively up-and-coming artists under the age of 30 and
insists that everyones rst show is produced within the connes
of his one-room space in just 10 days. He zzed with enthusiasm
as he talked me through an esoteric group exhibition that
included a piece called Collider two spheres lled with slime,
mounted on EP records and Lake Diligence, a folded plastic
sheet holding inky water which evaporated as the show progressed.
The sheer weirdness of the exhibits and the buoyancy of his
delivery left me tingly.
This being Paris, its perhaps not surprising that the most
exciting aspect of the new north-east landscape is the food.
Back in the 11th arrondissement that evening, I found the
neo-bistro revolution seems to have access to a secret cache
of chefs and waiters who are all bearded and devastatingly
At Candelaria. Top, 8,470; trousers, 1,013, both Giorgio Armani (+44
20 7235 6232). Bracelets (left hand), from 196, Eddie Borgo (www.eddie
borgo.com). Watch, 2,875; bracelet, 875, both Chanel (www.chanel.com)
106
handsome. Fortunately, they can cook, too. As at Le

Dauphin, each restaurant is turning up the volume and
lowering the tone: I didnt see a white tablecloth all
week. But theres nothing affected about the food. At
noisy Bones, my menu dgustation (accompanied by a
reggae soundtrack) was a tour de force of small, seasonal
dishes that began with a single smoked oyster and
ended with a scoop of sublime homemade butter ice
cream and strawberries. There wasnt a bad mouthful.
I wanted to have a restaurant where people my age
felt comfortable, where it didnt matter if you didnt
know anything about food and wine, and where I would
enjoy spending 16 hours a day, said 30-year-old
Australian chef James Henry, who opened the
restaurant last year.
ts not just the youths who are breaking with the

starchy conventions of the centre of Paris and
cooking up a storm. Thierry Monassier, who looks a
little like a slimline Grard Depardieu, started selling
sandwiches on the corner of the scruffy rue Keller 25
years ago and returned to the street last spring to
open Manger, an airy, elegant space hung with pendant
lamps tted with lament bulbs, where I had lunch. It
made sense to open the restaurant here, said
Monassier. I liked the fact that the population of this
neighbourhood is mixed and multicultural, and it would
have been impossible for me to have found a space of
this size in the centre of the city.
Mangers chef, William Pradeleix, who has cooked all
over the world, describes his menu as travelling food.
Id describe it as worth travelling for: my aky cod
served with green curry was one of the best dishes I
had in Paris. Everywhere I ate that week, I found a
respect for ingredients, presentation (made for
Instagram), and service that just doesnt exist in other
creative hinterlands: this is still the city of the career
waiter, even if hes wearing a plaid shirt rather than a
white apron. That, and the Space Invader grafti inking
up the shutters on the luminous stone buildings and the
occasional heart-lurching sighting of the Bastille
reminded me that I couldnt be anywhere but Paris.
On the last night of my trip, I had dinner at
Chatomat in Belleville veal carpaccio with cucumber
and nasturtium petals followed by lamb with petits
pois and leeks then repaired to my hotel bar for a
digestif. Mama Shelter is a heavily stylised urban
concept hotel with decor by Philippe Starck, which
opened a few years ago in the 20th below PreLachaise Cemetery, where the graves of Edith Piaf and
Jim Morrison almost buckle under the weight of red
roses. At 1am the bar felt like a microcosm of Pariss
northern neighbourhoods: there was a nine-year-old
playing table football; a brace of sprightly 70-year-olds,
their arms draped around each others necks; plenty of
long-limbed lovelies; and everything in between.
North-east Paris is throwing the sort of party
that everyone wants to be invited to. And as it turns
out, everyone is.
Ruthenium metal and crystal necklace, 2,680; ruthenium
and ribbon choker, 3,875, both Chanel (+20 7493 5040)
paris
northern exposure
GETTING AROUND
The best way to navigate north-east
Paris the 10th, 11th, 19th and
20th arrondissements is on a Vlib
(www.velib.paris.fr) public bicycle.
Pedal yours to the Canal St-Martin,
rose-strewn Parc de Belleville or
60-acre Parc des Buttes-Chaumont.
WHERE TO STAY
LHtel de Nell A triumph of
understated design, with excellent
service and a lauded restaurant. My
only peeve? The unremarkable but
pricey buffet breakfast. +33 1 44
83 83 60; www.hoteldenell.com.
Htel Gabriel Paris Marais
Splash out on one of the Glowing
rooms at this celestial white hotel a
few blocks from Canal St-Martin: the
bathrooms have freestanding tubs.
+33 1 47 00 13 38; www.gabrielparis
marais.com. Doubles from about 210
Htel Jules & Jim The ingenious
resin-lined pod rooms at this hotel
north of the Marais have walnut
showers, terraces and electric
blinds. Off a courtyard with a living
wall there is a great bar that doubles
as the breakfast room. +33 1 44 54
13 13; www.hoteljulesetjim.com.
Le Citizen A contemporary
12-room option with eco-cred
sitting right on the Canal St-Martin.
Rooms have iPads, and breakfast
and the contents of the minibar are
included in the rate. +33 1 83 62
55 50; www.lecitizenhotel.com.
Mama Shelter Bang in the 20th
arrondissement, this has become a
destination for its witty design,
restaurant and bar with DJ nights.

Quirky details include graffitied
carpets and bedside lamps made
from superhero masks. +33 1 43
48 48 48; www.mamashelter.com.
WHERE TO EAT
Astier Frdric Hubig-Schall is the
11th arrondissements restaurant
pioneer: his revamp of a Fifties
bistro eight years ago put the area
on the food map. Have the Foie Gras
Royale if its on the menu. 44 rue
Jean-Pierre Timbaud; www.restaurantastier.com. About 60 for two
Bones This buzzy restaurant gets
its name from the stripped-down
interior, not the meaty menu. The
food is a little more rough and ready
than at some of its neo cousins
but just as good. Save room for the
madeleines, hot from the oven.
43 rue Godefroy Cavaignac; www.
bonesparis.com. About 70 for two
Chatomat A tiny neighbourhood
spot with exposed-brick walls,
simple seasonal food and attentive
service. 6 rue Victor Letalle; +33 1 47
97 25 77. About 60 for two
Du Pain et des Ides One of Pariss
nest and best-looking boulangeries
(the hand-painted ceiling dates from
1860) is a two-minute stroll from the
Canal St-Martin. Try the escargotshaped pastries lled with chocolate
and pistachio or rum-raisin. 34 rue Yves
Toudic; www.dupainetdesidees.com
Helmut Newcake The citys rst
gluten-free bakery is on the east
side of the canal and has all manner
of sweet treats as well as lunch
specials. 36 rue Bichat; www.
helmutnewcake.com
109
Jeanne A Come to this picerie next door

to its sister restaurant, Astier, for the pts,
the charcuterie and the roast of the day.
42 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud; +33 1 43 55
09 49. About 40 for two
Le Chocolat Alain Ducasse The super-chef
opened his rst chocolate factory in a former
garage on a shabby street last year. The
olfactory thwack you get walking through the
door should satisfy most cravings. 40 rue de la
Roquette; www.lechocolat-alainducasse.com
Le Chateaubriand Basque enfant prodige Iaki
Aizpitarte kicked off the areas neo-bistro
movement here, and seven years later the
queues continue to snake around the corner.
129 avenue de Parmentier; www.lechateaubriand.
net. About 100 for two
Le Dauphin If the wait for a table is too long
at Le Chateaubriand, try this newer option from
chef Aizpitarte. Hot young things ock to this
space where each course (smoked veal hach,
lemon-meringue pie) seems better than the last.
131 avenue de Parmentier; www.restaurant
ledauphin.net. About 35 for two
Vivant Table Japanese chef Atsumi Souta

prepares spot-on ve- and six-course xed
menus in a belle-poque restaurant with a
wine bar. The space was once a bird store,
hence the tiles decorated with rare fowl.
43 rue des Petites Ecuries; www.vivantparis.com.
About 90 for two
WHERE TO SHOP
WHERE TO DRINK
North-east Paris is crammed with wine bars
serving reasonably priced glasses and excellent
snacks. Rue de Mnilmontant in particular is
lined with locals-only bars.
FrenchTrotters This shop sells top items by

designers such as Masscob, Comme des Garons
and Humanoid, as well as its own pieces and
a small selection of housewares. 30 rue de
Charonne; www.frenchtrotters.fr
Candelaria Accessed via a door at the back

of its taqueria, this place serves the best mescal
cocktails in town. 52 rue de Saintonge;
www.candelariaparis.com
Isabel Marant For the original nouvelle vague

look, go to Isabel Marant. I found the staff at
her rst store, in the 11th, the most helpful.
16 rue de Charonne; www.isabelmarant.com
Le Glass This sister bar to Candelaria in south

Pigalle parties hard on Mondays and has
Brooklyn beer on tap. 7 rue Frochot
La Comdie Humaine Named after Balzacs

series of novels, this place on a lane off the Canal
St-Martin has bow-tie-wearing deer taxidermy
on the walls and its own brand of menswear.
24 rue Yves Toudic; www.lacomediehumaine.com
Le Coq This industrial-looking space just off

the Place de la Rpublique is a collaboration
between London cocktail don Tony Conigliaro
and Parisians Eric Fossard and Thierry Daniel.
12 rue du Chteau dEau; www.barlecoq.com
Le Mary Celeste If you tire of neo-bistro fare

(its hard to imagine how you could when its this
good), head here for wild oysters and spicy
small plates in a beautiful, boatlike space.
1 rue Commines; www.lemaryceleste.com.
About 35 for two
Quedubon Near the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont,

this bar specialises in organic wines and is
worth the trek for a chat with the eccentric
owner, Gilles Bnard. 22 rue du Plateau;
+33 1 42 38 18 65
Le 6 Paul Bert This casual spot with a mini

grocery and chandeliers made of silverware,
wine bottles and carafes serves accomplished
dishes including veal carpaccio and smoked-cod
salad with lemon mayonnaise. 6 rue Paul Bert;
+33 1 43 79 14 32. About 65 for two
LEntre des Artistes The Negroni with

coffee-infused Carpano comes with a handbashed ice ball at this small spot in the
11th. The team behind it have just opened
another bar in south Pigalle. 8 rue de Crussol.
+33 9 50 99 67 11
The Broken Arm In a northern corner of the

Marais near the revamped Carreau du Temple
market. Look out for established brands such as
Carven and Kenzo, and newcomers including
Jacquemus and Cdric Charlier. 12 rue Perre;
www.the-broken-arm.com
Merci At this concept store with a ower-lled

courtyard, the must-buy is linen: the scarves,
bags, bedcovers and tablecloths come in myriad
hues, including elephant grey and neon pink.
111 boulevard Beaumarchais; www.merci-merci.com
WHERE TO SEE ART

Balice Hertling This Belleville gallery represents
French-Algerian Neil Beloufa, who exhibited at
the Venice Biennale last year. 47 rue Ramponeau;
www.balicehertling.com
Galerie Antoine Levi Its well worth visiting
this space in the 20th to check out its bold,
challenging works by young artists. 44 rue
Ramponeau; www.antoinelevi.fr
The neo-bistro revolution seems to have access to a secret

cache of chefs and waiters who are all bearded and devastatingly
handsome. Fortunately, they can cook too
Manger One of the 11th arrondissements

newest additions is also one of its nest. The set
lunch menu takes its inspiration from a different
part of the globe each day. Top toques such as
Pierre Gagnaire lend their recipes for the menu
du chef, and the restaurant gives apprenticeships
to unemployed locals. 24 rue Keller; www.
manger-leresto.com. About 80 for two
Septime Youll need to book well in advance
for dinner here. The exquisite herb- and
petal-strewn dishes on the menu carte blanche
(chefs choice) are almost as good-looking as
the waiters. 80 rue de Charonne; www.septimecharonne.fr. About 90 for two
Le Verre Vol Just off the canal, this is a lively

lunch hangout and a romantic place for an
evening drink. The food is hearty and excellent.
67 rue de Lancry; www.leverrevole.fr
Galerie Jocelyn Wolff The rst to move to the

area, in 2003, this gallery takes its conceptual
artists to major shows all over the world.
78 rue Julien Lacroix; www.galeriewolff.com
Septime La Cave Head to this spot down the

road from buzzy Septime for a glass of Herv
Villemades Bulle Ros, described by the barman
as fat like butter. 3 rue Basfroi; +33 1 43 67 14 87
Galerie Samy Abraham A highlight of last

years shows here was one featuring presidential
campaign posters slicked with layers of polish.
43 rue Ramponeau; www.samyabraham.com
La Fline For something completely different,

go to this divey bar next to Chatomat. On my
visit, a wild-eyed Pete Doherty lookalike belted
out Chuck Berry covers between expletives.
6 rue Victor Letalle; +33 1 40 33 08 66
Le Plateau This institution showcases

contemporary art from the Ile de France region.
Be sure to pick up Le Plateaus map of the areas
17 galleries. Place Hannah Arendt; www.
fracidf-leplateau.com
KATE MAXWELL
Opposite, on rue Bichat in the 10th arrondissement. She wears jumpsuit, 4,994, Gucci (www.gucci.com). Earrings, 196; ring, 156, both
Eddie Borgo (www.eddieborgo.com). He wears jacket, 683, Emporio Armani (www.armani.com). Jumper, 618, Gucci (www.gucci.com)
110
FREE SPIRIT
IN THE SEVENTIES YOUD HAVE LOOKED OUT OF PLACE IN BYRON BAY WITHOUT A TIE-DYED T-SHIRT AND
DREADLOCKS. ITS NOW ONE OF AUSTRALIAS HOTTEST PROPERTIES BUT, SAYS LYDIA BELL, THE COUNTERCULTURAL
ROOTS OF THIS BOHEMIAN BEACH OUTPOST RUN DEEP. PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALICIA TAYLOR
112
t the top of the lighthouse at Byron Bay, mainland

Australias easternmost tip, crowds gather to watch
humpbacks glide past and dolphins arc through the
ocean-fresh air. Below, cerulean waves curl onto vast,
empty beaches. To the north, rippling valleys of sugar
cane, plantations of macadamia, banana and coffee
and ancient rainforests sweep across the oodplain to Mount
Warning, the volcanic plug where the dawn sun rst touches
Australia. Oyster clouds tinged with gold shroud this majestic
diadem in the rich bangle of the caldera: Aborigines call it
Wollumbin, the Cloud Catcher.
Byron has only been a town for just over a century. Before
that the Bundjalung people came to this secret bay when they
were sick, or to give birth, believing it to be a healing place. The
rst Anglo-Australians here were farmers, followed by surfers
in the 1960s, drawn to the perfect breaks on beaches sheltered
from southerlies. Hippies started congregating here from the
1970s, and as the counterculture caught on they were attracted
to Byron like iron lings to a magnet. By the 1990s, dreadlocked
alternative-lifers known locally as the ferals were everywhere,
until they were ousted by baby boomers in what has become
one of Australias most exclusive property enclaves.
Some old timers have retreated to the hills, their driveways
decorated with rainbow banners and anti-fracking plaques.
Others congregate in the settlements of Bangalow, Brunswick
Heads and Mullumbimby. This is the Byron Bay hinterland, or
Byron Shire, where hedonism has meshed with spirituality, and
the hippies have chutzpah and a splash of cash.
More moneyed it may be, but this is still a place with an
alternative cast, somewhere to shake off the shackles; and
in a country that has outlawed the Mexican Wave for health
and safety reasons, it is very much loved and appreciated.
SOME OLD-TIMERS HAVE

RETREATED TO THE HILLS, THEIR
DRIVEWAYS DECORATED
WITH RAINBOW BANNERS AND
ANTI-FRACKING PLAQUES
back and appealingly Scandi, and

the garden, home to rare-breed
chickens with meticulous mohawks,
backs onto a nature reserve. +61 2
6685 5118; www.atlanticbyronbay.
com.au. Doubles from about 85
VILLAS TO RENT
WHERE TO STAY
Byron Bay
THE BYRON AT BYRON
RESORT & SPA
Previous pages,
from left: have
board, will surf;
the Airstream
trailer at Atlantic
Byron Bay. Left:
Atlantic Byron
Bay. Above,
clockwise from left:
Island Luxe in
Bangalow; The
Byron at Byron
Resort; nearby
Tallow Beach; a
suite at the resort
This bells-and-whistles smart hotel,

cradled by 45 acres of rainforest,
is the only place to stay in the area
if you want top Australian service
(Germanic levels of efciency
combined with non-corporate good
humour). Its on the pristine Tallow
Beach, empty but for dog-walkers
and kite-surfers, and edged by
Tallow Lake, a lily-pad-topped
creek with multiple lotus ponds.
The bedrooms are essentially steelframed boxes with front and back
enclosed verandahs; sliding screens
divide bedrooms and living spaces,
and there are walk-in wardrobes
big enough for a cot. Add a kitchen,
washer-dryer, high-speed Wi-Fi
and a cavernous bath for three and
you have the best family rooms
in Australia. Scottish chef Gavin
Hughes was an early pioneer of

local produce (Bangalow pork,
Yamba prawns) and he likes to
take guests to the Byron Farmers
Market (he calls it his church)
on Thursday mornings. +61 2 6639
2000; www.thebyronatbyron.com.au.
ATLANTIC BYRON BAY

This is the hot new kid on the Byron
block, the project of former banker
Stephen Eakin and his partner
Kimberley Amos. They moved here
for a years sabbatical and never
left, having spied this spot when it
was a tired guesthouse in need of
renovation. Smack bang in town,
its now a constellation of groovy
sun-bleached clapboard cottages,
shacks and an Airstream caravan
in polished aluminium with striped
awnings. The interiors are stripped-
A stones throw from The Byron

at Byron (to which it belongs), the
four-bedroom Domain 7, within
the private Cypress estate, combines
hotel service with the privacy of a
walled domain. Vast is the word:
there are two storeys of slick
contemporary style, with original
art and glass doors opening onto
a garden with a barbecue, plunge
pool, sun deck and one-bedroom
nanny annexe.
For a slouchier beach vibe, the
sun-drenched, ve-bedroom White
House is on exclusive Wategos
Beach (considered by many to be
the best on the eastern seaboard).
It has white-on-white interiors and
plenty of sunlit terraces, and was
the rst choice for Kate Moss.
On the same beach is the The
Watermark at Wategos, a selection
of compact, upmarket apartments
with steel kitchens and Bose sounds,
including the Private Residence
with its retractable glass doors and
wooden shutters. Book through
www.byronbayluxuryhomes.com
115
The hinterland
BYRON VIEW FARM
This weatherboard cottage has
a wraparound veranda to take in
the views from its position at the
highest point of a small working
cattle farm. It is owned by former
boutique hotelier Robert
Schwamberg and his partner, the
interior designer and fashion
stylist Andrea Duff. Their previous
project was Strangetrader, a
homeware store touting the fruits
of their global travels. Elements
of this international magpie look
have been extended to the cottage,
with an Indian pearl-inlay cabinet
for the TV, Tunisian hand-woven
bath towels, Turkish basins and
global cookbooks. The couple spend
Australian winters bobbing around
the Mediterranean on their yacht
or in other warmer climes, and the
interiors constantly evolve to
reect their recent acquisitions.
+61 414 677778; www.byronview
farm.com. About 700 for a threenight minimum stay
MARKETS & SHOPS

Byron Bay
Nothing says Byron like the
BYRON BAY COMMUNITY

MARKETS (rst Sunday of the
month; www.byronmarkets.com.
au), a medley of live music, health
and beauty therapies, crafts and
food. If you cant make this, theres
the Thursday-morning BYRON
FARMERS MARKET (www.byron
farmersmarket.com.au), where
mothers in Thai shermans pants
and their barefoot toddlers come
and queue for organic greens to the
tunes of busking musicians. Byron
is made for pleasant pottering and
window-shopping. IN THIS STREET
(www.facebook.com/inthisstreet) is
a venture by David Bromley, one
of Australias most famous artists,
and his fashion-designer partner
Yuge Yu, and is stuffed with
paintings and sculptures, jewellery
and chic trinkets. Boho fashion and
accessories store SPELL AND
THE GYPSY COLLECTIVE
(www.spelldesigns.com), run by two

sisters who converted their design
studio into a agship store, is a riot
of feathers, leathers and turquoise.
116
The hinterland
ISLAND LUXE in BANGALOW
Clockwise from left:

Atlantic Byron
Bay; decorative
crosses at Ahoy
Trader; window
view at Atlantic
Byron Bay;
artwork at Ahoy
Trader; Island
Luxe in Bangalow;
Atlantic Byron Bay
(www.islandluxe.com.au) stocks
clothes, ornaments and homeware
from around the world, including
Conservatoire International de
Lunettes sunglasses from Italy,
hand-dyed scarves from Algeria
and rings made by someone living
in a tent in Argentina. The look
is monochrome, pared-down
and weathered. OUR CORNER
STORE (www.ourcornerstore.com.
au) sells rustic-pretty homeware;
LAZYBONES (www.lazybones.
com.au) is a gold-papered lifestyle
store that sells to Anthropologie
and Sundance and has its own brand
of womens clothing, sleepwear and
bedding. Its vintage range includes
mad 1950s hats, glamorous Twenties
nightgowns, embroidered sheets
and hand-crocheted bed covers.
Sleepy BRUNSWICK HEADS
(or Bruns as the locals call it) has
a clutch of shopping treasures, the
best being cobbler Amanda Couttss
PEACE BY PIECE (www.peace
bypiece.com.au) for its handmade
creation in everything from leather
to lace. The soles of the shoes
(which can be made to order) are

inscribed with a Sanskrit prayer
which begins: Tread lightly on this
earth. At FABULOUS MRS FOX
(www.facebook.com/fabulousmrs
fox.shop) youll nd a variety of
cross-eyed dolls and toys, fantastical
fabrics and pretty vintage clothing.
Tiny NEWRYBAR is home to
DRIFTLAB (www.driftlab.com.au),
a treasure trove of accessories, local
art, books, clothing and music, mixing
Byron beach culture with the street
inuence of Sydney. The dry-aged
meats, cheeses and preserves at caf
and deli HARVEST (www.harvest
cafe.com.au) are also worth a peek.
Over in the hippy stronghold of
MULLUMBIMBY, the communityowned SANTOS ORGANICS
(www.santostrading.com.au) is an
organic-food store with a strong
anti-corporate ethos, as well as
biodynamic products, a juice bar
and herbal remedies on tap. Across
the road, ART PIECE GALLERY
(www.artpiecegallery.com.au) run
by Gallic migr Nadine Abensur,
showcases artists such as Robyn
Sweaney, who chronicles the towns
old houses in drawings and
meticulous oils and gouaches.
LOCAL HEROES
Naren King
OWNER, CRYSTAL CASTLE
Naren King left school in 1976
and went hitchhiking. One ride
dropped me off miles from the
coast and I walked through a
magical landscape towards Byron
Bay. I had a wish to return one day
and live here. In the 1980s King
did just that and created Crystal
Castle, a temple to crystals. Over
27 years he has also developed the
Shambhala Gardens, with towering
poles of amethyst, vast Ganesh
and Lakshmi statues and a stupa
lled with sacred objects. Tarot
readings, astrology readings and
face-painting for kids complete
the picture. Effusive and open,
Naren has made the classic shift
from laid-back hippy to astute
businessman, and is now one of the
biggest employers in the shire. Why
does he still love Byron? The shops
have become more upmarket, there
is less busking, there are developers
trying to battle the locals; and yet
Byron remains beautiful, magical,
natural and creative. The essence is
EAT & DRINK

