APRIL 2018
THE EDITORS’ LIST 2018 OUR FAVOURITE AFFORDABLE NEW HOTELS
AUSTRALIA’S FOODIEST CITY
THE FRESHEST BEACH HIDEAWAY IN MALIBU
EPIC TREKKING ON THE HIMALAYAN PLATEAU
UNDER THE RADAR
CARIBBEAN
CONTENTS APRIL 2018
69 THE EDITORS’ LIST 2018 Our European round-up of the best new affordable hotels from £80 a night
86 BEQUIA Adrift on the small Caribbean island with a storybook charm
96 ADELAIDE The South Australian capital has steamed ahead of Sydney and Melbourne for its home-grown, boundary-pushing food
104 YUNNAN
PHOTOGRAPH: KAREL BALAS
Follow the trail of 10th-century tea merchants on a mule-led trek across the Tibetan plateau
HOTEL DES GRANDS BOULEVARDS IN PARIS, FROM THE EDITORS’ LIST April 2018 Condé Nast Traveller 5
CONTENTS APRIL 2018
45
25 8 EDITOR’S LETTER 10 CONTRIBUTORS
33 114 THE GLOBETROTTER The Oscar-winning star of Jerry Maguire and Selma, Cuba Gooding Jr
15 WORD OF MOUTH The people 116 IN BRITAIN The misty Tolkien and places creating a stir around the world, from Finland to the Gili Islands
landscapes and marvellously madcap villages of North Wales
36
Cry timber: a new generation of West Coast-inspired woodworkers are carving out an alternative existence
33 GREAT DRIVE An epic overland adventure from west to east Africa crossing seven countries
36 SNAPSHOT Designers add a twist to the crisp combo of blue and white
66
38 BEST TRIPS Our favourite holidays to book for 2018, curated by our editors alongside the UK’s finest tour operators
45 WHERE TO STAY Round-up ON THE COVER The Surfrider, Malibu, see The View from Here (page 172) Photographed by MK Sadler
6 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
Four lovely hideaways in Mallorca. The Weekender The newly revamped Swan takes flight in Southwold
57 STYLE FILE The holiday label to love Rio tips with Haight founder Marcella Franklin. Jewellery Make mine a White Russian. Watch New directions with a compass. If you only buy four things‥. at the airport. Hotel on the scene Bulgari Resort, Dubai
Just opened Annabel’s is back in the game with a Mexican accent. World on a plate Rose. Taste buzz S’mores. Sip trip Japan’s umeshu. Eat the streets Yangon in Burma
149 EVENTS Coming up A London feast from Corsica’s Domaine de Murtoli. The lowdown Italian suppers with S.Pellegrino, and our Traveller’s Tale evening with adventurer Sophie Radcliffe.
172 THE VIEW FROM HERE The Surfrider, Malibu
116
PHOTOGRAPHS: JESSICA ANTOLA; ISSY CROCKER; CRAIG FORDHAM; ROMAIN RICARD; STELLA ROTGER
25 THE FANTASY LIFESTYLE 123 FLAVOUR HUNTER
EDITOR’S LETTER
I can do so many things while hot crying that it’s like my superpower. For example, recently I became obsessed with my middle daughter’s core strength. It’s certainly not unusual for me to become fixated by niche subjects. French plaits, wood lice, collective nouns, Milan Kundera, dahlias, the weight of paper. But there often seems to be an emotional price to pay for these unwavering fixations. The intense schedule of rock climbing, trampolining and tree-canopy rope-work that I have devised for us to do together does not take into account my lack of time-keeping and inability to negotiate a map. So while she is to be found scaling small, primary-coloured nubbins on the side of a plastic cliff face, I am riding in the dark around the North Circular on my moped, as car horns blare like angry swans and hot tears blaze their trail. Exercise classes, morning baths, school runs, press days, family lunches, parking cars… I can pretty much hot cry through this whole litany without a) so much as anyone noticing b) so much as pushing half a pause on the pause button, thank you very much. But what comes most naturally of all is hot-cry skiing. To be honest, I cannot think of a time when I have skied when I have not hot-cried. The two go together like soup and mouth ulcers. And yet, for some reason, on this Swiss ski trip, I am feeling v v on top of the world. So much so I am saying in my head, ‘It is as if I have woken from an interminable slumber, and finally I am awake! Good morrow resplendent dawn!’ My skiing is so swift, my heart so calm, the mojo of my life swirling around my person like tiny perfect benevolent cyclones, that at lunch, on a beautiful day, on the top of a beautiful mountain, I text a friend referring to the very white, very tight, all-in-one ski suit she has recently given me: ‘The ski suit is going down a storm on the slopes! I have literally not had so much attention since I was 17 wearing nothing but a pussy pelmet in the superclubs of Vale do Lobo.’ At this very point, a huge drippy cheesy fondue potato chunk flies out of my brother’s mouth and lands on my smooth, virgin fabric. ‘Oh dear,’ he says, grabbing a napkin the colour of arterial blood and scrubbing away so the whole leg turns dark and wrong. After lunch I realise I’ve lost my gloves. With the sudden drop in temperature, it appears, by the furious whitening of my fingertips followed by the furious blackening of my fingertips, that I am getting frostbite. And now a blinding weather front has moved in so it is impossible to find the tiny wailing children who are falling over like broken piles of tangled sticks. When our group reaches the bottom of the slope (and the hospital please, as fast as you can take me, I am so tragically fond of my digits), my sister is shouting at me. I can’t make out the sounds but suddenly I am shouting back, and now both of us are really giving it some, torsos on the incline, brows like chevrons, open, scary cave mouths. Almost absentmindedly I realise that the children have gathered about us, an arc of admonished faces, shocked and bone-quiet, and then, pin-sharp, in one corner, the sight of my middle daughter with her hands around her younger sister’s neck. It’s not a good image, let’s be honest, not a happy one, but part of me can’t help noticing her core strength seems to have come on leaps and bounds. This is the new issue of Condé Nast Traveller. Always looking for solutions not problems. And thus it was when all had quietened down, I sat in the car, licked hungrily at the fruits of my superpower, then popped my frozen fingers in my mouth, the hot, hot tears warming them up a treat.
EDITOR
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MELINDA STEVENS
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BSME EDITOR OF THE YEAR L C AT E G
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MelindaLP
All information and travel details are correct at the time of going to press and may no longer be so on the date of publication. Unless otherwise stated, hotel prices are low-season rates and restaurant prices are for a three-course meal for two without drinks 8 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
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CONTRIBUTORS THIS MONTH, WE ASK OUR WILY WANDERERS FOR THEIR BEST HOTEL FIND
Jessica Antola
Photographer, Great Drive (p33) ‘Casa Oaxaca in Mexico is a charming colonial house filled with local crafts and blankets in rooms that overlook a palm-filled courtyard with colourful walls and an azure pool.’ Jessica’s career began in Paris. Now in Brooklyn, she has released ‘Circadian Landscape’, a monograph on her journey in Sub-Saharan Africa
Amar Grover
Writer, Yunnan (p104) ‘Set atop a riverside cliff in south-east Rajasthan, the 18th-century Bhainsrorgarh Fort hotel has terrific views over the Chambal River. It’s an atmospheric place with just nine rooms and rooftop dining under the stars.’ Hong-Kong born, London-based Amar was a lawyer before he became a travel writer and photographer 10 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
Jessica Diamond
Writer, Jewellery & Watch (p60 & p62) ‘The converted finca Mirabó de Valldemossa in Mallorca is my go-to. It’s on a hillside in the Serra de Tramuntana and a perfect hike-able distance from Valldemossa village – but only if you can drag yourself away from the lovely pool-side views while snacking on a plate of jamón.’ Jessica is our jewellery & watch editor
Dominic Wells
Writer, In Britain (p116) ‘It’s a toss-up between Nimmo Bay in British Columbia, where I spent a hilarious evening in a hot tub with a gay YouTube star; and Serra Cafema in Namibia, where poet and wildlife ranger Christiaan Bakkes told me how he lost his arm to a crocodile.’ In his spare time, former ‘Time Out’ editor Dominic writes short films
Roxy Kavousi-Walker
Writer, Mallorca (p45) ‘The Gate Hotel in Asakusa, Tokyo’s former pleasure district. It’s great for endless people-watching, with centuries-old temples glowing beside neon signs and graceful geisha on its doorstep. Or a stay in one of the city’s capsule hotels – an altogether different kind of people-watching experience.’ Roxy is our senior sub-editor
PHOTOGRAPHS: PAPPAS BLAND; KURT ISWARIENKO/TRUNK ARCHIVE; TOM PARKER
Cuba Gooding Jr
Globetrotter (p114) ‘André Balazs really did his thing with The Mercer in New York. From the people at the front desk, to Gigi the manager and the maintenance people – they can sort anything out, no matter how weird the request. If you do visit, order the burger – it’s amazing.’ Actor and comedian Cuba won an Oscar for ‘Jerry Maguire’
EDITOR
MELINDA STEVENS ACTING PA TO THE EDITOR Grace Lee DEPUTY EDITOR Issy von Simson MANAGING EDITOR Paula Maynard FEATURES EDITOR Fiona Kerr SENIOR EDITOR-AT-LARGE Peter Browne EDITOR-AT-LARGE Steve King ART DIRECTOR Pete Winterbottom DEPUTY ART DIRECTOR Paula Ellis SENIOR DESIGNER Nitish Mandalia PHOTOGRAPHIC EDITOR Matthew Buck PICTURE EDITOR Karin Mueller CHIEF SUB-EDITOR Rick Jordan DEPUTY CHIEF SUB-EDITOR Gráinne McBride SENIOR SUB-EDITOR Roxy Kavousi-Walker ONLINE CONTENT EDITOR Tabitha Joyce ONLINE INTERN Sarah James FASHION AND BEAUTY DIRECTOR Fiona Joseph WATCH & JEWELLERY EDITOR Jessica Diamond MEN’S EDITOR David Annand RETAIL EDITOR/EVENTS DIRECTOR Kendra Leaver-Rylah EDITORIAL/FASHION ASSISTANT Katharine Sohn
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Jonathan Bastable, Horatio Clare, Ondine Cohane, Sophie Dahl, Sophie Dening, E Jane Dickson, Helen Fielding, Giles Foden, Laura Fowler, Michelle Jana Chan, Jeremy King, Emma Love, Lee Marshall, Kate Maxwell, Thomasina Miers, Reggie Nadelson, Harriet O’Brien, Timothy O’Grady, Tom Parker Bowles, Harry Pearson, Adriaane Pielou (Health & Spa), Antonia Quirke, Paul Richardson, Anthony Sattin, Nicholas Shakespeare, Sally Shalam, Stanley Stewart CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS James Bedford, Mirjam Bleeker, David Crookes, Squire Fox, Alice Gao, Philip Lee Harvey, Ken Kochey, David Loftus, Martin Morrell, Tom Parker, Michael Paul, Bill Phelps, Richard Phibbs, Oliver Pilcher, Kristian Schuller, Alistair Taylor-Young, Jenny Zarins DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL ADMINISTRATION AND RIGHTS Harriet Wilson EDITORIAL BUSINESS MANAGER Emma De Clercq SYNDICATION syndication@condenast.co.uk INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR Nicky Eaton DEPUTY PUBLICITY DIRECTOR Harriet Robertson PUBLICITY MANAGER Richard Pickard
PUBLISHING DIRECTOR
SIMON LEADSFORD
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Juliette Ottley NEW BUSINESS DIRECTOR Kirsty Cocker PROMOTIONS DIRECTOR Amy Hearn ADVERTISEMENT MANAGER Elizabeth Isaac SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER Serena Chambers ACCOUNT MANAGER Isabella Eckett DIGITAL ACCOUNT MANAGER Natalie Moss-Blundell SALES EXECUTIVE Kieran Coyne PROMOTIONS ACCOUNT MANAGER Natasha Callin PROMOTIONS ART DIRECTOR Pepita Fernandez ART EDITOR Michael Thomson PRODUCER Sophie Tye SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER Laura Archer REGIONAL SALES DIRECTOR Karen Allgood (020 7152 3276) REGIONAL ACCOUNT DIRECTOR Heather Mitchell PARIS OFFICE Helena Kawalec (00 33 1 44 11 78 80) ITALIAN OFFICE Valentina Donini (00 39 02 805 1422) ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER US Shannon Tolar Tchkotoua (00 1 212 630 4913) ASIA OFFICE Karen Ko (00 852 2905 3228); Mimi Tsi (00 852 2905 3233) INDIAN OFFICE Marzban Patel (00 91 22 2287 5717) MIDDLE EASTERN OFFICE Ali Asgar Mir (00 97 143 913360) FLORIDA AND CARIBBEAN OFFICE Maria Coyne (00 1 305 756 1086) GREEK OFFICE DK Associates (00 30 694 251 9199) CLASSIFIED DIRECTOR Shelagh Crofts CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENT MANAGER Emma Alessi SENIOR CLASSIFIED SALES EXECUTIVE Georgia Davies MARKETING DIRECTOR Jean Faulkner DEPUTY MARKETING AND RESEARCH DIRECTOR Gary Read ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, DIGITAL MARKETING Susie Brown SENIOR MARKETING EXECUTIVE Ella Simpson RESEARCH MANAGER Tim Dickinson SENIOR DATA MANAGER Tim Westcott CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Richard Kingerlee NEWSTRADE MARKETING EXECUTIVE Olivia Streatfield SUBSCRIPTIONS DIRECTOR Patrick Foilleret ASSISTANT MARKETING AND PROMOTIONS MANAGER Claudia Long CREATIVE DESIGN MANAGER Anthea Denning PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Sarah Jenson COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION MANAGER Xenia Dilnot PRODUCTION CONTROLLER Dawn Crosby PRODUCTION CO-ORDINATOR Katie McGuinness COMMERCIAL AND PAPER PRODUCTION CONTROLLER Martin MacMillan COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION CO-ORDINATOR Jessica Beeby CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER Simon Gresham Jones DIGITAL COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR Malcolm Attwells DIGITAL OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Helen Placito Copyright © The Condé Nast Publications Ltd, Vogue House, 1 Hanover Square, London W1S 1JU. Printed in the UK by Wyndeham Roche. Colour origination by williamsleatag. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is strictly prohibited. The titles Condé Nast Traveller and TRUTH IN TRAVEL are registered at the US Patent Office and in the EU as trademarks. All prices correct at the time of going to press but subject to change. The mail-order protection scheme does not cover items featured editorially. The paper used for this publication is based on renewable wood fibre. The wood these fibres are derived from is sourced from sustainably managed forests and controlled sources. The producing mills are EMAS registered and operate according to highest environmental and health and safety standards. This magazine is fully recyclable - please log on to www.recyclenow.com for your local recycling options for paper and board.
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MANAGING DIRECTOR ALBERT READ CHAIRMAN NICHOLAS COLERIDGE DIRECTORS Nicholas Coleridge, Jean Faulkner, Shelagh Crofts, Albert Read, Penny Scott-Bayfield, Sabine Vandenbroucke, Simon Gresham Jones, Dylan Jones CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE, CONDÉ NAST INTERNATIONAL JONATHAN NEWHOUSE Condé Nast Traveller is a member of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (which regulates the UK’s magazine and newspaper industry). We abide by the Editors’ Code of Practice (www.ipso.co.uk/ editors-code-of-practice) and are committed to upholding the highest standards of journalism. If you think that we have not met those standards and want to make a complaint please see our Editorial Complaints Policy on the Contact Us page of our website or contact us at complaints@condenast.co.uk or by post to Complaints, Editorial Business Department, The Condé Nast Publications Ltd, Vogue House, Hanover Square, London W1S 1JU. If we are unable to resolve your complaint, or if you would like more information about IPSO or the Editors’ Code, contact IPSO on 0300 123 2220 or visit www.ipso.co.uk CONDÉ NAST TRAVELLER IS PUBLISHED BY CONDÉ NAST PUBLICATIONS LTD, Vogue House, 1 Hanover Square, London W1S 1JU (020 7499 9080; email: cntraveller@condenast.co.uk)
ANYTHING ELSE IS JUST A HOLIDAY
Each of our beautiful catered villas in Mallorca and the south of France come with their own pool and experienced Scott Dunn staff. Your private chef will prepare mouth-watering menus, with the ingredients sourced from local markets. A nanny can tailor activities to your children’s individual needs to ensure they have the most wonderful time; and your villa host will take care of everything from bringing you fresh sorbets by the pool, to advising you on the local highlights. There really is nothing left for you to do‌ except relax and enjoy the sunshine.
La Samantina, Mallorca
For more information about our villas, please call 0203 130 6908 or visit scottdunn.com/villas
VIVA LA VILLA
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WORD OF MOUTH
ALL THAT’S NEW AND GROUND-BREAKING IN TRAVEL EDITED BY FIONA KERR
WEAVE HELLO THE SOUTH-EAST-ASIAN ISLANDS ON OUR RADAR THIS YEAR
PHOTOGRAPH: NIKOLE RAMSAY
Where to go when acai bowls in Canggu or Ubud’s bamboo co-working spaces become too much? The answer is to get off -grid in the Gilis, a cluster of tiny sand splashes off neighbouring Lombok. The biggest of the trio, party-happy Gili Trawangan is smartening up fast with places to stay including villas hidden among coconut groves at Pondok Santi. The quietest and tiniest, Gili Meno, is home to Crusoe House (pictured), a four-bedroom fantasy of vintage rattan furniture and French linens. Gili Air mixes the best of both with deserted beaches, foodie hotspots (try vegan Pachamama or sunset hangout Mowies) and wooden-hut hideouts such as Manusia Dunia Green Lodge. But those ahead of the curve are charting a course for the even more off-the-map ‘secret Gilis’ further south-west, to stay at Gili Asahan Eco Lodge and feast on spaghetti al polpo on the beach. ANNA CHITTENDEN ‘Lost Guides – Bali & Islands’ by Anna Chittenden is out this month
April 2018 Condé Nast Traveller 15
WORD OF MOUTH
JOANNA PAYNE, LEFT, FOUNDER OF MARGUERITE, WHICH HOSTS EVENTS WITH THE LIKES OF ARTIST ANNIE MORRIS, RIGHT, AND THE CRANFORD COLLECTION, ABOVE
PHOEBE LOVATT OF THE WW CLUB
The Future Is Female
PHOTOGRAPHS: FABIEN MONTIQUE; DUNJA OPALKO; HOLLY WHITTAKER
GUTSY ALL-GIRL GANGS ARE NOW CHANGING THE WAY WOMEN CONNECT, WORK AND TRAVEL
LONDON GIRLS SURF CLUB OUT IN OPEN SEAS
There are few more reliable barometers of a society than our travel aspirations. And the backlash to the shape-shifting political landscape of the past two years has been thrillingly fast, fierce and female. All-women societies, clubhouses, retreats and trips are on the rise, and none of these new-generation collectives have the faintest whiff of WI marmalade about them. This summer sees the launch of SuperShe Island in Finland, a physical extension of the SuperShe networking group, with a core circle of 100 women selected by founder Kristina Roth. ‘Our goal is to create a space where women can come together to care for themselves through fitness, nutrition and nurturing creativity,’ says Roth. Guests at the 10 cabins on this eight-acre island in the Baltic Sea can get involved with mindful courses such as yoga and meditation plus workshops. Meanwhile, the London Girls Surf Club, set up by creative director and fashion editor Kylie Griffiths, is shaking up the world of adventure travel. The LGSC’s aim is to make surfing accessible to landlocked ladies by hosting trips to destinations such as Croyde in Devon and Morocco’s Taghazout. The organisation also links up with charities to offer lessons to underprivileged young adults. Back in London, AllBright, an all-women alternative to tweedy gentlemen’s clubs (with founder members including actor Naomie Harris, fashion designer Mary Katrantzou and entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox), is opening a members’-club in Bloomsbury this month. The AllBright Fund backs women-led businesses, AllBright Academy is targeting the one in 10 women who say they want to start their own business, and The AllBright townhouse is a place for them to network and celebrate female talent. ‘In a female environment, women are more likely to speak up, talk about their successes and be a bit April 2018 Condé Nast Traveller 17
WORD OF MOUTH
THE WING FOUNDERS AUDREY GELMAN AND LAUREN KASSAN AND THEIR SOHO SPACE IN NYC
more open and honest about some of the challenges that they face – because frankly, it’s quite hard often being the only woman in the room,’ says AllBright co-founder Anna Jones, former CEO of Hearst magazines. But in 2018, the centenary year of women’s suffrage, do we really need organisations similar to the ones founded in cities around the globe in the 1930s? ‘The UK is still not a great place to be a woman in business,’ insists AllBright co-founder Debbie Wosskow, OBE. ‘Only one in six people in leadership positions in big corporates are women. We set up AllBright to try to change the economic landscape and provide an eco-system for us.’ Her sentiments are echoed by Joanna Payne, founder of Marguerite, a network catering specifically for women in the arts. ‘With everything that has come to light in the news over the past 18 months, with regards to Trump and the ensuing women’s marches, the #MeToo campaign and most recently, the sexual-harassment allegations in the art world, no one can deny that there is much to be gained from
women coming together to share their experiences,’ says Payne, who previously worked for Frieze Art Fair. Marguerite is currently Londonbased – organising studio visits to artist Celia Hempton’s workspace and hosting discussions with talents such as fashion designer Roksanda and Tate director Maria Balshaw – but this summer it will branch out with new events in New York. There they join The Wing, which has close to 1,200 all-female members includes writer and editor Tavi Gevinson, broadcaster Jessica Williams and transgender model Hari Nef. Founded by Audrey Gelman and Lauren Kassan, its first co-working-space-meets-clubhouse opened in New York’s Flatiron district in October 2016. Since then, they have launched other
FOUNDING MEMBERS OF THE FEMALE-ONLY CLUB INCLUDE ACTOR NAOMIE HARRIS AND FASHION DESIGNER MARY KATRANTZOU pastel-coloured hubs in SoHo and Brooklyn, with more chalked up for Washington DC and the West Coast. Also in California, Phoebe Lovatt runs The WW (Working Women) Club – an online platform full of advice and inspiration – and hosts pop-up socials. If all-female initiatives have one thing in common, it’s soul. ‘We believe that great things happen when you put women together,’ says Jones. ‘This is not about excluding men, it’s about celebrating women.’ ANNA HART
STAY TUNED
PLASTIC
Skip the third-wave coffee shop: the latest hotel lobby must-have is a radio station. Washington DC hotel The Line is one of the first to go on air.
Finally, in the office we’re toting reusable Ecoffee cups made from bamboo, while hotels groups such as Anantara and Malmaison vow to ban plastic straws.
BHUTAN
GOLDEN MILK
The kingdom of happiness gets some joyous new places to stay, with Bhutan Spirit Sanctuary opening in spring and eco-pioneer Six Senses later this year.
So long turmeric latte, hello moringa juice: the Himalayan tree is the latest superfood to slurp. Try it at The End in Williamsburg and East London Juice Co.
SPEED
HEADPHONES
Supersonic travel is back. There’s a ‘new Concorde’ in the making from a Colorado-based start-up and China is planning its own ‘flying trains’.
Ditch and replace with Google’s Pixel Buds, which have a real-time translation feature so you can talk the talk anywhere. KATHARINE SOHN
18 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
PHOTOGRAPHS: TORY WILLIAMS
What’s taking off and what’s running out of fuel
C E L E B R AT I N G
ICONIC YEARS
anassa.com
WORD OF MOUTH
DRAMA KING
‘I’ve got a passion for Oscar Wilde,’ says Jacques Garcia, sitting in what will be the lobby of the L’oscar. ‘To us French, he is a reflection of what the Victorian era was about – having a classical rigour while embodying the craziness and debauchery.’ Garcia is a master of mixing a reverence for the historical with a theatrical bohemian opulence. His Hôtel Costes loosened up the haughty Parisian hotel scene when it opened in 1995; and it’s still a red-velvet favourite. Since then Garcia has, among many other things, renovated the Palace of Versailles, revived La Mamounia in Marrakech and designed houses for the Sultan of Brunei. Earlier this year he debuted his Italy-meets-Old Hollywood vision for NoMad Los Angeles. ‘But in London I wanted it to be profoundly English,’ says Garcia. ‘When I was a teenager, I’d come to England to see the big castles, because you kept everything. In France, the beautiful houses were emptied during the Revolution. So that traditional English style, I know: the colours, the fabrics...’ Set in a former Baptist church HQ, the L’oscar, however, is Britain gilded through a French romantic’s lens: peacock feathers fan across silk screens, halls are deep purples. There are Lalique butterfly taps in bathrooms, an onyx bar that glows from the inside and a chandelier that funnels seven floors down through the original staircase, lit by hundreds of glass birds. The building has the most beautiful bones, including a soaring octagonal chapel, soon to be the restaurant. ‘I fell in love with the 19th-century architecture straight away,’ says Garcia. ‘And within minutes I knew how it would look, how to make this marvellous base sublime.’ He believes L’oscar is London’s Costes moment: small, sexy, scene-shaking. He might just be right. FIONA KERR L’oscar opens this spring. loscar.com 20 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
PHOTOGRAPHS: MATTHEW BUCK
DESIGN MAESTRO JACQUES GARCIA’S HOTEL COSTES HAS BEEN PARIS’S MOST DECADENT ADDRESS FOR MORE THAN 20 YEARS. NOW HE’S TRYING TO PULL OFF THE SAME TRICK IN LONDON WITH A BLOOMSBURY SHOW-STOPPER
WORLD‘S BEST MEDICAL SPA* The most modern medicine and diagnostics meet traditional naturopathy: The LANS Med Concept combines health, enjoyment and enduring regeneration to create a unique experience. Book your personal new start in life at the Lanserhof Tegernsee, surrounded by breathtaking nature and an 18-hole golf course. Seven nights stay in a double room including our medicinal basic package from EUR 3,932 pp.
