World Traveller Aug'13

August 2013

Issue Sixty Four

KEN YA Animal magic in Nairobi Plus

CHICAGO

The one town that won’t let you down

M AD WORLD

Produced in International Media Production Zone

Exploring the brilliantly bonkers in Tokyo

SRI LANK A Is this the perfect family holiday?

Singapore Castles Luxury Spas Montreal Sydney

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Editor’s Note Issue Sixty Four, August 2013

When it’s hot in the city it’s easy to get caught up in the “rat race” and to forget just how much beauty and wonder there is to appreciate around the world.

Which is why, when the World Traveller team first caught a glimpse of the incredible images produced by British photographer Jimmy Nelson in his new book Before They Pass Away, we were all just a little bit bowled over.

He spent three years travelling the world in search of the planet’s most unusual tribes, who he then photographed using a mechanical, rather than digital, camera and only natural light.

Though a long and, at times, physically painful process, the results made it more than worthwhile.

We have the full story for you on page 16.

Also, as the temperatures in the GCC soar, our team has been trawling the globe to find the coolest offerings – near and far – to help you plan your perfect getaway. We discover just how family-friendly a trip to Sri Lanka can be, eat like a local in the mind-bogglingly brilliant city of Tokyo and pound the pavements of The Windy City, Chicago.

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Leah Oatway leah@hotmediapublishing.com

Managing Director

Victoria Thatcher Editorial Director

John Thatcher

Advertisement Director

Chris Capstick Editor

Leah Oatway Contributing Editor

Hazel Plush Writer

Grace Hyne Senior Designer

Adam Sneade

Designer & Illustrator

Andy Knappett

Production Manager

Chalitha Fernando Senior Advertisement Manager

Stefanie Morgner

To contact any of the above people, email firstname@hotmediapublishing.com

Jan-Jun 2013 | 22,920 | BPA Consumer Audit Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission from HOT Media Publishing is strictly prohibited. All prices mentioned are correct at time of press but may change. HOT Media Publishing does not accept liability for omissions or errors in World Traveller.

Tel: 00971 4 364 2876 Fax: 00971 4 369 7494 Cover: Burchell’s zebra, Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya.

Getty Images.

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Contents

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Destinations

Concierge

Why it’s never been easier to visit São Paulo; the best of what’s new from the world’s finest hotels; and stunning images of some of the planet’s most beautiful tribal communities. Plus, exclusive reader offers from dnata and our resident style expert shares her tips on in-flight beauty.

Laura Binder discovers all that is weird and wonderful in Japan’s colourful capital, while Sri Lanka delights young and old(er) on a family trip that involves elephants, tuk-tuks and far more besides. And Adam Edwards goes in search of Nairobi’s heyday while on a trip to Kenya.

If you’re an Elvis fan, WT tells you why you need to head to Memphis this month; six majestic abodes to set the heart racing; and suggestions for a long weekend away. Plus, shop-til-you-drop in Singapore’s many retail offerings or marvel at the culture offered up by Montreal.

summer packages at sheraton dubai mall of the emirates hotel

Two cool offers to beat the heat this summer at the New Sheraton Dubai Mall of the Emirates Hotel Enjoy the comfort of our room with all the entertainment of the Mall of the Emirates at your doorstep: Suite Shopping Packages with personal shopper appointment only until 31st August, 2013.

Escape the heat with our Ski Dubai Packages.

Fun for the entire family.

To find out more please call +971 4 377 2000 or visit sheraton.com/dubaimalloftheemirates

Š2013 Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Preferred Guest, SPG, Sheraton and their logos are the trademarks of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., or its affiliates. For full terms and conditions, visit sheraton.com/dubaimalloftheemirates

JW MARRIOT T® MARQUIS DUBAI

Stay longer this summer

at JW Marriott Marquis Dubai.

Located near some of the city’s best attractions, the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai is home to unsurpassed luxury, offering a spectrum of business and leisure facilities for the most discerning travellers.

FROM 1ST JUNE - 31ST AUGUST 2013, STAY 3 NIGHTS AND ONLY PAY FOR 2.* ENJOY 20% OFF FOOD AND BEVERAGE AND SPA TREATMENTS, PLUS KIDS EAT FREE.* STAY CONNECTED WITH COMPLIMENTARY UNLIMITED INTERNET ACCESS. BOOK USING PROMO CODE: SUM

Sheikh Zayed Road, Business Bay PO Box 121000 Dubai, UAE T +971 4 414 0000, F +971 4 414 0001 jwmarriottmarquisdubai.com jwmarquis.dubai@marriott.com

The 3 nights for the price of 2 offer is available on Executive Rooms and Suites only. Offer valid for stays between 1 June and 31 August 2013. 20% food and beverage discount applicable at Kitchen 6, La Farine, The Lounge, Velocity, Tong Thai, Rang Mahal, Izakaya, Aqua, Vault (food only). 20% spa discount applicable on treatments and massages at Saray Spa. Kids under the age of 12 eat for free. All offers are subject to availability.

*

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The Essentials

Latin Fever Looking for fresh incentive to visit Brazil’s culture capital, São Paulo? Well, Etihad Airways is now delivering seven every week. The UAE’s national airline is flying to the city daily. World-class museums, incredible dance and theatre as well as some of the best restaurants on the continent… what are you waiting for?

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New Openings

The best of the new arrivals this month…

Hawaii is never really a tough sell, but the World Traveller team is especially excited about the new, ultra exclusive Andaz Maui at Wailea: 15 acres of sun-kissed beach, cascading infinity pools and interior design that works with the natural surroundings in a sustainable way, creating an irresistible sense of calm.

Slightly closer to home, in the former Ottoman State capital of Bursa, Turkey, enjoy a hammam with natural thermal water from the local hot springs at the brand new Sheraton Bursa’s Shine Spa. This property, along with its sister hotel, Aloft Bursa Hotel (also new to the city), is located in the emerging business and high-end residential area of the city and it combines the best of now with more than a hint of the Turkish design traits that have enthralled the world for centuries.

Easy rider Mauritius may be an obvious destination for sun seekers and divers alike, but it doesn’t scream out bikers’ paradise.

And yet that is exactly what the island is fast becoming, according to One&Only Le Saint Geran and Harley Davidson Mauritius.

“The scenery is fantastic, the road quality is good and, because riding is a relatively

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new activity on the island, the biker scene is fresh and very friendly,” said Paul Wren, the 53-year-old dealermanager for Harley Davidson Mauritius.

He has teamed up with the general manager of One&Only Le Saint Geran, Harley enthusiast Charles de Foucault, to satisfy what they say is a growing demand for bike tours of the island’s winding mountain roads.

Guests can make use of bikes that are dropped off at the resort by Wren (provided visitors have an international driving licence), who also leads guided tours of the island.

“Mauritius is quite small,” said Wren, “[but] the riding is quite diverse and you need to be adventurous if you want to discover the back parts.”

> Off on an adventure?

Then you’ll need this.

The Pentax WG-3 GPS is the Chuck Norris of the camera world. Waterproof, crushproof, coldproof and shockproof, it takes a mean picture too.

at Wailea; Sheraton Bursa

Images (top) from left: Andaz Maui

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> Be the envy of beachgoers this summer with this jaguar-hide beach towel by Maslin & Co. The handcrafted, reversible design packs into a chic leather carry holster – perfect for style lovers. maslinandco.com GREAT MIGR ATION

Every year in August more than a million wildebeest, hundreds of thousands of zebra and umpteen gazelle make the arduous river crossings at the Masai Mara as part of the Great Migration. Head to one of the many uber luxurious safari lodges in this area, such as the Fairmont Mara Safari Club, for your best chance of spotting something spectacular. But prepare to be patient: Mother Nature isn’t always on time.

Masters of reinvention Because sometimes change is good…

It’s been a year since the “reimagining” of Paramount Hotel, on New York’s Time Square, began.

Considerable money later, US$40 million to be exact, the historic hotel has unveiled its new look – and it was worth the wait.

Inspired by its original designer, prolific theatre architect Thomas W Lamb, the Philippe Starck designs are

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gone – replaced by dramatic lighting fixtures (including the odd chandelier), a rich palette of blue, red and neutral shades, and dark woods. And still to come later this year, the reopening of the Diamond Horseshoe (the nightspot once run by showman Billy Rose) after a 60-year break.

On the other side of the Atlantic, almost 90 years since Le Bristol Paris

first opened in April 1925 the Paris bolt hole has just completed a dramatic, no-expense-spared, four-year renovation.

Having first opened with the aim of being one of the world’s most luxurious hotels, its high-end trappings have attracted the world’s leading figures down the years – including Picasso, Dali and Coco Chanel Among the highlights of its new look is its recently revamped 300 squaremetre Royal Suite, which overlooks the property’s famous French garden.

MAURITIUS www.sunresortshotels.com

Le Touessrok 3 different islands make up this stunning resort - Le Touessrok – which is built in the style of a Mediterranean village with a very contemporary décor, gourmet restaurants, Givenchy Spa, heated pool and private Villas.

The resort’s private island Îlot Mangenie, is just minutes away by private boat and is reserved for the exclusive use of Le Touessrok residents.

A short ride, is the beautiful island of Île aux Cerfs, with a magnificent 18-hole championship golf course designed by Bernhard Langer, with complimentary green fees for clients of Le Touessrok. www.letouessrokresort.com

Long Beach Long Beach, the trendy resort of Mauritius with an innovative urban atmosphere around restaurants, bars and shops complete with night entertainment for all ages. The resort‘s lush tropical gardens span along the widest stretch of beach on the island. Considerable daytime activities will be available at the Sports centre and water sports club. An hourly shuttle will enable golf enthusiasts to play on Le Touessrok golf course, on Ile aux Cerfs on a complimentary basis. www.longbeachmauritius.com

Sugar Beach Sugar Beach, designed in the style of a French colonial plantation house with big manicured gardens along 1km of beach, is conveniently close to the major shopping towns. It is well known for its exquisite food, great Hammam experience; fantastic kids facilities and Sports centre and lively evening entertainment. Guests of Sugar Beach can also enjoy facilities of sister property La Pirogue, found right next door. www.sugarbeachresort.com

La Pirogue Nestled in a beautiful Palm grove with Hibiscus and Frangipani blossoms, La Pirogue has a unique architecture with all rooms on the ground floor under a thatched roof with walls made of volcanic rocks.

Relaxed and comfortable, the resort is ideal for families wishing to enjoy quality time together while providing calm and intimacy for those in the mood for romance. Guests of La Pirogue can also enjoy facilities of sister property Sugar Beach, found right next door. www.lapirogue.com

Ambre Ambre hotel, newly renovated, offers couples and families alike a relaxed and fun-filled holiday experience. Set in a beautiful tropical garden, Ambre is privy to one of the most beautifully sheltered bays on the east coast of Mauritius. This four star hotel has 3 restaurants included in the half board, 3 bars, a Spa, Gym and fully equipped fitness centre, kids club facilities and teenagers club, tennis courts, complete water sports centre, nightclub and complimentary access to the Touessrok Championship golf course. www.ambremauritius.com

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To book one of these offers call dnata on +971 4 316 6666 or visit dnatatravel.com.

On the same site you can also sign up to dnata’s newsletter and receive more offers direct to your inbox.

World Traveller Reader Offers This month’s exclusive offers from dnata range from the powder-soft sands of Seychelles to the bright lights of London. dnatatravel.com Italy

Boscolo Exedra Milano Offer: 4 nights from AED3,535 per person.

Details: Stay for 3 nights and receive an additional night free Includes: Stay in a Deluxe Room with breakfast daily and return airport transfers Valid for stays from: Now till August 31, 2013.

Maldives

Viceroy Maldives Offer: 4 nights from AED5,650 per person.

Details: Stay two nights and receive two additional nights free, plus a complimentary upgrade to half board.

Includes: Stay in a Beach Villa with Pool, plus breakfast daily and return seaplane transfers.

Valid for stays from: Now till September 30, 2013.

Vivanta by Taj – Coral Reef Offer: 4 nights from AED 3,510 per person.

Details: Stay 3 nights and receive an additional night free, plus savings of up to 15% on room rates and complimentary return speedboat transfers.

Includes: Stay in a Charm Beach Villa with breakfast daily and return airport transfers.

Valid for stays from: Now till 15 September 2013

Mauritius

St. Regis Mauritius Resort Offer: 4 nights from AED3,680 per person.

Details: Save 40% on the cost of your stay.

Includes: Stay in an Ocean View Deluxe Room with breakfast and dinner daily and return airport transfers.

Valid for stays from: Now till September 30, 2013.

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St. Regis Mauritius Resort

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World Traveller

August // 2013

Singapore

Shangri-La Hotel Singapore Offer: 4 nights from AED2,690 per person.

Details: Stay three nights in a Garden Wing Deluxe Room (city view), receive an additional night free and a complimentary upgrade to Garden Wing Deluxe Room (pool view), plus children stay and eat for free. Additionally, receive a complimentary cocktail at the Garden Wing Lounge from 5-7pm.