Byron Bay
still very much here. The local

community is a colourful mix of
farmers, surfers, hippies, artists and
fun-seekers. We are still a region
trying to make peace in a mad
world. +61 2 6684 3111; www.
crystalcastle.com.au
Beau Young
FOLK SINGER AND
SURFING CHAMPION
Folk-rock star Beau Young often
sings of his love of the sea. Its
unsurprising: his father is Nat
Young, 1966 surng world champion
and star of cult surf lms. Beau, for
his part, has been world longboard
champion twice. But dog-eared
photographs of his childhood,
depicting a simpler life, called him
home: Chopping pumpkins on the
veranda; my father riding his horse
to the beach with a surfboard under
his arm; perfect, sand-bottomed
point-break waves; and the family
and dogs relaxing under a backyard
citrus tree. Life in Byron is all about
embracing simplicity, says Young. I
like a quiet surf on a secluded back
beach: just me, my thoughts, and
some mangoes waiting to be picked
when I come out. There is a third
string to Youngs bow: he makes
surfboards, and says they reect
the Byron mentality. I have always
viewed surng as an art rather than
a sport, much as my father did.
www.beauyoungsurfboards.com
118
THE TOP SHOP
RAES FISH CAFE
The picnic lawn of this repurposed

1950s milk bar with surfboards
tacked to the wall is besieged
with Byronites drinking coco-pine
smoothies. Coffee is treated as
a religion here, and the food is
hand-held, from burgers (the
American is renowned: beef from
local, grass-fed cattle, double
cheddar, dill pickles, a blast of
condiments and a baby-soft organic
sesame bun) to fresh pastries. The
owners, brothers Andy and Charlie
Gordon, are chuffed with the
diversity of their clients: Its great
to see Elle Macpherson just off
the beach having a juice next to
a third-generation plumber.
+61 2 6685 6495
Go here for a beachside brunch

on crisp white linen. Its part of
Raes on Wategos, a celebrityswamped beach hideaway with
seven Indonesian- and Moroccaninspired suites. Zingy-fresh seafood
is given an Asian twist in dishes
such as spice-crusted sh llet
with Thai herb salad. (Take note:
owner Vincent Rae sold half of the
hotel to newspaper king Antony
Catalano last summer, and its due
a facelift.) +61 2 6685 5366; www.
raesonwategos.com
THE ROADHOUSE
It may be on a busy main road
heading out of town, but this
place is fantastic. It styles itself
as an organic wholefoods caf by
day and a whisky den by night.
Interiors are raw and robust, with
exposed brick, moody lighting and
an open replace. Classic lunches
include spicy tacos with snapper,
spring lamb cutlets, and sharing
platters of fermented cheese and
sauerkraut. Co-owner Dan Woolley
is a whisky specialist, but there are
all kinds of cocktails to suit the
dilettante. Try the Tusk: organic
coconut water frozen into a sphere
and drowned in Kraken spiced
rum. +61 413 966618; www.
byronbaycafebar.com.au
BYRON BEACH CAFE

A classic on Clarkes Beach, this is
the inside-out, retractable-roof
joint from which to contemplate the
daily parade of runners, yogis,
paddle-boarders, kayakers and
surfers. Within its wood-panelled
walls, crafted from Sydney Harbour
piers, sun-kissed beachgoers tuck
into spanner-crab tortellini and
abundant salads (the salt-andpepper tofu with crispy won tons,
sprouts, peanuts, baked carrot and
pumpkin is the best of all). You can
also queue at the kiosk for sh and
chips, ice cream or coffee. +61 2 6685
8400; www.byronbeachcafe.com.au
BAYLEAF
This tiny caf deals in brunches
and long, lingering coffees (or short,
punchy piccolos on the run). Food
is prepared in an open kitchen and
served by inked hipsters. Pulledpork panini, fresh home-made pasta,
serious cakes, iced teas, singleorigin juices and the proprietors
own Marvell Street coffee are the
draw. +61 2 6685 8900
ST ELMO DINING
Superb tapas and sharing platters
infused with the avours of Spain
are the draw at this urbane,
Melbourne-style bar-restaurant, as
well as wines by the glass from a
global list of more than 100 labels.
A relaxed winter evening might
involve ordering the slow-cooked
lamb shoulder served with black
beans and home-made yogurt. +61
2 6680 7426; www.stelmodining.com
The hinterland
TOWN CAFE AND
RESTAURANT, BANGALOW
Town has pinned Bangalow on
the map, scooping up a calvalcade
of awards for Katrina and Karl
Kanetani, Sydneysider chefs who
ditched the metropolis for life in
the slow lane. Now they can hardly
move for locals crowding into their
tiny restaurant. At street level is
Downtown, a breakfast-brunchlunch hub with specials of the day
scrawled on mirrored walls and a
countertop piled high with cakes by
Katrina (a pastry chef). Upstairs is
Uptown, a six-course degustation
Clockwise from left:

sourdough bread
at Harvest in
Newrybar;
folk-singing surf
champ Beau
Young; one of
The Top Shops
renowned burgers;
Ahoy Trader; St
Elmo Dining, for
wine and tapas;
Harvest Caf,
housed in an
old cottage
LIFE IN BYRON IS ALL ABOUT

EMBRACING SIMPLICITY. I LIKE A
QUIET SURF: JUST ME, MY THOUGHTS,
AND SOME MANGOES WAITING TO
BE PICKED WHEN I COME OUT
GREAT DAYS OUT

WHITES BEACH
Broken Head, the next headland
south of Cape Byron, is reached
via Seven Mile Beach Road, a dirt
track that requires a four-wheeldrive followed by a 10-minute trek
through rainforest. Once youre
there, trails over the headland reach
further strings of isolated beaches.
NIGHTCAP NATIONAL PARK

The Byron hinterland is packed
with protected rainforest, the best
of which is at Nightcap. Brilliant
walking tracks lead to dramatic
escarpments, swimming pools and
cascades such as Minyon Falls.
GETTING
THERE
Scott Dunn (020
8682 5060; www.
scottdunn.com)
offers tailor-made
holidays to Australia.
A seven-night stay in
a Deluxe Spa Suite at
the Byron at Byron
on a B&B basis costs
from 2,680 per
person based on
two sharing, including
car hire and
economy-class ights
from London
(or dego as the Aussies like to call

it) serving local classics such as
scallops, kingsh and macadamia
for about 48. +61 26687 1010;
www.townbangalow.com.au
HARVEST, NEWRYBAR
This restaurant in an old cottage
exists to make real the fantasy of
Australias well-fed outdoor
lifestyle. The place positively spills
over with happy, sea-change baby
boomers, and the fresh, modern
Australian food, much of it from
the owners organic farm, is the
best around. Sourdough bread
is pumped out of a century-old
wood-red oven at the back; meat is
dry-aged in the next-door deli. +61 2
6687 2644; www.harvestcafe.com.au
MAP: MARIKO JESSE
MAVISS KITCHEN AND

CABINS, MOUNT WARNING
Left: a family
gathering at
Wategos Beach.
Above: Fabulous
Mrs Fox, which sells
vintage fashion, in
Brunswick Heads
The charming owner of this lovely

place, Charlie Ebell, once ran a
smart restaurant on the Gold Coast
out of his Auntie Glads stunning
Queenslander house. After nine
years he bought a plot of land
overlooked by Mount Warning, and
cut the house in three before driving
it here in a lorry. Charlie and partner
Peter Clarke planted the vegetable
farm which now supplies half of the
kitchens produce, including bananas,
pecans, pawpaw and macadamia.
Sharing platters (courgette fritters,
home-made pts, calamari) are
popular, and Friday and Saturday
nights at this remote outpost are
always buzzing. +61 2 6679 5664;
www.maviseskitchen.com.au
FOOTBRIDGE,
BRUNSWICK HEADS
Even the childrens toys are vintagestyle at this pretty beach-meetsriver caf, where the furniture is
reclaimed and the walls are covered
with pencil illustrations. More
importantly, the pulled-pork burger
and the tea-smoked salmon with
hashed potatoes and tomato relish
makes the best brunch in town by a
mile. +61 2 6685 1991
DOMA CAFE, FEDERAL

Federal is a clapboard village
reminiscent of the faded hinterland
of yesteryear. But it has served the
best sushi in Byron Shire ever since
a crew of all-Japanese culinary
wizards took over a tiny wooden
cottage next to the general store
(itself a little lm-set gem). The
prawn tempura, basil yogurt,
organic lentil and green-bean roll
is a crunchy hit. +61 2 6688 4711
MILK & HONEY, MULLUMBIMBY

A pizzeria that has built up an
eclectic, ercely loyal clientele:
hippies, foodies, young families with
rowdy kids in tow. The interiors
are rustic-simple, with bare wooden
tables and a chalked-up menu,
and the no-corkage BYO policy
keeps the prices down. An everchanging menu of creations bursts
with classic Italian ingredients.
The thin-crust pizza with roasted
pumpkin, goats cheese and
rosemary was a recent favourite.
+61 2 6684 1422; www.milkand
honeymullumbimby.com.au
MOUNT WARNING
Scaling this peak, the remnant of
a volcano within the rainforest, is
tough, but you will keep memories
of the view to the end of your days.
LEARNING TO SURF
Rusty Miller gives personalised
sessions and is a dab hand at
illuminating the cultural identity of
Byron through the prism of waveriding. www.rustymillersurf.com
WELLBEING
Byron Bay
THE BYRON AT BYRON SPA
Book time here for pampering based
on the Pevonia Botanical and iKOU
eco ranges. Treatments involve up
to three hours of brushing, rubbing,
stroking, oiling, scrubbing, muscle
easing and emotional cleansing.
With spa food served on the deck,
theres no reason to get out of your
kimono all day. +61 2 6639 2110;
www.thebyronatbyron.com.au/spa
NEW AGE THERAPIES

A look at the Byron Shire Echo will
leave you wondering if every other
person here is a reiki master, yogi
or rebirther. But the more you ask
around, the more paths lead to Ruth
Smith, who specialises in one-onone healing. She calls it frequency
healing with your deep subconscious.
However you describe it, after an
hour with Smith you emerge feeling
as perky as a kookaburra at dawn.
www.abundantia.com.au
121
7
1
ITS PEAK
THERES A BATTLE BREWING IN THE USUALLY SERENE SWISS ALPS AS GLITZY YOUNG GUNS TAKE ON
122
11
10
12
9
8
13
1 The terrace of Gstaad Palace, Switzerland,

1984. 2 Roger Moore at the hotel. 3 A signpost
frames the Matterhorn. 4 Tom Jones and family
in Gstaad, 1972. 5 An Alpine skier. 6 A skijring
race in St Moritz. 7 Richard Burton and Elizabeth
Taylor in Gstaad, 1966. 8 A guide-book sign.
9 Fun in the Alpine snow. 10 Princess Diana in
Klosters in 1987. 11 Jackie Kennedy and children
in Gstaad, 1966. 12 Suvretta House, St Moritz.
13 The Shah of Iran and family in St Moritz
SEASON
THE GRAND OLD GUARD IN THE WORLDS MOST HIGH-ROLLING HOTEL WARS. BY JULIAN ALLASON
HIS SEASONs dazzling

constellation of new hotels across the
Swiss Alps has served notice on the
regions old-school appreciation for
alpenhorn and lederhosen.
Leading the slalom is LApoge, an
amazing new ski lodge just across the
French border in Courchevel 1850. Here
massive bedrooms push the boundaries
of lounge-lizard sensuality, with plenty of
suede and fur; theres underoor heating
on the balconies, food by top chef
Yannick Franques and a Sisley spa.
Regulars of sister property Hotel du
Cap-Eden-Roc in Cap dAntibes will
recognise some familiar faces, including
that of managing director Philippe Perd.
Other key staff have been drawn from Le
Bristol Paris, helping make sure LApoge
hits the snow at schussing speed.
This is no ash in the amb pan.
Over in French-speaking Switzerland,
W Verbier exploded onto the hotel
scene like a pre-Christmas recracker,
with daring design and a Spanish/Swiss
menu from Sergi Arola whose restaurant
in Madrid won two Michelin stars.
And in Andermatt the new Chedi has
introduced a note of oriental serenity
from that master of tranquility, JeanMichel Gathy, the Kuala Lumpur-based
architect whose recent refurbishment of
the Aman Canal Grande is a triumph
over Venetian bureaucracy. Gstaad, long
the Swiss capital of chalet fun, has seen
its second signicant hotel opening in a
year, the boutique Le Grand Bellevue
right in the heart of the village.
Its no wonder the great ski palaces
are upping their game, with battle
lines drawn in the four grand resorts of
the Swiss Alps St Moritz, Klosters,
Zermatt and Gstaad between
revamped traditional outposts and the
new contemporary contenders. In
everyones sights is a youthful elite with
more than skiing on their minds. For
racy Brits, chic Italians and tax migr
French, the skys the limit as ballooning
and hang-gliding join heli-skiing and
ice polo as alternatives to the more
established winter sports. The big
question is how all this will change the
atmosphere in these much-loved spots.
124
t is all about lunch, asserts Tom, a 33year-old London software entrepreneur

who has spent a long time testing Zermatts
38 mountain restaurants. But then just
over the Matterhorn is Italy, from which
culinary and fashion inuences utter with
every snow urry. For visitors this is where
the slow-motion Glacier Express slides
into its nal terminus, surrounded by
Switzerlands highest mountains cradling
runs unsurpassed in the Alps. Snow is
reliable and each peak now linked by a
network of lifts. Forget the resorts former
reputation for queues: fast, new, highcapacity cable-cars have replaced T-bars.
And in those wonderful restaurants the
atmosphere is nothing if not cosmopolitan;
Italian, French, German and English voices
predominate here and in the equally
energetic aprs-ski hangouts below.
In the village centre there are two
memorable hotels. The Mont Cervin Palace
(www.montcervinpalace.ch; doubles from
about 440) opened in 1852 and has been
renovated under the fourth generation
of the Seiler family. Its rival is the elegant
Grand Hotel Zermatterhof (www.
zermatterhof.ch; doubles from about
340). The launch of zippy new boutique
properties such as Cervo (www.cervo.ch;
doubles from about 420) and Coeur des
Alpes (www.coeurdesalpes.ch; doubles
from about 150) has concentrated minds
wonderfully, raising standards all round.
Formality is fading at the Zermatterhof,
with evening dress no longer expected for
1 Mountainside dining in Zermatt.

2 A four-wheel drive loaded with skis near
the village. 3 Zermatt by night.
4 Aprs-ski in the resort in the 1960s
PREVIOUS PAGES, PHOTOGRAPHS: SLIM AARONS/GETTY IMAGES; JAMES ANDANSON /SYGMA/CORBIS; BETTMANN/CORBIS; ARTHUR ELGORT/ART & COMMERCE;
FOUR CORNERS IMAGES; COURTESY GSTAAD PALACE; HULTON-DEUTSCH COLLECTION/CORBIS; DAN KULLBERG; PHOTOGRAPHERS DIRECT.COM
ZERMATT
PHOTOGRAPHS: SLIM AARONS/GETTY IMAGES; FOUR CORNERS IMAGES; DAN KULLBERG; ANDREW ROWAT
dinner, although they still send a horsedrawn carriage to collect you from the
station. Breakfast continues to be served on
balconies, tea in panelled salons warmed
by log res. This is the winter-sports
experience our grandparents might have
enjoyed, but now with invisible tech
underpinnings and a private spa for couples.
Zermatt is agreeably unpretentious,
with a very low-prole chalet scene in
ZERMATTS LOW-PROFILE
CHALET SCENE IS A HAVEN
FOR BRAD PITT, TOM
CRUISE AND MADONNA
some of the Alps most spectacular
houses providing a haven for Brad Pitt,
Tom Cruise, Madonna and the AgnelliFiat dynasty. An increase in the number
of bedrooms permitted has also made
chalets a plausible alternative to hotels
for families and groups of friends. After
all, how many mid-priced hotels come
with pools, tness centres and screening
rooms, not to mention a private chef?
The grand old hotels response to
boutique openings, and what they dismiss
as chalet ination, has been to invest

in extras large enough to make Zrich
bankers blanch. In place of basement
treatment rooms, proper spas have been
constructed, notably at the Mont Cervin,
where Sensai anti-ageing treatments
have a fanatical following.
Cooking in the hotels and on the
mountainside has undergone a dramatic
improvement. At Mont Cervins romantic
Grill Le Cervin the weekly gala vecourse menu demands attendance
(ask for the caramelised parfait of
foie gras even if its not listed). The
Zermatterhof offers imaginative
Mediterranean dishes at its Lusi
Restaurant, named after the folding
lanterns used by mountain guides.
There is more to Zermatt than
gastronomic adventure, though. What
is striking here is the traditional
hospitality characterised by a
personal approach to service. It has
become a point of difference at a
time when other Alpine resorts are
sledging in the opposite direction with
understaffed boutique properties. And
Zermatts hoteliers have 150 years
experience of delivering it with lan.
Zermatt insider
ALEXANDRA ALLASON is marketing
manager for Fortnum & Mason and has
wintered here since she was a child
Zermatt really is a village where everything
is run by half a dozen local families, though if
you think you understand the social strata,
think again. It is all so low-key that the
biggest names can relax without being
bothered by anyone. You should drink at
Elsies Bar, eat lobster broiled
over a wood re at Grill Le
Cervin, party at Hotel Post
and go mad in the shops on
Bahnhofstrasse. The current
foodie sensation is Heimberg
where Christian Geisler
creates culinary enigmas in
an old timber house with
mountain views. There is
no menu; you eat what the
kitchen produces that evening
using only Swiss ingredients. Personally,
though, I am just as happy at WhymperStube, a laid-back bistro where the glam kids
hang out. And theres always the bison with
shrimp at Flualp, sh soup at Zumsee, goat
carpaccio at Blatten and whatever game
the proprietor at Marmot has shot.
ST MORITZ
ineless faces beam out from

swathes of ocelot and mink as
horse-drawn sleighs swish through
the sunlit town of St Moritz. Chanel,
Herms, Prada, Bulgari and a boutique
called Billionaire decorate via Maistra,
business brisk even at midday. With its
1,800-metre altitude, 300-plus sunny days a
year, and federal investment in lifts for
the Alpine World Ski Championships, this
is no mere ski resort. It has been home to
the terrifying Cresta solo toboggan run
since its founding in 1884 by Major Bulpett
(your correspondent fell off at the rst
corner), the bobsleigh, snow polo, whiteturf horse racing and accompanying gala
balls. Little wonder St Moritz is the place
of winter pilgrimage for those with villas
in Sardinia, Spetses and Portono.
At the lakes edge is St Moritz Bad,
where hotel rates are almost affordable
even at present exchange rates. Dont even
consider staying there, insists my friend
126
Rupert. That is where staff are

accommodated. The venue of choice is
higher-up St Moritz Dorf, though socially
it might as well be in the stratosphere. So
precious is the guestbook of Badrutts
Palace (www.badruttspalace.com; doubles
from about 250) that it is locked away
with the crown jewels of visiting royals.
Donatella Versace, Faye Dunaway,
Claudia Cardinale Every Hollywood
lm star, Greek ship owner, European
beauty and poule de luxe has checked in,
many with such regularity their ballgowns
and skis are stored here. Like a great
chteau commanding the Engadine Valley,
this hotel has witnessed fame and infamy
in equal measure since the 19th century
when founder Johannes Badrutt invited a
group of Englishmen to try a new-fangled
way of getting down mountains on planks
of wood. It is still run by his family and
seems determined to hang on to its clientele
through whatever means necessary.
For the last century the Palace has
engaged in gentlemanly competition with
Suvretta House (www.suvrettahouse.ch;
doubles from about 310), an equally
stellar grande dame on the outskirts of
the village. Not any more. Today the ski
PHOTOGRAPHS: SLIM AARONS/GETTY IMAGES; ALAMY; JAMES ANDANSON/SYGMA/CORBIS;

COURTESY BADRUTTS PALACE; COND NAST ARCHIVE/CORBIS; ENGADIN ST MORITZ
1 The Glacier Express.