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MAKER SHAKERS
THE FANTASY LIFESTYLE
MERRY WOODCRAFT FOLK FIRED UP ON COLD-PRESS COFFEE AND WITH A RESCUE DOG IN TOW, A THIRD WAVE OF TIMBER CARVERS AND WHITTLERS HAVE EMERGED FROM THE TREES OF AMERICA’S WEST COAST BY CHLOE SACHDEV April 2018 Condé Nast Traveller 25
Clockwise from above left: the West Coast studio of Ariele Alasko; a bowl by Alex Devol; Sophie Sellu and chopping boards; Aleksandra Zee, who works with redwood; designs by Australian artisan Erin Molloy; Katie Gong’s San Francisco studio. Previous page, Zee’s home in Oakland
MAKER SHAKERS
PHOTOGRAPHS: JENNIFER CAUSEY; MARNIE HAWSON; ANTROM KURY
Clockwise from above: Aleksandra Zee seeks inspiration in the Californian desert; an arrow cocktail stirrer by Erin Molloy; Zee’s Joshua Tree retreat; spoons by British-based Sophie Sellu; interior details at Zee’s home in Oakland; English woodcarver Alex Devol in his Lancashire studio
Woodwork used to be rooted in stereotypes of burly, sawwielding men, hands calloused and tool-belts sagging. But now a fresh generation of artisans are carving a place for themselves in the age-old tradition, transforming wind-fallen trees and skip-found lumber into covetable pieces of functional art. It’s symptomatic of the wider nostalgia towards a simpler way of life and the cultivation of throwback skills; an analogue existence in a digital world. This millennial rural revivalism, of course, began on the USA’s West Coast and, more specifically, Portland, Oregon, where the handmade hipster was born, along with a newfound passion for knitting and sourdough baking, homebrewing and backyard beekeeping. Based in Oakland, Aleksandra Zee is inspired by the rhythms and patterns of the region. The Californian native quit her day job as a display artist at Anthropologie to become a full-time woodworker, turning trunks into chevron-patterned tables, doors and headboards that double as intricate artworks. ‘Being in Northern California, I’m surrounded by redwood,’ she says from her studio. ‘I love the fact you can manipulate it, and that it’s a lighter, soft wood. I’m constantly taken back by the beauty of the grain.’ Zee isn’t the only one who credits her love of lumber to the wildness of the West Coast. Her friend Katie Gong, who comes from a family of carpenters, has taken the craft into a playful, squiggly direction. Based in San Francisco, she’s best known for April 2018 Condé Nast Traveller 27
Clockwise from top left: a Sophie Sellu collaboration for London Craft Week; Sellu’s former studio in Bermondsey, and some of her spoon designs; a succulent in Ariele Alasko’s studio; coffee with Aleksandra Zee 28 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
her wood-knot sculptures and raw furniture designs. ‘I often drive out of the city to experience California’s different climates,’ she says. A quick scroll through her Instagram feed will lead you to a wooden hideaway in Joshua Tree, the messy waves of Big Sur and a hike through the burnt sienna of Death Valley. ‘My aesthetic is drawn from the colours that surround me. My biggest inspirations are the ocean and the desert.’ Then there’s Ariele Alasko, whose cedar-tinted lifestyle upcycling chunky cherry stumps has captivated a loyal online fan base of close to half a million. Last year, California-born Alasko moved from Brooklyn back to the West Coast with her fourlegged workmate, Mazie (a rescue mutt with her own social-media account), setting up a white-washed studio in her barn-like garage. Since then, her wooden creations have taken a wavy, experimental turn – bristly, horseshoe-shaped brushes, weird and wonky sculptures, conceptual walnut candelabras – all of which sell, for hundreds of dollars each, within minutes on her online shop. The USA’s Pacific coast, with its miles of wild shoreline and untamed acres of epic landscapes, has always bred salt-of-theearth entrepreneurs; but the attraction of this rough-hewn way of life is spreading. In Rochester, Upstate New York, Amy Grigg
PHOTOGRAPHS: JENNIFER CAUSEY; ISSY CROCKER
MAKER SHAKERS
Smile all the stay.
All our hotels are in dreamlike settings, but if we can go the extra step, rest assured that we have what it takes to surprise you, over and over again, so you’ll keep wondering what’s next?
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Clockwise from above left: Katie Gong and partner Brett Walker; butter knife by Sophie Sellu; Erin Malloy’s Victoria studio; Gong’s raw materials; Sophie Sellu in her former studio; work at Alex Devol’s studio
30 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
HOW TO SPOT THE SPECIES NEW-GEN CARPENTERS For the handmade hipster, ‘mass’-produced is a four-letter word. Find them instead dressed in functional overalls from niche denim brands and leather boots from maker friends in the Pacific Northwest. Mornings begin with meditation and ethically sourced coffee before hitting the workshop, the floors barely visible beneath pink cedar shavings. Days are spent alone – save for their rescue dog, who lives a blissfully organic, grain-free existence – chiselling and carving slabs of cracked spalted beech or Ambrosia maple into sculptural pieces of homeware, sold on Instagram to a community of followers. These creatures prefer natural habitats and bring greenery into their den at every opportunity; madly splaying cheese-plants, frothy ferns or giant cactuses make photo-perfect backdrops for their creations. Although naturally solitary, the species sometimes mates with other introspective creative types, often identified by forearm markings of Navajo patterns or birds. Other offline encounters are most likely to be at low-key spoon-whittling workshops, the finished results framed in pleasingly ombre stacks on marble countertops.
PHOTOGRAPHS: ISSY CROCKER; MARNIE HAWSON
is a self-proclaimed introvert who seeks comfort in sawdust and solitude, turning all manner of hardwoods into smooth yet intricate bowls ‘inspired by nature and its humble perfection’. Having stumbled into woodworking some years ago, Grigg now views it ‘as a practice rather than a job, career or trade’. Closer to home, Sophie Sellu traded in life as a fashion-trend forecaster to carve from her garden workshop in London. Under the name of Grain & Knot, she turns everyday items such as spoons and butter knives into textured artworks that mimic the pattern of the sea in Oman where she grew up. A similar story is that of Alex Devol, who swapped a career in menswear design to work with his hands in the north-west of England, transforming green wood into all manner of utensils and bowls that ‘mellow with age and make the otherwise mundane tasks of scooping, stirring and sipping handsome and homely’. And on the other side of the planet, in Australia’s rural Victoria, Erin Malloy escaped the graphic-design grind to carve cocktail stirrers, spoons and serving boards after inheriting her grandfather’s carpentry tools. In an age where organic, local and sustainable have become buzzwords, the therapeutically slow lifestyle of these modern makers reinventing an ancient craft has, ironically, become an enviable snapshot of 21st-century life.
GREAT DRIVE THE ROUTE
FROM WEST TO EAST AFRICA THROUGH SENEGAL, BURKINA FASO, IVORY COAST, GHANA, TOGO, BENIN AND ETHIOPIA WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY JESSICA ANTOLA
An entourage at the Ashanti king’s festival in Kumasi, Ghana
April 2018 Condé Nast Traveller 33
GREAT DRIVE
‘I love the energy, textiles, food and music of Africa. The more I travel here, the more I want to see. I started this trip in Senegal where I watched these boys dive off the bridge into the Saloum River; no two were the same.’
‘Near Abomey in Benin we a masked voodoo ceremony, which inspired both laughter and fear among the children in the crowd. Afterwards, I turned to meet the gaze of this striking young Yoruba boy (bottom
‘In the Yoruba tradition, zangbeto are the voodoo guardians of the night. Their costume resembles a haystack, like this temple in Porto-Novo, Benin, which is said to be inhabited by spirits.’
‘The markets throughout Burkina Faso are with tailors making custom clothes. I met this seamstress on her way to work. She could not believe I was interested in taking her portrait during her ordinary commute.’
‘People are my favourite My eye is drawn to individuals with a unique look – whether they are Accra urbanites or villagers, such as these in Togo, mixing tribal traditions with Western culture.’
‘Not all the action happened along the road - this picture of girls on Lake Nokoué in Benin is one of my favourites. There is a surreal quality to their wooden boat with the wax patchwork sail and oversized straw hat.’
‘Sometimes I photographed through a moving car window, like this shot (bottom in Mek’ele, on my leg in Ethiopia. I love the element of surprise: not knowing if the image will come out or only live in my memory.’
‘On the drive from Arba Minch, Ethiopia, these Bena boys ran from watching their livestock and sprang onto stilts in the middle of the road – our Omo Valley welcoming committee.’ Circadian Landscape by Jessica Antola is published on 26 March (Damiani, £29)
April 2018 Condé Nast Traveller 35
SNAPSHOT
Blue & white
PHOTOGRAPHS: MARK AVELLINO/GETTY IMAGES; NICOLE FRANZEN; CHRISTINA GREVE; GIO GUTIERREZ/ANDREA NUNEZ; MIKAEL KENNEDY; ANDREW MONTGOMERY; FRANCISCO NOGUEIR; TOM PARKER; ROMAIN RICARD; KARA ROSENLUND; BEN SAGE; JACOB TERMANSEN
THE CLASSIC HOLIDAY PALETTE FOR A SUNSHINE STATE OF MIND Top row, from left: designer Jasper Conran brings brightness to a typically boho riad, with crisp-white walls and denim-blue cushions at L’Hôtel Marrakech; the azure Portuguese sky is put in the frame by this outdoor day-bed at restored farmhouse Casa Azimute in Estremoz, Portugal; the Mumbai outpost of jewellery boutique Gem Palace resembles a maharajah’s home, the walls inlaid with floral miniatures in arched niches; Pacific blues channel a Malibu beach-shack feel at Pizza Beach in Manhattan’s Lower East Side; nautical Hamptons meets Riviera chic at Halcyon House near Australia’s Gold Coast, where bathrooms are furnished with gilt mirrors and handmade tiles. Middle row, from left: in San Antonio, Texas, a former 19th-century brewhouse has been transformed into a hotel named after prohibition pioneer Emma Koehler, who ran the place before its current incarnation; French designer Philippe Starck has created an ode to the ocean at José Andrés’ Bazaar Mar restaurant in Miami; beach-goers gather under the snow-white voiles at Melian Boutique Hotel & Spa on the Greek island of Milos; at Anvil Hotel in Jackson, Wyoming, Studio Tack has updated the Western look with wrought-iron bed frames and two-tone wainscot walls; interior designer Dorothée Meilichzon brings a nouveau-retro mood to Hotel Panache’s restaurant in Paris. Bottom row, from left: a sleek marble counter fronts the open kitchen at Bar Douro in London’s Flat Iron Square; close to Venice’s Rialto Bridge, Hotel Ai Reali glorifies rococo style with gold-trimmed velvet headboards and ornate wallpaper; the baroque Igreja do Carmo in Porto showcases tin-glazed ceramic tiles on the church’s exterior; once the private residence of Roland Bonaparte, great-nephew of Emperor Napoleon I, the Shangri-La Hotel in Paris recalls its still-grand lifestyle with periwinkle swags and dazzling chandeliers; set high up in the hills of Lisbon, Palácio Belmonte is covered in more than 3,800 original 18th-century azulejo tiles. KATHARINE SOHN April 2018 Condé Nast Traveller 37
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38 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
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10 NIGHTS FROM £2,199 PP
BEST TRIPS for 2018
THE BEST of northern vietnam: BEACH AND CITY FROM THE GLORIOUS WHITE-SAND BEACHES OF PHU QUOC ISLAND TO THE TREE-LINED BOULEVARDS OF COLONIAL-ERA HANOI Start the holiday at Fusion Phu Quoc, pictured: a bright hideaway on the coast of Vietnam’s Phu Quoc island, where all villas have their own swimming pool and tropical garden. During the eight nights here, zone out at the Maia spa, where two complimentary treatments are provided each day, including homemade scrubs and massages using oils distilled from locally grown ingredients. There’s also a steam room and sauna, and a programme of yoga, t’ai chi and meditation classes. The final two nights are spent at Essence Hanoi, a brilliantly located bolthole in the city’s lively historic quarter. Explore its colourful stalls and alleys, take a tour of the Hoa Lu temples, then refuel at the hotel’s restaurant with delicious dishes such as sautéed shrimp with tamarind fish sauce. This is a brilliant chance to experience some of Vietnam’s most exciting locations.
EXCLUSIVES INCLUDED IN THIS CONDÉ NAST TRAVELLER TRIP
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X A private guided tour of the ancient capital of Hoa Lu and its temples, plus the nearby limestone caves X A massage at the Essencia spa at the Essence Hanoi hotel X Optional extra: sail around the limestone rocks and tiny islets of beautiful Halong Bay (£145 supplement pp) ALL TRIPS CAN BE TAILOR-MADE TO ADD IN EXTRA NIGHTS OR EXPERIENCES ALONG THE WAY
BOOK IT
This 10-night trip to Vietnam costs from £2,199 per person based on two sharing, including accommodation and breakfast, all flights and transfers, a choice of two spa treatments per day, yoga and t’ai chi classes at Fusion Phu Quoc and a private tour of Hanoi.
CALL +44 20 3733 0035 OR VISIT TRAVELLER.UK/VIETNAM
FOR FULL DETAILS AND TERMS AND CONDITIONS
OUR PARTNER CLEVELAND COLLECTION This trip has been especially created by Condé Nast Traveller with Cleveland Collection, an operator with more than 30 years’ experience of crafting brilliant travel itineraries and tailor-made trips to Asia.
DAY 2 EXCLUSIVE INCLUDED A PRIVATE GUIDED WALKING TOUR OF LISBON FROM THE MEMMO ALFAMA
5 NIGHTS FROM £1,295 PP
DAY 4 EXCLUSIVE INCLUDED A PRIVATE GUIDED TOUR OF HISTORIC COIMBRA
DAY 5 EXCLUSIVE INCLUDED 20% OFF SPA TREATMENTS AT THE YEATMAN HOTEL, PORTO
DAY 5 EXCLUSIVE INCLUDED A TASTING SESSION OF THE LOCAL PORT IN PORTO
BEST TRIPS for 2018 PO
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the best PORTUGuese CITY BREAK: LISBON & PORTO GET UNDER THE SKIN OF PORTUGAL’S FAVOURITE TWO CITIES WITH THIS ZIPPY TWIN-STOP HOLIDAY EXCLUSIVES INCLUDED IN THIS CONDÉ NAST TRAVELLER TRIP X Complimentary cocktail at Memmo Alfama in Lisbon X Half-day guided walking tour of Lisbon’s bohemian Bairro Alto district, with its independent ateliers, local restaurants and late-night bars X Private guided tour of the city of Coimbra, seat of Portugal’s oldest university, with its historic cathedral cloister and library X Welcome drink at Dick’s Bar at The Yeatman hotel in Porto X 20% off treatments in the Caudalie Vinothérapie Spa at The Yeatman, which include a Merlot Wrap and a Crushed Cabernet Scrub X Port tasting at the famous Taylor’s wine lodge X Guided tour of Porto’s most striking landmarks including the 19th-century Stock Exchange
ALL TRIPS CAN BE TAILOR-MADE TO ADD IN EXTRA NIGHTS OR EXPERIENCES ALONG THE WAY
BOOK IT This five-night trip to Portugal costs from £1,295 per person based on two sharing, including accommodation and breakfast throughout, flights and luxury transfers, private guided tours and all scheduled activities and exclusives.
CALL +44 1242 854608 OR VISIT TRAVELLER.UK/PORTUGAL FOR FULL DETAILS AND TERMS AND CONDITIONS OUR PARTNER ABERCROMBIE & KENT
This trip has been created especially by Condé Nast Traveller with Abercrombie & Kent, a leader when it comes to organising supremely well-thought-out, luxury tailormade trips with detailed itineraries designed to get the inside track on every location.
40 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
PHOTOGRAPHS: SIVAN ASKAYO; JOHN MICHAELS/ALAMY; CHRISTIAN SCHAULIN
In recent years, Lisbon has become one of Europe’s most talked-about and exciting cities, full of original cultural projects and creative restaurant openings. Bed down for three nights at the smart Memmo Alfama hotel, just around the corner from the cathedral and São Jorge castle in the atmospheric Bairro Alto district, with poolside views over the River Tagus. Outside, the narrow cobbled streets are lined with independent shops and fado houses. From here, explore the ruins of the Convento do Carmo, hop on a yellow tram, tuck into street food at the Mercato Ribeira and relax in Parque das Nações. Next, journey north with a private driver, via Coimbra, to round off the trip with two nights in Porto. Stay at the hillside Yeatman, which has a vast wine cellar and a Caudalie Vinothérapie Spa. There’s plenty to explore, from the pretty Cais de Ribeira quayside on the River Douro to day trips to nearby Miramar beach.
DAY 7 EXCLUSIVE INCLUDED A HORSEBACK TOUR OF THE COUNTRYSIDE AROUND THE TIERRA PATAGONIA HOTEL & SPA
DAY 6 EXCLUSIVE INCLUDED A FULL-DAY PRIVATE GUIDED TOUR OF THE TORRES DEL PAINE NATIONAL PARK TO SEE GLACIAL LAKES AND WILDLIFE
11 NIGHTS FROM £5,595 PP
BEST TRIPS for 2018 P
the best of PATAGONIA: CHILE & ARGENTINA FROM SKYSCRAPING NATURAL WILDERNESS TO SOUTH AMERICA’S HIPPEST CAPITAL CITIES DAY 1
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DAY 9 EXCLUSIVE INCLUDED A BOAT TRIP TO THE PERITO MORENO GLACIER FROM ESPLENDOR EL CALAFATE
Depart London Heathrow on the direct British Airways flight to Santiago.
DAY 2-4 Check in to Luciano K, an Art Deco hotel in Santiago’s Bellavista district. Explore the city then visit the Undurraga winery in the Maipo Valley and Valparaíso, an old port city with its brightly painted houses and street art.
DAY 5-7 Fly south to Punta Arenas and drive through the Patagonian wilderness to spend three nights at Tierra Patagonia Hotel & Spa. Explore Torres del Paine national park, from the Salto Grande waterfall to the Grey Glacier.
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Fly back on a direct overnight British Airways flight to London Heathrow.
‘THIS LANDSCAPE IS ON A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SCALE: WALK FOR HOURS AND YOU SEEMINGLY GET NO CLOSER TO THE MOUNTAINS AHEAD. IT MAKES YOU FEEL VERY SMALL BUT VERY THRILLED’ MELINDA STEVENS, CONDÉ NAST TRAVELLER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Cross the border to El Calafate in Argentina and stay at Esplendor El Calafate, the ideal base for a boat trip to the Perito Moreno Glacier. Fly to Buenos Aires for three nights at Legado Mitico in the artsy Palermo neighbourhood and explore the city, including colourful La Boca.
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DAY 11 EXCLUSIVE INCLUDED A PRIVATE GUIDED WALKING TOUR OF BUENOS AIRES' LA BOCA NEIGHBOURHOOD, FROM THE LEGADO MITICO HOTEL
ALL TRIPS CAN BE TAILOR-MADE e.g. ADD IN COLONIA, URUGUAY
BOOK IT This 11-night trip to Chile and Argentina costs from £5,595 per person based on two sharing, including accommodation, breakfast throughout, selected lunches and dinners, guided sight-seeing, flights and private transfers.
CALL +44 20 3811 6965 OR VISIT TRAVELLER.UK/PATAGONIA FOR FULL DETAILS AND TERMS AND CONDITIONS
OUR PARTNER COX & KINGS This trip has been created especially for Condé Nast Traveller with Cox & Kings, an operator renowned for its knowledge of Latin America, thanks to its regional specialists, an excellent on-the-ground team and access to the top guides.
DAY 12 OPTIONAL ADD-ON AN EXCURSION TO THE WORLD-HERITAGE SITE OF COLONIA, URUGUAY, JUST ACROSS THE RIO DE LA PLATA
PLUS THREE OTHER AMAZING ADVENTURES the best of RAJASTHAN
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A GRAND TOUR OF THIS MOST ROYAL REGION Explore north India staying in five of our favourite hotels, taking in the pink city of Jaipur, the famous step wells, a Raj-era hunting lodge in the Aravalli foothills, the spice markets of Jodhpur and a big-cat safari in leopard country.
BOOK IT This 12-night trip to Rajasthan costs from £4,695 per person based on two sharing, including stays at five hotels with breakfast at each, selected lunches and dinners, three spa treatments, all flights, private transfers, all scheduled activities and exclusives.
CALL +44 20 8712 9337 OR VISIT TRAVELLER.UK/RAJASTHAN FOR FULL DETAILS AND TERMS AND CONDITIONS
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Take in some of the highest peaks in North Africa, the dramatic landscapes of the Agafay Desert and the imperial cities of Fez and Marrakech, which can now be linked with a direct internal flight as opposed to a seven-hour drive.
SAVE £500 PP
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FROM THE HUBBUB OF FEZ AND MARRAKECH TO WILD DUNES AND THE HIGH ATLAS MOUNTAINS
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This eight-night trip to Morocco costs from £2,950 per person based on two sharing, including accommodation and breakfast, dinner at Scarabeo Camp, plus lunches in the mountains, all flights and transfers, all scheduled activities and exclusives.
CALL +44 20 3733 5978 OR VISIT TRAVELLER.UK/MOROCCO
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the best SOUTH AFRICAn ROAD TRIP A BRILLIANT ALTERNATIVE TO A CLASSIC ROUTE Hit Cape Town’s beaches, restaurants and thriving art scene, then drive to the fishing village of Paternoster. Loop round through Riebeek Valley and down to Robertson wine country for a fresh departure from the Franschhoek crowds.
BOOK IT
This 10-night trip to South Africa costs from £2,345 per person based on two sharing, travelling between May–August 2018, including accommodation, breakfast, all scheduled activities, flights and car hire.
CALL +44 20 8003 7962 OR VISIT TRAVELLER.UK/SOUTHAFRICA FOR FULL DETAILS AND TERMS AND CONDITIONS
42 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
PHOTOGRAPHS: CROOKES & JACKSON; MARTIN MORRELL; JENNY ZARINS
FOR FULL DETAILS AND TERMS AND CONDITIONS
WHERE TO STAY INSIDER REPORTS ON THE BEST PLACES TO CHECK IN EDITED BY ISSY VON SIMSON
FOUR HIDEAWAYS
MALLORCA ON THE MOST SMARTLY OLD-SCHOOL ISLAND IN THE MEDITERRANEAN, A CLUTCH OF BRIGHT NEW ARRIVALS ARE SETTLING IN AMONG THE CLASSICS
PHOTOGRAPH: ROXY KAVOUSI-WALKER
BY ROXY KAVOUSI-WALKER
April 2018 Condé Nast Traveller 45
WHERE TO STAY
THE GRANDE DAME
BELMOND LA RESIDENCIA, DEIA Here is a hotel every bit as beautiful as it first looks. One that it would be utterly remiss of you not to visit at some point in your life. The dramatic route around thrilling hairpin bends, past sheer drops and narrow gorges, is worth enduring to get to turbo-chic Deià on Mallorca’s west coast. The English poet Robert Graves first drew everyone’s attention to the village when he moved here in 1929. Then, in 1987 Richard Branson bought La Residencia and transformed it into one of the most romantic hotels in the Mediterranean. The vastness of the property, now owned by Belmond, is stealth-like, a warren of centuries-old buildings hidden among the foothills of the Serra de Tramuntana. Despite the 71 bedrooms (including, this year, six bright new suites), an art gallery, two artists’ studios, four restaurants, two outdoor pools, tennis courts, a kids’ club, and mountain trails, there is a pervading sense of space and wonderful privacy. All rooms have terraces looking out to the green-shuttered, ochre town and glittering sea, some have their own plunge pool – ideal in this sun-trap of a valley. Inside, they are big and cool with splashes of citrus shades, marshmallow-soft beds, and safes concealed behind works of art (the hotel has more than 800, of which 33 are original Mirós). The brilliant bistro sends out tapas of jamón ibérico and chorizo cooked in cider, or there’s candlelit El Olivo, where the tasting menu is a hearty and lengthy love letter to Mallorcan gastronomy: freshly caught prawns baked on a bed of salt for just three minutes; suckling pig with a sage-and-sobrasada sauce; Sóller-orange ice cream. Each day there’s a soul-brightening boat trip along the coast, where you can play David Attenborough spotting Eleonora’s falcons and snorkel among schools of silvery fish. But the most popular pastime here is taking in that dreamy view. +34 971 639 011; belmond.com. Doubles from about £360
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1902 TOWNHOUSE, SOLLER
FROM £130
There’s a big difference between hotels created for big business and those created as a labour of love. After first reading about Sóller in Condé Nast Traveller and then visiting the hilltop town over the years, British expats Pete Holman (who worked in private banking) and Martin Grant (a creative director) became completely enamoured of the place. They left behind their London lifestyles to open this delightfully sophisticated townhouse in among the traditional streets. Original details, including the retro patterned tiles, stained-glass windows and stuccoed ceilings, have been beautifully restored, while contemporary touches have been added with a deft hand: Scandi-slick woven chairs and statement light fittings sourced from Mallorcan craftsmen. Quirky wicker animal heads picked up from the local market keep watch along the corridors, and the moodily painted living room has a wood burner for cool nights. Six spacious rooms are spread across the top two floors, decked out with olive-green throws and graphic prints. Some have four-posters, all have soaring views of the craggy Tramuntana mountains. And the extra details are fantastically thoughtful: small and large dressing robes, a stool by the free-standing bathtub to place your book and glass of wine, and the most reasonable minibar you’ll ever come across (a beer for €1 anyone?). There is no dinner (book in at Casa Alvaro for top-notch tapas), but there is a three-course breakfast, best taken on the lavender-scented terrace beside the saltwater pool. After devouring the homemade granola, courgette-and-ham tortilla, and fluffy lemonricotta pancakes, you’re set up to explore Sóller, where a chilli-red tram rumbles through a pretty square of Gaudí-esque architecture. +34 658 855 583; hotel1902soller.com. Doubles from about £130
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BOUTIQUE HOTEL SANT JAUME, PALMA Set between two rather grand ecclesiastical neighbours, a church of the same name on one side and the convent of Santa Magdalena on the other, the façade of Sant Jaume is easy to miss. The crumbling 18th-century mansion was fresh to the Palma scene last summer after it was re-imagined as a sleek, modern space. In the towering light-filled atrium a blue-and-white installation by Spanish artist Robert Ferrer i Martorell tumbles down into the lobby from the glass roof on the fourth floor. A rotating exhibition of local modern artwork hangs in the bar, where brass pineapples sit atop the geometric, polished-steel counter and house-infused spirits line the shelves (try the smooth pear-and-walnut Old Fashioned). Bedrooms have Juliet balconies and are minimalist in style: a soothing palette of moss green, chestnut brown and stony beige with pops of copper and gold. Up on the jasmine-scented rooftop there’s a plunge pool to dip into after a day spent shopping in the nearby boutiques of Passeig des Born and exploring the terraces of La Seu cathedral (its Gothic spires can be seen from the sunbeds). The best thing, though, is Tomeu Restaurant amb Arrels, headed by Tomeu Caldentey, who’s also behind Bou in Sa Coma, the first place on the island to be awarded a Michelin star. Caldentey puts on a tongue-tingling show with his affordable five- and eight-course menus, in which Balearic produce is taken on a French ride: smoky-spicy sobrasada blow-torched in front of you for a sticky, caramelised finish; langoustines flambéed in a traditional herbal liqueur; and citrus-spiked, Menorcan-gin sorbet is churned in a wooden barrel on the table with clouds of liquid nitrogen. The list of Mallorcan wines is so good you could pick up a habit – be sure to try at least one bottle. +34 871 575 525; boutiquehotel santjaume.com. Doubles from about £140 April 2018 Condé Nast Traveller 47
FROM £140
WHERE TO STAY
CAL REIET, SANTANYI
FROM £195
When thinking of a healthy hideout, what often springs to mind are punitive classes, measly meals and regimented schedules. Great news, then, that there is nothing of the sort at Petra and Henning Bensland’s agriturismo in the south-east corner of Mallorca, near the stellar beaches of family-friendly Es Trenc with its long stretches of powdery sand and shallow seas, and the sheltered cove at Cala Llombards. The place is something of a first for the island: a holistic hybrid, part deeply pretty hotel, part spa escape and part standalone wellness hotspot with brilliant yoga, excellent therapists and impressive treatments (craniosacral work, osteopathy, singing bowls, reiki and Ayurvedic abhyanga, as well as massages and facials). Big hitters such as fitness-focused Equilibrium run retreats throughout the year as part of a schedule that includes transformational vinyasa and yin-yoga weeks, meditation sessions, and even business-strategy gatherings. But wellness doesn’t have to be on the agenda if you don’t want it to be. Cal Reiet’s ethos is all about feeling good. And if that means lazing by the huge pool, flanked by shady sentinel palms and flowering bougainvillaea, that’s fine too. The three-storey house itself is a calming haven; originally built as a family home in 1881, it still retains a cosy bohemian atmosphere. The sitting room, stuffed with curios, banana-leaf plants, a grand piano and squishy sofas on which resident cats stretch into convincing yoga positions, opens up to the gardens: orchards of olives, figs and almond trees, lush-green secret corners to steal away to for moments of mindfulness, and a terrace that is lit up with candles and flaming torches at night. The 15 bedrooms are neutral and completely relaxing; no TVs to distract you, just the buzz of cicadas and whoosh of wind through tall trees. Doubles from about £195. calreiet.com 48 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
PHOTOGRAPHS: PAR OLSSON; STELLA ROTGER. STYLED BY GEMMA BERRENGUER
THE WELLNESS WONDER
WHERE TO STAY
THE WEEKENDER
THE SWAN, SOUTHWOLD, SUFFOLK WHY COME HERE?
