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UK EDITION // NATGEOTRAVELLER.CO.UK

THE LUXURY ISSUE 51 OF THE WORLD’S BEST NEW HOTELS

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ALSO: GHENT // MALMÖ // CORNWALL // GREECE

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Jul/Aug 2018

Contents

78

78 Big Sleep Awards We’re saluting the best of the hotel world with our annual awards. Who’s got the top spot?

110 Cornwall On the edge of England, an artistic spirit and myriad myths colour this mercurial landscape

130 Paris In a city where food tempts from every corner, the term ‘artisan’ is a tightly pinned badge of pride

Issue 67

98 Mozambique With infrastructure improving, this pristine, vibrant corner of Africa is forgotten no more

120 Australia Welcome to the Outback — a land of searing ochre sunsets and silent, sacred, giant rocks

140 Dallas Forget stetsons and Lone Star patriotism, this Texan city is sizzling with youthful energy

Paddleboarding in the Maldives IMAGE: Ibrahim Asad/ Picfair ABOVE: W Barcelona

Jul/Aug 2018

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Jul/Aug 2018

Contents

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63

68

SMART TRAVELLER

37 Top 5 Must-visit music festivals in Lucca

TRAVEL GEEKS

15 Snapshot Palm Springs’ Hot Rodeo 17 Editors’ picks These are a few of our favourite things 18 Big picture A bolt from the blue in Jersey 20 What’s new The latest female-only travel tours 23 What’s new From ultra-luxe experiences to the QE2 26 Do it now Making waves with stand-up paddleboarding

39 Stay at Home Escaping the city for the Surrey Hills 41 Books Taschen’s The Grand Tour 47 Author Series Wilbur Smith’s On Leopard Rock 48 View from the USA Aaron Millar on Nederland, Colorado 50 Online Weekly highlights from natgeotraveller.co.uk

52 Weekender: Ghent The laid-back, quirky Belgian gem

31 On the trail Cape Town’s gin scene

56 Eat: Malmö Sinking our teeth into the Swedish city

32 Rooms Marbella’s slumber-worthy beds

63 Neighbourhood: Venice Discovering the city’s hidden highlights

34 Family The latest from Legoland

68 Sleep: Maldives Where to rest weary heads in paradise

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160 Sailing in the Aegean Setting sail on Greece’s turquoise seas 166 Luxury travel When money’s no object, what is luxury?

GET IN TOUCH

177 Inbox Your letters, emails and tweets 178 Your pictures This month’s best travel photos

INSIDER

29 Food Sampling the sunny flavours of Cuba

Reader offers

150 Travel Geeks The experts’ travel manual

DON’T MISS

12 Reader Awards 2018 Your awards are back for another year 43 Competition Your chance to win a twin-city break 44 The Masterclasses Our day of travel writing and photography sessions is fast approaching

Turn to p.147 for our new partnership with Flight Centre

YOU CAN FIND OUR PRODUCTS AT EXCLUSIVE SPECIALIST RETAILERS AND ONLINE AT WWW.SWAROVSKIOPTIK.COM

BY APPOINTMENT TO HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II SWAROVSKI OPTIK SUPPLIER OF BINOCULARS

EL 32

UP CLOSE ON YOUR ADVENTURE A vast expanse stretches before you. You are enthralled by the beauty of the savannah, which is revealed in every single conceivable shade of brown and green. A silhouette of thousands of gnus, antelope and zebras migrating can be seen in the blazing sun.

But your attention is drawn in an instant to a young cheetah that is carefully stalking a gazelle. It suddenly sets off in pursuit of its prey at an incredible speed.

You’ve never been as close as this to the action, thanks to the EL 32 binoculars.

SWAROVISION technology allows you to enjoy this unforgettable encounter with wildlife displayed in razor-sharp, vivid and lifelike images. With SWAROVSKI OPTIK the world belongs to those who can see beauty.

SEE THE UNSEEN WWW.SWAROVSKIOPTIK.COM

Contributors Shaney Hudson

Venice is one of the most misunderstood and fascinating cities in the world — beautiful and frustrating, suffocated with tourists and yet, despite the vulgar cruise ships that clog the waters, timeless.

After six visits, I still love it. VENICE P.63

Emma Gregg

I learned how to say hello to wild bottlenose dolphins on my journey through southern Mozambique. They probably found my daft English accent hilarious, but they were kind enough not to show it.

MOZAMBIQUE P.98

Nigel Richardson

Cornwall is a place that’s always reached out to the rest of the world. I tread the beautiful landscapes of the Lizard and West Penwith to strike rich cultural lodes, from painting to mining, from megalithic tombs to cuttingedge connectivity. CORNWALL P.110

Ben Lerwill

It takes minutes to fall for Paris, but a lifetime to really get to know it. I met some of the city’s top artisans and each one taught me something new about the place.

I’m not sure there’s a city anywhere that’s more densely layered. PARIS P.130

Stephanie Cavagnaro

I went expecting traditional Texan culture, but I instead found something very different.

An energetic city that’s rapidly gentrifying and celebrating youthful innovation, as old money makes way for a new generation of local movers and shakers. DALLAS P.140

8

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Editorial Director: Maria Pieri Editor: Pat Riddell Deputy Editor: Stephanie Cavagnaro Executive Editor: Glen Mutel Associate Editors: Sarah Barrell, Nicola Trup Assistant Editors: Tamsin Wressell, Connor McGovern Project Editor: Zane Henry Online Editor: Josephine Price Content Editor: Charlotte Wigram-Evans Sub Editors: Chris Horton, Ben Murray, Nick Rutherford Operations Manager: Seamus McDermott Events Manager: Natalie Jackson Art Director: Chris Hudson Art Editor: Lauren Atkinson-Smith (maternity leave) Acting Senior Designer: Philip Lay Designers: James Ladbury, Kelly McKenna Production Manager: Daniel Gregory

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National Geographic Traveller (UK) is published by APL Media Limited, Unit 310, Highgate Studios, 53-79 Highgate Road, London NW5 1TL natgeotraveller.co.uk Editorial T: 020 7253 9906. editorial@natgeotraveller.co.uk Sales/Admin T: 020 7253 9909. F: 020 7253 9907. sales@natgeotraveller.co.uk Subscriptions T: 01293 312 166. natgeotraveller@subscriptionhelpline.co.uk National Geographic Traveller (UK) is published by APL Media Ltd under license from National Geographic Partners, LLC. For more information contact natgeo.com/info. Their entire contents are protected by copyright 2018 and all rights are reserved. Reproduction without prior permission is forbidden. Every care is taken in compiling the contents of the magazine, but the publishers assume no responsibility in the effect arising therefrom. Readers are advised to seek professional advice before acting on any information which is contained in the magazine. Neither APL Media Ltd or National Geographic Traveller magazine accept any liability for views expressed, pictures used or claims made by advertisers.

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Editor-in-Chief: George W. Stone Director of Photography: Anne Farrar Editorial Projects Director: Andrew Nelson Senior Editor: Amy Alipio Associate Editor: Brooke Sabin Deputy Art Director: Leigh V. Borghesani Research Editor: Alexandra E. Petri Copy Editors: Amy Kolczak, Preeti Aroon, Cindy Leitner, Mary Beth Oelkers-Keegan Communications Vice President: Heather Wyatt Communications Director: Meg Calnan Publisher & Vice President, Global Media: Kimberly Connaghan Senior Vice President, Global Media & Experiences: Yulia P. Boyle Senior Manager, International Publishing: Rossana Stella Editorial Director, International Editions: Amy Kolczak Editorial Specialist, International Editions: Leigh Mitnick

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Copyright © 2018 National Geographic Partners, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

National Geographic Traveler: Registered Trademark. Printed in the UK.

We’re here to help you discover the world.

We know a thing or two about adventure. Our experts have been helping customers start their journey with us for over 40 years; no destination is too far or dream too big. Wherever you’re headed, we’ve got everything you need to make your next adventure the greatest yet. With over 250 of the best brands in-store or online, we’re here to help you go further this summer.

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HIGHLIGHTS

Editor’s letter

W

Trips of a Lifetime

hat is luxury? Is it a boutique villa in the Maldives with a private beach, a personal chef and a butler on hand for your every whim?

Or is it a simply a case of less is more? We know there’s so much more to luxury than money. It’s about those meaningful, authentic experiences; it can be something you’ve saved a lifetime for, but it can often be one of the undefinable — often free — moments that travel delivers in spades.

In this issue, we look at both — exploring all that money can buy, and the riches it cannot.

We discover the traditions of Paris’s ever-innovative artisans — their passion for parfum, perfect tailoring, Michelin-starred cuisine and exquisite chocolate. We spend a fortnight adrift in the Aegean on a sailing ship, and explore Venice’s lesser-known neighbourhoods. Then to Dallas, where we find unexpected food trucks and seriously good craft beer, before landing on the pristine coast of Mozambique, where conservation projects see wild dolphins and wide-eyed travellers swim side by side.

And sometimes luxury can simply be a top-notch place to stay. This issue, we also bring you the results of our Big Sleep Awards — 51 of the world’s finest hotels, from budget to boutique and beyond; and reveal your nine favourites from our reader categories.

In our free, 68-page guide, we take a look at some of the most unforgettable adventures in travel, from Machu Picchu to the Taj Mahal.

Reader Awards 2018

From your favourite long-haul destinations to the best travel books this year, have your say in this year’s awards (p.12).

Reader offers with Flight Centre Take a look at the latest deals from our reader offers provider, Flight Centre (p.147).

Subscription offers

PAT RIDDELL, EDITOR

Why not liven up your post once a month with an award-winning magazine? Check out our latest subscription offers (p.176).

@patriddell @patriddell

AWARD-WINNING NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER LATA Media Awards 2018: Consumer Magazine Feature of the Year • France Travel Media Awards 2018: Best Wine & Gastronomy Feature • ATJA Travel Media Awards 2017: Photography: Overall Excellence — Print Publication • British Travel Awards 2017: Best Consumer Holiday Magazine • British Guild of Travel Writers Awards 2017: Best Travel Writer • British Guild of Travel Writers Awards 2016: Best Travel Writer • British Travel Awards 2015: Best Consumer Holiday Magazine • British Travel Awards 2014: Best Consumer Holiday Magazine • British Guild of Travel Writers Awards 2013: Best Overseas Feature • British Travel Press Awards 2012: Young Travel Writer of the Year

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SMART TRAVELLER // READER AWARDS

W E WA NT TO H E A R FROM YOU !

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But don’t worry, it’s not all altruistic: when you cast your votes, you’ll be in with a chance of winning some of these fantastic prizes. Voting is open now until 31 September. Vote online at

natgeotraveller.co.uk/readerawards

IMAGE: GETTY

VOTE ONLINE IN AND YOU’LL BE E WITH A CHANC OF WINNING ONE OF THE FANTA STIC PRIZES!

Our fourth annual Reader Awards will be the definitive word on the best places, experiences, hotels, operators, travel personalities, podcasts and more, as shortlisted by our judges and voted for by you. With a host of exciting new categories, it’s time to get online, think back over the past year in travel and pick your winners! Which destination deserves our Rising Star rosette? Which landmark deserves legendary status? Trains, planes, boats and boutique hotels: get online and help your favourites get recognised!

READER AWARDS // SMART TRAVELLER

TH E PRIZE S FIVE-NIGHT HOLIDAY IN PHUKET, THAILAND

Win a five-night luxury bed and breakfast stay at Banyan Tree Phuket, Thailand, in a Banyan Pool Villa for two people with return flights from London to Phuket with Destinology, leaders in luxury travel for more than 14 years.

Surrounded by a saltwater lagoon, Banyan Tree Phuket is nestled in the enclave of Laguna Phuket and is the perfect tropical retreat.

Revel in your luxuriously spacious Banyan Pool Villa, with its open-air bathtub and six-metre outdoor pool. Your stay will include a luxurious massage at the Banyan Tree Spa, together with a sumptuous dining experience at the Watercourt Restaurant. destinology.co.uk banyantree.com/en/thailand/phuket

TWO-NIGHT LUXURY SPA STAY IN WILTSHIRE

Win a two-night stay in Wiltshire’s luxury Bowood Hotel, Spa & Golf Resort. The prize includes two nights on a B&B basis, with one dinner and entrance to Bowood House and gardens included. A boutique-style hotel, offering luxury accommodation and unrivalled leisure facilities, it’s the perfect retreat for weekend escapes, golf and spa breaks. Bowood Hotel offers dining in the Shelburne Restaurant and two lounges for morning coffee, afternoon tea or pre-dinner cocktails. The spa has an infinity pool, hot pool, crystal steam room, rock sauna, aromatherapy showers, four treatment rooms and a gym. bowood-hotel.co.uk

AMAZON KINDLES

We’ve got two of these terrific touchscreen e-readers up for grabs. They’re a travel must-have: lighter than a paperback, they can download books in under 60 seconds when connected to wi-fi. amazon.co.uk

20 FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS

Fancy 12 months of National Geographic Traveller (UK) for free? Well, we’ve got 20 subscriptions to give away — so get voting.

TH E RE S U LT S Sponsors

Winners will be announced on 26 November at The May Fair Hotel London and in our Jan/Feb 2019 issue. Prize draw closes 31 September at 23:59 GMT. Voting and prize draw open to residents of the UK and Republic of Ireland aged 18 and over. Prizes are subject to availability. Full T&Cs available at natgeotraveller.co.uk/readerawards

Jul/Aug 2018

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SMART TRAVELLER What’s new // Do it now // Food // On the trail // Rooms // Family // Stay at home // The word

SNAPSHOT

Palm Springs, USA The Hot Rodeo kicks off every year near Palm Springs, California. There’s the usual rodeo programme of bull and steer riding, chute dogging and calf roping, but there’s the Gay Rodeo, too, packed with a schedule of camp events.

A highlight is the Wild Drag Race, where three contestants — one male, one female and one dressed in drag — must work together to lead the steer to the finish line. The fastest time wins, and the contestant in drag must mount the steer before crossing the line. I took this photograph of Miss Palm Springs last year, a title that was decided by the International Gay Rodeo Association.

ALEX GRACE // PHOTOGRAPHER @alexgracephoto alexgracephoto.com @alexgracephoto

Jul/Aug 2018

15

FIND YOUR PLACE IN OURS

A STEP IN, STEP OUT, FEET UP, HAIR DOWN KIND OF PLACE. BRILLIANT BASICS AND UNEXPECTED EXTRAS. EVERYTHING YOU NEED AND NOTHING YOU DON'T. Zabeel House: a new upscale casual hotel collection by Jumeirahâ„¢

0800 082 8000 | zabeelhouse.com | #ZabeelHouse

Dubai, Al Seef

Dubai, The Greens

London, Shoreditch

EDS’ PICKS // SMART TRAVELLER

Bristol International Balloon Fiesta

WHAT: The largest event of its kind in Europe, with over 150 balloons taking to the skies WHERE: Ashton Court Estate, Bristol WHEN : 9-12 August WHY GO: The free event turns 40 this year, and promises to be bigger and bolder than ever. As well as lift-off s at dawn and dusk, there are also spectacular Night Glows, where hundreds of balloons light up the night sky in time to music. bristolballoonfiesta.co.uk CHARLOTTE WIGRAM-EVANS

Edito s' icks We’ve been here, we’ve been there, and our team have found a few things we thought we’d share

IN NUMBERS

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER

40+ 3 miles

rocket launches planned for 2018

as close as you can get to a rocket launch as an observer (with a VIP ticket)

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the number of people in a group who can train at the Astronaut Training Experience

3.8 million the distance in miles the new Parker Solar Probe is expected to orbit from the surface of the sun when it launches on 31 July kennedyspacecenter.com

IMAGE: GETTY

MARIA PIERI

A NEW LOOK AT RUSSIA

Videographer David Urban is documenting Russia’s 28 UNESCO World Heritage Sites during this summer’s World Cup. Beyond Your World: Into Russia aims to show a different side to the host country in 2018. bit.ly/2x1JfOP PAT RIDDELL

OUR FAVOURITE UK SUMMER SPOTS Pembrokeshire Coast Path STEPHANIE CAVAGNARO

Salcombe, Devon CONNOR MCGOVERN

Broughty Ferry, Scotland JO FLETCHER-CROSS

Seven Sisters, East Sussex TAMSIN WRESSELL

Hertford Union Canal alongside Victoria Park, London JOSEPHINE PRICE

The plastic problem

Start-up company Loliware has created edible straws, cups and lids to help reduce the amount of plastic ending up in rivers and oceans.

The company’s products are mostly made out of seaweed, with other flavours added to complement different drinks. loliware.com TAMSIN WRESSELL

rt attack

If you’re in LA this summer, don’t miss the eyepopping Beyond The Streets exhibition. The graffiti and street art showcase celebrates how this thoroughly modern art movement has boomed, with works by the likes of Banksy and Jean-Michel Basquiat colouring the streets. Until 6 July. beyondthestreets.com discoverlosangeles.com CONNOR MCGOVERN

Jul/Aug 2018

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SMART TRAVELLER

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SMART TRAVELLER

BIG PICTURE

Saint Helier, Jersey

Surrounded by beautifully blue waters that wouldn’t look out of place lapping the beaches of the Côte d’Azur, the largest of the Channel Islands is a popular spot for boat owners to moor up and indulge in some island life. This shot was captured over the Elizabeth Marina in the island’s bamperspectives.com

bamperspectivesjersey

capital, Saint Helier. Rows of boats bob in the water, quietly waiting for the next adventure: be it an encounter with dolphins, stopping for lunch in one of the island’s sheltered bays or the short hop across the Channel to France. MARC LE CORNU // PHOTOGRAPHER

@bam_perspectives

Jul/Aug 2018

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SMART TRAVELLER // WHAT’S NEW

Explore & empower

THE RISE OF WOMEN-ONLY TRAVEL The travel industry is finally waking up to the demand for female travel, with a raft of new women-only tours, many of which help to fund initiatives for local women and girls The unprecedented rise of the female traveller knows no limits. Nearly two-thirds of travellers are now women. From the boom in women-only wellness weeks to girls-only surf clubs, and single-gender travel networking groups to many far-flung expeditions hosted by, and catering to, women, it’s clear that sisters increasingly want to do it for themselves when it comes to exploring the world. Tour operators are finally waking up to this rising demand, offering more than just token ‘female’ products. There’s a raft of adventurous new itineraries catering to female travellers, many exploring places previously considered off-limits to females by the mainstream travel market — notably in Asia and the Middle East. And many of these tours help fund the communities they visit, offering employment and education to local women and girls.

TAMSIN WRESSELL & SARAH BARRELL

HOW TO DO IT

Intrepid Travel

WHERE? Morocco, Iran

and Jordan WHAT? Led by women, tours focus on local women; their customs and the challenges they face.

GIVE ME A TASTER: The eight-day Morocco trip begins in Marrakech then heads to more remote areas to visit Berber families. A highlight is a visit to an artist co-op supporting female rugweavers in small villages.

ANYTHING ELSE? The company aims to double its number of female tour leaders by 2020. intrepidtravel.com

Exodus

WHERE? Worldwide, from Croatia to Costa Rica WHAT? The company’s 11 female-led, female-only adventure-based trips help to support local women.

GIVE ME A TASTER: The Indochina and Angkor tour takes in nine days of cycling through Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

ANYTHING ELSE? Exodus is supporting women in lowincome areas of Nepal by partnering with Freedom Kit Bags, which supplies reusable sanitary products.

One kit is donated for every booking. exodus.co.uk

3 TRAVEL COMPANIES MAKING A DIFFERENCE

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natgeotraveller.co.uk

RESPONSIBLE TRAVEL

A sustainable tourism organisation whose women-only trips use companies owned or run by local women in developing countries. responsibletravel. com

ONE TRAVELLER

The company is helping to support Ladli (a project run by non-profit organisation I-India). It houses, and helps to educate, local girls. Guests on its India itinerary can visit the schools. onetraveller.co.uk

IMAGES: ONE TRAVELLER; GETTY

G ADVENTURES

Working in partnership with Planeterra, G Adventures is funding Women on Wheels, a Delhi airport service run by local women to ensure safe hotel transfers for female travellers. gadventures.co.uk

NAME: JAMIE SPARKS. AGE:26.

OCCUPATION: MAGAZINE EDITOR. LOCATION: BRECON BEACONS, WALES. 51.884258, -3.436449

THE LAND ROVER EXPLORE: OUTDOOR PHONE The Land Rover Explore: Outdoor Phone has been made to help you explore further, for longer and with added confidence.