2 Skiers in St Moritz in the
1960s. 3 Pamela Churchill in
the Corviglia Club, 1952.
4 Christina Onassis and
family in St Moritz, 1986.
5 Badrutts Palace, St Moritz
in the early 1900s. 6 Alfred
Hitchcock at Badrutts
Palace. 7 White-turf racing.
8 Gregory Peck and friends
in St Moritz. 9 Rita Hayworth
and hotelier Hans Badrutt
St Moritz insider
ANGELO MARTINELLI is the much-loved
Corviglia Club manager and resident manager
at Badrutts Palace. After 50 winter seasons
here, he knows everything and everyone
I sometimes wonder if Im the only person
with a clear recollection of all the remarkable
parties here. They are still being thrown today.
After skiing, the toboggan runs, or snow polo,
everyone meets for hot chocolate at Conditorei
Hanselmann, which
has hardly changed
since 1894. Then it is
San Moritzino cocktails
in the Renaissance
Bar, followed by dinner
at Chesa Veglia: the
truffle pizza is my
favourite. For romance
I suggest a ride in a
horse-drawn sleigh
around the edge of the
frozen lake to Meierei Landgasthof for
chestnut sptzle. Sometimes there are moonlit
ski runs down from Corviglia, followed by
dancing at the Kings Club. Somehow in this
Champagne climate you never run out of energy.
gloves are off as hoteliers compete for the

patronage of a young, sporty, Louboutinheeled generation. It began as a duel of
spas, each hotel creating microworlds
where any tension acquired on the slopes
or in the shops could be soothed away by
a La Prairie caviar facial. If the Palaces
Renaissance Bar has maintained the edge
in sheer glamour, Suvretta House has
fought back with a winter-sports centre
resembling NASA Mission Control. A
unique nishing machine costing more
than a Bentley polishes guests skis to
mirror-smoothness before sharpening the
edges for extra grip; this affords a critical
advantage to those competing in the
private races run by the Corviglia Club
(where it helps to be a duke when being
proposed for membership).
Suvretta may be family oriented, but it
has another ace up its well-tailored sleeve:
a private ski lift outside the front door
connecting to a network of runs from which
you can ascend to Piz Nair. At 3,000 metres
it is so high that many people have to pause
for breath at the excellent Panorama
Restaurant. Heli-skiers reach other summits
for off-piste adventures approaching the
sublime. My own peak experience was
rather different: skiing off the edge of the

mountain strapped to a hang-glider, with
the sun glinting on virgin snow far below.
Landing on the frozen lake 20 minutes
later almost induced cardiac arrest.
As for the new sense of competition
with other resorts, matters rest with what
one inhabitant calls an investment race,
in which the grand hotels aim to renew
themselves with big-name spas and chefs.
Nobu restaurant has opened at Badrutts
Palace. In St Moritz, at least, the brands
are not just conned to the shops.
KLOSTERS
1 Chesa Grischuna hotel, Klosters.

2 Prince Charles with Princes William and
Harry at the resort in 1995. 3 Princess
Diana and the Duchess of York in Klosters,
1988. 4 The Walserhofs restaurant
hey do things differently in Klosters.

It is evident from the moment you
arrive aboard the scenic Rhtische
Bahn railway. There on the platform is
Herr Charly. His stand sells just one thing:
the crispest, most aromatic roast chestnuts.
Klosters is old Switzerland, unpretentious,
charming, promising fun for families and
couples. There is no glitz but plenty of
style, and not a paparazzo in sight, making
it somewhere royals can relax. The same
families have been wintering here for
generations. Compared with other notable
resorts, Klosters is small you slither across
it in minutes but just as party-loving. The
big attraction? World-class skiing on- and
off-piste; the villages altitude of almost
1,180 metres, ascending to 2,800 on the
magnicent Parsenn, gives the probability
of good snow. A cats-cradle of runs shared
with Davos offers 320km of wellmaintained pistes. Then there are the hotels.
Cross the square from the station with
a bag of Charlys marroni to the Alpina
128
(www.alpina-klosters.ch; doubles
from about 110), a chalet-style hotel
with sunny balconies. It could hardly
be more convenient, the Gotschna
cable-car is three minutes walk away.
The Alpina has been family ski-central
for a century, nurtured by the welcoming
Conzett clan who have seen little reason
to update their hospitality, but for the
addition of a spa, swimming pool and
Wi-Fi. The smiling staff wear traditional
costume, not as fancy dress but because
that is how they do things hereabouts.
Bedrooms are panelled, with dreamy beds
carved from pine cut by moonlight and
slotted together without nail or screw. In
its Bndnerstube Restaurant, Christian
Kaisers imaginative regional cooking has
excited messieurs Gault et Millau to
award a handsome 16 points for dishes
such as saltimbocca of angler sh.
Greta Garbo adopted Klosters as her
home, as did Deborah Kerr, overlapping
with generations of Palmer-Tomkinson
ski champions, who introduced the British
royal family to it and now run PT Ski, a
winter-sports service devoted solely to the
village. They could hardly be better
plugged into the community. Need a table on

New Years Eve? Sorted. The best place is
Chesa Grishuna (www.chesagrischuna.ch),
a rustic hotel and restaurant known as
Hollywood on the rocks, with a cosy
piano bar where you might see Rene
Zellweger or Rupert Everett. The epitome
of shabby chic, the Chesas interior design
includes fabric on the walls printed with
tiny red reindeer. Bedrooms are not the
largest in town, but the Guler family are
so hospitable that, having contrived to get
in, few guests show much inclination to
leave. As elsewhere in Switzerland, ofcial
star ratings come a poor second to local
recommendations. On the other hand,
Klosters is reckoned to have the highest
number of Gault-Millau points per capita
in the country. Eat well, sleep simple, as
the farmers say.
Eating well presents few difculties,
especially at the Michelin-starred restaurant
at the Walserhof (www.walserhof.ch),
which serves dishes such as red mullet
llet with bouillabaisse, black-shellsh
ravioli and cont tomatoes. Prince Charles
likes the top suite here, which has a log
THE HOTEL STAFF WEAR

TRADITIONAL COSTUME
BECAUSE THATS HOW
THEY DO THINGS HERE
re and free-standing bath. My favourite
family dining experience is the charming
Hotel Rustico (www.hotel-rustico.ch) across
the frozen river. Attached to it is Prttiger
Huschi, a farmhouse serving no fewer than
six kinds of fondue, surely the most fun you
can have with your snowboots on. After
this, Klosters best loved, indeed only real
nightclub calls. Casa Antica (www.casa
antica-klosters.ch) has been the venue for
high jinks since 1959. Order a bottle of
spirits and theyll write your name on it
for next time. So if you see Prince Harry,
remind him his Armagnac is waiting.
In a triumph of continuity and character,
Klosters has seemed immune to the
pressures felt in other resorts to adapt to a
changing clientele. It still enjoys the loyalty
of successive generations. Flashy shows of
wealth have been held at bay as something
the community is uncomfortable with.
Sometimes less really can be more.
5 Ice-skating rinks in Gstaad.

6 The Panorama Suite at the Alpina Gstaad.
7 The resort in 1961. 8 Audrey Hepburn
and Robert Wolders in the village, 1982.
9 Louis Armstrong at the Gstaad Palace
PHOTOGRAPHS: SLIM AARONS/GETTY IMAGES; JAMES ANDANSON/SYGMA/CORBIS;

COURTESY GSTAAD PALACE; REUTERS/CORBIS
GSTAAD
8
n a village celebrated for its opulent

chalets, the opening of a hotel would
ordinarily be a once-in-a-generation event.
So the launch of two within a year has
caused ripples all the way back to the
beaches of St Tropez and Ibiza. The latest,
and by local standards most discreet, is
Le Grand Bellevue (www.bellevuegstaad.com; doubles from about 265) on
the promenade. Intimate and with a relaxed,
put-your-feet-up vibe, it has a striking spa
and restaurant designed to attract
Gstaads chalet-staying hipsters. It follows
the glittering new Alpina Gstaad (www.
thealpinagstaad.ch; doubles from 244),
where 240 million was invested in just 56
bedrooms and suites, three restaurants,
1
2
indoor and outdoor heated pools, a Six

Senses Spa and a 3-D private cinema.
That all this change is taking place in
Gstaad is intriguing. Famous in the 1970s
and 1980s for starry regulars including Roger
Moore, Ursula Andress, Valentino and Taki
Theodoracopulos, it has aged gracefully,
preserving its low-rise timber architecture
and vivacious chalet life. Fun HQ remains
the exclusive Eagle Ski Club (www.eagleski
club.ch), though the village also has its
own yacht club (patron King Constantine
II of the Hellenes), many of whose 400plus members own ocean-going vessels.
The snowball was set rolling with the
reopening in 2010 of the comprehensively
renovated, snappily spruced Grand Hotel
Park (www.grandhotelpark.ch; doubles
from about 380). This served to concentrate
minds at the Gstaad Palace (www.palace.
ch; doubles from about 490), which has a
century of immaculate service, countryhouse comforts and serious cooking behind
it. The staff, some with more than 45 years
service, cater to a patrician clientele of
Italian principesse and German industrial
barons, many of whom educate their
children at the Institut Le Rosey, seeding
the hotels nightclub with youthful beauty
and exuberance. But the arrival of the
Alpina and Bellevue has galvanised the
Gstaad Palace to consider upgrades,
MAP: NEIL GOWER PHOTOGRAPHS: COURTESY GSTAAD PALACE; MARTIN GUGGISBERG;

PHOTO BDV/CORBIS; ANDRE SAS/GAMMA-RAPHO VIA GETTY IMAGES
GUESTS IN A SUITE HAD AN

ADJOINING ROOM TURFED
FOR THEIR POODLE LEST
IT CATCH A CHILL OUTSIDE
starting with a spectacular spa, accessed by
bridge over a stream (all entirely indoors).
Hanging on the main staircase at The
Palace are photographs of past guests,
including Grace Kelly, David Niven and
Elizabeth Taylor, but the focus is now
rmly on attracting the custom of their
successors. In this the Gstaad Palace enjoys
a lead, as its Lobby Bar has long served
as the village social centre; it has also
deployed a secret weapon, the Walig Hut,
an 18th-century mountain chalet to which
guests can escape for a romantic night.
The Palaces owners, the Scherz family,
now in their third generation, take the view
that Gstaad can only benet from a raised
prole introduced by the new hotels. But
other residents wonder what sort of clientele
they will bring. Will an avalanche of new
money change its character? (Guests who
recently booked the Palaces Tower Suite
had an adjoining room cleared and turfed
for their poodle lest it catch a chill outside.)
10
1 The Alpina Gstaad terrace. 2 Jackie
Kennedy and family in Gstaad, 1966.
3 A poster for the resort. 4 Richard
Burton, Peter Lawford and Elizabeth
Taylor in GreenGo nightclub. 5 Sophia
Loren at the Gstaad Palace. 6 Le Grand
Bellevue. 7 Peter Sellers at the Gstaad
Palace. 8 Princesses Grace and Stephanie
of Monaco in Gstaad. 9 The Gstaad
Palace. 10 Le Grand Bellevue lobby
All Gstaads smart hotels are conscious

that they now compete not just with each
other but also with other top Swiss resorts.
As ames from the re illuminated diners
at the Palaces Le Grill, I wondered if Gstaad
could successfully challenge St Moritz on its
own glitzy territory, and if it really wanted
to. As if in answer, a family walked in:
father attired in a Brioni suit, supermodel
mother and two small daughters in tiaras.
My date, who knows about such things,
whispered, Real diamonds all of them.
GETTING THERE
Swiss (www.swiss.com) ies from London

to Geneva and Zrich, from where you can
take trains to the Alpine resorts with
Swiss Federal Railways (www.sbb.ch)
and the Rhtische Bahn (www.rhb.ch).
Scott Dunn (www.scottdunn.com)
offers seven nights at Badrutts Palace in
St Moritz from 3,230 per person half
board, including ights and transfers.
Elegant Resorts (www.elegantresorts.co.uk)
offers seven nights at the Grand Hotel
Zermatterhof from 1,975 per person
B&B, including ights and transfers.
PT Ski (www.ptski.com) offers packages
to ve hotels in Klosters
Gstaad insider
JEAN-MICHEL BOUCHON is a longtime chalet owner and party host in Gstaad
This place is all about fun, which means
connecting with pals who parachute in, and
theres nowhere better than at the Eagle
Ski Club. Up on Eggli mountain, Benjamin
Worbs has opened Snoasis, an imaginative
antidote to mountain
restaurants: try the
snow dog, in which
fondue cheese is a
substitution for
frankfurters. When
your chef has the night
off Pernet Comestibles
on the promenade
sells packets of fondue
mix; its cigar room
stocks Cohiba. They
shake a mean cocktail at the bar of Bernie
Ecclestones lively Hotel Olden and theres
superb cooking at the lovely old Sonnenhof
restaurant, though I always enjoy a simple
lobster risotto at Rialto Bistro. Then it has
to be GreenGo nightclub for all age groups,
but speak to your bank rst.
131
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In Britain
PHOTOGRAPHS: HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES; MONDADORI/

GETTY IMAGES; ANNA STOWE LANDSCAPES UK/ALAMY;
VISIT BRITAIN/BRITAIN ON VIEW; TRACEY WHITEFOOD/ALAMY
Clockwise from this picture:

George Bernard Shaw in
his Hertfordshire garden;
the Dylan Thomas Boathouse
at Laugharne; staircase at
Byrons Newstead Abbey;
an 1814 portrait of the
infamous poet; Kiplings
Sussex home; Virginia Woolf.
Opposite, a view of Buttermere
and Crummock Water just
as the Lake Poets saw it
THIS MONTH
Britain b the book
As a child, Rose Shepherd explored the Lake District by reading Swallows and Amazons;
now she lives near Broadstairs, where Dickens spent his holidays. Here she goes on a tour
of the landscapes and places that red the imaginations of some of our greatest writers
n 1759, the Rev Francis Gastrell, sick of strangers

knocking at his door, demolished the house he had
bought six years before. In that same vindictive spirit,
he had earlier chopped down a mulberry tree. His
house, his tree, his right, you might think except that the
house, in Stratford-upon-Avon, had been the last home of
William Shakespeare, the tree planted by Shakespeare himself.
On spiteful whim, Gastrell brought the house down but
he would not stem the tide of literary pilgrimage, which
swelled a decade later when the actor David Garrick

staged the rst Shakespeare festival and put the town rmly
on the tourist map.
Walter Scott came to visit Shakespeares childhood
home, and signed his name upon the wall, but failed to
identify the autograph of John Keats among the blizzard
of graffiti. That doomed young poet had walked 30
miles to see the house visited by so many thousands of

all nations of Europe, and to add his signature to the
In Britain
numbers numberless. Other

visitors would include Byron, Tennyson,
Dickens, Hardy...
Shakespeare was history to these
men, as they are history to us; and we
in turn may go in search of Keats in
Hampstead, of Byron at his Gothic
Babel of a thousand years, of Scott at
his Conundrum Castle. We can pick
up the spoor of Tennyson on the Isle
of Wight, track Hardy down to Max
Gate in Dorchester, follow Dickens up
and down the country.
Only connect, wrote EM Forster in
Howards End, and it is a deeper connection
that we seek with the great men and
women who have gone to join George
Eliots choir invisible. The impulse of
the literary tourist may seem a strange
one. If great writing has the power to
transport us, why do we need to journey
to the source? But writers themselves
exert a powerful fascination. It is natural
to want to see the places where they
lived and worked the library, study,
kitchen, shed or hut in which they wrote
and the scenery that inspired them.
There are some who deplore the
exploitation of our literary heritage,
seeing it as a kind of trespass even
necromancy. I am with them in not
caring for such gimmickry as wax effigies,
which will never speak to us as, say,
a pair of wire-rimmed spectacles might.
But better that the public pays to see
writers domains than that they get the
Gastrell haircut.
Besides, literary tourism can take
many diverse forms. It may mean
walking around Rydal Water in the
footsteps of Wordsworth. Or gazing
out over Salcombe Bay at twilight,
recalling Tennysons valedictory last poem,
Crossing the Bar. It may mean reading
lines inscribed in the churchyard of St
Giles, Stoke Poges, where, for Thomas
Gray, the curfew tolled the knell of
passing day. Or joining gleeful Japanese
visitors on a bridge in Ashdown Forest in
East Sussex to play Pooh Sticks.
As well as such hotspots as Stratford,
or the Bronts Haworth Parsonage, or
the Wordsworths Dove Cottage, from
sea to sea, in town and village, mountain,
valley, stream and river, weald and wold,
Britain abounds with places with literary
resonance. Here are just a few.
LAKE POETS CORNER

Once upon a time there were three
sisters, who lived together in a house
in a wood. The house was Georgian
Greta Hall, the sisters Sara, Edith and
Mary, ne Fricker, wives of the poets
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert
Southey and Robert Lovell. Coleridge
and Southey sought inspiration in the
Lake District, bringing with them Sara,
Edith and the widowed Mary, to live as
one burgeoning household. Coleridge
stayed for three years, writing in a room
overlooking the River Greta, before
abandoning Sara. Southey stayed for
30 years. He penned The Story of the
Three Bears, and was poet laureate.
Greta Hall is now a family home, offering
B&B and self-catering accommodation,
close to the centre of bracing Keswick,
in its own wooded acres, surrounded by
fells that Charles Lamb compared to
great oundering bears and monsters

all couchant and asleep. Keswick,
Cumberland (+44 17687 75980; www.
gretahall.net). Self-catering for 211 guests
from 315 per week. B&B from 80
THE CREAM OF CORNWALL

It still makes me feel warm; as if
everything were ripe; humming; sunny
The gardens gave off a murmur of bees
The buzz, the croon, the smell it was
rapture. Virginia Woolf cherished early
memories of St Ives, where she spent
summers until she was 13 the year her
mother died. The familys colonial-style
Victorian villa retreat is available as
holiday apartments. Buildings have grown
up around it, but there are still views across
the bay to the lighthouse on Godrevy
Island, the inspiration for To the Lighthouse
with its themes of transience and loss.
Woolf set the novel in Skye, transplanting
Clockwise from far left: Dylan Thomass Writing

Shed in Laugharne; the Tinners Arms in
Cornwall, where DH Lawrence sojourned; the
writer himself; Newstead Abbey, former home
to Lord Byron; Charlotte Bront; Lyme Regis,
where an Austen heroine met calamity, and a
French lieutenants woman repined
rich, dark interiors, with beams and

carved panelling, are so redolent of
Kipling you can almost smell his tobacco
smoke. In his upstairs study is the Good
Companion typewriter that, he complained,
simply wont spell. Everywhere there
are mementoes family portraits, Indian
rugs and the oriental miniatures of
deities he called his household gods.
There is a working mill on the River
Dudwell, and a Rolls-Royce Phantom
locomobile in the garage. Burwash,
East Sussex (+44 1435 882302;
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/batemans)
PHOTOGRAPHS: GREG BALFOUR EVANS/ALAMY; BRITAIN ON VIEW/GETTY IMAGES;

MARY EVANS PICTURE LIBRARY/ALA; GETTY IMAGES/LONELY PLANET IMAGES; PICTORIAL
PRESS LTD/ALAMY; REALIMAGE/ALAMY
DRAMA WORKSHOP WITH

REVOLVING HUT
the ora and scenery of the balmy southwest. Overlooking Porthminster Beach,
with its terric caf, Talland House is
away from the busy centre of this town of
shermens cottages, cobbled streets,
galleries and craft shops. St Ives, Cornwall
(+44 1736 755050; www.tallandhouse.com)
GRANITE VILLAGE WITH

A WELCOMING INN
It is eight rugged miles from St Ives
along the coastal path to Zennor. Wear
hiking boots or take a beautiful,
short drive. Here is the cosy 13th-century
Tinners Arms, with low ceilings, stone
oors and seaward terrace where
DH Lawrence stayed with his German
wife, Frieda, during World War I. Zennor,
he wrote, was a tiny granite village
nesting under high shaggy moor-hills and
a big sweep of lovely sea beyond He
was not so taken with the locals, regarding
them as insects gone cold, living only

for money, for dirt. The locals did not
care for the Lawrences either, suspecting
Frieda of spying. The pair were expelled
from Cornwall. Todays visitors can count
on a warmer welcome, real ale, fresh
sh from the Atlantic, and Cornish
cheeses. Open daily (+44 1736 796927;
www.tinnersarms.com)
KIPLINGS FAMILY HOME

STILL JUST SO!
It was the heartbreaking Locomobile
that brought us to the house called
Batemans We reached her down an
enlarged rabbit-hole of a lane. Rudyard
Kipling relates how, in 1902, he and
his wife, Carrie, rst saw the Jacobean
mansion that would be their home for
34 years. The author loved its seclusion
in the wooded Sussex Weald, and laid out
the gardens with a childlike delight. The
When George Bernard Shaw and his

wife, Charlotte, looked over a new-built
rectory in a sequestered Hertfordshire
village, in 1906, they disliked it on sight
so they moved in. He could turn his back
on it and walk to his revolving hut at
the bottom of the large garden to tap out
Pygmalion and polemics. She preferred
to travel. The Edwardian villa was Shaws
home for more than 40 years. Picturesque
Ayot St Lawrence, his nal earthplace, is
just 25 miles from London. Shaw left the
house and his effects to the National Trust,
so here they all are: hats, walking sticks,
toothbrush, photographs, books, typewriter,
Oscar, Nobel Prize, all preserved within
a time capsule of Arts and Crafts and
chintz. Nr Welwyn, Hertfordshire
(www.nationaltrust.org.uk/shaws-corner)
MAD DOG AND ENGLISHMAN

In 1798 Lord Byron inherited from his
great-uncle a wilfully neglected ancestral
home created from the cloisters and
domestic quarters of a dissolved 12thcentury abbey. He dug up the oor of
the north cloister in a search for monastic
gold. A bear and wolf prowled the
corridors. The mad, bad and dangerous
romantic poet ordered redecoration,
but his only building work was a marble
monument to his Newfoundland dog,
Boatswain, who died of rabies. You can
wander the extensive gardens, with lakes,

ponds, peacocks and swans, and
In Britain
Left: the cliff-top house where Dickens would

sit in a bay window each morning, writing and
grinning; a Victorian engraving of Jane Austen
timber from the house where William

Wallace met his nemesis. Scotts house was
almost his nancial nemesis, but, declaring
My own right hand shall do it, he wrote
to pay off his and his publishers debts.
Melrose, Roxburghshire (+44 1896 752043;
www.scottsabbotsford.co.uk)
READER, YOU CAN MARRY HERE
admire the ruins of the West Front

of the 13th-century church. Within, a
collection of Byrons possessions includes
his giltwood bed, the desk at which he
wrote, and the pistol with which he
practised shooting in the Great Hall.
Ravenshead, Nottinghamshire (+44 1623
455 9000; www.newsteadabbey.org.uk)
TO THE SEASIDE WITH GREAT