PHOTOGRAPH: JAMES BEDFORD
Right in the centre of pretty, seaside Southwold, The Swan has been an affable gathering point for centuries. Now, after a dramatic facelift, it’s open for business again, for artisan-coffeeclutching weekend walks along the wind-whipped sandy beach, dips in the bracing North Sea, jaunts to the madcap pier arcade and pints from Suffolk’s most accomplished beer-maker.
April 2018 Condé Nast Traveller 51
WHERE TO STAY
WHAT IS IT? A 17th-century coaching house and one of three pubs in Southwold run by Adnams brewery. Shoreditch-based design studio Project Orange is responsible for its thrusting new look, which mixes oil paintings and collectibles – spot Churchill’s signature on a framed page from the visitors’ book in 1940 – with perfectly plumped sofas, interesting geometric wallpapers and a riotous colour palette. Downstairs are two restaurants: The Tap Room, at the back, has the feel of a smart pub; the more grown-up, street-facing Still Room has a copper bar that acknowledges the inn’s brewing past and present. There’s also an elegant drawing room with a crackling fire for day-long paper-reading.
BEHIND THE SCENES Manager Lyndon Barrett-Scott is fresh from launching the King Street Townhouse in Manchester. Head chef Ross Bott, who learnt his trade under the famous Pierre Koffmann at La Tante Claire, and most recently helped open Atul Kochhar’s Hawkyns in Amersham, runs the kitchen. There’s also a sprightly pair of butlers to take bags to rooms or whip up a cocktail while you check in.
SLEEP The 24 bedrooms in the main house include six very big suites with separate living 52 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
areas, wood panelling and lovely marketplace views. Another 11 rooms are arranged around the lawn behind, and look across to the lighthouse. Most have four-posters with hot-pink-painted spindles, along with beautiful recycled wool blankets, starry-tiled or tongue-and-groove-chic bathrooms, and mini bars stocked with Adnams goodies, including an on-the-house bottle of Copper House gin. EAT Start your day in the brasserie-style Still Room with smoked haddock, soft poached egg and mustard béarnaise and end it with cod, chips, pea, and scraps, and beef tartare with mushroom and a raw hen’s egg. Everything can be served as a small or a large plate. In the Tap Room it’s oysters, brioche-bunned burgers and sharing platters of local marsh-pig charcuterie. At both, the drinks menu showcases what Adnams does best – from its Ghost Ship pale ale to its Mendoza Malbec.
WHO COMES HERE? Locals and out-oftowners alike. The refurb may have shocked a few regulars but it’s still busy every night. WE LIKE How cosily inviting it feels on a windswept day and how welcome children are: staff make an effort to learn their names and there are scooters, buckets and crabbing lines to borrow. WE DON’T LIKE You can’t enter the Tap Room with your dog any more, a policy that seems rather out of place in Southwold.
CONTACT Doubles from £200 (+44 1502 722186; theswansouthwold.co.uk). FRANCESCA SYZ
OUT AND ABOUT It’s fun to do a 90-minute tour of Adnams brewery or the gin distillery, both of which leave from the courtyard right behind The Swan and end with a tasting. You can also sign up for a four-hour ‘make your own gin’ masterclass. And it’s just a short walk to the pier, with its vintage arcade games and water-powered clock. The Swan can arrange picnic hampers loaded with smoked-salmon sandwiches, scones and the makings of icy G&Ts, and blustery boat rides around the bay with local outfit Coastal Voyager. For crabbing, stroll up to the harbour; from here, you can catch the Walberswick Ferry (actually a rowing boat) for a pint at The Bell Inn.
PHOTOGRAPHS: ALI ALLEN; JAMES BEDFORD
WHY NOW? Closed for most of last year, The Swan, which was lovely but a little worn, has emerged brighter and bolder. The owners call it a ‘once in a generation’ transformation. And it is certainly unrecognisable – not quite Firmdale-on-sea, but not far off. After a sprinkling of broadsheet reviews, we think it deserves more of a shout out.
CONDÉ NAST TRAVELLER READERS’ TRAVEl AWARDS 2018 VOTE ONLINE NOW
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PHOTOGRAPH: ELIZAVETA PORODINA
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STYLE FILE
FASHION-FORWARD NOTES FOR ALL SEASONS
EDITED BY FIONA JOSEPH
PHOTOGRAPHS: JOSEF BEYER; JULIAN CAPMIEL
TAKE IT AWAY Click your heels together three times and say, ‘There’s no place like home.’ Or in this case, perhaps, there’s no place like St Barth’s. Or Capri. Not home, though. It’s the last place you’d want to be in these sensational sandals. You’d want to wear them out, where they can be seen. Which is something to say for Russell & Bromley. Since 1873, it has been knocking out solid, dependable brogues and boots; the sort that would see you right for rambles in Rutland. And then, without fuss or fanfare, it slyly emerged as the most covetable high-street shoemaker. A process which culminated in these, our sandals of the season. They’re Judy Garland meets Powell and Pressburger meets Iris Apfel. And this summer we’re going to wear them everywhere we go, clicking our heels together and hoping not for home, but for adventures. Sliders crafted in Naples, £325, Russell & Bromley (russellandbromley.co.uk)
April 2018 Condé Nast Traveller 57
HOLIDAY LABEL TO LOVE HAIGHT What led you to launch your brand? ‘I’ve always been in love with the beach. I like different styles of swimwear rather than the typical, barely-there cuts I see on our beaches in Rio de Janeiro. I used to buy vintage pieces in thrift stores or make my own. At first it was just for me and my friends, but it spiralled and I had boutiques stocking them in Leblon and Botafogo neighbourhoods before the collection
was ready to launch. I have Carioca women in mind when designing new pieces. With Haight I’m hoping to create a fresh direction in swimwear with styles that can be worn on and off the beach. My brand has a minimalistic aesthetic but aims to work harder for your wardrobe.’
Which Brazilian labels do you love? ‘I buy from many young designers to try new things and support them. I also find interesting garments in vintage shops in Rio such as O Grito Bazar and A La Garçonne. As for clothing collections, Handred is relaxed yet fun, and Egrey is all about movement and beautiful fabrics. A Niemeyer is holiday-focused and quite sporty, whereas pieces by Cris Barros are elegant and colourful. For finishing touches to an outfit, I go for fun, chunky jewellery from Vanda Jacintho, while Escudero & Co is my go-to for leather handbags. Nannacay does playful straw accessories. In São Paulo, designer Felipe Protti at interior brand Prototyp& blends rustic furniture with modern shapes.’
Favourite haunts in Rio de Janeiro?
HAIGHT FOUNDER MARCELLA FRANKLIN
‘Zona Zen and Empório Jardim have some of the best cakes and typical Brazilian breads you’ll ever taste – don’t miss the tapioca (Brazilian
pancake). My most recent discovery is the breakfast at Hotel Gran Meliá Nacional by São Conrado beach; Oscar Niemeyer’s architecture is amazing. When I’m at the beach I always hit up BB Lanches, where a fresh juice or an açai is a delicious treat. Just five minutes from my house is Celeiro in the Leblon neighbourhood. It’s the perfect spot for healthy salads when you need a break from pão de queijo (Brazilian cheese bread). Zuka does great contemporary cooking with local ingredients. There are also some lovely flower markets around: Cadeg is a 20-minute drive from central Rio and has a huge variety of plants and flowers. In the city centre, Chácara Tropical is one of the top garden centres, plus it has a cosy restaurant and café surrounded by greenery.’
Which galleries and artists inspire you? ‘A space I often visit is Mendes Wood DM in São Paolo, which also has outposts in Brussels and New York. It showcases lots of regional Brazilian works. North of Rio is Inhotim, another favourite of mine. The open-air gallery spans 5,000 acres of botanical gardens and exhibits interactive sculptures and contemporary art. I really admire Brazillian artist Carlito Carvalhosa and his larger-than-life installations.’
PHOTOGRAPHS: GETTY IMAGES; C QUANDT/GETTY IMAGES
RIO DE JANEIRO-BASED SWIMWEAR DESIGNER MARCELLA FRANKLIN CREATES MODERN, SCULPTURAL TAKES ON THE BIKINI AND ONE-PIECE. HERE SHE REVEALS HER FAVOURITE PLACES
STYLE FILE
JOSEPH & ISABEL MARANT
OSCAR DE LA RENTA & LOUIS VUITTON
STELLA MCCARTNEY & BALENCIAGA SAND CLIFFS AT CANOA QUEBRADA BEACH IN CEARA, BRAZIL
FRAME DENIM & STELLA MCCARTNEY TIBI & VETEMENTS X REEBOK
BURBERRY & PRADA
TRADITIONAL JANGADA BOATS IN BRAZIL
Where are your must-visit beaches? ‘Haight has taken me to so many wonderful beaches while photographing our campaigns. The one I return to every year is Praia do Espelho in Bahia, north of Rio. Praia do Sancho on the island of Fernando de Noronha just off the north-eastern coast of Brazil is incredible. Or in Europe, if you find yourself on Mykonos, check out Agios Sostis – one of the more serene and less crowded spots on the island.’
And your top hotels around the world? ‘Two of them are in Bahia: Vila Naiá at Ponta de Corumba and Pousada do Outeiro. Both are cosy and rustic. I always feel totally relaxed after lounging in the handmade hammocks looking at the ocean view. I also love staying at JK Place Capri. The spa is amazing and the atmosphere makes me feel like I’m at home – or maybe even better than at home. Cavo Tagoo on Mykonos is a magical place and each room has its own infinity pool. The breakfast is one of the best I’ve had and there’s nothing better than drinking a cold glass of white wine while watching the sun go down and listening to music here.’ Haight swimwear is available at matchesfashion. com, which stocks exclusive styles. From £175
MAC ‘N’ SNEAKS We’re not talking about a new pasta classic here, but the less calorific style elevation of the trench-coat-and-trainers pairing. We have always relied on the trusty mac for its lightweight carry-everywhere triumph, and the ease of trainers, particularly when sprinting from check-in to the furthest gate in, let’s say, Madrid’s gargantuan airport. This season they are a sure-fire hit when worn together. A winning travel combination on every level, whether you’re late for your flight or not. Clockwise from top left: Caban cape trench, £1,710, Stella McCartney (matches fashion.com). Race Runner trainers, £455, Balenciaga (net-a-porter.com). Oversized-lapel trench, £695, Joseph (matchesfashion.com). Metallic trainers, £130, Isabel Marant (net-a-porter.com). Oversized trench, £2,335, Oscar de la Renta (modaoperandi.com). Archlight trainers, £780, Louis Vuitton (louisvuitton.com). Pink trench, £755, Tibi (matchesfashion.com). Instapump Fury trainers, £750, Vetements X Reebok (brownsfashion.com). Frosted trench, £1,295, Burberry (matchesfashion.com). Cloudbust trainers, £550, Prada (prada.com). Denim trench, £450, Frame Denim (modaoperandi.com). Eclypse trainers, £450, Stella McCartney (stellamccartney.com)
PS. Overwhelmed by the selection of kicks on offer? Design your own with Freakloset. Head to Selfridges’ new dedicated trainer hall for inspiration. Freakloset customisation from about £145. freakloset.com April 2018 Condé Nast Traveller 59
STYLE FILE
All pieces from the Promenades Impériales – Les Mondes de Chaumet collection, POA, Chaumet (chaumet.com)
Transformable necklace in white and pink gold, diamonds and padparadscha sapphires
Ring in white gold and diamonds
ICE AGE
RUSSIA AND ITS GLITTERING TERRAIN INSPIRE THE LATEST GEMS Peter Carl Fabergé wasn’t the only European jeweller who had a working relationship with Tsar Nicholas II; Joseph Chaumet travelled to Russia in the early 20th century having been commissioned by the imperial family to make several pieces. His fascination with the country’s wintry panoramas and motifs was piqued – from the stylised folk art to the traditional kokoshnik, or headdress, which directly inspired the Russian-style tiara of the time. The halo of metal and stones was designed to sit low over the forehead, de rigueur for all ladies in the know. Today, Chaumet’s obsession with this epic landmass is re-awakened with a tightly edited collection of 11 high-jewellery pieces. Promenades Impériales is one of the prettiest offerings of late: a gentle riff on the kokoshnik shape with radiating diamonds forming fan-like ornaments reminiscent of their inspiration. The hero piece, a necklace that cleverly transforms into 10 different iterations thanks to various detachable parts, highlights two padparadscha sapphires, a relatively unknown gemstone characterised by peachy-pink tones. Set among a white-diamond surround, it is meant to mimic the pastel hues of the setting sun of a Siberian winter. Delicate lace-like earrings demonstrate the perfectionism of the Place Vendôme workshops: diamonds appear as if knitted together with minimal visible metal, while floral boule rings reference the naïve flower motifs of Russian folk costumes. A stand-out pin-brooch is brilliantly elegant – imagine it attached to a freshly pressed lapel with its spike of graduated diamonds as precise and graphic as an icicle. Drawing inspiration from a foreign land is not a new idea; even Russia is hardly ground-breaking. But to mix such evocative cultural markers and yet avoid any sense of a collection being themed? Now that is a revolution of sorts. JESSICA DIAMOND 60 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
PHOTOGRAPHS: PAPPAS BLAND; MIKKEL GERKEN/IMAGEBRIEF.COM
Earrings in white and pink gold, padparadscha sapphires and diamonds. Brooch in white gold, padparadscha sapphire and diamonds
STYLE FILE
FOLLOW THE LEAD
‘It’s going to be just like the good old days,’ said British explorer Benedict Allen as he strode off into the jungle in Papua New Guinea last autumn without a satellite phone, GPS or travelling companion. He got lost, and became a news sensation in the process, before turning up – a little sheepish – three weeks later. What is unclear is whether Allen allowed himself the luxury of a compass, that old-school piece of kit adventurers have relied upon for nearly a thousand years. Incorporating one into the design of a watch is rare, because magnetic fields are a mechanical timepiece’s nemesis. As little as 200 gauss (the measure of magnetic induction) can stop a watch; an iPad emits up to 1,500 gauss, a fridge magnet up to 3,000. But this hasn’t prevented Swiss manufacturer Montblanc from creating a limited-edition watch-compass hybrid, designed for all intrepid (and punctual) explorers out there. A Faraday cage encloses the movement, and an anti-magnetic coating on the sapphire crystal of the watch stops it from becoming magnetised, despite the mere millimetre proximity. There are lots of other useful outdoorsy features, from the ability to flip out the compass so it lies flat on a map to the light-as-a-feather titanium case (no one wants to drag surplus weight up a mountain), a Pulsometer scale for a quick health check and, brilliantly, a leather arm strap so you can wear it over your all-weather apparel. Montblanc has also ensured that it looks pretty – in part due to the blue Dumortierite dial, a mottled matt-denim-coloured stone first discovered in the Alps in the late 19th century. But most crucially, and perhaps realistically, a titanium stand means the timepiece can be converted into a desk clock, for those who are only adventurers in their imagination, or who’ve perhaps decided it’s wiser to stay at home. JESSICA DIAMOND 62 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
1858 pocket watch limited-edition 100, £41,900, Montblanc (montblanc.com); the distinctive blue stone it uses was first discovered in the Alps, top
PHOTOGRAPH: NENAD SALJIC
A PIONEERING WATCH-COMPASS HEADS IN A NEW DIRECTION
BUY NOW FOR £60 AT AMAZON.CO.UK
STYLE FILE
THE FACE CREAM Eight years ago I went to Monterey, California, to see the sea-kelp forests where La Mer ethically harvests some of its ingredients, which are then fermented and blended into its super-soothing creams, such as La Mer’s The Moisturizing Cool Gel Cream. At the time I was pregnant and permanently looked flushed – something which has developed into regular rosacea flare-ups ever since. Having tried pretty much every unguent out there, I was delighted to discover this mini miracle, a grease-free gel that not only reduces redness, but also lowers the surface temperature of skin, making it incredibly handy for tropical travels and a must for anyone prone to prickly heat. £95.80 (save £19.20); reserve and collect at uk.worlddutyfree.com
THE FOUNDATION
At the airport OUR PICK OF THE BEST DUTY-FREE HAUL FOR EXCLUSIVE BEAUTY RELEASES AT LOWER PRICES. BY OLIVIA FALCON THE FRAGRANCE I’m fussy about scent and although I rock up to about 50 perfume launches per year, rarely am I tempted to take one home. However, inspired by the dawn, Louis Vuitton’s Le Jour Se Lève embodies everything I love. The jaunty, citrussy spritz is based around mandarin, a note said to trigger endorphin release and give the wearer the impression of feeling about 7lbs lighter, which could explain why I’m hooked. It’s also mixed with jasmine sambac, an evergreen variety which has a crisper, less floral edge and is often used in tea blends. The result: no matter how stale and grumpy you feel after a long-haul journey, douse yourself to feel fresh. £185 (or £148 if travelling outside Europe); Louis Vuitton at Heathrow T3, T4 and T5 64 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
THE EYE TREATMENT I’ve travelled the world looking for a cure for my raccoon eyes, from the temporarily effective vitamin-infused ice cubes in a Parisian spa to snail-essence sheet masks in Seoul. Kiehl’s Midnight Recovery Eye is a far simpler yet effective solution. I trialled this gel over a Christmas of long car journeys and late nights, and it depuffed my bags and improved dark circles by morning. The trick? An ingredient called butcher’s broom, a root extract that works to increase circulation in the delicate eye area and sucker punch puffiness. My top tip is to pair it with a silk pillowcase, which helps skin retain moisture overnight and leaves you with a less crumpled face come morning. £21.65 (save £4.35); reserve and collect at uk.worlddutyfree.com
PHOTOGRAPH: MAX FARAGO/TRUNKARCHIVE.COM. MODEL: DEVON AOKI
IF YOU ONLY BUY 4 THINGS…
I picked this up on a dash to what must have been the longest flight of my life: Bangkok via Helsinki with the remnants of flu, a sick husband and two coughing kids. I was convinced we wouldn’t be allowed on the plane, but after I slicked on a coat of Bobbi Brown’s Skin Long-Wear Weightless Foundation SPF15 over my tired grey complexion, hey presto, no one was any the wiser. This formula camouflages all manner of sins without feeling cakey. It has skin-brightening vitamin C, shea butter and matte pigments that melt into skin flawlessly. It was still in place on arrival 15 hours later. £29.75 (save £1.15); reserve and collect at uk.worlddutyfree.com
STYLE FILE
Bow earrings, £395, Simone Rocha (brownsfashion.com)
Multi-acrylic tote, £324, Cult Gaia (modaoperandi.com). Tapestry sandals, £525, Chloé (brownsfashion.com)
ON THE SCENE BULGARI RESORT, DUBAI
Ruffled bikini top, £372; high-rise bottoms, £150, both Johanna Ortiz (moda operandi.com)
Gold choker, £1,590, Prada (net-a-porter.com)
THE MOOD: ARTFUL ADORNMENT
Logo sweater, £825, Chloé (harrods.com). Brightening Youth Glow, £39, Charlotte Tilbury (charlottetilbury.com)
High Low skirt, £1,410, Brunello Cucinelli (harrods.com)
For more than a hundred years, divers harvested natural pearls from the clear shallows of the Arabian Gulf, so it seems fitting that Italian jeweller Bulgari would set its latest hotel project on reclaimed land that juts out into these pale blue waters. It’s taken seven years for this Bulgari hotel to rise up from the sea: an elegant, sea-horse-shaped arc of terra firma with 101 bedrooms, 20 villas, a beach club, an apartment complex, a yacht club and private marina – Bulgari’s first – with berths for 50 boats. Of course, Italian touches dominate the design: travertine marble from Tivoli in the bathrooms; grey Vicenza stone walls in the spa, where the back-lit green onyx reception desk is also a thing of great beauty; furniture by Flos, Flexform and B&B Italia. But most striking of all is the exterior, where white-lacquered steel awnings are pierced to resemble coral, at the same time emulating shade-giving Middle Eastern fretwork screens. Take a dip in the pool where the Bisazza tiles look like vintage Bulgari brooches, or tuck into a brioche ice cream from Il Café (one of four restaurants) and then hide away in La Limonaia, the secret lemon-tree garden. For an out-of-town jaunt, jump in one of the hotel’s fleet of Maseratis to visit the new Louvre Abu Dhabi. Or don’t leave at all, and instead be rubbed and scrubbed and washed in rose water while you lie on heated marble in the hammam. Chic and understated, this is a slice of Italian style amid the sky-high glitz of Dubai. JESSICA DIAMOND Doubles from about £410
Cat-eye sunglasses, £309, Jimmy Choo (matchesfashion. com). Mini moon bag, £1,440, Delpozo (modaoperandi.com)
Kali bikini, £205, Zimmermann (net-a-porter.com) V3 International Expandable carry-on, £445, Tumi (uk.tumi.com)
66 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
S/S 2018 catwalk look, Jacquemus
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EUROPEAN ROUND-UP
THE EDITORS’ LIST 2018
PHOTOGRAPH: GEORG ROSKE
OUR FAVOURITE AFFORDABLE NEW HOTELS FROM AS LITTLE AS £80 A NIGHT
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CASA COOK KOS, GREECE
THE SCOOP DOUBLES FROM ABOUT £125
Park any prejudices at check-in. A hotel managed by a package holiday giant sounds like somewhere to swerve, but the fledgling Casa Cook brand is laid-back loveliness with an unlikely provenance. Created by global travel behemoth Thomas Cook, the one in Kos is the second of this new breed. In a tucked-away bay near Marmari on the island’s breezy north coast, a short hop from the airport, its whitewashed oneand two-storey cubist houses are set around gardens and courtyards. There’s a beach-shack look in the pared-back rooms, where polished concrete floors are softened by woven hessian rugs, raffia basket shades and linen throws in all shades of sepia. Everyone gets a terrace with a fringed hammock; some have shared plunge pools too. If the aesthetic feels familiar, it’s because this is another collaboration between design agency Lambs and Lions and interior designer Annabell Kutucu, who worked on the wildly successful San Giorgio and Scorpios, both on Mykonos. Breakfast is served in the enormous, grass-thatched beach club, where a long wooden table is piled with local yogurts, honey, fresh fruit, homemade breads, protein bars and flaky pastries. Then it’s a choice between flopping onto a beanbag lounger and lying by the main swimming pool, lulled into a drowsy haze by the ever-present ambient soundtrack (it’s adults only here and very, very calm), or strolling past windswept dunes to the day beds and cabanas by the sea. For the energetic, there’s yoga, stand-up paddle boarding and horse riding, or sign up for a Hippocratic Anatripsis massage in the spa – the Ancient Greek father of medicine was a local boy. The only unspoken rule of the place is to gather on the sand by early evening for the sunset, before Mojitos and a supper of grilled octopus under the stars. It’s a winning formula that’s repeated on Rhodes, and this summer a third Casa Cook opens on Crete. BOOK IT +49 234 9610 38606; casacook.com
CASA MAE
ALGARVE, PORTUGAL THE SCOOP DOUBLES FROM ABOUT £80
Lagos is a proper seaside town less than an hour’s drive from Faro, with cobbled streets as shiny as mother-of-pearl. A water taxi ferries passengers across the inlet to the marina and Meia Praia, a 4km lick of gently curving sand. It was this that French-born, London-based former investment banker Veronique Polaert first fell in love with on a road trip through Portugal in 2014. She upped sticks, bought a dilapidated house inside the old town walls and spent the next two years turning it into this low-key hotel. Of the 30 rooms, the best are the five in the original building (plus the three cabanas in the vegetable garden), which mix contemporary and colonial: vintage furniture and an oversized mirror propped against the wall in one; a record player and a pair of palm-tree-print armchairs by a sea-facing Juliet balcony in another. The rest – simpler in style but equally charming – are in the new, low-rise main house, alongside the farm-to-table Orta restaurant and bar, and a lifestyle store where all the stock is made in Portugal. It’s a theme that runs throughout, from the traditional floor tiles in the lobby to the abstract blue-pink rugs that hang as tapestries, and the shampoo-filled stoneware pots by local ceramicist Ricardo Lopes. At the back there’s a sun-trap terrace where staff serve huge glasses of rosé and petiscos (small sharing plates) of tuna sashimi and beetroot salad. Guests are given a map of Polaert’s favourite nearby spots which include Mar d’Estórias, a rooftop bar in a former church, and a string of tiny coves and beaches. Casa Mae is an unexpected little starburst on the Algarve’s overblown coastline, a let’s-go-thisweekend hideaway. BOOK IT +351 282780080; casa-mae.com
CASA BURANO VENICE, ITALY
THE SCOOP DOUBLES FROM ABOUT £85
Venice is much more than gondolas and cruise ships and the steady thrum of visitors streaming over the Rialto. Come here off season and venture out across the misty lagoon to the island trio of Mazzorbo, Torcello and Burano, home to traditional artisans whose provincial way of life has been pretty much protected. The Venissa wine estate on Mazzorbo is particularly famous for its Prosecco, but may soon be as well-known for its hotels. Along with an existing six-bedroom property and two restaurants (one Michelin-starred, one more relaxed, both serving dishes made from ingredients grown on the island), it now has five renovated apartments at the heart of technicolourpainted Burano (the two islands are connected by a wooden bridge). Casa Burano is perfectly on-point, with refreshingly contemporary rooms decked out with local furnishings, and bathrooms that deserve a shout out for the enormous steam room and a tub big enough for 10 people. Breakfast is delivered in hampers every morning – homemade yogurt, jam and croissants – and there are limitless espressos. But the best bit is the price. Gianluca Bisol has passed the reins over to his charming son Matteo, and the family want to access that sweet spot in travel, where places aren’t expensive for the sake of it. There’s no reception (you’re simply trotted from vaporetto to room) so it’s easy to instantly relax. No interruptions, just glorious Burano, with its lace and linen shops, lollipop-bright fishermen’s houses and bakeries serving S-shaped Bussolai biscuits that you won’t find anywhere else. All so ridiculously pretty it feels like being on a film set. BOOK IT +39 041 527 2281; casaburano.it
GATZARA
IBIZA, SPAIN
THE SCOOP DOUBLES FROM ABOUT £140
The locals refer to Santa Gertrudis as Ibiza’s Notting Hill, and all about the village are markers of upscale bohemian life: inventive vegan restaurants, hippy-bling boutiques, yummy mummies in expensively cut batik. What there wasn’t, though, was a hotel – a wrong righted by Ibizan matriarch Cati Roig and her two sons when they opened Gatzara on the site of her childhood home. Slap bang in the middle of the village, overlooking a square that buzzes with life, here is a cool, clean space, its white walls balanced with geometric throw cushions and Nordic-influenced bleached-pine woodwork. A colour palette of wood, stone and muted gold gives rooms a tranquil feel; and gauzy mosquito nets add a hint of airy romance. Guests start the day with fresh fruit, eggs and pastries in the light-filled, triple-height communal space with its living wall of yuccas and orchids, before taking advantage of Santa Gertrudis’s position at the heart of the island – embarking on day trips up to the wild beaches of the north or down to Ibiza Town with its razzle and bustle. In the evening everyone congregates up on the roof terrace for sundowners around the lovely little pool. There’s no restaurant but two minutes’ walk away are half-a-dozen crackers, including Gitano with its sushi and South American cocktails, and the reassuringly expensive Macao, probably Ibiza’s best Italian restaurant. BOOK IT +34 971 932563; hotelgatzaraibiza.com