Find new routes, tracks, trails and paths, step out and embrace the outdoors. Waterproof, drop tested, built to withstand temperatures from the mountain to the surf, and a battery that won’t cut the day short, the Explore will help you live your adventures to the fullest. #ExploreMore landroverexplore.com

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WHAT’S NEW // SMART TRAVELLER

THE REINVIGORATION OF LUXURY

Heritage heroes With a little touch of luxury, the travel world’s old timers are shaping up to be some of the coolest new offerings around

Full steam ahead

The undisputed duchess of luxury rail travel, the BELMOND VENICE SIMPLON-ORIENT-EXPRESS , has turbocharged its offerings. If the world’s most famous train wasn’t already opulent enough, passengers can now book into one of a trio of new, private Grand Suites, named for and styled around three of its iconic destinations: Paris, Venice and Istanbul. Each suite takes up an entire carriage, so there’s plenty of room to kick back and admire the views — not least the craftmanship that keeps this classic twinkling with its original 1920s, Agatha Christie-esque glamour. You’d need £5,500 per person for the classic, one-night London to Venice journey, but this is the golden age of travel brought right up to date, after all. Once on board, passengers can live the high life with free-flowing bubbly, in-suite dining and a personal cabin steward — and the art deco bathrobe isn’t a bad touch, either. belmond.com ZANE HENRY & CONNOR MCGOVERN

Renaissance reborn

Not all bathrooms are made equal — take the COMODO DI COSIMO I DE’ MEDICI , which has been given a new lease of life as a seriously high-end ‘Renaissance’ spa in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio. The spa’s centrepiece is a massive stone bathtub, with steam created by an oldfashioned hydraulic system to heat water, and the walls are adorned with frescoes by Marco da Faenza. The revitalisation is part of the ‘Florence I Care’ project, which enables private citizens and companies to assist in the restoration of the city’s heritage sites. flic.comune.fi.it

A royal retirement

Dewy-eyed devotees of the QE2’s days under Cunard will bemoan her decade of doing nothing since she made her last voyage to Dubai from Southampton back in 2008. The recession might have put a halt on the ship’s initial renovation plans, but it was full steam ahead this year, when the QUEEN ELIZABETH 2 floating hotel opened in April.

The venerable old vessel has had a dose of the Dubai treatment with new bars and restaurants, a pool deck, spa, shopping arcade, cinema, and conference rooms spread out across 13 decks. qe2.com

Jul/Aug 2018

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Enjoy summer

a bit closer

to the sky

This is THE OMNIA

THE OMNIA, Zermatt – Switzerland, Phone +41 27 966 71 71, www.the-omnia.com

WHAT’S NEW // SMART TRAVELLER

s e c n e i r e p Ex OUT-THERE

For the deep-pocketed traveller, there are some truly exceptional, once-in-a-lifetime tours to discover that redefine luxury travel

For any self-respecting lux brand, offering premium products to high-net-worth consumers is no longer enough. Today, you need to get those moneyed spenders to embrace the intangible: the authentic experience.

Niquesa Travel, a new ultra-lux experience brand, aims to do just that with a sparkling roster of tours and trips that really take you out there. We’re not just talking behind the velvet rope, but into the deepest chambers of royalty, or out into the field with documentary makers, explorers, and religious gurus.

Of the company’s 12 signature itineraries — which include Morocco, the Himalayas, Botswana, Scotland, India and Mexico, to name a few — the Harleys & Havana tour of Cuba is the most brilliantly bonkers if you and a bunch of mates don’t mind burning rubber and cash.

This eight-night trip speeds through Florida astride Harley-Davidsons, before crossing the Straits of Florida to Cuba in a high-performance speedboat (with a chance to break the world record in doing so). Then, once in Cuba, it’s back on the bikes to meet island’s cigar-making royalty, hang out with Che Guevara’s son, spar with a former Cuban Olympic boxing champion, and get tactical training in ‘deep cover’ from a former FBI agent. If you’ve got any energy left, hosted evenings in Havana’s hottest bars, clubs and restaurants are, of course, at your behest. The price?

A mojito-cool £28,000 per person, based on six travelling, including business class flights. niquesatravel.com SARAH BARRELL

WHAT TO EXPECT FOR

IMAGE: GETTY

£28,000 • Florida from the back of a Harley • Attempting a world record in a speedboat • A cigar-making masterclass • Spending time with Che Guevara’s son • A boxing class with an Olympian • FBI ‘deep cover’ training

Jul/Aug 2018

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SMART TRAVELLER // DO IT NOW

EPIC SUP EVENTS Endurance

YUKON RIVER QUEST, ALASKA: Take part in a three-day endurance race involving wild camping, spotting grizzly bears and traversing a whopping 444 miles. yukonriverquest.com

Skill

RED BULL HEAVY WATER, CALIFORNIA: Watch the world’s best SUP athletes battle it out in San Francisco for an overall purse of $50k (£37k). It may be a mere 7.5-mile paddle but competitors can face surf as high as 10ft, huge swells and biting winds. redbull.com/us-en/events/heavy-water

Leisure

NAUTIC SUP PARIS CROSSING: Join hundreds of SUP athletes on a six-mile course on the River Seine, passing the French capital’s most iconic sights.

There’s a longer race for the more advanced. salonnautiqueparis.com

Stand-up addleboarding

MAKING WAVES

Grab your board, engage your core and get paddling — from scenic leisurely tours to high-speed races, SUP is a must-try What astarted as a way for ancient cultures to fish and navigate waterways, modern SUP was pioneered by surfers in Hawaii and is now a high-adrenalin competitive sport. Competitions take place all over the world in locations ranging from California, Mexico, Florida, Perth and Spain, with shorter and longer races requiring different categories of boards. With surfi ng scheduled to appear in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, it might not be long before we see SUP racing in the games too, with the Stand Up Paddle Athletes Association lobbying for its inclusion. Those with a more casual interest can simply rent a board for an afternoon or even try SUP-yoga. supathletes.com

THE MUST-HAVE

Allround Inflatable Quroc Qi Crossover 10’4”. RRP: £699 qurocpaddleboards. co.uk

STEPPING STONES

Basic training BSUPA LEVEL 1

Learn the correct stance, technique, different types of turns and how to fall safely. The two-hour course typically costs from £30-£55.

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‘READY TO TOUR’ TEACHING SCHEME BSUPA LEVEL 2

Get further paddling skills and details on how to plan your own adventures. A half- or full-day course costs between £60-£99.

‘READY TO RACE’ TEACHING SCHEME BSUPA LEVEL 2

Learn everything you need to know to enter your first race.

A half- to full-day course costs from £75. bsupa.org.uk

IMAGES: GETTY; ROBERT HARDING

‘READY TO RIDE’ COURSE

GET THE GEAR

Beginners keen to try the sport on flat water, surf, white water, rivers or lakes should buy a versatile Allround Inflatable Paddleboard.

Prices start from £250, but a good quality board will cost between £699-£1,000. inflatablepaddleboardreviews. co.uk SAM LEWIS

With 3,165km of pristine coastline to explore, sweeping desert dunes to discover and majestic mountain hikes there's a lot to see and do in Oman.

Choose from a wide range of luxury accommodation, enjoy the legendary Omani hospitality, bring your spirit of adventure and get ready to make a splash.

FOOD // SMART TRAVELLER

MAKE IT AT HOME

Squid in its ink INGREDIENTS

A TASTE OF

�u��

125ml olive oil 10 small squid (about 1kg in total) 1 large onion, finely chopped 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped 4 tbsp chopped parsley 240ml dry white wine 1 tsp vinegar

METHOD

Separate each squid’s head and body. Remove the ink sacs from the head and set aside; discard the head itself, along with the tentacles and quill. Cut the body into rings. Gently fry the squid, onion and garlic in a pan until the onion turns translucent. Add the parsley, wine and vinegar, plus salt and pepper, and cook until the wine begins to reduce.

Transfer half the sauce to a bowl and add the ink sacs. Strain into the pan along with the squid; cover and cook on low until the squid is soft (about an hour).

The Caribbean island’s culinary scene is booming.

Cookbook author Imogene Tondre takes us on a foodie tour of the island

IMAGES: ALICE MUTASA / PICFAIR; GETTY

Cuba’s food scene is blossoming like never before, largely thanks to innovation in the growing private sector. And while many of these new restaurants are focusing on fusion or international food, others add their own twist to traditional Cuban fare. Most can be found in Havana, but other Cuban cities are also contributing to the culinary scene; it’s impossible to talk about authentic Cuban food without mentioning Baracoa, in the northeast of the country. It has a self-sufficient food culture not found anywhere else in Cuba — many say this is the only place you can find genuinely indigenous food.

WHAT TO EAT

PLANTAIN: My favourite

ways to eat this staple are as chicharritas (very thinly sliced chips) and simply fried. Seek out tasty tostones rellenos — these fried plantains come stuffed with

various fillings, most often ham and/or cheese.

PORK: Cubans love pork. Traditionally, on the eastern side of the island you’ll find pork stuffed with rice and black beans, while on

the western side it’s simply dressed with the cooking juices.

TETÍ: This tiny, seasonal fish is best eaten with tomatoes and as part of a traditional Baracoan dish called bacán.

INSIDER’S HAVANA

LA GUARIDA: All meals at this beautiful

IMOGENE TONDRE

has lived in Cuba for eight years, having grown up in the USA. She has a master’s degree in Cuban food culture. She coauthored Cuba: The Cookbook with Madelaine Vázquez Gálvez. RRP: £29.95 (Phaidon)

restaurant start with complementary malanga fritters — a Cuban classic. laguarida.com SAN JUAN BAR & GRILL : This place does stylised versions of traditional dishes. Try the tostones rellenos, fried plantain stuffed with ceviche and pico de gallo. San Juan de Dios 9 AJIACO CAFÉ: In the fishing village of Cojímar, on the eastern edge of Havana, this cafe serves a delicious ajiaco (a thick stew of taro root, vegetables and meat). Calle Los Pinos 267, Cojímar

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The soul of Adriatic

The heritage of centuries

The Mediterranean flavours www. budva.travel

ON THE TRAIL // SMART TRAVELLER

C��e Town GIN SPOTS

South Africa may be known as a wine destination, but the Mother City’s burgeoning gin scene is well worth a woozy wander. Words: Zane Henry

1 THE GIN DOCK

2 THE GIN BAR

This gin bar, nestled in the bosom of the Victoria & Alfred (V&A) Waterfront, is curated by three local distillers: Geometric Drinks, A Mari, and Hope On Hopkins.

Come for excellent negronis and martinis, but stay for the big draw: the sun-sparkled view across the marina. waterfront.co.za

Head towards the heart of town to the imaginatively named Gin Bar. It’s a speakeasy-style joint accessed through a chocolate cafe on Wale Street. The bar itself is modelled after an old-time apothecary and features an intimate courtyard lit by twinkling fairy lights. theginbar.co.za

ILLUSTRATION: MARTIN HAAKE

3 NEW HARBOUR DISTILLERY

Pray to the holy spirits of gin and vodka at this spot in the trendy neighbourhood of Woodstock.

It’s a fully functional distillery that also offers beginner classes on home distilling, as well as tastings and distillery tours. You might even get some secret info on their vodka and gin recipes, including their glorious Rooibos Infused Gin. newharbourdistillery.co.za

4 WOODSTOCK GIN COMPANY

Take a short stroll just around the corner to find yet another neighbourhood distillery. Rather than using a grain or sugar base, the team at the Woodstock Gin Company distil their gin from wine and beer. This adds an extra punch of flavour and complexity.

They make their own tonic too. woodstockginco.co.za

5 HOPE ON HOPKINS

For a thoroughly South African affair, head to the neighbouring ’hood of Salt River for gin made with unique local ingredients such as fynbos and sour figs. You can even hang out with Mimo and Martini, the distillery cats, and their buddy Mr Scruff, the resident dog. hopeonhopkins.co.za

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SMART TRAVELLER // ROOMS

M���ell� WHERE TO STAY

While misconceptions might linger, this renowned resort on the Spanish coast has some seriously chic new beds on the Med

1 NOBU

If anything can transform Marbella’s reputation, it’s this.

Opened in March, it’s the latest outpost for Robert De Niro and Nobu Matsuhisa’s fast-growing hotel chain. Adults only, and a member of Small Luxury Hotels, it has a more sophisticated feel than your typical Marbs resort. Rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows, with the outside feel spilling in via blond wood furniture and cool tiled floors.

The spa — a Six Senses outpost — continues the theme, with a relaxation area gazing at the Mediterranean on the other side of a glass wall, and a menu that incorporates local ingredients into its treatments. There’s a Nobu restaurant onsite, and it’s responsible for the room service menu, too. Doubles from £259, B&B. nobuhotels.com

2 LA POSADA DEL ANGEL

Six miles from Marbella’s beaches in Ojén are these very Andalusian lodgings spread over five old houses, with 16 rooms. The owners also own four houses for rent in and around Ojén. Doubles from £83, B&B; houses from £484 per week. laposadadelangel.net 3 MEDINA PENTHOUSE

This 30sq metre duplex villa is set in a modern complex close to the beach and Puerto Banus. There’s a plunge pool and floorto-ceiling windows make the most of the views. From £335 per night, minimum stays depend on the season. vacationmarbella.com 4 FINCA CORTESIN

A mere 20-minute drive but a world away from Marbella is this sprawling 530-acre estate.

Nobu faces stiff competition here — the onsite Japanese restaurant, Kabuki Raw, is Michelin-starred. Doubles from £520, B&B. fincacortesin.com JULIA BUCKLEY

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SMART TRAVELLER // FAMILY

Legoland LITTLE BRICKS, BIG IDEAS

Lego’s appeal shows little sign of abating, and the Legoland theme parks continue to build on the toy brand’s ongoing popularity Hot on the heels of The Lego Ninjago Movie, Legoland Windsor has gone big on Kai, Zane, Jay, Cole, Nya and Lloyd, its diminutive protagonists.

Having opened Lego Ninjago World last summer with attractions such as the 4D Lego Ninjago The Ride and a ‘ninja training camp’, it’s now added a 12-minute film, complete with effects including water, wind, fire and even snow.

As if that wasn’t enough ninjaness, four rooms at Legoland Windsor Resort Hotel also

AROUND THE WORLD DENMARK

The world’s first Legoland, in Billund , celebrates its 50th birthday this year DUBAI

Joined the Legoland family in 2016 with a water park offering over 20 rides KOREA

The world’s largest Legoland is on course to open its doors in 2019 AMERICA

Legoland New York will be the third US outpost (after California and Florida) from 2020

enables guests to ‘sleep like a ninja’ — meaning themed wallpaper, models, clues to solve and a building station, not violent nightmares.

Little ones can feel like giants at Windsor’s Miniland Explore the World, where additions to the micro skyline include a mini Taj Mahal, Sydney Opera House, Forbidden City and Empire State Building. Assembling all two million bricks took a team of 55 a far from mini 12,000 hours.

Elsewhere, at Lego Reef, visitors can create their own virtual Lego fish using touchscreens.

Lego Ninjago-themed rooms from £99 per person for a family of four.

Includes breakfast and park tickets for two days. legoland.co.uk PAT RIDDELL

DID YOU KNOW? The word ‘Lego’ comes from the first two letters of ‘leg’ and ‘godt’ — meaning ‘play well’ in Danish

There are about 600 billion Lego bricks in circulation — that’s roughly 80 for every person on Earth

JAPAN

GERMANY

The third Legoland celebrates its 16th birthday this year CHINA

China’s first Legoland is slated to open in Shanghai in 2022

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IMAGES: ALAMY; GETTY

Having opened last year, Legoland Japan (the second in Asia after Malaysia) will complete its second stage in 2021

ENJOY THE VERY BEST OF IRISH HOSPITALITY IN IRELAND'S ANCIENT EAST Experience the old world charm and luxury of the exclusive 16th Century Castle.

Taste the very best of our award winning traditional and contemporary Irish cuisine.

Roam the 310 acres of the enchanted private Island. Play your way through the magnificent golf course and enjoy all the island has to offer.

Hotel �

AWARDS

WINNER

Waterford Castle majestically sits on an estuary of the River Suir one mile downstream from its namesake city, the oldest city in Ireland.

An island within the Emerald Isle, Hotel Hotel Waterford Castle. � � AWARDS

AWARDS

WINNER

WINNER

WINNER

WINNER

I

Waterford Castle Hotel & Golf Resort I The Island, Waterford, Ireland I + 353 51 878 203 info@waterfordcastleresort.com I www.waterfordcastleresort.com

Andy & Alejandra welcome you in the andino hotel in the centre of St. Anton am Arlberg in Tyrol, Austria. The hotel unites the world-wide history of Tyrolean pioneers with the Andes.

In the 16 comfort rooms, which are individually furnished with wood and alpaca weavings, you will find the deep bond of the hosts.

andino **** — The Bergweltenhotel, 6580 St. Anton am Arlberg centre, Arlbergstraße 61 +43 5446 30390  info@andinohotel.at  www.andinohotel.at

TOP 5 // SMART TRAVELLER

My Lucca FIVE TO TRY

VALENTINA PETRI

is the concierge at To-Tuscany. com. Tuscan born and bred, she knows Lucca and the region as only a local can, and now shares her knowledge with guests of the villa-booking website. to-tuscany.com

Whether you’re after classic composers or a stage of headline bands, discover Lucca’s best music festivals through the eyes of a local PUCCINI FESTIVAL

LUCCA SUMMER FESTIVAL We’re lucky to have superstars come to Lucca for this summer festival, running from 7-25 July. Norah Jones, Lenny Kravitz, Gorillaz — this year’s headliners look as impressive as ever. But what I find really special about this festival is the fact that the concerts don’t take place in a stadium, but right in the city itself, in the Piazza Napoleone, one of the main squares. summer-festival.com

One of the highlights of the Tuscan calendar, the festival takes place in the outdoor theatre by the composer’s home at Torre del Lago from 14 July to 25 August. Make sure to book a seat in the first few rows for the best sound, and take something warm to wear — it can get chilly by the lake. puccinifestival.it/en

PUCCINI E LA SUA LUCCA FESTIVAL Missed the Puccini Festival? You can still get your fi x of his work (and Verdi’s) every night from April to October at the church of San Giovanni in Lucca. While the church doesn’t quite have the beautiful setting of Torre del Lago, I fi nd the intimate atmosphere quite magical. puccinielasualucca.com

ANFITEATRO JAZZ If jazz is your thing, head for the Piazza dell’Anfiteatro in summer.

I’d almost recommend this as much for the venue as the music.

This is one of Italy’s smaller jazz festivals and those who perform here are generally from the region, so it’s where I’d go to get a flavour of jazz — Tuscan style. anfiteatrojazz.it

IMAGES: GETTY; ALAMY

LUCCA COMIC AND GAMES FESTIVAL You might not think this is the place to go for musical entertainment but I’d recommend it nonetheless.

At the end of October, free concerts take place on the city wall. Festivalgoers dress up in costumes of their favourite comic and game characters. luccacomicsandgames.com

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AUSTRIAN WILDERNESS. www.gesaeuse.at

STAY AT HOME // SMART TRAVELLER

Stay at home

SURREY HILLS Just outside the capital, there’s a beautiful area of rolling green hills that’s home to an unlikely cocktail of gin, llamas and vibrant villages WHY GO?

Just 30 miles from the centre of London, stretching across the chalky North Downs, the Surrey Hills are full of life. The area’s market towns and villages are packed with galleries and cafes, while families and ramblers enjoy local beauty spots. And they all come with good reason. This year sees the 60th anniversary of its designation as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty — and it’s this beauty and vibrancy that’s drawing in a growing number of winemakers, breweries and distilleries. This is no sleepy backwater but the perfect place to escape the urban grind. surreyhills.org/surrey-hills-60

WHAT TO DO

Hike with llamas. Yes, llamas.

The woodland, heathland and rolling hills make for prime walking territory and are also home to several collections of the charming camelids. The Merry Harriers have 12 resident llamas and offer several treks, taking you on a three-hour meander along part of the 108-mile Greensand Way with the llamas in tow. merryharriers.com/llama-treks

DON’T MISS

Set aside several hours to wander the meandering paths through the vast number of trees at Winkworth Arboretum. This everpopular, 46-hectare National Trust site leads down a valley to a lake. Staff at the entrance will advise on which route to take in order to make sure you catch the most impressive sights: bluebells in spring and kaleidoscopic maples in autumn are the most popular. nationaltrust.org.uk

IMAGES: MERRY HARIER; ALAMY; GETTY

Where to eat

The William Bray is in the village of Shere, where Hollywood fi lm The Holiday was fi lmed.

The crowds come for its gastropub classics: fishcakes, pork belly and baked Camembert. thewilliambray.co.uk

Where to stay

The Merry Harriers is a 16th-century inn outside the village of Hambledon. Cosy rooms are situated above the lively pub — swing by on a Saturday night to catch live bands and cheery locals. merryharriers.com

WE LIKE

Gin. The Silent Pool distillery might be young but has already achieved international popularity (more than 20 countries and counting). The distillery is based around a natural spring steeped in local legend, and its gin is distilled with 24 botanicals. Book a tour for an all-important tasting. silentpooldistillers.com JOSEPHINE PRICE

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Mount Bromo

Accommodation

Jeep Check Point

Dining

Plataran Bromo

One-Stop Destination in Bromo Plataran Bromo captivates you to the natural world in its evocative beauty. A perfect base for those seeking not only to soak in the splendorous natural surroundings of Mt. Bromo, but also to encounter the deeply rooted culture that lies behind it.

