World Traveller June'15

THE REGION’S BIGGEST LUXURY TRAVEL MAGAZINE

Issue Eighty Six | June 2015

TO DINE FOR Marking your card for the region's best new restaurants

ALL ABOUT EID Ten inspiring ideas to ensure a blissful break

MAGICAL MALDIVES

Produced in International Media Production Zone

Yet more reason to add it to your weekend wish list

Way Out

West Texas heads up our USA Special, featuring journeys by rail, road and (of course) horseback

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Value Redefined ...

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Enjoy a memorable stay in one of our Sunset Water Suites, with 24/7 butler service, room service, premium minibar and fine dining, all included.

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June 2015 World Traveller

Editor’s Note Issue eighty six, June 2015 Managing Director

Victoria Thatcher Editorial Director

John Thatcher Editor

Richard Jenkins

To paraphrase Game of Thrones’ Ned Stark: Summer is coming.

The hotter months in the UAE can be difficult to deal with, which is why travelling at this time of year is so popular. To get you in the mood, our destination features will take you on a tour of the USA, from the plains of Texas to the Catskill Mountains, via glamorous Beverly Hills and a cross-country train ride. Flip straight to page 47 to begin your tour.

Features Editor

Lara Brunt Senior Designer

Andy Knappett

We’ve also picked out Hong Kong’s most iconic sights, selected six of the best new restaurants in this region and look ahead to Abu Dhabi’s spectacular summer season. All in all, the issue is chockfull of ideas to get you inspired for your own summer journeys.

Designer

Emi Dixon

I hope you enjoy it.

Illustrator

Andrew Thorpe Sales Manager

Richard Jenkins Richard@hotmediapublishing.com

Suhail Syed Production Manager

Chalitha Fernando

@wt_magazine

Two cowboys, Texas

Jun-Dec 2014 | 22,920 | BPA Consumer Audit Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission from HOT Media Publishing is strictly prohibited. All prices mentioned are correct at time of press but may change. HOT Media Publishing does not accept liability for omissions or errors in World Traveller.

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Welcome Contents

Contents

Check In 8 Be here now One of Hawaii’s prehistoric islands hits cinema screens, while Australia’s remote Lizard Island Resort reopens.

The Sections

13 Globetrotter The Aegean’s best resorts, an avantgarde iftar in Dubai, and a dreamy new safari lodge in South Africa.

Check In News and inspiration from around the world

22 Chef’s Top Tables Twice Michelin-starred chef Atul Kochhar shares his favourite dining spots around the world.

24 Spotlight On: Geneva Destinations In-depth travel features to fuel your wanderlust

The Swiss city has genteel sights, glamorous lodgings and some unexpected delights.

27 Style & Wellness A life-changing wellness retreat in New Zealand, stylish safari gear, and sweetsmelling summer scents.

Weekends Everything you need to know about short-haul escapes 6

30 Eid Escapes From shopping breaks to arty adventures, we’ve found 10 places to enjoy the upcoming holiday.

June 2015 World Traveller

Destinations 40 Iconic Hong Kong From atmospheric markets to sky-high hotels, traditional and modern sit sideby-side in this enigmatic Asian city.

48 Soul Train A road trip across America is a rite of passage. Non-driver Katie Glass hits the railroad instead.

Weekends 71 News

56 Star-Studded City

We preview the region’s best iftars and check-in to three design-led hotels.

Samuel Muston looks at why Beverly Hills, 90210 became America’s most desirable postcode.

74 Six of the Best

60 Lone Star State of Mind Everything’s bigger in Texas, but it’s the little things that make it such an intriguing place, says Oliver Robinson.

66 The Cool Catskills Upstate New York’s mountains are back in vogue following their ‘60s heyday.

Mark C O’Flaherty joins the cool crowd.

Feeling peckish? Pull up a table at one of these delicious new restaurants.

81 The Great Escape Location rules at the new Hyatt Regency Dubai Creek Heights.

84 Suite Dreams Making sweet music at the Corinthia Hotel, London.

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Check In Be Here Now

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June 2015 World Traveller

Kaua’i, Hawaii As Jurassic World, the fourth instalment of the sci-fi dinosaur series, hits cinema screens this month, all eyes turn to Kaua’i where some of the film was shot. Formed around six million years ago, the oldest and northernmost island in the volcanic chain is fittingly prehistoric, although dinosaurs had long been extinct by the time the first lava flowed. Kaua’i is also Hawaii’s greenest, draped in emerald valleys and tropical rainforests, with jagged cliffs, forking rivers and cascading waterfalls. With some parts of the island only accessible by sea or air, it really does feel like you’re venturing back to a land that time forgot.

Be Here

Now

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Check In Be Here Now

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June 2015 World Traveller

Lizard Island, Australia After being battered by two cyclones in less than a year, Australia’s northernmost island resort will partly reopen this month following a $50 million rebuild. Located on the Great Barrier Reef, 240 kilometres north of Cairns, the secluded Lizard Island Resort features 40 ‘laidback luxe’ suites and a spectacular $5,200-a-night villa perched on a ridge and commanding uninterrupted ocean views. Fringed by coral reefs and 24 powdery-white beaches, the island offers exceptional snorkelling and diving; big game fishing, including black marlin; sailing and cruising; and all manner of watersports. lizardisland.com.au

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June 2015 World Traveller

Globetrotter Here’s what’s hot in the world of travel this month...

Eyes on the Aegean Lying between Turkey and Greece, and part of the Mediterranean Sea, the Aegean is where Homer’s heroes were born, where the ancient Greeks consulted their oracles and the Romans built their magnificent temples. Here are three of the best Aegean escapes…

Jumeirah Bodrum Palace, Turkey

Domes of Eloundra, Greece

Blue Palace Resort & Spa, Greece

Opened last month, this sprawling resort (above), formerly The Golden Savoy, has 135 suites and villas, along with a six-bedroom, triple-storey private villa (aptly named The Palace). There are eight family pools and eight restaurants to choose from, as well as a tranquil Talise Spa.

This award-winning resort in Crete has just completed a multi-million dollar expansion that includes 28 new residences, all lavishly appointed and complete with heated private pool. It also boasts four restaurants and a private beach with olive trees growing right in the sand.

Also on Crete, this elegant resort has 250 rooms, suites and villas, including the ultra-private Royal Blue villa. Five restaurants serve an array of cuisine, from Mediterranean to Asian, while the spa has three thalassotherapy pools and 24 treatment rooms.

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Check In Globetrotter

Sydney shines

The light fantastic Visiting Australia’s harbour city this month? Then you’re in for a treat, as the annual Vivid Sydney festival is in town.

Now in its seventh year, the world’s largest festival of light, music and ideas sees Sydney’s iconic landmarks, its harbour and urban spaces transformed by 3D projections and light installations. The ivory sails of the famous Sydney Opera House are transformed each night into a rainbow of bright lights, while venues across the city host performances from the likes of Grace Jones. The festival also sees creative types converge on Sydney for seminars, workshops and forums with over 400 speakers, such as writer Matthew Weiner, creator of Mad Men, and YouTube stars like fouseyTUBE. Closer to home, Dubai’s own festival of lights will set Downtown ablaze next March.

Hit the road

Grand tour Dust off your old Roller – the Middle East’s first long-distance classic car rally is set to kick off in November. Organisers of the Rally Royale Oman Grand Tour are calling for entries to take part in the 20-day rally, which will cover over 3,000 kilometres in three weeks. Starting in Oman’s subtropical Salalah, the route follows the magnificent coastal road north, before

heading into the Wahiba Sands and past traditional villages of the Green Mountain.

After stopping in Muscat, the tour continues north via Musandam and finishes in Dubai on December 17. Around 26 pre-1970s cars, including Bentleys, Rolls-Royces, Aston Martins and Jaguars, are expected to take part, while a shorter 10-day tour is also on offer. rallyroyale.com

Dubai dining

Avante-garde iftar

Travel Download All the media you need, whatever your journey

App Singapore Air The all-new Singapore Airlines app features a more intuitive interface to check-in, book flights and manage your KrisFlyer miles via your mobile.

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Music Florence + The Machine After a fouryear hiatus, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful is Florence Welch’s introspective third album.

Film Focus

Book Finders Keepers

Set in Buenos Aires, Will Smith plays a veteran con man whose latest scheme is thrown into chaos by the arrival of a beautiful woman from his past.

A reader’s obsession with a reclusive writer goes too far in best-selling author Stephen King’s brilliantly suspenseful new novel.

If you’re looking for a unique iftar experience in Dubai, Qbara hits the spot.

The home-grown hotspot has a special sharing menu available from sunset until 8.30pm that adds a contemporary twist to traditional Middle Eastern favourites.

The spread includes cold appetisers such as dates and wild zaatar dip, followed by hearty soups like Qbara’s signature harira soup or Iranian saffron-inspired chicken and vermicelli broth. Warm appetisers include delicately crisped soft-shell crab saj, followed by slow-cooked lamb shoulder and spicy grilled Chilean sea bass served with grilled vegetable mechouia. Leave room for dessert though – highlights include chocolate katayef with walnuts and candied oranges and velvety mahalabiya brulée made with camel milk. AED245 per person, qbara.ae

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Check In Town & Country

&

Town Country Lower Slaughter Manor

The Savoy

Make your summer stay in London memorable by spending some time in England’s glorious countryside.

Here are three terrific town & country options...

Four Seasons Hampshire

Belgraves

The Marylebone Hotel

The Crown

Town Belgraves, A Thompson Hotel

Town The Savoy

Town The Marylebone Hotel

Packed with neat modern touches, like art from British born, Americana-obsessed Ben Turnbull adorning the reception area, Belgraves is one of London’s hippest hotels.

Located in the heart of Knightsbridge, it combines British hospitality with a carefree American attitude, and its restaurant – Pont St – is expertly managed by Britain’s youngest female executive chef, Sophie Michell. thompsonhotels.com

London’s most famous hotel is still at the very top when it comes to a stay in the city.

Found on the Strand, just a short stroll away from Covent Garden and Theatreland, the art-deco entrance is as captivating now as it was during the hotel’s heyday decades ago.

Following its refurbishment last year, The Savoy has been fully modernised and blends old-school luxury with fresh ideas. fairmont.com

The Doyle Collection has three hotels in London, each with its own unique charm.

The Marylebone is at the epicentre of Marylebone Village, deep in one of the oldest parts of London and within walking distance to Oxford Street and Regent’s Park. The rooms are exquisitely luxurious, with bright and airy living spaces, marble bathrooms and beautiful views of London’s skyline. doylecollection.com

Country Lower Slaughter Manor, Cheltenham – 2 hours from London

Country The Crown, Amersham – 45 minutes from London

Country Four Seasons Hotel, Hampshire – 1 hour from London

Recently awarded the prestigious Three Rosettes by the AA Restaurant Guide, Lower Slaughter Manor is an ultraluxurious country house hotel in the heart of the Cotswolds. Privately owned, the house dates back to the 17th century and has extensive gardens, tennis courts and, inside, 19 bedrooms. The restaurant features fresh local ingredients and several delectable sample menus. lowerslaughter.co.uk

A modern coaching inn, all in historic timber framed buildings that provide a place to eat, drink, mingle and sleep. There are 38 generously appointed bedrooms, and The Crown is proud to say that it’s not a hotel where bedrooms dominate – the common spaces provide the heartbeat of the experience. Eat, drink and be merry with other happy travellers in this gorgeously historic venue. thecrownamersham.com

The grandiose surrounds of the Georgian Manor House make for an incredibly invigorating stay. The rolling green lawns seem to demand outdoor activities like tennis and horse riding, or just a brisk postdinner constitutional around the lawns.