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1898 THE POST GHENT, BELGIUM
THE SCOOP: DOUBLES FROM ABOUT £155
PHOTOGRAPHS: DAVID DE VLEESCHAUWER; ALEX STEPHEN TEUSCHER
This dramatically turreted Gothic Revival pile, with its double-spiral staircases, soaring traced windows and five-metre-high ceilings, used to be the central post office in Ghent. The interiors have been adapted to their new purpose with low-key northern European flair. In keeping with the epistolary theme, there are bundles of old letters, inkpots and paperweights. Though the visual cues are different, the overall vibe – at once sumptuous and modest, impeccable and unpretentious – will be familiar to anyone who has visited other Zannier hotels, such as its gorgeous flagship chalet in Megève. Bedrooms are categorised according to size: from Stamps and Envelopes to Letters all the way up to the wildly romantic Tower Suite. Though the proportions vary greatly, the style is consistent throughout, with lots of deep arboreal greens, woody, brassy accents and gleaming marble bathrooms. Most rooms have fine views of the historic city centre and its churches, castles, riverside mansions, atmospheric lanes and picturesque genever joints. Yet Ghent feels less self-consciously museum-like than Bruges, more like a place where ordinary life goes on, thanks to its large, friendly student population. Go – post-haste – and marvel at Van Eyck’s altarpiece in St Bavo’s cathedral. Stuff your face with waffles in the market square. Then repair to the hotel’s superb bar, The Cobbler, for a digestif before retiring to your fairy-tale digs. Definitely somewhere to write home about. BOOK IT +32 9 391 5379; zannierhotels.com
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HOTEL DES GRANDS BOULEVARDS PARIS, FRANCE
PHOTOGRAPHS: KAREL BALAS
THE SCOOP DOUBLES FROM ABOUT £120
Ten years ago the Experimental Group – actually three perfectly respectable former school chums – transformed the Paris bar scene with their sweetly raffish Experimental Cocktail Club. More recently they went into hotels, first with the charming Grand Pigalle, then with the equally perky Henrietta in London. And now there’s Hôtel des Grands Boulevards, which may be the most irresistible of all. Grands Boulevards is at once a historical term, referring to Baron Haussmann’s transformative thoroughfares; a Métro station; and, for many Parisians, words likely to conjure up a rather unkind image of wide-eyed yokels from beyond the périphérique pouring into and out of the theatres in the area. You really ought to join them. This is one of the most diverse and dynamic parts of the city, from those much-loved theatres to the glorious covered arcades and teeming textile workshops. The would-be flâneur couldn’t choose a more convenient or prepossessing base than Hôtel des Grands Boulevards, an 18th-century townhouse converted into 50 rooms, a restaurant and three bars. Interior designer Dorothée Meilichzon riffs with textures, shapes and colours in her distinctive, delightful way. None of the rooms are vast but there isn’t a dud among them: with their luscious greens, blues and pinks, they’re at once simple and sensuous. And the group continues to deliver on its experimental promise: whatever you order to drink, expect to be pleasantly surprised. If in doubt, start with the Experience 1: vodka, elderflower syrup, lemon juice, lemongrass and basil. BOOK IT +33 1 85 73 33 33; grandsboulevardshotel.com
WITTENBERG
AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS THE SCOOP DOUBLES FROM ABOUT £120
It would be easy to chalk up the Wittenberg as just another canal-house hotel opening. Except it’s not. This is the first European outpost from SACO, the company behind pretty-as-a-peach Leman Locke in London and Edinburgh’s Eden Locke (opposite). And it’s not a hotel. Instead, the peppy, bright one- to threebedroom apartments are designed as crashpads for longer stints. Owned by the Lutheran Church, the stately block is arranged across the three buildings of a converted hospital dating back to 1773, and sits reverently in the middle of the laid-back Plantage neighbourhood. It’s a five-minute walk to the Artis Royal Zoo and Hortus Botanicus gardens, and the Southern Canals, Old Town and up-and-coming Pijp neighbourhoods are all within easy reach by foot or bike (which can be hired at reception). With such a history, the team could have gone to town on the period details; instead interiors are kept clean-lined, minimal and contemporary. That’s not to say the Wittenberg isn’t settle-in cosy. The reception desk is tucked to one side so you can come and go as you please. Typically Dutch sash windows mean the apartments are light and airy, with bright, comfy sofas, and art and design titles arranged on bookshelves. Plus there’s all the necessary kitchen kit and a welcome bag of foodie treats on arrival, Zenology products in the bathroom, and that wonderful away-from-home extra: twice-weekly housekeeping. This is a smart new place for properly getting under the skin of the city. BOOK IT +31 20 808 4006; thewittenberg.com. Minimum seven-night stay
VILLA TERMINUS BERGEN, NORWAY
THE SCOOP DOUBLES FROM ABOUT £135
Second cities get short shrift from boutique hotels. That Bergen was once Norway’s first city, left to languish at the brink of Europe as Oslo flourished, makes this remarkable old-world fabric all the more worthy. Villa Terminus comes along at a time when many of the city’s venerable buildings are finally being reinvented as smart, savvy bases for sailing the fjords. Yet it captures Bergen’s essence more atmospherically than the others. Rooms drift in and out of melodramatic greys and frozen whites, like heavy skies burned off by Nordic sun. In the sitting room, sofas sit like volcanic rock on sandy carpet, serenaded by soft Norwegian jazz. It was going to take skill to transform an 18th-century retirement home by the railway station into a landmark retreat. So the family owners hired Claesson Kovisto Rune, a Swedish architectural outfit that can do no wrong among European aesthetes. They smoothed out the plaster, bleached the wood beams, brought in copper pendant lights and massive Axor sinks, and plundered the back catalogues of Danish modernists such as Borge Mogensen and Arne Jacobsen. Young designer Andreas Engesvik represents the local contingent with his wooden side tables. The overall intent, however, is tranquillity. An edge-of-the-world quiet greets you in the foyer: no check-in staff with their litany of instructions, no host to engage with. Just collect the keys and let yourself in. Gunmetal-painted hallways lead up to the bedrooms in the eaves, which are swathed in tan leather and lambswool. In the morning, a chef arrives with cinnamon-dusted pastries and farm-fresh eggs for poaching. The whole place feels like a brilliant subversion of the sharing economy. BOOK IT +47 55 212500; villaterminus.no
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EDEN LOCKE
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND THE SCOOP: DOUBLES FROM £80
PHOTOGRAPH: NICHOLAS WORLEY; AKE ESONLINDMAN
Eden Locke calls itself an aparthotel for self-sufficient people staying in downtown Edinburgh, but don’t be put off by the description. From the street it looks just like any other classical New Town Georgian townhouse: staid and rather imposing. But inside, the Mint Julep walls, wicker chairs, tropical plants and rag rugs on pale oak floors beat the ubiquitous tartan to the punch. This place is a hipster headspin. Check-in happens at the ground-floor third-wave coffee shop Hyde & Son, which transforms at night into a lively bar serving razor-sharp cocktails, artisanal gins and beers. On Saturdays a DJ plays funk and soul. Apartments are a perfect storm of millennial pink and Elephant’s Breath, brass detailing and anglepoise-style lamps, curated by Manhattan design firm Grzywinski+Pons (other projects include New York’s Nolitan Hotel and Hotel on Rivington, and sister property Leman Locke in East London). The original sash windows give views down to the clickety-clack of George Street. Kitchens are equipped with a Smeg cooker, a stash of Rude Health granola and T2 tea bags, plus spot-on listings of the closest grocers and provisions that can be delivered to your door. Or step out to one of the recommended favourite few restaurants. And the longer you stay, the cheaper it gets. BOOK IT +44 20 3327 7140; lockeliving.com
LES ROCHES ROUGES FREJUS, FRANCE
THE SCOOP: DOUBLES FROM ABOUT £180
It’s what the French call pieds dans l’eau – and you couldn’t in fact get closer to the sea. Set beneath sweet-smelling pines, Les Roches Rouges has been re-vibed for a crowd who appreciate honest retro. The look was created by slickster duo Festen, who have returned the hotel to its Côte d’Azur roots while taking design hints from Eileen Gray’s modernist classic, Villa E-1027 in Cap Martin. Bedrooms and open-plan bathrooms are Camembert-white, while a Peduzzi leather sofa with clementine-like segments fills the poured-concrete lobby, and Hermès-orange butterfly chairs flutter on the terrace. Days are spent practising ‘le bronzing’ beside a salt-water pool chiselled from the rock, which sometimes – when the east wind gets up and the waves roll in – fills with tiny fish. Otherwise there are evening games of pétanque, hikes in the Esterel hills and films at the open-air cinema. And while Les Roches Rouges is a conceptual world away from St Tropez, it’s just a short boat hop to Bardot’s favourite former fishing port for the market or nights getting into trouble at Les Caves. Menus at the two hotel restaurants include anchoïade, daube of beef and the famed custard-filled Tarte Tropezienne. Cocktails also have a Provençal twist: Negronis are made with rosemary-infused Campari, and Old Fashioneds mixed with lavender bitters. The whole place makes you want to smoke Gitanes (no filter) and fling off your bikini top. BOOK IT +33 4 79 33 01 04; hotellesrochesrouges.com
MI CASA EN LISBOA LISBON, PORTUGAL On a perilously altitudinous pavement near the top of Lisbon’s highest hill, an unprepossessing grey front door opening onto a large and vivid and thoroughly modern interior. The inside of this amazing new guesthouse is made of viroc – a Portuguese concrete mixed with wood dust – which gives its almost industrial-seeming walls and staircase an acute warmth and softness. Blown-glass lamps by the young Portuguese architect Martinho Pita hang from the ceiling like great tremulous blue drops of water. And the views, directly across a deep gully to the Castelo de São Jorge, couldn’t hope to be beaten. Leave the shutters and handsome linen curtains open and the ever-spreading blush of morning light will stream in. Owner Maria Ulecia, a designer, ceramicist and artist, lives onsite, like a discreet and gently helpful acquaintance. All nine bedrooms and suites are pale-walled, uncluttered, and lightly dotted with objects Ulecia has bought, made or commissioned herself: paintings, photographs, rare Portuguese furniture from Fifties designers including José Espinho. Breakfast on the terrace is fresh-delivered bread, homemade fig jam, eggs and coffee, eaten to the peal of convent bells. In the evenings, people gather to watch the saffron-dissolving sunset at nearby Miradouro da Graça. The Casa is in the age-old district of Graça, which still whirls more with locals than tourists. The number 28 tram – the best route in the city – can be caught here, just opposite O Pitéu, which plates up memorable lunches of baby fried hake. If you’re lucky, a fado festival will be taking place in the newly renovated Largo da Graça – real fado, not the stuff often peddled elsewhere in the city. If so, you will fall asleep to the sound of a man singing a gorgeously melancholy sea-shanty from the ramparts to a smattering of rapt applause, the indigo sky a blur of swooping swifts. BOOK IT +35 19 19 090595; micasaenlisboa.com
PHOTOGRAPHS: SIVAN ASKAYO; ANA CARVALHO
THE SCOOP DOUBLES FROM ABOUT £80
LE PONT DE L’ORME PROVENCE, FRANCE
THE SCOOP DOUBLES FROM ABOUT £90
Here is a charmingly uncomplicated proposition: a small, shuttered, whitewashed house of indeterminate age, approached through a lovely avenue of old yew trees, with a bar and restaurant downstairs and five airy rooms upstairs. It’s owned by Axel van den Bossche, founder of Antwerp-based design studio Serax, who was on the lookout for somewhere to stay in his favourite part of France. The original Provençal terracotta tiles and marble fireplaces of the mas remain, the walls have been given the brightest white lick of paint and Serax’s sleek furniture and contemporary lights are placed alongside vintage pieces. The hotel has mostly Belgian guests, Belgian gin in the bar and Belgian tableware in the restaurant; but the daily chalked-up menu is respectfully regional (gnocchi with sage butter; pork knuckle; bouillabaisse; cherry sorbet), generously executed and reasonably priced. The B&B is a half-hour drive from Avignon and a five-minute walk from Malaucène, perhaps best known as the point from where Tour de France cyclists begin their agonising ascent of Mont Ventoux. Wiry Lycra-clad masochists come here year-round to punish themselves on its slopes, but back at Le Pont de l’Orme the pace is positively horizontal. A dip in the pool. A long lunch. A snooze in the shade. And some very good local wine. BOOK IT +33 4 90 46 17 50; pontdelorme.com
DON TOTU
PUGLIA, ITALY
PHOTOGRAPHS: LORENZO PENNATI
THE LOWDOWN DOUBLES FROM ABOUT £155
Milanese owners Chiara and Mauro Bini turned their historic dimora storica into a village house with all the punch of a top-notch hotel. Lush green cacti-filled gardens are bright against the creamy stonework; inside, original Salentine tiled floors are paired with grey and taupe linens and artwork from around the world. There are only six bedrooms (all vast, and each with its own terrace), so the enormous pool is usually all yours. At one end, a loggia houses an 18-metre-long replica of Matisse’s La Piscine beneath Art Deco chandeliers shipped over from the old Biltmore Hotel in Miami. Its flat roof turns into an outdoor cinema at night, for subtitled films with pizza and ice cream. Sweat it off the next morning with the daily 8am yoga session or book the private hammam for a Turkish bath. Food-wise you can help yourself to everything in the kitchen – still-warm bread, tarts and flans, plus hams, cheese and fruit for breakfast, and then a never-ending procession of chocolate truffles, Italian pastries and sugar-dusted biscuits during the day. You aren’t completely left to your own devices: the manager is always on hand for brilliant restaurant suggestions and local know-how. For beach trips, the staff will prepare a bag with towels and bottled water, plus there are bicycles and Vespas to borrow. Don Tuto is a B&B, yes, but better than some of the very best hotels down here In Italy’s heel. BOOK IT +39 0836 992374; dontotu.it CONTRIBUTORS DAVID ANNAND, ALICE B-B, JULIA BROOKES, SHARON FORRESTER, SOPHIE GOODWIN, ELLEN HIMELFARB, STEVE KING, EMMA LOVE, CHARLOTTE MACONOCHIE, NONIE NIESEWAND, ANTONIA QUIRKE
LOSE THE PLOT LESS ATTITUDE THAN ANTIGUA, MORE LAID-BACK THAN NEVIS, BEQUIA IS THE SMALL CARIBBEAN ISLAND WITH ALL THE BEST STORIES BY ANTONIA QUIRKE
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PHOTOGRAPHS: JEROME GALLARD
From left: a bookshop in Port Elizabeth; Lower Bay Beach; model boats in a shop. Opposite, clockwise from top left: Bequia Pizza Hut; lobster at De Reef Bar; Industry Bay; Bequia Beach Hotel; the garden at The Old Fort hotel. Previous pages, from left: Lower Bay Beach; a terrace at Bequia Beach Hotel
PHOTOGRAPHS: JEROME GALLARD; AMANDA MARSALIS
O
N THE SEVEN-MILE LUMP OF BEQUIA in the lazy arc of the Windward Islands, light browses with a supernatural brightness off sand piled with faded maritime rope and coral like dinosaur bones and hunks of conch, pink as a Cadillac. World-crossing yachts swing in their moorings and, prowling between them, little local boats painted canary and scarlet sell ice and bread to sailors. Seamen, racers, traders, eccentrics. Along the waterfront are stalls of stubby bananas and crimson-raw nutmeg. Wooden houses climb up steep, rounded hillsides, their beams stabbing shades of orange and lime, with picket-fence porches as oysterpale as the outer petals of the frangipani that grow everywhere, fat with lunatic rain. The Union Jack flew over the island for around 200 years. Before that it was French, and before that, home to a smattering of Caribs. The little port was renamed Elizabeth in 1937 after the then princess, but everybody still calls it the Harbour. And if the Queen’s face smiles on the East Caribbean dollar, it’s a picture dating from what must be the 1970s, when she looked like a sensible movie star, recalling a time of rayon kaftans and heated rollers and tumblers of neat bourbon knocked back with burntfreckled hands. There have been sugar and cotton plantations here. New England whalers were frequent visitors. Bequians came to be some of the finest shipwrights in the West Indies. In 1717 Blackbeard refurbished a captured French vessel here,
relaunching it as his Queen Anne’s Revenge, and Captain Bligh passed nearby with Tahitian breadfruit saplings, which still grow in these parts, along with mangos and sapodilla and creole plums. Although everything you buy in the shacks and shops – the yellow-skinned passion fruit, the deodorant soap called Cashmere Explosion, the Montecristo cigars for guzzling millionaires and the glacé cherries and giant tubs of coconut oil – will likely have been brought over by ferry from St Vincent nine miles away, or beyond. Always trading and bartering, it’s a place open to talk of other places and people – but secure. The rest of the world is an intriguing maelstrom. ‘What part of London you from?’ a little girl asks me one day. ‘Mexico?’ Along the port near the fruit and vegetable market run by rastas, in the window of a drinking shack, is an 18th-century print of the steeple of St Nicholas Cathedral in Newcastle. The punch the owner pours me is made with the local Sunset Very Strong Rum, 84.5 per cent proof and mixed with a token slug of pineapple cordial – the cocktail equivalent of a seat-belt sign being flicked off. Why Newcastle? I wheeze. Why not, he says. His fingers are heavy with sovereigns. Tiny black hummingbirds stud a bush nearby, their backs streaked with a screaming flash of peridot. On the water, rocking in a light breeze, is a schooner called The Friendship Rose, which from 1967 used to travel between the islands carrying mail and passengers and 89
This page, by the fruit stall in the market. Opposite, from top: a bedroom at Sugar Reef hotel; Lower Bay Beach; an Ocean Room at Bequia Beach Hotel
cargo. It was so admired by Bob Dylan that he had his own boat built here, Water Pearl, which eventually ran aground in Panama. The Friendship Rose is painted a sugary blue and white, the colours of the interior of the Anglican church of St Mary the Virgin, which sits on the main drag. One Sunday I watch the rector, the Venerable J Everton Weekes, take to the pulpit by an open window in robes of green satin that flutter in the wind like a superhero’s cape. He’d seen the film The Exorcist the night before, he tells the congregation, and it had given him mighty pause for thought. Lightning and thunder are in his voice. ‘Send your holy spirit to stir our hearts, oh Lord.’ Next to me in the pew the handsome local MP, Dr Friday, nods reassuringly. A group of small children rest their heads against their older sister, who’s wearing a dress as frothingly purple as the bougainvillaea that overhangs the wall in the cemetery, her Sunday-best ballerina bun studded with a diamante pin. Tramping the waterside path, the Belmont Walkway, out of the Harbour, I pass the Whaleboner Bar (good for sundowners) and the old Gingerbread Hotel (best ice cream on the island). Three little boys throw themselves into the sea in their underpants. The new doctor’s office in the Frangipani Gardens has an advertisement that reassures patients they can expect ‘first-class medical attention’ – just don’t expect anyone to wear shoes. When I get to Princess Margaret Beach (she stopped off here on her honeymoon), the tide lazily washes backwards and forwards along clean white sand perfectly bordered with cedar. There are no private beaches on Bequia. By a jetty someone is gutting fish into the water and a fisherman wanders up and down with his
PHOTOGRAPHS: JEROME GALLARD; AMANDA MARSALIS; MARYAL MILLER CARTER 2018
THE RECTOR HAS WATCHED 'THE EXORCIST' THE NIGHT BEFORE, HE TELLS THE CONGREGATION, AND IT HAS GIVEN HIM MIGHTY PAUSE FOR THOUGHT notebook pre-selling lobsters to sunbathers, offering to bring them ready-broiled if you don’t have a pot big enough. Time thickens. The day slips by in floods of sunshine, but always with a breeze, so your head never aches, and you never feel restless. At Jack’s Beach Bar they’re mixing Piña Coladas with soursop and twisting okra tempura into biteable chunks as the bestlooking local stray, Rusty, lies with his head on his paws, his fur the exact hue of a nicely cold pint of lager. Everybody drinks and waits for the fast and startling sunset, which happens on Bequia like a door being kicked shut – none of that sentimental European leave-taking. Some say this is a quiet island. Others say, just open your ears. Walking along the harbour late-ish one evening looking for a taxi, I don’t see a soul about, apart from one man sitting on the steps of the post office reading the paper in the dark. But I can hear a vague thumping somewhere north and toil up the hill towards it, to Papa’s bar, to find it rammed with Swedish sailors zig-zagging about to reggae and making ecstatic homicidal sounds. Swedes have been coming to Bequia since the 1950s. I see one of them, the ageless Kjell, his hair sun-bleached to a frosty crown of white paint, with startled, slanted blue eyes, like Rutger Hauer before the fall in Blade Runner. Every night he chugs ashore from his moored boat in a dinghy. On such a small island, a whole cast of faces quickly becomes familiar. Young hotelier King King, in a straw trilby, with a smooth open expression, tough but wistful. Sir James Mitchell, a much-loved former prime minister, who 91
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intensity of its history. I take a drive in the afternoon up into the hills with thirty-something Garvin Ollivierre whose family have been boat builders and whalers since the 1800s – humpbacks are still occasionally caught here. We stop at the cricket pitch, where he plays with the local team, to find it covered in lambs and yellowgreen butterflies blowing about like unfolding wads of tissue paper. He talks to me about the names of his teammates, one Cosmos Hackshaw (a moniker straight from Moby-Dick) and a Max Kydd. African, Scottish, Carib, French. Everybody is somebody’s third cousin of a cousin going back centuries. There’s a Napoleon Ollivierre and a Leonorra Kydd in the old graveyard near the airport. The squeaking and bumping four-wheel-drive passes around potholes at the grey ruins of an old plantation house. Climbing up, the path is lined with in-leaning tamarind, and croton plants with leaves like feathers coloured cochineal and orange. A white cockerel crows in a garden of papaya trees. Near the top of the island, by the Old Fort hotel, the sea at the horizon looks like a great blue sword. Somewhere to the north is Industry Bay, with its narrow beach, as though the white sand had been thrown down during an encore; a last-minute indulgence. On the way back to the Harbour we stop to pick up Philisia who’s hitching a lift to work at her brother’s restaurant, Fernando’s Hideaway. Fernando, aged 64, goes out fishing at 4am for snapper and barracuda, and
PHOTOGRAPHS: JEROME GALLARD
resembles Castro in old photographs and has endless arms that he sweeps all about when telling stories, like a magician about to find a gold doubloon behind your ear. Hunter Davies, the great biographer of the Beatles. And ninety-something Charles Brewer, an American architect who taught at Yale with Frank Lloyd Wright and lives out at Moonhole, a rocky peninsula at the very west of the island, once an alternative community started in the 1960s, which now looks like Phoenician ruins. And then, on Fridays, at the weekly Penthouse street party, the Baptiste Brothers, Kyron, Kasron and Biyu, move in rhapsodic sync to dancehall while everybody buys barbecue ribs and goat water from hawkers, and beautiful girls lean impassively against a pyramid of speakers, drinking Sparrow rum and Hairoun beer. Friendship Bay is my favourite. The water on this southern side is more theatrical, and the view is of distant Mustique. Fewer boats moor here because of the swell and the sound is of clapping masts and of occasional sailors chucking themselves into the brine and coming up snorting. It rains. Real rain. Hibiscus buds and little lizards spin down guttering until everybody walks for cover and waits… until the rain dies as quickly and astoundingly as it rose. I collapse back on my towel, eating a handful of fried plantain from Bequia Beach Hotel’s epic breakfast bar. The soft, hot sand is eternally hospitable, the optimism in the rain-sun routine a powerful characteristic of the island. That, and the
This page, a sailboat in Port Elizabeth. Opposite, from far left: Jack’s Beach Bar, and a boy jumping off the jetty in front of it; Soursop Colada at Jack’s
Clockwise from this picture: a frangipani tree; the bar at Bequia Beach Hotel; Sugar Reef hotel; Princess Margaret Beach. Opposite, from top: a bedroom at Villa Cassava; sunset view from the Old Fort; locals in Port Elizabeth
then spends all afternoon cooking, his treehousey restaurant tucked into massive trunks of almond, its few tables lit with candles stuck into old paper bags of flour. Fernando is skinny and tall, glad-handing the appreciative diners, his white chef’s jacket undone to mid-chest. When I ask him how he always knows where to find snapper, he says, vaguely, ‘Oh, I come here, I come there, ya know…’ He only ever goes out alone, and only in his own boat, Skylark. How fondly people talk of their boats here (I live on one, and can tell you it’s not always the case.) The names seem especially prophetic. In Lower Bay (where the best food is at Dawn’s café: callaloo soup with toast; banana bread still oozing through three layers of greaseproof paper) there’s a termitedestroyed wreck pulled in among the trees. It was once a Bequia whaleboat, more than a century old and the fastest on these seas. Its name – Trouble – is the only part still perfectly intact. At Plantation Hotel in the harbour one night, three bronzed boys come wheeling into the bar, muscles like Tarzan, walking like drunks in deck shoes trodden to shreds. They’ve not slept for five days, they say, having shuddered through squalls to deliver a catamaran 280 miles out of the Virgin Islands. All through the last night they thought they’d sink, but the craft kept cutting across the foaming pit of the Caribbean. What’s the name of this boat?, I ask, impressed, and one of them turns to me with red eyes and whispers ‘Pocketknife’. Beyond him, down by the water, rushing in and out of the pale surf are two children with tangled hair, playing with Rusty, who trots amiably alongside them, keeping his muzzle dry. After a while all three disappear up the hill and deep into an overgrown shock of almond and palm, where they switch on a hand-torch and move around the headland through the jungle darkness, their small light pulsing like a lone glowworm or a jewel under a tattered spring moon.