Includes: Stay in a Garden Wing Deluxe Room (city view) with breakfast daily and airport transfers.

Valid for stays from: Now till September 15, 2013.

South Africa

Viceroy Maldives

One&Only Cape Town Offer: 4 nights from AED 3,250 per person.

Details: Stay 3 nights and receive an additional night free plus a guaranteed complimentary upgrade to a Marina Table Mountain Room plus a complimentary snack platter.

Includes: Stay in a Marina Harbour Room with breakfast daily and return airport transfers.

Valid for stays from: Now till September 27, 2013

Sri Lanka

Heritance Ahungalla Offer: 3 nights from AED1,095 per person.

Details: Savings of up to 20% on room rates and a complimentary upgrade to a Deluxe Ocean Front Room.

Includes: Stay in a Deluxe Room with breakfast daily and return airport transfers.

Valid for stays from: August 1– September 15, 2013.

Thailand

MĂśvenpick Resort & Spa Karon Beach Phuket Offer: 3 nights from AED930 per person.

Details: Saving of 30% on room rates.

Includes: Stay in a Garden View Room with breakfast daily and return airport transfers.

Valid for stays from: Now till October 31, 2013.

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Shanri-La Hotel Singapore

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UAE

Eastern Mangroves Hotel & Spa by Anantara, Abu Dhabi Offer: 1 night from AED 200 per person.

Details: Receive a complimentary upgrade to the next room category.

Valid for stays from: Now till September 30, 2013.

MĂśvenpick Hotel Jumeirah Beach, Dubai Offer: 1 night from AED297 per person.

Special offer: Saving of 45% and a complimentary upgrade to half board.

Includes: one night’s stay in a Superior Room with breakfast daily or Iftar and Suhoor.

Valid for stays from: Now till August 7, 2013.

ME London

The Meydan Hotel, Dubai Offer: 2 nights from AED 545 per person.

Details: Savings of up to 20% on room rates.

Includes: Stay in a Grand Deluxe Balcony Room with breakfast daily.

Valid for stays from: Now till September 15, 2013.

The Westin Abu Dhabi Golf Resort & Spa Offer: 1 night from AED149 per person.

Details: Ramadan special rate.* Includes: Stay in a Deluxe Room on Room Only basis.

Valid for stays from: Now till 31 August 31, 2013. *Excludes Eid Al Fitr (August 8-10, 2013).

United Kingdom

ME London Offer: 4 nights from AED2,330 per person.

Details: Stay for 3 nights and receive an additional night free.

Includes: Stay in an Aura Room with breakfast daily and return airport transfers.

Valid for stays from: Now till August 31, 2013.

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The Westin Abu Dhabi Golf Resort & Spa

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World Traveller

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Five

GREAT EID ESCAPES Get away for under AED210 per person per night

Cyprus

Le MĂŠridien Limassol Spa & Resort Offer: 4 nights from AED2,090 per person.

Details: Stay 3 nights and receive an additional night free and one complimentary buffet dinner (excluding drinks), plus one Thalassotherapy per person, per stay*.

Includes: Stay in a Garden View Room with breakfast daily and return airport transfers.

Valid for stays from: Now till September 14, 2013. *Minimum stay applies

Mauritius

Le Meridien Limassol Spa & Resort

Beachcomber Le Victoria Hotel Offer: From AED350 per person, per night.

Valid for stays from: August 7-14, 2013.

Oman

Radisson Blu Hotel, Muscat Offer: From AED285 per person, per night.

Valid for stays from: August 7-17, 2013.

Thailand

Grand Sukhumvit Hotel Bangkok Managed by Accor Offer: From AED205 per person, per night.

Valid for stays from: August 2-17, 2013.

Turkey

The Istanbul EDITION Offer: 3 nights from AED1,750 per person.

Details: Enjoy special discounted summer rates and receive an upgrade to a Deluxe Room.

Includes: Stay in a Superior Room with breakfast daily and return airport transfers.

Valid for stays from: Now till August 31, 2013.

The Istanbul EDITION

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hree years ago British photographer Jimmy Nelson embarked on a perilous journey into relatively unchartered territory.

Seeking the world’s most aesthetically beautiful but culturally endangered tribes, he travelled to the planet’s extremes: from the harsh and unpredictable winter terrain of North East Siberia to the searing heat of the African desert.

His aim? To illustrate the wealth of culture that the developing world still holds within its possession, and its immeasurable value.

“Up until the age of seven I lived in the developing world,” Nelson told World Traveller. “[So] from a very early age I was made aware of the rapid cultural changes

happening around the world. [As] a visual messenger I am trying to readdress the balance of understanding as to what is real affluence. I am teaching the developed world what they have lost and enlightening the underdeveloped world [as to] what they still have.”

At the tender age of 18, an inquisitive Nelson began researching the world’s tribes, tracking down local contacts on the ground to learn more about accessibility to the tribes. “Most of these locals eventually accompanied me as guides and translators,” he explained.

In preparation for the gruelling 13 journeys that stretched 44 countries, Nelson embarked on a fitness routine that involved “a lot of running and a very controlled diet”. It would come in handy when faced with the inevitable danger and unpredictability that accompanied the trip.

“The more isolated, the more difficult to reach, the more pain and hard work it takes, the better,” he said. “One has to pay in a physical and mental way to have the honour to mingle with a tribe.

“The most difficult was the journey to Chukotka and the Chukchi people. This group of nomadic reindeer herders live in the far most remote corner of North East Siberia. There are only two families still left living in this manner, roaming around the Arctic tundra.

“The difficulty of the journey was the extreme cold (minus 40 degrees Celsius) and the fact than no one really knew where they were. We planned a five-week trip but

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Photography supplied by: Photo © Jimmy Nelson Pictures BV, beforethey.com

TRIBAL Q U E S T

World Traveller

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The trademarks HYATT,™ PARK HYATT ™ and related marks are trademarks of Hyatt International Corporation. ©2013 Hyatt International Corporation. All rights reser ved.

August // 2013

Photography supplied by: Photo © Jimmy Nelson Pictures BV, beforethey.com

World Traveller

in the end only managed to spend three days with them making pictures because it took us three weeks to find them.”

The journey not only took its toll on Nelson’s body, but also on his camera equipment and his ability to physically take shots. “To counter this, I took a very old technical / mechanical camera with me – a machine that would always work no matter what the conditions,” he said. “The reason for the film camera was three-fold.

One, due to the camera’s bulk it was an imposition on time, so great stillness was needed by the subject. This process forced me and the subject to really connect through mutual concentration. Two, the quality of large format film when greatly enlarged is far superior on a painterly level to that of a digital pixelated photo. And three, the scale gives the subject a dignity, which I wanted to communicate.”

The bond between Nelson and his subjects is clear in the powerful images that resulted from the expedition, but it was not easily formed.

“We were often met with a great deal of skepticism about our intentions and understandably so. Wherever we

went, we would always approach the people we shot with enormous dignity.

I deliberately physically position myself lower than them, to shoot in an upward angle. When the tribesmen saw me struggling, yet supplying an unending flow of compliments, they figured they had to do their best too.”

The best example of this is the image of the Kazakh eagle hunters on their horses.

There is a pure beauty in their goals and family ties, their belief in nature “We had to wait two days for the right conditions. When on the third try we finally got the right light, I took my gloves off and started taking pictures. But it was so excruciatingly cold my hands froze within seconds. I couldn’t feel them anymore and started crying – out of pain, but mostly out of frustration. Behind me

were two of the women who, unknown to me, had walked up the mountain with us. In an incredible special, almost supernatural gesture, one of the women opened her jacket, the other grabbed my hands and put them on the woman’s chest and closed her coat around us.

They enveloped and held me tight for five minutes, humming softly in the howling winds. All the while the men stayed on their horses and didn’t move a muscle.

When I could feel my fingers again, they raised their chins, I took two pictures and nobody ever said a word about it. These were people that maybe didn’t quite understand what I wanted, but fully felt what I needed.”

It was moments like these that will remain with Nelson forever. “Tribes and forgotten cultures teach us about aspects of humanity such as love, respect, peace, survival and sharing. There is a pure beauty in their goals and family ties, their belief in nature, and their will to do the right thing in order to be taken care of when their time comes. Whether in Papua New Guinea or Kazakhstan, Ethiopia or in Siberia, tribes are the last resorts of natural simplicity.”

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Photography supplied by: Photo © Jimmy Nelson Pictures BV, beforethey.com

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While Nelson’s journey has now ended, the project has just begun. Having compiled his images into a book – Before They Pass Away by Jimmy Nelson, by teNeues – he intends to return to show the tribes their images.

“I want to show them how important we regard them,” he said. “Then there are another 35 different tribes I want to visit to make it a whole set: tribes or tribal authorities which when I originally approached them were hesitant to let me take photographs due to my unknown status. Once the project achieves an Check In

element of authority I may be able to reapproach them for access.”

The experience has left an indelible impact on life and his approach to it.

“All the tribal members had a deep and passionate knowledge for the nature within which they lived.

“I hope that everyone who views the work will be moved in one way or another: they don’t necessarily need to visit the tribes in these wild locations but they do need to take stock of how fragile their own culture is and the human planet in general.”

Book: Collector’s Edition XXL Before They Pass Away

by Jimmy Nelson, published by teNeues, available now for €6,000 from teneues.com Small edition for €128 released next month.

✑ ✡

m å Á ≠ m å Á ≠ m å Á ≠ m å Á ≠ m å Á

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Classic island reads

m å Á

m å Á ≠ m å Á

Who knew life on an island could be so exciting?…

m å Á ≠ A A å Á

A A å Á

A A å Á

A A å Á

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

Treasure Island

Robert Louis Stevenson

Jim Hawkins’ quiet life at the Admiral Benbow inn is interuppted by a visiting pirate, which sets in motion a series of events that puts him on a journey filled with treasure, murder, and pirates – the ultimate adventure story.

Louis de Bernières

The Beach

Alex Garland English traveller, Richard, gets given a hand-drawn map to a hidden beach in Thailand, thought to be paradise on earth. They find a self-sufficient community shut off from civilisation but as time goes on, Richard finds the island isn’t as perfect as he once thought.

Set on the Greek island of Cephallonia during the Italian and German occupation of World War II, when Italian captain Corelli meets local Greek Pelagia, love blossoms against the odds as war rages all around.

Island

Aldous Huxley A conspiracy is plotted to invade the Pacific island of Pala, where an ideal, 120-yearold society has attracted the envy of the world. When Farnaby, one of the conspirators, gets shipwrecked there, it changes him in ways he never imagined.

The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

Daniel Defoe

A must-take for an exotic island retreat. Castaway Robinson Crusoe makes a life for himself on a tropical island for 28 years after he is shipwrecked in a storm.

With the captain’s dog and two cats, Crusoe faces adventure at every turn.

OUT OF THIS WORLD…

When furniture maker and Christie’s UK chairman David Linley teamed up with Claridge’s, great things were destined to happen. Cue the Map Room: this business lounge harnesses the best of travel’s golden age while respecting the hotel’s Art Deco roots – think hand-crafted chairs and high-backed sofas. Its focal point, though, is a wall-size map crowned by a bespoke steel clock set on the Greenwich meridian.

Soon it will also feature a gallery where eminent guests share items that have spawned creative genius.

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Let us arrange a personalised tour of the Grand Mosque.

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Let us offer your family a private villa with a personal butler.

Let us offer you a choice of eight authentic restaurants every night.

Let us leave you with sparkling memories of your beautiful stay.

Weekend Villa Offer – The ideal package to create fond memories for the entire family. Retreat to your private villa overlooking lush gardens for a leisurely weekend break and let a dedicated butler take care of your every need. Starting from AED 1250++.

T: +9712 818 8181 W: ritzcarlton.com/AbuDhabi

Offer is valid on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights only. Rates and room types are subject to availability. Rate is per room per night, based on double occupancy, exclusive of taxes, gratuities, fees and other charges; does not apply to groups; cannot be combined with any other offer and is not applicable for Rewards redemption. Complimentary early check-in and late check-out are subject to availability. Advanced reservations are required. No refund or credit for unused portion. Void where prohibited. ©2013 The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C.

August // 2013

Few in the world would choose to stay at a jailhouse, let alone pay for the privilege.

And yet, more than 160 years after Boston’s Charles Street Jail locked its first inmate inside its granite walls, today it is one of the most popular and iconic addresses in the city.

Of course, there have been a few changes since 1851 – namely its transformation from jail into The Liberty, one of Boston’s leading luxury hotels.

And yet much of the building’s historic architecture remains in tact, including its memorable central rotunda; today the main reception area for guests, it offers unhindered views of the five-storey ‘catwalk’ floors where inmates, including Malcolm X, once walked.

The unique and, in 1851, groundbreaking design of the prison was the vision of

Historic Hotel #2

THROW AWAY THE KEY The shadowy past of The Liberty, Boston…

Gridley Bryant, described as “the father of Boston’s granite architecture movement”, and Rev. Louis Dwight, a Yale-educated penologist with a keen interest in prison reform that was nurtured during time spent travelling.