From various accommodation options inspired by nature for comfort and convenience to 'above the cloud' dining experience to entice all your senses, Plataran Bromo is a one-stop destination to explore the mystical UNESCO Heritage Site - Mt. Bromo.

Discover more at www.plataran.com/bromo

HOTELS & RESORTS • PRIVATE CRUISES • VENUES & DINING • ECO TOURISM DEVELOPMENT Borobudur | Bromo | Canggu | Cilandak | Dharmawangsa | Komodo

ST

T AI N A BL

2018

NS

US

DE

www.plataran.com

2017

E

Tugu - Puncak | Ubud | Wijaya

S

Menjangan - West Bali National Park | Menteng | Sumba

INA TI O

Culture

BOOKSHELF // SMART TRAVELLER

WISE WORDS: SKY, SEA & SOFA

SKYBOUND

This story, of a woman temporarily liberated from a battle with breast cancer by learning to fly a glider, is both a personal journey taken above the great landscapes of the world, from the Alps to Himalayas, and a passionate study of the history of powerless flight. RRP: £16.99 (Picador)

THE GRAND TOUR: THE GOLDEN AGE OF TRAVEL

IMAGES: MARC WALTER COLLECTION

Countless travel books have charted the so-called ‘golden age’ of travel, but none are quite as epic as this hefty new tome Why should you stump up £150 for this latest book on the mucheulogised era of the Grand The Grand Tour? Because — like many Tour: The Golden of the fi rst Grand Tours Age Of Travel, by Marc themselves — this book is Walter & Sabine Arqué is published by Taschen, of epic scale. Weighing in RRP: £150 at a heft y 15lbs and standing one-and-a-half-feet tall, it’s not a holiday read unless you have a steamer trunk and a team of luggage wallahs.

But it is comprehensive, exploring the Tour heyday of 1869 to 1939, divided into six geographical sections based on the classic routes favoured by privileged preSecond World War travellers: Southern & Western Europe; Rhine to Black Sea, Northern, Orient, Far East & Australia, and New World & Africa. It traces these routes via vintage posters, and brochures from tour operators,

sailing ships, steam liners, and elegant railway hotels, along with archive photography and postcards featuring everything from the dining room aboard a Graf Zeppelin to ornate villages at the foot of the pyramids. There are also such escapist ephemera as luggage labels from baggage rooms and hotels of yesteryear, restaurant menus, tourist brochures and illustrated maps.

It’s a hymn to transport: a gallery of trains, planes and oldsmobiles, Zeppelins, boats, horses, donkeys, and camels, many of them rendered in atmospheric turn-of-thecentury photochroms in which the book’s graphic designer and photographer, Marc Walter, specialises. The supporting text — by documentarian Sabine Arqué — is in French, German and English, which certainly contributes to the book’s formidable bulk, but seeing these Old World languages sitting side by side seems fitting: the lexicons of Grand Tour exploration. This is a passport into a lost epoch of aristocratic adventure, albeit a jumbo, 634-page one. SARAH BARRELL

LONDON ON SEA

This illustrated guide of daytripping ideas from London instantly makes us want to swap desk for deckchair. Like its colour-soaked drawings, recalling tourist posters of yore, the book’s destinations are pretty timeless, so shouldn’t suffer too much from coastal hipsterisation.

RRP: £9.99 (Ebury)

COUCHSURFING IN IRAN

German journalist Stephan Orth chronicles his 62-day trip through Iran. Driven by a desire to reveal Iran’s ‘hidden world’, a maxim Orth picks up from one Iranian host goes “there are no bad places if the reason you are travelling is to meet people”.

RRP: £12.99 (Greystone Books)

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SPECIAL PROMOTION

Win

A TWIN-CITY BREAK TO PARIS AND BRUSSELS

National Geographic Traveller (UK) has teamed up with Loco2 and Thalys to offer a four-night getaway for two to both Paris and Brussels The destinations

TO ENTER Answer the following question online at natgeotraveller.co.uk/ competitions

IMAGES: GETTY

WHICH OF THE TWO CAPITALS HAS THE NICKNAME OF THE ‘CITY OF LIGHT’?

Competition closes 31 August 2018.

Train fares and accommodation up to a value of £3,000 are covered by sponsor.

The winner must be a resident of the UK and aged 18 or over. Trip is subject to availability. Full T&Cs available at natgeotraveller.co.uk

Few cities can rival Paris: whether it’s whiling away the afternoon in a world-class museum or sipping coffee in a kerbside cafe, the City of Light never disappoints.

Meanwhile, Brussels beats as Europe’s political heart and is one of the continent’s most dynamic and cosmopolitan capitals.

Take in the spectacular Grande Place or indulge in the world’s finest chocolate.

The prize

It’s hard enough finding time for one city break, so why not fit two into a European getaway? Avoid all the hassle of airports and air travel by travelling by high-speed train instead, courtesy of pan-European train booking service, Loco2, and high-speed rail operator, Thalys. It’s the perfect way to fast-track to the destination, enjoying every moment of the journey along the way. The

winner and a guest will travel by premium high-speed rail on a four-night city break to Paris and Brussels. With a value of up to £3,000, the prize includes all rail travel from any UK station to Paris, the ongoing journey to Brussels, and return journey to the UK. The remaining funds will be allocated to four nights’ accommodation of the winner’s choice, and additional expenses in-accommodation. loco2.com thalys.com

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SMART TRAVELLER // EVENTS

WHEN: Sunday 1 July 2018, 10am-6pm WHERE: University of Westminster, Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS TICKETS: £40, or two for £70.

One-on-one tutorials £25.

Book online.

With less than a month to go, we’re getting ready for The Masterclasses — our first-ever day of inspiring, informative travel writing and photography sessions

MORE INFORMATION ON SESSIONS, SPEAKERS AND TICKETS AT NATGEOTRAVELLER.CO.UK/THEMASTERCLASSES

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EVENTS // SMART TRAVELLER

If you’ve dreamed of making the leap from budding writer or amateur photographer into seasoned pro, then The Masterclasses is the day for you. For the first time ever, we’re packing an entire day with travel writing and photography sessions, designed to give you all the practical advice you could wish for in order to get one step closer to publication. A whole host of expert, awardwinning travel writers and photographers will be sharing their expertise throughout the day, and there’s even a chance to get some detailed feedback on your work with our one-on-one tutorial sessions. Have you got your ticket yet?

TICKETS SELLING FAST! ONLY £40 OR TWO FOR £70

SESSIONS INCLUDE: TRAVEL WRITING

• Beginnings and endings • How to pitch • Finger on the pulse • Dos and don’ts • The secret of my success • Being social • Q&A with the team

PHOTOGRAPHY

• Getting noticed — in partnership with Pugliapromozione • Going wild • Epic scenes • Under the skin • Street talking • Get your kit on • Follow me

STAYED REFRESHED WITH HYDRO FLASK

Hydro Flask’s vacuum-insulated bottles and flasks keep hot drinks steaming for up to 12 hours and cold drinks icy fresh for up to 24 hours. They’re perfect for commuting, camping, climbing or whatever outdoor activity floats your boat. Hydro Flask also guarantees no condensation or heat transfer to the outside of the bottle, ever. All guests to The Masterclasses will receive a complementary Hydro Flask on the day, keeping your drinks piping hot or nice and cool — all while avoiding waste. hydroflask.com

Destination partner:

Secondary sponsor:

Photography partner:

Sponsor:

TRAVEL GEEKS: RUSH HOUR CARIBBEAN CUISINE

Sponsored by Guadeloupe Tourism Committee

From Jamaica’s fiery jerk chicken to the fresh fruits of the Antilles, the Caribbean plates up some of the world’s most mouth-watering fare. Join our panel as they share their tips on hunting down the best places to eat in these paradise isles.

WHEN: Tuesday 6 November 2018 WHERE: Wallacespace Covent Garden, 2 Dryden Street, London WC2E 9NA TICKETS: £10 (includes drink and nibbles) TRAVEL GEEKS: RUSH HOUR EXPEDITION CRUISES

Sponsored by Ponant Cruises

IMAGE: ALAMY

Travel writing partner:

CEWE Photoworld is part of Europe’s largest photo company, producing millions of photo products each year, including the CEWE PHOTOBOOK, voted the UK’s best by The Gadget Show. cewe-photoworld.com

If you want to unleash your inner explorer, this one’s for you — from high-altitude hikes to intrepid polar cruises, we get the lowdown on the truly adventurous side of travel.

WHEN: Tuesday 11 December 2018 WHERE: Wallacespace Covent Garden, 2 Dryden Street, London WC2E 9NA TICKETS: £10 (includes drink and nibbles) All topics and dates subject to change

Jul/Aug 2018

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AUTHOR SERIES // SMART TRAVELLER

NOTES FROM AN AUTHOR // WILBUR SMITH

AFRICA In the first work of non-fiction of his 50-year career, bestselling novelist Wilbur Smith shares how his experiences in Africa shaped his many novels

ILLUSTRATION: JACQUI OAKLEY

M

y father was a man of action and my mother was an artist, a very gentle person who loved books and painting. My father taught me the outdoor life of hunting and shooting and fishing; my mother gave me an appreciation of the arts with music and books. Before I could read myself, she’d read to me every night. That hour or so was the greatest pleasure I can remember, because she instilled in me such a love of stories. I used to look at the book in her hand and think: she’s not making that up; it’s all coming out of that book. And from then on, books always played a central part in my life.

The novelist H Rider Haggard has always been one of my greatest influences because he set his books mainly in Africa.

King Solomon’s Mines showed me that Africa was a treasure house of stories.

CS Forester was another influence with the Hornblower series.

I’m an old-fashioned writer. I believe in a structured novel: a beginning, a middle and an end. I spend a great deal of time thinking about the book before I sit down and start writing it. The research I do is a mixture of personal knowledge, my own reading, talking to other people and meeting experts in whatever field that I’m engaged in. In the novel Those in Peril, for instance, there’s a great deal about oil exploration and oil exploitation. One of my very dear friends, a doctor of geology, lives just across the road from me. I asked him to read the novel through and check everything I’d written on the subject. It’s amazing how once you become a well-known author people are eager to share their knowledge and experiences. When I wrote a book about jet fighter pilots, at least four men with a great deal of experience contacted me and we had very interesting conversations — I’ve used some of the things they described to me in subsequent books. People can be very generous with their time and insight and I’m very grateful to them for sharing their lives with me.

Each of my characters is built differently.

Some are an amalgam of people that I’ve known, but there’s always a liberal pinch of imagination thrown into the mix: none

It’s amazing how once you become a well-known author people are eager to share their knowledge and experiences...

People can be very generous with their time and insight and I’m very grateful to them for sharing their lives with me

of them are exactly drawn from life. But, as they say, the character fits the job and when there’s a job to do there’s always someone who’ll do it. And these are my characters.

I’ve been on local hippopotamus hunts on the great lakes of Africa — on Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi — where all the villagers around the lake get together and hunt exactly as I describe the Ancient Egyptians doing on the Nile in River God. The hippopotamus is such a successful creature when given enough water that there must have been tens of thousands of them in the Nile. And so I’m sure the Ancient Egyptians would have hunted them. Why not? They were great hunters: they hunted all the birds of the Nile. They were also great fishermen, fishing all the river’s waters, too.

There’s no reason why they would not also have hunted the hippopotamus.

I don’t like writing political stories, but at times politics can make for great historical fiction. Cry Wolf is set against the 1935 Italian invasion of North Africa and Ethiopia. During a previous invasion in 1896, the Ethiopians had roundly defeated the Italians, so when Mussolini came to power, he wanted to show his credentials as a conquering hero. He launched a successful invasion of Ethiopia with massive power, and aircraft and tanks against men on horses with swords. The novel is based around two friends, Jake Barton, a tough Texan, and Gareth Swales, an Old Etonian gunrunner, who are trying to sell secondhand shoddy armoured cars to the Italians, who needed any form of armament that they could get. They’re different in background but similar in their charm and persuasiveness — I find charming rogues very interesting!

There’s also a very beautiful woman involved. I imbued Vicky with as much courage and determination as either male character because I like strong women as a foil to tough men. And she gives as good as she gets throughout the whole story...

Wilbur Smith is a novelist whose works have sold more than 120 million copies. His memoir, On Leopard Rock, is published by Zaffre. RRP: £20. wilbursmithbooks.com

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SMART TRAVELLER

VIEW FROM THE USA // AARON MILLAR

DEAD FUNNY

W

e do eccentricity well in Britain: Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks, the plain wackiness of Morris dancing and the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, whose manifesto includes nationalising crime to make sure it doesn’t pay. They’ve got my vote.

Then there are our eccentric sports. We’ve got cheese-rolling, bog-snorkelling, gurning championships and, speaking from my own experience, the maddest of all: The World Extreme Lilo Championship. That’s right.

I once navigated the class IV rapids of the River Nevis on an inflatable bed. I was one of the lucky ones — the chap next to me, riding a blow-up doll, nearly drowned.

In America, it’s different. Crazy here means Scientology and stockpiling guns. It’s altogether less fun. So, imagine my delight when I discovered a bit of British-level eccentricity here, in my adopted home of Colorado. The mountain town of Nederland (not to be confused with Michael Jackson’s Neverland) is like the love child of Davy Crocket and Timothy Leary — part 1960s acid casualty, part beaver-skinning Armageddon survivalist. It’s also the home of, perhaps, the world’s craziest festival.

The story starts in 1989 with a Norwegian called Bredo Morstoel biting the bullet and getting packed in ice and sent to the hills above Ned, where grandson Trygve Morstoel had built a cryogenic facility in his garden shed to house him. Talk about a man cave.

Fast forward a few years: Trygve’s been deported and Grandpa’s left out in the cold (or not, as was the problem). What did the town do? Call the cops? Contact a legitimate cryogenic facility? No. They hired an ‘Iceman’ to deliver 1,600 pounds of dry ice to Bredo’s sarcophagus every month and threw a party. That’s why I’m here. For two days every year, Frozen Dead Guy Days pays homage to the dead dude they found in the shed. There’s Ice Turkey Bowling, the Frozen T-shirt Contest, Brain Freeze Contest, Salmon Toss and, just because it’s weird, the Rocky Mountain Oyster Eating Contest (that’s bull testicles to you and me).

But the star event is the Coffin Races — a cross between Tough Mudder and the zombie apocalypse. Teams of six pallbearers must

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carry a homemade coffin over an obstacle course without it breaking or killing the ‘corpse’ for real. I talked my wife and five friends into it, then bought seven royal family masks, a Queen outfit, a ridiculous amount of lumber, and enough beers to get us through the build. Finally, Team ‘Royal Bloody Family’ was ready to be the UK’s first official entry in America’s most bonkers race.

We’re one of 30 teams competing on a 200-metre course dotted with hay-bale chicanes, mud pits and icy banks. We race in pairs. First up, the gold-suited Disco Queens versus a team in Beetlejuice outfits. Then the Unicorns pit their rainbows against the Knight’s toilet-plunger swords. The Lady Lumberjacks impress, despite the weight of their fake beards. Team Blue Balls seem to just shrivel and hide.

Then it’s our turn on the starting line: Charles and Camilla up front, Will and Kate at the back, Her Majesty royal-waving from the coffin, two inflatable corgis trailing behind.

I’d love to tell you we snatched victory from death’s icy grip, but coffins are heavy, we’re old, and haring around an obstacle course wearing a mask is like sprinting into a china shop with your eyes shut. We nearly dropped the Queen on the first bend, got thrashed in the mandatory snowball fight and crashed through the last mud pit with our royal faces firmly in the arse of the team in front. We lost.

Or did we? Afterwards, the teams take part in a death march through town. Sure, the whizz-kids throwing Mario Kart banana skins out the back are fast; and, yes, the Jamaican bobsleigh team are agile and have nice buns.

But we have the crowds in hysterics, highfiving us as we pass. We may have lost the race, but we triumphed at the parade. And that’s the thing about eccentricity — to win is fun, but to laugh at yourself is truly enlightened.

Grandpa Bredo would’ve been proud. frozendeadguydays.org

British travel writer Aaron Millar ran away from London in 2013 and has been hiding out in the Rocky Mountains of Boulder, Colorado ever since. His latest book, The 50 Greatest National Parks of the World, is available through Amazon and other retailers. @AaronMWriter

ILLUSTRATION: JACQUI OAKLEY

Each year, a Colorado town throws a party to honour the corpse of a frozen grandpa — proof it’s not just us Brits with a talent for eccentric humour

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Experience JERUSALEM

CULTURE, CULINARY, A GREAT FAMILY VACATION Whilst Jerusalem’s deep significance to three monotheistic religions draws thousands of devoted visitors to the city every year, there is a changing face of the city which lies beyond the city walls. Past, present and future blend together inseparably in this extraordinarily unique city, making it a creative hub for innovative young entrepreneurs.

From food markets, technology, film, restaurants, spas, hotels and bars, Jerusalem is at the forefront of modern culture and continues to push the boundaries, creating original spaces and immersive experiences for people to enjoy.

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Calm sapphire waves turn slate grey as clouds sweep across the sky, and we are on tenterhooks. Waiting for a whale shark is a bit like waiting for a bus; you never know if, or when, it’ll show up 50

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AUSTRALIA

WHALE SHARK WONDERS Australia’s Ningaloo Reef is the perfect place for a thrilling swim with the world’s largest fish

They only reach speeds of three miles an hour. Not fast, in the scheme of things,” says marine biologist guide Natalie Yeates. In the scheme of things, perhaps. But, when a creature about the length of a double-decker bus swims straight towards you, three miles an hour feels pretty zippy.

“Remember to swim once you’re in the water,” Natalie adds, addressing our group of 10. Like a wetsuited queue of lemmings, snorkels in mouths, we wait to slip off our boat in Australia’s Ningaloo Reef. “It sounds daft, but some people forget to move; these fish don’t hang around.”

Bobbing atop the Indian Ocean seems a long way from Exmouth, the frontier-feel town we left an hour ago. About 800 miles north of Perth, it’s a place where bohemian souls settle, and emus outnumber cars on its dusty roads. A tiny tender has whizzed us to a 40ft vessel at sea, crewed by Natalie and three more of the Live Ningaloo team.

Calm sapphire waves turn slate grey as

clouds sweep across the sky, and we are on tenterhooks. Waiting for a whale shark is a bit like waiting for a bus; you never know if, or when, it’ll show up. The air, however, is fogged with anticipation rather than the lethargic lull prior to the arrival of the 210 to Finsbury Park.

Here, beneath the surface, lie wonders; Australia’s largest fringing reef, a biodiverse UNESCO World Heritage Site, home to no less than 400 types of coral and explosions of psychedelic-hued fi sh. Ningaloo’s remote location means it’s under the radar compared to the Great Barrier Reef. The schlep is worth it though, to see marine megafauna royalty: the whale sharks (sharks, not whales) that roam here between April and September.

Despite their gargantuan size (up to 40ft in length and weighing up to 21 tonnes) and gaping jaws, whale sharks are docile fi lter feeders, and today we’ll snorkel with them in the wild — if any show up, of course.

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First — safety. Rules and regulations: no touching, no flash photography, at most 10 swimmers in the water keeping at least 10ft from the whale shark’s head and 13ft from its tail. Some whale shark ‘experiences’ are less scrupulously regulated, leading to overcrowded waters and distressed animals. A capped number of permits and strict rules mean Ningaloo is a LIKE THIS? READ MORE shining example of responsible ABOUT AUSTRALIA whale shark tourism.

ONLINE Above, a spotter plane whirrs. Its pilot shares realNEIGHBOURHOOD: time insight with our captain, MELBOURNE Murray, so he can position the Famed for its food scene boat — at a safe distance — to and creative spirit, coincide with passing sharks.

Melbourne isn’t just Australia’s coolest city, Suddenly, Natalie is in the it’s also the most liveable water, giving hand signals to indicate the shark’s trajectory EXPLORING WESTERN and the formation we’ll take.

AUSTRALIA’S In we go, thrusting our masks CORAL COAST under the water. Cruising past This epic road trip takes is a 26ft whale shark, oscillating in singular sea creatures, from side to side, its deep blue space travel and even a skin a riot of spots and stripes. seceded state I freeze. I’ve seen manta rays in Indonesia, and swum THE NULLARBOR: THE in tornadoes of jackfish in LONG & LONELY ROAD Borneo, but nothing feels as Stick your Outback exhilarating as this. “Swim!” soundtrack on the stereo: Natalie screeches at me as my the quintessential head pops above water. A hasty pan-Australian road trip is front crawl and I catch our a soul vacation that offers starfish-shaped convoy. Arms a lot of time to think cut into water — murky with — and the chance to play a few holes of the world’s the microscopic plankton on longest golf course which the sharks feast — and fin-clad feet kick hard. With each flick of the whale shark’s tail a current reverberates through the water; its force is astonishing. About 20 minutes later, heart booming like a bass drum and nursing a stitch, I’ve swallowed three margaritas’ worth of salt. I climb back on the boat.

Running on adrenalin, 10 minutes later we line up again. The bus gods are on our side; some days none come, on others, they all show up at once.