WH E RE TO STAY PHOTOGRAPHS: JEROME GALLARD; AMANDA MARSALIS; MARYAL MILLER CARTER 2018
BEQUIA BEACH HOTEL
In gardens of red cherry and coconut on mile-long Friendship Beach, this place might well be full but never feels it. You’ll always have a wide stretch of beach to yourself, and the waterfront suites are close enough to the surf for the rhythmic thrum to give a sense of amplitude and freshness. There’s a bar on the sand and lobster-barbecue nights, and often dancing. Most guests treat it as a retreat, only rousing themselves occasionally to catch taxis to the harbour. The set-up is gorgeously relaxed; the hotel is owned by a genial Swede, Bengt Mortstedt, who first saw the bay some 15 years ago and in effect never left. bequiabeach.com. Doubles from about £160
SUGAR REEF Along the further-flung Industry Bay, this hideaway noses onto a narrow sprinkle of white sand, and serves the best rum punch on the island (mostly fresh lime.) It’s remote here, though. The keynote: stillness. sugarreefbequia.com. Doubles from about £85
A FEW MORE LOVELY LITTLE PLACES The Old Fort (the oldfort.com) has doubles from about £110. Villa Cassava (cassava-house.com) costs from about £1,930 per week, sleeps six
GETTING HERE Audley Travel (+44 1993 838275; audleytravel.com) offers tailor-made trips to the Caribbean. A nine-night trip costs from £2,322 per person, including five nights B&B at Bequia Beach Hotel and three nights on Barbados, flights and transfers. 95
H O P, S K I P ADEL AIDE IS NOW ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING FOODIE CITIES IN THE WORLD WHERE FIRED-UP CHEFS ARE DOING CRAZY THINGS WITH HOME-GROWN AUSSIE INGREDIENTS – FROM P E P P E R B E R R I E S TO PA P E R B A R K , C R E A M Y C A N D L E S TO C R O C O D I L E BY J O N AT H A N BA STA B L E
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PHOTOGRAPHS (THESE PAGES AND PREVIOUS SPREAD): MEAGHAN COLES/BROADSHEET.COM.AU; ALANA DIMOU; JOHN KRUGER; JOSIE WITHERS/BROADSHEET.COM.AU
RANA, OFFICIALLY THE BEST RESTAURANT IN AUSTRALIA, is not easy to find. You climb an external staircase, like a fire escape, and knock on a door, like a Chicago speakeasy. You are then ushered into a vestibule from which you can see the busy kitchen. You wait with the evening’s other diners, all of them jumpy with anticipation, until at last you are summoned to take your place at one of the 10 tables. The first course is brilliantly theatrical: potato damper – bushman’s bread – is a lollipop of dough on a leafy twig that arrives on a little red bed of coals. You watch it bake, then dip it hot into a dish of lamb butter: dripping as smooth as mayonnaise and as meaty as a boxer’s fist. Every one of the subsequent courses is a fascinating merger of fine European cuisine and native Australian ingredients, which is the obsession of chef and owner Jock Zonfrillo. One course consists of a single agnolotto filled with locally picked porcinis; it looks like a stuffed postage stamp and tastes like the essence of the forest floor – not merely fungal, but earthy and alluvial. Crocodile consommé, poured from a transparent teapot into a Turkish tulip glass, is orange and limpid as polished amber, and as reviving as an otherworldly mug of Bovril. A fillet of Coorong mullet is served with a scattering of green ants. This is course number 12 and somehow, at this stage, the insect element doesn’t feel challenging, just intriguing. The ants ping on the tongue with little citrussy pops that are the perfect accompaniment to the white fish. Then there is the kangaroo tendon – crisped, puffed and curly like a brittle question mark – and paperbark ice cream served with honeyed jillungin tea from the Kimberley... What a dinner, and what a place. Orana stands as proof that Adelaide is now one of the great cities of the world for eating and drinking. And according to Zonfrillo, there are sound reasons for this. ‘The ecology of the restaurant business is unlike anywhere else in Australia,’ he says. ‘I live in the Adelaide Hills, which is a wine region. But I can get from there to the kitchen within 20 minutes. Many of the farms that supply me are less than an hour from the restaurant, and that means I get to know them. You couldn’t do that in Sydney or Melbourne, and it makes a world of difference to the dishes we serve.’ Orana is also making
a difference to the restaurant scene in general. ‘Being named Australia’s best is great for us, but it also helps everybody else in the business, because it shows that Adelaide is worth coming to for the food. The scene has changed a great deal since we’ve been here.’ Adelaide’s vast Central Market is the place to begin an exploration of the city’s varied and evolving food landscape. Go in the morning, since breakfast in Adelaide is big business. On any day of the week, but especially at weekends, you will encounter the smashed-avo generation: millennials who eat out for brekkie rather than dinner because the food is casual in a way Australians like and it’s cheaper than two courses and a bottle of wine. One favoured spot is Lucia’s, a fabulous Italian deli that is also a venerable Adelaide institution. Founded after World War II, it is now run by Lucia’s children along oldschool lines. But there are also some out-there things going on under this roof; many producers use the place as a lab and testing ground. Kangaroo Island Spirits is a distillery making a fabulous range of gins and its inventive cocktails – have one after breakfast, why not? – are driving the local craze for gin bars. In a far corner of the market, a pop-up called Post Dining waxes evangelical about edible mealworms and insects. The little critters are embedded like ancient fossils in the brownies. It turns out chocolate goes very well with roasted crickets, which are toasty and nutty and have a pleasing crunch. Much of the produce at the market comes from Adelaide’s hinterland. ‘It’s a real fruit bowl, because of the Mediterranean climate,’ one stallholder said to me. The fish and seafood is netted in the waters of the Eyre Peninsula – and all sorts of good things come from those nearby Adelaide Hills, which are just a cab ride from the flatlands of the city. This is beautiful countryside: quiet and cool and rural, like Tuscany in springtime. Everywhere on the road there are signs pointing you to wineries. Try the startling sparkling red Shiraz at Ashton Hills; it’s a Santa Claus among fizzy wine. But grapes are not the only fruit around here. Everywhere you see orchards hard by the vineyards – lots of apple trees, but also patches of peach and clusters of cherry. There is a village every few miles along the tangle of hill roads; they
Clockwise from top left: Adelaide Hills; The Summertown Aristologist; Sunny’s Pizza; Stanley Bridge Tavern; Caffiend Coffee Company; Factoria VII guesthouse; Sazón; The Olfactory Inn; Sean’s Kitchen. Previous pages, from top left: La Buvette; diners, a dish of tofu and pumpkin and the interior at The Summertown Aristologist; Sazón; fried barramundi at Golden Boy; the Organic Café, Stirling 99
crop up like random knots in a ball of string. Some of these places are well worth a stop: Summertown for natural wines at the Aristologist, Uraidla for superb pizza at Lost in a Forest, and Hahndorf for a slightly peculiar taste of Germany. The settlers who founded Hahndorf were dour Lutherans from Silesia in present-day Poland. But these days the town presents a jolly Bavarian face; it’s a microcosm of the oompah-Germany that the world would love to love. There are two or three comfortable beerhalls, where Japanese visitors sit with steins of lager alongside Aussie blokes watching their homeland’s impenetrable version of football. And there are one or two terrific food shops to investigate once you have flipped out on the Teutonic weirdness. Udder Delights, a cheesery much better than its name, is a shop where the accoutrements are as enticing as the cheese itself: beetroot relish, cherry chutney, duck rillettes. For more of the makings of a picnic, go to Harris for cured kingfish or smoked salmon fins (the pork scratchings of the sea). Your next stop should be the Gulf Brewery; ales such as Dunkel Sturm and Smoke Stack Rauchbier seem designed to go with a platter of smoked oysters or some bread and bratwurst. And if you happen to be in the hills on the fourth Sunday of the month, drop in on the village of Stirling to mooch around the open-air market. It’s a place where foodie and hippy come together: it’s fippy – and fun. At the entrance, someone is selling organic wine out of the back of a vintage hearse, and there is a stall for doggie snacks and another for naming stones. One stall peddles towering meat pies that look to be straight out of the pages of the Dandy, and it coexists peacefully with the vegans and veggies trading orange slabs of pumpkin lasagne, and cartwheels of cake that are dairy-free, glutenfree, refined-sugar-free… Lots of the rich pickings in the hills are entirely free, and can be gathered by anyone: blackberries grow wild by the road and, for reasons no one understands, porcini mushrooms have started to appear abundantly. ‘They were discovered about seven years ago,’ says Shannon Fleming, a forager and expert in native ingredients who was, until
last year, head chef at Orana. ‘Maybe the porcinis evolved here long ago, who can say? Now there are more and more every season. We took about 60 kilos from my dad’s place last year. They’re the kind of mushroom that you spend megabucks on back in Italy.’ On a walk through the hills, Fleming finds all sorts of plants that could make a garnish or add a grace note to a dish: bush cherries, native peas, creamy candles, which are ‘a sensational flower with a touch of sweetness. I’d love to come up with a way of crystallising them.’ Fleming is looking to market these botanical treasures. He offers me a tart little Kakadu plum to try. ‘This could be the breakthrough ingredient; there’s more vitamin C in there than in 20 oranges’. Later he gives me a packet of the same plum in powdered form – great for sprinkling on seafood. The current explosion of interest in cooking traditions is more than a trend, and it’s not merely the narrow fixation of pros such as Fleming and Zonfrillo. It feels like the dawn of a new attitude to food, one in which South Australia appears to be leading the way. You have to wonder why such a good and right-minded idea didn’t come sooner. ‘Well, there was a fad for bush tucker a while back, and that has put some Australians off the idea,’ says Fleming. ‘But this movement is not the same thing at all. We’re not just scattering quandongs around a steak. There are amazing flavours in the native plants that deserve to be part of the new Australian kitchen, because they are what has been eaten here for thousands of years, tens of thousands.’ Zonfrillo agrees. ‘It is not a fashion; it is about using the ingredients that are part of a living culture,’ he says. ‘When I am developing a dish with, say, eucalyptus or native pepperberries, I am constantly asking myself if it is really delicious. If it is too expensive, then I will find a way to make it cheaper. If it is too complicated, I will make it simpler. But everything I do is aimed at getting the right answer to one question: is it delicious?’ FOR LISTINGS SEE PAGE 103 The writer travelled to Australia with Etihad Airways (etihad.com), which flies twice daily from Heathrow to Sydney via Abu Dhabi
Opposite, clockwise from top left: natural wine at The Summertown Aristologist; Golden Boy; buffalo curd and beetroot at Orana; La Buvette 100
PHOTOGRAPHS (THESE PAGES AND FOLLOWING SPREAD): SIMON BAJADA; ANDRE CASTELLUCCI; MEAGHAN COLES/BROADSHEET.COM.AU; ALANA DIMOU; JOSIE WITHERS/BROADSHEET.COM.AU
ANTS PING ON THE TONGUE WITH LITTLE CITRUSSY POPS. NEXT IS A KANGAROO C R I S P, C U R LY L I K E A Q U E S T I O N M A R K
THE FINEST FOOD STOPS AROUND ADELAIDE THE CITY
THE HILLS
ORANA
MT LOFTY RANGES
South Australia’s hottest restaurant; come here to try the finest cooking in the land. Tasting menu from about £110. restaurantorana.com
Eat on the veranda and look down the vine-striped slope, where kangaroos hop between the rows. Fresh fish with sweetcorn custard goes beautifully with the winery’s own Old Cherry Block Sauvignon Blanc. About £90 for two. mtloftyrangesvineyard.com.au
SEAN’S KITCHEN People rave about the chips – and they are not talking about the adjoining casino. But one of the prettiest things on the menu by British-born chef Sean Connolly is a rainbow salad of heritage tomatoes. About £80 for two. seanskitchen.com.au
BURGER THEORY Eddie Churchman, Adelaide’s best burgermaker, started out as a guy with a van. Now he has bricks-and-mortar outlets. The monthly special is always a good bet; it might come with apple slaw, or tapenade. About £20 for two. burgertheory.com
GOLDEN BOY Thai food with imaginative twists in a grand villa: son-in-law eggs with tamarind chilli, and tingly cumin lamb. The plates come at lightning speed, but every dish is astonishing. About £60 for two. golden-boy.com.au
SUNNY’S PIZZA This cult joint lurks down an unpromising alley. Buy a slice from the hole in the wall, or grab a coveted booth. Try the posh Hawaiian: coppa, char-grilled pineapple and green-chilli salsa. About £15 for two. facebook.com/sunnys.partysize
LA BUVETTE The vibe in this little sidestreet bar is pure Lyon, but the wines come from the hills as well as France. There is also an excellent menu of nibbles such wagyu bresaola, and pickled radish with goat’s curd. labuvettedrinkery.com.au
THE SUMMERTOWN ARISTOLOGIST All the wine served in this bar is natural and unfiltered, but more importantly it is all good. There’s a brief menu of about 10 dishes, each one made for sharing. About £50 for two. thesummertownaristologist.com
LOST IN A FOREST This pizza joint in Uraidla is in the former Anglican church of St Stephen’s, with the oven set where the altar must once have stood. Try the Vietnamese-inspired Bánh Mi, with pork, pickled vegetables and coriander. About £40 for two. lostinaforest.com.au
THE OLFACTORY INN This brasserie in Strathalbyn is worth the 40-minute drive from Adelaide for the sort of fine dining that gives South Australia a good name: the courgette flowers come in a white-wine batter. About £85 for two. theolfactoryinn.com.au
STANLEY BRIDGE TAVERN A wonderful pub in Verdun patronised by all the professional foodies in the region. The cassoulet – duck leg, sausage and pork belly in a slough of beans – is a thing of ineffable beauty. About £55 for two. stanleybridgetavern.com
CAFFIEND COFFEE COMPANY In the German town of Hahndorf you’d expect to find a place that’s big on Kaffee und Küchen. This is it: serious about coffee and cake, and truly authentic. facebook.com/caffiendcoffeeco
EAST BOROUGH EATERY
THE ORGANIC MARKET AND CAFE
Parkside, just south of the greenbelt, is one of the city’s coolest districts. Places such as this brunch spot are one of the reasons why; it serves coconut and caramel porridge, and avocado on toast with fermented chilli. facebook.com/eastboroughparkside
A sunny, laid-back café and grocery on Stirling’s Druid Street, which is the perfect name for a road in this hippyish village. Try a pie: lentil mushroom or no-wurry curry. organicmarket.com.au
SAZON A standout breakfast venue. The cooking is Mexican with a touch of South America, so you would be foolish not to go for the huevos rancheros with chorizo and pico de gallo in a warm tortilla. cbd.sazon.com.au
THE SELLER DOOR By the sea south of the city, midway between Brighton and Hove (no, really) sits this market shop and café. It’s a pickyour-own picnic place. Grab some tasty extras from the fridge and head straight to the beach. thesellerdoor.com.au
WOODSIDE CHEESE WRIGHTS A shop to make foodies swoon. The Monet cheese is topped with edible nasturtiums; Goat on a Hot Tin Roof is pebble-dashed with chilli, saltbush and pepperberry. woodsidecheese.com.au
W H E R E T O S TAY
FACTORIA VII This secluded B&B is the ideal base in the hills. The converted barn has whitewashed walls, diaphanous curtains, and woodwork so exquisitely distressed you’d think it had just broken up with the love of its life. Doubles from about £125. stayz.com.au JB
Opposite, clockwise from top left: Factoria VII, built in the 19th century; The Summertown Aristologist; dishes including potato damper and Adelaide Hills marron at Orana; Burger Theory; celeriac, mussels and buttermilk at The Summertown Aristologist; East Borough Eatery; breakfast at The Seller Door; Mt Lofty Ranges; Bloody Maria cocktail at Lost in a Forest 103
ROUTES MANOEUVRE
HIGH IN THE CRAGGY TIBETAN PLATEAU THE LANDSCAPE HAS CHANGED LITTLE SINCE MERCHANTS 104
BY AMAR GROVER. PHOTOGRAPHS BY TOM PARKER
CARVED OUT A TEA TRAIL 1,000 YEARS AGO. FOLLOW IT AS THEY DID IN A MULE CARAVAN
Y
‘
OU DON’T WANT to get too close to that one; he’s a kicker.’ Aju’s gestures were clear enough,
his amiable Tibetan emphatic and to the point. So I stepped away from the mule’s hindquarters as Aju tightened its straps, and watched our other 28 animals being tethered, steadied, saddled, loaded and buckled. It was a monochrome morning. Dark, ominous clouds thinned to a bleached horizon. The imposing houses, all precise brown masonry with black panda-eyed window frames, looked stern. Yet the mood of the villagers was upbeat. Dozens had turned up to wave me and my fellow trekkers off, amused by the group of tall foreigners wearing clunky boots and brandishing walking poles. When the mules eventually trotted off, there were whoops, guffaws and waves. We followed a muddy path between stone walls up towards the forest. A litter of piglets dashed past snorting and snuffling. We climbed above the village to reach the forest. Warm sunshine filtered through extravagant tendrils of beard lichen hanging from tree boughs. There were dozens of multi-coloured prayer flags strung up like bunting radiating from a solitary chorten, whitewashed shrines that commemorate Buddha’s teachings and sometimes house relics of saints. Our path crossed braided streams on the edge of open meadows dotted with herders’ seasonal huts roofed in wooden shingles. We paused for lunch – rice salad and flapjacks washed down with tea – beneath brooding crags that rose abruptly from an emerald-green collar of fir and spruce. For centuries, this south-western corner of Sichuan province belonged to an independent part of Tibet known as Kham. In 1955, the area became part of China and, despite an ongoing influx of ethnic Chinese, the majority of inhabitants are still Tibetan. It’s a region of deep rugged valleys, surging rivers, dense birch forests, Buddhist monasteries and holy mountains. Relatively few foreign visitors make it here, even though transportation and facilities have improved; in recent years, China has invested in the region’s infrastructure to try to win the hearts and minds of local Tibetans.
Above from left: a horseman on a mountain pass; a woman cooking in the village of Xiangcheng; a Tibetan mastiff 106
‘I love these far-flung frontiers,’ said our guide, Constantin de Slizewicz, ‘and Tibetans are some of the kindest people you’ll meet.’ The Frenchman has carved out a life in this area, co-founding Caravane Liotard, which organises four- to six-day treks that weave through the valleys of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. He lives in a traditional farmhouse in the Ringha Valley near Shangri-La with his British wife and their son. It’s also the land of the ancient Tea Horse Road, cha ma dao in Mandarin, a millennium-old trade route connecting southern China with eastern Tibet. By around the seventh century, Tibetans had begun to acquire a taste – and then a thirst – for Chinese tea, which they drank churned with butter. However, the bushes couldn’t be cultivated in Tibet’s extreme altitude and harsh climate so they set up a trade route, sending to China coveted Central Asian horses as a way to strengthen its army and bolster the borders. In return came tea, compressed into bricks or slim discs. Much of it was only powdery leftovers and unfancied twigs, but for Tibetans it was a welcome addition to their limited diet. Some scholars claim the tea’s convoluted journey – from prolonged storage in humid, lowland warehouses to being humped around on the sweaty backs of pack animals up to higher altitudes – changed its taste, aroma, colour and character; it’s unclear if this was for the better or worse. The tea caravans continued for centuries until the 1950s when Communism shut down borders and stalled trade. Some trails have since vanished or been choked by vegetation, others have been upgraded to modern roads. Our own modest caravan, a homage to these historical crossings, was a celebration of the romance of the early merchants while avoiding the perils and hardships they might have faced along the way. This was a six-day hike through an area without roads or permanent settlements, away from the trodden tourism path. We walked for about seven hours a day between comfortable mobile camps with spacious Sibley bell tents, patterned rugs, soft mattresses, snug duvets, and three-course meals
puppy; a house in Xiangcheng. Previous pages, the view from Tse Qu camp. Following pages, the camp at night
THE TEAM ARRIVED LADEN WITH BOBBING BALES AND BOXES, SACKS AND BACKPACKS. ‘KI KI 108
SO SO!’ CRIED THE HORSEMEN AS THEY BOUND DOWN THE PATH – ‘VICTORY TO THE GODS!’
110
of steaming soup, pork medallions and chocolate mousse paired with French wine. The group was small – made up of mostly French and Swiss, plus two Britons, myself and the photographer Tom Parker – along with 10 Tibetan muleteers managing an astonishing one-and-a-half tonnes of equipment. Our trek continued up to higher altitudes where stunted rhododendron and gnarled juniper gave way to meagre grass and bare rock. Just below the pass, a family of yaks glared at us. Then with a final, almost breathless push we made the col at 4,400 metres. An hour later, I glimpsed our camp in the valley below, its tall rounded tents shining like homing beacons in slanting late-afternoon light. Across the nearby river lay grassy slopes speckled with grazing dzos, a hybrid of yak and cattle, and a clutch of sturdy stone cabins. A group of grinning herders strolled over to greet us. They’d been staying in these rich pastures since late spring, fattening their herds before the onslaught of winter. In a week or two their rudimentary cabins would be closed, the dzos and female dzomos mustered, and their own caravan would return to lower villages until spring. It’s an ancient cycle that endures in the region’s remote, lofty valleys. They seemed delighted to see us – their curiosity piqued by the sheer novelty of Western visitors – but also puzzled that we’d come all this way simply for pleasure. That evening under canvas we dined heartily on yak bourguignon at a long wooden table. Candles flickered in a silver candelabra while a small heating stove, plus plenty of wine, kept us warm. De Slizewicz told us tales of Buddhism, reincarnated lamas, how mountain sickness defies fitness and of the early-20th-century botanist-explorers who had traversed this region. The formidable English botanist Frank Kingdon-Ward undertook more than 22 expeditions, returning with hardy new seeds and plants for European gardens. There was also the Austrian-born American Joseph Rock who lived in Yunnan province for over 25 years, first arriving in 1922 to study its flora and its people in forensic detail while writing for National Geographic; his stories had evocative titles such as ‘Seeking the Mountains of Mystery’ and ‘The Land of the Yellow Lama’. De Slizewicz’s own operation is named after Louis Liotard, an obscure French explorer who was killed by bandits when trying to enter Tibet in 1940. I hoped to fare rather better. The next morning, a few of the group made a headstart and crossed the shallow river to visit the dozen or so herders. Some were out foraging for wood or mustering the dzomos but a couple of
THE MULETEERS WERE RARELY SILENT; THEY WHISTLED AND CLICKED AND CAJOLED THE ANIMALS. THE WOMEN IN PARTICULAR SANG ALL THE WHILE, A BEGUILING, HIGH-PITCHED REFRAIN THAT REPEATEDLY ROSE AND DIPPED men had stayed behind to milk the animals. They squeezed the milk into wooden pails, which they used in part to make a coarse cheese, rather bland to my palate. The rest was left for the calves who suckled urgently while their mothers were calmed with handfuls of tsampa, the ubiquitous Tibetan staple of barley flour. De Slizewicz regaled us with the lyrics of a local folksong: ‘Without the forest there are no grasslands; without the grasslands there’re no yaks; without the yaks there’s no us.’ Every day it took an hour to break camp. While most of the caravan typically surged ahead to set up the next site, usually about a dozen kilometres away, we set our own steady pace. Losanima, one of the muleteers, invariably walked with us – in canvas plimsolls and a tweed flat cap. His two mules carried lunch and offered a saddle if any of the group grew weary. The muleteers were rarely silent; they whistled and clicked and cajoled the animals, urging them here and scolding them there. The women in particular sang all the while, a beguiling high-pitched refrain that repeatedly rose and dipped. Once, having ventured ahead with Parker, we heard the sounds of the caravan drawing close but then veering away up the mountainside. Because of their fading song, I realised we must have strayed. We backtracked nearly a kilometre, saw the fork, smelt fresh dung and climbed more steeply. The rearguard had kindly hung back and waited for us. At the first two passes we relished views of Chenrezig, a 6,000-metre glistening peak at the heart of Yading Nature Reserve. Its pyramidal ramparts soared above a stark expanse of serrated jade-grey scarps and bluffs. For Tibetans, Chenrezig is another name for Avalokitesvara, lord of compassion and one of the most popular bodhisattvas (someone who seeks awakening). This was his earthly representation. Together with two lower peaks, the massif is a sacred place, in the same way as Tibet’s Mount Kailash. Here, devotees circumambulate the base of the mountains on a two-day kora, a pilgrimage of walking and sometimes repeated prostration. Our less noble trajectory was up towards Yading’s alluring peaks, but avoiding the reserve, which has become a magnet for domestic visitors. Snow flurries heralded the third pass (‘It’s not a pass, it’s a belvedere!’ exclaimed de Slizewicz). We spied our distant camp pitched implausibly above the treeline on a slender shelf of green cradled
Opposite, clockwise from top left: on the trail; a villager in Xiangyi; a door in Xiangcheng; making tea at camp
by jagged strata and huge barren ridges. The trail contoured across an austere, rocky expanse riven with shallow gullies. Steely grey peaks rose to our right and a great chasm of a valley fell away to the left. One more col lay between us and camp but the way was faint, steep and stony. Dusk smothered the landscape and sapped our strength, but relief finally came with the soft glow of our lantern-lit tents. That day was followed by one of exhilaration. It dawned clear and cold, and dazzling sunlight quickly saw off the frost-caked grass and frozen puddles. We yearned to see the caravan in full theatrical spate. Barely 90 minutes’ walk away lay the prime spot: our highest pass yet with great vistas of Chenrezig. For much of the way, mottled slabs of rock had been eased into a semblance of a pencil-thin trail. The final metres zigzagged steeply to a slender notch in the ridge in which some
AT THE HIGHEST PASS I PAUSED; THE GREAT MOUNTAIN BEJEWELLED THE HORIZON, ITS FLANKS STREAKED WITH SNOW AND STAINED WITH MORAINE waggish local had wedged a doorframe. I stepped through and paused; the great mountain bejewelled the horizon, its flanks streaked with snow and stained with moraine. Barely an hour later the column arrived laden with bobbing bales and boxes, sacks and backpacks. ‘Ki ki so so!’ cried the muleteers – Victory to the gods! – as they filed through the doorframe. They bound down the path, singing and whistling. It proved a sublime day. Now waymarked with stone cairns, the easy trail continually lent great panoramas of muscular ranges and huge valleys. After one more notched ridge, at mid-afternoon we strolled into camp where the team had set up a gazebo-covered table with glasses of wine, bottles of Ricard, Scotch and beer, and plates of chorizolike sausage and stir-fried lotus root. But the weather turned overnight and we awoke to rain and
Above from left: a local man in Xiangcheng; the home of guide Constantin de Slizewicz near Shangri-La; prayer 112
sleet. The feeble campfire spluttered and smoked. As we wound up to a kind of plateau with undulating ridges, mist shrouded a cluster of lakes in almost Gaelic mystery and eerie silence. It snowed briefly as we began the long descent, gently at first amid carpets of cobalt-blue gentians and then, funnelled into a ravine down to the pretty meadow on its floor with a gurgling crystalline stream curving past our last camp. This was the home stretch. The stream gained both strength and tributaries as we tracked it through the narrow Bon Go valley, its course now punctuated with huge boulders, swirling rapids and fallen trees. Twice we crossed it on cantilevered log bridges, the mules showing no sign of hesitation at the tightness or the height. We plunged two vertical kilometres from sub-alpine to temperate climes. Finally, a spindly pylon marked the road ahead and a line of minibuses awaiting our arrival, the drivers beaming and offering us cigarettes. We hugged our muleteers. A grinning de Slizewicz gave me a comradely pat on the back. There’s an old Tibetan proverb: ‘You can’t get to the meadow of happiness without climbing the cliff of hardship’. I gazed back up the valley; the terrain looked almost impenetrable.