EXPECTATIONS
The Victorian resort of Breezy Broadstairs
is picture-postcard-perfect, with bandstand,
clock tower and formal plantings. Looming
over all is the cliff-top, crenellated Bleak
House, formerly Fort House, where
Charles Dickens spent family holidays for
22 years. He would write in the morning,
before descending to the sands of Viking
Bay, emerging from a bathing machine
to splash about like a kind of salmoncoloured porpoise. Enjoy a drink, as he
did, at the Tartar Frigate, the cosiest little
sailors inn, and visit the Dickens House
Museum, in the former home of kindly
Miss Mary Pearson Strong, the authors
model for David Copperelds aunt
Betsey Trotwood. Theres a Dickens
Festival every June, and in August Folk
Week the little town rocks. East Kent.
Dickens House Museum (+44 1843 861232;
www.dickensfellowship.org/broadstairs)
PEARL OF DORSET
Visiting the beguiling resort of Lyme Regis,
with its backdrop of blue cliffs, Jane Austen
concluded that a very strange stranger it
must be, who does not see charms in the
immediate environs of Lyme. The

perilous steps known as Grannys Teeth
that lead down from the iconic Cobb is
where she has Louisa Musgrave so
disastrously jumped down by Captain
Wentworth in Persuasion. When Alfred
Tennyson came here in 1867, refusing all
refreshment, he demanded to be taken
to the site of the mishap. More recently,
John Fowles looked down from Belmont
House and pictured the enigmatic
cloaked gure of Sarah Woodruff,
abandoned by her French Lieutenant,
staring out to sea. Part of Dorsets
Jurassic Coast, Lyme Regis has an aura of
mystique. Fossil-hunters nd rich pickings
while a National Nature Reserve and
coastal path are among those vaunted
charms. www.lymeregis.org
WIZARD OF THE NORTHS

CONUNDRUM CASTLE
No writer did more to promote Scottish
tourism than Walter Scott with his 1810
narrative poem The Lady of the Lake,
which brought people ocking to Loch
Katrine. Nor does any writers house make
such a huge statement about its owner,
with its Scottish baronial romanticism and
dash. Standing on the banks of the Tweed,
Abbotsford is as much a Scott creation
as any of his novels, built to his design,
incorporating architectural salvage and
furnished with antiquities. The oak-panelled
entrance hall is adorned with spoils from
the Battle of Waterloo, while in the armoury
is Rob Roys broadsword. Seven thousand
books line the library shelves. In the study
we see the Robroyston Chair, made from
BOATHOUSE ON A
HERON-PRIESTED SHORE
From a seashaken house on a breakneck of
rocks, for his last four years, Dylan Thomas
could gaze out across the shimmering Taf
estuary, hearing the gab of gulls, watching
wading oystercatchers, crested lapwings,
egrets, otters, basking seals. The slateroofed Boathouse sits beneath the cliff.
Above is the shed in which Thomas wrote
Under Milk Wood. The little town of
Laugharne with its three rivers, a visiting
sea and a multitude of birds was surely
his model for Llaregubb. The house was
a gift from Thomass besotted patron
Margaret Taylor, and is presented as a
gallery and the family home of Dylan,
Caitlin and their children. From here he
set off for New York, aged 39, to return in
a gentlemans suit and a zinc-lined cofn.
A simple cross in the churchyard of St
Martins marks the grave of a tempestuous
genius who sang in his chains like the sea.
Laugharne, Carmarthenshire (+44 1994
427420; www.dylanthomasboasthouse.com)
PHOTOGRAPH: GL ARCHIVE/ALAMY; TONY LILLEY/ALAMY
A 17th-century timber-framed house

near Ripon, with striking Dutch gables,
Norton Conyers has played host to Charles
I, James II and, in 1839, to Charlotte
Bront. The author was working as a
governess and accompanied her young
charges on a visit. It was here that she
heard how, in one of the gable rooms, a
woman known as Mad Mary had been
incarcerated kindling in her fertile
mind the idea of a mad woman in the
attic, while the interiors furnished her
with Thorneld Hall. A blocked staircase
leading to the attics just as described in
Jane Eyre came to light in 2004. The
house has been closed for much-needed
repairs, but the gardens are open on
specic days and Norton Conyers is a
popular wedding venue. Wath, near Ripon,
North Yorks (+44 113 284 3500; www.
weddingsatnortonconyers.co.uk)
ROMANCE + LUXURY
GOURMET
ew Zealanders call their

land Gods Own Country,
a fair description when it
feels like youve stepped
into an epic film set. The
landscape is stunning
with mountains, lakes, rainforests and
beaches in ber-close proximity: a giant
natural playground for all ages. But over the
years New Zealand has added to its natural
assets with a dreamy boutique property
portfolio, a world-class food and wine scene
and action-packed adventures from ocean
deep to mountain peak. Turquoise Holidays
takes an insiders approach to New Zealand,
sourcing the best accommodation from quirky
beach houses to super-chic, A-list-style pads,
unearthing local places to sample the best
food and wine, recommending tours, places of
interest and hidden gems that only islanders
know about. Here are just three sensational
itineraries from our favourite New Zealand
experts at Turquoise Holidays. Covering
romance, family and food, whichever camp
youre in, theyll be sure to whet the appetite.
FA M I LY
on tour in
R O U T E Waiheke Island Nelson Queenstown Wanaka Bay of Islands
NZ
2 014
ROMANCE
+ LUXURY
here is a rugged
romance to New
Zealand, a wild
Bront-esqe
passion perfect
for honeymooners.
From remote beaches to once-in-alifetime experiences, New Zealand
offers couples a travel experience of
a lifetime. Whats more you can do it
in style. Turquoise Holidays has put
together a fantastic deux itinerary
with some seriously luxurious
accommodation which constitute
an attraction in themselves.
O N T H E R OA D
It is love at first sight on Waiheke
Island. Just 35 minutes by ferry from
Auckland, it is cool, quirky and feels
a million miles away from reality.
Life is snail-paced and days are
whiled away over long lazy lunches,
perusing local artists studios,
strolling along sandy beaches,
swimming in hidden coves and
touring the many boutique wineries:
an idyllic start to a romantic tour
of New Zealand. A short flight
whisks couples off to Nelson,
officially New Zealands sunniest
spot and gateway to the stunning
Abel Tasman National Park. Bone-
white beaches and emerald-green

waters are picture-postcard, and
the park is easily explored on foot
or by kayak. Trek the coastline
or paddle in and out of deserted
bays, fish for dinner or head out
with local guide Rod Steward to
spot seals, little blue penguins and
dolphins frolicking in the waves.
Come evening, eclectic Nelson has
a bohemian buzz and an excellent
food scene. From laidback Nelson
to Queenstown, the adrenalin
capital of the world, a reputation
that overshadows its greatest asset:
location. Set on Lake Wakatipu
and surrounded by mountains,
Queenstown is secretly romantic
with to-die-for accommodation
(Azur Lodge), wonderful wineries
(Gibbston Valley is a must) and
a smart restaurant scene. As we
the road to
ROMANCE
all know Queenstown doesnt do
things by halves: couples can go for
a champagne mountain picnic by
helicopter or fly over Fiordland in a
private plane. They say the way to a
mans heart is through his stomach:
next stop Wanaka. Central Otago is
known for its bountiful ingredients:
lamb, venison, rabbit, stone fruit,
thyme and other foraged-for goodies.
With lakes, rivers, and expansive
skies, this is all about food, wine and
wilderness. The tour ends back up
north in Bay of Islands in a property
I F Y O U C A N T E A R Y O U R S E L F AWAY F R O M E A G L E S N E S T,
SWIM WITH DOLPHINS, SAIL THE ISL ANDS, GO FISHING,
TA K E A S C E N I C F L I G H T, O R J U S T S I T B A C K A N D R E L A X
like no other. If you can tear yourself

away from the superlative comforts
of Eagles Nest, you can swim with
dolphins, sail around the islands, take
a scenic flight, try big-game fishing
or just sit back and enjoy one of New
Zealands most magical spots.
BED HOPPING
QThe Boatshed, Waiheke Island
(3 nights) Small, hip and with
designer written all over it, The
Boatshed sits just above the sandy
beach of Oneroa (three minutes
on foot). Once a bach, (small
weekend beach cottage) it has been
transformed into the perfect romantic
hideaway. The five suites and two
bungalows are each unique and get
READER
OFFER
Complimentary
Mini Moke Jeep
hire for the day
(with petrol and
insurance) from
The Boatshed on
Waiheke Island
plus a delicious
gourmet picnic
to enjoy on the
beach (See this
link for more
details about this
funky little jeep:
boatshed.co.nz/
moke.aspx)
served in-villa and staff happy to drop

you in Queenstown for dinner helps
put Azur in our Kiwi favourites.
QRiverrun, Wanaka (2 nights)
A rural romance, this five-room
retreat is the perfect base to explore
Wanakas wilderness. Recycled
hardwood timber and beams create a
sense of warmth and intimacy, as do
the two lounges each with roaring log
fires. An outdoor hot tub overlooking
the mountains adds a sexy twist.
QEagles Nest, Bay of Islands
(3 nights) Fall in love all over again
at this secluded retreat on its own
luxury beach house living spot on.
Added bonus: the food is brilliant
with exquisite seafood and produce
from the Boatsheds organic gardens
complemented by Waiheke wine.
QClifftops Retreat, Nelson
(3 nights) We cant rave enough
about this recent addition to New
Zealands property scene. Truly
individual, this remote romantic
villa for two is perched on the cliffs
above Ruby Bay. Oozing style, with
jaw-dropping vistas of the sea and
the twinkling lights of Nelson, we
particularly love the spa pool that
teeters on the cliff edge.
QAzur Lodge, Queenstown
(3 nights) The view from Azurs
nine dreamy villas is hard to beat.
Undoubtedly one of New Zealands
best properties, each villa has been
crafted from silver beechwood and
stone, featuring floor-to-ceiling
windows and large outside decks.
Freestanding spa baths, breakfast
Clockwise
from far left:
Sail around
the beautiful
Bay of Islands;
The verandah
at Eagles Nest;
Heli-tours of the
Bay of Islands;
Suite at Clifftops
Retreat in
Nelson; Suite at
The Boatshed on
Waiheke Island
private peninsula. Five stars dont

seem enough when it comes to Eagles
Nest; it is undoubtedly in a league of
its own. Five totally individual villas
have to be seen to be believed. For
couples, First Light Temple Villa is
perfect: think oodles of glass bringing
the outdoors in, champagne and spa
treatments on demand. Utter bliss.
TOP TABLES
The Veranda Caf at Stonyridge
Vineyard, Waiheke is one of the most
romantic lunch venues on this island.
Surrounded by olive trees, lavender
fields and sprawling vines, long lazy
lunches dont get much better than
this. Nelson is full of excellent places
to eat but for the best fish and chips
head to The Smokehouse, Mapua.
When in Queenstown enjoy cocktails
at The Bunker but be sure to make
the short trip to nearby Arrowtown,
home to the fabulous Saffron, one
of the 100 best tables in the world.
While in Wanaka, The Landing has
to be top of the gourmet list. Finish
off with a nostalgic dinner at The
Gables or enjoy a leisurely lunch
at the brilliantly located waterfront
restaurant Sallys, two of Russells
finest dining spots.
For further details see
turquoiseholidays.co.uk
ROUTE
Waiheke Island Hawkes Bay Martinborough Wellington Kaikoura Nelson
NZ
2 014
GOURMET
ew Zealand is
a gastronomic
phenomenon.
Theres the wine:
Marlboroughs
famous
sauvignon blancs and the all-tooquaffable pinot noir; exquisite
seafood includes everything from
yellowfin tuna and huge greenlipped mussels to oodles of scallops,
crayfish and oysters. Non-fish lovers
can enjoy the worlds best lamb
(controversial statement we know!)
while excellent beef and venison vie
for second place. Accompaniments
are whatever is in season: kumara
(sweet potato), asparagus, olives
and mushrooms. While rural New
Zealand provides the ingredients,
the cities are abuzz with Michelinstar-worthy restaurants in which
young, ambitious chefs rustle up all
sorts of innovative dishes. Creative,
confident and contemporary, New

Zealand is a gourmet destination in
vogue. Turquoise Holidays food and
wine-focused itinerary is a road trip
to relish.
O N T H E R OA D
Waiheke Island might be small
in size but it is big on the palate.
Boutique wineries are interspersed
with olive groves and edged by
abundant waters. Days are heavily
food and wine-focused. Wineries

typically have excellent restaurants
with fresh food and barrels of vino.
Hawkes Bay is another cellarstocking stop-off. Take a mountain
bike or tandem with On Yer Bike
Winery Tours and embark on a
days wobble of the local area. Theyll
pack you off with a picnic and a
map, and theyll arrange delivery
of any purchases made along the
way. To rest the liver, theres loads
of non-alcoholic activities: early
morning hot air balloons set off
in time to watch the sun cast its
golden glow over farmland, orchards
and vineyards; nearby Napier is a
fascinating art deco town with quirky
tearooms, an art house cinema and
penguin hospital. Horse rides on a
wide open beach (Waipatiki) is good
for the soul before getting back on
the wagon and heading to the pinot
noir wine village of Martinborough.
The beauty of Martinborough is that
30 of the 40 wineries are in walking
on the trail of
GOURMET
distance from the village square.
Need we say more? A gourmet road
trip would not be complete without
a couple of nights in Wellington.
New Zealands capital is cool, compact

and quirky, with more cafs per head
than New York. Take a gourmet
walking tour (Zest Walking Tours), go
behind the scenes, meet baristas and
chefs and even roast your own coffee
beans. Non-food focused activities
include kiwi spotting (of the avian
variety) at Zealandia Sanctuary and
the must-visit national museum, Te
Papa. The ferry will then transport
you to South Island. The scenery as
you enter the Marlborough Sounds
is spectacular and on arrival it is just
a short drive to Blenheim, the heart
of the Marlborough wine region. En
route to Kaikoura stop off for lunch
at Herzogs Cellar Door Bistro
(Marlboroughs best kept secret).

Kaikoura might be known for its
whales and dolphins but in Maori
kai means food and koura means
crayfish, so no self-respecting visitor
can leave without sampling the
local delicacy. Food is also integral
at Hapaku Lodge (home for the
duration). Not only does it have
its own fisherman who goes out
at 4am each morning, executive
chef Fiona Read (a New Zealand
Masterchef finalist) puts on fabulous
cooking courses using ingredients
from the kitchen garden. Final stop,
Queenstown (by plane): a fun, foodfilled place which has seen a recent
flurry of restaurant openings and
where indulging is second nature.
best: this rustic hideaway is an escape

in the truest sense. A restored cottage
full of character, it comes complete
with open-air bath. Simply fill with
water, light the fire beneath and
enjoy this secluded haven under the
stars. Owners Van and Linda are also
brilliant sources of local knowledge.
QPeppers Parehua, Martinborough
(2 nights) A large country estate
scattered with hidden cottages and
woodland villas. Each cottage has
been individually designed and
comes with open fireplaces, spa
baths and bars stocked with
regional wines. The restaurant has
also created a bit of a food hub in
Martinborough.
C R E AT I V E , C O N F I D E N T A N D C O N T E M P O R A R Y, N E W
ZEAL AND IS A G OURMET DESTINATION IN VOGUE
BED HOPPING
QInlet Villas, Waiheke Island
(3 nights) On the sunny slopes of
Te Whau Peninsula overlooking
olive trees and the inlet beyond,
these chic villas have been built
using a traditional boatshed design
but with a modern finish. We love
the raftered ceilings, cool white
interiors, warm oak floors and large
private decks, not to mention the
two resident kayaks.
QToms Cottage, Hawkes Bay
(2 nights) Back to nature at its very
QBolton Hotel (2 nights)

This luxury boutique hotel is slap
bang in the centre of Wellington.
Cool and contemporary it has a gym,
pool and spa and is within a stones
throw of many of the capitals best
bars and restaurants.
QHapuku Lodge, Kaikoura
(2 nights) Situated on a deer stud and
olive farm, the five tree houses that
make up Hapuku Lodge are nestled
in the canopy of a mauka grove
with spectacular views of Kaikouras
mountains and surf-washed coastline.
Custom-made beds, large spa baths

and an intimate restaurant serving
excellent local food are just three
reasons to bed down here.
QSofitel, Queenstown (4 nights)
Chic, stylish and centrally located,
the Sofitel is effortlessly five-star.
The spa is fabulous and theres even
a dedicated bathologist (a first for
us too).
TOP TABLES
Te Whau Vineyard, Waiheke is not
only dripping in awards; its walkable
READER
OFFER
Complimentary
whale watch trip
from Inlet Villas a definite for

lunch fodder. Mudbrick Vineyard
Restaurant has been described as
one of the most romantic places
on earth and is our top table for
dinner. Hawkes Bays wineries are
hard to rank but Terroir at Craggy
Range has the x-factor for dinner
while Black Barn Bistro gets our
lunch vote. Pavilion Restaurant at
Parehua attracts a Wellington crowd
at weekends so be sure to dine there
one evening. When in Wellington
book a table at Logan Brown and
for the best ice cream, stop at Kaffee
Eis on Oriental Parade. Try a hangi,
a traditional Maori meal cooked in
an earthen oven, while Queenstowns
food scene is more international:
try Josh Emetts Rata with its
contemporary New Zealand food
and blockbuster wine cellar, or
for an upmarket iron fix head to
Jervois Steak House.
in Kaikoura for
two people. An
absolute must!
Turquoise Holidays is offering

this 16-day trip from 3,985
per person, based on two people
sharing, including flights,
accommodation, transfers, car hire
and complimentary whale-watching.
Clockwise
from far left:
The Chocolate Fish
Cafe in Wellington;
Seafood at Logan
Brown, also in
Wellington; Suite
at Inlet Villas on
Waiheke Island;
Bavarois with
poached pear; Open
air bath at Tom's
Cottage in Hawke's
Bay; Suite at Sofitel
Queenstown
R O U T E Christchurch Kaikoura Marlborough Abel Tasman National Park Punakaiki
Fox Glacier Wanaka Queenstown

From this image:
A motor home is
the way to go;
New Zealand
offers some of the
best family horse
rides in the world;
Barbequed fish
on the beach
NZ
2 014
FA M I LY
ravelled New
Zealand on a gap
year? Itching to
return, not on the
Kiwi Experience,
but with the kids
in tow? For a family adventure
like no other, Turquoise Holidays
has put together a fantastic South
Island-based itinerary complete with
campervan, map and suggestions of
what to see, do and eat along the way.
Hit the road, and youll never look
back. Children will love the van and
adults will love the luxurious extras:
gas stove, microwave, DVD player
and barbeque all help soften the
back-to-nature experience.
Glamping on wheels
O N T H E R OA D
This once-in-a-lifetime adventure
begins in Christchurch, South
Islands genteel city that has, dare
we say it, a hint of Englishness with
its tranquil river punting and serene
art galleries. Spend a day exploring
keeping it in the
Head north, stopping en route to

refuel and pick up supplies at one
of Marlboroughs many wineries,
Cloudy Bay, Villa Maria and Spy
Valley to name but a few. Head out
for a day sailing, kayaking or cruising
on the Marlborough Sounds or go
fishing for rainbow trout before
switching off the engine in Abel
Tasman National Park. Situated just
beyond the quirky arts and crafts
town of Nelson, energetic families
might take on a six-hour trek or
coastal kayak while those with
younger offspring can potter short
distances at their own pace. Hit the
road again and head south down
the rugged west coast to Punakaiki
where children (and adults) never
FAMILY
before hitting the open road and

heading up to the once-sleepy
fishing village of Kaikoura, now the
place to go for whale watching and
swimming with dolphins. Older
kids (wetsuited up with snorkel,
mask and flippers) can swim with
these beautiful creatures in their
natural habitat. Often in pods of
200 plus, this is a travel experience
like no other. Sperm whales are
most common but humpbacks and
southern right whales can also be
spotted basking not far off the coast.
Around Kaikoura there is a strong
indigenous culture and a Maori
tour gives a fascinating insight into
their history, lives and customs.
READER
OFFER
100 Sunuva
swimwear voucher
with bookings.
Fabulous
swimwear for kids
at sunuva.com
fail to be mesmerised by the powerful

Tasman Sea forcing its way into
blowholes and blasting skywards.
Black water rafting through
glowworm caves is a popular pastime
in these parts while just three hours
south is glacier country: Franz Josef
and Fox Glacier both stand just 250
metres above sea level making them
easily accessible for youngsters to get
up close. Families with older children
can book onto a guided walk, take an
ice-climbing course or even a helihike. Next on the itinerary is getting
wet in action-packed Wanaka
before embracing the madness of
Queenstown. The adrenalin capital
of the world has a no work, all play
attitude with bungee jumping, jet
boating, and river boarding for the
daring and pinot noir winery hops
for the more sedate. The perfect
fun-filled finale before bidding
haere ra (farewell).
BED HOPPING
New Zealand is camping royalty.
In addition to a vast number
of brilliant powered sites, the
Department of Conservation
(National Trust equivalent) has
many designated camping grounds
often in breathtaking locations with
honesty boxes, plus Freedom Camp
offers many sites for no charge. After

dropping off the van in Queenstown,
a two-bedroom apartment at The
Rees awaits. Located right on the
lakes edge with fabulous views across
to the Remarkables (mountains),
this five-star hotel comes complete
with award-winning restaurant, spa,
gym, wine cellar and handy lake path
leading straight round to town.
TOP TABLES
Curators House Restaurant,
Christchurch serves fresh New
Zealand food in an elegant botanical
garden setting. Buy crayfish from
any shack or roadside van around
Kaikoura and cook it under the stars.
Stop for lunch at St Clair, a familyowned winery in Marlborough.
Watch the world go by from Nelsons
much-loved Boat Shed Caf (platters
heave with mussels and crayfish).
Kids love both Amigos and Lonestar
in Wanaka and they wont be able to
get enough of the pizza at The Cow,
Queenstown.
Turquoise Holidays is offering this
14-day trip from 7,950 per family
of four (two adults and two children
under 12) including flights, 10 days
luxury campervan hire and four
nights at The Rees in Queenstown.
Inside track
PHOTOGRAPHS: SHUTTERSTOCK
ust off the Grand Trunk