For the bold, the newly opened highwire adventure is a treetop challenge that lets thrillseekers of all abilities zip around the forest. fourseasons.com/hampshire

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June 2015 World Traveller

New opening

Makanyi Lodge, South Africa After falling in love with South Africa on holiday in 2013, Anglo-Italian Jessica Gold decided to swap city life in London for a safari lodge in the Timbavati region. Located in the Greater Kruger National Park, an area covering over 2.4 million hectares in which animals roam freely, Makanyi Lodge opens this month. There are eight open-plan suites, each with an oversized bed, separate sitting area with cosy ďŹ replace, big bathroom with freestanding tub, and private deck with an al fresco shower. Guests can partake in two game drives a day, go bushwalking with a ranger, and stargaze at night. Photo safaris with a professional wildlife photographer can also be arranged for those looking to capture images of the Big Five worthy of your wall when you return home. makanyilodge.com

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Check In My City

MY CITY

Copenhagen

Kristian Brask Thomsen Founder of Dining Impossible, a series of fine-dining dinner parties across the globe, shares his hotspots Check-in to Hotel d`Angleterre, the legendary 18th-century luxury hotel in the heart of the city that reopened in 2013 after undergoing a billion Danish kroner refurbishment. If you’re on a budget, I recommend Central Hotel & Café in the Vesterbro neighbourhood – probably the world`s tiniest (and most charming) hotel with only one room on the first floor of a local café. For a cultural fix, visit the area around Amalienborg, a beautiful square surrounded by four Royal palaces.

Constructed in the 1700s, it is considered one of the greatest works of Danish Rococco 18

architecture. From the Marble Church, with its characteristic copper green dome, through the Castle Square and across the harbour to the Opera House, you really get a sense of both past and present. Art and design fans should head to Thorvaldsen’s Museum, which boasts endless halls of sculptures that will take your breath away. If you’re keen to hit the shops, stroll down Strøget, one of Europe’s longest pedestrian streets. You’ll find luxury brands such as Prada, Louis Vuitton and Mulberry at the end of the street, facing up to Kongens Nytorv, and the surrounding streets towards the King’s Square, while High Street stores like Zara are closer to City Hall Square. For the best fine-dining, make reservations at AOC, the newest twostarred Michelin restaurant in the city (the other two being Noma and Geranium).

Søren Selin takes Nordic Cuisine to from punk to aristocracy in a vaulted cellar of a historic mansion in Inner Copenhagen.

Most people don’t know this about the city, but it’s almost impossible to book a table at a decent restaurant after 10pm – Danes dine early! For lunch on the run, stop by one of the many shawarma shops – immigrants from the Middle East are the best thing that has happened to the fast food scene of Copenhagen. A dish you must try while visiting Copenhagen is smørrebrød.

Originally a combination of a working class hero – the rye bread sandwiches of farmers and workers – and the lavish dinners of the bourgeoisie and nobility in Denmark, the open sandwich is topped with countless variations of vegetables, fish, pate or meat.

For classic smørrebrød – and if you´re not counting calories – go to Schønnemann’s, one of Copenhagen’s oldest eateries that was established in 1877. For more modern and healthier varieties like marinated veal with Jerusalem artichokes, apples, walnuts and cress, visit Aamanns. Clink glasses at Balthazar Champagne Bar at the Hotel d´Angleterre. It’s one of the sexiest rooms in Copenhagen, with an extensive selection of bubbles from 42 different producers.

An unforgettable and unusual place I’ve visited in the city is Christiania, a district founded in 1971 by a group of hippies who claimed it as a ‘free city’, tax-free and run by their own laws. It’s a mix of warehouses, colourful murals and outdoor sculptures.

And don’t leave Copenhagen without eating a hot dog. In Denmark the dogs come straight from the griddle, bronzed and snappy, slicked with ketchup and mustard, layered with a mixture of raw and crunchy fried onions, and topped with coins of dill pickle. My pick is John’s Hot Dog Deli, just in front of Central Station, although his stand is only there every second week.

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Liwa Desert • Sir Bani Yas Island • Abu Dhabi

Check In Ask The Expert

Ask the EXPERT

Rob Arrow is a product manager at dnata and a self-confessed hotel geek. With nearly a decade of experience in the luxury travel industry, Rob loves nothing more than talking hotels and discovering destinations. His favourite country is Lebanon, his favourite city is Los Angeles and his dream is to one day own a boutique retreat in the Italian Alps.

Four Seasons Koh Samui

Q. I’ve always wanted to go to South America but, due to work commitments, I can only go for two weeks. Which country would you suggest I concentrate on?

A. I would suggest focussing on Argentina and Brazil. Fly to Buenos Aires, check into the centrally located Park Hyatt Palacio Duhau, then spend five nights exploring this vibrant city, which boasts superb meat restaurants and sultry tango shows. You can even take a ferry across to the picturesque town of Colonia in Uruguay – the Unesco World Heritage site makes a wonderful escape from the bustle of BA. Then fly north to the awe-inspiring Iguazú Falls on the Argentine–Brazilian border, staying overnight to experience sunrise. Next, fly to São Paulo, an underrated mega city with some amazing modernist architecture, Portuguese colonial buildings, and the aptly named Hotel Unique with its fabulous rooftop bar and blood-red pool. Finish up in Rio de Janeiro – you need at least four nights to take in all the sights and also have time to enjoy the famous Brazilian beach culture. Stay at Copacabana Palace, a true icon overlooking the beach, with charming touches such as complimentary Havaianas in your room and fresh coconuts to sip by the pool. I recommend hiring a private guide to show you the city, while a favela tour will help you understand modern day Rio. Q. I’m looking for a luxurious beach resort for my honeymoon. We’ve been to the Maldives, so where else would you recommend?

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Iguazu Falls

A. If you’re looking to chill out by the beach, then I would suggest escaping to Four Seasons Koh Samui in Thailand, one of my favourite resorts. The villas are just amazing and the staff are dedicated to ensuring your stay is ultra relaxing. If you want to combine a little culture or laidback adventure, one of my favourite newcomers is Cape Weligama in Sri Lanka. Set on a beautiful beach, the villas are very private but have the most amazing Indian Ocean views. They truly know their tea here,

too. Alternatively, if you fancy combining amazing beaches and privacy with fantastic food and good nightlife, then the new Mandarin Oriental Bodrum in Turkey is the place to be. The views across the Aegean Sea are wonderful, while the one-bedroom suites let you indulge in the full romantic experience. Combine your beach break with a few nights in the buzzing city of Istanbul, staying at the St. Regis Istanbul in the heart of the Nisantasi district, known as the Fifth Avenue of Istanbul.

Check In Chef’s Top Tables

Chef’s

TOP TABLES

Gaggan, Bangkok, Thailand Order: Taste of Gaggan Twice Michelin-starred chef Atul Kochhar was the first Indian to be honoured by the respected guide.

In 2012, the British-based chef brought his modern Indian cuisine to Dubai, opening the acclaimed Rang Mahal at JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai.

I ate here many years ago when chef Gaggan had just set up his shop. The cuisine was very different to what he is cooking now – but it was exquisite. I loved every morsel of what we ate there. Since then this place has gone up and quite rightly so due to Gaggan’s ability to play with the ingredients and exploit the flavours. It’s a very different kind of Indian food coined as ‘Progressive Indian Cuisine’. Bang for your bucks – try it.

Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottingham, UK Order: 10-course tasting menu

Eleven Madison Park, New York, USA Order: Multi-course tasting menu

Chef Sat Bains is a genius. His food focuses on the British Isles and its seasons.

His imagination and creativity makes his restaurant unique - his Duck Egg, Asparagus and Bacon is legendary. There are many more things on his menu that keeps you focused and attentive during your tasting menu but there is also his largerthan-life persona that keeps you interested in his creativity. This is place should be on everyone’s list to visit.

This is a very special place. I ate here last summer – and its memory is so fresh.

Eleven Madison Park takes service to stratospheric new heights - simply flawless.

The food takes you on a journey that places you in NYC and surrounds you with nods to different culinary traditions and local produce - all without pretence. The food is flawlessly inventive, gorgeous to look at and simply delicious. This stands out as one of the very best meals in a lifetime of dining.

Restaurant Andre, Singapore Order: 17-course tasting menu Calm and collected, chef Andre Chang is a master of his works. The 17-course tasting menu is just an incredible experience. His octa philosophy is the base of his menu. The setting is perfect. His chef’s table near the kitchen makes it very special. The highlight of the menu was the dish called Salt (that had no salt in it), which included potato, sea kale and seafood with natural salt in it - great!

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Gaggan

Le Gavroche, London Order: Cheese Soufflé This is the place I like to visit when I want to taste elegance. It’s a temple for me. I love everything about this place – the service, ambience and the cuisine. The Roux family’s dedication to the restaurant and cuisine is unparalleled. For three generations they have served millions with some amazing food within the tradition of fine dining.

Around 60-70 per cent of London’s chefs have been through this kitchen and that shows the importance of this restaurant.

Eleven Madison Park

June 2015 World Traveller

Restaurant Andre

Wagyu beef coated in vegetable ash

Restaurant Andre

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Check In Spotlight On

Spotlight On Geneva

Wedged between Lake Geneva and Mont Blanc, this Swiss city is one of Europe’s finest

6HH DQG 'R Jet d’Eau

(DW DQG 'ULQN Auberge du Lion d’Or

Stay Beau-Rivage

The city’s famous water fountain shoots water some 140m into the air every second, often accompanied by shimmering rainbows on sunny days. It’s best seen from the Bains des Pâquis, where locals like to meet for a swim and sauna or to eat a fondue.

Boasting magnificent lake and city views, this Michelin-starred restaurant is one of Switzerland’s most famous. Chefs Gilles Dupont and Thomas Byrne serve up seafood as exceptional as the surrounds for lunch and dinner on weekdays only.

Patek Philippe Museum

Arabesque

Built in 1865, this glamorous grand dame is located in the heart of the shopping district with incredible views of Lake Geneva and the Alps. It has 90 beautiful rooms and 19 stunning suites, some with private balconies. It also boasts Michelin-star restaurant, Le Chat Botté, which serves modern French cuisine.

Explore five centuries of watchmaking at this elegant museum by one of Switzerland’s leading marques. The first section displays antique watches from the 16th to the 19th centuries, while the second area showcases watches made by Patek Philippe from 1839 to the present day.

Located in the grand Hotel President Wilson, this excellent Lebanese restaurant – Geneva’s first – serves up delicious mezze, grilled fish and halal-certified meat in a stylish setting. The hotel is also home to two outposts from acclaimed French chef, Michel Roth.

ç 'RQàW PLVV

Palais des Nations

La Clémence

The European headquarters of the UN since 1966, the Palais des Nations was built in the 1930s to house the now-defunct League of Nations. You can do an hour-long guided tour of the building, then explore the surrounding 46-hectare park on the banks of Lake Geneva.

This tiny bar in the Old Town has one of the biggest terraces in the city. It’s always packed in summer – day and night – making it a great place for people-watching. The cosy main bar is hidden under a green awning, and makes an great low-key hangout in winter.

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Geneva’s very different sister town is Carouge, a little artisan outpost 2km south of the city centre. Known for its Italian-style architecture and bohemian atmosphere, Carouge is full of book and antique restorers, glass blowers, watchmakers, clothes designers, milliners, trendy bistros and smart restaurants.

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Art aficionados will decamp to London’s Mayfair in July, where its most iconic hotel will host the second annual Brown’s London Art Weekend

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ondon’s ever charming district of Mayfair has long been the epicenter of a gravitational pull from the Middle East during the summer, as the well-heeled arrive to take up residence in its slew of iconic hotels.

Perhaps the finest of such hotels is Brown’s, which stands proud as the oldest hotel in London, one street back from New Bond Street.

This year Brown’s Hotel offers the additional enticement of its second Brown’s London Art Weekend, taking place from July 3-5. Over the course of it, 100 galleries and auction houses will open up to the public, granting them a unique opportunity to explore London’s greatest private galleries. For 150 years Mayfair’s galleries and auction houses have welcomed the world’s greatest art collectors, and the event is the ultimate celebration of this London heartland.

“The idea for Brown’s London Art Weekend grew from the success of the Brown’s Hotel monthly Saturday art tours, hosted by the gallery owners, which continue to be very popular,” says Sophie Darley,

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director of communications at the hotel. “Brown’s Hotel is championing a stronger community spirit amongst the Mayfair galleries and Brown’s London Art Weekend, whilst a celebration of the art scene, also aims to highlight the diversity of the art available in this cultural hub of London.”

Such diversity includes offerings from the Middle East.