GETTING HERE French operator Club Faune Voyages (+33 1 42 88 31 32; club-faune.com) specialises in tailor-made itineraries in Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in conjunction with Caravane Liotard (caravane-liotard.com), offering mostly three- or five-night trips with up to 12 guests. The shorter trip costs from about £3,405 per person, including accommodation and meals on the trek, two nights in a hotel before and after, with breakfast and afternoon tea, flights, transfers and entrances to monasteries. Email france@club-faune.com for an itinerary in English
flags on the trek to the You Kou grassland; a Tibetan woman in colourful prints and gold and beaded jewellery
THE GLOBETROTTER
CUBA GOODING JR THE STAR OF ‘SELMA’ AND TV HIT ’THE PEOPLE V OJ SIMPSON’ WON AN OSCAR FOR ‘JERRY MAGUIRE’. BUT HIS FIRST PERFORMING GIG WAS AS A BREAKDANCER WITH LIONEL RICHIE AT THE LA OLYMPICS Where have you just come back from? ‘I got in to London from LA at noon yesterday, then slept until 5am and I’m a jet-lagged monster now. Before LA, I was in Australia for about eight days working on a campaign in Sydney, which is one of the most beautiful places on earth. I stayed at the Shangri-La hotel; you can see the Opera House outside the window. One day I got taken on a plane to a private island for lunch. I was surrounded by all these newly-weds and I was so angry, because I was with my male assistant, having this romantic lunch – steaks and Champagne – thinking, what are you doing at my table instead of a female companion?’
PHOTOGRAPH: KURT ISWARIENKO/TRUNK ARCHIVE
Where in the world have you felt happiest? ‘It would be that period in my life when my kids were all young and we would go on trips to the Four Seasons in Maui. I was doing great films, and was able to take 10 days off at a time, spending it on the beach and watching my children grow. It wasn’t just the location that made me happy, but all the circumstances in my life. I’ve been in the most breathtaking places, but if you’re not with family you might as well be in a cell somewhere. Doesn’t matter how much money, or how many cars, or houses you have, you only get to take your memories to the grave.’
Name a place that most lived up to the hype ‘Absolutely, 100 per cent, Rome. I was doing Jerry Maguire and was travelling with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in their private jet, which started things well! We went from London to Ireland, and wound up in Rome. It was magical. The Colosseum was everything they said it would be.’ And a place that least lived up to the hype ‘For Pearl Harbor we shot in Mexico and I don’t want to mention the specific city, but they had us staying in a hotel right opposite a shanty town. There was so much poverty just across the way, while we were among all this luxury. I don’t know how people can feel comfortable about that.’
Which is your favourite city? ‘New York without a doubt. I was born in the Bronx, but raised in Los Angeles. The first time I went back to New York and smelled the chestnuts on the street corner, and the subway, it reminded me of my childhood. Manhattan’s kinetic energy is something I strive to get back to every month now. I need it. The energy I have as an entertainer is born out of that New York vibe. The city will always be home, and I have two boys at college, one at NYU and one at Wesleyan in Connecticut, so it has been the hub for me to see them.’
‘I AM A SECRET KARAOKE FAN. THERE’S A LITTLE PLACE IN MALIBU – ONE NIGHT BONO WAS THERE DOING HIS OWN SONGS’ What do you pack first? ‘I never go anywhere without my iPad, so I have books, my music, my television… I read a lot of behavioural books for creating characters. I’m reading Resisting Happiness by Matthew Kelly – it’s amazing. And I just finished Viktor E Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.’ Your first holiday without your parents? ‘The press tour for Boyz n the Hood in 1990. They put us on a commercial flight all across America, going from city to city, eating hotel food and screening the movie. It was me, Morris Chestnut, John Singleton, Ice Cube and Laurence Fishburne, not believing our lives. The most fun we had was in Miami. What happened? I can’t tell you what we got up to – are you crazy?!’ Tell us about a great little place you know ‘I am a secret karaoke fan: maybe that’s why I’m on the West End now, doing Chicago. In Malibu, California, there is a place called Café Habana, which is Rande Gerber and Cindy Crawford’s little hideaway spot. I’m letting the cat out of the bag
with that one, but every Wednesday night they do karaoke. One evening Bono was up there doing his own songs.’ The smartest hotel you’ve stayed in? ‘I’ve been in some fancy hotels. The first time I was in the Dorchester, I almost cried. Then at a hotel in Beirut once there was a big bouquet in the lobby, with the flowers going up to the ceiling, but it was made out of bread! That was decadent.’ Sightseeing or sun lounger? ‘I hate people who go on holiday and work every moment of the day. You wind up more stressed doing the vacation than you were going on vacation. My advice? Plan a golf thing or a sightseeing thing, but then take a day off, then plan the aquarium, then take a day off. I guarantee that on the days off, you will find shit to do.’ Most regrettable holiday souvenir? ‘So many trinkets. I have one from the Sydney Opera House, but I don’t even know where I’ve put the damn thing.’ Nominate your 8th wonder of the world ‘My 12-year-old daughter Piper. Someone said your kids are your new and improved model, and she does everything; sings, acts, she’s a gymnast. To me, she’s a wonder.’ Confess to one thing you’ve taken from a hotel room ‘I took a portable speaker once, but I think they charged me for it. I didn’t care, it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen.’
How do you relax? ‘I’ve always been a sports guy, so I play a lot of ice hockey. When I’m back in LA, I never miss a Sunday skate, and I’m going on for 25 years of that now.’ I lost my heart in… ‘Miami!’
Cuba Gooding Jr stars in ‘Chicago’ at the Phoenix Theatre, London, from 26 March. chicagowestend.com April 2018 Condé Nast Traveller 115
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116 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
Clockwise from top left: the beach at Llandanwg; shops on Smithfield Street in Dolgellau; beach huts at Llanbedrog; inside Barmouth Sailors’ Institute. Opposite, Portmeirion
STAYCATION
NORTH WALES
THIS WILD AND STRANGE LAND FLOWS AROUND THE SCUDDING SHADOWS OF SNOWDONIA. A CULT SIXTIES SHOW WAS FILMED HERE, WHILE TOLKIEN MAPPED OUT MIDDLE-EARTH AND PRINCESS MARGARET AND HER CHILDREN PADDLED IN WATERS INHABITED BY MYTHICAL CREATURES BY DOMINIC WELLS. PHOTOGRAPHS BY CRAIG FORDHAM
IN BRITAIN WHEN I FIRST READ ‘THE LORD OF THE RINGS’ IT WAS WITH A THRILL of recognition. The fictional world of Middle-earth was overlaid in my mind with the magical landscape in which I spent every summer: Snowdonia, with its sparkling lakes and misty mountains, its disused slate quarries that could be the entrance to the Mines of Moria. Tolkien was inspired not just by these views, but by the lilting language which he adapted into the Elvish tongue of Sindarin, and by the tall tales of giants and warriors and rings of invisibility in the medieval Welsh legends of the Mabinogion. North Wales is a land of dreamers, poets and bards, of Dylan Thomas and Bryn Terfel, where the most coveted honour is the crown or chair for poetry given at the National Eisteddfod by the Archdruid in flowing white robes. I was accustomed to such company as a child. My grandfather was a bearded pipe-smoking giant of a man called Richard Hughes, a celebrated playwright, screenwriter and author of A High Wind in Jamaica, but plain ‘Diccon’ to his friends and 13 grandchildren. It was he who introduced Thomas to his beloved village of Laugharne when he housed the penniless poet for a few months beside a ruined castle, until Thomas nearly ruined the wine cellar. By the time I came along, Diccon lived in a big house on the Dwyryd Estuary. It was, and still is, a place of marvels. The Dwyryd is tidal, always changing – rolling waters for half the day, ankle-deep
the train station. He set her on the back of his unreliable motorbike, which, Diccon used to joke, ‘went from time to time rather than place to place’ and married her not long after. In the 1930s, they attended bohemian parties at Portmeirion with other writers, intellectuals and artists. On one such evening, my grandparents had more guests staying than there were cars, so they sent the women round by road, while the men crossed the estuary on foot, stripped naked, holding their dinner jackets above their heads. They arrived dripping on the far bank to dress before entering the hotel, like James Bond emerging from the water in Goldfinger. Every summer, even now, 40 years after my grandfather’s death, I visit Carreg y Ro Bach, which my mother inherited as no more than a single stone-walled room with a stream running across the floor. The window is an old ship’s porthole set into a deep round hole in the slate walls: through it Portmeirion is perfectly framed. Yet in all these 50-odd years of admiring the village from afar, and visiting it along with 200,000 other annual sightseers, I had never once stayed the night. Portmeirion is astonishing enough by day: Williams-Ellis called it his ‘home for fallen buildings’, so that as well as the Mediterranean-style houses he designed himself, you will find a shrapnel-riddled Grade II-listed colonnade rescued from Bristol after the war (his own face is carved into a gargoyle); 32 mermaid-design ironworks from Liverpool; and even a great
THE MAN WHO PLANTED THE WOODLAND HID FROM BAILIFFS IN CATACOMBS BENEATH THE HOTEL, FED BY HIS LOYAL BUTLER THROUGH A TRAP DOOR UNDER THE PANTRY SINK banks of rich, soft sand for the rest. The sea leaves a wavy pattern on the sand, as on fingertips soaking too long in the bath, so that on summer days the white sand and blue water are indistinguishable from white cloud and blue sky, and you no longer know which is up and which is down and where the sky ends and the earth begins. In the middle of the estuary is a small and mysterious island, said to be inhabited by a misanthropic farmer with a blunderbuss. The only time I felt safe walking over to bathe in its rock pools was in the company of Princess Margaret’s children, on one glorious summer’s day in the early 1970s when their mother was riding my grandmother’s horses, since we were shadowed by two armed guards. The men tried to look serious and menacing, wearing suits with gun holsters poking out, but it’s not easy to look hard when you have to take off your shoes and roll up your trousers. Look up in any direction but the open sea, and the horseshoe of the estuary is fringed by mountain peaks, Snowdon uppermost. I first climbed Wales’s highest mountain at the age of five and had my children do likewise. Cnicht is another favourite: it looks so tall and pointed that it’s known as the Welsh Matterhorn, but you can get up and down in well under three hours. But best of all, across the estuary is a sight that never fails to astonish. A sprawling Italianate village emerges from the woodland as if through some rift in the space/time continuum, a Mediterranean vision in ice-cream pinks, teal and terracotta, its jumble of domes and towers a merry counterpoint to the dark hills. This is the hotel of Portmeirion, built over the course of 50 years by Welsh architect Clough Williams-Ellis, and it is, for my money, one of the most striking views in all of Europe. Just as Portmeirion owes its existence to Williams-Ellis, so do I. It was he who fatefully sent my grandfather to meet a young artist at
domed statue of Buddha which had been part of the set design when Ingrid Bergman filmed The Inn of the Sixth Happiness around here in 1958. Most spectacular is the Hercules Hall: its 17th-century vaulted plasterwork ceiling representing the Labours of Hercules was salvaged from Emral Hall in Flintshire before its demolition and transported here in more than 100 pieces. But the houses of Portmeirion aren’t just curiosities: they contain extraordinary guest rooms, with more in the main hotel building down at the water’s edge and in the Victorian mock-castle Castell Deudraeth above. Each is unique: one dedicated couple I met have been working their way through them for the last three decades. And it’s as a guest that you discover the magic hour is 7pm, after the day-trippers have left. The slanting sunlight illuminates the clock tower, the hush is broken only by the chirping of the birds, and the place becomes your own private fantasyland. Behind Portmeirion you can wander 20 miles of paths through private woodland. Sir William Fothergill Cooke, co-inventor of the telegraph, so impoverished himself in the task of planting it that he had to hide from bailiffs in catacombs under the hotel, fed by his loyal butler through a trap door under the pantry sink. Many still come for its associations with The Prisoner, the surreal TV thriller that was filmed here in the 1960s. There is a Prisoner shop, an in-room TV channel showing back-to-back episodes and an annual music and arts festival called Festival Number 6, named after The Prisoner’s hero. But really they come for what the show represents: a time of eccentrics and adventurers, when not everything was compartmentalised and explained, when a village like this could be built by an architect because it amused him to do so. In Snowdonia those eccentrics still flourish. In an old slate mine in nearby Blaenau Ffestiniog an entrepreneur has built a series
Opposite, clockwise from top left: at Snowdonia National Park; on the hill at Portmeirion and a quiet corner; a house on Llanbedrog beach; a local with a pipe; on the National Trust trail at Aberglaslyn; one of the bright buildings at Portmeirion; artefacts at Barmouth Sailors’ Institute. Centre, Cilan Head April 2018 Condé Nast Traveller 119
IN BRITAIN
From left: the town hall at Portmeirion; the Woodland Trust’s Cwm Mynach valley, which runs through the Rhinogydd mountain range in Snowdonia
of trampolines suspended from the roof and walls of a cavern that is twice the size of St Paul’s Cathedral. Its intricate web of ropes is bathed in floodlights that change from red to blue to green to purple: it could be an art installation if it wasn’t also a living game of adult Snakes and Ladders. The unstable movement of the ropes leaves you feeling drunk, or like a toddler again. And to the west of Portmeirion, on the lovely Llˆyn Peninsula, I discovered a profession straight out of Tolkien. A sign outside Penarth Fawr announced that the 15th-century hall house was closed due to staffing issues; they were looking for a Key Keeper.
chatting to a couple in their 50s, who look alarmed when I say I am a travel writer. ‘Don’t write about this place or everyone will discover it!’ says the man. ‘There’s just something about being up here with the mountains and the sea. Puts everything into perspective, doesn’t it?’ It does indeed. So I shouldn’t mention Criccieth Castle, with its two towers silhouetted on a round hill jutting out to sea; nor the Whistling Sands – so-called for the noise they make when you rub your feet on them – in a picturesque cove with a tiny trail winding around the headland, part of the West Coast Path which
EVERY SUMMER I VISIT THIS COTTAGE, WHICH MY MOTHER INHERITED AS NO MORE THAN A SINGLE STONE-WALLED ROOM WITH A STREAM RUNNING ACROSS THE FLOOR A good place for lunch nearby is Plas Bodegroes. It might no longer be Michelin-starred, but still has five acres of gardens, a walled pond guarded by twisting wisteria and 200-year-old beech trees that lead to a stream, plus rooms upstairs if you want to stay the night. But the crowning glory of the peninsula is the remarkable Victorian Gothic mansion Plas Glyn-y-Weddw, Wales’s oldest art gallery, with rich red walls and a vast hammer-beam ceiling rising high above a Jacobean staircase. Above the Plas, through the lost woodland paths of Winllan, it’s a short climb to the top of the headland upon which a lone figure has stood sentinel for more than a century. First it was a wooden statue, but that was burned by vandals in the 1970s; then a tin man, which did not survive the elements; and finally an iron man, airlifted up in 2002. The view is spectacular: mountains, sea, and a row of multicoloured beach huts on the perfect sands of Llanbedrog. I get 120 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
stretches for 870 miles; nor the very tip of the peninsula, seemingly the edge of the earth itself, where even language has run out, in a place called Uwchmynydd. I stood on the wind-swept cliff overlooking Bardsey, the legendary ‘island of 20,000 saints’ which in medieval times was an important pilgrimage route and where King Arthur is said to have been buried, one day to rise again in England’s hour of darkest need. Here, the clouds parted and shafts of sunlight pierced the vault. As they swept over the sea, they resembled nothing so much as celestial searchlights, and the fanciful notion occurred that they were trolling the waves for fallen angels. Doubles at Hotel Portmeirion (portmeirion-village.com) cost from £125. Doubles at Plas Bodegroes (bodegroes.co.uk) from £99; about £90 for dinner for two
there from your first glimpse through the trees – a feeling that there’s something about Adare Manor that goes beyond anything you expected. Beyond the splendour of the castle itself, perfectly appointed in every detail. Beyond the cherished heritage of Irish hospitality. Something so magical it goes beyond luxury…
Adare Manor, Adare, Co Limerick, Ireland Tel: +353 61 605200 / adaremanor.com
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FLAVOUR HUNTER DISPATCHES FROM THE FOODIE FRONTIER EDITED BY TABITHA JOYCE
ARTIST'S IMPRESSION OF THE JUNGLE BAR AT ANNABEL'S AND BELOW, THE GARDEN ROOM MEXICAN TRAVELLER COCKTAIL WITH SAKE AND YUZU
THE LAST JIMADOR, WITH TEQUILA AND VERMOUTH
PHOTOGRAPHS: MATTHEW BUCK; JOHN POWELL/ALAMY
ACE OF CLUBS LONDON’S LEGENDARY PARTY SPOT, ANNABEL’S, IS BACK AND ITS MEXICAN MENU IS PERFECTLY ON TREND
KING OF JALISCO, WITH TEQUILA, PISCO & PEAR
Back in the 1960s, had you idly mentioned that a Mexican was arriving at Annabel’s, members of the high-rolling members’ club might have expected to see a playboy fresh in from the baccarat tables of Acapulco, a Zapata moustache curling above his lip and two starlets on his arm. But this the new Annabel’s – a different club for a different age, as one former regular describes it – and the Latin American in question is its restaurant, headed by a chef fresh in from the flame-licked hobs of Mexico City’s hottest contemporary restaurant, Pujol. Opening this spring, Annabel’s is just two doors down from the original on Berkeley Square but a world away from the place Mark Birley opened in 1963, named after his then wife and scooped out of the basement of the Clermont Club so its aristocratic clientele had somewhere to wet their whistle. This incarnation occupies an entire Palladian-style townhouse and garden, and has been tricked out in a garden theme by Stockholm-born Martin Brudnizki, who is quite possibly the hardest-working man in interior design right now (he’s just
THE EXTERIOR OF 46 BERKELEY SQUARE April 2018 Condé Nast Traveller 123
FLAVOUR HUNTER
ARTWORK IN THE JUNGLE BAR. BELOW, SCALLOPS, LIME, GRANNY SMITH & WASABI
124 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
CHICA MORADA MOCKTAIL WITH PURPLE CORN
THE CORTES TIPPLE, WITH TEQUILA AND YUZU LIQUEUR. RIGHT, THE GARDEN BAR
PHOTOGRAPHS: MATTHEW BUCK
completed the University Arms hotel in Cambridge and The Coral Room at The Bloomsbury). As for the decor, well, as Liberace might have said, Annabel’s just slipped out to put on something more spectacular. Flowers bloom on all sides, in murals and in silk across the ceiling of the ladies’ powder room; tigers, elephants, owls and parrots peek out of carpets and walls. There are two floor-to-ceiling chandeliers that once illuminated Audrey Hepburn in Paris When It Sizzles. A winged unicorn has alighted on the stairs, a hot-air balloon above it just in case. In the basement, a Garden of Eden serpent uncoils on the nightclub wall and columns are clad as gilt-edged palm trees. It has all the texture and colour of a Victorian Christmas card, but also conjures the leafy 18th-century grottoes of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, where fashionable courtiers gathered for masquerades and after-dark dalliances. Right at the top of the house is the restaurant. No one really went to Annabel’s purely for the food. Although its founder was no slouch when it came to the menu, which in the 1960s was best read with a copy of Larousse Gastronomique to hand. Birley asked probably the foremost expert there was for advice: his friend Elizabeth David, who came back with detailed annotations such as ‘Don’t let’s have any more dishes with names like Scampis Frit and Cold Pea Soup (sounds like essence of London fog)’ and ‘I wonder what impression the menu makes on customers who come in half-sloshed at 1.30am?’ Now guests will be able to order playful dishes of eel on corn cake, avocado with green-bean tahini and habanero ash, mussels dashed with guajillo chilli oil – whether they turn up half-sloshed at 1.30am or 1.30pm. Chef Jorge Dorbecker, known as Coko, grew up in central Mexico, a land of giant tamales and fermented cactus fruit. His menu will elevate street food to a social high – a clever choice now that London foodies are on nodding terms with authentic Mexicana at recent arrivals such as Ella Canta, Breddos and El Pastor. As for what to wear, while the original dress-code insisted on a jacket and tie, Annabel’s will now let in denim and trainers before 7pm. But not sports shoes ‘that look as if they’ve actually been used to play sports’. Or denim that is holey or deemed distressed. That would surely have been a step too far. RICK JORDAN annabels.co.uk
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Sit back and enjoy 15% off an elegant afternoon tea for just £31.20 per person at The Lanesborough, London, a stunning mansion hotel between Hyde Park and Green Park. Nibble on finger sandwiches, indulge in exquisite patisserie and top it off with homemade scones, preserves and clotted Devonshire cream. To book email celeste@ lanesborough.com or call 020 7259 5599 and quote ‘CNTMEMBERS’. Valid 1 March–31 August 2018. Subject to availability. Terms & conditions apply.
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THIS MONTH’S RECIPE ROSE GARAM MASALA LAMB First make the garam masala by grinding together in a pestle and mortar 1½tbsp dried edible rose petals, 1 star anise, 1 small cinnamon stick, ½tsp cumin seeds, 6 cloves, 5 green cardamom pods and 1 long dried chilli. Now pound to a paste an inch of peeled ginger and a garlic clove. Peel and finely chop a red onion, and fry until golden. Mix this with the garlic-and-ginger paste, all but 1tsp of the garam masala, 300ml yogurt, the juice of a lime and a pinch of salt. Slather over 4 lamb chops – cutlets are fine too – and marinate overnight, if possible. When ready to cook, scrape off most of the marinade and griddle or barbecue for 3-6 minutes on each side. Serve dusted with the remaining garam masala and scattered with fresh or dried rose petals.
FLAVOUR HUNTER
WORLD ON A PLATE
PHOTOGRAPH: STUART OVENDEN. STYLIST: DAVINA PERKINS. FORGE DE LAGUIOLE CARVING KNIFE AND FORK, £495, WILLIAM & SON (WILLIAMANDSON.COM)
THE INGREDIENT: ROSE
EAT ME
DRINK ME
BY JOANNA WEINBERG
BY MALCOLM GLUCK
Adding rose to cooking is a bit like discovering your supermodel neighbour has a master’s degree in engineering – you may be smitten forever. What is an all-delicate fragrance in a vase becomes a gentle hit of floral sweetness in a dish, lifting it in a way that most ingredients can’t begin to. It’s tempting to assume the English have a kind of ownership over rose. Here, it has been recorded in cooking since recipes were first written – and used for hundreds of years before. Until the introduction of vanilla in the 17th century, it was our preferred flavouring, mostly in the form of rosewater, from taffety tarts
It’s not every day one cooks a dish using a wild-rose recipe from Pakistan. An utterly surprising recipe, therefore, requires a totally surprising wine. And I believe I have found the perfect bottle. It cannot come from Pakistan as it doesn’t produce wine, so we must look elsewhere: Australia. Why? Because the sweet floral uplift of those rose-marinated lamb chops requires a sunny wine, rich enough to handle the spice but not so hearty it overwhelms it. But before we get to this, the chef needs to have vinous refreshment to hand as they cook. And in this regard Australia is also my chosen vineland. There is a choice of two sublime liquids, both Chardonnays, both beautifully textured and svelte, and both putting to shame many a highly regarded white Burgundy costing a great deal more. This awesome twosome are Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay 2012 (£61.95 a bottle at Slurp) and, by the case at Berry Bros & Rudd, Penfolds Yattarna Chardonnay 2011 (£526.80). These are not just two of the greatest Chards in Oz, but two of the greatest on the planet. A glass (or two) of these silkily delicious wines is the ideal thought-provoking treat as you slave over a stove. Which brings us to what to drink with this dish. It has to be red, and for this I choose Australia too. And when Oz is mentioned alongside red wine, do you not think immediately of the Shiraz grape? You do. But have you ever tried it in its sparkling manifestation? Peter Lehmann Masters Black Queen Sparkling Shiraz 2012 is a wonderful treat from nose to throat. Unlike our two whites, which model themselves on the wines of Europe, Sparkling Shiraz is unique to Australia. It exists nowhere else except, to purchase, at Highbury Vintners (£24), Eton Vintners (£22.95), Noble Green (£22), and ozwines.co.uk (£21.99). The texture is like embroidered taffeta, the fruit is
GO EAST AND YOU’LL FIND ROSE IN LEBANESE PASTRIES AND TURKISH DELIGHT, BUT IT IS MORE INTERESTING IN SAVOURY DISHES (apple tarts glazed with rosewater) to chewits (pies filled with minced meat). There is a glorious 18th-century recipe for glazed ham spiced with cardamom, coriander and rose which stands the test of time. Now, rose may be more likely to give flight to a cloud of meringues, or add a heady romance to chocolate mousse or truffles. It’s worth noting that all roses are edible – it is only their treatment by spraying that renders some unsuitable for the plate. Go east and you will stumble upon it quickly. It is widespread in sweets, from the delicate pastries of Lebanon to, of course, Turkish delight. But, like cinnamon, it is more interesting when it makes an appearance in savoury dishes. Rose is used distinctively in Moroccan cooking. It is particularly good in combination with quail and lamb, sometimes adding a hit of fragrance in the signature spice mix ras-el-hanout – used as a rub for meat and base note for many tagines. It enhances harissa, too, the fiery but aromatic red-pepper paste that is added to almost everything in the Maghrebian cooking of the North African coastal countries. Head further east again, and you’ll encounter rose as a regular guest in the food of India and Pakistan, in bright-pink milkshakes and ices, and very sweet rice puddings. Most delightfully, it is often the leading note in garam masala, a spice blend that is used as the base for many dishes and curries found across these two countries. There is a wild rose in Pakistan called desi gulab, whose intense depth of fragrance and deep purple-red hues make it very special to cook with. Every household will have its own recipe, and here is mine: a beloved marinade for lamb. If you can find rose-petal jam, stir through a squeeze of lemon and a little pounded garlic to use as a jelly to accompany the meat.