The collaboration of the two resulted in a 90-foot-tall central atrium and four wings of cells positioned in such a way as to ensure maximum natural daylight and air for prisoners without risking security.

During the 120 years that followed, some of Boston’s most famous characters were incarcerated within its walls – among them Malcolm X, a renowned politician named Michael Curley, suffragists locked up for protesting during the visit of President Woodrow Wilson in 1919, and those detained from German submarines during the Second World War. In 1973, prisoners complaining of poor living conditions led an uprising and soon after their complaints led to the jail being declared unfit and against prisoners’ constitutional rights. By June 1990 all inmates had been transferred to another establishment and the following year the property was acquired by the Massachusetts General Hospital. The hospital sought proposals from outside for the building’s reuse, stipulating the need to preserve the main elements of its architecture.

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In 2001, Carpenter & Company leased the land, became its developer and set to work, with local authorities, on transforming the run-down site into a hotel that embraced the new while respecting the best of its historic past.

Efforts during the post-war years to cut costs at the prison had led to the grand light-providing atrium being removed.

Now, it was lovingly reinstated according to Bryant’s original bold design. The building’s cruciform shape was preserved, as was the granite shell, central building, vast light-embracing interior and the four wings, which boasted enormous threestorey arched windows believed at the time to have been four times the size of any other prison.

In contrast to the somewhat stark exterior – save for the private landscaped courtyard (once the prisoners’ exercise yard) – inside, design is rich in colour and texture, though the drama remains: carpets have an old New England vibe; ornate stenciling on the reception desk is reminiscent of 1850s embroidery work; while exposed brick and wrought iron accents retain a modern, gritty edge.

Today, at the hotel restaurant, the food is a far cry from that likely to have been served to inmates 100 years ago. At the aptly named Clink, headed by Chef Joseph Margate, guests chow down on local produce transformed with French flair. Haunting reminders of what used to be remain in the use of original jail bars and granite, which separate the dining area. Preserved prison cells now provide intimate dining spaces.

And, after dinner, guests can retire to the palatial surrounds of their suite – overlooking the Charles River, Beacon Hill rooftops and the city of Boston – safe in the knowledge that they, unlike their predecessors, can leave whenever they choose. But will they want to?

World Traveller

August // 2013

CHANEL HOPPING

Looking for a stylish bolthole? How about the former home of a designer?

Style Solutions

WAR DROBE MISTRESS

Photography for Chanel Hopping, from top, supplied by: © Monte-Carlo S.B.M; Kiwi Collection; Dar Moha.

Q. I’m going on a long haul flight and want to look fabulous when I arrive. What should I bear in mind?

A. While long haul flights often land us in glamorous destinations, they are also a one-way ticket to dull skin, bloating, and a less than fresh feeling.

Perhaps most important to remember when travelling is to prioritise comfort over style. That said, it’s best to avoid the lure of a grey marl tracksuit: yes, you’ll look cute and cosy when you board, but you’ll be feeling sloppy and disheveled by the time you land – especially if you’re travelling to a hot country.

I feel infinitely better if I change at least a couple of items of clothing when I embark and disembark a long haul flight.

I’ll often swap a pair of stretch jeans for leggings when I board, as well as keeping a spare T-shirt, underwear, and socks in my bag for a quick freshen up in the bathroom just before landing.

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Having said that, leggings, a soft jersey top, flat shoes and a good jacket – all glammed up with a nice handbag and sunglasses, of course – is generally a safe but streamlined way to go.

Of course, style is about more than just what you wear. Cabin air is dry, which can wreak havoc with your skin. The first thing I do once the plane is air-born is to pull out my toiletries bag and get busy with the face wipes. After that, I slather on as much serum, moisturiser and eye cream as my face can handle – in the sandpaperdry cabin, even my sheeny combination skin drinks it all up. It can be embarrassing to conduct a mini spa ritual, but cleaning your face is possibly the best thing you can do for your post-flight skin. After all, sleeping in your make-up is one thing, but sleeping in your make-up on a plane is quite another.

Around an hour before the flight is due to land, pull out that toiletries bag again to do a quick face clean and apply a light layer of make-up. Heavy foundation on tired skin is always a bad look, so tinted moisturiser, mascara, bronzer, blusher and lip balm will suffice. If in doubt, add very large sunglasses.

And then there’s the hair. Fly with superclean hair – worn down for comfortable sleeping – then tie it up into a messy topknot when you land. A bit of gentle backcombing at the crown never goes amiss, either.

Our regular style expert Francesca Salih is the founder of Wardrobe Mistress, which provides style solutions and wardrobe management to the rich, royal and famous. wardrobemistress.co.uk

Villa La Vigie, Monte Carlo, France Karl Lagerfeld’s home for more than a decade, the sixbedroom abode he restored can be rented monthly from Monte-Carlo SBM.

Villa by Barton G, Florida, United States The future of this boutique hotel, once the palatial home of late designer Gianni Versace, may be in doubt but its wow factor isn’t.

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Dar Moha, Marrakech, Morocco Once home to Pierre Balmain, today this palazzo thrives as a must-visit dining destination with six exquisite guest rooms.

August // 2013

Hidden behind a wall of lush green vines on one of West Hollywood’s busiest streets, Santa Monica Boulevard, sits the little-known celebrity retail haunt Church Boutique. Out of view of the public, the likes of Halle Berry and Lenny Kravitz shop here for one-offs. You’ll find clothing, jewellery and handbags –and possibly spot a star or five if you’re lucky...

> There was a time when residents of the UAE’s capital would spend their weekends driving to Dubai for their retail fix. But that’s likely to change this month when The Galleria opens its doors. A shopping destination to be reckoned with, this sprawling mall on Sowwah Square is filled with every luxe designer name under the sun – including Berluti and Celine, as well as dining treats such as Zuma and Armani Café. sowwahsquare.ae

Fashion conscience

Leading fashion designers collaborate with Africa’s talented artisans…

Looking for an incentive to invest in a new tote this summer? Then look no further than the collections of Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood and Ilaria Venturini Fendi’s Carmina Campus fashion project.

They are three of several design houses that have joined forces with artisans in Africa and Haiti this year as

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part of the International Trade Centre’s Ethical Fashion Initiative.

With a mind on business, and not charity, the programme aims to generate economic independence for artists in Africa’s disadvantaged communities. Other partners include Sass & Bide, Stella, and Hollywood jeweller to the stars, Chan Luu.

The results are beautiful. “To have the work in Kenya is important,” said McCartney of the bags, which were hand-created in Kenya by 160 people living in vulnerable areas, “not only to support women and give them a much-needed income, but also to encourage this line of industry for small communities.”

Photography, left to right, supplied by: Vivienne Westood; Carmina Campus; Stella McCartney

Style’s best kept secret?

August // 2013

World Traveller Promotion

Luxury Spas Head indoors for the ultimate indulgence as WT rounds up its pick of sublime spasâ&#x20AC;Ś

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World Traveller

August // 2013

Spa Uluwatu, InterContinental Bali Resort bali.intercontinental.com

It’s difficult not to feel well rested or calm when you’re in Bali: all azure waters and swaying palm trees. Factor in a trip to the decadent Spa Uluwatu at InterContinental Bali Resort, on Jimbaran Bay – arguably one of the province’s finest beaches – and you’re guaranteed to leave rejuvenated.

Start the day with a breakfast of fresh tropical fruit before choosing between three different spa locations at the resort: a private treatment room, a tented pavilion overlooking Jimbaran Bay or, for the ultimate indulgence, the secluded Villa Retreats – each of which comes with a walled tropical garden and water features, designed to calm your mind while you enjoy one of the treatments available.

And there are plenty of treatments to choose from: whether it’s a two-hour aromatherapy flower bath or a four-hour traditional Balinese massage, the options are endless and the standard of care and attention bestowed on guests at Spa Uluwatu by attentive and well-trained staff is unrivalled. They will tailor each treatment to your specific needs.

Having been kneaded, scrubbed or bathed back to full health, stroll through the vibrant Bali Orchid Garden before heading back to the hotel, where a cooling dip in the resort’s expansive pool is in order before the beautiful Bali sunset lights up the sky.

With night time upon you, head to the Jimbaran Gardens for al fresco dining in keeping with the healthy progress made at the Spa that day: tuck into the freshest local seafood and delicious Balinese specialty dishes. Sated, retire to your comfortable confines of your bedroom before the relaxing starts all over again.

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August // 2013

Vivanta by Taj vivantabytaj.com There are few places more serene or naturally stimulating than the beautiful backwaters of Kerala, India, where the stunning natural landscapes are worldrenowned. With this in mind, the Jiva Grande, Vivanta by Taj spa in Kerala’s Bekal area is perfectly placed to offer a relaxing break from everyday life. Spread over 165,000 square feet, the minimalist but exotic design of this wellness retreat, which is surrounded by water gardens and lush tropical greenery, exudes calm.

Inside, its welcoming and experienced staff offer a host of massage therapies: from the Ãlepa experience, inspired by sacred and ceremonial Indian bathing rituals, through to its Warrior massage, which uses mustard oil to relieve aching, tense muscles. There is also an Ayurveda sanctuary, complete with beautiful courtyards and a library, which offers up authentic programmes created by experienced physicians that will leave you feeling like a new person.

Alternatively, there’s the magical seclusion provided by the Indian rainforest at the Vivanta by Taj-Madikeri, in Coorg.

The hillside retreat is located nearly 4,000 feet above sea level, where guests can enjoy a unique Gudda Bath – a traditional massage using nutmeg, turmeric, and kalonji followed by a wood-fire heated bath. For baby-soft skin that’s deliciously fragrant, opt for the Body Polish, which uses coffee, avocado and rice powder to leave skin radiant and invigorated. With the spa’s interiors designed with recycled wood restored from traditional houses, it’s a luxurious place to get back to nature and unwind.

Ritualistic Fire Ceremony at Jiva Grande, Vivanta Bekal

Jiva Grande Spa Suite, Vivanta by Taj - Bekal, Kerala

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Yoga at Jiva Grande, Vivanta by Taj – Madikeri, Coorg

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World Traveller

August // 2013

Raffles Spa, Raffles Dubai raffles.com/dubai/spa | +971 4314 9869 | spa.dubai@raffles.com It is only fitting that within the dramatic pyramid that is Raffles Dubai, there sits a spa that revels in lavishing guests with exotic therapies of gold and diamonds.

Raffles has remained a landmark on the city’s ever-expanding skyline since its creation – its landscaped gardens offering an oasis of calm in the centre of the city.

But its pièce de résistance is its incredible spa. For while Raffles is one of Dubai’s most established hotels, it continues to seduce visitors into its fold with its innovative approach, not least its range of state-of-the-art treatments.

By far one of the city’s most popular spas, Raffles Spa offers an extensive range of unique treatments including its signature Egyptian Gold Facial. Long revered for its ability to maintain youthful skin, gold has been traded in the Middle East for centuries. Embrace Middle Eastern luxury by indulging in this heavenly treatment, which combines 24-carat gold with the latest spa technology to ensure glowing, radiant skin. Those in need of a longer escape should opt for a “Journey Through Relaxation” – two-and-a-half hours of bliss that incorporates a full-body exfoliation,

massage and custom-cleansing facial.

With baby-like skin and a calm mind, you can then treat your stomach to a selection of nutritious savouries and fresh fruits.

Men are not excluded either: an HOMMAGE Black Diamond Exfoliation treatment uses fine cultured black diamonds and silver spheres to rejuvenate skin, while an acupressure massage targets stress relief points and lymphatic drainage to encourage toxin release. To finish, a black silt mask tones the skin.

For the ultimate in luxurious pampering, Raffles Dubai is difficult to surpass.

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August // 2013

SARAY Spa, JW Marriott Marquis Dubai jwmarriottmarquisdubailife.com When its setting boasts the somewhat impressive title of the world’s tallest hotel, expectations will always be high for the facilities within its midst. At the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai, which has held that elusive title since it opened earlier this year, the SARAY Spa and Health Club passes with flying colours.

In a city where bigger is always better, SARAY Spa does not disappoint – encompassing the hotel’s entire third floor.

But it’s not just its size that is impressive. You’ll enter through ornately carved doors, a hint at the exotic world awaiting you on the other side. Within the spa’s 15 treatment rooms, ancient healing techniques blend seamlessly with the best of Arabian hospitality and heritage to create a sublime experience that’s difficult to resist.

There are two private hammam rooms, for those seeking a traditional cleansing experience, as well as two Thai treatment rooms for stress-relieving massage therapy and two private luxury spa suites, where those seeking seclusion can enjoy a hydro-soak tub and steam room. For something unique though, very little surpasses the splendour of the Dead Sea treatment room, resplendent with its own Dead Sea Floatation pool. Your journey here begins with an energising scrub using authentic salts derived from the Dead Sea (renowned for its healing properties), followed by a rejuvenating body mask of mud from the sea’s shores, packed full of minerals that have been used for centuries to enhance skin health. Lastly, unwind with the oil massage that follows. Bliss.

