SPRING & SUMMER 2014 “Great escape” means different things to different people. Time to strike out into the unknown and try something new. Or lie back and relax into the familiar.
Cover image George Steinmetz; this page Corbis
In the case of explorer Benedict Allen (page 34) it could be walking for three and a half months through the Namib Desert with reluctant camels. For Richard Branson (page 30), it’s ensuring that the flamingos – and his guests – feel at home on his beloved Necker Island. It might mean doing something you haven’t done before – I’d never been to a desert in my life, so I was thrilled to visit Chile’s Atacama (page 60). Or perhaps it’s about returning to old haunts, which is why Harrods Magazine Editor-in-Chief Deborah Bee made her way to Grenada for the first time in 20 years, wondering if she’d catch up with anybody she’d met the first time around (page 75). As for photographer George Steinmetz (page 11), well, it’s bound to involve taking off in a motorised paraglider, checking out the world from on high. One thing’s for sure: now that leisure time is so precious, we treasure travel more than ever. It’s a ticket to truly live the moment. And that’s the kind of inspiration the new Harrods Travel magazine aims to deliver. We hope you enjoy the journey.
CONTENTS 11_ V I E W F R O M T H E T O P Watching the world from the skies is all in a day’s work for multi-award-winning photographer George Steinmetz
40_COOL POOLS Where on earth can you enjoy the dreamiest of dips, surrounded by lush jungle, majestic mountains or a slick cityscape?
17_NEWS Trips to Manhattan and Bhutan; mentoring children in Africa; Kasor built-to-last bags
46_ SA LSA CL A NDESTINA As the Latin dance scene plays out this summer, it’s inspiring a season of sultry looks
19 _ SU M M ER LOV IN’ Get poolside in animal prints and light, bright florals 21_CA LL OF THE W ILD Saddle up and discover a new luxury eco-resort with a difference 23_NEWS New look for The Setai in Miami; the latest from Qatar Airways and Duxiana 25 _PUSH T HE BOAT OU T Hit the deck in rich tans and breezy blues 2 7 _ FA C E VA L U E A breathtaking new book by Jimmy Nelson is this summer’s perfect journey of discovery 28_ N E W S Tahitian idyll; Californian and Caribbean luxury breaks; Virgin Atlantic pampering 3 0 _V I R G I N T E R R I T O R Y How do you improve on paradise? Leave it to Sir Richard Branson
Jan Masters Editor
34 _EX PLOR ATION E A RTH Childhood adventures from Alderley Edge to the Med sparked global discovery 3 8 _ M Y B L U E H E AV E N With its picture-postcard setting and fresh, locally sourced cuisine, Kirini Suites & Spa on Santorini is a sybarite’s dream
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5 2 _ H AVA N A H O T L I S T Dance to your own beat with the lowdown on the high life in Havana 54 _M AGIC A L M AUR ITIUS For detox, re-tox, relaxation or exhilaration, one island has it all 60_LIFE ON M A R S Salt lakes and stars, volcanoes and grand vistas; the Atacama is an escape like no other 67_CH A R ACTER BU ILDING For a UK getaway that offers solitude and quirky style, take a walk on the wild side 71_L A SER ENISSIM A Untouched over centuries, Venice is still the dream destination 75_CA R IBBE A N TIME Set your watch back 20 years to enjoy the unspoilt beauty of Grenada 8 0 _T H E C H E F FAC T OR A top hotel isn’t worth its salt without a world-class restaurant 82 _T H E L A ST F RON T I E R From mudmen to wigmen, witch doctors to tree-dwelling kangaroos, Papua New Guinea is the destination everybody is talking about
LATITUDE
CALL OF THE WILD Saddle up and discover a new luxury eco-resort with a difference BY JAN MASTERS
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she could. She has called it Mustang Monument to honour the spirit of these wonderful creatures. “It occurred to me, however, that I would have to ensure this project was sustainable, otherwise, if I died tomorrow, what would become of the horses?” She put her business head on and decided to open an eco-resort, where visitors could come to enjoy the amazing scenery, outdoor activities, superb food and spa treatments, and stay in a super-luxe 300-squarefoot tipi. Above all, they could visit the mustangs in their natural environment. “Think of it like a safari with a difference,” she explains. Mustang Monument is to open this June (appropriate, given that 2014 is the year of the horse). “I’ve fallen in love with the west, and every day I’m here, I feel it’s the right thing to do,” she says. “There are many obstacles that crop up, but I always figure something out.” And who would ever doubt her? HMN A three-night stay at Mustang Monument costs from £985 per person based on two sharing a tipi on a full board basis including activities and taxes; www.mustangmonument.com