Ayyam Gallery, which has branches in Dubai, will show the work of Samia Halaby, the Arab world’s foremost abstract painter. The exhibition will include rarely seen works from the first two decades of her career, a time when she taught at universities throughout the United States, and created a groundbreaking curriculum that was implemented in the fine arts programmes of institutions such as the Yale School of Art. Over at Rossi & Rossi, Iranianborn, New York-based artist Samira Abbassy will debut her solo show, which features oil paintings on canvas or gesso panel, accompanied by works on paper.

Brown’s Hotel will host a programme of specialist art talks over the weekend,

covering a range of topics including ‘how to start your art collection’ and ‘fashion and art’. Meanwhile, celebrated chef Mark Hix has collaborated with artists whose work is displayed at his restaurant HIX Mayfair at Brown’s Hotel to produce a dedicated and highly creative menu to accompany the event – so there’s your excuse to stay on for lunch.

“There really is something for everyone, from old master paintings at Bonhams to modern sculpture at Gazelli Art House.

That is what makes this event so exciting”, enthuses Darley. “All the galleries are close together so we recommend that guests to the area make a weekend of it, and take time to explore the wonder of this artistic heart of London.”

Each participating gallery will be open from 11am-5pm on Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 July, many of which will host talks. Those keen to hear them are advised to sign up at londonartweekend.co.uk

About Brown’s Hotel London As London’s first ever hotel, having opened in 1837, Brown’s has an incredible history. Comprising 11 Georgian townhouses, it was from a room in Brown’s Hotel that Alexander Graham Bell made the first ever telephone call. The hotel has also inspired literary titans like Rudyard Kipling, who penned The Jungle Book while staying there, and Agatha Christie, another frequent guest whose novel At Bertram’s Hotel was based on Brown’s. It has welcomed royalty, presidents and prime ministers, and remains a luxury draw for ‘in the know’ travellers. roccofortehotels.com

June 2015 World Traveller

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Style Wellness Kiwi kickstart New Zealand If you’re after a transformative shift, Aro Hä Wellness Retreat in New Zealand’s sighinducing Southern Alps, just 40 minutes drive from Queenstown, is just the ticket.

Aro Hā combines detoxifying vegetarian cuisine with results-oriented programmes to sculpt body and mind based on yoga, sub-alpine hiking, strength training, meditation, massage and mindfulness. The resort boasts serious eco-creds (hydro- and solar-powered, permaculture-based selfsufficiency), while the eight luxury lodgings feature recycled timbers, organic cotton linen and the finest New Zealand wool rugs.

The 6am wake-up calls – sans caffeine – set the tone, but the ‘tough love’ approach produces great results. aro-ha.com

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Magnificent Safari Style

Spa 101 4.

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(1) Swarovski Optik CL Companion Africa 8×30 binoculars (2) Scosha bracelet with 10-carat gold plaque (3) Joseph cotton shorts (4) Saint Laurent espadrilles (5) Michael Kors Jet Set Travel bag (6) Joseph cashmere t-shirt (7) Cutler and Gross sunglasses. Available at net-a-porter.com and swarovskioptik.com

Going back to school doesn’t sound like much of a break, but it is when you’re learning the techniques needed to recreate your favourite spa experiences at home. Four Seasons Resort Chiang Mai in Thailand has launched Spa 101 sessions, whereby skilled therapists teach couples how to give traditional Thai massages and make DIY cleansing wraps and scrubs back home.

Scents of summer

Dine and detox Over-indulging is easy to do when you’re visiting Dubai, but the new lunch menu at Coya Dubai at Four Seasons Resort, Jumeirah Beach, features guilt-free South American cuisine and vitamin-rich smoothies, cleansers and boosters. Feast on small sharing plates like baby squid with 28

Peruvian marigold and quinoa, and sea bass with red onions, sweet potato and white corn. Then toast your healthy holiday with a Para Picchu cleanser of spinach, cilantro, celery, cucumber and apple, or a Mango Tango smoothie with mango, açai berries, blueberries, pineapple and chia seeds.

Keep that holiday spirit alive long after you land, with an evocative scent that reminds you of green fields and days by the beach. Some of our favourite summer scents include Tom Ford Neroli Portofino, a classic eau de cologne with crisp citrus oils, floral notes and amber undertones that captures the cool breezes and sparkling clear water of the Italian Rivera. If you’re dreaming of an island escape, Escada Born in Paradise transports you to the tropical haven of French Polynesia. Inspired by the Piña Colada, the perfume blends pineapple and coconut milk with notes of watermelon, green apple and guava and woody undertones. If the smell of fresh cut grass is more your thing, Hermes Un Jardin sur le Toit is a delicate blend of apple, pear, rose, green grass, basil and magnolia notes, reminiscent of a secret garden in the heart of the Paris.

June 2015 World Traveller

Villa Stéphanie Germany The beautiful Black Forest town of Baden-Baden has long been associated with wellness, thanks to its restorative hot springs that have been popular since Roman times. And for the last century or so, the super luxurious Brenners Park Hotel & Spa has been the go-to destination for science-based spa treatments and preventative health programmes. Not long opened and adjacent to the hotel, Villa Stéphanie is a historic 19th-century house dedicated to the spa experience.

Spanning five floors, it features a 500-square-metre sauna, plunge pool, private gym, hammam, ladies-only sauna, serene treatment rooms and the Haus Julius medical spa next door. After you’ve finished soaking and steaming, retire to your spacious room or suite (there are just 15 in all), or snuggle up in the lounge with a book from the well-stocked library. oetkercollection.com

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Check In Eid City Breaks

Exciting EID Escapes

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From shopping breaks to arty adventures, here are 10 destinations to enjoy the upcoming holiday

Rottnest Island, just off the coast of Perth

Gardens By the Bay, Singapore

Saks Fifth Avenue, New York

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Vivanta by Taj, Bekal

June 2015 World Traveller

Perth, Australia Discover new wildlife The West Australian capital is one of only 34 internationally recognised Biodiversity Hotspots. Meet some of the locals, including koalas, wombats and kangaroos, at Caversham Wildlife Park & Zoo in the Swan Valley, a 20-minute drive from the city centre.

Rottnest Island, meanwhile, is short ferry ride away and is home to cute furry marsupials called quokkas.

Stay: Fraser Suites Perth has stylish studio and onebedroom apartments overlooking Swan River and cricket ground.

New York, USA Shop up a storm Once you’ve done the high-end haunts of Fifth and Madison Avenues, head downtown to SoHo. No other neighbourhood mixes budget and expensive, hip and classic, vintage and modern quite like this one. Mustvisit stores include Phillip Lim’s flagship on Great Jones Street, jewellery designer Alexis Bittar’s temple to bling on Broome Street, and Tommy Hilfiger’s West Broadway outpost.

Stay: Perfectly positioned in Midtown, the New York Palace has sophisticated rooms, large corner suites and the newly renovated rooms of The Towers.

Singapore Join the birthday bash Singapore is celebrating its Golden Jubilee this year, after becoming independent from Malaysia in 1965.

There’s a real party atmosphere throughout the little city-state, along with a whole host of new attractions and events, such as the revamped National Gallery Singapore. Add top-notch spots like Sentosa Island and the Gardens by the Bay and you’re in for a fun-filled break.

Stay: Home to the world’s most jaw-dropping infinity pool, Marina Bay Sands also has great rooms with floorto-ceiling windows.

Kerala, India Balance your chakras The southern India state specialises in Ayurveda, the 5,000-year-old system of healing through food, herbs, yoga and massage. The monsoon season, from June to September, is the best time for ayurvedic treatment because the cool, dust-free atmosphere helps the body’s pores to open up, making it most receptive to herbal oils and therapy.

Stay: Vivanta by Taj, Bekal has comprehensive Ayurveda programmes, alongside a spectacular spa and luxury villas.

Paris, France Go on a gastronomic journey

Choux pastries at Odette Paris

French cuisine earned a spot on UNESCO’s “intangible” cultural-heritage list in 2010 and Paris is one of the best places to enjoy it. Current art de vivre food trends include street food and food trucks, haute-couture choux pastries (try Odette Paris in Saint Michel), and restaurants organised around a wood-burning grill (try Beaucoup and L’Atelier Vivanda).

Stay: Le Bristol Paris has magnificent rooms, but the real draw for foodies is having triple Michelin-starred chef Eric Frechon in the kitchen.

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Check In Eid City Breaks

Prague, Czech Republic Marvel at amazing architecture Sparred large-scale destruction during WWII, the Czech capital is one of the prettiest European cities around. There’s an architectural history lesson at every turn, with Romanesque chapels, Gothic cathedrals, Baroque palaces, Art Nouveau apartments and unique Cubist buildings. The city sounds lovely this month too, as the annual Prague Proms takes place at various venues (from June 21 – July 19).

Stay: Located in the cobbled streets of Malá Strana, Mandarin Oriental Prague mixes contemporary design with period features.

Beirut, Lebanon Join the party For hedonistic getaway, head to the party capital of the Middle East. Beirut’s nightlife scene centres around Gemmayzeh, Hamra, Mar Mikhael and the newly hip neighbourhood of Badaro. Whether you’re after beach clubs, rooftop mega clubs, atmospheric cocktail bars or live music joints, you’re bound to find it in Beirut. Don’t miss Dragonfly in Gemmayze and the original Music Hall for live entertainment.

Stay: The Phoenicia Beirut boasts the most luxurious suites in Lebanon, along with seven restaurants, three bars and a lavish spa.

Prague’s Old Town Square

Baku, Azerbaijan Embark on an arty adventure For an alternative arty break, head to the cultural heart of the Caucasus. Baku has a vibrant modern art scene with a number of interesting galleries and museums to explore. Stop by the newly opened Yarat, which exhibits works by international and local contemporary artists; the Museum of Modern Art (MIM), home to an impressive contemporary collection of Azeri and European masters; and the Zaha Hadid-designed Heydar Aliyev cultural centre.

Stay: Kempinski Hotel Badamdar has 280 modern rooms in a resort-style setting with outdoor pools, slides and an excellent spa.

Vienna, Austria Go to the ball The Spanish Riding School, with its famous Lipizzan ballet, celebrates it 450th anniversary on June 26. A special performance will be held in front of Hofburg Palace at 7pm (with a second performance the next evening), followed by a glittering Fête Impériale summer ball inside the grand building. The Vienna Boys Choir will also be performing with the white Lipizzaners on June 19.

Stay: Housed in a former bank, the Park Hyatt Vienna is a sumptuous newcomer in the glamorous new Golden Quarter, littered with luxury shops and restaurants.

Rome, Italy Soak up centuries of history From the Colosseum and Pantheon to the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps, Rome is one giant open-air museum. A tour guide will help you make sense of it all; try Rome Cavalieri hotel’s Gladiators and Emperors Tour, which starts at the Colosseum and then ventures along Via Sacra to discover the Forum and Capitoline Hill.

Stay: Rome Cavalieri Waldorf Astoria has gorgeous rooms and suites and the three Michelin-starred restaurant, La Pergola.

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The Roman Forum

Vienna’s new Golden Quarter

June 2015 World Traveller

Flame Towers and Shakhidlar Mosque in Baku

The Phoenicia Beirut

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Weekends World Traveller Promotion

Ramadan on Yas

Island

The Holy Month is a time of self reflection, when the roots of religion are celebrated with family

Ramadan is a very special time of year, and Yas Island is the best place to spend it. Book some quality time away with your loved ones and enjoy promotions, offers and special occasions at many of the island’s attractions, before and during Ramadan, as Yas celebrates summer.

Ramadan on Yas Island is the perfect place for family reunions, where groups can reunite at the same table, give thanks and share new experiences together.

As well as offering different options for dining, Yas Island has many popular activities to try after Iftar like drag racing on Yas Marina Circuit, or during the day the ever-popular Ferrari World Abu Dhabi and Yas Waterworld Abu Dhabi. Why not gather your friends and family and try some of these wonderful Yas Island experiences?

Before Ramadan Business Lunch at Café D’Alsace Make the most of the sunny weather every weekday from 11:30am until 4pm for just AED65 per person. This includes a starter, main course, healthy fruit salad and bottle of water. The main course changes each day, so visit more than once.

Open Mic at Stars ‘n’ Bars Every Sunday, you can put the star in Stars ‘n’ Bars. A fun-filled night of melody accompanies the delightful dining experience, which makes for an amazing family or group night out.

CrossFit Kids On Mondays and Saturdays, kids are encouraged to get into the healthy lifestyle.