IANTHE BUTT liveningaloo.com.au

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Jul/Aug 2018

51

GHENT

Weekender

GHENT W

hen it comes to nicknames for its cities, Belgium goes all out.

Brussels is seen as the ‘Capital of Europe’, Bruges is oft dubbed the ‘Venice of the North’, and Antwerp shimmers as the ‘City of Diamonds’. Ghent? Well, exactly.

Not that this bothers the locals; they’re more than happy for tourists to bypass their backyard and head elsewhere, leaving their city with just a handful of the visitors that nearby Bruges draws in. And it all works in Ghent’s favour. The result is a laid-back city that has managed to hold on to its slightly irreverent personality — proud

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local traditions and a quirky history still hold sway in this thriving student city.

And although the students keep the place feeling young and vibrant, don’t be fooled; the city wears its years well. The Belgian beauty still seduces with pretty, small-town Flemish charm, and is packed with history, too, glimpsed in the likes of fairy-tale castle turrets, historic quaysides and dreamy belfries that dominate the skyline. Throw in leisurely walks along the canals, big bowls of mussels in creaky wooden pubs and a carfree cobbled centre, and you’ve got a failsafe recipe for your next city break.

IMAGES: MILO PROFI ; LUKASWEB.BE ; GETTY

Head to this quaint Flemish city — an easy train trip from the UK — which has retained a laid-back vibe while championing local food, age-old pubs and cobbled-street charm. Words: Connor McGovern

GHENT

PILLOW TALK

For the best beds in town, check in to 1898 The Post, which cuts a handsome gothic-revival figure on Graslei, by the river. Unwind amid huge windows, moody clay and bottle-green tones, and curios carefully selected to reflect its bygone days as the city’s former post office.

Standard doubles from €180 (£158), room only. zannierhotels.com

KEEP IT CULTURED

You probably had no idea that Ghent was one of northern Europe’s largest cities in the Middle Ages, second only to Paris. To learn more about the city’s long, fascinating (and often rebellious) history, check out the city museum (STAM). Artsy types will love the exhibitions at the Design Museum, and don’t miss The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb in St Bavo’s Cathedral — the Van Eyck masterpiece is the most stolen work in history. stamgent.be designmuseumgent.be sintbaafskathedraal.be

DON’T MISS

Ambling through the city after dusk. Ghent has a special lighting system that illuminates all its glorious towers and turrets, making the city look all the more like a fairy tale.

STEP UP TO THE PLATE

THREE TO TRY

Take a bite CUBERDONS

GANDA HAM

MUSTARD

Called ‘Ghent noses’ in Dutch,

Aged for 10-16 months, rose-

The Tierenteyn-Verlent mustard

these are popular with the locals,

hued Ganda has a deliciously

shop has been making the

so grab some while you can from

deep, mature flavour. Try a few

condiment since 1790. You can

the stalls at Groentenmarkt.

slices with some Limburger

only buy it here, and its recipe is

Sweet and squidgy, think

cheese bought from Petite

a closely guarded secret.

grown-up jelly babies.

Normandie cheese shop.

tierenteyn-verlent.be

Ghent is in the grip of a foodie boom. You can still get your fi x of waffles and frites, although exciting culinary offerings are now putting Ghent fi rmly on the gastronomic map. Try Cochon De Luxe for fun (but delicious) plates, or, if you can bag a table, the lauded Chambre Séparée — a laid-back showstopper of an evening out, with a roster of ever-changing courses from star of Flanders’ food scene, Kobe Desramaults. Book online. cochondeluxe.be chambreseparee.be

Jul/Aug 2018

53

GHENT

EYEWITNESS

BEERS, BIKES & BENGALS

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From there, we wander to our third port of call, in the quiet maze that is the Patershol district, where streets that are quiet by day now simmer with life. We step into ’t Velootje, a little townhouse clad in flashing lights, street signs and flags. Inside, hundreds of bikes hang from the ceiling of the tiny room and towering piles of boxes and books surround just a handful of benches.

Cramped it may be, but ’t Velootje is still buzzing; a dozen or so Ghentians are sipping away to the soundtrack of crackly tunes coming from an iPhone somewhere in the corner. Liewen, the white-bearded owner, eventually emerges from a doorway cradling a Bengal cat.

I say to Mong: “I assume he’s a Ghentian?” He beams: “Ah, yes, he’s my king. He is the real Ghent.”

Eurostar offers tickets from London to Brussels (with the ‘any Belgian station’ ticket option), from where it’s a simple change and 30-min train journey to Ghent. From £35 one-way. eurostar.com visitgent.be visitflanders.com

IMAGES: GETTY

“Mayor of the Night?” I ask as we enter Café den Turk, supposedly the oldest pub in Ghent. The city’s most venerable watering hole is a contested title, but with its low ceilings and warped wooden beams, den Turk makes a convincing case. Around us there’s a quiet clink as people finish their meals; an obscure chanson française comes from a radio somewhere. “A Mayor of the Night does sound like an exciting title.”

Tall, bespectacled Mong Cocquyt looks at me sceptically. “It’s a stupid title, actually. I just have to make sure all the pubs and bars in Ghent are full of money, and people are so drunk they’re crawling back home on all fours.”

It’s a novel way to say he’s responsible for keeping Ghent’s nightlife thriving, but he’s probably the best man for the job. By day he’s a cartographer and spent three years calling in at every pub in Ghent, Antwerp and Brussels to make a comprehensive map of the three cities’ pubs and bars. As a proud Ghentian through and through, nobody knows the city’s pubs better. “So, we’ll go to all the best pubs in Ghent,” he says. “You have lots of nice restaurants and bars here, but you can find them anywhere in the world. This is the [real] Ghent.”

I don’t know what he’s ordered us, but two glasses of frothy, maple-coloured beer are in his hands. “You see this part here,” he says, pointing to the fluted bottom half of the glass. “You hold this part because it avoids contact with the glass. If you hold the smooth glass at the top then your body heat warms the beer and that’s a sin.”

Life lesson learned, we head out to ’t Dreupelkot, a tiny little bar by the canal. It’s so crowded inside that locals are spilling out on to the street and the air is thick with the smell of hops and liqueur. And the floor is so sticky I find myself walking on the spot just so I don’t get stuck. Bizarrely, it’s wonderful.

I’m handed a shot of Albatross, a strong, sweet lurid liqueur that could have featured in my university days.

I prefer the beer.

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Lunch at Saltimporten Canteen. RIGHT: Möllevångstorget Market in Möllevången district, Malmö

Eat

MALMÖ This coastal Swedish gem is a place where chefs are taking delicious risks, seasonality is gospel, and Middle Eastern spices are abundant. Words: James Clasper

IMAGES: ALAMY; KARINA SZUTER / KARINASZUTER.COM

T

he menu at Lyran looks more like a luxury shopping list than a description of dishes. A few items — rhubarb, poppy seeds, coriander, black garlic — sound simple enough. But most are distinguished by their seemingly exotic origins. Capers from Pantelleria. Scanian beef. Chioggia beetroot. Mascarpone from La Treccia. Ramsons from Mushroom Mike. Only the smattering of Swedish words — the names of local farms that supply the restaurant — remind you that you’re in Malmö.

Still, Lyran’s eclectic menu is a sign of the times in Sweden’s third-largest city.

After years of industrial decline, Malmö has emerged as a forward-thinking metropolis — one that champions sustainability and start-ups, and is attracting newcomers from far and wide. It’s also Sweden’s most diverse city. An influx of immigrants — many from Syria — means that almost 180 countries are represented.

Little wonder, then, that its food scene is exploding. From third-wave coffee to artisanal bakeries, bustling markets to

cutting-edge cuisine, Malmö has everything you’d expect from a cosmopolitan city. Fancy a splurge? Head to one of its four Michelinstarred restaurants. Prefer street food? There are dozens of falafel shops, some started by Syrian refugees. Locals debate who makes the best. To resolve it, perhaps, Malmö is hosting the Falafel World Cup this summer.

Local chef Alexander Norén has worked in the city all his life and describes it as the “Brooklyn to Copenhagen’s Manhattan”.

Besides the geographic parallel — the two cities are linked by an iconic bridge — his clear inference is that Malmö is edgier than the Danish capital, its cheaper rents inspiring a number of restaurants to take risks.

Alexander’s own venture, SOI 29, is a case in point. It’s a Thai restaurant, yet there isn’t a bowl of noodles in sight. Instead, it offers classic Thai cuisine such as green papaya salad, Tom Yum Goong (prawn soup), and Pla Thot Sam Rot (fried whole sea bass with a tamarind-tangy three-flavour sauce).

Or, as Alexander puts it, “street food with a chef ’s touch”.

Jul/Aug 2018

57

Your special hideaway in Merano A romantic castle in Merano, a mediterranean oasis in the Alps where Italian and Austrian cultures harmonize.

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EAT

THIS PAGE FROM TOP: Chefs at Falafel & Burgers; plating up at Saltimporten Canteen

Five food finds FALAFEL & BURGERS

Located in new food hall, Malmö Saluhall, this spot stands out from the city-wide competition by frying its falafel in olive oil and using freshly baked pitta bread.

B.A.R.

Enjoy natural wine by the glass and small plates such as beef tartare with wild garlic and crunchy rye bread at this casual New Nordic bistro.

KÖLD

Exotic flavours — such as ‘raspberry ripple’ made with cashews and balsamic vinegar — make this Malmö’s standout ice cream parlour.

LEVE

Locals flock to this tiny bakery near Triangeln every Thursday for its vegan doughnuts, though it’s also home to Malmö’s tastiest cardamom buns.

IMAGE: ALAMY

MAT- & CHOKLADSTUDION

Head to pastry chef Joel Lundqvist’s shop for excellent chocolate pralines, which are handmade using exotic organic ingredients such as damson and yuzu.

Alexander launched SOI 29 in spring this year, with three other chefs, including his wife, Johanna. “Everyone was doing the same thing, this Scandi thing,” he explains.

“I was so tired of cooking that food and felt like I wanted to take the ball and run the other way.” This meant taking a ‘deep dive’ into Thai cuisine, culminating in a trip to Bangkok, where Alexander spent a month cooking at the celebrated restaurant Nahm alongside noted Thai food expert David Thompson.

He brought some of Nahm’s dishes back to Malmö — including a recipe for Yam Pak, a flavour bomb of fruit and herbs (as well as the phone number of the company that supplies Nahm with shrimp paste).

Ingredients are everything at SOI 29.

Alexander gets fresh produce flown in from Thailand every Monday, along with authentic spices including galangal and holy basil. The fish and meat are local and organic, as is that most Scandinavian of herbs — dill. “People come here and say: ‘Is this really Thai food? It’s a salad with dill.

Do they eat dill in Thailand?’” He laughs. “I tell them, in northern Thailand and Laos, they eat lots of dill.”

A pedal push away, I meet Petra Jarl, who’s every bit as uncompromising about her ingredients. Petra is the owner of a delicatessen called Ola & Ko. She launched it four years ago with one goal: “To serve only the best produce, preferably from the surrounding region, Skåne — and always, always, always without containing anything that isn’t food.”

Today that means focusing on anything from local goods such as cloudberry jam and rhubarb soda to dry-aged pork and Wagyu beef. Between customers, Jarl slips me a slice of salami she made herself, and counts off the ingredients: lamb, white wine, Szechuan pepper and salt.

Her criteria for stocking items are equally simple. “Does it taste exceptionally good?

Does it have a connection with Skåne? If so, let’s bring it here.”

There’s a similar dogma on display at one of Malmö’s trendiest restaurants.

Saltimporten Canteen occupies a glassfronted warehouse in the city’s northern harbour. It was launched by acclaimed local chefs Ola Rudin and Sebastian Persson a couple of years ago, following their decision to work more family-friendly hours. To this end, it’s only open for lunch on weekdays (the duo also runs a catering business). The menu is simpler still: Rudin and Persson offer diners just two dishes, which range from classic Swedish to more exotic fare.

No matter what, says Rudin, the trick is seasonality, and working directly with local farmers and producers. “It tastes better and feels better,” he explains. “We stay in contact with the farmers and they let us know when, for example, the carrots taste just right.” Rudin acknowledges that compared to Copenhagen across the water “Malmö is still in many ways the underdog” but believes in its potential. “We’re part of a generation of chefs who want to put Malmö

Jul/Aug 2018

59

EAT

A TASTE OF

Malmö

SALTIMPORTEN CANTEEN

Chefs Ola Rudin and Sebastian Persson dish out simple but delicious fare such as beef tartare with beetroots, blackcurrants and tarragon; pickled herring with beetroot and browned butter; and braised pork belly, cauliflower, ramson and leek ash.

There are only two options — one meat, one veggie — so the queue moves quickly.

HOW MUCH: Lunch costs about £7 per person, excluding drinks. saltimporten.com

on the culinary map with local qualitydriven food and a unique identity.”

Which brings us back to Lyran. This tiny neighbourhood restaurant opposite a oncedubious park is the jewel in the crown of Malmö’s food scene. I eat at the countertop opposite its open kitchen, and at the end of service, owner Jörgen Lloyd pours himself a glass of wine and starts jotting down ingredients he’d like to use the next day.

“Right now I’m in a bubble where I want my food to be as pure as possible,” he says. That means working with as few ingredients as he can. Later he’ll text his farmers and find out what they’ve got — “whether it’s spoton and needs to be taken right now”. He meets them every morning and conjures up that day’s dishes with his two other chefs.

Lloyd’s devotion to seasonal ingredients means dishes are often on the menu for just a few days at a time. I got lucky, dining on the last day for a standout dish: rainbow trout fillet, served with its own roe. “The eggs are whipped with a bit of salt, and are very fresh and pert,” Lloyd says.

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I can see why everyone I meet in Malmö tells me to dine at Lyran. Lloyd is a self-taught, homegrown hero. “I could never read a recipe because it bores me,” he laughs. “I started to cook from inspiration, from pure instinct.”

And today, his inspiration comes from the melting pot of his city. Look closely, and you’ll spot pistachios from Iran, pine nuts from Pakistan, and freshly ground spices from the Palestinian bazaar across the road.

“They make it themselves — harissa, za’atar, all kinds of spice mixes I’ve never heard of,” Lloyd says. “They say you have to try this, and the next day it’s on my menu.” Indeed, “a dash of this and a pinch of that” is how Lyran’s menu describes the spices. This also happens to be a very good description of Malmö’s food scene today.

Numerous airlines fly to Copenhagen from airports around the UK. From there, trains to Malmö leave Copenhagen Airport every 20 minutes and cost £13.

Rooms at the CLARION HOTEL & CONGRESS MALMÖ LIVE cost from £86 B&B. clarionlive.se

BASTARD

Occupying a townhouse in the prettiest part of Malmö, Bastard is the elder statesman of its contemporary dining scene, but it remains a fun place to knock back a bottle of natural wine and tuck into something casual — a pot of pig’s head terrine, say, or green asparagus with almonds and lumpfish roe.

HOW MUCH: Dinner costs around £40 per person, excluding drinks. bastardrestaurant.com SOI 29

Of the dishes that head chef Alexander Norén picked up at Bangkok restaurant Nahm, one of the best is a salad of sour mango, physalis and Asian pear with coriander, mint and dill, and a dressing of palm sugar, tamarind, sesame seeds and deep-fried shallots. It’s a dish of weaponsgrade deliciousness.

HOW MUCH: Dinner costs around £32 per person, excluding drinks. soi29thaikitchen.com

IMAGES: ALAMY; PER-ANDERS JÖRGENSEN

ABOVE: Vendors at Malmö Saluhall

LESS IS

MORE

Hotel Castel — multifaceted, unique and charming.

The owner-managed, five-star Hotel Castel is a Mediterranean holiday residence for people who appreciate unpretentious luxury, style and charm, and want to spend some pleasurable time away from their daily routine.

Here, less is more. The hotel has just 25 rooms and 20 suites, all of which have been renovated recently. Guests are given the time and space to rest in an atmosphere of relaxed understated luxury.

The hotel’s cuisine is another highlight: in both restaurants, two Michelin-star executive chef Gerhard Wieser combines creative inspiration with the best ingredients from the region into a delightful synthesis of light Alpine/Mediterranean cuisine.

To help guests relax, the Carpe Diem spa has a large, panoramic outdoor pool, Roman indoor pool, numerous saunas and baths, and a wide selection of treatment options. The hotel also offers a multitude of open-air recreational activities including golf, hiking, e-bike trips and automobile tours to help make sure your stay at the Castel is as fulfilling as you want it to be.

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Alpine luxury.

Totally private.

Luxury Chalet

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A unique and tailored holiday. The Schmiedalm is a chalet that combines a geniue natural environment with the highest in living comforts for a luxurious holiday. Privacy and Alpine Lifestyle in the tranquility of the Austrian Alps with your own private chef, preparing superb cuisine, your own wellness spa area and pool combined with breathtaking views and within a peaceful environment.

Experience Austria. With daily flights from major London Airports to Salzburg and organized transfers, unwind and relax in your very own chalet, where all your holiday wishes come true, from a relaxed family holiday through to the sumptuous luxury of your own private hideaway.

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Neighbourhood

VENICE

ILLUSTRATION: KERRY HYNDMAN

Venice is a thriving city but visitors often fail to get to the heart of it. Turn away from the crowds to find out why sestieri are doing it for themselves Words: Shaney Hudson Photographs: Chris Van Hove

Venezia è una vera città. These words are proudly unfurled from windows, on dozens of green banners that hang prominently along the Grand Canal.

Chewing over the Italian for a few minutes, I ask an older Venetian next to me on the vaporetto for the missing word to help me solve my puzzle.

“Vera?” I ask, while smiling and pointing to the sign.

“Real,” he says, gesturing around him with pride. “Venice is a real city.”

This may be so, yet many tourists miss the ‘real’ city. The key to understanding and enjoying it, is to explore its sestieri, the Venetian neighbourhoods. Go down the back alleys. Sit by the canals. Wander and get lost, and Venice will find you.

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Dorsoduro

It’s dawn, and there are no other tourists but us on the Punta della Dogana at the tip of the Dorsoduro neighbourhood. It’s quiet, but thriving. Runners loop past, an empty vaporetto drops off a single passenger, and elderly men sit on upturned buckets casting a line in the Giudecca Canal. It’s the everyday and extraordinary, awash in the golden light of the rising sun.

Poised between the Grand Canal and the Giudecca Canal, the Dorsoduro is home to the city’s most prestigious galleries, including the Accademia, Peggy Guggenheim and Punta della Dogana.

“If you really know Venice, you want to stay here, not near San Marco,” says Paolo Morra, manager of the Sina Centurion Palace, a 50-room design hotel overlooking the Grand Canal. “It’s in the historical centre, but away from the historical centre.”

Despite its elegant pedigree, local life dominates the streetscape. On one canal, a fórcole workshop makes traditional wooden oars, while on a floating barge near the

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Campo San Barnaba, a greengrocer peels artichoke hearts by hand.

We search for the Squero di san Trovaso, one of the last working gondola shipyards in Venice. We find the backdoor, but to see the shipyard we must double back, cross two bridges, walk along a portico and down a canal: the Venetian version of Pac-Man. It’s high tide, and water slaps over the path.

I slip off my shoes and get my feet wet. It’s no acqua alta (seasonal flooding), but it’s enough to make me smile.

Directly opposite the shipyard is the Osteria Al Squero, a cicchetti bar serving small bites. While reports of €800 (£700) meals in San Marco fill the international press, a water view and lunch for two here costs under €20 (£18).

In the afternoon, we visit a place Morra calls “The real life of Venice”: the Campo Santa Margherita. At 5pm, the square is pumping. Kids shout and chase each other, friends chat in groups, grocers do a roaring trade, and a buzzing set of terrace restaurants drain the city’s supply of Aperol.

CLOCKWISE FROM

BELOW: Punta della Dogana in the Dorsoduro; a gondola in Cannaregio; a display in the Fortuny factory in Giudecca; a women walks alongs the promenade in Giudecca

NEIGHBOURHOOD

When in Venice VENETIAN ROWING

Rowing is everything in Venice: a means of transport, a sport, a profession and pastime. Amateur and professional races run throughout the year, but two of the most prestigious events are Vogalonga to Burano in May, and the Regata Storica, which travels along the Grand Canal in full costume. vogalonga.com regatastoricavenezia.it

BIENNALE

Renowned worldwide, Venice’s Biennale showcases art during the odd years (the next is scheduled for 2019), while the architecture Biennale runs during even years (2018). Held in public spaces throughout Venice as well as purpose-built pavilions, the central organisation also overseas dance, theatre, film and music events. labiennale.org

CICCHETTI

Served with an ombra (glass of wine), and costing just a euro or two, the small bar snacks known as cicchetti keep the city fuelled and ready to go — at least until the locals go home for dinner.

OUTER LAGOON

When locals want to escape the crowd, they head to the outer lagoon, where a sea breeze cools things down and the tourist crowd thins out.

GREEN SPACES

With space at a premium, Venice’s parks and gardens are treasured.

One of the biggest is the Giardini della Biennale in the Castello.