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Promotion

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s e u l a V y l i m a F

and s e d k ri ppy, u t a k s, t u r yone h e h c b ea ep e ve s â&#x20AC;&#x2122; a a n k c a n k e l fa r b L i Sr hants ime H p e le E l le n s ay s

Photograph supplied by: Getty Images

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Sri Lanka

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knew, as soon as I awoke to a fiveyear-old jumping on my face, that I must have done something right. Squinting at the beams of white sunlight bursting from the cracks in the shutters, I tried to extract myself while my younger daughter, Camilla, whizzed around the room like an over-excited puppy, feet sliding out from under her on the slick concrete.

“Mummy, our bathroom is on the outside!” she cried. And who wouldn’t get excited at the prospect of bathing under canopies of frangipani? The orchard of fragrant white blossoms is why this place, 15 minutes’ downbeach from Galle, Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), was named after the native frangipani tree. Collecting the felled buds from the swathes of lawn would become an afternoon ritual.

But this first morning, after arriving in the dark the night before, was all about the big reveal. As I threw on a sundress, my other daughter, Lola, opened the doors

Who wouldn’t get excited at the prospect of bathing under canopies of frangipani? to our beachfront garden and shrieked, ‘It’s the size of a park!’ I felt like Dorothy, post-tornado, opening her cabin door onto a Technicolor scene.

You don’t always know, as a parent, whether the end ever justifies a plane journey and long-ish transfer with your kids. But the island, without really trying, makes you wonder why you fretted.

A minute later, Lola and Camilla had located their dad by the water and were scrambling up the palms tilting over the beach like nature’s climbing frames.

As we trod on sand glistening with the

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incoming tide, they grabbed sticks and practised their joined-up handwriting. We had just noticed that ours were the only footprints when a waiter approached with a tray of papaya juice and greeted us with “Ayubowan”, the Sinhala welcome. My husband, Jason, and I sighed contentedly.

This trip had been in the works for a while, but Jason and I slightly feared two overtired urchins staging a mutiny so they could stay in the hotel with their colouring books. Instead what we got was That Beach. And a holiday that was “better than Euro Disney”, in the words of Lola, who once wrote down Mickey’s toll-free booking number in case I might lose it.

Sri Lanka has come up slowly and hesitantly since 2009, when government forces defeated the Tamil Tigers, ending the country’s 25-year civil war. Now the island is safe again, and it’s rather easy to be intrepid here. You could bump along unpaved roads to the verdant plateau around Kandy, at the geographic heart, then hike north through jungle highlands to the ancient city of Sigiriya. Or make the day-long crossing (around eight hours’ drive) from the capital, Colombo, to the eastern port of Trincomalee to revel in whale sightings and dips in the famous hot springs.

Families by the gentler, more developed southwest coast can have culture and adventure, too, albeit in kiddie portions, with miles of beach to fall back on. From our hub at The Frangipani Tree, we spent the first days roaming like the local bullocks along the coast, encountering the odd boy shimmying up a palm tree to shake off coconuts. To our east was Weligama, a long, wide, almost comically deserted stretch of sand. The beach here could support the population of Miami but the only people we saw were a family of Sri Lankans who’d emerged from a van to dip their toes in the surf, saris and trousers pulled up to their knees.

In the opposite direction, on the map and in spirit, was Wijaya beach, where the sole restaurant is a social hub for

Opposite page: Surfer and Boat at Sri Lanka Beach; The Frangipani Tree hotel. This page from left: Weligama Beach, fishermen on stilts.

holidaying European families. We walked there from The Frangipani Tree for an early lunch, collecting shells along the way. And after plates of gently spiced chicken curry we parked ourselves on Wijaya’s terrace loungers while the kids made friends with Swedes and dug in the sand until they hit water.

Those first few days felt like a month – in a good way. By the time our car arrived to collect us for the four-hour slog to Udawalawe, a wild elephant reserve northeast of Galle, we’d already torn through an I spy of wildlife: langur monkeys swinging from Ceylon ironwood trees, monitor lizards diving into garden ponds, marching iguanas and a cannibalistic crow. But Udawalawe’s unassuming elephants topped it all.

We’d heard they’d be most animated at dawn, so we stayed overnight at a rustic guesthouse and arranged for a four-wheeldrive to collect us at some cruel hour.

Thirty minutes later, crouched in weak morning sun, we watched them sidle up by the dozen, trudging through fields of wild mint. They put to shame the other animals: water buffaloes, peacocks in full preen - even the cannibal crow was knocked off its perch on the kids’ list.

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Sri Lankan tuk-tuks –threewheel auto rickshaws used to transport tourists and residents alike along the country’s winding roads and hills – are often modified versions of those found in India. In Colombo, a range of colourful, tourist-friendly versions were introduced several years ago, adorned with traditional patterns and operated by specially trained drivers in a bid to keep visitors safe and happy on the road.

Word on the street was that Sri Lanka’s roads were atrocious, but our motionsickness-prone girls were happy. Just to be safe, we made lots of stops. On our return from Udawalawe, we wound around tea plantations on damp green hillsides and watched white-robed Buddhist mourners at roadside funeral grounds. We reached the coast near the southern tip of the island at Tangalla, a lush resort town with a well-tended marina of bobbing sailboats.

As we curved around the south coast, we staggered across Matara, a city cradled by Colonial Dutch forts.

Relocating westwards, we drove past

We wound around tea plantations on green hillsides

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Galle, up the oceanfront Galle Road, to a villa we’d booked near the thriving resorts of the west coast. For once, our first impressions were disappointing.

What was meant to be our family idyll was leaky, unkempt. Yet the girls saw only the long pool and the sand dunes beyond, and scrambled down to play with the fishermen who sat smoking on their upturned boats after delivering their catch. It was also well placed for trips to Galle Fort, the old Dutch trading post, now a World Heritage Site. It took some enticement to extract the girls from the swimming pool.

Sri Lanka

World Traveller

Text by: Ellen Himelfarb Photography supplied by: Corbis / Arabian Eye; Shutterstock

Opposite page from top: The quadrangle at Polonnaruwa ruins; Sigiriya Rock from two vantage points. This page, above: Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage.

Promising ice cream and a breezy adventure in a local tuk-tuk, we explored the fort in bite-sized fragments, always a good idea in the heat. Galle responded with generous oases of shade: temples that were once churches, churches that have become mosques... Once an important South Asian port, the multi-cultural town has a rich heritage of Colonial architecture; we pointed out minarets and domes to the girls while walking along the overgrown ramparts.

When that got too much, we contemplated the skyline from Mama’s Roof Café, where tables are laden with yam and aubergine curries. Just in case, we ordered the girls cucumber sandwiches, which sat duly ignored. Their only demand was a bottle of orange Fanta each and a bendy straw.

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On our penultimate morning, we shook out our clothes, checked out of the villa and got into the car, heading for the capital, Colombo, where all good things in Sri Lanka begin and end. Two hours later, we pulled into the Galle Face Hotel, one of those grand, Victorian-era inns that’s survived the hospitality revolution by virtue of its history. For a century, it was the place for foreigners to stay, and to prove it has a plaque in the lobby etched with the names of the more luminous guests (“Mummy, who’s Bo Derek?”). It’s fabulously old school and auspiciously sited next to Galle Face Green, where families come to cool down by the sea.

It seemed appropriate to spend our last moments in Sri Lanka on the green. What we discovered there was a twister of saris and burkas, snake charmers and macaques dressed in lederhosen. The children, who normally find a terrier something to be feared, were oddly thrilled. Little did we know that we’d become part of the spectacle. A man rushed over to us.

Nodding madly and flashing a missing tooth, he propped up the boy he was carrying at our feet and started snapping photos. My girls were unimpressed. They looked back over their shoulders and tugged at my arm: “Let’s go back and see the snake.”

WHERE TO STAY Arrive by helicopter to The Fortress, Galle, an elegant property where ocean views, a spa and great dining prove irresistible. Amangalla, Galle’s charm lies in its location – the ramparts of the 17th century Galle Fort, a Unesco World Heritage Site. In Colombo, a stay at Taj Samudra allows a short stroll to the city centre’s many attractions. Book at dnatatravel.com

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Tokyo Planet

Beneath the neon lights, Laura Binder gets to grip with the weird and wonderful in Japan’s famously frenetic city

ating cod intestine sushi at 6am wasn’t exactly the kind of culinary experience I had in mind when I made for Tokyo – a city with more Michelin-starred restaurants than Paris. Still, I thought, eyeing the dubious concoction before me, ‘when in Rome…’

I’d flown from Dubai, via Doha, on a business class flight with Qatar Airways: a 10-hour journey that saw me cocooned in a duvet and complimentary pyjamas, with an enviable menu of dishes from celeb chef Nobu on tap. With a five-day trip ahead, I knew that to scratch Tokyo’s surface I would need to commit to one thing: consumption.

In Tokyo, chief consumptions are eating and shopping – though it’s worth saving room for a few cultural sights, not least the Tokyo Sky Tree, which, at 634 metres high, allows you to drink-in vistas from the city to Mount Fuji.

Touching down at Narita International Airport, I knew I had my work cut out: we cruised beneath the capital’s neon-lit glare in a 1934 Rolls Royce Phantom (courtesy of our hotel, The Peninsula Tokyo) to see a place pulsating with electro-gadgets, glossy billboards, cute and kitsch cartoons and the infectious vibe of a city that’s home to 36 million.

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Japan

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Opposite page, clockwise from top left: Tokyo Sky Tree; Akihabara Electric Town; Cherry blossom; Japanese barrels. This page, clockwise from top left: Bento box; Manga posters; Cosplayer; Takeshita Street; Chef Nihara Kazunori prepares sashimi; Narrow street in Pontocho; Shop ornaments

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It’s not quite as fast as a speeding bullet but the shinkansen, that’s the name of Japan’s bullet train, garners impressive speed nonetheless.

Travelling at up to 320 km/h, the network connects Tokyo with the country’s main cities.

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Like any modern metropolis, Tokyo has its imports – a favourite being French cuisine (a superb example of which we savoured at The Peninsula Tokyo’s restaurant, Peter). But what I really wanted was a taste of authentic Japan.

Which is exactly how I found myself with a mouthful of cods’ intestines at 6am – after a tour of Tsukji Fish Market.

While 4am seemed an unearthly hour to rise while on holiday, it was well worth the alarm call to see inside the world’s biggest fish market. We shuffled around in wellies (dodging speeding electric carts yielding crates of fish) to see burly dealers bidding at the infamous tuna auction, 300kg of torsos lined up for the taking. By dusk, a whopping $7.5million has typically changed hands.

Come 6am, visitors scurried off to one of the sushi spots that flank the market – in our case the twee Iwasa Sushi – where you’re guaranteed a breakfast of the freshest sashimi, not to mention some ‘interesting’ sushi rolls.

Of course, there are more civilised hours to chow down in the capital – and when night fell we could hardly contain our excitement: we had reservations at Robataya. The blink-and-you’ll-missit haunt takes up an unassuming spot on a narrow side street, away from the Roppongi district’s crowds – but don’t be fooled by its rustic façade. The reluctant hotspot is a celebrity magnet (just the night before, Kristen Stewart had taken up the pew next to me). Couple its starstudded status with seating for little more than 20 people and booking far in advance is a must. Inside, the atmosphere buzzed with scents and sounds. We shuffled to our places on wooden benches, which formed a U-shape around an open grill.

Behind its steaming griddles, two cheery, red-cheeked Japanese chefs sizzled our pick of whole raw fish, tender meats and vegetables, and presented them to us atop long wooden paddles.

My companion being more of a herbivore, we also sought out Tofu Ukai – set amidst the fauna of a twentiethcentury old sake brewery garden, and at the foot of The Tokyo Sky Tree, it’s one of those real ‘only in Japan’ venues. Guided through bamboo-clad walls to a gardenJapan

It’s known not only for its speed but for its punctuality (we’re talking accurate to the second rather than minute), comfort (cabins tend to be silent and there are no backward-facing seats) and the best safety record in the world, so far.

This page from top: Louis Vuitton on Omotesando Dori Avenue; Worker at Tsukiji fish market.

Opposite page: Daimon District in Central Tokyo at twilight, with the Tokyo Tower in the centre.

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Despite the frenetic crossings, the neon... the city exudes a sense of calm order

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names in Marunouchi (Tokyo’s very own Rodeo Drive), before taking a turn to the neighbouring district of Ginza (Japan’s ‘shopping capital’) where we lost ourselves in giant department stores (for Japanese wares try Mitsukoshi and Matsuzakaya). On another afternoon, we headed to Harajuku where Tokyo’s rainbow-coloured teens lit up Takeshita Street with their bright pink and electric blue hair, doll-like face paint and ‘Lolita Goth’ style. Leaving the cartoon craziness

We slinked into sunken seating and raised our chopsticks to slippery dishes

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This page, clockwise from top left: The Strings by InterContinental Tokyo; A Japanese tea pot and confectionery with sesame seeds; Cherry blossoms at Ueno Park. Opposite page: The Peninsula Tokyo

Japan

facing room, we slinked into sunken seating and raised our chopsticks to an array of slippery curd-based dishes: from the deep-fried (with sweet miso sauce) to the soup-based (kelp with tofu) and the imaginative (peanut tofu with salmon roe and Japanese pickles).