CrossFit Yas caters to two age groups, 6-9 and 10-13, and is a fun and friendly way for youngsters to learn fitness habits – and burn off some energy at the same time.

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June 2015 World Traveller

Offers Enjoy Ramadan on beautiful Yas Island with one of these great hotel offers. Book by calling dnata on +971 4316 6666 or by visiting dnatatravel.com

Crowne Plaza Abu Dhabi Yas Island

Photo by Kevin Murray, www.kevinmurraygolfphotography.com

During Ramadan Fly High with Seawings During Ramadan, Kids Fly Free in Abu Dhabi. Available on the 25 minute Abu Dhabi Snapshot tour, with every paying adult a child under 12 can enjoy this amazing experience free of charge. See all of Abu Dhabi’s sights like never before.

Iftar at Rozanah Casual fine dining restaurant Rozanah, located in the heart of Yas Marina, will be open every evening throughout Ramadan from sunset until 2.30am. A set iftar menu costs just AED 95, and offers something for everyone during the Holy Month.

Special Suhoor It’s not just Rozanah that’s open late at Yas Marina. Seafood specialists Aquarium, Café D’Alsace and Diablito will all be open from 6:30pm until late, giving locals and tourists alike the chance to share a special meal after a day of fasting.

Tee Off During Ramadan, you can break your fast with delicious Iftar meals at Yas Links Abu Dhabi. Hickory’s set menu every night has a great buy-three-get-one-free offer, and the Ramadan open tournament on July 20 is guaranteed to be great entertainment if you’re playing or just watching.

2 nights from USD177 per person Special offer: 1 child under 12 years old stays, eats and plays for free plus 1 complimentary extra bed and receive a complimentary Yas Two Park Pass (Yas Waterpark and Ferrari World) Includes: Stay in a superior room with breakfast daily Validity: May 15-Sep 14, 2015

Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi 5* 1 night from USD90 per person Special offer: Complimentary upgrade to the next room category and late check-out till 3PM plus receive 50% discount on Spa treatments and 25% discount on F&B Includes: Stay in Marina Room with breakfast daily Validity: May 1-Sep 30, 2015

Radisson Blu Hotel, Yas Island Abu Dhabi 1 night from USD50 per person Special offer: 36% room rate reduction and up to 2 kids under 12 stay and eat for free plus stay for 4 nights and pay for 3 Includes: Stay in a standard room including breakfast Validity: May 1-Sep 31, 2015 35

Check In dnata Offers

WORLD TRAVELLER

Reader Offers

A France Hotel Warwick ChampsElysĂŠes

B Austria Hilton Vienna Danube Waterfront

5 nights from USD995 per person Special offer: Stay 4 nights and receive additional night free of charge (valid for Superior, Deluxe and Executive rooms) Includes: Stay in a Superior room with breakfast daily and return airport transfers Validity: Jul 15-Sep 10, 2015 Book between: May 7 - June 18, 2015

5 nights from USD355 per person Special offer: Stay 4 nights and receive an extra night free Includes: Stay in a Hilton Guest Room with breakfast and return airport transfers Validity: May 24-Jun 9 and Jun 14-Sep 6, 2015

Timeless elegance in Paris.

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Austria is fast becoming a European favourite for travellers from the Middle East, drawn to its culture and beauty.

Hungary Le Meridien Budapest 2 nights from USD180 per person Special offer: Special summer promotion for GCC and Middle East Includes: Stay in a Superior Room with buffet breakfast and return airport transfers Validity: Jul 1-Aug 31, 2015, except Formula 1 period (July 22-27, 2015). Minimum stay 2 nights Make a unique journey to the river-straddling Budapest.

Egypt InterContinental Cairo Citystars 3 nights from USD445 per person Special offer: Discounted room rate plus 2 children under 12 years stay and eat free Includes: Stay in a Standard room with breakfast daily, half day Pyramids and Sphinx tour and return airport transfers Validity: Jun 1-Sep 30, 2015 Egypt’s popularity as a summertime destination is showing no sign of waning.

June 2015 World Traveller

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How to Book You can book these offers by calling dnata on +971 4 316 6666

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Or by visiting dnatatravel. com. Terms and conditions apply. On the same site you can also sign up to dnata’s newsletter and receive more offers direct to your inbox.

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E Zanzibar The Palms

4 night from USD1,200 per person Special offer: Stay 3 nights and receive an additional night free plus a 5% discount on room rate and complimentary return airport transfers Includes: Stay in an Ocean Deluxe Sea View room with breakfast and dinner daily and return airport transfers Validity: Jun 1-Sep 30, 2015 An incredible offer on a truly relaxing getaway.

F Mauritius The St. Regis Mauritius Resort

Malaysia Shangri La Hotel, Kuala Lumpur

H Hong Kong The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong

5 nights from USD1,075 per person Special offer: 50% discount on room rate plus upgrade to full board and 25% discount on spa treatments Includes: Stay in an Ocean Deluxe Sea View room with breakfast and dinner daily and return airport transfers Validity: Jun 1-Sep 30, 2015

3 nights from USD328 per person Special offer: 27% room rate reduction plus receive complimentary upgrade to the next available room category Includes: Stay in Deluxe room with breakfast daily and return airport transfers Validity: Jul 1-Sep 30, 2015

3 nights from USD830 per person Special offer: 20% room rate reduction Includes: Stay in Deluxe room with breakfast daily and return airport transfers Validity: Jun 1-Sep 30, 2015

Take the hassle out of booking with return airport transfers.

Shangri-La’s Eastern experience is to the fore at this stunning Malaysian property.

Explore Hong Kong using the terrific Ritz Carlton as your base. This hotel is ideal for business or leisure travellers with its central location.

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Villa Padierna Palace Hotel

Salalah Rotana Resort

Four Seasons Resort Bali

One&Only Cape Town

dnata’s FANTASTIC FOUR

Escape the City

These gorgeous getaways are all you need to leave the hustle and bustle behind I

Spain Villa Padierna Palace Hotel, Marbella 5 nights from USD820 per person Special offer: Early booking 10% reduction on room rates and one thermal circuit per person per stay in the Spa Includes: Stay in Deluxe double room and return airport transfers (Malaga airport) Validity: Jun 1-Sep 30, 2015, book minimum 30 days prior to arrival Marbella is extremely popular with culture-loving Europeans.

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South Africa One&Only Cape Town

Oman Salalah Rotana Resort

4 nights from USD805 per person Special offer: Stay 3 nights and receive an additional night free Includes: Stay in a Marina Harbour room with breakfast daily and return airport transfers Validity: Jun 1-Sep 30, 2015

1 night from USD143 per person Special offer: 15% room rate reduction plus 15% discount on food and beverage and 15% discount on spa treatments Includes: Stay in a Classic room with breakfast daily Validity*: Jul 16-Aug 28, 2015. *Book by Jun 30, 2015 (inclusive)

One of the most incredibly scenic hotels in the world, this South African mainstay makes an ideal base for watching wildlife either on the land, or in the deep sea.

Towards the end of summer, Salalah Rotana becomes a lush green oasis - for now it’s ideal for lounging poolside.

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Indonesia Four Seasons Resort Bali at Jimbaran Bay 4 nights from USD1,541 per person Special offer: Stay 3 nights and receive an additional night free Includes: Stay in a One Bedroom Villa with breakfast daily and return airport transfers Validity*: Jul 1-Sep 30, 2015 *Book by Jun 30, 2015 Four Seasons are experts in relaxation - their staff will guide you in how to lay back the Bali way - so make it a long stay.

June 2015 World Traveller Promotion

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or over 35 years Insight Vacations has been designing the world’s finest escorted touring itineraries.

Being experts in touring Europe where Insight visits 43 European countries, the most of any operator. Insight is the leading escorted tour operator in the Eastern Mediterranean and offers the same legendary high standards and perfectly planned touring itineraries to guests travelling to North America, India and Nepal.

If you’re looking for the ultimate in luxury and refinement when you travel, then an Insight Gold vacation is the perfect choice for you. This selection of unique itineraries, offers more than a series of destination highlights. These journeys go above and beyond the basics to offer something extra when it comes to style, service and comfort.

In addition to all of the perks and professionalism you can expect from any of Insight’s vacation options, these standout tours also provide an allinclusive experience. All visits, sightseeing, activities, and evening dining are included in the price of your vacation so you don’t have to worry about anything. Your only concern?

Enjoying the journey.

Featured Insight Gold Luxury Journeys Iberian Elegance, 12 Days Barcelona, Valencia, Granda, Seville, Lisbon, Salamanca, Madrid “Iberia has a rich and colourful history of discovery and empire. You’ll be forever

Travel in

Taj Mahal at sunrise, Agra

Seville

inspired by the delicious food, amazing art and architecture, and unequalled appetite for life” Day 1: Welcome to Barcelona; Day 2: Explore Barcelona, Catalonias Crative Capital; Day 3: Drive along the Orange Blossom Coast to Valnecia; Day 4: Follow the Sierra Nevada to Granada & the Alhambra Palace; Day 5: Move on to Cordoba and Seville; Day 6: Explore Seville, the City of Carmen; Day 7: Onwards to Glorious Lisbon; Day 8: Lisbon and the Age of the Discoveries; Day 9: Head to Holy Fatima and Golden Salamanca; Day 10: Continue on Past Avila to Toledo and Madrid; Day 11: Explore Madrid of the Bourbons; Day 12: Depart Madrid.

Starting price: From USD3925 per person.

Stay In: Hilton Barcelona, Westin Valencia, NH Victoria

Luxury

Plaza de Torros, Seville

in Granada, Melia Sevilla in Seville, Altis Lisbon, NH Puerta Catedral Salamanca, NH Paseo Del Prado in Madrid.

Main Highlights: Business Class legroom in Coach, Complimentary Wifi almost throughout the journey and Hotel stay, Visits to Unesco heritage Sites, Signature experience, Signature Dining, Signature Evening Departure: Selected Saturdays from Jun 6, 2015 onwards

Essence of India, 7 days Dehli, Agra, Jaipur, Samode “Collectively known as the Golden Triangle, the cities of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur showcase India’s rich Mughal and Rajput heritage – imposing forts, sumptuous palaces and gleaming marble temples and tombs, such as the exquisite Taj Mahal”

Day 1: Arrive Delhi, a rich melting pot of old and new; Day 2: Delhi Sightseeing; Day 3: Agra & The Taj Mahal; Day 4&5: Explore Jaipur, the Pink City; Day 6: Visit Samode’s medieval palaces, forts and havelis; Day 7: Depart Samode – Delhi.

Starting price: From USD1725 per person.

Stay In: Hyatt Regency, Delhi; Radisson Blu, Agra; Marriott Jaipur; Samode Bagh, Samde Main Highlights: Business Class legroom Coach; Complimentary Wifi in Coach and Hotels most of the time; Visits to Unesco heritage Sites, Signature experience, Signature Dining, Signature Evening Departure: Selected Sundays from Sep 6, 2015 onwards Price per person on twin sharing basis. For more information, plesae call +9714 316 6666 or email contactcentre@dnata.com 39

Destinations Iconic Hong Kong

Sky-high sights There are numerous vantage points throughout Hong Kong to drink in spectacular views of Victoria Harbour, but none compare to here: the Horizon Club at Island Shangri-La Hong Kong. This is the hotel’s private lounge where privileged guests can graze on delectable snacks throughout the day and revel in free-flowing bubbles at night, while watching Hong Kong life float by below.

Victoria Harbour’s wide waters separate Hong Kong Island from Kowloon and have long played a pivotal role in Hong Kong’s history as an important trading centre.

By far the most famous way to cross Victoria Harbour is via the Star Ferry, operational since the late 19th century.

June 2015 World Traveller

Iconic

Hong Kong Traditional and modern sit side-by-side in this enigmatic Asian city

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Destinations Iconic Hong Kong

Atmospheric markets Hong Kong is famous for its myriad and diverse markets, which sell everything from birds, fish and flowers to jade, electronics and medicine. The best one to visit is Temple Street Night Market, which as its name suggests comes alive after sunset. While much of what’s on sale is the very definition of ‘tat’, it’s a great place to sample delicious street food.