Giudecca

Part of the Dorsoduro sistieri, Giudecca is easily seen from San Marco but is considered just a bridge too far for most tourists. Back in the day, Venetians felt the same: the geographical distance across the deep and wide Giudecca canal was considered so daunting that the children of aristocrats not fortunate enough to inherit were exiled here, residing in religious orders, far from the temptations across the water.

Today, Giudecca is one of the few places you can stroll in Venice where locals clearly outnumber tourists, despite the area being bookended by one of the city’s most luxurious hotels on one side, and one of the biggest chain hotels on the other.

“People who come to Giudecca are people who see the real Venice,” says Rosangela, who welcomes me into the showroom of the Fortuny factory, one of the last bastions of thriving industry on the island. Creating textiles for theatre, interiors and clothing using techniques that remain shrouded in secrecy, the Fortuny showroom can be visited during business hours, but book ahead for a glimpse of the secret garden, part of the original convent grounds.

Most recently, Giudecca is experiencing a new life as the home of Venice’s thriving

contemporary art scene. Flushed from the centre of the city by rising rents, artists including the Giudecca 795 collective have set up here, and in the cloisters of Convento dei Santi Cosma e Damiano, which has been repurposed into artists’ studios. Described as ‘labs’, the former convent is occupied by a community of local artisans, creating everything from glass to handmade paper, restoring antique books and making masks.

Two major attractions stand out for those who venture this far: the Casa dei Tre Oci, which acts as both a neo-gothic architectural highlight and photography museum; and the iconic Il Redentore church, built to celebrate the city’s salvation from the plague. On the third weekend in July a temporary pontoon is built across the canal for pilgrims to travel to the church, attracting thousands. But outside that one weekend, you get the sense things are slower here.

Nuns in brown habits wheel shopping trolleys in and out of the supermercado, while men sip beer and eat cicchetti outside the Osteria da Moro. A self-service laundromat has a prime water view of the Giudecca Canal across to San Marco; but its occupants flick through their phones as their whites and brights spin, indifferent to the vista some wait a lifetime to see.

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A chance to paddle the neighbourhood with oar in hand is not to be missed. We dip beneath bridges and glimpse private gardens obscured from street view

Cannaregio

Part of the Jewish Ghetto from the 16th to 18th centuries, Cannaregio has primarily become more of a middle-class residential area. It’s a place where locals visit the unassuming shop front of Nicolao Atelier in the back canals for their carnival costumes, and the local Spar supermarket sits in the belly of exquisitely restored theatre.

However, it’s also a neighbourhood growing in popularity.

“This area has become a lot more lively,” says Jane Corporal from Row Venice, as we paddle her traditional prawn-tailed batellina along the canals. A champion Venetian rower who has lived here for 27 years, she founded the non-profit Row Venice, which offers lessons in voga alla veneta, or Venetian stand-up rowing.

A chance to paddle the neighbourhood with oar in hand is not to be missed. We dip beneath bridges and glimpse private gardens obscured from street view, skim the petticoats of crumbling buildings and cross paths with other new operators along the waterway, including a stand-up paddleboarding outfit.

Jane sees the SUP operation, run by local Eliana Argine, not as competition, but a complement to the city’s growing menu of paddle sports. While passing, Jane calls out

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in Italian on my behalf, to ask if anyone ever falls in.

“Only occasionally,” Eliana replies.

Staying firmly in our seats, we pass bars and restaurants, their terraces packed with punters. Most recently, Fondamenta della Misericordia and Fondamenta dei Ormesini streets have become popular, garnering a reputation for quality bites and wine at reasonable prices.

Accompanying Cannaregio’s new popularity, there’s been an upswing in people interested in staying in the area, and we struggle to find a hotel, with slim pickings and high prices on Airbnb. Luckily, locals have taken things into their own hands. One B&B owner who’s booked out recommends a collective called Breakfast in Venice.

It offers ‘true traditional B&B’ set to a strict criteria: accommodation must be family-run with no more than three rooms, and guests share the house with the owner. I send off an email and within a few hours, my inbox is filled with vacancies. It’s a nice twist that in an area increasingly encroached upon by tourists, tourism has strengthened the sense of community.

ABOVE FROM LEFT: The Cannaregio neighourhood; gelato in Cannaregio

MORE INFO Sina Centurion Palace. sinahotels.com Breakfast in Venice. breakfastinvenice.com Osteria Al Squero. osteriaalsquero.wordpress.com Casa dei Tre Oci. treoci.org Fortuny Factory. fortuny.com Row Venice. rowvenice.org Giudecca 795. giudecca795.com Al Timon. altimon.it Nicolao Atelier. nicolao.com SUP in Venice. supinvenice.com Osteria da Moro. 00 39 041 099 5884 Ca D’oro Alla Vedova.

00 39 041 528 5324 Venice, by Jan Morris (Faber), RRP: £10:99.

Venice & The Veneto (Lonely Planet 9th Edition, 2016), RRP: £12.99.

111 Places in Venice That You Must Not Miss, by Gerd Wolfgang Sievers (Emons; Gerd Wolfgang Sievers), RRP: £10:99. weareherevenice.org

EXPEDIA offers five nights at the Sina Centurion Palace and flights from London from £1,441 (peak season). All hotels must collect an additional tourist tax (of a few euros), dependent on the length of your stay. expedia.co.uk

YOUR HIDEAWAY IN THE DOLOMITES

WWW.ROSALPINA-DOLOMITES.COM

Sleep

MALDIVES

When the first tourists arrived in the Maldives in 1960s, they made their way to Malé by hitching rides on cargo ships. They then negotiated with fishing boats to drop them at island homestays. Fast forward to 2018 and the allure of these islands stretching from Sri Lanka to the equator is obvious; bone-white beaches and swaying palm trees, blue seas teeming with Disney-worthy marine life, life-affirming sunsets and night skies so clear you can watch shooting stars. The further you go from Malé, the more delicious the sense of isolation. Head north for large species of marine life — mantas, turtles, dolphins in their hundreds — or to the far south for deep dives, shipwrecks and encounters with whale sharks, nurse sharks and hammerheads. The Maldives’ far-flung location and logistical challenges ensure a holiday here is never going to be cheap so it makes sense to go all-inclusive, full or even half-board when you can.

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IMAGES: GETTY; PAUL THUYSBAERT

This chain of coral isles criss-crossed by bright white yachts and cherry-red seaplanes shuttling guests to some of the most beautiful hotels has become one of the world’s most enticing destinations. Words: Lee Cobaj

For creative types

FAIRMONT MALDIVES SIRRU FEN FUSHI

Few places in the Maldives manage to combine culture with barefoot chic quite like Sirru Fen Fushi. It’s the only resort on the northern Shaviyani Atoll, so remote it takes over an hour to reach by seaplane from Malé, meaning immaculate reefs, empty horizons and not a chink of light pollution. It’s also the first resort to have its own underwater gallery. There are a dozen life-size figures planted on the seabed, sewn with corals and turned into a mesmerising artificial reef, which will grow and evolve over time.

ROOMS: Villas from £792, half-board. sirrufenfushi.com

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For wellness

COMO MAALIFUSHI

Como Maalifushi, the only resort in the northern Thaa Atoll, is quite the celebrity hideaway — although staff will never say who has stayed. They’re lured by vast sun-drenched villas, attended to by butlers who won’t bat an eyelid at requests for 100 white, scented candles, and a wondrous range of activities — £1m yachts for hire, night snorkelling with whale sharks, diving with hammerhead sharks. But the real star is the peerless Como Shambala spa, where Ayurvedic doctors prescribe morning meditation, stress-busting breathing, beachside yoga, and hours-long massages and facials, alongside delicious spa cuisine.

ROOMS: Villas from £612, B&B. comohotels.com

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SLEEP

For added extras AMILLA FUSHI

The thoroughly modern Amilla Fushi, a 30-minute seaplane journey from MalĂŠ, has banished teak and thatched-roofs in favour of angular white villas, stacked along the beach or over the Tiffany-blue sea. Inside, there are polished concrete walls, aquamarine floor tiles, wicker chairs and jumbo bathrooms stocked with eco-friendly Aesop amenities.

Elsewhere, there are treehouses, with an extra bedroom and stilted swimming pools.

Go full-board and on top of three meals a day, you can have breakfast delivered to your room for free, afternoon tea, daily laundry and a 50-minute massage at the Javvu spa.

ROOMS: Villas from ÂŁ1,123, full-board. amillafushi.com

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OH-SO STYLISH Welcome to a place where almost everything is possible, and boredom simply does not exist. Kandima Maldives is much more than just a holiday, it’s a lifestyle! Experience a new type of destination with extraordinary restaurants and bars and plenty of onsite activities to choose from. This game-changing resort is anything but ordinary.

Dhaalu Atoll , Republic of Maldives T. +960 676 0077 I E. mykindofplace@kandima.com kandima.com I #MyKindOfPlace

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For photographers THE ST REGIS MALDIVES VOMMULI

Sitting on the rim of the Dhaalu Atoll, the St Regis Volummi is a super-luxe property that can do it all — romantic, spa, familyfriendly. All of the accommodation is large and opulent; the water villas the most dramatic, with razor-sharp lines and huge infinity pools. Then there’s the over-water spa, shaped like a lobster with six treatment rooms positioned in the pincers, and the curvaceous Whale Bar where you can swallow up those Indian Ocean sunsets.

ROOMS: Villas from £1,435, room only. stregis.com

For a Bond hideaway

IMAGE: RALF TOOTEN

VELAA PRIVATE ISLAND

ABOVE: The St Regis Maldives Vommuli; Velaa Private Island

Stepping into Velaa’s watersports centre feels like diving into James Bond’s toy box. Aquagadgets include racing trimarans, jet skis, parasails, a two-man submarine and seabobs. Villas are huge, with interiors that feel almost urban; black-and-white photographic feature walls, smoky-hued sofas and eclectic artworks, alongside massive open-plan bathrooms. Other conspicuous displays of wealth include a six-hole golf course, a Clarins spa (with a snow chamber), and the highest rooftop bar in the Maldives, 75ft atop a building that looks like a spaceship.

ROOMS: Villas from £3,087, B&B, including seaplane transfers for two. velaa.com

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Step into your eco resort sanctuary Sustainability is at the heart of Gili Lankanfushi™, with emphasis on preserving the natural environment, protecting the fragile marine ecosystem and leaving only footprints behind.

ESCAPE NOW AT

www.gili-lankanfushi.com

Gili Lankanfushi, Maldives, Lankanfushi Island 08290 North MalĂŠ Atoll, Republic of Maldives T +960 664 0304 F +960 664 0305 Managed by HPL Hotels & Resorts

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For a fly & flop NALADHU

This sweet retreat can be reached in just 30 minutes from Malé via the resort’s leather-lined, wi-fi-enabled Sunseeker yacht. You can stroll its entirety in 15 minutes but what it lacks in size it makes up for in the enormous villas; 20 in all, with outdoor bathrooms the size of your average city centre apartment, and beds so grand couples could roll around all night and never touch each other.

ROOMS: Villas from £530, B&B. anantara.com

For families SONEVA FUSHI

Perfectly embodying all your Swiss Family Robinson fantasies, thatched-roofed double-decker villas have paprika-red sofas, netted beds and bamboo-shrouded outdoor bathrooms. Take the clan dolphin-spotting on a dhoni, explore the island on bicycles (stopping at the ice cream parlour), snorkel, kayak or drop into The Den, a kids’ club with a Lego room, a music studio and pirate ship. After dark, rocket up to the observatory and gawp at the rings of Saturn. Service is super — every villa gets their own Man or Girl Friday.

ROOMS: Villas from £817, B&B. soneva.com

For romance HURAWHALI

Astonishingly beautiful and adult-only, all your romantic needs are covered here, from the spectacular 30-minute seaplane transfer to boozy picnics on a secluded sandbank to coconut-y couples’ massages.

The beach villas are the most private, with junglewrapped plunge pools and flowery paths streaming straight on to sandy shores. And the house reef is a beauty, bursting with brilliant, energetic marine life.

View it at its romantic best with dinner at 5.8, the world’s largest undersea restaurant.

ROOMS: Villas from £350, B&B. hurawhali.com

For manta-spotting FOUR SEASONS LANDAA GIRAAVARU

Manta rays are playful, have the biggest brains in the fish world and a wingspan that can reach up to 18ft, and you’ll find more of them here in the Baa Atoll Biosphere Reserve than anywhere else on earth.

This is where Blue Planet II came to film 200 mantas hoovering up plankton in Hanifura Bay, an excursion that can be arranged by the Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru in partnership with the Manta Trust. After being awed by nature, relax in supersized villas, with private pools and beds facing the ocean.

ROOMS: Villas from £756, room only. fourseasons.com

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For beaches

KANUHURA

Resting in the peaceful Lhaviyani Atoll and ringed by a mile of soft, sparkly sand so broad and white it’ll make your eyes water, Kanuhura is the stuff your beach dreams are made of. With more than enough sandy square-footage to go around you’ll always be able to find a spot to cast off your (complimentary) kayak or SUP, join some early morning Maldivian warrior training (tossing coconuts and lugging logs up the beach), or kick back and slow down with a good book. Further isolation can be found by nipping on the hotel’s little blue dhoni over to two smaller — utter beautiful — uninhabited islands, spotting stingrays and purple starfish along the way.

ROOMS: Villas from £690, B&B. kanuhura.com

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A DUL TS ONL Y PA R A D I S E www.hurawalhi.com

O P ENING M ID 2018 www.kudadoo.com

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WHEN THE HOTEL IS A DESTINATION IN ITSELF, YOU KNOW YOU’VE ARRIVED. SO STEP INTO OUR BIG SLEEP AWARDS, WHERE WE CHAMPION THE NEW HOTELS, LODGES, B&BS AND GLAMPSITES THAT ARE RAISING THE BAR

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BIG SLEEP AWARDS 2018

The winners Spoilt Rotten

Lord of the Manor

CHABLÉ, YUCATÁN, MEXICO

ADARE MANOR, IRELAND

Castaway

Game Changer

BAWAH ISLAND, INDONESIA

THE SIREN HOTEL, DETROIT

Design Den

Love Shack

THE SILO HOTEL, CAPE TOWN

ASILIA JABALI RIDGE, TANZANIA

Family Favourite

On the Money

ANOTHER PLACE, ULLSWATER

DOCK INN, WARNEMÜNDE, GERMANY

Clean & Green

Hometown Hero

BISATE LODGE, RWANDA

THE GOOD HOTEL, LONDON

City Slicker

Boutique Break

THE MURRAY, HONG KONG

ARTIST RESIDENCE, OXFORDSHIRE

Hangout DOWNTOWN CAMPER, STOCKHOLM

Landmark Legend HÔTEL DE CRILLON, A ROSEWOOD HOTEL, PARIS

Gourmet Getaway

Comeback Kid BÜRGENSTOCK RESORT, SWITZERLAND

Home from Home LE MANOIR AUX QUAT’SAISONS, OXFORDSHIRE

Euro Star

AKELARRE, SPAIN

W BARCELONA

Happy Glampers

Far-Flung Fancy

VENTANA BIG SUR, CALIFORNIA

TAJ PALACE, MUMBAI

The judging panel FRANCISCA KELLETT

Travel editor, Tatler tatler.com

ALASTAIR SAWDAY

Founder, Sawday’s sawdays.co.uk

LEE COBAJ

Freelance travel writer EMMA GREGG

Freelance travel writer

TOM CHESSHYRE

Travel writer, The Times thetimes.co.uk

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC RICHARD FRAIMAN

JULIET KINSMAN

Luxury travel writer

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DAVID WHITLEY

Freelance travel writer

Editor, Good Hotel Guide goodhotelguide.com

TRAVELLER (UK) TEAM

IMAGES: DEL SOL PHOTOGRAPHY

JULIA BUCKLEY

Freelance travel writer

BIG SLEEP AWARDS 2018

Spoilt Rotten Even spa naysayers are seduced by the new generation of hotels that deliver more than just a good massage. From vegan retreats that spoil you rotten to state-of-the-art sleep clinics, these places have you covered, supine and cured.

CHABLÉ, YUCATÁN, MEXICO

A painstakingly restored 19thcentury sisal estate is home to this new jungle-fringed hacienda hotel, with a spa at its heart and soul.

OUR PANEL SAID: With crumbling walls, slick rooms, plunge pools and a brilliant restaurant, there’s much to award this hotel. The highlight, however, is its spa, centred around an ancient cenote (freshwater pool) with cabins angled to maximise the surroundings and the Mayaninspired menu: including everything from three-hour rituals to meditation led by local shamans, and a trio of temazcals (local saunas) in which to sweat it out. chableresort.com

Runners-up SIX SENSES DUXTON, SINGAPORE

An opulent, Oriental-inspired outpost in the heart of Chinatown has all the trappings of a luxe retreat — from five-star service to traditional Chinese medicine. sixsenses.com FOUR SEASONS RESORT BALI AT SAYAN, UBUD, INDONESIA

Yoga in a bamboo bale? Water blessings from a high priestess? This lush, luxurious hideaway has ‘spoilt rotten’ written all over it. fourseasons.com

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BIG SLEEP AWARDS 2018

Castaway These are the waterside resorts and private island getaways that make us feel like we’re miles from our everyday lives, somewhere our stresses and strains just melt away — and we wish it could stay that way.

BAWAH ISLAND, INDONESIA

A quintet of rainforest-carpeted tropical isles set in three luminous blue lagoons, home to 13 beaches and unlimited spa treatments.

OUR PANEL SAYS: This new tropical island escape has all that you’d expect of a luxury island fantasy — white sand, turquoise water teeming with fish, lush jungle, cool architecture, great food, a spa and endless watery activities. And it’s also pleasingly environmentally responsible. bawahisland.com

Runners-up KOKOMO PRIVATE ISLAND, FIJI

With the Pacific a dazzling blue backdrop, paradise doesn’t come much purer than this island sanctuary. kokomoislandfiji.com GLADDEN PRIVATE ISLAND, BELIZE

Sleeping just two to four castaways and ringed with coral reefs, this private island is pure indulgence. gladdenprivateisland.com

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BIG SLEEP AWARDS 2018

Design Den These hotels are both visually bewitching and functionally smart, from a pioneering science-focused design den to a quirky fashionista’s favourite. The winner has forever changed Cape Town’s landscape, setting the bar high for any hotels to come.

THE SILO HOTEL, CAPE TOWN

Set on top of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, The Silo Hotel is the ultimate destination hotel for lovers of art and architecture.

OUR PANEL SAID: British designer Thomas Heatherwick was charged with remodelling the industrial concrete facade of this former 1920s grain silo, and the result has launched a thousand magazine covers: industrial concrete and striking windows conceal a rich and confidently eclectic decor. In terms of design, this is the most exciting hotel ever to open in Cape Town and it’s set the benchmark high. theroyalportfolio.com

Runners-up BARCELÓ TORRE DE MADRID

Spanish designer Jaime Hayon’s new offering teases from the off; quirky pieces sit against a stylish palette of pastel hues. barcelo.com HOTEL EMC2, CHICAGO

Clever science-meets-art design runs throughout this urban bolthole, with quirky contraptions and sketches bringing a touch of Einstein to the walls. hotelemc2.com

Family Favourite

This place treats your offspring like a little prince or princess while also catering to adults. Are there activities to make even the most truculent of teens express gratitude?

ANOTHER PLACE,

Runners-up

ULLSWATER

This property from the owners of Cornwall’s Watergate Bay Hotel is the new benchmark for brilliant family holidays.

OUR PANEL SAID: Here, tots can fling fish goujons around in the restaurant without reproach, and teens can frolic in the water with abandon. The pool’s good, too. another.place/the-lake

WILD COAST TENTED LODGE, SRI LANKA

Luxurious four posters, teak floors and copper tubs, all under canvas. resplendentceylon.com LEGOLAND, WINDSOR

This site now comes with a Castle Hotel, complete with themed rooms. legolandholidays.co.uk

Clean & Green

The very best ‘green’ hotels live and breathe the natural world. We celebrate the most sustainable, carbon-neutral champions out there.

BISATE LODGE, RWANDA

The first foray into Rwanda

by Wilderness Safaris has us singing its wildlife-conscious and beautifully designed praises.

OUR PANEL SAID: With a unique design, it’s a beautiful tribute to Rwanda’s cultural heritage, and its six rooms snuggle onto a slope where locals and guests have already planted more than 15,000 trees. wilderness-safaris.com

Runners-up ROSEWOOD PHUKET

This beautiful Thai retreat is gloriously green. rosewoodhotels.com THE SILL, NORTHUMBERLAND

The Youth Hostels Association’s new flagship is entirely run on renewable energy. thesill.org.uk

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BIG SLEEP AWARDS 2018

City Slicker This category rewards the boldest, brightest and, in some cases, brilliantly brashest city hotel. This new kid on the block has bags of style and comfort, tailored to discerning urban travellers. We reveal the slickest addresses out there for city-bound tourists.

THE MURRAY, HONG KONG

One of the most hotly anticipated hotel openings in Hong Kong in years, this 1960s high-rise has been reimagined, retrofitted and refurbished to hotel perfection by Foster + Partners.