Jo Danehy
hilanthropist and animal lover Madeleine Pickens is a one-off. When she gets involved with a project, she doesn’t do it by halves. After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, forcing people to abandon their dogs and cats even as they were being airlifted to safety, she chartered an airliner and made half a dozen trips from her Texas home to pick them up, either reuniting them with their owners or finding them new homes. So when she heard about the plight of thousands of wild mustangs facing an uncertain future – many in holding pens or rounded up – she decided to intervene. Again, not in a small way. “The Katrina rescue was a life-changing event for me. I knew I wanted to work with animals,” says the super-glamorous Pickens, who bucks all the clichéd images of unkempt eccentrics who devote their life to animal protection. “A hundred years ago, there used to be about two million wild mustangs roaming the plains; now there are only about 25,000 to 30,000,” she says. Her immediate solution to help their cause? She bought a ranch in the Spruce Mountains of Nevada, along with 900 square miles of land, applying for grazing rights to support as many as
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All photos except top left and top right Deborah Bee
DESTINATION
orange, green, red and yellow mark out the roofs of houses scattered randomly among the trees. Maurice Bishop International, an airport that bigs itself up with its no-nonsense name, is painted cotton-candy pink with turquoise flourishes. The customs queue wraps around the building. My luggage cooks itself on the runway. This is the old-fashioned Caribbean, where things happen in Caribbean time. My hotel is a 20-minute drive from the airport, on a hillside overlooking Grand Anse Beach, which is said to have the whitest sand on the island. Mount Cinnamon is a boutique resort owned by property tycoon Peter de Savary, the brains behind the St James’ Clubs, The Carnegie Club and Bovey Castle. His Caribbean hideout is unpretentious; the clubhouse restaurant, Savvy’s, is open-air, overlooking the bay and serving up unusual Creole dishes using local ingredients. The one-, two- and three-bedroom villas are modern and fresh, taking their design from traditional architecture. Each villa has a well-equipped kitchen, spacious indoor and outdoor relaxing areas and properly big bedrooms with properly big beds. It’s luxurious without being ostentatious. They’ve thought of everything – bathrobes, fresh flowers, bowls of fruit – without the side order of bling. It feels like honest quality. Having explored Grand Anse on foot – from the hotel to the supermarket (they didn’t have Pringles) to the Mount Cinnamon bar on the beach, to the hotel spa for a heavenly massage, then back to the sun-loungers – I decide to hop on the ferry to see what I remember of Carriacou. It’s a three-hour journey and, from the top of the boat, I can see the wild coastline of Grenada, the black, volcanic beaches where the forest meets the sea, and coves where X
THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Mount Cinnamon Resort & Beach Club; Savvy’s beachside bar; fruit stalls in St George’s; Savvy’s; a worker at the Grenada Chocolate Company takes a break; the beach at Mount Cinnamon; a hired sailing boat that cruises around Grenada; OPPOSITE PAGE Grand Anse Beach
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FOOD
T H E C H E F FAC T O R A top hotel isn’t worth its salt without a world-class restaurant BY MEROPE MILLS
A private beach, a prime location, four-poster beds and sunken baths – all have become staples of the luxury hotel business. But in the last 10 years, hotel dining has leapt into the limelight and onto the must-do menu. Many luxury hotels now boast restaurants that are destinations in their own right – top chefs are wooed, Michelin stars are coveted and no expense is spared to conjure a meal guests will remember long after suntans have faded. All over the world, chefs are setting up home in top hotels. So whether you holiday in the heart of the city or on a remote private island, it’s easier than ever to get a taste of the good life. R HODES 4 4 The St Regis Abu Dhabi
NOBU Nobu Hotel, Las Vegas
Why have one restaurant when you can have a handful? There’s ample choice at The St. Regis Abu Dhabi, which opened last year to huge fanfare. Those in the know head for Rhodes 44, which serves contemporary cuisine with Arabic influences by Michelin-starred chef Gary Rhodes. The hotel is in one of the two Nation Towers on the Abu Dhabi Corniche; a 656-foot-high sky bridge links the towers.