Cantonese cuisine You’ll find Michelin-starred food is in plentiful supply in Hong Kong (64 venues hold stars), and you don’t have to break the bank to enjoy it: Tim Ho Yan is renowned as the world’s cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant, where a traditional dim sum meal will cost you just over $10. Tim’s Kitchen is another great spot to enjoy local food.

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June 2015 World Traveller

Harbour views There are hotel suites that have the wow factor, and others that simply take your breath away.

This, the Presidential Suite at the InterContinental Hong Kong, falls very much into the latter category. Opulent inside, it’s the outside of this 7,000 sq.ft suite that truly excites, with an outsized terrace home to a Jazuzzi and pool perched above the Harbour.

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Destinations Iconic Hong Kong

Unrivalled luxury It is Hong Kong’s grand dame of hotels and one the world’s most famous (and best). And any trip here is incomplete without experiencing The Peninsula Hong Kong’s

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legendary service, whether that’s done enjoying afternoon tea, dinner, or, best of all, as a hotel guest, which means you can arrange to be collected in one of the hotel’s fleet of Rolls Royce cars.

June 2015 World Traveller

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June 2015 World Traveller

USA Special

There’s plenty to see in the land of the free

48 America by rail 56 Celeb spotting in Beverly Hills 60 Road tripping in Texas 66 Exploring the quirky Catskills

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Destinations America by Rail

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June 2015 World Traveller

Making

Tracks A road trip across America is a rite of passage, but what happens if you can’t drive?

Katie Glass hits the railroad and makes some new pals in the process

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Destinations America by Rail Opening page: Looking towards San Francisco. These pages, clockwise from top left: One of the city’s famous trams; Victorian houses in the Haight-Ashbury district; Venice Beach in Los Angeles; Louisiana Jambalaya; The Hollywood Walk of Fame, Los Angeles; The Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco.

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e are somewhere outside El Paso, on the edge of the desert, with the Franklin Mountains shimmering ahead, when a Texan in a Stetson calls across the carriage, ‘It sure goes on forever, don’t it?’

I’d been dreaming about crossing the USA since, as a teenager, I first read Kerouac’s On the Road. The Beats sold me an America that represented free-spirited adventure. A country without boundaries, teeming with a million new ideas. It was an image I’d fallen for over and over again in movies, books, songs and dreams of Thelma & Louise on the Highway to Hell, taking Route 66 in a Pink Cadillac. But the great American road trip was one I thought I’d never make.

Because there’s a problem: I cannot drive.

So I was ecstatic when I realised there was a solution, and convinced my boyfriend to join me: we could cross America by train.

Amtrak has various epic cross-country rail routes. But the ones I fell in love with – in part for their names – were the Sunset Limited (New Orleans to LA), and the Coast Starlight (LA to Seattle, but I got off at San Francisco). Between them they’re a twoweek, 3,966km journey, offering a taster menu of America. The train glides across the country, from the blues and bayous of Louisiana through cowboy territory – Texas, New Mexico, Arizona – to the glitz and hippie geeks of California – states as diverse as continents. It’s a route to take not for its tourist sites, but to get a flavour of a country, how it breathes and lives. These tracks cut through the heart and history of America, rolling through the states where the US evolved into an empire, then on to the modern landscape it has become.

On the downside, the trains are sporadic (the Sunset Limited only calls in some towns every three days), but booking through a tour operator made the maths easy. I found the cities I wanted to visit, and they booked trains to ferry us between them and fixed us up with hotels for three days in each. After every stay, we’d hop on the next train, and for the longer legs of the journey, we’d have sleeper carriages onboard. In two weeks there was no more comfortable way to cover so much ground.

We started in the Big Easy – dropping

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bags at our hotel in the French Quarter, the Bourbon Orleans, then following the clarion call of trombones rising from Bourbon Street. ‘You don’t see New Orleans, you do it,’ said a barman as he served us frozen lime-green Hand Grenade cocktails (a lethal local combination). We never looked back.

A unique set of circumstances made New Orleans: colonised by the French then Spanish, influenced by the Creoles and Cajuns, built on the slave trade and plantations. Now that rich heritage shows on the streets – it’s The Deep South with a French accent. We devoured po’boys and spicy jambalaya; went to Café du Monde for icing sugar-dipped beignets and black chicory-coffee.

In the day, we wandered family-owned antique stores, voodoo charm shops and the cemetery (where they bury the dead in white sarcophagi above ground). At night, we fell back onto Bourbon Street, and danced from one swingin’ bar to the next. Here, back-to-back joints wail with ragtime, swamp blues and honky-tonk. Jazz trumpets compete with gospel singers and white Californian rock bands.

Men blow their chops on the horn and girls in plastic beads grind their hips until sunrise. ‘There are a lot of places I like, but I like New Orleans better,’ Bob Dylan wrote.

‘There’s a thousand different angles at any moment. Everything in New Orleans is a

June 2015 World Traveller

good idea.’

We stayed three nights, spending two days partying – before soaking it all up at Brennan’s, a New Orleans institution where they serve three-course breakfasts, including grillades and grits, fat shrimps in thick tomato sauce, oysters Rockefeller and Bananas Foster, flambéed at our table by the chef. Then we left it all behind and headed for the train station, where the real adventure would begin.

The passengers waiting to board the Sunset Limited snake through the station, and we’re an unlikely group: young couples, families in loungewear, cowboys in Stetsons, Mexican men with tattoos, and middle-aged women clutching Ernest Hemingway books. The train itself is a silver bullet: shining; two floors high. Our luggage is packed onto the ground floor and we’re ushered up onto the second and into our roomette. ‘All aboard!’ screams the guard, satisfyingly. The whistle blows, and we’re off.

First, we’re travelling from New Orleans to San Antonio in Texas. A 922km, 15-hour trip. Our roomette is a snug compartment with two fat armchairs facing each other, a table between them and a flip-down bed overhead. ‘Hi, I’m Yvonne and I’ll be your room attendant,’ beams a woman in our doorway. As sleeping-car passengers, Yvonne explains, we get free drinks and

meals; there are showers downstairs; and ‘I’m here if y’all need help.’ Further down the hall is the ‘sightseer lounge’ with wallsize windows, as well as the coach seating, cafe and dining car.

The great thing about railways is that no one has to concentrate, drive or direct.

Instead, we collapse in our armchairs and watch the country roll past. We leave New Orleans’ stacked highways, suburbs and train yards, watching the city peter out into puddles that grow thicker by the track, turning into damp marshes, green swamps then vast bayous. It’s strange to see America so intimately – it would be

We devoured icing sugar-dipped beignets and black chicorycoffee difficult to design a road trip that would give such a generous insight. The railroad cuts through tiny Louisiana conurbations, giving us close-ups of small-town American life. In Schriever and Lafayette, kids playing at the level crossing stop to wave up at the track. We see Cajun food growing in the wetlands: rice, hot peppers and okra. We pass sprawling white graveyards, red-brick churches, trailer parks and ramshackle wooden houses with bright-painted porches 51

Destinations America by Rail

and rusty pick-ups outside. Soon we’re miles from anything except the continuous coo of the train horn, which somehow unites the scene rushing past.

Occasionally we take ‘smoke breaks’ at stops, hopping off to light up and chat to other passengers on the platform. ‘Don’t stray too far from the train,’ warns the driver. ‘Many a poor folk’s been left behind.’

It seems likely that these stragglers missed the call to embark because the platform conversations are so engaging. A man heading home to Arizona complains to us: ‘I’ve been having a real problem with coyotes in my yard. They’re smart, real smart. And the sound they make… It’s like

Locals board with advice on places we should visit (and those we should miss) something off the movies some nights.’ We stand with him on the platform, watching the cowboy take calls on his mobile phone.

At every stop we make a crowd of new friends to travel with in a way we’d never have been able to by car.

There’s a bundle of reasons the train’s better than driving – comfort, views, convenience, the way you can kick back in the dining car eating iron-grilled steak, sipping ice-cold Lone Star hops, watching the ever-changing country unfold – but 52

what’s best is that the train gives up something you’d never experience by car: the people who make this country what it is.

At each destination, locals board with advice on places we should visit (and those we should miss), home towns we have to see, local legends, tales of their lives, and the varied, funny, obscure and intimate reasons they are crossing their country by rail.

The woman at our lunchtime dining-car table has come from New Orleans, heading to New Mexico. Her husband plans to open (what he thinks will be) the first Elvis car museum. She tells us about his Cadillacs and Rolls-Royces as we order meatloaf and cheesecake and watch the prairies slide past.

The food’s not five-star. But it’s not standard soggy train grub either. And it’s warm, it’s big, it’s comforting. (Although, at dinner it gets quite pricey if it’s not included in your package.)

We’re coming into Houston, Texas, when it gets dark like a bolt around 6pm. One minute we’re in the dining car ordering steak, the next the window is black, lit up by glittering skyscrapers. We watch cars full of tired passengers cruise past us in silence, as we crack jokes and a bottle of grape arrives at our table. It’s not until midnight that we arrive in San Antonio.

San Antonio and the Alamo mission building may be the historic heart of the Lone Star State, but having watched the

June 2015 World Traveller

Where To Stay New Orleans, Los Angeles & San Francisco In the heart of the French Quarter, the 500-room JW Marriott New Orleans blends old world charm with modern conveniences.

In LA, The London West Hollywood has 200 hip rooms, including the city’s largest suite designed by Vivienne Westwood. St. Regis San Francisco, meanwhile, is located in the vibrant SoMA district and comes with butler service. To book, visit dnatatravel.com or call +971 4 316 6666.

Clockwise from top left: San Antonio, Texas; San Francisco at night; North Beach, San Francisco; The city’s Cioppino fish stew; Haight-Ashbury; The Golden Gate Bridge; The South Bay Bicycle Trail in Venice Beach.

backwaters of Texas race past the window, we’re here to experience cowboy country.

So we head straight from the city to the nearest hick town, Bandera (population 1,000), to the northwest in Texas Hill Country. They call it the Cowboy Capital of the World, but don’t let the cliché put you off: it’s the real deal. Bandera was built in the 1800s as a staging area for the Great Western Cattle Trail. Now it’s surrounded by ranches, lived in by world-champion rodeo riders, and bursting with cowboy bars. The whole town smells of mesquite and BBQ sauce. Twanging country music drifts from Chikin Coop – a local bar knocked together from corrugated iron, with horses tied to a rail outside. Inside, men at the bar watch the rodeo.

We consume BBQ chicken, ’slaw and hops, and a local paper that includes the stories: ‘A reprobate from River City came to the Hill Country to be arrested for weedwacking’; ‘A Bandera boozer failed to hold her likker in public’. Then we head up to the Dixie Dude Ranch, where we’re staying, to ride.

‘Howdy, how y’all doing?’ David, a retired rodeo rider in a checked shirt, leads rides at the Dixie Dude. I’m a terrible rider. I fell off a horse once and I’m petrified of them. But David puts me on one that doesn’t want to do anything but chew juniper, which suits me fine. We amble through hill country in the rough-lands of Texas, the sun on our backs, and the conversation turns to firearms. ‘You kids ever fired a gun?’, 53

Destinations America by Rail This page: San Francisco at dusk.

Destination Dish Spicy Jambalaya This warming southern staple is as much a part of the cultural dining landscape as any gumbo or grits. The dish is thought to have originated in Louisiana, with a French influence and even Spanish DNA- it’s not dissimilar to a rich paella. Meat mixes with celery, peppers, onions and spices.

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asks David. My boyfriend and I shake our heads. David looks amazed: ‘How old are you?!’. It’s not too late, he reminds us. ‘And you know what they say about Texas’, he adds, cackling. ‘Come on vacation, leave on probation, return on violation.’

Early the next morning, we’re back on the rails. This leg of our trip will take us from San Antonio to El Paso, right on the Mexican border. It is 973km, and 11 hours away. The unsociable start (our train leaves at 3am) means we’ve got another roomette, and we’re rocked to sleep as we speed through Texas.

I wake up at 6am just outside Del Rio, as the sun’s rising over the dusty Rio Grande.

‘Goood morning! How’s your coffee?’ calls a Texan in the dining car, who looks like he’s come straight from herding cattle.

‘Mine sure is strong. That’s coffee that gets up and slaps you in the face.’ I sit with my new friend, watching the view while my boyfriend is sleeping – unlike a road trip, we’re not trapped side by side, getting on each other’s nerves the whole trip.