OUR PANEL SAID: This former office block scooped up armfuls of prizes for its pioneering energy-efficient design when it opened in 1969. Nearly 50 years on, it’s been transformed into one of the hippest hangouts in Asia, with monochrome rooms, leafy terrace restaurants and a sensational rooftop bar. niccolohotels.com

Runners-up THE WHITBY, NEW YORK

Fresh, fun and slap bang in the middle of Manhattan, expect bold, boutique design from Kit Kemp and an in-house cinema and library. firmdalehotels.com PALÁCIO TANGARÁ, SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL

Don’t be deceived by its lush, jungly location — this luxurious sanctuary abounds with cutting-edge design, chic decor and full-on indulgence in the heart of the city. oetkercollection.com

Hangout This is a hotel-cum-hangout where locals come just for larks — for topnotch cocktails and that weekend DJ, or for the communal lounge where the wi-fi is super-strength and the sofas super-plush. Here, we reveal where you can feel like a native.

DOWNTOWN CAMPER, STOCKHOLM

The latest addition to the growing crop of hip hotels on central Stockholm’s former no-go Brunkebergstorg Square has multitasking communal spaces, a wild ‘nest’ rooftop spa and happening cocktail bar.

OUR PANEL SAID: From the locally made kayaks, longboards and bikes available to borrow in the lobby, to its campfire, hammock and giant swing chairs, this is a playful urban retreat. There are no less than five communal areas, including lively games rooms and a popular workspace, and recommendations for joining everything from rooftop walks to barefoot running groups are as individual as the locally made goodies for sale in the popup shop. scandichotels.com

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Runners-up SELINA, MEDELLÍN, COLOMBIA

This boutique, budget place has brought its laid-back ambience to this up-and-coming metropolis. selina.com THE HOXTON, PARIS

A brand that goes from strength to strength, The Hoxton is the epitome of a cool urban refuge. thehoxton.com

BIG SLEEP AWARDS 2018

Landmark Legend Venerable. Classy. Established.

Properties in this category represent the greatest grande dames of the hotel world. Whether they’re one-off, big-name hotels or a branch of a chain whose reputation transcends that of its umbrella company, we’re simply looking for a hotel that’s a celebrity — a place that’s a destination in its own right.

HÔTEL DE CRILLON, A ROSEWOOD HOTEL, PARIS

The legendary Hôtel de Crillon had a much-needed overhaul at the skilled hands of the Rosewood Group last year.

The result is sensational.

OUR PANEL SAID: This is Parisian perfection, with beautiful dove-grey and pale blue rooms (including the most comfortable bed we’ve ever slept in), pretty, leafy courtyards for cocktails, two brilliant restaurants, and a bar with preserved fresco-covered ceilings. There’s a spa downstairs, with a pool topped with a glass roof, and the service throughout is spot-on. rosewoodhotels.com/en/hotel-de-crillon

Runners-up HOTEL EDEN, ROME

After a hefty sprucing up, Rome’s elegant grande dame is ready for its close-up, with sizeable suites, gleaming white marble and Bottega Veneta toiletries for all to see. dorchestercollection.com ONE&ONLY LE SAINT GÉRAN, MAURITIUS

A masterclass in refurbs, this long-time favourite is now classic contemporary to its core, swathed in tropical gardens and situated right on the beach. oneandonlyresorts.com

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Gourmet Getaway Hotels are forming a formidable front line in the foodie revolution, with guests willing to travel to the ends of the earth to sample the latest tasting menu. We reveal those hotels with the finest kitchens fed by only the freshest ingredients and most adventurous culinary talent.

Happy Glampers Log cabins. Yurts. Gers. Teepees. Safari tents.

Treehouses. Upcycled horseboxes. Airstream trailers. What’s the coolest, quirkiest outdoor glamping experience out there?

VENTANA BIG SUR, CALIFORNIA

AKELARRE, SPAIN

The newest hotel in Spain’s Basque region has immaculate credentials, built around the three Michelinstarred Akelarre restaurant.

OUR PANEL SAID: This five-star boutique hotel just outside San Sebastián serves up food for all the senses and boasts a soulstirring setting on a hillside overlooking the Bay of Biscay.

Inside, the 22 rooms are set deferentially into the hillside beneath Akelarre restaurant, a Basque culinary landmark since the 1970s. akelarre.net

This winery with rooms on the Mornington Peninsula ticks all the right boxes: sublime plates of grub and lavish beds to retreat to. jackalopehotels.com

JACKALOPE HOTEL, AUSTRALIA

Sleep like a starlet under the stars in this new luxury campsite on the Pacific Coast between LA and San Francisco.

OUR PANEL SAID: This former Hollywood hideout, perched over the Pacific at Big Sur, has reopened under the Alila Hotels banner. Doze off beneath the skies on custom-designed mattresses, and scrub up for dinner in the inn, at the Glamping Bath House, complete with showers and heated floors. ventanabigsur.com

SÃO LOURENÇO DO BARROCAL,

Runners-up

Runners-up

PORTUGAL

Plating up rustic, regional fare, this lovingly restored estate is the perfect Portuguese bolthole. barrocal.pt

LUAMBE CAMP, ZAMBIA

These four beautifully simple tents offset all the carbon emissions from tourist activities. luambe.com

TINY HOMES HOLIDAYS, ISLE OF WIGHT

Tiny but firmly on-trend for glamping rentals that sleep just two. tinyhomesholidays.com

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Lord of the Manor Today’s country house hotels are a far cry from the motheaten mansions of old. The best rural retreats show that it’s possible to combine tradition with bright new design innovation, five-star service free from stuffy restraint, and glorious cuisine created by star chefs. We reveal the best butlered places to bed down in.

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ADARE MANOR, IRELAND

This recently renovated 19th-century stately home in County Limerick is a neogothic masterpiece reborn.

OUR PANEL SAID: The first glimpse of the new wing — a seamless addition to the manor house — confirms the largest-ever Irish hotel renovation was worth the 21-month wait. The 842-acre estate offers falconry, fishing, cycling, archery and a world-class golf course, but we wonder if you’ll make it beyond the Great Hall lobby, where a new bar adjoins the 17th-century Flemish choir stalls. adaremanor.com

Runners-up LYMPSTONE MANOR, EXMOUTH

With acclaimed chef Michael Caines in the kitchen rustling up modern British, seasonal creations, this Grade II-listed rural escape, on the Exe Estuary, is a magnificently contemporary take on the classic country house. lympstonemanor.co.uk

CHÂTEAU DE FONSCOLOMBE, FRANCE

A short drive from Aix-en-Provence, this former private residence is now a full-on French fairytale of a hotel, with fresh, minimalist rooms and spectacular grounds, containing a heated pool, ancient statues and a kitchen garden. fonscolombe.fr

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Game Changer

Love Shack

This category celebrates the true innovators in service, tech and design; the top hotels offering more than just a place to stay — from buzzing rooftop bars to shared workspaces and battle-tested wi-fi.

THE SIREN HOTEL, DETROIT

Once a symbol of American architectural excellence, this revamped 1920s office building is a beacon of Motor City’s renaissance.

OUR PANEL SAID: When it opened in 1926, Robert Finn’s Wurlitzer Building was a shining symbol of Detroit’s unstoppable energy, and almost a century later — reinvented as a hotel — it once again shines, this time as a symbol of a oncefloundering city reborn. The latest of several hotels to venture back into Detroit, The Siren — with its panoramic rooftop bar, and tasting-menu restaurant helmed

by James Beard Award nominee, chef Garrett Lipar — sends out the loudest signal so far that Detroit is back. thesirenhotel.com

Runners-up DREAM HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES

With dining rooms galore and a lush pool deck, this hedonistic hub has revitalised this once run-down part of town. dreamhotels.com SIR ADAM HOTEL, AMSTERDAM

1970s skyscraper turned happening hangout; this hotel has helped to turn the waterfront into a hive of activity. sirhotels.com

Whether it’s time to fall in love again or to fan the flames of romance, a great hotel getaway can be the sweetest solution. We’ve found the ideal couples’ getaways — we’re talking couples hammocks, honeymoon suites, and balconies worthy of Romeo and Juliet.

JABALI RIDGE, TANZANIA

This swoon-worthy safari lodge — part of a project to protect an African ecosystem — will steal your heart and seduce your conscience.

OUR PANEL SAID: Set on a hill overlooking the vast wilderness of Ruaha National Park (second only to the Serengeti in size), there’s plenty of big game to see. But the wows also come from within. Using elegant wooden bridges and stilted terraces, its eight rooms, infinity pool and lounge areas really bring the outside in, so you can remain in the nook and watch the wild world go by. asiliaafrica.com

Runners-up CASA TELMO, MENORCA

A true Balearic gem, the cosy quintet of rooms in this quaint townhouse in the Menorcan capital, Mahón, feature gorgeous, individual designs and no end of original features. casatelmo.com

HABITAS TULUM, MEXICO

Set in the town of Tulum, in the Yucatán Peninsula’s hippy heartland, this minimalist, chic getaway has a clutch of stylish suites and a private beach for lovebirds. habitastulum.com

On the Money

Here at National Geographic Traveller, great value is one of our favourite things, and we expect a lot of bang for our buck. In this category, we’re looking for rooms under £150 a night, but worthy of a queen.

DOCK INN HOSTEL WARNEMÜNDE, GERMANY

Wooden shipping containers in the Baltic seaside resort of Warnemünde transformed into one of Germany’s coolest hotels.

OUR PANEL SAID: We really do like to be beside the seaside if it means staying at this mainly solar-powered hostel, a 10-minute walk from the beach. Each room has views of the docks, as well as sleeping/living areas, smart TVs and separate bathrooms (some shared). And all this from €19 (£17) per person per night. Wow. dock-inn.dem

IMAGES: CHRISTIAN HARDER

Runners-up JO&JOE HOSSEGOR, FRANCE

Four minutes from the surf, these bargain beds near Biarritz are prime millennial fodder, with chilled vibes, watersports lessons, and great value rates. joandjoe.com

STEEL HOUSE COPENHAGEN

This luxury hostel with modern, on-trend rooms in the heart of the city is a rare thing in Denmark: a bargain; with dorms from as little as £14. steelhouse copenhagen.com

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EXPERIENCE ANOTHER SAINT-TROPEZ

1, traverse de la Gendarmerie, 83 990 Saint-Tropez • T. : +33 (0)4 83 09 60 00 • hoteldeparis-sainttropez.com

BIG SLEEP AWARDS 2018

Hometown Hero There’s a growing expectation that our globetrotting adventures should have a meaningful social impact wherever possible. And a good hotel can allow us to do just that: give back as much as we take, and more. This category rewards hotel ventures that kept the community front and centre when developing their products.

GOOD HOTEL LONDON

Moored at the Royal Victoria Docks, this former floating prison shipped from Amsterdam certainly lives up to its name. All profits go to an educational charity in Guatemala, while the hotel itself offers unemployed local youngsters training in the hospitality industry and help applying for jobs.

OUR PANEL SAID: Owner Marten Dresen was inspired to set up the Good Hotel Group — which combines doing business with doing good — after meeting a little girl while backpacking through Antigua, and gifting her some much-needed shoes.

The social business’s mission is to benefit deprived youngsters in the immediate community and beyond. goodhotellondon.com

Runners-up MAGDAS HOTEL, VIENNA

Refugees getting training in hospitality make up much of the staff at this inner-city hotel — expect Syrian food at the cafe and mezze for breakfast. magdas-hotel.at NEKUPE, NICARAGUA

This luxury resort with a social mission sources all its staff from impoverished local communities. It’s also reforested 1,300 surrounding acres. nekupe.com

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Boutique Break Boutique hotels will always have a special place in our hearts. These are the Fabergé eggs of accommodation, where the devil is in the detail — not just in terms of great design, but service and oh-so-stylish comfort too.

ARTIST RESIDENCE OXFORDSHIRE

The newest opening from Justin and Charlotte Salisbury’s eccentric mini franchise has turned a local drinking hole into a bucolic bolthole.

OUR PANEL SAID: Set in the Cotswolds village of South Leigh, this six-bedroom farmhouse retreat, complete with a cosy inn, blends urban cool and rustic romance.

Within the revamped 16th-century thatched farmhouse, rooms offer a mix of antiques and flea market finds, plus House of Hackney wallpaper, Morris & Co fabrics, neon signage, modern art, rainfall showers and roll-top baths. artistresidence.co.uk

Runners-up SANTA CLARA 1728, LISBON

Smooth, sleek and seriously stylish, this historic townhouse-turned-minimalist pad is so chic it hurts. santaclara1728.com

Comeback Kid This year the revamps and rebrands came thick and fast. But big overhauls can often go awry. So here’s to the hotels that took a long hard look in the mirror, made a change, and got it just right.

BÜRGENSTOCK RESORT, SWITZERLAND

Popular with the Hollywood crowd, this sprawling property set high above Lake Lucerne has finally opened its doors after a nine-year, £440m investment.

OUR PANEL SAID: There’s much to admire about the new-look Bürgenstock Resort, which comprises four hotels, 12 restaurants and a medical wellness centre. But the showstopper is the spectacular glass-enclosed 10,000sq metre spa, set amid meadows and snowy peaks. The main Palace Hotel has seen its fin de siècle marble pillars, hardwood parquet flooring and hand-blown glass chandeliers reincarnated with a boutique-y edge, while the Victorian timbers of the chalet-style Restaurant & Pension Taverne 1879 have been fully restored. buergenstock.ch/en

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Runners-up ALILA FORT BISHANGARH, INDIA

Set inside an 18thcentury fort near Jaipur, Rajasthan, expect majestic yet minimalist decor and antique touches. alilahotels.com THE SETAI TEL AVIV

An infinity pool, 12th-century features and sea-view suites are among the hallmarks of this superbly grand renovation in historic Jaffa. thesetai.co.il

HOTEL SANDERS, COPENHAGEN

Features Murano chandeliers, bespoke furnishing and original artwork. hotelsanders.com

BIG SLEEP AWARDS 2018

READERS’ CATEGORIES

Home from Home There are plenty of great staycation spots for us Brits to be proud of — from fashionable forest retreats to grand seafront edifices, and country houses with a foodie focus. But which ones earned your patriotic vote?

Euro Star

The best Continental breaks revolve around hotels that are destinations in their own right.

This competitive category included an Eiffel Tower-view palace hotel and a beautiful ocean-vista mansion.

W BARCELONA

IMAGE: PAUL WILKINSON PHOTOGRAPHY LTD

BELMOND LE MANOIR AUX QUAT’SAISONS, OXFORDSHIRE

One of the UK’s finest foodie getaways, with the venerable Raymond Blanc at the helm.

OUR PANEL SAID: It’s been setting the bar consistently high since it opened in 1984, both in terms of its cookery school and restaurant. This stately Oxfordshire country house hotel tops our Big Sleep podium, lauded by readers not only for its ‘fantastic facilities and food’ but for its ‘thoughtfulness to surroundings and care of environment’. When walking around its glorious environs, you notice ‘everything about it is perfect’, including its ‘beautiful setting’. belmond.com

Runners-up THE ATLANTIC HOTEL, JERSEY

Family-run retreat with sweeping sea views, rolling lawns and standout dining. theatlantichotel.com CHEWTON GLEN, NEW FOREST

Quintessential country house retreat set in 130 acres with a world-class spa and 14 treehouse suites. chewtonglen.com

This hip seafront hotel, in an achingly cool city, sets the bar very high.

OUR PANEL SAID: This beauty won your hearts.

The floor-to-ceiling windows in most guest rooms offer incredible views over Barceloneta Beach, while the service and amenities also scored top marks from you. And that’s before we get to the sleek indoor pool and buzzing rooftop bar. w-barcelona.com

Runners-up SHANGRI-LA HOTEL PARIS

Within striking distance of the Eiffel Tower, this Parisian jewel shimmers with huge rooms, lavish touches and grand, imperial heritage. shangri-la.com

BELMOND REID’S PALACE, MADEIRA

This rose-hued mansion on the lush Portuguese island is easy to fall in love with — surrounded by subtropical gardens and dramatic ocean views. belmond.com

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Far-flung Fancy A stand-out hotel stay lingers in the mind. They’re the stuff of office daydreams; they fire up our imagination and coddle with comfort.

This year, casting the net far and wide, you plumped for a palace fit for a royal; a Koh-i-Noor diamond in the crown of any long-haul trip.

THE TAJ MAHAL PALACE, MUMBAI

With its shady, leafy gardens and cool lounges, this monument to Raj-era opulence is an oasis of calm in the fastpaced Indian metropolis.

OUR READERS SAID: Retaining its crown for a second year, The Taj clearly holds a special place in your hearts. Here’s what you said: ‘From the moment you set foot inside, you’re treated like a king or queen. Everywhere is spotless, the food is delicious, and the staff are the loveliest people you will meet.’ It simply ‘can’t be beaten for friendliness of staff’, who put ‘elegance and service above everything’. Also receiving plaudits were ‘the phenomenal food and... that view out to Elephanta Island!’ In short: ‘Perfection’. tajhotels.com

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Runners-up RAFFLES HOTEL, SINGAPORE

The colonial-era gem is set to reopen later this year after a decadent revamp. rafflessingapore.com ATLANTIS, THE PALM, DUBAI

Grand and glitzy, this family favourite wows with its pools, water park and huge, man-made beach. atlantisthepalm.com

Rising at the edge of the Mediterranean The city’s new destination for business and relaxation Ideally located, Four Seasons Hotel Tunis provides so many reasons to stay longer. � A hillside, beachfront setting in the affluent Gammarth neighbourhood, connecting to all the best of Tunis. � Discover with a short 15-minute drive from Carthage, a UNESCO World Heritage Site which features the ruins of an ancient Roman city. � Pamper yourself with a rejuvenating Guerlain massage in our Roman-inspired spa and then end the day with a magical sea view dinner at The CREEK restaurant, enjoying a variety of Mediterranean specialities.

Book this offer to receive a complimentary third night and use your extra day to continue discovering the very best of Tunis.

For reservations and enquiries call +216 31 260 000 or e-mail: reservations.tsh@fourseasons.com www.fourseasons.com/tunis @fstunis

@FourSeasonsTunis

@FSHotelTunis

WILD Dazzling, white sand beaches might be one of the main draws in Mozambique, but venture deeper and this overlooked, unspoilt corner of Africa comes into its own — from Maputo, its rough-edged, art-soaked capital, to intimate encounters with wildlife

WORDS

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EMMA GREGG

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Africa’s most impressive megafauna, from lions and elephants to families of mountain gorillas. But this is different. While most fully grown wild animals — even those habituated to humans — respond to people with detachment, avoidance or aggression, these dolphins exude cheerful curiosity. I’m in their domain and they’re circling me, staring me straight in the eye.

How do you greet a dolphin? I’ve been given some pointers, so make my best attempt at staring back, emitting friendly noises through my snorkel and trying to imitate their movements. But while the pod seems tolerant of my clumsy efforts, they have more pressing matters on their minds. All but one are male, and the female is sexually receptive. Twisting together in a cluster, belly to belly, they dive to the sandy seabed in a sinuous, sensuous courtship.

Such is our affinity with bottlenose dolphins, it’s all too tempting to anthropomorphise them, right down to their sexual preferences. As one of the few species that, like humans, mates in ways that can’t possibly result in procreation, they attract a catalogue of labels — flirtatious, bi-curious, shameless — and their habits run to sexual piracy; gangs of males sometimes ‘kidnap’ a young female, bullying her for sex. But no matter what scenario may be unfolding today, there’s something exquisitely beautiful about their movements. I could glide among them forever.

When we’re back on the boat, Lourenzo puts a delicate gloss on the matter. “Social bonding,” he says. “That’s something we don’t often see. What a privilege!”

BUILDING BRIDGES

You’d think the chance to befriend wild dolphins and scuba dive over starfish-spangled coral reefs would be enough to lure droves of tourists to Mozambique’s dazzling south east. But while South Africans have been visiting Matutuíne for ages, European beach-lovers have been slow to explore beyond the barefoot-luxury lodges on the Bazaruto and Quirimbas islands further north.

On many of Matutuíne’s beaches, human footprints — barefoot or otherwise — are rare.

It’s the prospect of combining a city, bush and beach trip into one that clinches the region’s appeal. It’s as close to Mozambique’s intriguing capital, Maputo, as Sussex is to London, and Kruger National Park in South Africa is only 100 miles away. Access used to be challenging,

WHEN YOU’RE PEERING THROUGH A MASK, REFRACTION MAKES THE UNDERWATER WORLD SEEM STRANGELY ENLARGED, AND THE SEVEN DOLPHINS THAT ZOOM UP TO CHECK US OUT APPEAR VERY BIG, VERY MUSCULAR AND VERY CLOSE INDEED

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IMAGES: EMMA GREGG; ALAMY

L

ove is in the air. I’m bouncing across a bay in southeast Mozambique as we’ve set our hearts on snorkelling with dolphins in the wild — and the conditions are looking perfect.