Road, after a dusty drive from
Islamabad, lies one of the
oldest universities in the world.
In the fth century BC, Taxila was a
distinguished centre of Hindu-Buddhist
learning. Scholars came from as far as
Greece and China to study at the feet
of the great masters; the Vedic thinker
Chanakya taught here, and the emperor
Ashoka made the city one of his
provincial capitals. It was an egalitarian
system: students fees were supported
by the local community; teachers built
curricula as they pleased; there was no
time limit to how long one could study;
and no king was permitted to interfere
with the independence of the university.
Today, Taxila is a city famed not
for its learning but for its armaments.
The Pakistan Ordnance Factories that
overwhelm the small town now produce
tanks, machine guns and detonators. The
ancient Buddhist sites where monks came
to study the scriptures are not protected
by the state, but by Thai Airways.
Before Pakistan was known for
fathering the Taliban, before we were
known as a state of singular, radical faith,
before the corruption and the violence,
we were known for this: Susm, mystical
poetry, and for being a haven for
weary travellers. Our cities grew out of
Hindu fables and Su legends; our ports
welcomed Parsis from Iran and traders
from Africa. We absorbed as many
cultures as languages and we were at
heart a syncretic, diverse and multiple
nation, a collection of myths.
Consider this: Peshawar, once the
summer capital of the Mughal Empire
and later home to marauding Soviet
soldiers, was once the place where the
worlds largest Buddhist stupa was
built, outside the gates of the old city,
by Kanishka, the Kushan king. Peshawar
also holds the worlds largest collection of
Gandhara art, fth-century Buddhist art

fused from the Greek, Persian, Syrian and
Indic traditions, though the local museum
that houses the beautiful old relics hardly
has enough electricity to light them.
To this day, Sindh, the third largest
province in the country, is home to Su
shrines tended to by African worshippers
Sheedis in the local parlance who mix
the animist traditions of Zanzibar and
Kenya with the mystical Islam of Susm.
Manghopir, just outside Karachi, is home to
blessed crocodiles bathing in warm waters.
The Sheedis who garland the scaly beasts
with roses in the morning believe they were
the lice that lived in the Su saint Mangho
Pirs hair. When he died, they fell from his
dreadlocks and were reborn as crocodiles.
Farther out, in Hala, there is a shrine
devoted to Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, the
father of the Sindhi language. Bhit Shah
and madrassas to dene this

young country? As a segment of Pakistan
radicalises, turning inward as it is attacked
from the outside as unmanned drones
kill the innocent in their sleep and the
guilty without trial why do the rest of us
assist in constructing a singular image of
Pakistans exclusivity and intolerance?
We need to keep alive as many myths
as possible to tell us who we are
and, increasingly, who we once were.
The damage we do to this rich cultural
heritage of ours by ignoring it is not
only felt in Pakistan the world feels
it, too. There are great dangers to the
single story, it blurs perspective, it limits
possibilities, and above all, it crushes
Our cities grew out of Hindu fables and

Su legends: our ports welcomed Parsis
from Iran and traders from Africa
is the only Su shrine in Pakistan that
worships the saints with ghazals, poetry
sung to music, every night of the week
not just on Thursdays as is the tradition
in Pakistan.
And farther still in Sindh, even now,
in Udero Lal, there are shrines where
Hindus and Muslims pray together, asking
the saint Jhule Lal who resides on a
lotus ower atop a sh in the Indus River
to carry them through lifes hardships,
to accompany them on their travels and,
because the most fertile soil is near the
riverbanks, to bring forth the waters so
that the river may ood.
This is Pakistan. We are lucky to have
many Pakistans.
So why do we, those who travel and
see the world in shades beyond black and
white, allow stories of suicide bombings
imagination. You think of us as only

bombs and beards, but we are so much
more than that something bigger,
something more hopeful.
Ive never seen a CNN story on
any of the above. Nothing more than
a 60-second clip, a glimpse of some
curious artefact from a lost world.
But the more the world abandons these
stories, the more we relegate them
to the fringes of memory, the more
this country of 100 languages, of
Sus and Christians and Jains and Sikhs
and Shias, of river valleys and deserts,
becomes something smaller and innitely
more sorrowful.
The Shadow of the Crescent Moon,
Fatima Bhuttos debut novel, is published
by Viking at 14.99
condenastjohansens.com
Samujana, Thailand, Koh Samui
A travellers tales
AROUND THE WORLD WITH
HUGH JACKMAN
The superhero star of X-Men has morphed just as easily into
the all-singing, fearless frontman in Les Misrables. But when the
cameras arent rolling he is a true-blue Aussie
Where have you just come

back from?
Montreal, lming X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Where in the world have you

felt happiest?
Describe a memory from a

childhood holiday
Byron Bay on the east coast of Australia.
Dad always took us camping along the great

coastline of Australia. We would be in a veperson tent, and there were ve of us kids, plus
dad. I discovered the real identity of Santa when
I was eight, with my dad trying to navigate
stockings in the tent and treading on my hair.
Boy, did I get a shock.
Name a place that most

lived up to the hype
Paris, every time.
And the least?

I cant think of one, Im a glass-half-full guy!
Which is your favourite city,

and why?
Sydney. Where else can you swim on the
best beach in the world before work, and
then have the best restaurants and food
all on your doorstep? Oh, and I grew up there.
(A disclaimer: I may be biased, and hope
my wifes family who are from Melbourne
dont read this.)
Which is your road most

travelled?
Europe and North Africa. My family are
from the UK, so since I was a teenager my
stopover was always England. For adventure
and food and panache, we headed south,
nishing in Morocco.
PHOTOGRAPH: JAMES HOUSTON/CORBIS OUTLINE
What do you pack rst?

Swimming trunks. Im a typical Aussie you cant
get me out of the water.
Describe your favourite view

The one from the famous lighthouse in
Byron Bay the most eastern point of
Australia whale watching, and dreaming
of all the places I wanted to go to all
over the world.
I discovered Santas
real identity at
age eight when my
dad trod on my hair
in a tent
Which is the smartest hotel
youve ever stayed in?
Burj Al Arab in Dubai.
Describe a holiday disaster

That same trip when I discovered Santa wasnt
real it also rained for six days straight. Thats when
cooking, eating and sleeping in a tent gets old fast.
Tell us about a great little

place you know
Its not little, but its not well known internationally.
Margaret River, south of Perth in Western Australia.
Sightseeing or sun-lounger,
barefoot or bling?
Where did you go on your rst

holiday without your parents?
All of the above well, not really bling,

particularly on vacation.
On a camping trip through the Blue

Mountains near Sydney for three nights.
No way would I let my kids do it, knowing
what we got up to.
Hugh Jackman was speaking to Francesca Babb. He

is the founder of Laughing Man Coffee & Tea (www.
laughingmancheckout.com) whose prots go to charity
SUN kissed
TREASURES
Celebrity Cruises thrives on giving an unexpected
twist to experiences that may already be familiar,
so get ready to be taken far, far from the ordinary
s a discerning modern traveller,

we dont need to tell you that the
lush rainforests, pristine
snowscapes, ancient temples and
exotic wildlife of our planets far-ung
corners hold endless appeal. However,
as mid-winter descends, our minds stray
to halcyon memories of the summers
warm caress, fragrant lavender elds
and rasping cicada song, and we nd
ourselves musing on the Mediterranean.
There is something about this little sea
encircled by southern Europe, Anatolia,
North Africa and the Levant that rarely
fails to delight. Watching the sunset from
Santorini, snorkelling off Ajaccio,
sipping a crisp moscato in Portono,

open-air concerts in Dubrovnik, the
incense-heavy souks of Istanbul:
the Mediterranean is a kaleidoscope
of magical sensory, cultural and
historical experiences.
global presence
Celebrity Cruises offers over 130 voyages
across the globe each year aboard eleven
distinctive ships. They embrace
everything from Alaskan icebergs to
castaway Fijian islands, introducing their
guests to destinations many other people
only dare to dream about. And, thanks to
their cutting-edge ships, intuitive service
Clockwise from main

image: Strolling
down the Spanish
Steps in Rome; Sit
back and enjoy the
breathtaking vistas;
Wine tasting in
France; The Persian
Garden a little
haven of peace
and tranquility
of modern luxury. Their spacious,

elegant staterooms virtually all have
private balconies and public areas range
from the ice-topped Martini Bar and the
cosy Michaels Club to restful bamboo
nests in the Hideaway and secluded
cabanas on the Lawn Club. And, with
one staff member to every couple,
impeccable service is a promise they
always deliver on. When it comes to
dining, Celebrity Cruises sets the
benchmark for choice and innovation,
offering up to 12 different dining venues,
including the chic French Murano
restaurant, plush Tuscan Grille and
exotic Silk Harvest.
smiles better
of your holiday gets you as far away as

possible from the ordinary, even if youre
on familiar turf.
and unfailing attention to detail, they
ensure that the journey matches those
remarkable places.
Celebrity Cruises thrives on making the
familiar unexpected. Sure, youve
already strolled along Barcelonas Las
Ramblas but theyll whisk you to the
spectacular Montserrat Mountain, to
visit the Benedictine Monastery and
enjoy a choral concert before lunch.
Think youve done Montenegro?
Chances are you havent taken an
exhilarating speed boat ride through the
Bay of Kotor to a remote cave where
you can swim in gin clear water, yet...
They strive to ensure that every moment
luxury of time
At Celebrity Cruises, they understand that
contemporary travellers demand luxury
holidays but rarely have the luxury of
time. So, theyve crafted a number of
week-long voyages in the Mediterranean
aboard two of their award-winning
Solstice Class ships this summer, giving
you just enough time to do as much, or as
little, as you wish. As they usher you from
cosmopolitan city to picturesque harbour,
via plenty of sleepy islands, you can
simply enjoy the journey. You could play
croquet on half an acre of manicured
lawn as you motor along the Amal
Coast; indulge yourself at the two-storey

AquaSpa by Elemis as the Adriatic slips
by; and entertain your inner wine buff
in the Cellar Masters wine bar as you
navigate the Balearic Sea.
If Norways rugged fjords and gemcoloured houses are calling you, another
Solstice Class ship, Celebrity Eclipse,
will be on hand next summer to whisk
you directly there from Southampton.
Winner of eight 2013 Cruise Critic
Awards, Celebrity Eclipse offers
travellers keen to forgo the hassle of
airports the opportunity to enjoy eight
memorable nights exploring Norway.
Regardless of which destination you
select, sailing with Celebrity Cruises
guarantees youll discover it from the lap
They love winning prizes, such as the

prestigious 2013 Travel Weekly Globe
Award for Best Premium Cruise
Company, but they prefer hearing from
their regular Celebrity Cruises guests.
They tell them they know that, from the
moment they book a voyage with them,
the details will take care of themselves.
They share their delight in discovering a
new favourite thing, being able to choose
exactly what they wish, and realising
that theres nowhere else theyd rather
be. But their favourite bit is when they
reveal that they nd themselves smiling
even when nobody else is around.
Prices from 1,529pp, based on a seven
night Greece & Turkey cruise on board
Celebrity Silhouette in August 2014.
For more information, visit
celebritycruises.co.uk/condenast
or 0844 493 2047
AMAZING OFFERS
FOR FAMILIES
AND COUPLES
CYPRUS
EARLY BOOKING OFFERS

SUMMER 2014
OFFER 1
PAY FOR BED AND BREAKFAST STAY HALFBOARD
Applicable to all paying guests and children under 16 years of age. This
is for all bookings received by 31st May 2014 and for stays 1st May - 4th
August 2014 and 25th of August - 31st October 2014 inclusive, minimum
5 night stay. The free half board can be taken as lunch or dinner. Subject
to terms & conditions.
15
OFF
EARLY BOOKING
DISCOUNT OFF
ACCOMMODATION
Early booking discount off

accommodation only, for bookings
received by 31.1.14. For stays 1.5.14 31.10.14 inclusive, min 5 night stay.
10
BOOKING
% EARLY
DISCOUNT OFF
ACCOMMODATION
OFF
Early booking discount off

accommodation only, for bookings
received by 31.5.14. For stays 1.5.14 31.10.14 inclusive, min 5 night stay.
The above offers can be combined during applicable dates only.

Children Stay Free: Up to 3 children under 16 years of age sharing parents
room stay free (applicable only to selected family rooms, see your local
travel agent for further details). Children under 4 years old eat free on Full
Board, irrespective of parents booked board basis.
Guaranteed inter-connecting rooms. Complimentary access for children
over 3 years old in the Penguin Village Kids Club.
Available through most tour operators, see your local travel agent
JSVHIXEMPWERHFSSOMRKGSRHMXMSRWSVGSRXEGXSYV9/7EPIW3JGI
Tel: 01384 273224 Email: info@hotelmarketingco.com
www.lemeridienlimassol.com
The experts
This month Family Food Books Health
Gadgets Advice
EDITED BY ISSY VON SIMSON
WHAT YOU WANT

A bespoke family safari
WHO YOU NEED

Nella Nencini of
Tin Trunk Safaris
There probably arent many Berkeley graduates
with a PhD in Italian Renaissance theatre who
have the words safari guide after their names.
And there probably arent many safari guides
who ask their clients Would you swim in a river
if there was hippo poo in it? In Africa, where the
travel industry is dominated by third-generation
macho men, American-born Nencini is different.
I know how people want to travel. They need
adventure, yes, but they need a decent bottle of
wine, too. She now organises the most highly
tailored, one-of-a-kind holidays across East and
Southern Africa. She meets guests before every
trip and goes out of her way to matchmake them
to the smartest lodges or the most intrepid
y camps. And her clients, who include bank
CEOs and Hollywood scriptwriters, get totally
addicted and rebook again and again. This is
who Kirstie Allsopp calls when she wants a safari
blast. As she says: Nothing is too much trouble,
she even helped get the children dressed one
morning. For Nencini, going to Africa is about
getting out of your comfort zone. If you say
youve had a good holiday, Ive failed. I want to
hear that your whole life has changed because
of this trip. http://tintrunksafari.com
The experts... family

BEST FOR
ANIMAL ENCOUNTERS
Kangaroo Island, Australia
t was months in the making, this
trip, and years in the waiting. For as
long as I can remember, my daughter
Clementine, now 12, had wanted
to swim in the wild with dolphins. She
had always been specic. No, it cant be
with a group of other people, No, it
cant be from the coast of Portugal
[where we live] as the water will be too
cold. And between the thoughts and
wishes came the idea that it had to be off
Kangaroo Island (the name itself was
hypnotic), where it suddenly didnt
matter that the water, in our summer,
would be even chillier than the Atlantic,
because it would be just her and the
ocean and the dolphins if we found
them. No other boats, no planes
flying over advertising happy hour at

the local bar, no audience.
I did my research and found eco-slick
Southern Ocean Lodge, which enticed me
just as much as the dolphins were luring
Clementine. It has 21 huge, daringly boxy
suites running along the cliffs edge like a
limestone caterpillar, with vast views onto
the breezy blue ocean, a serious emphasis
on food and South Australian wines, and,
of course, the wildlife for which the island
is famous: uffy koalas, dear little kangaroos,
shiny seals and, we hoped, our beloved,
frolicking, dancing dolphins.
A bit more research revealed that to
get there would take ve different modes
of transport and several days. The children
were old enough to hack it and a whole
journey started forming around the core.

First to Hong Kong. And not just for
one night the children needed every
minute of the two nights we were there
to adjust to the time difference. We did
very little, slept in extreme comfort at
The Peninsula, ate steaming dim sum and
only ventured out into the humid heat to
see the bird market and the live crickets
being fed to them.
Then we ew overnight from Hong Kong
to Adelaide, took a taxi, then a ferry, then a
hire car (mounting excitement just managing
to thwart potential arguments) and were
instructed to get to our destination before
the wallabies started hopping across the road
at dusk. Once there, the anticipation was huge.
As the swim loomed, Clementine worried.
Will we denitely nd a pod of dolphins?
Will they like me? And then I started to
worry, too. Would these wild creatures come
and play with her? Bow ride with the boat?
Would she feel a connection? Would reality
match the dream that had been woven for
so long in her head? Most importantly, would
PHOTOGRAPHS: ALAMY; ANSON SMART
10- TO 16YEAR-OLDS
it be safe? I had been advised to seek out

Andrew Neighbour from Kangaroo Island
Marine Tours. If anyone could track down
dolphins in the open water it would be him,
and he was, in that reassuringly Australian way,
down to earth and completely in control of the
situation, calming any stray nerves.
We left from a deserted Bay of Shoals with
only a few pelicans as witnesses to the big
event. This was as far removed from any
SeaWorld scene as we could possibly be.
We roared along in our RIB, heading towards
North Cape where Andrew had last seen a
big pod. We passed 12 bottlenose dolphins
on the way. They rode with us for a while,
but Andrew thought they were too busy
feeding to be the right ones to swim with.
And then ahead of us in the distance, rising
from the at waters, we saw the unmistakable
splash of dorsal ns. OK guys, he said to
my wetsuit-clad daughter and her 10year-old brother Justin, jump in.
It was pretty cold; the water was only
11C and really didnt look inviting, but the
children were unperturbed. Off the back
of the RIB they tumbled, Justin rst, then
Clementine, but as the boat pulled away
to turn, a look of horror crossed their faces,
at being abandoned, at being hugely
outnumbered in the freezing water with
25 wild dolphins around them, no hoops,
no trainers. Oh God, I thought, please
let this be worth it. It took a few goes. In
and out the children went, with teeth
chattering but determined. The dolphins
werent quite sure either. Swim into the
circle, shouted Andrew. Break them up,
make them notice you. And nally, nally,
it all came together.
It wasnt Disneyesque. It was much better.
It was real. The dolphins swam underneath
them. Justin touched one with his foot. Like
rough, wet sandpaper, he said. They came
so close that the children could distinguish
one from the other by their scars. Clementine
began to relax, letting herself admire their
graceful movements, watching their milky
shadows beneath the green water. How was it?
I asked her when she nally climbed aboard,
purple with cold. Freezing, she chattered,
and quite scary but her eyes, bright and
wide with wonder, told me that crossing the
world for this exhilarating experience had
been worth every penny. MARY LUSSIANA
Cox & Kings (+44 20 7873 5000; www.coxand
kings.co.uk) offers a nine-night trip to Australia
from 4,425 per person, including two nights at
Southern Ocean Lodge full board, ights via
Hong Kong with Cathay Pacic (www.cathay
pacic.com) and two nights at The Peninsula
Hong Kong (www.peninsula.com) room only
La Flche, France
The hunting lodges at La Flche Zoo in
northern France are the rst of their kind
in Europe. Why did nobody think of this
sooner? To sleep in the middle of a zoo
when everyone else has left and the
animals are making their dusk calls. Sea
lions clap, polar bears pace rhythmically
and, as zoos go, this ones pretty special.
Theres not a plastic sign in sight, jungly
vines drape over walkways, its lush and
green, as natural as the unnatural can
be. When the crowds drift home, youre
led to a wooden gateway, revealing log
cabins. Two of them, called Bali and
Sumatra, overlook the Asian tigers; the
other two, Hudson and Alaska, share
their space with a pack of Arctic wolves.
The lodges are so painstakingly
designed that its hard to believe you
are in France at all, let alone in this
menagerie. Its wood on wood wherever
you turn. The oorboards and walls
are limed to a cool grey, antlers replace
cupboard handles and an Inuit canoe is
slung in the rafters like the skeleton of
a whale. All views are onto the enclosure,

with reindeer-fur stools to perch on
when the wolves appear. A bag of fresh
croissants is hung on a door hook in the
morning (by the animals, or so you tell the
children to elicit squeals of fearful delight).
Its not that you cant reach the
outside world, more that you dont want
to ruin the magic of being among the
wolves. A few feet from the four-poster
bed oor-to-ceiling windows give the
impression of bedding down in a den.
Be sure to leave the curtains open.
However deep you sleep, you know
when a wolfs eyes are on you. Call it
instinct. Waking at rst light to meet
their silent gaze, passive and peaceful,
is haunting. The brave will slip out of
bed and kneel, hands and face pressed
against the glass. The wolf leads the
exchange, his orange eyes watching you
as much as you watch him. But theres
nothing Little Red Riding Hood about
it. They cant gobble you up, yet few
things silence a four-year-old like being
nose to snout with a wolf. LYDIA GARD
One night at a lodge in La Flche Zoo
(www.zoo-la-eche.com) costs from about
110 per adult and about 60 per child
half board, including a two-day zoo pass
BEST
FOR
FO
EIGHUR- TO
T-Y
OLD EARS
The experts... gadgets
GEEK GEAR
By George Duffield
The centre of the Geek is his head. A marvel of bioengineering, it

is still the ultimate gadget. And it needs to be looked after at all times:
wrapped up, hydrated, protected and monitored. Here are some
travel contraptions that do just that, neatly and elegantly. Look after
your head, its the only one you have.
AURA BREATHALYZER
SKULLY P1 HELMET
The Geek is an aspirational
motorbike rider, although he
would never actually expose his
cranium to such severe risk. That
said, if he did, this would be his
helmet. The built-in, heads-up
display shows GPS navigation
information and a rear-view
camera. Genius. No question. Now
the Geek just needs to grow a pair.
www.skullyhelmets.com, price tbc
OSTRICH PILLOW
LIGHT
The Geek loved the original
Ostrich Pillow but this is even
better. It solves the eternal travel
conundrum: where do you put
your head when dozing without
breaking your neck? The answer is
anywhere. Its marvellously soft and
voluminous. Who needs at beds,
eh? Travel with this, save money
by not going business class, buy
your girlfriend a nice present.
Win-win-win. www.kickstarter.
com/projects/ostrich-pillow/
ostrich-pillow-light, 28
MiiR GROWLER
Ah, the growler. Really the name
is all you need. But, in fact, it also
happens to be the best-designed
hot/cold ask on the market.
Minimal. Cheap. Good-looking.
Efficient. Perfect. Buy a coffee,
ll the growler, board the plane,
job done. And MiiR donates to
a water charity for every one
sold, which is a bonus. http://
growler.miir.com, about 40
ILLUSTRATION: HEATHER GATLEY PHOTOGRAPH: SHUTTERSTOCK
Now this is fun. A pebble-sized breathalyser

that is actually a conversation starter.
Admittedly a little weird, but now you can ask
your date to breathe on you before they drive
you home. Plus, it might actually save your
life. www.aurabreathalyzer.com, about 125
Clockwise from top:

View of Anassa from
the Terrace; View from
Adonis Suite; Master
bedroom at the Aether
Residence; The indoor
pool at the spa at Anassa;
Guests enjoying the
private yacht
infinite VARIETY
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here are luxury retreats, and then theres

Anassa. Sitting in the verdant landscape of
North Western Cypruss Akamas Peninsula,
Anassa, Thanos Hotels leading property,
commands your attention immediately. Majestic,
thanks to its imposing traditional design and
landscaped gardens, the ambience is polished and
peaceful. Anassa translates as queen in ancient Greek
and the title epitomises the regal appeal. Azure and
white vistas and dramatic sunsets mean photo
opportunities abound. Combine that with the sundrenched year round climate and its obvious why this
is a coveted Mediterranean address.
your own space

The newest addition to the four-strong collection of
private villas is Andromeda; a spacious three-bed
residence offering the ultimate

in privacy and an innity pool.
The Alcyone Residence is a twobedroom oasis commanding
impressive views of the
Mediterranean. The Aether and
Alexandros Residences both feature high-end
design specications and uninterrupted views across
Chrysochou Bay. Basiliko is the gourmet restaurant,
housed in a stone cavern, its romantic ambience
works seamlessly with the Asian inuenced menu.
For a leisurely lunch, book Pelagos. Overlooking the
main pool and innite stretches of sea, it features an
open show kitchen. At The Thalassa Spa the speciality
is thalassotherapy; which harnesses the power of
marine extracts. Couples should try one of the Anassa
Indulgence combination packages for two. The Osea
Marine Body Experience rebalances mind and body.
enticing excursions
Guests can hire a private 24 metre yacht and venture
to the peninsulas surrounding bays and lagoons. St
Georges Island is a notable diving spot and is home
to an array of seabirds. The Blue Lagoon beach is a
15 minute boat ride away. Its an idyllic spot complete
with ne white sand and crystal-clear aquamarine
waters, perfect for sunbathing.
Just seven miles east of sister hotels Annabelle and
Almyra is one of the islands most picturesque
places, Aphrodites Rock, which exudes a beautiful
raw natural beauty. You can see why legend links it
to the path of true love. Swim around and see
For more information visit anassa.com
READER OFFER
One candlelit dinner (chef's choice) for two persons at

Helios, Anassa's ne dining restaurant (excluding
beverages). Terms and conditions apply. Please quote
'Cond Nast Traveller Reader Offer' when booking.
The experts... feasting

CAVOLO NERO
By Joanna Weinberg
I remember clearly the rst time I

encountered cavolo nero, at the River
Caf in London. The words sat there,
elegantly inhabiting their English
environs without apology, italics or
translation. Had we not been in a restaurant, they could
have been the title of a rousing opera, or a greeting for an
emperor, accompanied by a orid bow over feet encased
in coloured stockings and buckled shoes: Cavolo, Nero!
Compared to its poorer relations cabbage and kale, cavolo
nero is, I feel, deserving of all this bowing and scraping. Its a
grand-looking leaf, tall and slim as any aristocrat, its colour a
deep bluey-green with shades of grey; and it stands loosely in
bunches rather than gripping its heart neurotically as a round
cabbage does. It has all the upsides to cabbage it is tender yet
wont fall apart; it adds an earthy sweetness to dishes but has
neither its bland, raw crunchiness, nor its cooked wateriness.
Unlike most of us, cavolo nero is at its best after a frost:
the leaves become tender, and gentle in
avour. This is the time to use it raw
in salads. Strip the leaves from the tough
inner stem, shred and combine, for
example, with chopped apple, toasted
almonds and mature cheddar. It will
surprise you. Cooked, it still needs to be
Drink me
stripped from its stalk, and must be decently wilted in a little

water; it will hold out longer than spinach before collapsing.
Drain and press out the water. Then fry bashed fennel seeds,
chopped garlic and a pinch of chilli leaves in olive oil for a
couple of minutes, add the cavolo, toss well, season and transfer
to your plate. It will accompany stronger-avoured meats such
as lamb or pork perfectly; it may well outshine them, in fact.
Cavolo nero is a Tuscan winter staple, the essential ingredient
in minestrone and its offspring ribollita. These are heartening
soups you dont want to go through winter without. Heres mine.
This months recipe

Add olive oil, salt, pepper and a nip of chilli to a big pot and sweat
together the following until you can bear it no longer: onion, carrot,
celery, diced potatoes, a couple of peeled plum tomatoes (if you
like) and many squashed cloves of garlic, stirring if necessary. When
everything is tender, and just as it starts to stick, douse with enough
boiling water to cover, add cannellini beans and the rind of any
old Parmesan if you have some lingering in the fridge,
and simmer on a low heat for an hour. Fifteen minutes
before you are ready to eat, add shredded cavolo
nero and stale rustic white bread, such as ciabatta
or sourdough. Simmer for another 10 minutes,
then allow to sit still for a further few. Season to taste
with sea salt, and serve with best olive oil and Parmesan.
By Malcolm Gluck
Nonchalance is to be treasured in
a wine. The relaxed way it smells (no
intrusive wood). The laid-back taste
(casual, like hedgerow fruit). The texture
a blend of linen and satin sensed
as the wine rolls around the teeth and coats the taste buds.
Nonchalance, however, is not unmindfulness, or carelessness,
or laziness (traits which many a winemaker bequeaths to a
wine without being one whit aware of the
transference). Nonchalance is simplicity
and charm nothing show-offy. It is
not a forced quality and it cannot easily be
acquired. It is denitely not given exclusively to rare or much-vaunted wines. A
wine has it because it is an attribute
of its maker and blender.
Which brings us to that Tuscan winter soup. It, too, has
nonchalance, of the ineffably Italian sort which is a close cousin
of arrogance. No bad thing in a broth to warm the cockles
and lift the spirits. Can we, however, nd a nonchalant wine to
drink with it? Not altogether straightforward, since our wine
must, like the soup, be inexpensive. It must be red. It ought also,
by rights, to be Italian, or at least perform as if it was of Italy
born. Let us, then, turn to the warm, richly aromatic south,
Puglia to be precise. Waitrose has three splendid Puglians,
any of which would revel in accompanying that soup: Italia
Primitivo 2012 (6.99), Torre del Falco Nero di Troia 2010
(7.99) and Triade Negroamaro/Primitivo/Nero di Troia
2011 (8.99). Each red utilises local grapes, the rst two as
single varietals, the last as a robust blend of three. Forced to
choose just one of these wines to go with our soup, I would
plump for the cheapest, the Primitivo.
All three, by the way, are screwcapped,
so there is no risk of cork interfering with
the forwardness of the fruit, which in
each instance is forthright and brambly.
The same (in all respects) can also be
said of a delightful Puglian red at Asda,
the so-called Extra Special Primitivo 2010,
a snip at seven quid a bottle. It is to be deplored, of course,
that Asda should be so patronising and, to be blunt, so crass
in its opinion of its customers that it feels the need to burden
certain of its own-label wines with the dreadful moniker Extra
Special, but once you bung three bottles of the Primitivo into
a large jug and set it beside a vast, steaming tureen of that soup,
who of your party of ravenous guests is to know?
In each of these
Puglian reds, the
fruit is forthright
and brambly
PHOTOGRAPH: SHUTTERSTOCK ILLUSTRATIONS: HEATHER GATLEY
Eat me
CLOCKWISE FROM
TOP LEFT: MARKET
BY JEAN-GEORGES
RESTAURANT; BLISS
SPA; THE LIVING
ROOM; CRYSTAL
ENTRANCE; W SUITE
LIVING ROOM;
E WOW SUITE
BEDROOM
couture and culture meets vibrant nightlife.

Expect the unexpected and nowhere more so
than at the W Doha.
W
Another
Orl
d
There are still some places left in the world that will
surprise you. Doha is one especially when combined
with the wow-inducing welcome of the W Doha
raditional souks doused in the scent of

shisha smoke wafting through them; a
soft desert wind drifting in from the
dunes; huge trees stark against the
desert backdrop; a bustling port with shing nets
drying in the endless sunshine: Doha is surely

the essence of Arabian Nights. Yet its also one
of the Middle Easts fastest growing and most
cosmopolitan cities, where past meets future,
art meets science, tradition meets haute
Walk into wow as you arrive to an

extraordinary welcome. Think avant garde
design, dramatic lighting, jaw-dropping sea
views, cutting-edge technology and creative
touches permeating every space. Step into
style in the aptly named Spectacular and
Marvellous Rooms, or one of the Cool Corner
Suites, W Suites, WOW Suites or E WOW
Suites; or luxuriate for longer in expansive
one- and two-bedroom W Residences. And
if the signature W beds, Japanese baths and
to wow (or even woo) you, the signature
Whatever/Whenever service certainly will.
Work, with Qatars nancial and business
district walking distance from your door; work
out at FIT, the W Dohas state-of-the-art tness
facility. Rest at the regions rst ever Bliss Spa,
with its rejuvenating treatments; refresh
yourself with a dip in the WET pool. And then
play, play and play some more... music, fashion,
design, cuisine: the W Doha does it all in style.
arabian nights
Savour award-winning culinary gems by three
Michelin star chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten
at Market and Spice Market, or authentic
Italian cuisine at La Spiga by Paper Moon.
Sip, savour and mingle at Crystal and Wahm,
Dohas most desired hot spot, featuring
up-and-coming DJs from around the world.
Or simply settle into one of the hotels private
cabanas and soak up the atmosphere among
softly glowing lanterns and ornate details
silhouetted against the moonlight, as the local
trendsetters and trendseekers converge on the
W Dohas private terrace and the night
positively pulsates with colour and energy.
For more information or a reservation
visit whoteldoha.com. Be part of the
hotels social scene and follow events
at facebook.com/wdoha
The experts... books
Last year The Broken Road, the

nal instalment of Patrick
Leigh Fermors trilogy about
walking across Europe in the
1930s, was posthumously
published. During that books
long gestation, Nick Hunt was
preparing his own tribute, by
following on foot the route
described in the three volumes.
Vivid and hard-won, Walking
the Woods and the Water
(Nicholas Brealey, 10.99)
reveals a diminished Europe,
where tarmac roads give Hunt
shin splints and wear out his
boots. The book becomes
a report on the kindness
of strangers in a cold, sodden
landscape. The approach
to Istanbul brings welcome
relief from northern gloom.
Moonshine in Norway, coca

leaves in Bolivia, chewinggum in Singapore, raw-milk
cheese in France, bulls
testicles in Spain in The
Devils Picnic: A Gastronomic
Tour of Everything the
Governments of the World
Dont Want You to Taste (Pan
Kindle, 4.29), Taras Grescoe
eats, drinks, smokes and
otherwise ingests all kinds of
things, along the way talking
to gourmands, scientists,
lawmakers and addicts about
the phobias and prohibitions
that limit what we consume.
In this wittily told set of
journeys, Grescoe demolishes
with faultless libertarian logic
the arguments for various
bans and proscriptions.
By Giles Foden
Quitting his job in the City

and selling his house,
Conor Woodman took up
the ultimate commercial
challenge: to get around the
world on 80 trades and
come back with a prot.
Among the transactions in
The Adventure Capitalist
(Macmillan, 14.99) is the
bartering of Sudanese
camels for Zambian coffee
and Chinese jade for South
African wine. Other trades
involve seafood, surfboards,
teak and horses. Partly an
analysis of global markets,
partly a travellers tale that
reaches all the way back to
fellow merchants Marco
Polo and Ibn Battuta, this is
an exciting, inspiring book.
THE GREATEST BOOK ON EARTH

Travel writer John Gimlette nominates The Last Time I Saw Paris by Elliot Paul
These days, you could
easily miss rue de la
Huchette, a short alley in
the Latin Quarter. The old
whorehouse has become
a kebab shop, and the
police station (where, in
1926, les ics kicked a
burglar to death) now sells
souvenirs. The shabby hotel where I stayed was
once a dairy called A La Vache Indolente. I had
the milkmaids attic room. Collette, its said, spent
the 1930s defending her shapely rump from the
locals, and the 1940s persuading them to rent it.
We know all this thanks to a Bostonian, Elliot
Paul. In 1923 he settled here, to write. He
describes poverty exquisitely: the ringworm and

the roasted cats. But it is his characters who
make this memoir burst into life (and who drew
me to the street). Among them, we meet rogues
and revolutionaries, Mary the waitress who survives
on Dubonnet, and a beautiful actress who gasses
herself when the Nazis appear. Most perish during
the occupation.
No one will remember them now except you,
once youve laughed your way through
my favourite book, and cried a little too.
John Gimlette was the winner of the
Dolman Travel Book Award in 2012 with
Wild Coast: Travels on South Americas
Untamed Edge (Prole Books), an
account of his journey in The Guianas
Acclaimed for Running

for the Hills, a book
describing his childhood
in Wales, and A Single
Swallow, in which he
traces the birds migration
patterns, Horatio Clare
has now produced a great
book about the sea and
those who sail on it. Down
to the Sea in Ships
(Chatto & Windus, 20)
is a fabulous account of
voyages on two cargo
ships, one from Felixstowe
to LA via the Suez Canal,
the other from Antwerp
to Montreal, crossing the
Atlantic in winter storms.
There is Conradian
insight in Clares portrayal
of the crews to which he
is supernumerary, from
the captain who hums
as he negotiates narrow
channels to the rst mate
constantly crunching
carrots. Well-informed
accounts of the mechanics
of shipping, together with
lyrical descriptions of
dolphins and whales, make
it a pleasure to read. But
it is Clares own psyche
that is most interesting.
The risks he takes are not
ones of derring-do but
involve acute mindfulness
of the people around him
and the space they inhabit.
PHOTOGRAPH: NICK MOORE ILLUSTRATION: HEATHER GATLEY
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The experts... health

Is this the best medical spa in the world?
Daisy Finers constant quest for the perfect health x has
led her back to a Spanish retreat that seems to offer it all
Although it opened six years ago, SHA

remains the rst spa of its kind in the
world. Nowhere else offers such a showcase
for the principles of macrobiotics, the
cleansing and healing eating system
beloved of Richard Gere, Madonna and
Sting. And certainly in Spain, better
known for its smattering of yoga retreats,
there is no destination spa to match it.
Sleek, space-age even, the hotels
design is revolutionary in that it lends
a chic edge to a medicinal core: a
cool rooftop innity pool; an aqua lab
(pools lled with body-pummelling
turbo jets); an organic hair salon; a tea
lounge with an oxygen bar; a lecture
room; macrobiotic cookery classes; and
a library lled with health books. Its a
far cry from the rather tired surroundings
of Europes other medi centres such as
Mayr & More, with its hilariously

outdated interiors. But what makes
SHA really stand out is that its principles
arent just rooted in the Japanese/
Mediterranean fusion diet which
advocates eating wholegrains, vegetables,
soya protein, seafood and seaweeds
and avoiding meat and dairy products
but in an approach that merges
cutting-edge Western science with
ancient Oriental therapies.
You can try everything here, from
genetic testing to discover what the
future might hold (it costs about 3,300
and it takes a month to receive the
results, although the real question is, do
you really want to know?) to a sleeprecovery programme that combines diet,
acupuncture and phytotherapy (the use
of plants for medicinal purposes) to
deal with insomnia. Theres a stopsmoking programme (very few places

offer this, despite the need) and a range
of anti-stress treatments, as well as the
predictable though highly effective
intensive-weight-loss weeks that include
fasting days and colonics (during which
nervous patients are instantly put at ease
by the reassuring Rosie).
On the beauty front, all the pesky
issues can be tackled: varicose veins,
discoloured teeth, sagging necks,
frownlines, sun spots. And, unusually,
the massive range of scientic know-how
on offer is balanced by some of the
best holistic therapies anywhere:
shiatsu opens the lid on your emotional
landscape; yoga gently uncurls your body
and mind (especially in conjunction
with meditation workshops). Theres
ILLUSTRATION: HEATHER GATLEY
SHA Wellness Clinic, Alicante, Spain
From far left: the rooftop innity pool;

the calm space of the reception area;
the living room of the Royal Suite
also reiki, incredible reexology and

lymphatic drainage massage.
A stellar cast of visiting masters
includes Karen Himlok, who used to run
the holistic health programme at Chiva
Som in Thailand, which really says
something for SHAs pulling power.
Chiva is perhaps the only other spa in the
world where medi meets mindful with
such a vast choice of therapies but it
takes a lot less time to get to Spain.
A treatment with Himlok is like
no other. Id travel to Beijing, where
Champagne was bubbling through

them. The sense of calm she transmits
makes you feel as though you are being
bathed in love. Then, as she applies her
elbow with thoughtful purpose on your
solar plexus, your emotional storehouse,
deep-seated memories are released
that you didnt even know you were
harbouring. Its not unusual for some of
her clients to nd themselves weeping.
Others are simply relieved at nding the
sore back they walked in with being
wonderfully soothed.
Whatever your immediate need is,
it shall be attended to, for this is the
SHA ethos. It is a spa that aims to
be completely bespoke. Your designated
Its not unusual for some clients

to weep. Others are just relieved
at having their sore backs soothed
she lives, to see her again. Her methods
combine cranial sacral therapy and
qigong (a Chinese healing practice)
with acupoint therapy, tui na Chinese
manipulation and neuromuscular release.
She is one of those incredibly special
people with a gift for healing, who reads
your body as if she can read your whole
life. Even as she begins, and before she
has even touched you, you can feel an
energy in your veins almost as if
doctor will discuss your wellbeing,

take blood tests, and allocate you
a schedule coordinator to ensure you
are receiving the right therapies at the
right times.
Guests arrive from all stages of life,
with wildly varying needs. One woman
is visiting following the death of
her husband. Another has brought
her daughter who, at the age of 16, has
developed an autoimmune disease.
And yes, there are also stressed-out

bankers who admit they have piled on
the pounds and need to reassess their
coping mechanisms. Some guests want
to wear heels to dinner; others
want to walk about barefoot.
Sadly, it is this very desire to
help such a complicated and diverse
range of clients that is SHAs undoing.
Despite being open at weekends
rare in medi spas, with most
becoming deserted on Saturdays
and Sundays its staff cant keep up
all the balls they are attempting
to juggle.
There are, for example, three
completely different food menus with
no dishes in common: no wonder it
might take an hour for your lunch to
arrive. You might be on the bio-light
menu (the most palatable), but also
off gluten or dairy. Some guests want
more yoga, others would like the holistic
therapies to be given more time (most
massages are only 50 minutes long).
There is disappointment with the
views of Benidorm, the hot, itchylooking staff uniforms, and the fake
grass on the terraces (isnt naturalness
the very essence of macrobiotics?).
And it is a sad truth that the guest
relations manager is extremely busy.
There are noise issues. There are
problems with room service.
Sometimes language is a barrier.
And yet if SHA was to get its
game together, rally more staff in the
restaurant, provide some emotional
back-up for the wounded, then
there wouldnt be a better, more
encompassing spa in the world. Would
I recommend it? Its expensive, but
if you can afford it, go. If you are ill
and prepared to commit to food that
sometimes tastes disgusting, its worth
it. Meanwhile, lets hope this feedback
lters through.
Healing Holidays (+44 20 7843 3597;
www.healingholidays.co.uk) offers
a seven-night, full-board stay at
SHA Wellness from 2,880 per person
based on two people sharing, including
ights, transfers, treatments and
consultations for the SHA Essence
Wellness programme
The experts... advice
Q
A
My wife and I want to book a beach holiday in Europe

over Easter but want to avoid the crowds. Where
would you suggest?
Even though parts of Cyprus are fantastically touristy, no one

seems to make it all the way to the northern tip of the island.
Up on the Karpaz Peninsula, a nger of land that points
towards Turkey, not only are there stretches of soft, white
sand and little family-run sh restaurants, but the region also
has more than 300 days of sun a year, so the weather should
be lovely. Locals lead a laid-back way of life, and because of
the areas turbulent past, development has been minimal.
Hire a car and cruise along the coast roads
its difficult to get lost when you have sea
on either side of you. Stop for a swim from
one of the deserted beaches, or for lunch
of grilled catch-of-the-day. The roadside
shacks may be in need of some TLC but
the sh is straight out of the water, the
views are magical and you will most likely
have the place all to yourself. If you still
have room after lunch, try some freshly
made ice cream, though perhaps avoid
Amy Cole
the traditional mountain-goat variety
Promotions manager its not for the faint-hearted. There is
a handful of places to stay along the water; the Oasis at
Aylon (+357 533 840 5082) is the best positioned. Rooms
are very basic but they lead onto a private beach where
theres not another building in sight.
Q
A
I am spending a long weekend in County Donegal.