When we weren’t slurping, scooping and supping various Japanese bites (the streets are thick with Udon noodle cafes, tempura shops and futuristic vending machines), we shopped. Though don’t expect to simply meander through a mainstream mall – like most things in Tokyo, retail therapy comes in many forms, from the high-end to the downright wacky.

One day we trawled top designer

behind, we walked south, stepping onto the tree-lined boulevard of Omotesando (Tokyo’s equivalent to Champs-Elysees), where even the residents’ pooches looked as though they’d been on a spending spree with their bejewelled collars, glittering hair clips and coats spray-painted to look like mini panda bears. (Yes, really.)

Hungry for more Tokyo kitsch, we braved the busy Shibuya crossing (as seen in Lost in Translation) until an orange sign with a cartoon cat told us we were in the right place – a ‘cat café’. $10 allowed us to sit in the lounge-like room, candycoloured blankets on knees, frothy coffees on hand and, around us, 14 perfectly preened pussycats. One Japanese girl simply sat, Persian on lap, reading a book, another handfed a plump, white puss with whipped cream. It seemed a bit bonkers, but, as the café owner reasoned, with so many Tokyoites living in high-rise towers, this is one way for them to enjoy space and privacy and play at having pets. Stroking a kitten dressed in a baby blue romper suite, who was I to argue?

Appetites peaked, we sought out another phenomenon: the maid café. A by-product of the Japanese obsession with French cuisine, I wondered, looking up at a beaming girl kitted out in a French maid’s outfit, tea-pot poised. And if that’s not off beat enough for you, try Pinky Café, where you can sit in a candy pink room, surrounded by Hello Kitty dolls and have chocolate sauce poured on your food in the shape of a kitten.

Surprisingly, Tokyoites taste for the fantastical hasn’t spawned a society of maddened eccentrics. Despite the frenetic crossings, the neon, the cartoons, the gadgets (even the toilets have buttons for heated seats, ‘spraying’, ‘deodorising’ and ‘drying’), the city exudes a sense of calm,

Text by: Laura Binder Photography supplied by: Corbis / Arabian Eye; Shutterstock

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order and impeccable manners (one day a homeless man ran after me to return a coin I’d dropped). According to one local, overt displays of emotion are frowned upon in Japanese culture – which could explain why many choose to escape reality for kooky cafes.

It’s a stance we saw on the metro, where passengers are requested not to cross their legs (you might get in someone’s way), or talk on your mobile phone (very distracting). It’s this kind of common courtesy that, despite the throngs, made sightseeing pleasantly stress-free.

That said, all that consumption can really take it out of you. Which is why we retreated to the luxurious Peninsula Tokyo nightly, a five-star hotel in upmarket Ginza that’s favoured as much by affluent Japanese (society weddings are a weekly occurrence) as tourists. It’s the kind of place that gets you so wrapped up in its Zen-like calm, chic surrounds, first-rate restaurants and high-tech gadgets (our bathroom’s ‘spa’ button initiated mood music and lighting) that you quite forget you’re in the thick of one of the world’s busiest cities.

Returning to Narita International Airport (via The Peninsula’s Rolls Royce, of course) we reflected on what was one weird but most definitely wonderful trip through non-stop Tokyo. The verdict? Out of this world.

WHERE TO STAY The Peninsula Tokyo offers spacious

accommodation and boasts spectacular views of the Imperial Palace Gardens. Tokyo Bay, an InterContinental City Hotel, is a

sophisticated waterfront property that’s big on fine dining. As is ANA InterContinental Tokyo , where three-

Michelin-starred Pierre Gagnaire has his highest restaurant.

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Iconic

ROME

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Italy

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Within the walls of the Roman Colosseum â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the largest ampitheatre of the Roman Empire â&#x20AC;&#x201C; bloody battles would take place between men and animals, all fighting for their lives in front of a baying Roman audience of up to 80,000 people. Today, while damaged by earthquakes and theft, the UNESCO World Heritage site remains a towering icon of Imperial Rome and a tourist magnet.

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The Trevi Fountain is one of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most famous water features and has starred in a number of classic films, including Roman Holiday and La Dolce Vita. Throw a coin into its blue water and the legend has it that you will return to the city. Such an icon is the fountain that fashion house Fendi this year pledged to fund its restoration, after a piece of 1950s stucco fell off the fountainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s facade.

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Italy

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Photography supplied by: Corbis / Arabian Eye

Founded in the 16th century, the Vatican Museums, which are more than nine miles long, attract up to five million visitors every year. Home to one of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest art collections, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s said that the nine million pieces it hosts could wrap around the Vatican walls more than four times. Its incredible spiral staircase was designed

by Giuseppe Momo in 1932 and is among the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most photographed.

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Italy

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At the centre of Saint Peter’s Square, in the Vatican City, is a fourthousand-year-old Egyptian obelisk that was erected in 1568. The square wasn’t designed until 100 years later by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Vatican City is the world’s smallest independent state, both in terms of area and population, and citizenship there is not guaranteed by birth, but by appointment.

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GAME FOR AN Y THING There’s more to Kenya than the Masai Mara, as Adam Edwards discovers...

You can’t take pictures here,” barks an imperious-looking gentleman hurrying across the car park towards me, his red-faced ire bent upon my little pointand-shoot. “And you must remove that satchel,” he adds, in a clipped English accent, scowling at my battered leather bag. “We don’t allow business paraphernalia of any sort in this club.” My visit to Muthaiga, a flaming pink, members-only island of a country club, adrift in the heaving, hustling hum of 21st-century Nairobi, is not off to a great start. The plan had been to sneak in, lie low and observe some of its infamous shenanigans unnoticed, then slip out before anyone realised there was an interloper in their midst. Being publicly ticked-off by the Club Secretary is hardly the most inconspicuous way to gate crash the party.

And what a party it had promised to be.

Back in the 1930s, Muthaiga was HQ to the Happy Valley set, that debauched tribe of white Kenyans whose heroic adventures and drink-sodden misadventures exploded scandalously into the light in 1941, when the Earl of Erroll was murdered after a night with a baronet’s wife. What’s more, I’d heard that the descendants of the country’s batty colonial elite were still here at Muthaiga, swapping tales half a century after Independence, and I wondered whether this generation of Kenyans was still as mad as the pioneering, shoot-itif-it-moves lunatics who inhabit Out of Africa, The Flame Trees of Thika and, of course, White Mischief, the story of Erroll’s seductions, scams and eventual sticky end.

I decided I needed to ease myself in, so for my first few nights I checked into The

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Kenya

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The largest of the rhinoceros species, white rhinos are actually a grey or yellow-brown colour.

The ‘white’ in the name actually comes from the Dutch word ‘weit’, meaning wide, and refers to its wide muzzle. There are two subspecies – northern and southern white rhinos. While the southern, found in South Africa and Kenya, have been a conservation success, there are believed to be as few as four northern white rhinos remaining in the wild, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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Opening page: Wildebeest migration.

Opposite page, clockwise from top: Tribesman; A herd of elephants; Giraffe Manor; Fairmont The Norfolk.

Kenya

Norfolk Hotel, a mock-Tudor throwback adorned with sepia shots of colonials on zebra-back, marooned amid the ‘60s office blocks and hooting Toyotas of downtown Nairobi. Fans whirr, rattan creaks, and men with rosy cheeks loudly exaggerate their exploits in the bush. But while Nairobi’s oldest hotel may have its share of historical colour (I’m kept entertained by stories of the country’s de facto founder, Lord Delamere, riding through the dining room, shooting out the lights as his horse clattered over the furniture), its clientele is more American emptynesters than Kenyan cowboys these days.

I spend a couple of days exploring the jungly waterfalls and cool, cloud-scraping hills that flank the capital. But the lure of meeting some real ‘locals’ proves just too strong to resist, and I find myself battling the “is it always rush hour?” traffic towards the cloistered enclave of Muthaiga.

Once there, I don’t have to wait long before the stories start: the Happy Valley set (named after the area north of Nairobi where they used to live) is still spoken of in hushed tones. It’s no secret that this decadent clique of aristocrats and debutantes congregated here for unmentionable escapades.

“Is it true that the ban on photos dates back to those Happy Valley days?”

I ask a smartly turned-out gentleman in one of Muthaiga’s time-warped saloons. “Ah, you hear rumours like that all the time,” he strains, above the squeaking of shoes on the dining-room’s generously lacquered parquet. “They were a bunch of reprobates,” he adds, blinking through the blinding equatorial sunshine, “the complete opposite to the rest of the settlers, who were just ordinary, respectable, hard-working people.”

My new friend introduces himself as Geoff Kent, a second generation Kenyan of British descent. Like many of Kenya’s settlers, Geoff and his family used to farm in the fertile hills surrounding the capital, where bougainvillea-draped dairy farms sit beside hibiscus-scented tea and coffee plantations. They were encouraged to sell their estate in the run-up to Independence in 1963 (the colonial authorities keen to avoid any racially-driven land conflicts arising afterwards) and started running photographic safaris. They’ve done good too – the company Geoff and his family started 50 years ago, Abercrombie & Kent, is now one of the biggest travel operations in the world.

I bump into Geoff a few days later – Kenya’s that kind of country – while on safari in the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy.

It’s a vast game reserve on the Laikipia Plateau, and considered to be Kenya’s Wild West-feel ‘last frontier’ - the

perfect place to meet some eccentric old-timers, I’d hoped. This semi-arid park, four hours’ drive north of Nairobi, is also one of the last refuges for some of East Africa’s other threatened animals.

Beneath Mount Kenya’s snow-dappled slopes, locally endemic species such as the endangered Grévy’s zebra rub hides with savanna classics such as lion, elephant and the more familiar (less impressive) plains zebra.

Our camp in Lewa is just a few kilometres from its dirt airstrip, but the journey takes well over an hour due to the sheer number of beasts along the way: half a dozen giraffe browse by the roadside, a family of warthogs scrabble in the dirt, 100-odd zebra walk nose-to-tail through the bush, 30 buffalo graze next to our 4WD... Indeed, there are so many animals so close to the road that I wouldn’t be surprised to discover they were tethered to the ground.

“Look! Elephants,” Geoff calls out, directing my gaze to a line of stick-thin fever trees, which had until now concealed close to two-dozen of the four-tonne giants. “You know,” he whispers, leaning forward conspiratorially, “I knew a woman who used to shoot elephants from a plane.” The elephant-hunting aviatrix he’s referring to, it turns out, is Beryl Markham, a Happy Valley seductress famous for liaisons with both the future Edward VIII and his brother the Duke of Gloucester on their visit to Kenya in 1928.

“She was wild right into old age,” Steve, our guide, adds. “She’d tell her driver not to bother stopping at police road-blocks then would bring her car to my stepfather’s garage riddled with bullet holes.”

Geoff and Steve have more stories to exchange about Beryl and the Happy Valley set, but the driver interrupts.

“Rhino,” he announces, pointing into the middle-distance at what looks like a couple of boulders - until their unmistakable horns are suddenly silhouetted against the deep indigo sky. It’s thanks to these rhinos that the 25,000-hectare Lewa reserve even exists.

A few decades ago, it, like the rest of the farms on the Laikipia Plateau, was little more than a giant cattle ranch. But when rampant poaching saw Kenya’s 20,000-strong rhino population collapse to fewer than 300, the park’s owners were spurred into action – they teamed up with their neighbours to create a wilderness of savannah, swamp and afroalpine forests the size of Yorkshire. This shift towards conservation would have been unthinkable in the colonial era. “Hunting was a way of life,” Geoff explains. “As soon as I turned 16, I went on an elephant shoot.” These days, he’s a committed conservationist.

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Fans whirr, rattan creaks, and men with rosy cheeks loudly exaggerate their exploits in the bush

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One thing that hasn’t changed, though, is the standard of looking-after you can expect in the bush: four-poster bed, ensuite loo – I feel as if I’ve just stepped into a scene from Out of Africa. The grub’s first-class, too. Only after devouring a goat’s cheese and walnut salad, spring vegetable lasagne and a mango sorbet (all made with ingredients from the lodge’s organic allotment), do the other guests and I head out on an afternoon game drive, during which we spot a couple of lionesses resting in the long silvery grasses that provide such scarily effective camouflage.