We stop in El Paso just two days, two nights. Enough time to go hiking in the Franklin Mountains State Park – a neverending landscape of red rocks bristling with mountain lions, deer, coyotes and rattlesnakes – and to take the Wyler Ariel Tramway cable car 286m up to look out over two countries and three states. That night we go to a bar next to the graveyard where the gunslingers are buried, and eat fajitas with Mexican workmen. Then we’re off.

We are a silver streak screaming through the Arizona desert. We pass scrubland with blue-green mountains rising behind it, fields of cotton, chillis, pecans, pistachios, pine forests and prairies of wildflowers, the train whistling us on. We drift into evening until there is nothing out the window but the desert and the succulent red sun slowly sinking to its floor. I spread out on the white sheets of the bed in our sleeper and let my mind empty into the open space.

In our roomette we read, listen to music, play games or listen to the commentary Amtrak provides (if you download it) on the country whirring past. Sometimes we wander to the viewing car and ask other travellers what we should see in LA. And

June 2015 World Traveller

we hear about hidden restaurants and crazy nights out in side-street bars.

So when we arrive in La-La land, we’re clutching a list of places to go. We have come 3,211km by this point. It’s 6am in Tinseltown, and Texas feels far away. We eat pancakes in a diner downtown, next to the LAPD; trip around the trendy boutiques with the pretty people in Venice Beach; join tourists at the space shuttle Endeavour; drink cocktails with rock stars on Sunset Strip; then dance across the bubblegum-pink stars on Hollywood Boulevard. LA feels big enough to encompass whole worlds: downtown, homeless people are camping in tents; over Hollywood, the iconic sign sparkles white.

The last train we take cements the feeling that we’ve crossed into a whole new country. The Coast Starlight creeps from LA to San Francisco, making a civilized day trip up the coast past manicured lawns and grassy mountain slopes. People are knitting. Jazz pipes around the hipster-filled carriages. ‘In the parlour car I’ve got cold drinks, hops, cocktails,’ crackles the tannoy.

We spend our last days among San Francisco’s second-hand record shops and comic stores, near the coloured Victorian houses of Haight-Ashbury. The final night we take the tram to the Burritt Room, a speakeasy-vibe restaurant styled like a ’40s train carriage, with curtained mahogany booths that look like old-fashioned Amtrak roomettes. A band plays blues as we drink delicate cocktails invented in the ’30s in the French Quarter of New Orleans. And it feels symbolic to be ‘back’ where we began.

Two weeks by rail is the only comfortable way to make such an epic journey; it would exhaust you by car. But the train keeps a steady rhythm as it dishes out a new perspective on a country you think you already know, not just through dramatic landscapes and strange stop-offs, but by giving you a way to meet the real America: old bluesmen, girls from La-La land, Mexican farm-hands, hip-hop kids, and waitresses from Ohio. Travelling through it like this, I see the States mirrored in its people: diverse and individual, but united by something. And connected to each other – by the railroad.

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Destinations Beverly Hills

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This page: Rodeo Drive sign.

Overleaf, clockwise from top left: Two Rodeo looking to Wilshire Boulevard; Bugatti Veyron on Rodeo Drive; Hollywood sign through palm trees; Beverly Hills from above; The Beverly Hills hotel; Bouchon Bistro

June 2015 World Traveller

Star Studded City As Samuel Muston eats, shops and celebrity spots in Beverly Hills, he looks at why 90210 became America’s most desirable postcode

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red Maserati zooms down Rodeo Drive like an Exocet missile. It is hot, 30C in the shade. That doesn’t stop a woman with a sea of brown hair and shades like saucers sliding out of the Saint Laurent store with more shopping bags than you’d think a single human could carry.

But then she isn’t about to walk far. A black Mercedes pulls a U-turn and swoops in to pick her up. Perhaps she’s going to lunch on Canon Drive around the corner – at this time of day, cars queue up to decant well-heeled, shopped-out Angelenos into the arms of the road’s restaurateurs. Or maybe she is just moving on to Bijan at 420 North Rodeo where you can pick up $30 socks, $2,000 suits and – not long ago – $12,0000 chinchilla bedspreads. It is only a few hundred metres away, but you drive everywhere in Beverly Hills: walking, an LA friend says to me in what I can’t tell is a joke or not, implies simplicity of purpose. They don’t go in for that here.

Not long ago, though, these six square miles were as simple as a place could be.

The city of Beverly Hills – part of Los Angeles County – was founded a century ago by a real-estate man with his eye on the main chance. Burton E Green bought the 3,500 acres on which the city now sits with the intention of drilling for oil. Instead of crude, however, he found aquifers, and, taking a punt, formed the Rodeo Land and

Water Company to develop the land for which he’d paid $1.2m. Thus the city has the distinction of being one of the few places in the world born not of oil but its absence.

The water in the Beverly Hills aquifers helped LA to expand. In 1900, it was a city of only 100,000 but 10 years later it had already drawn in 10 film studios. By 1921, 80 per cent of the world’s film industry was concentrated here and the money it generated made it largely immune to the ravages of the Great Depression. Beverly Hills would, in due course, become heir to this largesse.

At first the land that made up Beverly Hills, carved into lots by roads which some claim were modelled on screen siren Theda Bara’s curves, attracted few buyers. Only after Margaret Anderson was persuaded to leave her Hollywood Hotel to start a new venture, The Beverly Hills Hotel, did the seeds of an actual city begin to germinate in the foothills of this new “pink palace”.

Although incorporated as a city in 1914, it was another five years before the first film stars arrived to imbue the place with its now famous character. Attracted by the bucolic atmosphere, silent-film stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford bought a 56-acre estate, “Pickfair”, at 1143 Summit Drive. At first, the neighbourhood was unenthusiastic about the newcomers.

Fairbanks was recorded as saying, “they 57

Destinations Beverly Hills Previous pages: Rodeo Drive sign. This page, clockwise from top left: Two Rodeo looking to Wilshire Boulevard; Bugatti Veyron on Rodeo Drive; Hollywood sign through palm trees; Beverly Hills from above; The Beverly Hills hotel; Bouchon Bistro

It was the most surreal and beautiful sunset imaginable told me they didn’t want actors in the area as it lowered the tone”. Yet within a few years they were joined by stars of the very highest wattage: Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson, Ronald Colman and others.

Within 20 years, the 90210 zipcode was the glitziest in the country, the font of celebrity and a spunky example of US self-belief.

Is it still the place to soak up the off-cuts of glamour, though? Does it remain a centre for celebrity-spotting tourists? There is much talk these days of “celebrity drain” in Beverly Hills. Some claim that aggressive paparazzi have led many famous faces to more private Brentwood, that it is a town hollowed out by its own fame. Some point to Starline Tours – which 75 years ago started offering trips that tick off the gates of celebrities’ mansions in Beverly Hills (current price: $42 a go) – and the fact that it now offers a tour beyond the centenary city’s borders, as evidence. It is hard to reconcile that with the endless pictures of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West floating around here, and while not particularly out for rubber-necking, I walked into Rod Stewart and his wife and found myself in a restaurant two tables away from the Osbourne clan. No one seemed particularly plussed by the presence of either.

Rodeo Drive, which cuts through the south-west of the city, still draw the crowds, too. Most of Rodeo’s customers now hail from the Far or Middle East but it remains a place of pilgrimage for anyone in possession of a credit card and a desire to do a “Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman”.

It will not help you squeeze into that Chanel top, but it is reassuring for the greedier among us that Beverly Hills is still well served by restaurants, more than a decade after Wolfgang Puck’s Spago started answering the phone with: “Good evening, we have absolutely no tables ...”

The beautiful dining room at Bouchon on 58

June 2015 World Traveller

Where To Stay Beverly Hills Within easy walking distance of Century City and Rodeo Drive, The Peninsula Beverly Hills has sophisticated rooms and suites, 16 private garden villas and a fabulous spa. Located on a tree-lined residential street near Rodeo Drive, L’Ermitage Beverly Hills has sumptuous rooms and suites and a beautiful rooftop pool with private cabanas. For more information, visit dnatatravel.com or call +971 4 316 6666.

North Canon, Thomas Keller’s outpost here, reverberates to the sound of movie industry chatter. The food may be French – the menu runs from boudin blanc to poulet roti – but the conversation is pure LA: “She’ll never be a big star,” I hear one diner say in a stagewhisper as he walks past us chatting into a phone.

For dinner, there is Cecconi’s (8764 Melrose Avenue) a discreet marble-lined Italian restaurant. Here, the crowd is chic and the conversation quieter. The fresh pasta and Aperol spritzes are unsurpassed anywhere in town. If your tastes are a touch more democratic, or you just want a snack, then visit the 24-hour cupcake vending machine at Sprinkles on Little Santa Monica Boulevard.

It is the same sense of the fanciful that the city focused on during its centenary last year. Addressing the crowds at the block party that opened the festivities, the mayor Lili Bosse spoke of celebrating the “unique identity” of the place. The celebration was just that, involving a 10ft-high birthday cake cut into 15,000 pieces and Martha Reeves singing “Dancing in the Street”.

The biggest names in the city’s hotel scene also collaborated on the “suite 100” campaign. Commemorative rooms, each designed to reflect a facet of celebrity culture and each starting at $1,914 a night, were built at Montage Beverly Hills, the Beverly Hilton, L’Ermitage Beverly Hills

and the Peninsula Beverly Hills. It seemed a sure fire attention-winner and a boon for the city when it was planned. The only problem is that the centrepiece of this campaign was the beautiful Marilyn Monroe room at the most storied of all the establishments, The Beverly Hills Hotel – a place which is now adding a whole new chapter to the ongoing drama of the city.

They used to say that the Beverly Hills Hotel was where you went to be seen. A year ago, you would have battled George Lucas and Leonardo DiCaprio for a table in the Polo Lounge restaurant and every wannabe starlet in town for a lounger at the pool. But on my visit last May, the place seemed sad and half empty. I never counted more than 10 people around the pool beside which Faye Dunaway and her Oscar were photographed in 1977, due to the recent controversy surrounding the hotel’s owner.

Walking in the morning, as no one else seems to, from the hotel to North Santa Monica Boulevard, past the lawns which seem to have been shaved with a Gillette blade and the vast white houses radiating morning light, the city seemed as empty as a movie studio at night: a vast unfathomable set, with all the tensions between fantasy and reality that such places are heir to.

Beverly Hills is a magnificent confection, the most authentic inauthentic place you could dream of. It is impossible not to fall in love with it.

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Destinations Texas

LONE STAR State of Mind They say that everything’s bigger in Texas, but it’s the little things that make the place such an intriguing place to visit, says Oliver Robinson

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Destinations Texas

I

’m awake before my alarm sounds at 5am. I can feel the train slowing to a halt and know that I’m nearing my stop.

As tired as I am, I feel a surge of excitement and relief. My two-day, two-night adventure on the Texas Eagle from Los Angeles Union Station to San Antonio has been one to remember, but I’m more than ready to disembark and start exploring the Lone Star State.

The train eventually stops and after a couple of crackling announcements, clunks and clicks, the doors open and passengers pour out into the cool morning air.

San Antonio is still sleeping, but I won’t be in town long enough to watch it wake up – I have a booking at The Inn at Dos Brisas in Hill Country, just west of Houston. While a luxury ranch is the perfect antidote to two nights on a train, I can’t help but feel a tinge of regret. Not only is San Antonio Texas’s most populated city, it’s one of the most interesting in the state. It’s home to the famous Alamo Mission where 100 Texan soldiers were besieged and eventually killed by 1,500 Mexican troops in 1836. The battle inspired more Texans to take up arms against President General Antonio López de Santa Anna’s occupying army, who were eventually vanquished at the Battle of San Jacinto.

Many Texans hold the firm belief that Texas should be a country in its own right Visitors in search if more light-hearted entertainment can scare themselves silly on one of the many rollercoasters at the Six Flags Fiesta Texas theme park; swim, slide and soak at the 20-acre Splashtown; catch a San Antonio Spurs game; or explore the nearby Natural Bridge Caverns.

I promise myself that I’ll return to San Antonio one day, but in the meantime I have a three-hour drive to contend with. Not that I mind. If there’s one way to explore Texas, it’s by car. I collect the keys for my SUV from a nearby car rental and escape San Antonio before the morning rush hour.