Is there anywhere especially good to eat?
Even if it means a 60-mile round trip from where youre
staying, head for Harrys (+353 74 936 8544) in Bridgend,
close to the border with Northern Ireland. Defying the
ancient tradition (now happily receding into folk memory)
of cooking meat until grey, this unassuming, friendly spot
is one of the best steak restaurants in Ireland. It will win no
prizes for interior design, but youre here for the beef (local,
28-day-hung), and it is sensational: crunchily seared on
the outside and beautifully rare within
(unless you want it some other way).
Donegal potatoes are the best youll
nd anywhere, so the chips are also
fabulous as are vegetables and salad
from the restaurants own garden. The
sh is excellent, too, from the harbour
at Greencastle, 20 miles away, and
fresh as a slap of saltwater spray. And
theres homemade soda bread to get Christy Ward Deputy
chief sub-editor
you started. Another great option, in
Greencastle itself, is Kealys Seafood Bar (+353 74 938
1010), a family-run spot where food miles are measured
in feet. The menu depends on the daily catch, but youll nd
modern creations alongside the likes of Dover sole or lobster
thermidor. One constant is the salmon-and-haddock
chowder, loved by generations of sea dogs and land-lubbers.
Im going to Marrakech on a bit of a budget. Can you

recommend restaurants that wont break the bank?
Without a doubt Al Fassia (www.alfassia-aguedal.com)
on Route de lOurika is one of the loveliest supper spots
in Marrakech. Enter through a candlelit courtyard and cosy
up on cushioned banquettes as the charming staff serve
you delicious lamb and prunes or waist-expanding set
menus. For a little light belly dancing, rooftop views and an
impressive performer shimmering in a candelabra headdress,
check out Le Tanjia (www.
letanjia-marrakech.blogspot.
co.uk) in the Medina, where
the tagines are huge. When
youve had your ll of food in
earthenware pots, head into
the Mouassine Quarter (a taxi
driver will take you to its edge
and get a local to guide you
through the narrow streets) to
Villa Flore (www.villa-ore.
Tania Cagnoni
com). This chic riad serves
Assistant editor
phenomenal duck cont and (photography)
chocolate mousse from its greatvalue 30 menu. Finally, Bousafsaf in the Jardin Majorelle
(www.jardinmajorelle.com), Yves St Laurents former home,
is a great place to try Moroccos famous pigeon pastilla.
PHOTOGRAPH: FOUR CORNERS IMAGES
Q
A
Ive just returned from Jerez and its incredible sherry bodegas.
Is there anywhere in London offering a similar experience?
I remember happily knocking back glasses of tinglingly chilled no
in the Anchor & Hope, Waterloo, about a decade ago and thinking
how novel it was. Over the past few years, other places have realised
that this wonderful yet neglected tipple isnt just for your nan to serve
on Boxing Day or to drink as an aperitif. The arrival of some brilliant,
authentically Spanish restaurants
has helped: Brindisa, Pizarro in
Bermondsey, and the funky Trangalln
in Newington Green, all of which
have ne sherry lists. But for more of
a bodega experience, try Drakes
Tabanco (www.drakestabanco.com)
in Fitzrovia. With stone tiles from
Rick Jordan
Crdoba, its actually modelled on the
Chief sub-editor
tabanco, a place where you can walk in and
buy a bottle to take home, or dawdle for a glass or two from barrels
behind the counter. You can do both here, or stay for a whole meal,
each course matched to a different sherry; Id recommend the bonedry, toasty amontillado with smoked scallops. If you want to mix
things up, the citys bartenders are increasingly using sherry as
an alternative to vermouth: try the velvety Sea n Stars (oloroso
meets dark rum) at Talented Mr Fox (www.talentedmrfox.com), or
the Tequila and Sherry Cobbler at Reverend JW Simpson (www.rev
jwsimpson.com), which also runs sherry-cocktail-making classes.
Q
A
Ill be stopping off in Hanoi for a few days next

month. Where should I go shopping for some
Vietnamese keepsakes?
Make a beeline for the maze-like Old Quarter, with its
warren of higgledy-piggledy streets. Youll have to take
a deep breath whenever you want to cross the road
against the constant stream of honking scooters, but its
all surprisingly well-signposted. Each street specialises in
a different trade. For silk scarves and pashminas, head to
Hang Gai Street; art galleries and traditional artisan shops
selling beautiful lacquered bowls line Hang Be Street,
and Hang Bac is known as silver
street. For seriously good
Vietnamese coffee, go to Hang
Giay: each shop has dozens of
varieties of beans, which you
can sniff and taste before
theyre ground and bagged for
you. Everyone raves about
Dong Xuan indoor market but
Emma Love
really it mostly sells tat, so I
Contributing editor
prefer to wander the colourful,
chaotic night market that spreads across four or ve
streets of the Old Quarter from Friday to Sunday,
although its less about buying here and more about
soaking up the atmosphere.
No Loch Ness monster.

But plenty of other
wonders to discover.
KEY W
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The waters surrounding Islamorada in The Florida Keys is the stuff of legends.
Warm. Rich with marine life. Crystal clear. And with everything from diving,
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KE
Q
A
ISL
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Celebrating
30
years
Clockwise from top

image: Exterior of
Freedom Villa; View
from the pool at
Sunset View; Pool
area at Stavroulla
villa instinct
Discover the James Villa properties that feature in their new TV

advert and see why theres nothing more indulging than a villa holiday
n the grey depths of winter theres nothing like an

image of a beautiful villa underneath a glorious blue
sky to really make you yearn to get away. So if youve
seen the gorgeous properties featured in the new
James Villa Holidays television advertisement, the
good news is you can actually book the properties
featured, and make those idyllic sunkissed images your
own. James Villa Holidays is the UKs leading holiday
specialist, with over 2,700 villas across more than 50

destinations and a collection of over 100 exquisite,
luxury villas. The three villas featured are all on the
sun-drenched island of Cyprus, in the delightfully
unspoilt region of Argaka, siting amid olive and pineclad hills, close to a long, unspoiled coastline. Like all
James villas, they offer complete privacy, your very
own pool and a real sense of stylish living.
contemporary luxury
Sunset View is an apt name for a house that is
designed to make the most of beautiful panoramas
across the hills and down to the sea. Inside, the villa has
a contemporary feel, with soft-leather loungers in the
spacious living area, a state-of-the-art kitchen and three
sleek bedrooms, all with their own balconies. The real
joy are the outdoor terraces where comfy rattan sofas
are an invitation to simply laze the day away and
enjoy the glorious views.
For something a little different, Stavroulla is a stonebuilt house that uses exposed brickwork and elegant
vaulted ceilings to create a feeling of rustic chic.
The house is set among leafy orange groves and offers

a wonderful sense of escape, although the busy resort
of Polis is just a short drive away. Sleeping six,
Stavroulla is a great choice for friends holidaying
together, or a larger family.
Designed with an eye for detail that makes it a really
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the huge pool and spacious
terraced areas are just the
place to kick back, relax and
let the gorgeous Cypriot
sunshine work its magic
on you.
For more information

visit jamesvillas.co.uk
Co mpetition
WHERE ARE YOU?
PHOTOGRAPH: DAN RAMBACH
As the song goes Downtown, everythings

waiting for you. And what awaits in
this city are arty buildings such as this
paintbox-bright garage, which looks as if
it has been playfully constructed out of
Fisher Price blocks.
In a place with 350 days of sunshine
a year, theres no fear of it appearing
anything but colourful against a powderblue-ecked sky. For the city sits on the
edge of a desert. Indeed, the native giant
cactus is a symbol around these parts; a

whole spiky army of the plants stand as
silent sentinels in the nearby national park.
This sun-baked spot is no stranger
to conict. It has a chequered history
worthy of the Wild West: one of
stagecoach robberies, raids by braves
from the Apache tribe and numerous
wars. Its inhabitants have lived under
ve different ags in the 240 years since
it was founded as a Spanish fortress,
and an international frontier lies just 60

miles to the south.
Today all is calm; the most aggressive
behaviour youre likely to encounter is at
a ercely contested college football game
on the home turf of the state university.
Where are you? GRAINNE MCBRIDE
To enter, identify the city where the photograph
was taken. Correct answers will be placed in a
random prize-draw. For competition rules and
prize details, please turn the page
Co mpetition prize
WIN
A 6,500 HOLIDAY IN DUBAI

Jutting out into the azure
Persian Gulf, this incredible
palm-shaped island is a watery
wonderland. At super-smart
Atlantis The Palm, Dubai you
can scuba dive, swim with
dolphins or even sharks. For
more sedentary pursuits, there
is a plush spa and a choice of
20 restaurants, including Nobu.
Enter this months Where Are
You? competition and you
could win a holiday for two here.
The prize, courtesy of Virgin
Holidays, includes ve nights
accommodation for two in a
Deluxe room, half board, access
to Aquaventure Waterpark and
the Lost Chambers Aquarium,
and ights from Heathrow.
The holiday must be taken by
27 September 2014. Black-out
dates apply. For more details,
visit www.atlantisthepalm.com or
call +971 4 426 0000. For Virgin
Holidays call 0844 557 4321 or
visit www.virginholidays.co.uk
Identify the location,

left, and send in your
entry to arrive by 28
February. All correct
entries will also be
included in the Grand
Prize draw at the
end of the current
competition period
(1 October 201330
September 2014).
COMPETITION RULES
1. Entries for the Where Are You?
competition can be sent on a postcard,
by email or online (stating your full
name, address and telephone number),
and must correctly identify the place
described according to the instructions
given. 2. Entries must arrive no later
than the last day of the month on this
issues cover. 3. The Where Are You?
competition is open to readers of Cond
Nast Traveller who are 18 or older on the
date of entry, except for employees of
Cond Nast Publications, participating

promotional agencies, contributors to
Cond Nast Traveller, and the families
of any of the above. Entries by post
should be sent to: Where Are You?
competition, Cond Nast Traveller,
Vogue House, 1 Hanover Square,
London W1S 1JU. Email entries should
be sent to: compcntraveller@
condenast.co.uk. To enter online
and for full terms & conditions, visit
www.cntraveller.com/competitions
NOVEMBERS WINNER
Michelle Heise of Chorley, Lancashire identied
this picture as Stapelbddsparken in Malm, Sweden.
She wins a pampering break for two worth 1,500 at
Lifehouse Spa & Hotel in Essex.
PHOTOGRAPHS: WERNER NYSTRAND; DAN RAMBACH
HOW TO ENTER
Reader offer
IMMERSE YOURSELF IN
INDONESIA
Save up to 35 per cent at the beachfront
Sanchaya resort on tropical Bintan Island
FOR MORE DETAILS OR TO BOOK

Email reservation@thesanchaya.com, quoting CNUK as a
booking code. Visit www.thesanchaya.com
intan island was once a hideout for dastardly

12th-century pirates but is now a relaxed sanctuary for
city-stressed pleasure seekers, just a short ferry hop
from Singapore. It has secluded coves and gorgeous white
sands, spectacular dive spots and rainforest walks, and several
ne golf resorts. Its also home to The Sanchaya, a ve-star
beachfront hotel on the north of the island that mixes colonialera elegance (swishing ceiling fans, muslin-draped four-posters)
with hi-tech convenience (iPad check-in). Guests can head to
the Tasanee Grill for fragrant Thai street food, the Library and
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look out to the South China Sea.
Readers have the unique opportunity to save up to 35 per
cent at The Sanchaya, staying in a seaview villa at 410 per
night for a minimum of two nights (SundayThursday) between
April and June. Transfers from Bintan Resorts ferry terminal
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four-course beach dining experience and daily la carte
breakfast. Readers can also stay in July and August for 875
per night (a saving of 22 per cent), and in September for 790
(a saving of 24 per cent).
NEW EDITIONS
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QUADRILLE PUBLISHING, 15 EACH
TRAVEL
Keeping in the loop
THEA DARRICOTTE uncovers your world
George Pragnell has one of the

most impressive collections of
watches and antique jewellery in
the country but their own range
is equally captivating. They also
have an abundance of exquisite
heart shaped jewels and pink
diamonds should you wish
to treat someone special.
pragnell.co.uk
loves
THE
Dont plan a trip to Tasmania without

consulting Tasmanian Odyssey, who are
the real experts on the island, its people, the
wilderness and how to make the most of your
trip. Each itinerary they create is unique to suit
exactly what you want and it's rare to meet
any travel company with such
a passion for their subject.
tasmanianodyssey.com
LUXURY
In honour of romance,
Laurent-Perrier has teamed
up with Britains nest
chocolatier William Curley
to create a gift box thats
impossible to resist. A bottle
of Laurent-Perrier Cuve Ros
sits alongside perfectly paired
chocolates infused with the
champagne itself. 59.99,
selfridges.com
The London Collection

from William and Son
was inspired by art
deco architecture.
With detachable and
buildable elements you
can play with it to your
hearts' content.
From 2,800,
williamandson.com
Worried about the rst signs of ageing? Sisley has launched

Sisley Youth to hydrate and energise your complexion and
protect your skins youthful potential.
sisley-cosmetics.com
HEALTH & BEAUTY
THIS TROUBADOR RUCKSACK IS

HANDCRAFTED IN ITALIAN LEATHER
AND HAS SPACE FOR EVERYTHING
YOU NEED FOR A DAY IN TOWN OR
AN OVERNIGHT TRIP, WHETHER IT'S
YOUR GYM KIT, LAPTOP, NOTEBOOK
OR CLOTHING FOR A NIGHT
ABROAD. TROUBADOUR BROWN
LEATHER RUCKSACK, 1,225,
TROUBADOURGOODS.COM
This month sees the re-launch of

Avenue in the heart of London's
St James. The name was chosen
because restaurants in New York
were traditionally always located
on Avenues and the cuisine mirrors
the theme with a contemporary US
inuence and an impressive wine
list of iconic American wines.
avenue-restaurant.co.uk
CHILDS FARM If youre going on an action-packed family holiday make sure to pack
WKH&KLOGV)DUP7RSWR7RH&OHDQLQJ.LW:LWKQRSDUDEHQV6/6VRUDUWLFLDOFRORXUV
the products are as good for your little one as they smell and will have them groomed to
perfection whatever theyve been up to! 9.35, childsfarm.com
W
W
HEALTH & BEAUTY
If the city that never sleeps is taking

a toll on your complexion, try the
Bioradiance Facial at the Mandarin
Oriental New York. Harnessing the
benets of natural botanicals from
narcissus, raspberry and algae it
was created to restore radiance,
clarify skin and even tone; all the
things youll need after a few nights
on the town! Bioradiance Facial,
from $340. mandarinoriental.com
These colourful necklaces from TAMARA

COMOLLI are the perfect poolside
accessory. Mikado Bouquet Pendants,
18k gold with different gemstones and
white gemstones, from 1,290 euros.
tamaracomolli.com
Planning a romantic Valentines

Day? Covent Garden Hotel has
an offer including a four course
meal in Brasserie Max, a glass of
champagne and a screening of
Breakfast at Tiffanys in the hotels
state-of-the-art screening room.
60 per person. Film starts at
8pm. firmdalehotels.com
Logue en-vogue
Every fashionista knows that
travelling can play havoc with
your attire. Logue London has
come to the rescue with this
wrinkle-free silk shirtdress which
packs as well as it travels.
360, loguelondon.com
LUXURY
The super-exclusive and utterly discreet PUNCH

ROOM at the London Edition Hotel has seen its fair
share of celebrities and super cool individuals but its
also available to us mere mortals, just make sure you
reserve your place in advance to enjoy cocktails made
by some of the best cocktail mixologists in London in
this decadent oak paneled den. Reservations call
020 7908 7989, edition-hotels.marriott.com/london
The HOUSE OF HENNESSY BOUTIQUE is open at

Heathrow T5 with intimate seating areas for tastings and VIP
customer services. Make sure you try the exceptionally rare eauxde-vie and the three superior Hennessy cognacs; VSOP, Prive
and Paradis Imperial. hennessy.com
Tassels are all the rage this season

and we are coveting the new Gucci
Nouveau bag which is bang on
trend and conveniently compact
for travelling. Gucci Nouveau bag in
red leather with tassels, fringes and
bamboo detail. 1,360, gucci.com
FASHION
The new Mogambo Collection

from Roche Bobois is inspired
by travel and takes its name
from John Fords eponymous
1953 lm set on a game reserve
in Kenya. The collection consists
of a desk, end table and storage
chest which are nished by
master craftsmen. roche-bobois.
com, 020 7318 8828
BEFORE YOU GO ANYWHERE

VISIT CNTRAVELLER.COM
HOT DESTINATIONS
OF 2014
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PHOTOGRAPH:
ALISTAIR TAYLOR-YOUNG
Where in-the-know travellers will be heading this year
Dream Destinations
EUROPE-UK
LA SABLONNERIE HOTEL. A convivial
corner of a beautiful island. Gorgeous
gardens, peace and tranquillity, birds,
butteries, owers, horses and carriages
no cars how could one not enjoy this
amazing paradise? You will nd this hotel
to have a great joie de vivre as well as
terric food. La Sablonnerie has recently
received the highly coveted award from
Cond Nast Johansen - Small Hotel of
the Year. Visit www.sablonneriesark.com
or call 01481 832 061.
MELDRUM HOUSE. Set amidst beautiful

countryside, The 4 Gold Star Meldrum
House Country Hotel & Golf Course offers
unrivalled quality. For a weekend break,
Scottish wedding reception, conference or
luxury golf vacation, you can enjoy great
hospitality, ne dining and the tranquillity of
the magnicent Meldrum Estate. T: 01651
872294. Web: www.meldrumhouse.com
THE BULL HOTEL. Easy-going and

bursting with life this 16th century
coaching inn oozes eclectic style and
contemporary rustic charm with two
award-winning restaurants, cider house
and cocktail bar in the heart of Bridport
near the Jurassic Coast in West Dorset.
Call 01308 422878 or visit
thebullhotel.co.uk
Borgo Pignano is a private estate

extending over 750 acres set in the rolling
hills of the Tuscan countryside. The villa
and two smaller stone farmhouses are
part of the 18th century converted luxury
hotel comprising of seventeen elegantly
furnished rooms. With 350 acres of
organically farmed land and two organic
vegetable gardens the kitchens prepare
locally sourced, fresh Tuscan delicacies.
Rooms can be booked for individual stays
or the Villa and farmhouses can be
booked exclusively making it the ideal
venue for private celebrations, retreats,
classes, holidays, and conferences.
www.borgopignano.it, +39 058 835 032.
Waltz through period rooms and centuries

of history in this noble Italian villa an
enchanting hotel by the Venetian village of
Arcade. The Count and Countess still relish
holidays in their family home, lapped by
lush parkland on the vine-clothed fringes of
the Montello hills. Mirela will explain its
history, from gatherings by Italy's nobles
and artists to the ravages of WWI. Explore
exquisite rooms of family treasures, ornate
mirrors, open res, coffee tables on dainty
tiptoes, studded leather seats, candles
ickering and tall clocks chiming. Roam
beautiful landscaped grounds before a
breakfast of freshly baked goodies by
Mirela's mother. Or take breakfast in bed
and digest the tree-lined avenues and 18th
century statues, fancy topiary and wroughtiron gates topped by family coats of arms.
Numerous cosy bedrooms are classically
dressed in shades of olive, khaki and wood.
A stylish pizzeria in the old wine cellar
offers organic pizzas; the honesty bar a
range of tipples to sip in the conservatory.
Strike out to Cornuda and Asolo, Treviso,
Venice... or stay and indulge. Call +39
0422.720078 or visit
www.relaisbarcozonca.com.
HOTEL CLAUDE MARBELLA is a

luxurious boutique hotel, set inside a
meticulously restored 17th-century
townhouse. Perfectly placed in the heart
of Marbellas Old Town. Experience this
former artists club with its 7 uniquely
styled rooms, restaurant, patios and roof
terraces. www.hotelclaudemarbella.com
Email: info@hotelclaudemarbella.com
Tel.: +34 952 900 840.
Dream Destinations
NORTH AMERICA
The Baker House 1650s luxurious and

relaxing environment makes it the ideal
home away from home in East Hampton,
New York. On offer is a range of amenities
including breakfast daily, local beach
access, spa treatments, and concierge
services to cater to every guests needs.
T: 631.324.4081 or email
info@bakerhouse1650.com.
Dream Destinations
A Room With A View is in a prime spot

on Brighton seafront. All rooms have
views over the beach, each beautifully
finished to a high spec with crme dcor,
oak floors, blond wood furniture and local
art. Book direct for free parking or
complimentary locally made chocolates.
Call 01273 682 885, or visit
www.aroomwithaviewbrighton.com
ZURICH
HOTEL RESTAURANT HELVETIA
The boutique hotel Helvetia with its 16
individually furnished rooms is a real jewel
among the citys hotels. The family-run
and individual hotel and restaurant offer a
home from home to business travellers,
city explorers and Zurich lovers alike.
Phone: 0041 (0)44 297 99 98
Web: www.hotel-helvetia.ch
AFRICA & INDIAN OCEAN

RIAD KHEIRREDINE. Charming riad in
the heart of the Medina of Marrakech.
Italian management, attention to detail,
all that a traveller can wish in terms of
comfort, style and hospitality with
attention to each guest.
www.riadkheirredine.com, 00212 524
386 364, infos@riadkheirredine.com
THE ZANZIBAR COLLECTION

Exotic, Luxurious, Zanzibar!
Dream Destinations
EUROPE
La Baronnie Hotel & Spa*** proposes
some exceptional packages to give you
the opportunity to discover the charming
Ile de R. In October: for 3 nights stay, 1
night is offered and we offer
complimentary breakfast during
weekdays Private parking / No smoking.
Tel:+33 546 092 129;
www.hotel-labaronnie.com
CASA MONTANI is a luxury guesthouse in
the heart of Rome, overlooking the
prestigious Porta del Popolo. Its ve rooms
and exclusive new apartment are beautifully
furnished with the best Italian and French
brands. The atmosphere is very personal
with breakfast served in your room the
perfect haven to stay in while you explore
the city. www.casamontani.com Tel: +39
063 260 0421.
HERITAGE LISBON HOTELS

Live the Portuguese Charm and Tradition
in the Historic Centre of Lisbon. Stay in
one of the 5 Heritage Lisbon Hotels
Collection As Janelas Verdes, Heritage
Avenida Liberdade Hotel, Hotel Britania,
Hotel Lisboa Plaza and Solar Do Castelo
Tel: +351 213 218 200
heritage.hotels@heritage.pt
www.heritage.pt
BUONANOTTE GARIBALDI is a
charming B&B in Rome that embraces
you from the moment you step through
the gate to a patio of Orange trees and
Magnolia. Owner and Fiber Artist Luisa
Longo has a sophisticated touch in dcor;
visitors can buy her silks and hand
painted screens. Tel +39 06 58330733.
www.buonanottegaribaldi.com
istanbul!place apartments Best City
Apartment winners at i-escape. Stylish,
characterful, self-catering period
properties in Galata, the heart of Istanbul.
Stay close to the ancient sights yet be
part of the contemporary, authentic local
community: live like a local. Perfect for
gatherings of families and friends.
www.istanbulplace.com or 07729 251676.
QUALITY VILLAS in France, Italy and