Opened in February by Robert De Niro and chef Nobu Matsuhisa, fans of the earlier incarnations of the restaurant will feel at home eating black cod miso, umami sea bass and sushi that melts in your mouth at one of several teppanyaki tables or at the sushi bar. If you find the 327-seat restaurant too impersonal, there’s private dining, although that would defeat part of the point of eating at Nobu: to see and be seen. V ISTA R ESTAUR A NT Song Saa, Cambodia
ASK HA M HA LL Penrith, Cumbria
BLOOMFIELD LODGE Cairns, Australia
This exclusive eco-retreat is perfectly placed for not one but two World Heritage sites: Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef. But meals at Bloomfield Lodge, prepared by chefs Sean Cameron and Russell Brown, will become one of the highlights of your day whether your menu choice is the locally caught barramundi or the barbecue buffet of prawns, fish and kangaroo.
The emphasis at Askham Hall’s restaurant is on seasonal ingredients, many of which are grown or reared at Askham Hall itself. Dinner is served in the garden restaurant with views down to the River Lowther. Chef Steven Doherty was the first British head chef of a three-Michelin-starred restaurant; co-chef Richard Swale is a veteran of Noma, which has three times been voted the world’s best restaurant.
Merope Mills is Editor of Guardian Weekend
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Nobu Matsuhisa Corbis
This private island might be a 40-minute boat ride from the mainland, but that doesn’t stop Song Saa serving up top-class food. Executive Chef Joel Wilkinson takes inspiration from traditional Cambodian recipes and uses sustainable local produce. This is fine dining with 360-degree ocean views and a menu that offers fried frogs legs or sweet Cambodian dumplings.
LATITUDE
THE LAST FRONTIER From mudmen to wigmen, witch doctors to tree-dwelling kangaroos, Papua New Guinea is the destination everybody is talking about BY JAN MASTERS
Corbis
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emote and richly varied in culture, Papua New Guinea (PNG) is the destination on every intrepid traveller’s mustsee list. Located just south of the equator, 160km north of Australia, it occupies the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and encompasses 600 islands. With scenery as diverse as its tribal inhabitants (and the 800 languages they speak) it has exoticism on an awe-inspiring scale. Such is its draw that luxury cruise ships and adventure-holiday specialists have been putting PNG on their itineraries. In June, The World is taking its residents and guests to the islands on one of its many phenomenal expeditions, this time to watch such spectacles as the Baining Fire Dance and the volcanoes at Rabaul. This October, Silversea is journeying on the new Silver Discoverer from the Solomon Islands, taking in Papua New Guinea before landing at Cairns. “Since we launched Silversea Expeditions in
2008, the trend for the adventurous traveller wanting to see extreme parts of the world without giving up on luxuries has continued to grow,” says Conrad Combrink, Director of Expeditions. He has made explorative forays into some villages in Micronesia, which is so removed from the modern world that certain stones are used as currency. “As an operator, it’s vital we gain the trust of the local tribes, to explore these unique destinations without being culturally corrosive.” According to Justin Wateridge, who is Managing Director of Steppes Travel, “PNG is a rising star. Truly one of the last frontiers, although it’s making the leap from stone age to internet age. Go before it changes, perhaps irrevocably.” HMN Before you travel, visit www.gov.uk/foreigntravel-advice/papua-new-guinea www.aboardtheworld.com; www.silversea.com; www.steppestravel.co.uk
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