THE TEXTURE OF THIS SPARKLING SHIRAZ IS LIKE EMBROIDERED TAFFETA, THE FINISH MYSTERIOUSLY EXCITING AND SCRUMPTIOUS redolent of smoked plums with liquorice and black olive, and the finish, boosted by all that effervescence, is mysteriously exciting, sensually arousing and utterly sublimely scrumptious. I know. It sounds bizarre, a sparkling red (there is a red Champagne curiously, Bouzy Rouge, but it’s not much appreciated in Britain), but the fact is that with its Sparkling Shiraz, Australia has created a wine which only it could create. It is, to my mind, the essence of the country in a bottle: streamlined, modern, confident (but not brash), and with those lamb chops it’s as perfect a marriage as can be arranged. April 2018 Condé Nast Traveller 127
FLAVOUR HUNTER
TASTE BUZZ
S’MORES
TRY IT In Brooklyn, diners at Olmsted keep things traditional, melting homemade vanilla marshmallows and Hershey’s chocolate over charcoal-filled cans in the urban farm at the back of the restaurant. Adding a twist to the classic, Los Angeles’s Take a Bao replaces the crackers with a cinnamonsugar bun – cramming in brûléed bananas and chopped hazelnuts too. At Buttercream Bakeshop in Washington DC, a s’mores biscuit bar is made with cracker crumble, ganache and vanilla fluff. And cronut creator Dominique Ansel has brought his frozen s’mores across the Atlantic from Manhattan to London’s Belgravia, where honey marshmallow cubes are filled with Tahitian-vanilla ice cream and chocolatewafer crisps, torched to order and served on a smoked willow stick. Meanwhile, in San Juan in the Philippines, surfers come to El Union Coffee at the end of the day to dunk biscuits into a cast-iron skillet filled with molten mallows alongside gooey Nutella. KATHARINE SOHN
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SIP TRIP
UMESHU TAP INTO JAPAN’S THIRST FOR THE HOME-BREWED SPIRIT Booze is all about balance. (Its own balance – not yours after a few, jelly-legs.) A good drink is a balanced drink: the chemical reconciliation of opposing forces. This is equally true of wine, spirits and cocktails. (Why, I sometimes wonder, is life itself not more like a well-made Gimlet, in which the bitterness serves only to give depth and dignity to the sweetness?). To which wild and ultimately unprovable assertion I shall add another, by suggesting that nowhere is the concept of balance more thoroughly understood or more elegantly expressed than in Japan, an island nation obsessed with nuance. Umeshu is as essential to Japanese drinks culture as sake, though less well known abroad, where it is usually misidentified as plum wine. It is not made of plums and it is not a wine. It is a simple infusion in a neutral spirit of sugar and ume – a fruit related to the apricot and the plum but distinct from both. Commercially produced versions are available, but the best of it is made at home. There is nothing to it. Three ingredients in a jar. Time is the variable. The final flavour depends on how long the ume is allowed to steep. Broadly speaking, the longer you leave it, the more subtly delicious the drink becomes: the more balanced. STEVE KING
PHOTOGRAPHS: MYLENE CHUNG; XAVIER GIRARD LACHAINE; DAVID WILLIAMS/REDUX/EYEVINE
THE trend You no longer have to pitch a tent and light a campfire to feast on toasted marshmallows and chocolate sandwiched between honey-flavoured graham crackers. Now, top restaurants around the world are creating their own take on the all-American treat.
T R AVEL L ER PA RTN E R SH IP S
TWICE AS
NICE The bright lights of Singapore and the beautiful beaches of Thailand make the perfect two-centre holiday
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Clockwise from top: Buddhas flank a temple under a starry sky; an idyllic island getaway; a tropical rainforest watering hole
ESCAPE: THAILAND
Soul-soothing scenery and spiritual traditions
Departures in low season. All packages include flights and airport taxes and are based on a departure from London, UK.
Clockwise from top: Gibbs Beach; the Beach House Suite living room at The Sandpiper; Cobblers Cove Beach; The House by Elegant Hotels pool
Just a short flight away, Thailand provides the perfect foil to Singapore’s dazzling lights. Head for the northern provinces to explore the ancient cities and temples of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai – then immerse yourself in the surrounding paddy fields and lush jungles, home to elephants and hill tribes who have practiced their traditional way of life for centuries. Head south for a choice of idyllic island getaways: world-famous Phuket; buzzing Koh Samui; the hidden gem of Khao Lak. Whichever you opt for you’ll find picture-postcard sands, garlanded longtail boats, warm shallows in which to wallow, beautiful snorkelling and diving spots, and chilled beach bars from which to watch the magnificent sunsets. Or spend a day boating among towering limestone outcrops and exploring rainforests, caves and waterfalls, before heading back to bask in your private infinity pool at one of the islands’ world-class resorts.
Reader offer Thailand City, Beach, Jungle and Singapore itinerary: 14 days/13 nights. Includes private transfers throughout, three nights in Chiang Mai with breakfast daily, four nights in Khao Lak with breakfast daily, two nights in Khao Sok National Park with all meals included and four nights in Singapore on a roomonly basis. Four-star from £1,559 per person; five-star from £1,599 per person, based on two people sharing. To book, call Southall Travel on 020 8843 4444 or visit southalltravel.co.uk
Southall Travel
modern metropolis built on the foundations of a multicultural heritage; a city in a garden built with passion: Singapore offers something for everyone’s inner explorer to discover. Nature-lovers will be captivated by Singapore’s bountiful green spaces – from treetop walking trails to nature reserves, UNESCO World Heritage sites to the futuristic and sustainable Gardens by the Bay. Foodies can satiate their appetites with local street fare, Michelin-starred hawker food and fine dining that encapsulates Singapore’s cultural melting pot. Explorers can discover new cultures in an organic way, whether perusing the heritage shophouses, quaint stores and eateries of Joo Chiat or investigating the origins of the Tiger Balm Gardens, with more than a thousand statues and huge scenic dioramas dedicated to Chinese culture. Adventure seekers can zip-line through mist-soaked jungle canopies, go surfing or even sky dive in the world’s largest wind tunnel. Whatever your passion, it’s all possible in Singapore.
Clockwise from this image: delicious local street fare; Joo Chiat’s heritage shophouses; Gardens by the Bay
EXPLORE: SINGAPORE
The Lion City roars with life, from fabulous food to culture
FLAVOUR HUNTER
Eat the streets BURMESE COOKING MAY BE INFLUENCED BY ITS FIVE NEIGHBOURS, BUT THE END RESULT IS VERY MUCH ITS OWN. HEAD DOWNTOWN IN THE COUNTRY’S BIGGEST CITY, YANGON, TO DISCOVER FUN FUSION SPINS 8AM: BREAKFAST
Rangoon Tea House, 77–79 Pansodan Street Tuck into mohinga, a hearty fish-and-noodle soup that is a Burmese breakfast staple. Here, the traditional catfish and rich, thick broth comes with sweet daggertooth fillets, fresh garbanzo beans, lemongrass and banana stems. Go big and order extra toppings of gourd, onion fritters and boiled duck eggs. The result: a tasty bowl of exotic goodness. facebook.com/rangoonteahouse 12.30PM: Lunch
Paribawga Café, 104 Bogalay Zay Street The new spot inside this furniture workshop acts as a showroom for Paribawga’s modernist tables and chairs. The walls are peeling with bright-turquoise paint, and the menu is vegetarian. Feast on grilled courgette dressed in tahini and Thai basil on a bed of ricotta; finish with a kachin-honey-and-ginger crème brûlée. paribawga.com 4.30PM: afternoon Tea
The Strand Café, 92 Strand Road Papered in chartreuse-and-crimson toile wallpaper, the tea room of The Strand hotel is a must-visit. The Burmese version of afternoon tea has shrimp wontons, fermented-tea-leaf salad and delicate coconut sweets served in a gorgeous lacquered tiffin tin. hotelthestrand.com 7PM: Dinner
535 Merchant Street In spite of its location inside the grand, century-old Sofaer Building, there is a relaxed vibe to this bistro. Grab a seat on the mezzanine for a bird’s-eye view of the dapper bartenders mixing herb-infused cocktails. Then order the shisito peppers dusted with coarse salt and lime, and traditional sashimi and sushi rolls topped with racy Burmese spices. gekkoyangon.com 8.30PM: Pudding
Shwe Bali, 112 Bo Sun Pat Road Locals flock here at all hours for frozen yogurt. But the family-owned shop, which has been around for generations, is best known for its falooda, an Indian rose-water and vermicelli-spiked sorbet which sometimes comes with jelly and tapioca pearls for added texture. Grab yours to eat at the Sule Pagoda in Maha Bandula Park opposite.
The Toddy Bar, 77-79 Pansodan Street The Burmese imbibed toddy, the slightly sour and fermented sap of the toddy palm, long before it was conscripted by the English. At this cosy and atmospheric speakeasy, cocktails are inspired by the national tipple: Coco-Colada – a coconut rum, absinthe and tropical-fruit concoction – arrives with clouds of coconut fog and packs a punch. facebook.com/thetoddybar RACHNA SACHASINH Clockwise from top left: Rangoon Tea House and tiffin lunch boxes; Rau Ram restaurant with furniture from Paribawga; citrus salad at the Paribawga Café; The Strand Café; the decor at Rangoon Tea House 130 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
PHOTOGRAPHS: DANIELA STALLINGER
10PM: NightCap
PARADISE AWAITS... GREECE • ITALY • FRANCE • SPAIN • PORTUGAL • CYPRUS CARIBBEAN • MOROCCO • TURKEY • CROATIA • AMERICA
www.cvvillas.com 0207 261 5473
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TRAVELLER PARTNERSHIPS
VILLAS
2018
Families / Super-luxe / Groups / Romance / Hotels with villas
Outside lounge, Casa das Bicas, Comporta, Portugal
VILLAS
WORDS: ANNABELLE THORPE
Clockwise from this image: Villa Jasmine at dusk; the stunning surrounds and view of the pool at Villa Gondra; Villa Alemar exterior
VILLA JASMINE Sainte-Maxime, France Jasmine oozes classic Gallic style, from its cream exteriors, fringed with wrought iron balconies and lime-hued shutters, to the five coolly elegant bedrooms. The villa has a huge infinity pool, a games room with billiard table and Bose sound and TV system, and is just 850 metres from the beach at Sainte-Maxime. The spacious grounds include an open-sided alfresco dining area that’s perfect for warm summer evenings.
FAMILIES
From games rooms to peaceful pools, keep everyone entertained
A week from £5,730; 01242 547705, akvillas.com
VILLA ALEMAR Marsascala, Malta
VILLA GONDRA Quinta do Lago, Algarve, Portugal
Alemar is a fabulous family house with plenty of space for children to run around, a private pool and its own olive grove. Inside, the house is stylish with five chic bedrooms including a master suite with spacious outdoor terrace. Pretty Marsascala, with its long promenade and rocky beaches, is a 15-minute walk.
A great house if you have teenagers in tow, this six-bedroom villa comes with a basement games room (which adjoins one of the bedrooms), with table tennis, PlayStation 3 and flat-screen TV. The house spans three floors, with a dining room that seats 14 and a high-spec kitchen. Outside, the pool is surrounded by shady gardens, and the nearest beach is 4km away. Sleeps up to 14.
A week from £4,090, holidaylettings.co.uk
A week from £4,690; 01244 897441, elegantresorts.co.uk
F R O M A I R P O RT T R A N S F ER S TO DAY-T R I P S , G E T A R O U N D W I T H AV I S .C O.U K
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Clockwise from this image: Es Castell’s spacious terrace and view of the pool; the pool at La Prora; La Limonaia’s interior and picturesque setting
LA LIMONAIA Lucca, Tuscany Newly restored and in a fantastic location, this five-bedroom villa is a classic Tuscan house with terracotta-tiled floors, beamed ceilings and a master kitchen with an indoor barbecue. Outside, the views are spectacular and the beautiful Romanesque town of Lucca is just a short drive away. A week from £2,720; 01954 261431, vintagetravel.co.uk
ES CASTELL Cala d’Or, Mallorca Es Castell is a beautiful stone-built villa, with terracotta-tiled floors, traditional dark wood furniture and a wonderful feeling of space. The five bedrooms feel light and airy, while the dining room opens out onto a spacious terrace, allowing 10 people to eat comfortably in or outside. There’s a volleyball court, table tennis and pétanque, as well as a chlorine-free pool. A week from £1,900; 0800 121 8992, mallorca.co.uk
LA PRORA Taormina, Sicily This historic property spreads across an elegant main house and two annexes – ideal if you have grandparents or older teenagers with you. The spacious interiors are sleek and modern, and all five bedrooms in the main house have glorious sea views. Sleeps 10. A week from £8,855; 020 7377 8518, thethinkingtraveller.com
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LEFKADA JD Lefkada, Greece A brand-new villa that brings an unparalleled level of luxury to Lefkada, this five-bedroom house makes the most of its waterfront location and views that stretch from Ithaca to Skorpios. Living areas are light and airy, while outside, shaded dining areas and wide decks all face out towards the water. The house comes with live-in housekeepers (in their own apartment) and a cook. Sleeps 10. A week from £11,610; 020 8422 4885, fivestargreece.com
COCCOLOBA Mustique Coccoloba is an elegant hilltop villa inspired by the architectural stylings of designer Oliver Messel. The gorgeous lounges and decked areas ooze colonial style, while the formal dining room has spectacular views across the island to the ocean. The master bedroom pavilion has its own plunge pool, while the other three bedrooms are in the spacious guest pavilion. The property comes with its own cinema, butler and cook.
Clockwise from above: Coccoloba’s master bedroom, pool and lounge; Casa das Bicas exterior; the waterfront location and sea views of Lefkada JD
A week from £15,550; 020 7531 6384, sjvillas.co.uk
CASA DAS BICAS Comporta, Portugal
SUPER-LUXE
Bliss out in these stunning interiors and idyllic surrounds
A masterclass in contemporary architecture, this four-bedroom house brings the outside in, with glass walls, folding doors and a wooden deck that encircles the whole property. There’s a state-of-the-art kitchen, a spectacular openplan lounge and dining area, and double-height windows that look out into the spacious grounds. Outside, there’s a pool, hammocks slung between the trees and bikes for exploring. A week from £10,165; 020 3859 7763, avenueproperty.com
T R AVEL L ER PA RTN E R SH IP S ISHQ Villa’s relaxing pools, stunning interiors, delicious food and views of the Indian Ocean
HIGH
NOTES The hills are alive with the sound of music at the spectacular Casa dos Moinhos, part of Shantivillas’ Portugal portfolio
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wo hundred kilometres of gorgeous coastline encompassing sheltered dunes, tiny bays, meandering coastal footpaths and sweeping stretches of sands; ochre cliffs set aglow by the sinking sun; the vast inland expanse of the Barrocal, home to walled orange and almond groves, national parks and craggy landscapes: Portugal’s Algarve is a natural gem with over 300 days of sunshine a year – and all just a short hop from the UK. Portugal’s balmy playground has rarely looked more alluring than when you are sat on the terrace of the spectacular Casa dos Moinhos –
Photography: Pedro Queiroga
Clockwise from this image: poolside; calming interiors; alfresco dining; twin room; large kitchen; double bedroom
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Call +35 196 898 4269 or visit shantivillas-algarve. com for more on any of Shantivillas’ luxurious Algarve properties
a seven-bedroom retreat set high on a hill, with views stretching across the Algarve to the glittering Atlantic Ocean beyond. Enjoy them over long lazy lunches on the alfresco terrace; soak them up from one of two expansive pools (there is a smaller pool especially for younger family members); admire them as you wander through the lush gardens, relax in a shaded corner, or even play table tennis in the dedicated games room. Wherever you are in this light, airy villa these are views that will make even the most welltravelled heart sing – fitting, given the striking music-inspired decor. With its calming all-white interiors and countryside setting, Casa dos Moinhos is also wonderfully peaceful – it’s like being in your own private eyrie. With plenty of space it’s also ideal for larger gatherings – there are five double bedrooms and two twin rooms, all with private bathrooms. The outdoor space, with a poolside kitchen and bar, is just made for entertaining. Enjoy convivial barbecues and soak up those views afresh, with an orchestra of cicadas strumming in the background, friends and family gathered around you and a sea of twinkling lights stretched out far below you. Sure to be music to your ears.
INTO THE
BLUE
An award-winning private hideaway, Porto Zante Villas & Spa on Zakynthos, Greece, is a magical summer home from home
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here are few beachfront resorts in Europe that offer the privacy afforded by Porto Zante Villas & Spa, a collection of nine stylish villas on the east coast of Zakynthos, Greece. Built above a secluded sandy beach – with the crystal Ionian Sea and the island of Kefalonia beyond – the one- to four-bedroom villas offer the facilities and service of a five-star hotel in your private home away from home. Winner of the award for Europe’s Leading Luxury Hotel & Villas at the 2017 World Travel Awards, Porto Zante offers the kind of dedicated service and intimate luxury that large, impersonal hotels cannot. It is the perfect couples’ or family hideaway. Villas – each with a private beachfront pool and gardens – are individually styled with Armani Casa furniture, Bang & Olufsen entertainment systems, original artworks and bathrooms lined in Dionysian marble. Located directly on the water’s edge, Porto Zante’s full-service Waterfront Spa is just that – with a comprehensive range of rejuvenating signature therapies inspired by Greek nature and the power of aromatherapy. It also offers facials, body wraps and scrubs, using products by Greek brand APIVITA Natural and Bulgari, and a state-of-the-art gym by Technogym. Fresh local ingredients are the star of the two resort restaurants – the Club House, serving authentic Greek and Mediterranean cuisine, and Maya, which opened on the beachfront in
Clockwise from this image: Maya Asian restaurant; bedroom with pool and sea view; private beachfront pool; watersports for active guests
T R AVEL L ER PA RTN E R SH IP S 2017 and serves contemporary Asian fare with Japanese and Thai flair. Signature sushi and sashimi dishes are made with fish brought in by local fishermen, while Black Angus fillets and fresh lobsters are grilled on the charcoal barbecue. Private in-villa dining is available 24 hours a day. Porto Zante is a place where everyone in the family can expect enjoyment and relaxation, earning it the accolade of being named one of the 25 best family hotels in the world by Condé Nast Traveller in 2016. Parents of younger children can leave all the baby paraphernalia at home, as cots, monitors, stair gates and even buggies are all provided. To keep little ones entertained – and allow parents some well-earned downtime – there is a children’s club with experienced, qualified staff, as well as a lovely playground.
Photography: Sakis Papadopoulos
For active guests and older children, there are bicycles, horse riding (on the island’s gorgeous beaches), nearby tennis courts and snorkelling straight from the shore, plus Clockwise from this image: the intimate luxury of a Porto Zante villa; a bird’s eye view; Navagio Beach; an ideal setting to relax and unwind
watersports including jet skiing, wakeboarding and all the banana and doughnut rides the children can fit in. As tempting as it is to remain cosseted in Porto Zante, Zakynthos is entrancingly beautiful and warrants exploring – not just in summer but also in the quieter months of May, June and September. Take a boat to Marathonisi Island – aka Turtle Island – a small islet in Laganas Bay, which is a nesting ground for loggerhead sea turtles; or to Navagio Beach – one of the most beautiful in the world – with its clear waters, white sand and much-Instagrammed rusting shipwreck. Or explore the Blue Caves, so named thanks to the brilliant colour of the water inside. One of the most popular excursions offered by the resort is a visit the birthplace of the Olympic Games, travelling by speedboat and then on by limo to Ancient Olympia. It’s an exceptional and unforgettable private experience – and one that typifies Porto Zante Villas & Spa.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Call +30 210 821 8640 or 020 8882 6767 from the UK, email reservations@portozante.com or visit portozante.com
GROUPS
The more the merrier at these spacious properties SUMARTIN BAY HOUSE Brač, Croatia A top pick for fans of contemporary style, this stunning villa is all about clean lines, glass walls and making the most of its spectacular waterfront location. Outside, wide terraces and a gleaming pool step down to the sea and the house’s own fishing jetty, while inside the four bedrooms and open-plan living area are decorated in soothing, neutral hues. The in-house wine cellar and gorgeous outdoor dining terrace make for unforgettable evenings with friends. A week from £6,365; 020 3582 5853, cvvillas.com
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Left: Sumartin Bay House. Clockwise from this image: Riva del Lago’s stunning views and interior; The Provence Retreat; La Maison Rose
RIVA DEL LAGO Moltrasio, Italy Perfect for an upscale house party, this threestorey villa offers Clooney-style lakeside living, with a beautiful lawned garden and pool right on the waterfront, along with a private dock and boathouse. All four bedrooms have wonderful views, with Murano chandeliers, delicate frescoes and marble flooring adding to the luxury feel. The kitchen opens out onto a lakeside terrace, and evenings can be spent in the elegant dining room, before retiring to the billiard room. A week from £6,275; 020 8444 9500, invitationto.com
LA MAISON ROSE Paunat, Dordogne, France The ideal choice for two couples, with one bedroom in the main house and the second in a cottage, this lovingly restored historic property is surrounded by unspoilt countryside. The sitting room has exposed beams and an open fireplace for colder evenings, while in summer the outdoor dining area overlooking the pool is ideal for sunlit breakfasts and alfresco suppers. A week from £1,000; +33 5 5354 5431, simply-perigord.com
THE PROVENCE RETREAT Luberon, France This beautifully restored 18th-century farmhouse has a cinema room, library with grand piano and stylish interiors. A tree-lined path leads down to the heated pool, with the gardens and vineyard beyond. Each of the six bedrooms has tranquil views across the surrounding countryside. Sleeps 11. A week from £9,995; 01242 220006, thewowhousecompany.co.uk
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PIGEONNIER DE TIVOLI Castelmoron-sur-Lot, Dordogne, France A truly extraordinary hideaway for two, this former pigeonnier (the French equivalent of a dovecote) has been sympathetically restored with a cosy kitchen/lounge downstairs, and a spiral staircase leading up to a double bedroom, shower room and balcony. Outside, there’s a sizeable pool and private grounds with a charming dining terrace. Walking and cycling routes surround the property. A week from £850; 020 3733 7612, simpsontravel.com
LE COCON Langourla, Brittany, France A genuinely unique haven for two, Le Cocon is a small house with a wonderfully personal feel, filled with one-off vintage and antique pieces. The eaved bedroom oozes romance, with a freestanding copper bath, crisp white linen and scrubbed wood floors, while the lounge combines retro furniture with a working fireplace to create a cosy feel.
Clockwise from this image: the sea views of Villa Sun; Le Cocon’s eaved bedroom and retro-fitted lounge; Pigeonnier de Tivoli’s double bedroom and large pool
A week from £500; 0800 133 7999, oliverstravels.com
VILLA SUN Kalkan, Turkey There’s a wonderful feeling of privacy to Villa Sun, a small-but-perfectly-formed bolthole in the Kislar neighbourhood of Kalkan, Turkey’s most sophisticated resort. Floor-to-ceiling windows bring in the glittering sea that lies just beyond the villa’s garden; the small infinity pool extends into the villa; and the galleried master suite has glorious views. A week from £1,350, including transfers and car hire; 020 3875 0351, fairlightjones.com
ROMANCE
For intimacy and seclusion, cosy up in these beautiful boltholes
T R AVEL L ER PA RTN E R SH IP S Clockwise from this image: villas are a stone’s throw from the Ionian Sea; a bird’s eye view of Voidokilia Beach; villas have spacious terraces; the resort’s imposing lobby
GRECIAN
BEAUTY Be charmed by the scenery and history of one of Greece’s most unspoilt destinations with a villa holiday at The Romanos, a Luxury Collection Resort in Costa Navarino
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un-kissed beaches, ocean-fresh seafood, crystal-clear
waters and warm welcomes – it’s easy to see why Greece remains eternally popular. At Costa Navarino, in Messinia, in the south-west Peloponnese, visitors can expect all of these things and more in one of the most unspoilt seaside destinations in the Mediterranean. Costa Navarino is the perfect base from which to explore the treasures of the Peloponnese, where nature and history meet. Guests can discover crumbling Mycenaean palaces, UNESCO World Heritage sites and nature reserves home to protected bird and marine life. Or get under the skin of the culture by cooking with locals, enjoying farm-to-fork dining, wine tasting and olive oil sampling. Stay at The Romanos – a collection of spacious, beautifully designed suites and villas – and a dedicated team will be on hand to arrange excursions to help you get the most out of this fascinating destination. If you can bear to tear yourself away from the exquisite comfort of your villa, that is. Start your day with a sunrise yoga session on your terrace overlooking the Ionian Sea. Make the most of preferential tee times with a few rounds of golf before sitting down to a lavish lunch created by your private chef. Afternoons pass in a blissful whirl of lazy laps in the infinity pool, as your personal butler brings cocktails to your sun-lounger, or why not exercise the mind with a philosophy walk beneath 1,000-year-old olive trees – just one of the exclusive activities designed to bring Messinia’s 4,500 years of history to life. And when it’s time to say goodbye, take advantage of the helipad for an exit as stylish as your stay.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Call +30 272 309 6000 or visit costanavarino.com for more on The Romanos, a Luxury Collection Resort in Costa Navarino
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2018 AMBASSADOR VILLA Romanos Costa Navarino, Greece PORTO ZANTE Zakynthos, Greece Located right by the water’s edge, the Deluxe Spa Villa boasts its own plunge pool, open-plan living area with kitchenette and a Gervasoni sofa bed – ideal for younger children so that parents enjoy the luxurious master bedroom. Villa guests can choose to dine at either the Club House or the Maya restaurant and book treatments at the world-class Waterfront Spa. Sleeps four.