Briefing us before we pushed out from Ponta Mamoli beach, our skipper, Lourenzo Mpanza, said he could offer no fairy-godmother guarantees. But on this sheltered stretch of the Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve in Matutuíne, the odds are on our side. Thanks to effective habitat protection, a code of conduct that’s widely respected by operators, and the achievements of a long-running cetacean research project, the reserve is one of the best places in the world for an ethical dolphin encounter.

What’s on offer here is the antithesis of the touristtrap experiences available in certain countries, where unenlightened operators either keep dolphins captive or harass wild pods, chasing and crowding them in their eagerness to get close. In Matutuíne, there’s a desire to keep things as low key and low impact as possible. Just four licensed cetacean-watching outfits operate on the 65-mile Indian Ocean coast within the reserve, each using a single boat at a time. Take a short trip with any of them and you’ve an excellent chance of seeing wild bottlenose, spinner or humpback dolphins at a respectful distance. With luck, you can even join the dolphins in the water, on the animals’ own terms.

Ours is the only boat as far as the eye can see. Wishing hard, we squint into the brightness, scanning the gentle waves. We don’t have to wait long. “Look, over there!” squeaks one of my companions. And there it is, our first fleeting glimpse: the dark dorsal fin of a bottlenose dolphin, slicing through the blue.

Immediately, more dolphins appear, and Lourenzo watches carefully. “We don’t want to disturb them if they’re snoozing or there’s a mother with a baby,” he says, then signals that we can get ready. Soon, we’re sliding carefully into the water.

At first, I’m on guard. When you’re peering through a mask, refraction makes the underwater world seem strangely enlarged, and the seven dolphins that zoom up to check us out appear very big, very muscular and very close indeed.

On my travels, thanks to the trust that dedicated wildlife researchers engender in their subjects, I’ve been lucky enough to find myself within inches of some of

MOZAMBIQUE

PREVIOUS PAGE: Fishing settlement north of Maputo FROM TOP: Lourenzo Mpanza at White Pearl; bottlenose dolphins, Ponta do Ouro

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ABOVE: Maputo Railway Station

NEXT PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Saint Antonio Catholic Church, Maputo; mural by Malangatan, Museum of Natural History, Maputo

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requiring either a boat, light aircraft, helicopter or a ferry crossing, and a nerve-jangling drive along soft, sandy tracks by chapa (shared vehicle) or private 4x4. But now, the journey’s a breeze — a pristine ribbon of tarmac runs straight through the region, connecting Maputo’s brand new suspension bridge (the longest in Africa) to KwaZuluNatal, in South Africa. Just before the border, it branches east to Ponta do Ouro, a small but expanding beach town where dive centres, dune-shack guesthouses and R&R (rum and raspberry) bars cluster along sandy lanes.

Inevitably, the new road will bring changes to Matutuíne, some good, some bad. Conservationists fear that unless they can make a cast-iron case for the financial benefits of coastal eco-tourism, a long-discussed industrial port could be built at Techobanine, inside the Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve (‘partial’, because certain licensed activities are permitted). From an environmental perspective, this could be disastrous, causing irreversible damage.

But for now, much of the reserve remains an unspoilt wilderness, where ghost crabs skitter along the shoreline and sea turtles nest in the white-gold sand.

Before hitting the coast, I spend a long weekend in Maputo, checking out the phantasmagoric paintings and scrap-ammunition sculptures that (along with piri-piri prawns) have become its trademarks, and dancing to marrabenta, Mozambique’s irresistible guitar music, in sea-breezy city bars.

Named after its bay and shaped by waves of reinvention, Maputo is a rough-edged but likeable African capital with a laid-back Mediterranean flavour. Its colonial founders, who called it Lourenço Marques after a 16th-century explorer and ivory dealer, grew wealthy on trade; before independence was declared in 1975, around a third of the city’s population were Portuguese.

“Even now, we’re Laurentinos; we’re still taught Portuguese in school,” says Herminio Milando of walking tour company Maputo a Pé, who’s helping me get my bearings. As we set out from the Polana Serena Hotel to explore, fragments of black-and-white calçada mosaic pavements and pastelarias selling pastéis de nata (custard tarts) remind me of Maputo’s faraway cousins, Lisbon, Luanda and Rio. But Portugal isn’t the only influence. I discover traces of Victorian England in the Tunduru Botanical Gardens, where wedding parties pose for photos and fruit bats hang like handbags in the Indian almond trees. While much of the city centre is dilapidated, the historic Baixa district contains some well-preserved architectural masterpieces. Herminio glows with pride as we approach the beaux arts-style railway station, steeped in the romance of early-20th-century train travel, and again as we climb the steps to Cathedral of Nossa Senhora da Conceição, easily the most striking art deco cathedral this side of Casablanca.

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MAPUTO IS PEPPERED WITH IDIOSYNCRATIC ARCHITECTURAL CLASSICS: CONCRETE VILLAS, A CHURCH SHAPED LIKE A LEMON SQUEEZER AND TOWER BLOCKS EMBELLISHED WITH BOLD MODERN ART

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Immediately before independence, Maputo’s European community vanished, but expats are steadily trickling back. “A friend once put it like this: if Africa is a mighty river, Maputo is the tangle of mangroves at its mouth,” says Jane. “People drift downstream from all over the continent, get caught in the roots, discover they rather like it, and that’s it — they never really leave.”

A WILDERNESS REBORN

Having Matutuíne’s alluring coastline on the doorstep must help. I take a boat across Maputo Bay to the Laurentinos’ favourite retreat, the Machangulo Peninsula, an idyllic finger of forested dunes between the bay and the open sea. As I settle into the capulanacovered cushions at my hideaway, Machangulo Beach Lodge, white-fronted plovers are exploring the sunmarbled shore and greenbuls as cheerful as chaffinches are singing brightly in the trees. After a few days of scuba diving with inquisitive turtles, drinking from coconuts in palm-shaded villages and drifting off to sleep to the sound of the waves, it’s hard to tear myself away.

Further south, the rampart of dunes borders a hinterland of licuati sand forest, grasslands, wetlands and lakes, wedged between the ocean and the Maputo River.

A treasure trove of endemic plants and birds, much of this habitat is part of the Maputo Special Reserve, a wilderness that’s slowly coming back to life. Although many of its mammals were lost to poachers during Mozambique’s anti-colonial struggle and post-independence civil war, its elephants fared better, due in part to a wariness of humans coupled with aggressive territorial displays.

Tragically, the long years of conflict blocked the ancient wildlife migration routes between Matutuíne and Maputaland, separating the reserve’s elephants from their relatives in South Africa’s Tembe Elephant Park, but a cross-border initiative led by the Peace Parks Foundation hopes to reunite the herds. The Reserve and Tembe belong to the 3,860sq mile Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation and Resource Area, which, once its internal fences are removed, will be the only transfrontier park on the continent to allow free movement of both land and marine mammals. It’s excellent news for Africa’s Big Seven (elephants, rhinos, lions, leopards, buffaloes, dolphins and whales).

If well-managed eco-tourism takes off in Maputo Special Reserve, its future should be secure. Matutuíne’s

IMAGES: EMMA GREGG; ALAMY

Nearby, a 30ft statue of Mozambique’s first president, Samora Machel, adds the stamp of Soviet-inspired socialism to Praça da Independência, a public square and focal point of the city, while in the airy Mercado Municipal, the market aromas are spicy and timelessly African. Herminio stops at a fruit stall laden with plump mangoes and papayas, gives a vendor wearing a traditional, brightly printed capulana sarong a few meticais for a massala the size of an orange, and cracks it open. “Try some,” he says, indicating the seed’s pulp.

It’s a taste of pure nostalgia, tart as sherbet lemons and sweet as a banana chew.

I spend a day with local academic Walter Tembe and British expat Jane Flood dipping into the world of Maputo’s creative greats — the arms-to-art pacifist Gonçalo Mabunda, politically driven painter Malangatana, and breathtakingly prolific architect Pancho Guedes.

Jumping in and out of chopelas (tuk-tuk taxis), we explore the well-to-do Polana and Sommerschield districts, chatting to gallery owners and gazing at remarkable buildings, sculptures and murals from the street.

In the mid-20th century, the top layer of Lourenço Marques’ society was as glamour hungry as Monaco’s or London’s, and futuristic architecture was all the rage.

Today, thanks to the cold-storage effect of a slow, late route to independence and a 15-year civil war that ended in 1992, the city is peppered with idiosyncratic classics: concrete villas, a church shaped like a lemon squeezer and tower blocks embellished with bold modern art.

When I ask Walter where his love of architecture came from, he beams. “There was an abandoned Pancho Guedes building next to the place where I grew up,” he says. “I used to play there as a child. It fascinated me. It was a perfect combination of mathematics and art.”

From 1950-1974, Guedes made Lourenço Marques his laboratory, inventing an elegant response to the city’s climate: tropical modernism. His buildings were angled to catch the breeze and featured shutters and brise-soleil shades. Their designs also referenced African culture and made use of local materials in their construction. All of this marked Guedes out as way ahead of his time.

There’s much to admire, but no sign of any tourists.

“We don’t really get many,” says Walter. “The people who visit tend to be working, or seeing family or friends.”

With the West’s fascination with mid-century design growing apace, perhaps Maputo’s time has come.

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www.eqsl.com info@eqsl.com www.edward-limousines.com info@edward-limousines.com

MOZAMBIQUE

most ambitious beach resort, White Pearl, in Ponta Mamoli, is already on board. While I’m there, Lourenzo Mpanza and his colleague, Lauren Arnold, a young British naturalist, take me on a recce in their safari vehicle and I’m so enchanted by the reserve’s landscapes that we spend the whole day in the bush, scoping out ideas for future adventures.

Like its city namesake, the reserve oozes vintage cool.

Its vistas are huge, its tracks are sandy, and its elephants — which perhaps still remember the poachers — have attitude. When a matriarch blocks our route, Lourenzo’s forehead beads with sweat. “OK, I get the message. We’ll go another way,” he says. We don’t really have time for a diversion — but they do say elephants never forget.

For South African freediver Hanli Prinsloo, every encounter with Matutuíne’s wildlife is a delight. “I’ve seen more marine megafauna here than in any other place — manta rays, whale sharks, guitar sharks, the list goes on,” she says. “The dolphins are now like family. When I’m away, I miss their faces like I miss my nieces and nephew.”

Hanli runs yoga and freediving holidays near Ponta do Ouro and her conservation foundation, I Am Water,

helps local children take their first steps towards marine custodianship by teaching them to swim. “It’s heartbreaking that kids living within walking distance of the beach don’t get to see what lies beneath the waves,” she says. “We’re so quick to judge local communities for failing to take care of litter or catching the wrong species of fish, but if they feel no connection to the ocean, it’s not surprising. You protect what you love.”

Hanli is one of a band of enthusiasts doing their utmost for conservation in Matutuíne. Citizen scientist Angie Gullan, of Ponta do Ouro’s Dolphin Encountours Research Center, is another. A licensed ocean safari operator, she gathers data that’s shaping top-level policy.

She’s already discovered that in peak season, DecemberJanuary — when there are more boats and fishing lines in the water and noise pollution rockets — the dolphins’ stress levels rocket too. “Within the reserve, ecotourism — with strict limits on numbers — is part of the solution,” she says. She teaches tourists and locals how to act responsibly in a dolphin habitat, and is campaigning for the coast to be declared one of the world’s first Whale Heritage Sites.

IMAGE: SUPERSTOCK

Maputo’s Central Market

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On the penultimate day of my stay, Angie invites me to join her on a boat trip. We’ll set out at dawn the next day and be back in time for me to hurtle up to Maputo for my fl ight. One last chance to swim with dolphins before I leave? Without a moment’s hesitation, I say yes.

At 4am, my alarm jolts me awake. Packing the last of my things, gulping a coffee and shoving my bags into the back of the Land Rover, I set out into the velvety blackness. The dune forest track is dark as a tunnel and in Ponta do Ouro, nothing moves, save the sleepy blinking of coloured lights at deserted R&R bars.

By fi rst light, we’re all assembled — Angie, her assistants and six visitors from Germany and South Africa. Angie’s briefi ng is detailed and impassioned. “I like to think of dolphins as nonhuman persons,” she says. “They’re the people of the sea — self-aware, creative and cultural — and the most important thing I’ve learned from them is respect.”

Angie’s confidence and calm is infectious. As soon as we fi nd some dolphins (or, perhaps more accurately, they fi nd us), they make me feel totally at ease. And later, when, with salty hair and sandy toes, I start my journey home, there’s a tsunami of happiness in my soul.

MOZAMBIQUE

MOZAMBIQUE Maputo Maputo Bay

Bela Vista

M AT U T U Í N E

Getting there & around INDIAN OCEAN

MACHANGULO PENINSULA

PONTA DO OURO PARTIAL MARINE RESERVE

20 Miles

BELOW: Fishing boat, Matutuíne District, Maputo Province

ESSENTIALS There are no direct flights from the UK to Mozambique. The best-value daily option is from Heathrow to Maputo via Addis Ababa with Ethiopian Airlines (average flight time 15h 25m).

Alternatives include TAP Air Portugal via Lisbon (15h 45m) and South African Airways via Johannesburg (14h 45m). ethiopianairlines.com flytap.com flysaa.com Hotels and lodges in southern Mozambique offer transfers by road, boat, helicopter or light aircraft on request. Alternatively, arrange transfers or 4x4 hire via a ground handler such as Infinite Africa: infi niteafrica.com In Maputo, Maputo a Pé offers guided walks on a variety of themes. Taxis, tuk-tuks and shared minibuses are plentiful. maputo-a-pe.com

When to go April to October, when the weather is dry and calm and daytime temperatures hover around 20-25C. South African school holidays are the busiest times, especially the festive period and Easter.

Places mentioned Polana Serena Hotel. serenahotels.com Machangulo Beach Lodge. machangulobeachlodge.com White Pearl. whitepearlresorts.com Peace Parks Foundation. peaceparks.org Dolphin Encountours Research Center. dolphinencountours.org I Am Water. iamwaterfoundation.org

More info

How to do it TRIBES TRAVEL has seven nights in

southern Mozambique with two at the Polana Serena Hotel (B&B) and five at Machangulo Beach Lodge (all-inclusive) from £2,025 per person, based on two people sharing. Includes transfers and Ethiopian Airlines flights. tribes.co.uk AFRICA COLLECTION has 12 days in South Africa and Mozambique, including a three-night Big Five safari at Mala Mala Game Reserve (all-inclusive) a night at Fairlawns Boutique Hotel & Spa (B&B) and seven at White Pearl (all-inclusive) from £5,648, including Ethiopian Airlines flights. africacollection.com

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IMAGE: EMMA GREGG. ILLUSTRATION: JOHN PLUMER

Mozambique, by Philip Briggs.

RRP: £16.99. (Bradt Travel Guides)

Volcanic Trails

PHOTO: ULRIKA LARSSON

PHOTO: GRÉTA S. GUÐJÓNSDÓTTIR

PHOTO: GRÉTA S. GUÐJÓNSDÓTTIR

Explore a remote and diverse landscape as you hike the Volcanic Trails in the Icelandic highlands. Your professional and knowledgeable trekking guide will lead you through pure wilderness that features the dramatic contrasts of black sand deserts, geothermal hot springs, deep canyons, impressive waterfalls and moss covered lava fields. The perfect off the beaten path adventure in Iceland.

M O U N TA I N G U I D E S . I S • I N F O @ M O U N TA I N G U I D E S . I S • T E L : + 3 5 4 5 8 7 9 9 9 9

OUT Looking out to the Atlantic, Cornwall has always been defined by the elements and its mercurial, mystical landscapes, haunted by the ruins of old industries and the stomping grounds of our prehistoric ancestors WORDS

NIGEL RICHARDSON

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In summer, the artist Kurt Jackson paints in his bare feet. This is not merely a question of taking off his socks and shoes. He works en plein air, unrolling monumental canvases on moors or clifftops and walking across them, feeling them under his toes as he layers on the paint. “I want to capture and celebrate what I'm looking at and what I’m feeling and hearing and seeing and smelling,” he tells me when I meet him at his gallery in the town of St Just. The result is paintings that channel the very Cornishness of Cornwall — as if the viewer can reach into the paint layers to feel the heather and gorse, the texture of granite and the ocean swell.

Ten years after my last visit, I too am seeking to capture something of the essence of England’s westernmost county — to feel beneath my toes, as it were, its culture and beauty, and the paradox of its position on the edge of things. After arriving from ‘upcountry’ on the Night Riviera sleeper train (a pasta supper in Paddington, a breakfast croissant as we cross the Tamar), I pick up a hire car in Truro, set the satnav for The Lizard Peninsula and drive off into a glorious autumn morning. The Lizard is a geological oddity that juts out from Cornwall’s south coast into one of the busiest, most treacherous shipping lanes in the world.

Below my tyres, as I reach the peninsula’s lower half, are gabbro and serpentine rocks — layers of ocean crust and Earth’s mantle pushed upward in a tectonic convulsion, now underpinning a wild heathland of rare plants and prehistoric settlements. Just off the east

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coast lie the crocodile-like Manacles; rocks that have ripped the bottom from over a hundred ships and the life from more than a thousand mariners. And all round is some of the cleanest sea you’ll find this side of the Arctic.

Soon, I’m slithering towards it down a chute of a footpath enclosed by high banks of sloe, blackberry and gorse bushes. The path has a secretive air, as if the spirits of the smugglers and wreckers who once trod it haunt it still. My companion for the morning, Tim van Berkel, tells me that donkeys also used it to bring seaweed up for the fields.

Until the advent of artificial fertiliser, seaweed was widely used on coastal arable land. I’m about to discover how history has come full circle on this stretch of The Lizard, for seaweed is once more being harvested — this time as a superfood.

Dutchman Tim is the co-owner of The Cornish Seaweed Co, which farms a fivemile stretch of the intertidal zone, from where we are now, Lowland Point, past the fishing village of Coverack towards Lizard Point. The idea for the business came to van Berkel’s partner, Caro Warwick-Evans, when she heard an item on the radio programme Farming Today about the harvesting of seaweed in Ireland. “‘Hey, there’s lots of seaweed in Cornwall,’ we thought. ‘If the health benefits are so great and it’s so sustainable, why don't we give it a go?”’ she tells me.

At the bottom of the path, we clamber over an old granite stile onto the grassy foreshore of

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PREVIOUS PAGES FROM LEFT: Coverack Beach; St Just FROM LEFT: Kurt Jackson; harvesting seaweed, Coverack Beach

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Lowland Point. Out on the barely ruffled sea, a couple of container ships sit just below the horizon line. The tide is coming in, filling rock pools with tea-coloured water in which the seaweed sways. The harvesters have finished for the day — they’re laying out glistening piles to dry in polytunnels at nearby Roskillys (an organic farm where the Cornish Seaweed Co rents some land). But Tim is keen to give me a tour of the seaweed fields.

Skipping from boulder to boulder as the sea gurgles in beneath our boots we step over clusters of dark brown dulse (“a meat alternative, like bacon”), vivid green sea lettuce (“fried and mixed with dulse, it’s good on omelettes or fish pie”) and razor wrack (“not really edible but good for the skin. We make a bath bag out of it”). The tide advances fast, forcing us back to shore, where a circle of stones marks the site of a Romano-British salt works. This is another Cornish industry that’s been recently revived, for not far from

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where we’re standing the Cornish Sea Salt Co harvests pure Atlantic salt and sells it to discerning kitchens across Britain, as well exporting to over 35 countries worldwide.

Throughout history, Cornwall has made connections across the seas — ancient Phoenicians were said to have come here for the tin, although there’s no archaeological evidence. As my exploration of The Lizard continues, I find myself standing on cliffs at Poldhu, on the west side of the peninsula, holding onto my cap in a buffeting breeze.

All around me, cows fertilise the tufty pastureland — known as morrops, in Cornish — with khaki pats. All around me are the ruins of granite foundation stones; at the cliff edge stands a granite obelisk. “You’re standing on one of the great sites of world history…” declares the plaque at its base.

This is all that’s left of Guglielmo Marconi’s Wireless Station, which, on 12 December 1901, transmitted the first radio

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FROM LEFT: The Allotment Deli, St Ives; cobbled streets, St Ives

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signal across the Atlantic to Newfoundland: a repetition of the letter ‘s’ in Morse Code.

The station was dismantled in the ’30s but there’s a small museum nearby, The Marconi Centre, dedicated to the great man and his telecommunication experiments.

Cornwall has specialised in sending information long-distance since 1588, when lookouts lit a chain of beacons to alert the rest of England to the approach of the Spanish Armada. The museum’s guide, Robin Ridge, is a former engineer at the vast Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station on The Lizard. He tells me that by the 1870s, Cornwall was in touch with the rest of the world via a telegraph cable on the ocean bed, and that breaking news was greeted as excitedly then as it is today, if not as quickly. “Expats in India knew the result of the Boat Race within 20 minutes,” he says.

The telegraphy cable came ashore at Porthcurno, around three miles from Land’s End on the south coast. Porthcurno bills

itself as ‘the most connected valley on the planet’. The former telegraph station there is now the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum, but Porthcurno remains plugged into the world as the landing point on the eastern side of the Atlantic of FLAG (Fibre-optic Link Around the Globe), a mostly undersea telecommunications cable that carries much of the world’s telephone and internet traffic between North America, Europe and Asia.