As the sun begins to slip down the treacle sky, we make our way back to camp, where a family of elephants has formed a welcoming committee, trumpeting loudly as they pass through Kenya

I feel as if I’ve stepped into a scene from Out of Africa the acacias encircling our base. (Guards scare them away from our lodges, much to the frustration of the local guests, who remonstrate, “They’re nothing to worry about.”) But the pachyderms are not the only new arrivals – we’re also joined in camp that evening by Alan Root, a local wildlife photographer whose old-fashioned eccentricity would have seen him fit right in during colonial times.

“Crashed your helicopter recently?”

Geoff asks. Alan’s luck with aviation is a running joke throughout East Africa, apparently. He’s written off two choppers, and was once arrested as a spy, after accidentally hot-air ballooning over Mount Kilimanjaro into Tanzania.

Even more unbelievably, this unassuming 75-year-old has survived attacks by gorilla, hippo, puff adder and leopard – although they’ve claimed the odd finger, and a fair portion of his dignity, too. The leopard bit off a slice of Alan’s posterior, prompting a gag from the park warden that still gets laughs today: “You know you’re not supposed to feed the animals, Alan.”

The next morning, I bump into our guide, Steve, nose down like a

World Traveller

This page: Giraffes on the savanna.

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bloodhound, scrabbling around in the ochre-yellow dirt. “Lion,” he whispers, beckoning me over to see the fist-sized paw-print in the soil. “One must have passed through camp last night.” Over breakfast I warn the others of our nighttime intruder, but they barely bat an eyelid. “That’s nothing to worry about,” Geoff announces. “I once sank my Land Cruiser in a buffalo-wallow and spent two nights being stalked by lions.”

He pauses to smother his croissant with honey. “The guests and I had to sleep in a tree.” Fortunately, Geoff and his guests were saved by David Sheldrick, a ballsy anti-poaching campaigner whose impassioned pleas to protect Kenya’s rhino and elephant played a large part in the government’s decision to ban hunting. His

widow, Dame Daphne, is still rallying the international community against the resurgent ivory and rhino-horn trades, which claimed the lives of up to 50,000 elephants and around 750 rhinos last year.

Back in the capital, I’m introduced to this permed-and-pearled activist (everyone still knows everyone here) at her home in the Nairobi National Park, where she lives with a blind rhinoceros named Maxwell and a herd of 25 elephant calves.

“I grew up surrounded by animals,” explains the 78-year-old grandmother-offour, whose modest home-cum-orphanage is now one of the city’s top attractions.

“Zebra, mongoose, impala...” she rattles off a lengthy list, “but we’d never raised an elephant. Nobody had.” After marrying David, though, Daphne found herself

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WHERE TO STAY Fairmont The Norfolk, Nairobi, has been

delighting well-heeled visitors since 1904 and its popularity shows no sign of waning.

Just minutes from the central business district, guests enjoy old-school luxury and a choice of six restaurants. For those wishing to be in the thick of nature thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bilila Lodge, Serengeti. Wake to incredible views across the Serengeti and, at night, you can take part in traditional dancing.

As you can at Fairmont Mara Safari Club, where luxury tents overlook the Mara River. Expect to see bathing hippos, crocodiles and elephants.

Book at dnatatravel.com

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Kenya

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Dolittle lifestyles are not that unique among Kenya’s wacky “white tribe”, as I discover shortly after arriving at my hotel, down the road from the elephant orphanage in Nairobi’s leafy suburbs.

Owned by one of the country’s “oldest families”, the ivy-strewn Giraffe Manor could have been imported from the shores of Scotland’s Loch Lomond.

It’s classic Scots-Baronial (honeydew stone, battering-ram-heavy front door, manicured-to-within-an-inch-of-its-life lawn), with an interior design that’s pure settler-chic, complete with spitting-lion bath tap, faded Persians, Brasso-bright gramophone and scatter-cushioned Queen Anne sofas. Yet this suburban sleep is more Wild at Heart than Monarch of the Glen, as roaming about its 56-hectare grounds is a herd of nine Rothschild giraffes. By now, I don’t even find it bizarre that the family-run hotel doubles as a breeding centre for this subspecies, nor that, when they’re not out browsing in the forest, these rare animals like nothing better than poking their heads through the dining-room windows, eating guests’ breakfasts or sleeping on the lawns.

If, like me, you love the idea of safaris, but quail at the 5.30am starts, Giraffe Manor is heaven. I slumbered in my four-poster till half-ten, opened my curtains and found a giraffe pressed against my first-floor window looking

Text by: Adam Edwards Photography: Corbis / Arabian Eye

This page clockwise from top: Rhino and her calf; Inside the Four Seasons Tanzania; Samburu people.

Elephants crowd around me, their tiny trunks delicately feeling their way along my exposed arms faced with this seemingly impossible task, as an endless procession of traumatised calves was brought in. “The elephants used to sleep in my bed,” she says, almost nonchalantly. “We didn’t have any stables back then, so it was quite normal for us to have elephants and rhinos in the house.

Would you like to meet the orphans?”

She leads me out to a forest clearing, where elephants crowd around me, their tiny trunks delicately feeling their way along my exposed arms. I notice one of the larger calves is standing on my foot; thoughts of crushed bones and X-rays race through my head, yet it doesn’t let a single ounce of its 800kg weight rest on me.

“It must have sensed your foot was beneath it,” Daphne explains. “They’re far more advanced than humans at that age.” It turns out that the Sheldricks’ Dr

for its breakfast. (The rooms have buckets of ‘giraffe pellets’ in case of such emergencies.) “Did you give her a kiss?”

Giles, the Clapham-born hotel manager, asks, standing in the hallway throwing pellets at a giraffe leaning through the front door. “Here,” he says, fishing one of the ‘raffe snacks out of his pocket. “Pop this between your lips and she’ll take it from you.” I try, and the leggy beauty lunges towards me, its half-metre tongue flailing as it edges closer and closer to my mouth. But rather than giving me a quick peck, it ends up slobbering all over my face. “You stood too far back,” Giles explains, before sticking a titbit in his mouth to demonstrate gleefully.

They may be getting close to giraffes instead of each other these days, but Kenya’s still pretty wild.

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MY

KIND OF TOWN Chicago did it for Sinatra. And youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll love it too, says Nigel Tisdall

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step out, onto what looks a lot like nothingness.

True, there’s a sheet of glass beneath my feet – a thin, transparent line between me and certain death, half a kilometre below – but you need guts up here. Or a trick.

“It’s easier if you walk on backwards,” an attendant suggests (a lot of people, it turns out, are paralysed by nerves up here at Skydeck, on the 103rd floor of Chicago’s Willis Tower). So I make an ungainly reverse shuffle into a transparent box, below which I can spy the speeding traffic of downtown and some very hard looking pavement. The fear sends my stomach shooting up to my ears, and a camera flashes just as I’m looking like some tortured Francis Bacon painting.

As Frank Sinatra sang it, Chicago is My Kind of Town – but right now I’m not sure it’s mine. In fact, it doesn’t seem to be ours very often. When it comes to booking a US trip, we’ve no qualms about hopping over to New York or California. But for some reason the Windy City often gets a “maybe next time”. Which is odd, as those who do make it here invariably come back raving, citing the city’s cleanliness, friendliness and knock-out architecture.

Chicago is “the last of the great American cities”, declared the great American writer Norman Mailer, who compared it favourably with New York and Los Angeles (the latter “a constellation of plastic”).

And Skydeck’s a pretty good place to start. Every year, some 1.5 million tourists come to admire the

Chicago is a place with solid industrial roots and hard-working citizens who expect to be entertained

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views from this mighty building, which was the world’s tallest when completed in 1973, and remained so for 25 years. Chicago is widely acknowledged as the birthplace of the skyscraper, and its architects continue to be the brains behind many of today’s ‘super-talls’, including our own Burj Khalifa and the new 1,000m Kingdom Tower in Jeddah.

Dizzy stuff - and an enjoyable place to ponder it all is the 96th-floor Signature Lounge at the John Hancock Center, the city’s fourth-tallest building, where guests can take in the vistas with a stiff drink in hand. It’s a fine spot to contemplate the tablecloth sprawl of Chicago, and the ambitious things mankind chooses to do. Look east and there’s the vast sea of Lake Michigan, with a city shoreline that runs for 40km, including sandy beaches that burst into life in summer. Look west and it’s flat, flat, flat – all the way to the Rockies, son. What a place to build a city, you think, but in fact it was a smart move. By the 1860s, Chicago was the railroad capital of the US (it still is), with a colossal meatpacking industry.

The best way to get your bearings is on a cruise run by the Chicago Architecture Foundation, which tours the Y-shaped junction of the Chicago River that forms the heart of downtown. It’s a neck-cricking United States of America

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Previous page: Chicago cityscape.

Opposite page, clockwise from bottom: Buddy Guy at his Chicago blues club; Cloud Gate sculpture in Millenium Park.

This page (top right): Chicago cityscape.

journey through the high-rise ravines; no wonder the first skyscraper residents were dubbed ‘cliff-dwellers’.

If you’re lucky you’ll see some of the city’s numerous, ingenious moveable bridges being slowly raised and lowered; but listening to the guide’s commentary, you’d be forgiven for concluding that architects don’t look very far for ideas. Here is the 1921 Old Chicago Main Post Office, which looks like a monumental sofa; there are the 1964 Marina City twin towers, fittingly known as the ‘corn cobs’; while the 1921 Wrigley Building appears to be adorned with chess pieces.

My favourite edifice is the Carbon & Carbide Building, which is said to have been modelled on a Champagne bottle, and does indeed have a gold, cork-like top. It was completed in 1929, slyly cocking a snook at the Prohibition laws then in place. As we all know, Chicago was the stomping ground of the notorious gangster Al Capone, and the city still has a soft spot for joints that promise an engaging night.

Oh yes, this is a city that doesn’t do pussyfooting.

It’s a place with solid industrial roots and hardworking citizens who expect to be entertained. That’s one reason Chicago is a famous crucible in the story of jazz and blues. Louis Armstrong’s career took off when he moved here in 1922, Muddy Waters started wowing its clubs in the late 1940s. There’s still plenty of good live music to be found, often belted out in scruffy basements or at unpretentious venues like

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Arguably Chicago’s greatest gastronomic gift to the world, its deep-pan pizza boasts golden crusts that are up to a mouth-watering three inches tall – the perfect height to ensure all that melted cheese and hefty tomato sauce stays where it should.

And, unlike their New York counterparts, Chicago-style pizza is often sold by the pie rather than the slice – good news for stomachs.

Buddy Guy’s Legends in South Loop. When I drop by for the Monday-night open jam, it’s full of hopefuls clutching guitars and drumsticks with an infectious mix of nerves and enthusiasm.

“Where y’all from?” the compère bellows.

“Zambia,” cries a voice in the dark. “Mid-Ohio,” yells another. They both sound equally far-flung. The music is tight and powerful, and I sense there’s little quarter given. Then Buddy gets up to do a few blues numbers of his own, a big man with a warm smile who epitomises the bear-hugging confidence of the city. “If you don’t love me,” he snarl-sings into the mic, “your younger sister will...” And the beat goes on. House music started here in the early ‘80s (at The Warehouse club in West Loop), and the city’s given us diverse sounds ranging from Chicago (the song and the rock band) to The Smashing Pumpkins and Kanye West. In fact, this place is deeply embedded in all our lives. The Wizard of Oz was created here, along with Quaker Oats, Ernest Hemingway, the beehive hairdo, the TV remote and The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Oh, and President Obama.

I learn all this at the wonderful Chicago History Museum by Lincoln Park, where it becomes clear that Chicagoans understand our basic urges, deeply. “Give the lady what she wants” was the slogan of Marshall Field, who helped create the modern department store on State Street here in the 1880s (today it’s a Macy’s).

There’s plenty more fine things to see, from the home of Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park to the Art Institute of Chicago in Millennium Park, which North Americans flock to because it boasts one of the world’s largest collections of Impressionist and post-Impressionist works. Worth seeing, of course, but don’t miss its American Modern Art galleries, which are full of surprises such as the vivacious jazz-influenced painting by African-American artist Archibald J Motley Jr, who was raised in Chicago.

It also pays to join one of the small, enthusiast-led tours that flourish in American cities. Intrigued by an ad promising to show me “overlooked spaces”, I sign

It becomes clear that Chicagoans understand our basic urges, deeply

This page: Calumet River. Next page, from top: Aerial view of downtown Chicago; The L train; Pedestrians on The Magnificent Mile.

up for a two-hour Inside the Loop Architectural Tour with Chicago Detours. We are asked to meet like spies “ just inside by the ATMs” at the Chase Tower in downtown – right opposite the law firm where Barack Obama first met Michelle, as our guide explains.

There’s only a handful of us, including a large man in a white turban called Guru (ho-hum, only in America). Amanda picks out the unseen layers in the nearby streets and, whipping out an iPad, calls up historic photos of the buildings we see and plays a clip of a busy traffic junction filmed by Thomas Edison in 1897. Now that is living history. Then we walk a section of the Pedway, a network of underground shops, services and walkways covering nearly 10km where Chicagoans retreat in the depths of winter.