As I drive, the rising sun casts a light over Texas’s expansive landscape. The wide, empty roads are flanked by farmland and forests, which are punctuated every now and then by fast food drive-thrus, gas stations, gun stores, and places of worship (clearly signposted for those in need of a quick prayer).

I’d heard that Texans consider themselves to be Texans first, Americans second – many holding the firm belief that Texas should be a country in its own right. I can sort of see why. The place looks and feels like nowhere I’ve visited in the US, and the silhouettes of Stetson-wearing motorists in passing vehicles remind me that Texas is still very much cowboy country.

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Opening page: Two cowboys on horseback. Clockwise from top left: Texas State Capitol building in Austin; Hotel San Jose Exterior; City skyline, Houston; Big Bend National Park; Uchiko

The satnav’s dulcet tones talk me all the way to the gateway of The Inn at Dos Brisas, where I announce my arrival on the intercom. The electronic gates slide open and I follow the smooth bitumen driveway to a handsome pavilion where I’m welcomed, relieved of my luggage, and shown to my room.

Of course, everything’s bigger in Texas – my ‘room’ is actually a sizeable hacienda, complete with an enormous living and dining area and a huge bedroom with en suite bathroom. Outside, on the terrace, there’s a plunge pool, outdoor shower, and uninterrupted views of the 313-acre estate.

I’m struck by the serene silence of the place. Perhaps this is what persuaded Houston tech mogul Doug Bosch and his wife Jennifer to purchase Dos Brisas back in 2000. Since then, the ranch has evolved from a family retreat to an idyllic (not to mention luxury) Relais & Chateaux getaway, complete with an excellent restaurant (one of the few in Texas with a Forbes Five Star rating), an onsite sommelier and mixologist,

and plenty of outdoor pursuits – from clay pigeon shooting to horse riding lessons.

I’ve never taken a great interest in equine activities, but I can’t help but be impressed by the smart stable block and the indoor riding arena (one of the biggest in Texas).

So much so, I’m talked into a horse ride.

I’m pleased (and relieved) to find that my steed, Fred, is as docile as he is obedient, and I soon relax and begin to enjoy my ride around the ranch.

After two days of riding, relaxing and plenty of eating (the highlight being the eight-course Grand Tasting Menu), it’s time to saddle up (load the car) and ride out (drive deeper into Hill Country). My next port of call is Wimberley, a small town in Hays County, which offers a smattering of guesthouses, a couple of restaurants and a number of walking trails. It’s a quaint, characterful place that provides the quiet before the storm – the storm being my visit to Austin.

After a great steak and a good night’s sleep, I resume my journey to the Texan 63

Destinations Texas

Where To Stay Hill Country, Wimberley & Austin In the eastern foothills of Texas Hill Country, The Inn at Dos Brisas has just five sprawling haciendas and four smaller casitas on the 313-acre resort. In Wimberley, Hotel Flora and Fauna is a family-run boutique hotel with modern rooms and warm hospitality. In the capital, W Austin has 251 rooms - ranging from cosy boltholes with city views to ‘Extreme Wow’ two-bedroom suites with postcard views of Lady Bird Lake.

capital. While the rest of the state might feel like cowboy country, Austin is an entity unto itself – a bubble of liberal politics, music, art, and fantastic restaurants.

My first stop is the W Austin, a property that epitomises all that is great about W brand: contemporary design features, slick service and excellent restaurants. The towering hotel is situated in Downtown Austin, an area that sizzles with creative energy and excitement. The vibe owes much to Austin’s emergence as one of the US’s start-up capitals – a Petri dish for entrepreneurs and tech companies (computer behemoth Dell started life in a University of Texas dorm room).

Austin’s restaurant scene mirrors the innovation and verve of the city’s start-ups, with Downtown boasting an abundance of eateries serving exciting fusion food in exuberant environs. But rather than venture out and explore, I choose to take my first meal within the hotel’s polished concrete walls. Trace, the W Austin’s flagship restaurant, is famous for weekend brunch, which is as much a party as it is a meal. As DJ I Wanna Be Her spins Iberian beats in the background, I tuck into an array of delicious breakfast staples: Bulgarian yoghurt parfait, buttermilk pancakes, chorizo verde and eggs.

With my appetite whetted, I’m ready to tuck into more of the city’s gastronomic offerings. Next stop: Uchiko. This Japanese restaurant, located on North Lamar Boulevard, is the second Austin-based 64

Clockwise from this image: The Inn at Dos Brisas; Hotel San Jose; Open Highway near Fort Davis; Bar patron in Taylor; Plating up at The Inn at Dos Brisas

June 2015 World Traveller

restaurant to be opened by local sushi master Tyson Cole. Cole learned his trade in Tokyo and New York, before returning to Austin where he’s the first name to be dropped in any conversation about Austin’s culinary status.

I find Uchiko bursting at the seams – customers are queuing out of the door for a taste of Cole’s creations, and those who have snagged a table look extremely pleased with themselves. Unlike the cold, minimalist décor of many of the Middle East’s high-end sushi spots, Uchiko’s interior is best described as rustic chic – warm and inviting, while at the same time effortlessly cool. This can be said of the food, which features artfully prepared and presented combinations of freshly sourced ingredients. With relish, I tuck into a tasting menu featuring dishes such as hydroponic baby romaine with jalapeno edamame, tarabagani (Alaskan king crab, with carrot and beet), and jar jar duck (Rohan duck, candied citrus and endive served in a haze of applewood smoke). There aren’t enough adjectives to describe just how good my meal is.

After two nights staying in Downtown, I cross the Colorado River that cuts through Austin to take new lodgings at Hotel San Jose on South Congress.

There’s a distinct bohemian vibe to South Congress, summed up by the San Jose Hotel – a former rundown motel that has been brilliantly reimagined and renovated by attorney-turned-hotelier Liz Lambert.

Today, the beautiful 40-room urban bungalow complex is in the heart of the action, just across the road from legendary Austin music venue the Continental Club and a stone’s throw from a number of food trucks, vintage boutiques, and more great restaurants.

The convivial vibe of the area is infectious.

I stroll down South Congress to a bluegrass soundtrack (courtesy of a nearby busker), while young couples (who look as though they should be in a Kooples photo shoot) sit outside the many bars and restaurants eating, drinking and watching the world go by.

There are still a few reminders that I’m in Texas, not a borough of New York: Allens Boots, for example, sits proudly alongside the boutiques and coffee houses doing a roaring trade in cowboy boots and hats.

Meanwhile, in the distance, back over the Colorado River, stands the impressive Texas State Capitol building.

I turn my attention to a small cluster of food trucks parked just off the road.

Everything from Korean barbecue to Jamaican jerk chicken is served – a testament to Austin’s cultural and culinary diversity. Texas, I conclude, is chocked full of surprises – I’ve experienced so much yet have seen so little of this gargantuan state. I resolve that I have to visit again, but I know that once won’t be enough.

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Destinations Catskill Mountains

Searching for the style in

Catskills Upstate New York’s mountains are back in vogue following their Sixties heyday.

Mark C O’Flaherty joins the cool crowd from Brooklyn to explore...

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“W

June 2015 World Traveller

e thought the baby boomers would come, but it turned out to be the Brooklynites.”

The fabulously named Peekamoose restaurant – as enjoyable to say as to visit – was one of the first trails to be blazed in the new-look Catskills. Owner, Marybeth Mills, saw potential in this picturesque, mountainous corner of Upstate New York a decade ago and set up shop, with a raggletaggle set of rooms full of sharp-toothed and antlered taxidermy, scavenged furniture, and a chunk of tree that was plucked from the East River and turned into a chandelier studded with filament bulbs. Peekamoose was a style salvo for a new generation in the Catskills. “We expected an older crowd to come here, out of a sense of nostalgia for what the area used to be,” says Marybeth. “But instead we had the Brooklyn crowd come and buy second homes.”

This rural area, renowned for its rivers, bears and roadside curiosities (“See the world’s largest kaleidoscope!”) is in the throes of a widespread makeover. It’s been happening in the area around the Hudson for a while, but now it’s spreading to the less populated west of the region. You can see its grassroots in the sous vide techniques and the artisanal Hoptical Illusion ale at Peekamoose, and its green shoots are visible in the growing obsession with the small batch, the locally sourced, the new businesses and the industrial faux-naïf typography that brand them all.

It’s par for the course for jaded urban taste-makers, but still radical in a place where the waitress at a roadside café can advise you that “No, it’s definitely a cappuccino, I checked the machine, it has cappuccino powder in it.” And the area’s newfound lo-fi hipness is nothing if not knowing: one of the best-selling items in the chic little gift shop at The Graham & Co motel is a T-shirt with the legend “Catskills Vs Hamptons”.

This isn’t the first time the area, three hours’ drive from Manhattan, has been colonised by idealists and aesthetes. Woodstock has been a wealthy pocket of liberal, literary tie-dying and dreamcatching since the era-defining music festival that bore its name 45 years ago. It has a thriving community that pops into The Golden Notebook for the latest paperback by local author Shalom Auslander before lunching at Oriole9 on whatever the kitchen has put together that day from its own nearby farm. “Elvis Costello was through here last month and bought a ton of books,” says local poet, bookseller and animal rights advocate, Gretchen Primack. “And there are so many writers living locally.”

That may be, but the 20th century wasn’t kind to the Catskills as a whole. As I drove along Route 28 and through tiny offshoot towns, I encountered roadside fruit stands and plenty of gee-whizz motel signs, but also mothballed theatres with ornate ticket 67

Destinations Catskill Mountains

booths covered in cobwebs, Gothic Eurocolonial wrecks housing once-grand dark wood bars and shuttered general stores.

Every few miles, I found myself humming the Simon and Garfunkel refrain: “They’ve all gone to look for America ….”

Some of the western Catskills is accidentally in fashion. I dined one evening at a restaurant that had used jam jars in lieu of lampshades, but regular 60-watt bulbs rather than à la mode filament ones.

They’d used the jars because they were cheap, rather than as a design choice. A lot of what’s been rediscovered as a “cool look” started out as everyday life here. Yes, there’s a branch of Brooklyn’s Scandinavian Grace interior design store, but there are people living a hand-to-mouth existence too.

“The Catskills were killed by air conditioning and cheap jet travel,” says Greg Henderson, who left a successful New York City career in finance to open the Roxbury, a “boutique motel resort”, with partner Joseph Massa. “People used to come here to escape the city heat when they couldn’t bear it. It was seen as a cure for ills.”

The rise of aviation crossed paths with the demise of rail travel: a record 675,000

The Catskills have fallen into fashion again by virtue of timing and opportunity passengers came to the area by train in 1913, but by the 1950s, the Ulster and Delaware Railroad had stopped carrying holidaymakers altogether. Now, if you want to stay in one of the Roxbury’s outlandish rooms, the nearest rail station is an hour away.

But New Yorkers are still coming in droves – and it’s easy to see why. Greg and Joseph came to the Catskills chasing a dream and created a fantasy: you can stay in a room in which the ceiling has been transformed into a giant inverted coconut cream pie, or in an Indiana Jones-inflected suite with bullwhips on the ceiling, a tropical fishtank in the gold-tiled shower and a secret corridor that lets you spy on other guests through the slits in a tribal mask mounted on the wall. There are rooms influenced by Star Trek, The Sound of Music and Charlie’s Angels, and in the I Dream of Jeannie suite, the bathroom is designed to feel like you’re inside Jeannie’s magic lamp. Forget about all the tacky themed hotels you’ve seen before – the attention to detail at the Roxbury is impressive. It’s a lavish labour of love.

The motel model has been given quite the makeover in a variety of spots in the Catskills. At Kate’s Lazy Meadow, Kate Pierson of the B-52s and partner, Monica Coleman, have created a pop-art hideaway that positively screams “Loveshack”, while The Graham & Co, which opened in the summer of 2012, has put a starker, more urban twist on things, with Edison bulbs Phoenicia Diner images by Kevin Trager. The Graham & Co images courtesy of the hotel.

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June 2015 World Traveller

Where To Stay Catskill Mountains The Graham & Co. has 20 unpretentious rooms, a swimming pool, a badminton court, hammocks to lounge in and bikes to explore the surrounding countryside.