A private haven right on the golden Dunes Beach, this palatial villa has its own pool and private stretch of sand, two spacious bedrooms and a chic, open-plan lounge and dining space. The villa comes with butler service and a concierge, who can advise on day-trips and activities around Messinia. Guests can also make use of all the facilities within the Costa Navarino resort, including eight restaurants and bars, and the state-of-the-art Anazoe Spa. Sleeps up to six. From £3,195 per night; +30 272 309 6000, romanoscostanavarino.com
From £1,230 per night; +30 210 821 8649, portozante.com
HOTELS WITH VILLAS
$OO WKH ¿YH VWDU IHDWXUHV RI D KRWHO SOXV WKH SULYDF\ RI \RXU RZQ VSDFH Clockwise from top right: poolside at Ambassador Villa; spectacular ocean views at One & Only Reethi Rah; Porto Zante’s plunge pool
WATER VILLA One & Only Reethi Rah, Maldives Reethi Rah offers the last word in both luxury and privacy, particularly if you opt for one of the villas that perch above the crystal-clear sea. Each traditionally thatched villa steps down into a lagoon, teeming with sea life, perfect for snorkelling. Inside, polished wood and clean, cream decor create a cool, contemporary feel. Dinner can be taken on your deck or in one of the five restaurants. From £990 per night, room-only; 0800 169 0530, oneandonlyresorts.com
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BEACH VILLA Four Seasons Resort, Langkawi, Malaysia Situated on one of Malaysia’s most beautiful stretches of sand, step out of your Beach Villa and you’re just moments away from the crystalclear water. Each villa has its own private garden with plunge pool, and a huge decked area for lazy lunches and romantic sunset drinks. There are three restaurants to choose from – offering everything from Italian to classic Malaysian dishes – and days can be spent sailing, cruising through the mangroves or simply lazing on the idyllic beach. A week from £2,275pp, B&B, including flights and transfers; 01494 678400, turquoiseholidays.co.uk
Clockwise from top left: Four Seasons Resort villa, situated on golden sands with huge decked area for lazy lunches; a bedroom at The Summer House; Villa Turquoise exterior and dining area with sea view
VILLA TURQUOISE Nonsuch Bay Resort, Antigua Villa Turquoise is wonderfully secluded on the island’s exclusive east coast. A private stepped pathway leads from the hotel to the house, which has three bedrooms, two in separate cottages and several indoor and outdoor dining areas. A private chef can come and prepare meals, or guests can stroll into the resort for dinner, as well as taking advantage of the spa and many watersports. A week from £2,000pp, including flights and transfers, based on six sharing; 020 3131 8481, scottdunn.com
THE SUMMER HOUSE Sugar Hill, Barbados Ideal for a family with older teenagers three of the bedrooms are in the elegant main house, while the fourth is in a separate cottage. Spacious terraces make the most of the lush views, while soft cream walls add to the tranquil feel throughout. A week at the villa comes with temporary membership of the Sugar Hill resort, including the bar, tennis courts and 2,000 sq ft pool. Sleeps eight. From £250 per night; 0808 120 2364, altmanbarbados.com
Photography: Nelson Garrido; Studio Blagec Split; Woodrow W Campbell; Barty; Benedetto Tarantino; Stephen Hughes; David Cherel; Mel Yates
2018
T R AVEL L ER PA RTN E R SH IP S
INNER
PEACE
Tailor every aspect of your holiday with a villa stay at The Nam Hai, a Four Seasons Resort. Instant calm and total luxury are guaranteed
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ituated on one of the world’s most beautiful beaches, close to three extraordinary UNESCO sites, Four Seasons Resort The Nam Hai, Hoi An offers the chance to experience Vietnam at its tranquil best from the luxury of your own private villa. Choose from one of 100 individual havens, each positioned to give wonderful views and make the most of cooling sea breezes.
Whether you’re travelling as a couple, family or extended group, there is a villa to suit, with everything from one-bedroom cottages to fivevilla luxury compounds. Every accommodation is thoughtfully designed along phong thuy (feng shui) principles, with dark woods, local antiques and a soothing colour palette to evoke a sense of place. Alfresco showers, bedside bathing areas and generous terraces provide a seamless blend of outside and in. For the ultimate in privacy choose a pool villa, which range from one to five bedrooms and come with private butler service as standard. The sizeable infinity pool is surrounded by manicured gardens and lawns, shaded by swaying palms, while the private dining pavilion offers the chance to dine under the stars. Children are warmly welcomed, too. Family villas have an en-suite children’s room and mini amenities, while the Chuon Chuon Kids’ Club has its own pool and cooking classes. The resort itself offers a fantastic range of activities, from The Nam Hai Cooking Academy to The Heart of the Earth Spa,
an elegant retreat featuring eight treatment pavilions that seem to float on a lotus pond. In the centre of the resort, three huge palm-lined infinity pools offer ample space for swimming and lounging, and in the evening there’s a choice of two restaurants or the option to take meals on your villa’s private dining terrace. Whether you long for total privacy or want to fully immerse yourself in the local culture, a villa stay at Four Seasons Resort The Nam Hai allows you to tailor every aspect of your holiday experience – infused with total luxury, and the best of Vietnamese tradition and spirit.
Clockwise from this image: Hoi An, a UNESCO site; en-suite children’s room in a family villa; the private garden of a pool villa; The Nam Hai Cooking Academy; the Beach Bar
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Call +84 235 394 0000 or visit fourseasons.com/hoian
TRAVELLER EVENTS KEEP ON COURSE FOR THE LATEST HAPPENINGS
INSIDE TRACK THE EPIC TALES OF ADVENTURER SOPHIE RADCLIFFE
PLUS FEASTS FROM VENICE AND LAZIO WITH S.PELLEGRINO
TAKE A DIP
PHOTOGRAPH: CAMILLE MOIRENC
CORSICA’S SMARTEST VILLA RETREAT, DOMAINE DE MURTOLI, TOUCHES DOWN IN LONDON FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY AT A MEDITERRANEAN SUPPER-CLUB POP-UP FROM THE BEAUTIFUL FRENCH ISLAND
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TRAVELLER EVENTS
CONDÉ NAST TRAVELLER INVITES YOU TO A TASTE OF CORSICA FROM
DOMAINE DE MURTOLI
JOIN US AT LONDON’S CREATIVE POP-UP SPACE CAROUSEL FOR A FEAST FROM A SEVENMICHELIN-STARRED CHEF, INSPIRED BY THE INSIDERS’ FAVOURITE MEDITERRANEAN ISLAND HIDEAWAY
BOOK NOW: DOMAINEDEMURTOLI.EVENTBRITE.CO.UK Tickets are £35 per person and include cocktails, wine, live music and a stand-up supper
6.30–9.30PM, TUESDAY 10 APRIL 2018 71 BLANDFORD STREET, MARYLEBONE, LONDON W1U 8AB CONDÉ NAST TRAVELLER RESERVES THE RIGHT TO POSTPONE THE EVENT IF RENDERED NECESSARY BY ANY UNAVOIDABLE CAUSE. TICKETS WILL BE FULLY REFUNDED IN SUCH CASES. OVER 18S ONLY
Opposite, the sprawling estate of Domaine de Murtoli on Corsica’s dramatic south-west coast
150 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
PHOTOGRAPHS: CAMILLE MOIRENC
There are no signposts to Domaine de Murtoli. Tucked away from the world in 2,500 hectares on the ruggedly beautiful south-west coast of Corsica, this is where those in the know come to truly escape. The estate runs from forest to farmland, mountains to sea, and is dotted with 19 refined rustic hideouts, including smart stone houses that sleep 12 and sweet shepherd’s cottages for two. In the morning, there’s a delivery of breakfast baskets piled high with just-baked pastries and fruit picked from the gardens. Beach days rotate between lazing on driftwood armchairs and eating fresh seafood; a game of volleyball by the dunes, a crisp glass of the estate’s own rosé or a massage under the trees are the only distractions. At night dinner is taken in a cave lit by candlelight. Now Condé Nast Traveller is giving readers the chance to have a taste of this secret destination, as Domaine de Murtoli comes to Carousel in London’s Marylebone, transforming it into a little pocket of Corsica for one night only. Co-hosted by Air Corsica, the evening will kick off with cocktails served amid olive trees and displays of fragrant lavender and rosemary arranged by the supremely talented Carly Rogers Flowers – close your eyes and you could be at Domaine de Murtoli’s toes-in-the-sand beach club. Corsican wines will be paired with a stand-up supper from Mathieu Pacaud, the Paris-based chef of four Michelin-starred joints, including L’Ambroisie and Histoires. Pacaud returns to Domaine de Murtoli’s La Table de la Ferme restaurant this season for his third summer residence, exploring his Corsican roots through his inventive recipes. For more information or to book a stay at Domaine de Murtoli, visit murtoli.com. This summer, Air Corsica launches direct flights from London Stansted to Ajaccio, Bastia and Figari
The feasts were held at London’s Carousel, a creative restaurant pop-up venue. Guests ate dishes including caserecci alla gricia with artichoke; cumin-roasted leg of lamb with puntarelle, leeks and capers, and traditional tiramisu
TRAVELLER EVENTS
Italian suppers with
S.Pellegrino THE LOWDOWN ON OUR READERS’ TWO-NIGHT TASTING TOUR
PHOTOGRAPHS: EMMA JONES
In the latest of our Chefs’ World Series, a blast of la dolce vita arrived in London this winter thanks to S. Pellegrino, the favourite water of top chefs and restaurants around the world. The brand teamed up with the Italian Supper Club and took over London’s award-winning pop-up restaurant Carousel. The first dinner weaved through northern Italy with the seasonal Venetian delicacy of moleche, or fried soft-shell crabs, fat tubes of tubettoni topped with monkfish ragout and Milan’s iconic stew cassoeula, made with BBQ baby-back ribs, pomegranate, savoy cabbage and sweet-and-sour onions. The second evening celebrated all things Roman and the hearty dishes of Lazio. ‘The region might bring to mind peasant cooking, but it’s very rich in flavour: anchovies, artichoke, mint, Pecorino are all favourites,’ said Toto Dell’Aringa, co-founder of Italian Supper Club and head chef, in his introduction to the menu. Each meal was paired with classic cocktails and the area’s most exciting wines, from sparkling Franciacorta from Lombardy to under-rated Aleatico red from the heart of the country. The series of dinners was inspired by S.Pellegrino’s new Itineraries of Taste project, an online hub packed with insider tips and curated reports on food, style and design around the world. FIONA KERR Find out more at itinerariesoftaste.sanpellegrino.com
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TRAVELLER EVENTS
TRAVELLER’S TALES
Break free Readers drank Armand de Brignac rosé Champagne at super-smart bag brand Longchamp’s Bond Street store
‘A friend once told me, “A ship in a harbour is safe, but that’s not what the ship was built for. Go sailing.” I wrote my resignation letter and handed it to my boss the next day,’ says Sophie Radcliffe of the lifechanging moment she decided to become an endurance athlete. ‘There was no turning back.’ Speaking at the latest of our Traveller’s Tales events, this time at Longchamp’s Bond Street shop, Radcliffe recounted how she started seeking out challenges as an escape from her day job at a tech start-up. ‘On my first expedition, which was a race in the Borneo jungle, I remember waking up the next day and thinking that this was the first time I’d proven to myself that I could do something that had seemed impossible.’ With stories ranging from being told she wasn’t allowed to climbing Mont Blanc with the flu to cycling through eight Alpine countries, Radcliffe aims to inspire young women to follow her. ‘I’m not a professional athlete and I didn’t go to a sporty school. It’s about doing things that make you feel alive,’ she said. ‘It’s a passion project building confidence, courage and resilience in teenage girls. I think anyone can discover self-empowerment, and for me it was a real lightbulb moment.’ KATHARINE SOHN
Sophie Radcliffe was in conversation with Condé Nast Traveller’s contributing editor Michelle Jana Chan and editor Melinda Stevens
FOR INFORMATION ON MORE EVENTS, VISIT CNTRAVELLER.COM/EVENTS 154 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
PHOTOGRAPHS: EMMA JONES
SOPHIE RADCLIFFE’S JOURNEY FROM BEING BANNED PLAYING SPORT AT SCHOOL TO FULL-TIME ADVENTURER
W OST WANTED Beauty essentials... CAUDALIE
Premier Cru The Serum, £90, caudalie.com
NEAL’S YARD
Frankincense Intense Lift Cream, 50g, £65, nealsyardremedies.com
OMOROVICZA
Midnight Radiance Mask, £90, omorovicza.com
IN NEED OF A DIGITAL DETOX? Head for the Adelaide Hills. Set among 180 acres of natural scrubland is a 2.5x6m environmentally friendly cabin. Built and fitted entirely with South Australian products, J‘ ude’ incorporates two beds, a fully stocked kitchen with a two-burner stove, mini fridge/freezer, linen, a wine barrel shower and a storage box. There is no WiFi, for obvious reasons. Sleeps up to four. From $190, cabn.life
SPRING CLEAN CLIVEDEN
nail polish, £17.50, exclusive to Cliveden House & Spa, Berkshire
Tune in to Condé Nast Traveller’s sunshine state of mind with some of the latest experiences, places to stay and fashion and beauty picks NETJETS EUROPE has added the Cessna Citation Latitude to its fleet. With a unique cabin pressurisation system, you will feel less fatigued on the flight and more refreshed upon arrival.
netjets.com ELEMIS
Pro-Collagen Marine Cream, 100ml, £82, elemis.com
FRANCESCO FILIZZOLA’S MUSIC, supported by Colomboloco band, is an insatiable blend of the best Dolce Vita swing, Spanish-Latin fire and lounge music charm. Find Francesco at one of his many London residencies, or make like Prince Charles and book him for your own private party for the liveliest night of your life. francescofilizzola.com
Calling all interiors fans – LONDON DESIGN WEEK 2018 is at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour (4-9 March), the nerve centre of creative excellence and an unmissable event for those who want the inside track on the latest in design. Register at dcch.co.uk
Elizabeth Cole gold-tone multistone earrings, £112, theoutnet.com
Gianvito Rossi lace-up metallic leather sandals, £298, theoutnet.com
TUSCAN ESCAPES don’t get dreamier than The Casina, a 12th-century watchtower part of the original outer defences of Siena. Perfect for couples and honeymooners (with room for two more at an additional cost), one week costs £4,800, including breakfast. thecasina.com Rye Hoot scallop-edged triangle bikini top & high-rise bikini briefs, both £95, matchesfashion.com
WARDROBE
update
Double Rainbouu animal print jumper, £340, farfetch.com
Aspinal of London ‘The Mayfair’ bag in taupe croc, £595, aspinaloflondon.com
PALM PAINTING is the latest haircolouring trend, found exclusively at Neville Hair and Beauty in Belgravia. Using the hands and creative eye for colour placement, application time is cut by 40 minutes, for a softer, more freeflowing result. From £310, nevillehairand beauty.net
THIS MONTH'S HIGH-FLYER
CARY DOHERTY
HEAD CHEF
Dolce & Gabbana ruched embellished silk-chiffon dress, £4,300, theoutnet.com
FREEDOM SKI is a pioneer in luxury catered chalet accommodation in Morzine, with a focus on great service and great food. Stay in centrally situated chalet Le Crepet, complete with hot tub, sauna, massage room, cinema, wine cave and incredible mountain views. Sleeps 14, freedomski.co.uk
at LITTLE SOCIAL What’s your favourite dish on the menu at Little Social? It’s such a difficult question to answer – it’s like asking someone to choose their favourite child. Everything we do at Little Social is based on freshness and quality of ingredients. What’s in season? That’s my favourite ingredient. Best place in the world for food? Japan. The industry operates on a different level there. People have a speciality and pursue it for a lifetime to achieve excellence. The first time I went it blew my mind. What is your favourite restaurant to eat at in London? The Clove Club, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay or Pollen Street Social. Those three are very special restaurants for me. And in the world? Sushi Saito in Tokyo. It’s absolutely outstanding. Do you have anything coming up this year? Jason Atherton and I are working on a guest chef series, which is very exciting. littlesocial.co.uk
W W
W OST WANTED This is your last chance to experience #AprèsWithAView at Radio Rooftop Bar at ME LONDON, an Alpine après-ski pop-up in the form of a cable car where guests can sip on Champagne from a magnum of Veuve Clicquot and indulge on three-cheese and Valrhona chocolate fondues. £650 for up to 10 guests until 31 March. melondonhotel.com/alpine
LONDON CALLING THE LANESBOROUGH CLUB & SPA has launched a dual club membership with Bodyism Notting Hill. Dual members can train and take advantage of full membership benefits at both locations. £8,000 a year, lanesboroughclubandspa.com
For the ultimate London stay, check in to NOBU HOTEL SHOREDITCH. Eat at the iconic Nobu restaurant and sleep in one of the guest rooms or suites decorated in Nobu’s signature East-meets-West style. nobuhotelshoreditch.com
THE WHITE COMPANY
Fresh Grapefruit large candle, £60, thewhitecompany.com
GREY GOOSE LE GRAND FIZZ • 35ml Grey Goose vodka • 15ml St-Germain elderflower liqueur • 3 wedges of fresh lime • 60ml chilled soda water Pour Grey Goose vodka and St-Germain over ice. Squeeze fresh lime wedges, top with chilled soda water, stir and garnish. Grey Goose, £39 for 70cl, is available at ocado.com
FORGOTTEN YOUR FLIP-FLOPS?
This pouch is the result of a collaboration between Elizabeth Scarlett and Kelly Eastwood in support of the Local Ocean Trust. Watamu Turtle Pouch, £25, elizabethscarlett.com
Havaianas is finally coming to Gatwick, opening 24 March in the North Terminal, and 5 May in the South.
DRINKS CABINET From left: Ruinart Rosé NV, £60, clos19.com; OMGTea Iced Matcha, £2.95, omgteas.co.uk; San Pellegrino, £1.10 for 75cl and Tapped Birch Water, £2, both available in Waitrose; Chase GB Gin, £35, chasedistillery.co.uk
Nobu photography: Will Pryce
Make the most of London with this trio of hot hotels
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Handpicked Properties with Private Pools A selection of beautiful individual villas & houses with pools in tranquil settings & areas of traditional local culture.
1918-2018. Celebrating 100 years of Ownership by the Bucher Family of Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni in Bellagio, Lake Como
Call for a brochure or to speak to one of our specialists 01954 261431 or visit our website www.vintagetravel.co.uk GREECE Â&#x203A; SPAIN Â&#x203A; LANZAROTE Â&#x203A; BALEARICS Â&#x203A; PORTUGAL TURKEY Â&#x203A; FRANCE Â&#x203A; ITALY Â&#x203A; CROATIA
2787
V5643
VILLA LO NG A Pollenca, Mallorca
Spacious - Styled - Private - Accessible - Memorable Now taking bookings for 2018 (sleeps 10) www.villalongamallorca.com
Special Promotions & unique menus have been prepared. We look forward to welcoming you! www.villaserbelloni.com
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On The Move... To A Villa Retreat VILLAS
Croatia
ITALY ̽ FRANCE ̽ 63$,1 ̽ *5((&( ̽ &$5,%%($1 $ 6WXQQLQJ 3RUWIROLR 2I +DQG 3LFNHG 9LOODV
01242 787800 +38598667899 info@villagg.com www.villagg.com
Tel. 00306985959616 www.katharosvillas.com
Experience a memorable holiday at the family owned and run, award winning Boutique Villa-Hotel. Private Pool Villas and Deluxe Suites uniquely combined with 5-star services and facilities such as superb dinning, beach club, Spa Gallery and kids club make this boutique Hotel one of its kind.
Contact us for our early booking offers T: +30 2810 227721 www.eloundavillas.com reservations@eloundavillas.com Elounda, Crete, Greece
redsavannah.com
OLIVES & VINES Two beautifully renovated holiday properties with swimming pools in Provence. A luxurious villa and a stylish boutique hotel. Just 10km from the location for the French Grand Prix & 8km from the coast. www.olivesandvines.eu
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To advertise within On The Move... please call 020 7499 9080 ext 3705
On The Move
Only 5 kms far from Perugia, your luxury retreat in the green heart of Italy Suites & Villa Strada Pieve San Sebastiano, Perugia, Umbria. T. +39 338 8255682 F. +39 075 5899280 info@relaiscasamassima.it
“Where else in the World ” +27 11 300 8888 Chapman’s Peak Drive Hout Bay, Cape Town South Africa
info@palazzoradomiri.com w w w. p a l a z z o r a d o m i r i . c o m Dobrota 220, Kotor, Montenegro
HUK A LODGE, NEW ZE A L A ND
www.castellosanmarco.it
www.hukaretreats.com
Gran Hotel Atlantis Bahía Real 5#GL Tel: +34 928 53 71 53 E: reservations.bahiareal@atlantishotels.com www.atlantisbahiareal.com
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On The Move Casas de
Pousadouro ISLAND RESORT & SPA
MADAGASCAR
Douro Valley - Portugal Reinvent the hotel experience
7he perfect hotel to discover four world heritages:
A WHOLE PRIVATE ISLAND Just for You and your Guests!
Oporto Historic City Douro Valley
incentives I seminars I weddings I private parties
contact@nosysaba.mg
www.nosysaba.mg
!
ZADAR
Guimarães Historic City Coa Valley
www.casasdepousadouro.com I casasdepousadouro@gmail.com I instagram:casasdepousadouro
· DALMATIA · CROATIA
+385 23 335 357 info@almayer.hr www.almayer.hr
Hotel Gutkowski
+39 0931 465861 +39 0931 465830 info@guthotel.it www.guthotel.it
Experience Puglia
Classical Istanbul,as it should be experienced... #MASSERIAMONTENAPOLEONE #WEAREINPUGLIA
Tel: +39 338 777 41 82 info@masseriamontenapoleone.com www.masseriamontenapoleone.com
Ajwa Hotel Sultanahmet An artisanal gem in the heart of the city
reservation@ajwa.com.tr
www.ajwa.com.tr
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On The Move
To advertise within On The Move... please call 020 7499 9080 ext 3705
CHECK IN, CHILL OUT
fistralbeachhotel.co.uk / @fistralbeachhotel / 01637 818445 / Newquay, Cornwall, TR7 1PT
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Atl Virgin
Arrive in style with Virgin Atlantic and live like a king at Grand Velas, Riviera Maya, Mexico
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Book with
Colletts Travel - 79 Brent Street, Hendon, London, NW4 2EA Tel: 020 8202 8101 - Email holidays@collettstravel.co.uk 2996
V0368
La Sablonnerie
A convivial corner of a beautiful island. Gorgeous gardens, peace and tranquillity, birds, flowers, horses and carriages - no cars, how could one not enjoy this amazing paradise? You will find this hotel to have a ‘great joie de vivre’ as well as terrific food. La Sablonnerie has recently received the highly coveted award from Conde Nast Johansens ‘Small Hotel of the Year’.
Tel. 01481 832061 www.sablonneriesark.com
Reykjavik, Iceland www.galaxypodhostel.is
The Opneing of the Year - Salzburgs meets Venice This new, innovative hotel concept distinguishes itself by carefully crafted details and prestigious partners. A concept that will leave an impression and convey emotion. A concept that redefines hotel experience and pays tribute to two fascinating cities that embody the spirit of timeless beauty.
Roof Top Bar - Fine Food & Drinks The location, the view, the atmosphere; a breath-taking sensation. Seven Senses is more than just a name. It represents the enjoyment of life, a concept of food and drink and hospitality that appeals to all the senses, and moments that make a lasting impression.
2016 DISTINGUISHED PATRON OF THE ARTS AWARD
BEST LUXURY HOTEL SPA COUNTRY WINNER
LUXURY ART HOTEL COUNTRY WINNER
hotelstein.at
7-senses.at
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241 January/February 2018 The Gold List 2018 Rwanda St Petersburg Tuscany Lisbon British Weekenders
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THE VIEW FROM HERE
IN STARRY MALIBU A BOHO NEW HOTEL IS GOING BACK TO ITS WAVE-CHASING ROOTS
THE SURFRIDER The exclusive hideout of Malibu has been beyond the reach of anyone without their own toes-in-the-sand beach house since the 1930s. Hotels are scarce. Good luck getting a room at the new Nobu Ryokan. But at this fresh little hangout, architect Matthew Goodwin and his creative-director wife Emma are inviting guests into the inner circle. Goodwin grew up riding waves at the beach opposite and, after a decade in New York, he found he missed the easy-going lifestyle. So he couldn’t pass up the chance to resurrect The Surfrider, which first opened as a motel in 1953. He’s cleverly sidestepped the more obvious mid-century look; instead, rooms are reimagined in clean, contemporary California style. Everything is tactile, from the Turkish-wool waffle bathrobes by Venice Beach-based Parachute to the rough-hewn, reclaimed-wood coffee tables and teak beds custom-made by Croft House LA and Malibu Market & Design. Days unfold simply: catch sunrise from the balcony, maybe borrow one of the bespoke surfboards (designed for Malibu waves with LA’s Wax Surf Co), then cross the road to the pier for brunch. Here, the Malibu Farm Café serves greens from biodynamic One Gun Ranch, Alice Bamford’s innovative farm up in the Santa Monica mountains. Nearby, there are canyons and sea cliffs to hike, or you can try to score a table at Soho House offshoot the Little Beach House Malibu. But a more low-key place to be is The Surfrider’s guests-only roof deck for sundowners of Aperol-spiked Apres Surf. Here’s a hotel tapping into the So-Cal scene that we just can’t get enough of. So, for now at least, this has to be the sweetest spot on the Pacific Coast Highway. LAURA CHUBB thesurfridermalibu.com. Doubles from about £245
172 Condé Nast Traveller April 2018
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