Morocco.
Luxury holiday villas with pools on the
Cote dAzur, St Tropez, Provence, Biarritz,
Tuscany, Umbria, Marrakech, Agadir and
more. Our portfolio of villas are visited
personally by us, meaning we can offer
specialist advice down to the smallest
detail. Services including chef, transfers
and maid service are easily arranged.
Tel 01442 870055 or visit
www.qualityvillas.com ABTA & Fully
Bonded.
Amsterdam Boutique Apartments are

self catering design apartments located in
a monumental canal house (1790).
Theyre a minutes walk from the oating
ower market and around the corner from
Spui you couldnt be more in the center
of the historical city. Visit
www.amsterdamboutiqueapartments.com
or call +31 20 7077954.
Set in Andalucias largest natural park,

MOLINO RIO ALAJAR offers freedom in
a rural paradise. Choose from 6 houses
on the estate and walk, swim, play tennis,
taste the local gourmet cuisine or enjoy
the sun. Visit www.molinorioalajar.com or
call +34 959 501282.
CASA LA CONCHA, a beautiful finca

situated in the stunning Marbella
countryside just minutes from Puerto
Banus. An Old Andalusian residence, it
has been exquisitely renovated into a large
main house and 5 luxury cottages. Relax
in the living room with a drink, enjoy a
good book from their library or go explore
the hidden treasures of Marbella. Visit
www.casalaconcha.com or call +34 646
520 883.
The Zanzibar Collection is a privately

owned collection of beautiful boutique
hotels inspired by the magic of Zanzibar,
lying on one of the Top 30 Island beaches
in the world. Offering a range of water
sports, stunning spas and East Africas
only National Geographic afliated PADI 5
star Dive Centre. Baraza Resort and Spa
was chosen as one of the Worlds 60
Best New Hotels on the Conde Nast
Hotlist 2012.
www.thezanzibarcollection.com
WINCHESTER MANSIONS is an iconic

building on the seafront in Cape Town
within close proximity to the V&A
Waterfront and Cape Town International
Airport. This landmark hotel offers
classically elegant rooms boasting sea or
mountain views. Facilities include a pool,
Ginkgo Spa, signature dishes from
Harveys restaurant and full service
conferencing.
Tel: +27 (0)21 434 2351
Fax: +27 (0)21 434 0215
Email: traveller@winchester.co.za
Web: www.winchester.co.za
Now from only 99 per room B&B
Dream Destinations
AUSTRALASIA & OCEANIA

THE HUKA RETREATS
www.hukaretreats.com
Three sister properties in South Africa, Fiji
and New Zealand chic and understated
statements of exclusivity and seclusion, all
offering an exceptional hospitality experience
to the worlds most discerning travellers.
GRANDE PROVENCE ESTATE, South
Africa, is located within a one-hour drive
from Cape Town. This 300-year old heritage
estate offers award-winning wines, cuisine
and art gallery with superb accommodation
at The Owners Cottage and La Provenale.
T +27 (0)21 876 8600
E reservations@grandeprovence.co.za
DOLPHIN ISLAND, Fiji offers 14-acres of
Pacific private island beauty, romance and
luxury castaway time for a max. of 8
guests, on an exclusive-use basis.
HUKA LODGE, New Zealand, is famed for
its natural beauty, legendary hospitality and
absolute style since the 1920s. With just
25 rooms within 17-acres of manicured
grounds.
Contact: T +64 7 378 5791
E reservations@hukalodge.co.nz
for both Huka Lodge & Dolphin Island
reservations.
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING FEATURE
The Luxury Gift Guide

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1. BAYLIS & HARDINGs affordable luxury products are seen in all the right places throughout the world. This Limited Edition Jojoba, Silk & Almond Oil Hand Wash harnesses the
nourishing and moisturising qualities of both jojoba and almond oil. It not only smells divine but leaves the skin like silk. www.baylisandharding.com
2. TRU VIRTU Oyster. This Aluminium Wallet is the modern alternative to yesterdays outdated leather version, offering a convenient solution for everyone. Separate compartments for
cash and cards are easy to open by pushing the correct buttons, meaning theyre easily accessed as they are safely stored. Its compact size and practical inner life means it fits in every
pocket. It protects against nasty RFID-scanning (illegal detection of personal data saved on your credit card) and against demagnetisation of cards. The trendy ultra-light case is available
in ten cool colours, pick and order yours now at www.stonemarketing.com or call 01732 771 771. Enter promo code TVCNT10 to receive 10% off all Tru Virtu products (expires 31st
January 2014).
3. LEICA M M as in Milestone in photography. Try the latest model of this iconic camera for yourself on an inspirational Leica Akademie, M Explorer workshop. Experience the worlds
most compact full frame digital camera first hand and learn the essence of Leica rangefinder photography, with the camera that has defined the Leica legend. Leicas own UK Akademie
is located above their Flagship Store in Bruton Place, Mayfair. Tel 020 7629 1351 or www.leica-akademie.co.uk
4. COUNTRY ATTIRE is the home of British style online, offering hand-picked brands, heritage and contemporary, paired with quintessentially British service. Now launching their resort
collections with luxury brands such as Zimmermann (featured above Ladies Instinct Drape Dress Floral 289.95), Heidi Klein, Juliet Dunn and Hoss Intropia. Visit their website
www.countryattire.com to view their collections or call 08435 077 007.
5. BLUE VELVET the home of contemporary and classic footwear direct from the heart of Europe. Always one step ahead, they have established themselves on their quality and first-rate
service. Visit them at: 174 Kings Road, SW3 4UP or call 020 7376 7442. Visit them online: www.bluevelvetshoes.com
6. HIDEO WAKAMATSU combine Japanese heritage with contemporary design to create a stylish range of luggage, laptop bags and accessories for the sophisticated and discerning
jetsetter. Pictured is the Muscular blue set small cabin case, the Muscular blue medium case and matching large case (599.99). All cases are made from Panlite, an incredibly strong
lightweight metal used widely in the aerospace industry due to its low density and resistance to corrosion. View the full collection at www.hideowakamatsu.co.uk or call 020 3697 7979
for more information. Quote HWUK310/13 for your exclusive 10% discount. Offer valid until July 2014.
7. SOAK Yourself have introduced The Little Box, an exact replica of the original Bath Ritual Recipe Kits, just little. The Little Box is designed for a single use, and is perfect for business
travel (stuck in a hotel room, exhausted), or an ideal way of gifting someone special on a weekend away. Available in all 7 recipes, this cute box retails at 25.00 and is available at
www.soakyourself.co.uk
8. New fashion accessories brand SNOODYDO has launched its debut collection of hats, scarves, gloves and snoods for Winter 13. Ranges available for Men, Ladies, Girls & Boys.
Pictured are Tyler hat (RRP 19.99) and Tyler Scarf (RRP 24.99). Visit www.snoodydo.com and enter code CONDESD01 to receive a 10% discount.
9. Award winning designer jeweller LIZ TYLER delights in creating individual wedding and engagement ring sets, using carefully selected diamonds and precious gemstones. There is
always a sense of movement in the flow of the design. Liz will be exhibiting at DESIRE, Chelsea Town Hall, 7-9 February 2014. Visit www.liztyler.com or contact Liz on 01258 820222
10. HAMMAMAS are a Clever Cotton Towel that is possibly the most useful, stylish and versatile travel gift youll find this season! They are super absorbent, easy to pack, quick drying
and come in their own wet bag, so make perfect swimming towels, gym towels, sarongs, bath wraps, holiday and travel essentials. Hammamas are for everyone and can be used for
almost anything. Visit www.hammamas.com or call 01580 714714 for more information.
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11. ACCIDENTALLY EXTRAORDINARY

From the bold coupling of stainless steel and
sustainably-grown walnut emerges the unique
wood sound of the 51st Studios headphone by Accidentally Extraordinary. Inspired by retro
speakers and wood-appointed studios, the 51st Studios offer adeeper. richer listening experience in
adesign as distinctive as you are. 79.99 on amazon.co.uk Visit aeheadphones.com (based
18
Oakland CA. 94612).
12. PASHMALA Wrap up this winter with a luxurious hand spun pashmina. PashMala.co.uk creates exquisite pashminas and cashmere scarves
in unique designs. View all their collections at PashMala.co.uk Tel: 07592 869937 to find out more.
13. SOMETHING COUNTRYs luxury range of Jump Uppsala and Nice luggage range is now available from www.somethingcountry.com and
will make the perfect getaway gift. Email quelqueschoses@yahoo.co.uk or visit www.somethingcountry.com for more information.
14. Bespoke, beautiful, hand-made pieces are all created within the UK but XANTHE MARINA also takes inspiration from her travels,
especially the delights of the Caribbean. These designs are reflected in her collection: Seashells & Water for more information please call 07768 263198 or visit
www.xanthemarina.com
15. RUBIS CHOCOLATE WINE is one of wines best kept secrets, a special combination of carefully selected Spanish Tempranillo red wine and premium chocolate, skilfully blended in
England. The perfect ValentinesDay gift for lovers of red wine or chocolate, andmakes an indulgent after dinner luxury.Buy from Harvey Nichols or Amazon. Visit www.rubiswine.com or
call 01628 851444.
16. HARLETTE presents its first SWIM collection, launched in Paris. Featuring made with Swarovski Elements, the collection gives a truly luxurious swim experience. Whether poolside at
the Burj Al Arab in Dubai or the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood, beachside in Bermuda, Bondi, Cannes, Ibiza or Positano, no one will have a one piece or bikini as fashion forward as
your SWIM by Harlette. Visit www.harlette.com to view the full collection.
17. SANDY BAY The stunning White Tea Lily Wisteria Candle 25 www.sandybaylondon.com or call 01992 618015.
18. LATHAM & NEVE known for their stunning contemporary hand-made British jewellery since 1997. Featured is the unique Ripple Bangle in beaten silver and 18ct gold 200.
Ballroom bangles, everyday earrings, ravishing rings and much much more... Buy Online/stockists/Brochure. visit www.lathamandneve.co.uk or call 01580 753399.
On The Move... To South America
Le Camlon Boutique Hotel is located on Costa Ricas Caribbean Coast

within the tropical forest of Puerto Viejo. With its laid back attitude and
Caribbean lifestyle, Puerto Viejohas it all: long walks on the pristine
beaches, exotic flora and fauna in a wildlife refuge, as well as snorkeling
or diving among the many reefs in crystal clear waters.
www.lecameleonhotel.com
Phone: (506) 2750-3096 E-Mail: info@lecameleonhotel.com
On The Move...
To Africa and the Indian Ocean
To advertise within On The Move... please call 020 7499 9080 ext 3705
Discover the
smiling coast
For a free brochure call
0845 330 2052

Gambia.co.uk
Chilax
Treat yourself to a beach holiday in Africa
4ELs+44 1865591097
info@pulseafrica.com s www.pulseafrica.com
WILDLIFE ADVENTURES AWAIT
M A ASAI M AR A, K EN YA
SER ENGETI, TA NZ A NI A
reservations.mara@bushtopscamps.com
reservations.serengeti@bushtopscamps.com
www.orion-hotels.net
https://www.facebook.com/bushtops
www.simonsays.co.za / 5783
Award-winning wildlife reserves with 5-star lodges in South Africa Free-roaming

Big 5, bird watching & flora experiences Game drives &
photographic safaris Family-friendly facilities with
Kids on Safari 3 Explorer Camps 2 day walking
safaris in Big 5 territory, sleeping in mobile
tents Gap year, field guide training
& Shamwari conservation
courses
www.shamwarigroup.com
T: +27 (0)41 509 3000
reservations@shamwarigroup.com
On The Move...
To a Villa Retreat
Handpicked &
personally inspected
villas in the Caribbean
The experts on every property
Villas to rent
in Essaouira
www.castlesinthesand.com
UK mobile: 07768 352190
Toll Free UK: 0845 528 0209

info@exceptionalvillas.com
www.exceptionalvillas.com
On The Move...
To a Villa Retreat
Some of the finest villa
rentals in Tuscany
by Tuscany Now
HAND-PICKED VILLAS
SOUGHT-AFTER LOCATIONS
TAILOR MADE SERVICE
To book your luxury villa holiday call us

now on 020 7563 7993 or view our full
portfolio at www.cvvillas.com
+44 207 684 8884

tuscanynow.com
HOLIDAYS COLLECTION
Over 300 hand-picked holiday villas, cottages

and apartments throughout the UK and Europe
www.signatureholidays.uk.com I 0800 111 6106
On The Move...
To a Villa Retreat
WELCOME TO THE
ULTIMATE LUXURY
VILLA COLLECTION
YOUR GREAT ESCAPE
STARTS HERE
Distinctive
Holiday Rentals
in Europe,
Morocco and
Thailand
PRIVATE PROPERTIES ABROAD
enquiries@ppaproperties.com
Tel: +44 (0) 1423 330533
www.ppaproperties.com
www.oliverstravels.com
CALL US ON 0845 389 9582
Private Luxury
Mediterranean Villa
Sleeps 12 people
www.privatevillaspollensa.com
ref VP90
ABTA No. P1463
On The Move...
To a Villa Retreat
TUSCANY
MONTE ARGENTARIO
Luxury Villa Rentals
Property Sales
For further information, please call 020 8246 6123

www.isolarossa.co.uk
The Dream, Barbados

Bel Horizon Seychelles
Affordable beachfront self-catering holiday
duplex at Glacis set in a beautiful tropical
garden leading directly to a secluded beach.
Suitable for couples, business travellers and
families. Your home away from home.
www.BelhorizonSeychelles.com or email
BelhorizonSeychelles@gmail.com
Some of the worlds most luxurious private

rental Villas, Yachts and Real Estate at your
nger tips.
Telephone 0845 017 6707

www.worldwidedreamvillas.com
On The Move...
SORRENTO
tel. + 39 081 877 7111
info@exvitt.it www.excelsiorvittoria.com
COTSWOLDS
COUNTRY PUB
LUXURY ROOMS
FINE BRITISH
SEASONAL CUISINE
Ilmington Road | Armscote | Stratford-upon-Avon | Warwickshire | CV37 8DD
twitter.com/fuzzyduckpub | facebook.com/fuzzyduckarmscote | 01608 682 635
www.fuzzyduckarmscote.com
www.fuzzyduckarmscote.com
On The Move...
Discover Corsica
Villas, apartments & hotels
Order a free brochure
Luxury hotel located in the northwest tip of the

Greek island of Santorini
0845 330 2060

Corsica.co.uk
ATOL 1866 | ABTA V5963
www.canaves.com +30 22860 71453
Stunning Sardinia
Villas, apartments & hotels
Order a free brochure
0844 248 1914
Sardinianplaces.co.uk
ATOL 1866 | ABTA V5963
Handpicked Properties
with Private Pools
A selection of beautiful individual
villas & houses with pools in
tranquil settings & areas of
traditional local culture.
Combine delicious Italian food and culture

with luxury 5* Masseria accommodation on
this 7 night cookery holiday, where you will
learn to cook traditional Italian dishes
using organic produce from the farm.
For more information please call
0044 (0)7748960818
or visit www.italiancookeryholiday.com
*5((&(63$,1/$1=$527(
%$/($5,&632578*$/) 5$1&(
,7$/<&52$7,$
Enjoy the best

of the Dordogne
Now in our 23rd year
Call for a brochure or to speak to one of our specialists
bestofdordogne.co.uk
BEAUTIFUL HOLIDAY VILLAS, COTTAGES
AND APARTMENTS THROUGHOUT EUROPE
2787
01954 261431
or visit our website

www.vintagetravel.co.uk
V5643
On The Move...
Enjoy the best

of the Highlands
Enjoy the best

of Puglia
bestofthehighlands.co.uk
bestofpuglia.co.uk


info@alamandas.com
Tel +(52)322 285 5500
Steigenberger Grandhotel, Brussels

A new definition of Luxury
Two complimentary glasses of Champagne if Traveller is
mentioned upon booking
www.brussels.steigenberger.com
Reservations.brussels@steigenberger.com
+ 32 2 542 42 42
www.alamandus.com
Skype: res.alamandas
Carmos is a cosy, romantic and exclusive 15 rooms luxury Boutique Hotel in the
Portuguese countryside.
Situated at Ponte de Lima, the oldest town in Portugal.
Emotional Luxury. Romanticism. Traditional Cuisine. Aromatherapy and Well-being.
Tradition. History. Rural Environment.
Home away from home
Tel: +351 910 587 558 / +351 258 938 743
www.carmosbouiquehotel.com
On The
Move...
INSTANT
ACCESS
to digital
editions
Award-winning
Holidays
Spain
CHILE TOURS
France
SOUTH AMERICA
Madeira
Travel
Mallorca
Portugal
A wonderful choice of
luxury and character hotels
across nine diversified
European countries; by air, sea,
rail or accommodation only.
Visit our website for
fantastic special offers
and holiday inspiration.
Tailor-made holidays in Chile,

Argentina, Peru, Brazil and Bolivia
Switzerland Germany
Italy
Cond Nast Traveller reminds you to ensure that when

booking a package holiday to check that the travel
company has arranged a bond, in order to provide
nancial security through a trade association
(eg ABTA), insurance, or a trust account.
Capri
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195 December 2013

Nashville Tokyo Mumbai
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196 January 2014

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View with a roo m
WHERE ARE WE? DAKHLA OASIS, EGYPT
LOOKING AT BEIT MURAD, AL TARFA DESERT SANCTUARY

You dont often nd yourself staying somewhere so exhilaratingly remote. This
uncharted corner of the Sahara, bordered by Libya to the west and Sudan to the
south, six hours drive from Luxor across the shifting sand sea of the Western Desert, is as far-ung as you can get
without verging into tricky territory. Out here, in this bleached barren landscape, is an oasis, date-palm-lled and
lush. And in that oasis is Al Tarfa, a secret little mirage of an eco-lodge. It is an unbelievably pretty gathering of cool,
mud-walled villas, linked by lantern-lined sandy pathways through a bougainvillaea-bright garden. In the rooms,
it is Provence meets Out of Africa, with open replaces, wrought-iron canopied beds and dove-grey French armchairs.
At the end of a dusty day, after spine-jolting camel treks, four-wheel-drive dune safaris, mind-blowing pharaonic
temple-viewing and whiffy sulphuric dips in the Roman hot springs, the muezzins call to prayer begins to sound from a
nearby hamlet, and the setting sun casts a perfect dusky-pink glow on the surrounding limestone escarpment. Gin and
tonics appear on silver trays, and supper salad of sweet tomatoes from the local farm, spiced aubergines plucked from
the ground that day is served under an inky-blue sky. Robert De Niro and the Bulgari family come here to escape.
The tiny, dome-ceilinged spa has a sauna, steam room and mosaic-lined plunge pool to
INSIDE TIP bathe away the last remnants of desert dirt, but do ask in advance if you would like a therapist
to be on hand for treatments. The Thai massages are brutal but brilliant. ISSY VON SIMSON
Al Tarfa Desert Sanctuary Lodge & Spa, Dakhla Oasis, Egypt (www.altarfa.net). Doubles from about 265, all inclusive
PHOTOGRAPH: RETO GUNTLI
WHY WE LOVE IT
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Epsom Downs Racecourse, 6-7 June 2014
investec.com/derby Follow us on
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FEBRUARY 2014 3.

ITS HIP NEW NEIGHBOURHOOD

THE BEST OF THE ALPS

TUNE IN, DROP OUT, SURFS UP

Download t he Louis Vuitton pass app to reveal exclusive content.

THE INSPIRATION FOR YOUR JUMEIRAH EXPERIENCE EVERY WHERE

Our 24-carat pick of the worlds best

Morocco Sheikh it up in the

Paris Join the cool, creative

Byron Bay An insiders

PHOTOGRAPH: ALICIA TAYLOR

Swiss Alps The stakes are

Raw Vintage antique shop in Byron Bay

28 Surf break The secret spot on

42 Out of my comfort zone

45 Where to stay The St Regis New

54 A letter from Tuscany, where

8 Cond Nast Traveller February 2014

A-Z, throw away the road atlas:

145 Inside track Fatima Bhutto on

148 A travellers tales Around the

134 Britain by the book Ditch the

a Chianti-fuelled lunch is a lesson in

58 Style le The quirky accessory

guide to call for a bespoke family

168 Competition Win a 6,500

171 Reader offer Save 35 per cent

188 View with a room Al Tarfa Desert

PHOTOGRAPHS: ALAMY; EVAN HANSEN; GETTY IMAGES; JESSICA SAMPLE; WIREIMAGE

Truth in Travel is this magazines promise to the reader to be an essential source

Inspired by this months Britain by the

Anna Blundy Writer, A letter from (p54)

Kate Maxwell Writer, Paris (p102)

streets where the heroes of Pushkin, Gogol and Dostoevsky went

Pari Dukovic Photographer, Paris (p102)

Danielle Pergament Writer, Surf break (p28)

Last year I got to see Gore Vidals villa, La Rondinaia in

Alicia Taylor Photographer, Byron Bay (p112)

ILLUSTRATION: PHILIP BANNISTER PHOTOGRAPHS: HUGH DICKENS PHOTOGRAPHY;

Julian Allason Writer, Swiss Alps (p122)

A childrens dining program,

SYNDICATION AND EDITORIAL BUSINESS

Cant nd Cond Nast Traveller in the shops?

To book your luxury villa holiday call us

2014 Crystal Cruises, Inc., Ships registry: The Bahamas.

NEW ENGLAND & CANADA

AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND

SOUTH PACIFIC & ASIA

The most desirable villas in

PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Sarah Jenson

MANAGING DIRECTOR Nicholas Coleridge

+44 (0)20 7377 8518

PHOTOGRAPH: GARETH MCCONNELL/EYEVINE

EDITED BY FIONA KERR

wars, home to a grand hotel and its legendary

team toured some very smart spots. We

HAIR Move over Brazilian

FULL BODY Former carnival queen

22 Cond Nast Traveller February 2014

to rhythm-less travellers in her

SKIN In a country where

the trends taking

LONDONS HOTEL SCENE