The Roxbury has 14 rooms and four suites, themed on 1960s and ‘70s sitcoms and cartoons and decorated in kitschy style. There’s also a spa with a sauna and Jacuzzi.

Kate’s Lazy Meadow, meanwhile, has nine suites with funky vintage décor, along with a two-bedroom lodge and studio cottage.

Opening page: The Catskill Mountains. This page, clockwise from top left: Dessert at the Phoenicia Diner; The diner itself; The pool at The Graham & Co; Esopus Creek; Cafe at The Graham & Co.

dangling close to the floors, whitewashed walls, military issue blankets, matt-black bicycles and smartly designed graphics on all of its products.

Yes, it borrows a lot from the institutional, American typewriter chic of Ace Hotel, but what doesn’t these days? Beyond the appealing “rustic modernist” look – care of cutting-edge Brooklyn-based creative agency Athletics – this is simply a fun place to hang out, with outdoor movies, bonfires, a small pool and a couple of charming bearded chaps running the front desk.

Much of the town of Phoenicia, in which The Graham & Co is located, is set in a kind of David Lynch aspic. The food at the dimly-lit Riccardella’s is lacklustre, but a short walk away, past the Empire State Railway Museum and a stroll along the highway, is the Phoenicia Diner, a designsavvy reworking of a classic 1960s roadside pitstop that I’d happily breakfast at every morning for the rest of my life.

Yes, the coffee is of the joyless black water filter variety, and the rock and roll on the jukebox strikes an overly themed note, but this is still a thrilling gem. The exterior and interior silhouettes and motifs of the classic diner might well represent America’s greatest contribution to the world of modern design, and the refurb of the booths and stools here, in chrome and green pleather, is meticulous.

There is a light touch to the whole thing –

it’s not an American Graffiti romp – and the menu focuses on fresh, local product. The Arnold Bennett Skillet is a dish of crème fraîche-scrambled eggs with smoked trout, that makes the perfect brunch. The diner attracts an eclectic clientele: while I was having a drink that evening at Tavern 214, right next to The Graham & Co, another weekend visitor told me of the bear they’d seen behind the diner’s car park, an hour after I’d had breakfast. “He just stood there, looking at me.” It sounded surprising, but it shouldn’t. This is, after all, the bear’s native habitat, not the New Yorker’s.

The Catskills have played the waiting game and fallen into fashion again by virtue of timing and opportunity. Property Upstate is still relatively affordable – certainly cheaper than in the swanky Hamptons. And Brooklyn’s obsession with all-American nostalgia is perfectly in tune with what never really went away in the Catskills.

I was sitting with a burrito in Brio’s Pizzeria in Phoenicia one afternoon when I was approached by a local who looked like he could have been either a hunter, or a veteran tattooist on a weekend away from his parlour in Bed Stuy.

“Been watching you since you came in,” he said. “Got me round to thinking when I first grew a beard like yours. 1962 it was.

On a fishing trip with a friend. He worked in finance and had to shave when he got back.

I never did.”

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June 2015 World Traveller

Weekends

Alila Jabal Akhdar, Omanone

Two days is still plenty of time to travel 72 Irresistible iftars and design hotels 74 Six of the best new restaurants 79 Abu Dhabi Summer Season 81 A new creekside hotel

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Weekends News

GRAND DESIGNS Sleek and sophisticated, WT checks into the best design hotels nearby…

Irresistable Iftars Celebrate the holy month of Ramadan at one of these lavish spreads Al Raha Beach Hotel, Abu Dhabi Each night as the sun sets, Sevilla Restaurant serves up a sumptuous buffet of traditional delicacies.

You’ll find flavours from across the region, including Moroccan tagine, Egyptian koshari, ouzi, fatta billahm, kunafah nabulsaiya, baklava pistachio, as well as Asian and Indian specialties.

Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Dubai For a classy, three-course experience, head to this top spot at The Address Dubai Marina. The special Ramadan set menu has appetisers such as beef carpaccio or Voodoo shrimp tossed in a spicy sriracha sauce, and mains including succulent Mid-Western petite filet and Norwegian salmon flavoured with garlic, thyme and rock salt.

Rooms Hotel Kazbegi, Georgia

Le Gray Hotel Beirut, Lebanon

Alila Jabal Akhdar, Oman

With the dramatic Caucasus Mountains providing a spectacular backdrop, this hip retreat (pictured) features a geometric structure with balconies and a sun terrace fashioned from steel, glass and timber. Inside, there’s rusticchic décor and a picturesque pool. designhotels.com

In the heart of the revived historical centre, buzzing with shops, restaurants and galleries, this boutique hotel has breezy contemporary interiors and huge suites. The rooftop spaces are where it’s at though, with panoramic restaurants, bars and infinity pool. campbellgrayhotels.com

Fashioned from local stones and wood, this eco-friendly resort blends seamlessly into the rugged Omani landscape.

With 78 suites set over two floors, the infinity pool takes centre stage, with striking views of the gorge and the Hajar mountain range. designhotels.com

Meliá Doha, Qatar New modern grill restaurant, Nidaaya, hosts a lively iftar with an Oud band and menu combining Mediterranean and regional favourites.

Feast on local delicacies such as muhammara and saffron hammour, alongside rosemary strip loin, mussels Provencal and more. We’ve got our eye on the chocolate brownies and apple pie, too.

Ajman Palace, Ajman In the elegant surrounds of the Majlis Ballroom, there are three, family-friendly buffet menus to choose from, with juices, mezzes, soups, grills and sweets, plus international fare. Then head to the air-conditioned tent at the rooftop Nojoom Lounge for games and shisha.

72

Culture Club The Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi’s palatial Venetian-inspired hotel, The Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi, has launched a series of cultural workshops. Hosted by the hotel’s cultural ambassadors in the executive Club Lounge, the

weekly sessions will showcase traditional regional practices such as preparing spiced Arabic coffee or centuries-old skincare and beauty routines of Arabia. ritzcarlton.com

June 2015 World Traveller

Island Life The Maldives

After a soft opening last December, Amilla Fushi resort in the Baa Atoll has unveiled its 12 bespoke beach residences. The deluxe three- to six-bedroom residences come with lavish bathrooms, huge sundecks, private swimming pools and your very own spa treatment room. Each one also has a fully-equipped gourmet kitchen, although with fabulous restaurants from acclaimed Aussie chef Luke Mangan – including signature fine-diner Lonus and the new Fish & Chips, inspired by the traditional British ‘chippie’ – we doubt you’ll spend much time cooking. There are a host of complimentary extras too, such as motorised water sports, a daily 50-minute spa treatment, Kids’ Club and babysitting services. amilla.mv

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Weekends Six Of The Best

SIX OF THE BEST

NEW RESTAURANTS These gastronomic greats are all-new and all-delicious

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June 2015 World Traveller

2.

1.

2.

Boasting a prime address at the St. Regis’ Nation Towers Beachfront on Abu Dhabi’s Corniche, the capital’s growing numbers of gastronauts are being thrilled by the ChinoLatino culinary adventure found within. Created by Cuban-born Luis Pous, the menu infuses Asian influences on Cuban food and culture, with delectable dishes like Wagyu beef empanadas, shrimp churros and tuna pica on crispy wontons. asiadecuba.com/abu_dhabi

Two-starred Michelin chef Arola’s first restaurant in the Middle East has proven to be well worth the wait. Found at Shangri-La Qaryat Al Beri, the Spanish tapas-style cuisine is a spectacular mixture of old flavours and new techniques.

The restaurant was originally going to be called Pearls & Caviar, which was then shortened to P&C – but the original title gives you a good example of the experience on offer. shangri-la.com

Asia de Cuba, Abu Dhabi

1.

P&C by Sergi Arola, Abu Dhabi

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Weekends Six Of The Best

3.

Rosso, Bahrain Bringing Italian air to new hotel Art Rotana Amwaj Islands, Rosso brings the avours enjoyed by Michelangelo, Raphael, Galileo and Leonardo to Beirut.

Home-made crusty bread pairs with light gnocchi and slowcooked duck in a wide-ranging menu that covers the whole of Italy. Finish your meal with a traditional heaped portion of tiramisu, and of course an Italian espresso as a nightcap. rotana.com 3.

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June 2015 World Traveller

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La Residence, Dubai

Nobu, Doha

Cheval Blanc Randheli’s finedining restaurant is an absolute must try, no matter where in the Maldives you’re visiting.

The nine-course menu is packed with the freshest ingredients and local twists, and is just one of the totally revamped dining concepts at the resort.

The White Restaurant, Deelani and Diptyque have also been renewed, so while 1947 isn’t technically new, a visit there will still be totally different to any you’ve had before. randheli. chevalblanc.com

Bringing French elegance and outstanding cuisine to Dubai is this new and rather beautiful dining spot. The food menu was created and developed by Michelin starred chef Frederic Vardon, whose cuisine is directly inspired by France’s culinary traditions, and everything about the place from the waiters to the cocktail menu to the desserts - has that incredibly seductive elegance that the best restaurants in Paris strive to achieve. laresidence-dubai.com

Opened in April, the Doha branch of the world-famous Japanese eatery Nobu is already gaining rave reviews, and not just for its food. The restaurant is the largest Nobu in the world, and showcases chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa’s innovative signature new-style Japanese cuisine. The restaurant sprawls over three levels and is a magnet for Japanese food enthusiasts and lovers of architectural design alike. A trip to Qatar means it can’t be missed. noburestaurants.com/doha

1947, Maldives

6.

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Abu Dhabi’s Summer Season Begins

From June 11 to September 5, Abu Dhabi is the UAE’s ideal summer city

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With superb comedy acts, world-famous children’s shows, star-studded concerts, illusionists, international theatre shows and much more, there’s every reason to be in Abu Dhabi this summer.

Bringing together concerts and performances by leading performers from around the world, combined with the best summer, Ramadan and Eid deals around, there’s more to the emirate-wide festivities to enjoy.

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June 2015 World Traveller

The

Great

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Hyatt Regency Dubai Creek Heights, UAE Isn’t there already a Hyatt in Dubai?

There’s more than one – there are three other Hyatts dotted around the city, but the Hyatt Regency Dubai Creek Heights is the newest and most extravagant yet. It only opened at the end of March, but it’s already gaining a reputation as a real hotspot.

Why’s that?

For one thing, it’s got an absolutely stellar location. The hotel overlooks Dubai’s peaceful creek, which is currently the best place in the city to relax, with wide open green spaces

fringed with palm trees, and of course the creek gently meandering by.

Sounds nice. But what’s the hotel like?

Spacious, scented and cool.

Many of the generously sized suites have views of the creek, and they all have flat screen TVs, wi-fi and beautiful bathrooms. Sufra, the main restaurant, provides highquality Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine and a terrific buffet breakfast in the morning. The rooms are perfect for business or leisure travel, and are very spacious.

What else is a mustsee?

You can’t leave without booking into the Nysa Spa. It’s got to be one of the biggest in Dubai, with cool walls and interesting plant features appearing throughout.

The treatments and rooms are all state-of-the-art, and even walking through is guaranteed to relax you. As well as spa treatments, Nysa offers hair, nail and makeup services, and a designated men’s menu. After being thoroughly pampered, an afternoon in the sun on the water loungers sipping a cool drink is the perfect way to finish a relaxing weekend.

AT A GLANCE Fast facts about Hyatt Regency Dubai Creek Heights ç Nysa Spa is worth mentioning again – it’s got Water Temples, eight treatment rooms including two couples’ suites.

ç The property is actually in two 164-metre high-rise towers. One is the hotel, the other is for residency.

ç The 464-room hotel has 1000 sqm of plant walls, flowers and greenery, and the lobby has a towering glass ceiling embossed with Swarovski crystals.

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Weekends dnata Offers

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June 2015 World Traveller

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What: The Musician’s Penthouse Where: Corinthia Hotel, London About: Corinthia hotels have long been about harmony – and they’re taking that literally in this gorgeous suite. From the classic Steinway Model O piano to the guitars on the mezzanine level via the state-of-the-art record deck in the living space, every aspect of the suite’s two floors has a musical twist. The floors are linked by staircase and private internal lift, and – perfect for summertime – there’s a magnificent outside space, with a dining area, gas fire and fabulous views over London and the Thames. corinthia.com 84

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