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WHERE TO STAY When it comes to great locations, few beat the setting of the

InterContinental Chicago Magnificant Mile. And inside, a

multi-million dollar renovation means rooms are a treat – as is Michael Jordan’s Steak House. Also soaring high downtown is the 92-storey Trump

International Hotel & Tower Chicago . Expect

exemplary service, Michelin-starred food and a great view.

“Why do you still keep the L?” I ask our guide, referring to the antiquated elevated railway that trundles round the city centre like a grumpy metal caterpillar. In this brazen, go-ahead metropolis, with its proud skyscrapers and ‘Magnificent Mile’ of luxury shops, it seems bizarre that it still clings to a rusty, rattling public transport system where you half-expect to find all the passengers dressed like the cast of Guys and Dolls.

“We love the L!” she exclaims. “For me it’s like the sound of the ocean.” Hmm, maybe that’s true when you live more than 1,000km from the sea. Anyway, it’s fair to say you’ve not done Chicago until you’ve had a ride on it.

Eventually I alight at Damen, gateway to Wicker Park. Low-rise and graffiti-clad, this affable, gradually gentrifying neighbourhood is a reminder that Chicago has its mellow side, too. Small stores selling vintage clothes and hookah pipes vie with upscale boutiques and ethnic eateries. While the canyons of downtown have often stood in for Gotham City in Batman films, here John Cusack flicked through the LPs in High Fidelity.

At the laid-back Milk & Honey Café, I order a slice of cake that turns out to be big enough to sink the Titanic and proof that you can eat well here.

Chicago may have a reputation for its hot dogs and deep-dish pizza, but I’m more taken with its tally of 23 Michelin stars sprinkled across 19 restaurants.

Some can be good value – try the prix-fixe lunch at the one-star Blackbird in West Loop, where you can enjoy three courses, including woodgrilled sturgeon with shitake mushrooms and persimmons, for a mere $22. Around the corner, Sepia is a cosy 1890s print shop that serves dishes such as duck breast with fennel and hazelnutchicory crumble. Meanwhile at Sixteen, in the Trump International Hotel, executive chef Thomas Lents creates theatrical tasting menus featuring the likes of turbot, venison and an extraordinary pink pearl apple with walnut and sorrel.

“Are you done?” the waitress asks. Well, actually,

I’m feeling nicely defeated, for this is a city where one wow leads to another; where you step into the Chicago Cultural Center for a quick peek, but end up staying an hour marvelling at this public library, built in 1897, with glittering mosaics and the largest stained-glass Tiffany domed ceiling in the world.

Every view from a taxi window brings something new - the massive colonnades of Soldier Field stadium, the miles of lakefront cyclepaths. Every person you meet has another suggestion: You gotta do the theatre, where all those Broadway shows start life! Go see Anish Kapoor’s bean-like Cloud Gate sculpture!

Check out the Mexican neighbourhood of Pilsen...

You could spend a month here and still not see it all.

Or as Ol’ Blue Eyes put it, “Chicago is the one town that won’t let you down”.

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Text by: Nigel Tisdall Photography supplied by: Corbis / Arabian Eye

You could spend a month here and still not see it all

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Concierge Inside Information

The King If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a fan of Elvis Presley then you should hot-foot it down to Memphis later this month.

Every year in August, tens of thousands of fans of The King gather there for a week-long celebration.

It begins on August 10 with a candle-lit vigil at Graceland. A must for Elvis devotees, watch rarely seen video footage, hear from musicians who worked with the rock and roll legend, enjoy incredible tribute concerts and witness the reunion of some of his friends and colleaguesâ&#x20AC;Ś

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THE LUXURY OF A HOTEL WITH THE COMFORTS OF HOME Enjoy panoramic views over the sparkling coastline and stunning cityscape at Fraser Suites Dubai. With award-winning service and extensive gold-standard facilities including swimming pools, steam & sauna, Kid’s Club, tennis & squash courts; conference rooms that can cater up to 200 delegates; relaxed dining in Aqua Café and the exclusive Awazen Spa - Fraser Suites Dubai has it all.

FRASER SUITES DUBAI - Sheikh Zayed Road, Media City, Dubai, UAE Reservations: +971 4 440 1400 Email: reservations.dubai@frasershospitality.com

Look us up. Wherever you are at m.frasershospitality.com

Dubai’s Leading Serviced Apartments

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SIX of the BEST…

Stately residences

1. Ballynahinch Castle, Ireland More than 700 years of history sits awaiting your discovery among the sky-reaching pine trees and rugged mountains of Galway. Stay at the stone castle at the heart of this 450-acre estate and you’ll be following in the footsteps of some of Ireland’s most colourful characters. Wearing tweed should be obligatory here, where guests can make use of the extensive grounds by indulging in typically stately activities: groomed tennis courts cry out to be played; plump salmon call for flyfishing in Ballynahinch River and walled gardens make wandering a must.

Best room in the house…

Riverside suites span the length of the luxury wing and overlook the river and surrounding woodland.

Concierge

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HERITAGE THE VILLAS

COOL DOWN THIS SUMMER IN A 5* VILLA ON THE TROPICAL ISLAND OF MAURITIUS

Are you dreaming of a family holiday this summer to escape the desert heat?

You need to try Heritage The Villas in the exclusive setting of the Domaine de Bel Ombre on the South Coast of Mauritius: cooler climes of 25° degrees, spectacular views, fantastic children’s facilities, two 5* luxury hotels with a 1 km white sand beach, four refreshing swimming pools, two kid’s clubs for children (for ages 2 to 11), exciting activities for teenagers, a huge choice of outdoor and watersports and 11 excellent restaurants and bars, unlimited green fees on an award-winning 18-hole golf course and a Nikki Beach-style C Beach Club.

The ‘sea, sand & sun experience’ par excellence of the island and so much more…

Book now and get 3 weeks for the price of 2.

Free: access to both hotels, C Beach Club, kids' clubs, teens' club, golf…

HERITAGE THE VILLAS DOMAINE DE BEL OMBRE MAURITIUS www.heritageresorts.mu

World Traveller

August // 2013

2. Château de Bagnols, France Considered one of France’s most spellbinding historic buildings, entrances don’t come much more impressive than a moat, drawbridge and towers. Set amid Beaujolais countryside, this 13th century castle is as fairytale-pretty inside as out. Sleep on a four-poster bed, bathe in a vast marble tub and admire the frescoes before dining at Michelin-starred restaurant Salles des Gardes.

Best room in the house…

Lady Hamlyn apartment: big, with a fireplace in every room.

3. Palace Hotel do Bussaco, Portugal The short-lived residency of Portugal’s Queen Maria Pia in the late 19th century, Bussaco Palace evokes the magnificent architectural style that was de rigeur during the peak of the Portuguese Age of Discovery. Later converted into a hotel, the site was the main employer for the region – and its finest artists – for 25 years, and their efforts show.

A hotel of palatial proportions, stuccoes adorn staircases, tiled walls depict historic events and furnishings are suitably regal. Fly in to the palace’s helipad.

Best room in the house…

The superior rooms are most in-keeping with the period.

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4. Fort Mihir Garh, India Stately homes are not solely a blessing bestowed on Europe: this ‘Fort of the Sun’, as its name translates, offers a palatial respite among the sands of Rajasthan. The realised vision of owners Sidharth and Rashmi Singh, the indulgent, nine-suite abode serves up exotic seclusion, luxe furnishings and unique pieces hand-picked by the couple. Then there are the enormous terraces and to-die-for bathrooms. If you can bear to leave the opulent confines of the Fort, explore your surrounds atop of one of the hotel’s Mawari horses, refueling with a royal feast of a picnic served by hospitable attendants.

Best room in the house…

Book a Shaandar (first floor suite) for an open air Jacuzzi and private terrace.

5. Bodysgallen Hall & Spa, Wales Those yet to experience the beauty of Wales would do well to do so within the welcoming bosom of Bodysgallen Hotel & Spa. Amid an enchanting woodland park, this centuriesold house – once a lookout for soldiers serving the kings of Conwy – allows guests views of the Snowdonia mountain range and medieval Conwy Castle. Dining is a delight: be it at The Dining Room or the 1620 Bistro. And then there’s The Bodysgallen Spa...

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Best room in the house…

For privacy and great access to the spa, book a Spa Cottage.

Concierge

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6. Kasbah Tamadot, Morocco At the foothills of the Atlas Mountains lies a serene spot so secluded it took a hot air balloon expedition for Richard Branson to discover it. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not difficult to see why he promptly bought it. Deep reds, burnt terracotta and golds enhance sumptuous

interiors; but there are other temptations: an authentic Moroccan experience is guaranteed as Branson promptly employed the local community as staff, and an infinity pool boasting views of snow-capped peaks will soothe senses.

Best room in the houseâ&#x20AC;Ś

For breathtaking views of the Atlas Mountains, choose one of nine luxury Berber tents.

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Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Hotel and Villas

Something for the Weekend

Wake to incredible views across the Arabian Sea, best enjoyed on the villa’s vast terrace, where you can unwind with a dip in the plunge pool or rejuvenate your senses under the outdoor rain shower.

Where should I eat?

Why go?

Every once and a while, we all need to escape. Whether you live in the UAE capital or further afield, Saadiyat Island offers visitors an incredibly special beachfront getaway: it may be just 500 metres from Abu Dhabi’s coast but it feels like another world.

There are miles of unspoiled beaches to explore – perfect for the wealth of water sports on offer; and then there’s Saadiyat Beach Golf Club, just minutes from the property its 18-hole course (designed by the legendary Gary Player) is perfect for golf enthusiasts.

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What room should I book?

Go all out and book the three-bedroom Royal Villa for your own secluded beachfront haven. Modern, with subtle accents of Arabesque décor, sink into the goose down duvets on one of two king beds for a much-earned snooze.

Concierge

This is where a stay at the Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Hotel and Villas gets interesting. It boasts three restaurants, in addition to places to grab small bites and the finest pastries. A vast seafood display, Asian dishes and a charcoalfired grill promising succulent steaks all await at The Park Bar & Grill, which has won awards for its fare. For a great lunch – with an even better view – there’s The Beach House: it reopens mid-September and serves familystyle, home-made Mediterranean dishes. And for Arabic cuisine there’s The Café, where you’ll find mezzeh, Arabic grills and freshly baked bread all waiting to be devoured.

What should I do while there?

If you need to relax then the hotel’s Atarmia Spa takes some beating. Not only is its setting beautiful, but it also offers myriad treatments, including La Alternativa, the award-winning facial said to be nature’s alternative to Botox.

And if you have children aged five to 12, then fear not: the hotel’s free Camp Hyatt service promises them new friends and adventures galore.

WIN!

To see for yourself just how special this hotel really is, enter our competition to win a two-night stay for two in a sea view room, including breakfast.

All you need to do is email us at easywin@ hotmediapublishing. com before August 31 with the answer to this simple question: what is the name of the hotel’s spa?

World Traveller

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MAKING A SPLASH

When the heat’s on, the UAE’s water parks are the only place to be. Check out WT’s five favourites…

Yas Waterworld Abu Dhabi

Wild Wadi Water Park Jumeirah, Dubai

Aquaventure Atlantis The Palm, Dubai

Dreamland Aqua Park Ras Al Khaimah

Ice Land Water Park Ras Al Khaimah

> Luxury weekend breaks don’t come more special than the Musandam Dive Package being offered until the end of September to guests at Six Senses Zighy Bay in Oman. You’ll arrive by speedboat and spend the evening cocooned in the exquisite comfort of your luxury villa. After a swim in your private pool, eat an exceptional breakfast in the Spice Market before spending a full day on a boat dive with experienced international divers who know the waters well.

After a day exploring the best dive sites in the area – the Musandam Peninsula’s hard and soft coral reefs attract hundreds of species of marine life, including turtles and whale sharks – you’ll return to the resort, where a signature one-hour massage for two at the Spa will work out any residual tension. Idyllic.

> Great news for the beauty conscious as the summer temperatures soar: the GCC’s first cryotherapy spa has opened in Dubai. The treatments at Cryo Health in Emirates Towers promote tighter, better-looking skin and are linked to weight loss and treating muscle injuries. But the best part? They work by painlessly exposing the skin to super-low temperatures for short periods of time. Perfect for the August heat.

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Graphically speaking

Sydney Sydney Opera House by numbers 7 8 10 years 1,000 1973 15,500

Performance Venues Boeing 747s could fit on site time taken to complete the Grand Organ rooms inside the year it was opened by Queen Elizabeth II lightbulbs are changed there annually

The nickname for the Sydney Harbour Bridge is the ‘coat hanger’.

British explorer Captain James Cook discovered the east coast of Australia on April 19, 1770.

In 1980, the Mr Olympia body building contest was held at Sydney Opera House. The winner? None other than super star Arnold Schwarzenegger, who came out of retirement to win the competition for a seventh and final time.

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Concierge

In January this year a heatwave broke all previously recorded temperatures in Sydney, with the mercury rising to 45.8 degrees Celsius at Observatory Hill (114.4 degrees Fahrenheit) – breaking the record set in 1939 by 0.5 degrees.

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The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in Scotland, is the largest arts festival in the world.

From well-known performers to unknown artists looking to kickstart their career, it serves up entertainment of every genre: from theatre, comedy and dance through to musicals, operas and more.

The Guca Trumpet festival, in Serbia, celebrates brass instruments like no other. Thousands of visitors gather to listen, watch, and dance along to the cacophonous sounds of Balkan brass and traditional gypsy wedding music performed by musicians.

Germany’s Bayreuth Festival celebrates the works of 19th century composer Richard Wagner.

First held in 1876 in the theatre he developed, today demand for tickets always exceeds supply. Book early to enjoy the composer’s finest works – all arranged by the musician’s descendants.

Olympic fever may have passed but last year’s athletic action in London has whetted the world’s appetite for the IAAF World Championships, taking place in Moscow this month. With some of the world’s fastest athletes controversially out of the running, absolutely anything could happen.

It may be a new event, but the second annual USA Pro Challenge is already being referred to as America’s Tour de France. Held in Colorado, the event promises stunning mountain scenery and incredible athleticism as cyclists battle it out along what are arduous trails.

The Australian Art Show, in Melbourne, is the perfect destination for art lovers and artists alike. With nearly 1,000 works on display in the city’s historic Victorian Royal Exhibition building, treasures abound.

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Shopping Singapore

Where to Stay Fairmont Singapore (fairmont.com/ singapore) Ideally situated next to the city’s top shopping and entertainment venues, this modern hotel is designed in sleek lines and boasts 15 restaurants.

Grace Hyne reveals the many retail delights of this shopper’s paradise…

Wanderlust (wanderlusthotel.com) Located in bustling Little India, this 1920s property is a hit with designlovers. From vivid candy colours to monochrome minimalism, vibrant pop art and origami, every room is an aesthetic feast.

Raffles Hotel Singapore (raffles.com/singapore) The epitome of elegance, this colonial-style landmark, built in 1887, boasts romantic highceilinged suites. A must here is afternoon tea at the Tiffin Room.

1. Zechuan Court & Kitchen Restaurant, Fairmont Singapore.

2. Marina Bay from the Fairmont Singapore.

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Shopping is a treasured pastime in Singapore and it’s not difficult to see why – the options are simply staggering. You’ll find everything you could wish for here: from high-end fashion houses to bustling markets. As one of the world’s premier shopping destinations, Singapore is the place to go when you’ve got spending on your mind; but go with a plan – for the options can be overwhelming…

Concierge

Those wondering where in the city to start their retail exploration should head to what many describe as Singapore’s main artery: Orchard Road. Home in the 19th century to fruit orchards (hence its name) and spice plantations, today it offers visitors 2.2 kilometres of sprawling malls stocked with the biggest international high-end and high-street names in the world, as well as cafes, restaurants and five-star hotels. This place is so important, the President of Singapore even has a residence on it.

Fans of designer labels should make a beeline for ION Orchard: with more than eight levels of shopping space, its vast, one-million-square-foot interior is filled with the covetous wares of fashion giants such as Louis Vuitton, Prada and Dior – three of six maisons that boast double-storey flagship stores there. Show your passport on level one and redeem a Tourist Wallet, which bags you luxurious privileges from selected brands.

For accessories, you’d be hard pressed to beat the offerings of Knightsbridge: you’ll discover the luxe four-storey retail podium in the Grand Park Orchard hotel.

Lovers of timepieces can lose hours admiring the wares of Dickson Watch & Jewelry and The Hour Glass timeboutiques: Cartier, Omega, Patek Philippe, Rolex, A. Lange & Sohne… need we go on? And for those who like to mix high street with high-end, you’ll find the largest Topshop outside of the UK and US here too, plus a flagship Abercrombie & Fitch.

If homeware is more your thing, then The FestiveWalk shopping mall at Resorts World at Sentosa is a must. It’s here you’ll find the world’s first and only Michael Graves gallery, which houses creations designed by the renowned American architect, including the signature line he created for Alessi. There’s also original drawings and even a fashion line for both men and women. The FestiveWalk is also home to Asia’s first Dale Chihuly gallery

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– the famous American, whose unique approach to the art of glass blowing can be appreciated not only through the works on display but also taken home to savour, thanks to limited-edition prints, set works and paintings on sale.

Lovers of Louis Vuitton should check out the fashion house’s ‘island’ boutique in the Crystal Pavillion of The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands (an expansive luxury shopping mall in the heart of the Central Business District). Outside of Paris, it’s the largest of the maison’s boutiques in the world and the options for those inclined to spend are limitless. With glass windows that offer up stunning views of the Marina Bay waters, as well as a canal which allows you to enjoy a relaxing boat ride past retail shops, The Shoppes is the perfect place to while away a few hours. And nearby, the Suntec City Mall, designed in accordance to Feng Shui principles said to promote wealth, boasts one of the world’s largest fountains:

Getting around The Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), one of the cleanest transport systems in the world, rivals taxis in the fastest way to get around town while the SBS Transit, the city’s major bus service, is also convenient.

Language The government recognises four official languages: English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil. Visitors will have an easy time conversing, however, with English widely spoken.

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Mohammad Salleh of the InterContinental Singapore suggests a busy day out in his favourite city…

As the sun comes up…

walk to the Sultan Mosque, one of Singapore’s oldest monuments. Along the way you will see small streets and alleyways packed with shops selling colourful textiles. A block away from the Mosque, on Kandahar Street, you will find the Malay Heritage Centre, housed in the former palace of the Sultan of Johor.

Its interactive exhibit showcases Malay culture.

As lunch approaches…

Photography supplied by: Corbis / Arabian Eye

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at certain times of the day you’ll see shoppers walking around its base for luck.

Of course, there is more to this fascinating city than malls. Those who enjoy bargains and lively bartering sessions with friendly locals should check out the city’s many markets. North of the Singapore river is the beautiful enclave Kampong Glam: on pedestrianised Arab Street, said to be named after an Arab merchant who once owned the road, you’ll find stalls selling a host of goods that include fabrics, jewellery and perfumes.

Nearby, the Raffles Hotel Shopping Arcade hosts everything from haute couture to the signature store of golfing favourite Jack Nicklaus.

At Holland Village, a treasure trove of international arts and crafts await: think antiques, Moroccan dinnerware, bird cages and shisha pipes. The Little India neighbourhood, east of the Singapore river, is great for finding spices, gold and incense, while handmade beaded sandals can be found in Katong.

stroll around the historic Bugis district to view pre-war shophouses, such as those found along Liang Seah Street (lined with a bountiful array of restaurants and eateries).

Better understand InterContinental Singapore’s Peranakan influence by visiting the Peranakan Museum on Armenian Street.

As the sun fades…visit Gardens By the Bay, spanning 101 hectares, and housing more than 250,000 rare plants.

Look out for 16-storey tall supertrees and a suspended 128-metrelong walkway, which offers amazing views. End a perfect day with the sky show of dazzling lights and sounds in the OCBC Garden Rhapsody.

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Where to Stay Hotel Le St-James (hotellestjames.com) In the heart of Old Montreal, this beautifully restored former 1870 Merchants’ Bank building is decorated with antique furnishings and oil paintings. Be sure to indulge in its delicious high-tea service.

Cultural Montreal The Canadian city has a multitude of cultural delights crying out to be explored…

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Hôtel Nelligan (hotelnelligan.com) With exposed brick walls and cherry wood furnishings, the hotel fits perfectly within Montreal’s art district. Suites feature fireplaces and Jacuzzis, and guests will enjoy the refined French fare served at Verses restaurant.

Le Place D’Armes (hotelplacedarmes.com) Made up of three neoclassical buildings from the late 19th century, the hotel is perfectly situated for exploring Montreal’s many cultural attractions, not least the Notre-Dame Basilica.

Getting around Thanks to Montreal’s Underground Pedestrian Network (MUPN), a 30-kilometre network of walkways, exploring the city on foot is a breeze.

Alternatively, take the metro, which is also found in the MUPN. Don’t overlook the city’s 350-kilometres of bike paths either.

Language

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It’s the largest Frenchspeaking city in the world outside Paris and many of the city’s signs are in French, although English is widely spoken.

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World Traveller

Photography supplied by: Corbis / Arabian Eye

Words: Grace Hyne

Few cities manage to appeal to so many cultural sensibilities as Montreal.

Whether your interests lay in art, history, architecture, theatre or music, this city has something to stimulate and entice you.

Admire masterpieces by Matisse and Rembrandt at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, enjoy jazz at one of the city’s many music haunts and gawp at the unbelievable feats of performers at the TOHU – Cirque du Soleil’s headquarters. The possibilities, quite honestly, seem endless…

With residents speaking both French and English, and cultural influences stretching from North to South America, Europe and beyond, Montreal is a city thriving on its diversity. Culturally speaking, visitors find themselves spoilt for choice.

For starters, there’s the music. Of course, there’s no dearth of festivals to choose from at any time of year: among the most famous is Montreal’s International Jazz Festival, the largest in the world of its kind (which took place June 28 to July 7). Then there’s FestiBlues, a French blues festival, which takes place this month, and Pop Montreal, an annual event happening next month and featuring 400 bands and artists performing at 50 venues city-wide.

For those seeking the extraordinary, there’s TOHU, Cirque du Soleil’s international headquarters and home to the National Circus School. Go see special exhibitions, outdoor activities and live performances, which occur year-round.

And then there’s the more traditional musical expressions. Explore Montreal’s Place des Arts, a complex of concert and theatre halls in the city’s downtown entertainment district, Quartier des Spectacles. Here you’ll find the best of the city’s performers, including Montreal’s chief ballet company Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Montreal Symphony Orchestra and the Opera de Montreal. An impressive year-round programme of dance, theatre, opera, comedy and musicals means you’ll never be short of something to enjoy.

August // 2013

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Josée Choquette of the InterContinental Montreal picks three high-end dining treats in the city At 400 Coups (400, It is here too that you will find Montreal’s first contemporary art museum: Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal. It boasts eight galleries adorned with 6,000 permanent works by internationally-renowned Quebecois artists, such as Jean-Paul Riopelle and Paul-Émile Borduas, while its temporary exhibitions include everything from painting and sculptures through to installation art, photography and video.

If traditional art is more your scene then head over to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, where you’ll find works by Rembrandt, Matisse and other European and Canadian masters, in addition to ancient artefacts and Islamic works.

And for something a bit different, there’s a multitude of private art galleries; many of which can be found within unique buildings in the Westmount area of the city. Among those to visit is the PierreFrancois Ouellette Art Contemporain in the Belgo Building on Sainte-Catherine Street West, which is a former factory, while the Arsenal Contemporary Art Complex in Griffintown hosts incredible contemporary exhibitions in a converted shipyard that dates back to 1846.

If you appreciate architecture then the Canadian Centre of Architecture – part museum, part research institute – is home to a host of exhibits. While its focus is on urban design, it holds its fair share of history: the building incorporates the 19th century Shaughnessy House, a Second Empire style mansion.

And a short drive will see you at the Pointe-à-Callière Museum of Archaeology and History. While its modern facade may appear at odds with its content, take the elevator to the archeological crypt in the basement and you’ll discover the foundations of the city’s original settlements, dating to the 17th century.

Notre-Dame Street West) there is a team

of three chefs who are passionate about food and know exactly how to cater to their exclusive clientele: a cozy space and refined and inspired cuisine, promise a stimulating and enriching experience.

Another great Montreal eatery is Au Pied Du

Cochon (536, Duluth Street), located in the

heart of the Plateau district. In this laid-back, yet elegant restaurant, you can sample one of Montreal’s most famous dishes, a ‘Poutine’ (a Canadian dish made with French fries, gravy and cheese), which is certainly not to be missed.

One shouldn’t leave the city without trying

Europea restaurant (1227, De la Montagne Street). It is one of

Montreal’s crown jewels.

Let Chef Jérôme Ferrer thrill and entertain you: from his close line prosciutto chips to his lobster bisque cappuccino and signature macaroons, your eyes and your palate will thank you.

1. Cirque du Soleil.

2. Coloured glass facade of Congress Palace.

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Suite Dreams Wilson ServettePetitSaconnex

Eaux-Vives

Geneva

What:

The Royal Penthouse

Where:

Hotel President Wilson, A Luxury Collection Hotel, Geneva, Switzerland

About:

Spanning the entire top floor of the hotel, this suite is said to be the world’s most expensive and luxurious, and it offers its guests maximum security and privacy.

The 12-bedroom, 12-bathroom abode boasts unrivalled views of the ever glassy and serene Lac Leman (or Lake Geneva); best enjoyed from the vast terrace or one of the inviting hot tubs that feature in the bathrooms. Then there’s the Steinway grand piano, the billiards table, fitness centre, plush décor and the Bang & Olufsen BeoVision 4-103 flat screen and audio system. Leaving will definitely be a challenge for guests.

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