Unsurprisingly, GCHQ operates a monitoring station a little way inland from Porthcurno, at Skewjack, and there’s a poetic logic in the fact John Le Carré, creator of that consummate eavesdropper, George Smiley, lives nearby.

Moor than meets the eye

Besides the telegraphy, Porthcurno has one of Cornwall’s best beaches, a wedge of fine sand hemmed by cliffs and sloping to a sea that turns Caribbean-green at the first hint of sun. And above it, slotted into those cliffs

like some ruined amphitheatre in Sicily, is the open-air Minack Theatre. My destination that evening for a performance of William Wycherley’s Restoration comedy The Country Wife. As we take our seats, the sky above is wearing its comedy and tragedy masks at the same time — billows of innocuous cumulus lit by the setting sun and, out to sea, purple clouds threatening rain. “What a crowd of cuckolds and cuckold makers we have here,” exclaims the periwigged Pinchwife as the rain begins to fall and the audience rustles into plastic ponchos. But the rain abates and by the time we clamber back to the car park after a rollicking evening of shenanigans and double entendres, the moon is trailing a glittering causeway across the sea.

The following morning I’m up on the moors of West Penwith. Around me is Chysauster Ancient Village, a RomanoBritish settlement of 10 stone-walled houses, now shrunk to shoulder height and

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CORNWALL

Tin mines, Penwith coast

covered in heather and bracken. In the 19th century, Methodist preachers held open-air sermons up here, their fiery rhetoric echoing across a landscape of heather and rock, of megalithic tombs and standing stones, and underground chambers known as fogous.

Towards Land’s End, a rescue helicopter hovers and two structures break the horizon: to the south west, the church tower at St Buryan, the village inland from Porthcurno, where Sam Peckinpah shot Straw Dogs; and due west, the engine house of the Ding Dong Mine which ceased operations in the late-19th century, its chimney rising like an offensive middle finger.

Of mines and men

D H Lawrence, who lived hereabouts (in the village of Zennor) during the First World War, detected in the landscape “that flicker of Celtic consciousness before it was swamped under Norman and Teutonic waves”. The artist Kurt Jackson, who lives in of West Penwith and has immortalised it in countless paintings, doesn’t buy into such mystical interpretations. But, he reckons, walking here is “a glorious way of getting to know

and understand the Cornish landscape and therefore the culture, the history, everything”.

I’m drawn by that Ding Dong engine house, so, having parked in a lay-by on the edge of Bosullow Common, I head there on foot.

The footpath that crosses the lay-by is The Tinner’s Way, a waymarked path from St Ives, in the east, to Priest Cove, beyond St Just. I follow the path as it winds up between pincushion banks of heather and gorse, past the Nine Maidens stone circle, to Mên-an-Tol, a Neolithic formation of two granite standing stones either side of a ring-stone — viewed from the side the stones look like the acronym for ‘laugh out loud’. On top of the ring-stone — said to be imbued with various magical and magical powers — people have left seashells and sprigs of heather, possibly petitioning to get pregnant. I continue past the ‘Four Parish Stone’ that marks the meeting point of the parishes of Zennor, Gulval, Madron and Morvah — Cornish names that sound like Old Testament prophets — gulp in the sudden view of Mount’s Bay (with St Michael’s Mount rising, Avalon-like, from it) that opens up to the south east, and reach the sombre precincts of the Ding Dong engine house.

These granite structures, which once housed the steam engines that pumped water from the mines, have been called by some ‘moorland cathedrals’ for the way they embellish the Cornish landscape. Close up, however, Ding Dong has a sullen air; a burnt-out car sits in a gully of rainwater; the fathomless mouth of the mineshaft is covered with rusted iron railings crudely anchored by boulders. And this feels right, for there’s really nothing romantic or spiritual about this place.

As Kurt Jackson says, quoting Cornish artist Peter Lanyon, “The engine houses should be seen as memorials to the suffering of the miners.” Indeed, working conditions and life expectancy in the mining industry were dreadful. One of the worst of Cornwall’s mining disasters occurred at Levant Mine, on the coast, just over four miles west of Ding Dong. On 20 October 1919, a link broke on Levant’s ‘man engine’ — the system of platforms that lowered and raised men between the surface and the working shafts — plunging 31 miners to their deaths.

“Their descendants still live round here, the tragedy is still felt keenly,” says Richard, a

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RIGHT: Tate St Ives

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ESSENTIALS Getting there & around Cornwall can be accessed by rail and road from across the UK. FlyBe flies four times daily to Newquay from Gatwick and Stansted, twice daily from Manchester to Newquay and once daily from Birmingham and Edinburgh. flybe.com Car hire is available in several locations. hertz.co.uk

Where to stay West by Five. westbyfive.com Hotel Tresanton. tresanton.com

Minack Theatre. minack.com Trewyn Studio and Tate St Ives. tate. org.uk/visit/tate-st-ives

Further information visitcornwall.com

How to do it Great Western Railway’s Night Riviera Sleeper departs London Paddington station at 11.45pm, arriving in Truro at 7.06am and Penzance at 7.53am. From £66 per person, off peak. gwr.com

Places mentioned Roskillys. roskillys.co.uk Kurt Jackson Foundation. jacksonfoundationgallery.com The Marconi Centre. marconi-centre-poldhu.org.uk Porthcurno Telegraph Museum. telegraphmuseum.org Chysauster Ancient Village. englishheritage.org.uk/visit/places/ chysauster-ancient-village Levant Mine. nationaltrust.org.uk/ levant-mine-and-beam-engine

AT L A N T I C Truro

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St Ives

DING DONG MINES MÊN AN TOL

WEST PENWITH

C O R N WA L L

Chysauster

Penzance

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Porthcurno

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LOWLAND POINT

Poldhu LIZARD POINT

ENGLISH CHANNEL 5 Miles

ILLUSTRATION: JOHN PLUMER

volunteer guide at the museum on the site where the mine once stood. Richard leads the way down the tunnel, from the miners’ ‘dry’ (changing room) past the ‘clay drop’ — a chute where miners scooped up clay to affix candles to their felt hats — to the shaft of the man engine. Here, poised above the place where the men fell, he talks of the miners’ superstitions, how they believed the spirits of those who died underground stayed down there in the deep, dark places and needed to be placated, usually with scraps of food. The story of the miner rash enough to defy these spirits is told in the folk song The Ballad of Tommy Trevorrow; the first verse of which Richard duly recites: “Tom Trevorrow! Tom Trevorrow!

Leave some of thy fuggan for bucca Or bad luck to thee to-morrow!”

When I emerge, a red-billed chough — Cornwall’s emblematic bird — is tumbling and soaring above the cliffs. Out on the ocean, within the reef that lies a mile offshore, basking sharks and dolphins regularly breach the waves. It’s a wildly beautiful spot.

My Cornish exploration concludes in St Ives, a former pilchard port that reinvented itself in the postwar years as a hub of artistic innovation. At its forefront was the sculptor Barbara Hepworth. In St Ives, the place where she lived and worked, Trewyn Studio, has become a museum affiliated to Tate St Ives.

Filled with flowers, fragrance and shapes, the garden of Trewyn is as perfect as the trademark holes in Hepworth’s sculptures.

It’s here I meet Tate St Ives’ executive director, Mark Osterfield. We admire Hepworth’s cluster of perpendicular pieces, Conversation with Magic Stones, and discuss her love of what she called “the remarkable pagan landscape” of West Penwith. “If you think of Nine Maidens, Mên-an-Tol, etcetera, you can see it, can’t you,” he says.

As we leave Trewyn, I ask Mark about the large, whitewashed, apparently redundant building, resembling a giant doorstop as it follows the gradient of the hill. “The old Palais de Danse,” he says; then elaborates. Not only was it once the jitterbug capital of west Cornwall but — when the feet stopped tapping — Hepworth used it as a studio for pieces too big for Trewyn, notably the 21ft-high bronze Single Form, which has stood outside the UN Headquarters in New York since 1964. “You can still see the outline of the sculpture on the floor,” says Mark. The Tate plans to open the Palais to the public some day. Meanwhile, I contemplate the idea that, on this salty old back street, with the beady-eyed herring gulls crying overhead, Hepworth did what Cornwall does best. She forged something unique and sent it out across the seas.

On a quiet bend of the tranquil Helford River . . .

In an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on the south Cornwall coast nestles the Budock Vean Hotel. This peaceful retreat is set in 65 acres of gardens, woodland and private river frontage and is just minutes from the coastal footpath, pretty coves, beaches and waterside pubs. 6 miles from Falmouth.

Traditional cottages and luxury 5* Gold Award properties available to hire + limited opportunity to purchase your own holiday home on site.

• Restaurant • Natural Health Spa • Golf Course • Tennis Courts • Boat Trips • Kayak Adventures • Yoga • Sea Angling • Coastal Walks • Dog Friendly

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Budock Vean Hotel, Nr Helford Passage, Mawnan Smith, Falmouth, Cornwall, TR11 5LG Reservations: 01326 252100 Email: relax@budockvean.co.uk www.budockvean.co.uk

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OUTBACK

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The drive to Uluru is a long one from almost anywhere in Australia. Not that visitors are deterred — the site formerly known as Ayers Rock draws big crowds from dawn till dusk, while the family of domes at Kata Tjuta waits peacefully just 20 miles to the west. From a distance these giants seem modest, belying their towering height that’s long inspired ancient tales WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHS EWEN BELL

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A SEA OF SAND AND SCRUB Rising sharply above the calm desert scenes, Uluru and Kata Tjuta have a deeply spiritual presence in this stark landscape. All around the rocky giants is a patchy carpet of hardy grasses and flowering shrubs — a scene that’s revealed only from the air, where the sea of red sand seems scattered with shrub, like a continental-scale dot painting. On terra firma, the graceful curves of sand dunes and pockets of flora are home to a remarkable diversity of marsupials and birdlife.

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AUSTRALIA

ON THE LOOKOUT There are many reasons why photographers come to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park — some make the journey to try and capture the intense desert colours that shift and move as the sun’s rays pass over Uluru; others are drawn by the region’s varied flora and fauna. Discovering this vast desert is certainly a challenge, however, and one that demands careful forward planning — it takes about four and a half hours to drive to Uluru from Alice Springs.

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AUSTRALIA

H E AV E N A N D E A R T H The Outback serves up treasures on the largest and smallest scales. The clouds are the only thing that seem bigger than Uluru, their texture and detail filling the vast sky. Though the heavens are full of colour and contrast, on the ground the tiny flowers can often be restrained — respectful, almost — in their tones. A muted palette of sage, white and beige is delicately sprinkled across the landscape, not daring, it seems, to compete with the searing hues of the sand, sky and rock.

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S H O O T F O R T H E S TA R S Long after the sun has dropped beneath the horizon, the stars come out to paint the night sky. The wisps of the Milky Way mingle with the stories of the Anangu people, whose tales have been told and retold in the shadow of Uluru for tens of thousands of years. Nowadays, most photographers arrive well before dawn and endure the day’s scorching temperatures until nightfall, trying to capture their own stories — however modest they may be compared to all those that have been told here before. airadventure.com.au

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City life

PARIS There’s a reason the term ‘artisan’ carries such respect in Paris — stepping into the ateliers of the capital’s clique of traditional craftspeople reveals the City Of Lights at its most brilliant WORDS: Ben Lerwill PHOTOGRAPHS: Nick Warner

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he air smells of pastries, tobacco smoke and Metro tunnels. It’s a spring afternoon in the French capital, and the cliches have been let out to play. There’s sunshine on the cobbles, burnishing the shop awnings and the chestnut trees. The boulevards are full of scarf-wearing couples and wedge-heeled dog-walkers. It’s cold enough to sting the cheeks, which in Paris terms makes it the sort of day that begs to be spent strolling from cafe to cafe. Unless, of course, you’ve got a job to do.

Tucked away inside his workshop in the 12th arrondissement, Michel Heurtault looks around the room — an ordered jumble of silks, sewing machines and bare-ribbed umbrellas — and smiles. “I work to the same rhythm as a man from the 19th century,” he says. “You know, in the year 1860, France exported around six million umbrellas to the rest of the world. Just imagine that.”

Michel is a maître d’art, a kind of official guardian of French craftsmanship, and for the past decade has handmade between 200 and 300 parasols and umbrellas a year.

These aren’t your average brollies. He holds out a recently waterproofed example for my inspection. The turned handle is carved from ebony, the end is a length of polished bullhorn and the canvas itself is cut from patterned, jet-black Asian silk. “An umbrella like this lasts a lifetime,” he says. “And when you pass away — it goes to your children.”

His devotion to his trade is nothing unusual. Not in France, and certainly not here in Paris. Michel’s workshop, Parasolerie Heurtault, occupies an arch of the Viaduc des Arts, an old railway viaduct close to the Gare de Lyon. Every arch, and there are dozens of them, holds a similar enterprise. Walk in one direction and you pass the premises of a furniture-maker, a chocolatier, and a luthier whose windows are full of lushly varnished cellos. Walk in the other and you pass a master bootmaker, a mosaic atelier and — improbably — a specialist in bronze door knockers.

It’s a great pocket of the city in which to while away a few pre-dinner hours. The upper level of the viaduct has been turned into a promenade plantée, a long open-air walkway lined with trees and plant beds — predating New York’s similar High Line by nearly 20 years. When you wander along its length, you know that under your feet are workshops keeping the old ways alive. “Yes, you pay more for things that have been made by hand,” says Michel. “But you get true quality.”

How is it that the city has constructed such an unshakable reputation for artisanship — for making things so well? Think Paris, think tailors, perfume houses, restaurants, and galleries lined with masterpieces; not to mention daintily flavoured macarons baked to precisely the perfection that makes you want to simultaneously wolf one down and

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treasure it. Other European capitals have style and heritage, but none has quite the same cachet and panache as Paris. Why? It’s a question of legacy, according to city expert Courtney Traub, who runs the online travel guide ParisUnlocked.com. “We need to look back to the medieval city as a powerful European centre for craftsmen’s guilds,” she tells me. “They put into place traditions and regulations, which is why the term ‘artisan’ carries such respect in France. This is true whether you’re a fabric-maker, baker, chef or cheesemonger.”

In other words, quality still matters.

“There are governing bodies that give their approval to differentiate between ‘authentic’ and ‘inauthentic’ products. These labels are taken very seriously,” she continues.

“More generally, there’s an emphasis on both respect for tradition and innovation that seems a bit contradictory but tends to inspire creativity. Great chefs or couturiers manage to innovate while still showing great respect for traditions and standards. Paris is a globalised city, but it also fiercely resists the homogeny of global culture. You see fewer chains here than you do in London, and there’s good reason for that.”

C’est chic // Paris is a globalised city, but it also fiercely resists the homogeny of global culture. You see fewer chains here than you do in London, and there’s good reason for that

PROUDLY PRETENTIOUS

In the depths of a hotel, 10 voices chorus two words. “Oui, chef!”

I’m standing in the forensically clean kitchen of a two Michelin-starred restaurant.

It’s 8pm, and four orders have just reached the pass. Within seconds, the whole space is alive with the sizzle of duck breasts, the stirring of sauces and the tack-tack of rapid knife-chops. There’s soft conversation, even laughter, but it’s of the focused, eyes-down, this-soufflé-will-change-the-world kind.

This is L’Abeille, the leading restaurant at the Shangri-La Hotel Paris, a property that occupies the former palace of Napoleon’s grand-nephew. It’s fair to say they do things properly here.

“Cooking is personal. Above all, it’s about sensitivity,” explains executive chef Christophe Moret, raising his finger to emphasise the point. He is shaven-headed and jovial, a former rugby flanker. “A chef has to put their soul into their cooking. If a customer doesn’t like a dish — aargh!” He mimes thrusting a dagger into his own heart.

I get the impression negative feedback isn’t received too often. “Our strength here is the sauce. For French cooks, the sauce is the first thing you have to learn. Because,” he smiles, “we are a little bit pretentious.”

I get pretentious myself when I sit down to taste the food. It’s the main course that gets me. Lobster, vanilla, chestnuts and pumpkin sounds an unlikely combination, but the kitchen weighs the flavours until they’re tousled and sauced into something woozily transcendent. They arrange the food like

PREVIOUS PAGE: Place settings before evening service at the Shangri-La Paris’s two-Michelin star restaurant, L’Abeille CLOCKWISE: Michel Heurtault at work; Michel’s parasols; a dish at L’Abeille restaurant

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Work of art // “Our strength here is the sauce. For French cooks, the sauce is the first thing you have to learn...�

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Know thyself // Being positive isn’t really in the Parisian character. We’re never happy – we’re always moaning. But when we create something, we create it from our hearts

PREVIOUS PAGE: Roasted pigeon at L’Abeille CLOCKWISE: Chocolatier at Patrick Roger’s Saint-Germain boutique; Cafe La Favourite; tailor João Paulo Rodriguez at Cifonelli; fabric samples in storage at Cifonelli’s

an artwork. They serve it in a belle époque dining room. They pair it with a chilled glass of 2014 Hermitage Chevalier de Sterimberg.

I’m slayed, frankly — and that’s before the desserts redefine my notions of what desserts should be. What kind of brilliant mind thinks to partner roasted pears with beer ice cream and bergamot?

Christophe has been cooking in Paris for 23 years, many of which were spent working with the legendary Alain Ducasse. So what has he learned from more than two decades in the capital’s best kitchens? “Three things,” he says. “Firstly, rapidity — you have to be quick and consistent on every service.

That’s not easy. Secondly, anticipation of what customers want. And thirdly, a sense of competition. You could give 10 grand chefs the same ingredients, and you’d get 10 different dishes. Competition is healthy.”

In his workshop on the southern outskirts of the city, chocolatier Patrick Roger is surrounded by dozens of life-sized emperor penguins and chimpanzees, all sculpted from chocolate. They are, however, a mere backdrop to his current project — an edible statue of a Thriller-era Michael Jackson. This one isn’t life-sized. That would be ridiculous.

It’s bigger than that.

Patrick is Willy Wonka meets Auguste Rodin meets Heston Blumenthal. His workshop smells exactly how you’d hope: sweet, goodly and all-pervasive. His team of 20 are dressed in black, busy creating hundreds of glazed hemispherical caramels.

Patrick is in cocoa-dusted whites and constantly moving, consulting his iPad one minute, sampling a praline the next, stipulating to the team the exact thickness of a chocolate egg the next.

“When I was 18, I discovered good chocolate, proper chocolate. It was a revolution,” he tells me animatedly. His childhood was spent in a small village in northern France. Three decades later, he has six dedicated chocolate boutiques in Paris. “I understood that it could give me a passport to the world. Of course, I had no business plan.

I had to let everything happen naturally. But my mum tells me I’ve always been that way.”

He sources premium ingredients from overseas for use in his creations: oranges from Corsica, whisky from Scotland, marrons glacés from Turin. “Taste has no borders, so it’s important to look for the best ingredients in the world.” And why Paris as a base?

“People have high expectations. It’s an extraordinary city. Everything happens here.

But listen — the city’s not just about luxury.

To want to eat well is normal. That’s just how it goes here.”

Later in the day I visit his boutique in the St-Germain-des-Prés district. There’s a long queue winding around the store, and the chocolate aroma drifts to the pavement outside. This is another Paris neighbourhood

that’s not only primed for walking — thanks to the sweepingly landscaped Jardin du Luxembourg — but packed with upscale artisan outlets.

In the narrow streets around Rue Saint-Sulpice, they come thick and fast. Cire Trudon, the world’s oldest active candlemaker; Sabbia Rosa, where supermodels reputedly stock up on underwear; Boulangerie Poilâne, baking since 1932 and proving Patrick’s theory that Paris is about far more than indulging in luxury items. Here, a modest £1.70 buys me an oven-warm chausson aux pommes (apple turnover) fit for Napoleon himself.

CITY OF PLEASURES

Back to those smells. Paris has many scents.

Some are pleasing, some are less so; all are evocative. Ever since the lavishly fragrant days of Louis XIV, who insisted on bowls of rose petals being placed around the Palace of Versailles and reputedly had his shirts rinsed in a jasmine, orange flower and musk solution, the city has had a close relationship with perfume.

More than two centuries later, I’m in a fashionably lit room on Avenue George V being told things about myself that I never suspected. “You are a vast, powerful ocean,” says Carole Aymé, store director at The Harmonist, a new perfume house. She has just calculated my perfect scent, using a feng shui-inspired theory that involves my birthday, my own smell preferences and my place of birth. Who would have thought Reading held such potency? “You are sometimes calm,” she continues, “and sometimes stormy.”

The perfume she suggests is a bouquet she calls Golden Wood, which uses ingredients that include tonka beans, oak, mandarins and Southeast Asian beeswax. The end result is heady enough to give pause to the aftershave-shunning doubter in me — but then Carole knows her stuff, having spent 18 years working for Guerlain, one of the biggest and oldest names in the trade. When she raises something to her nose, she closes her eyes, tilts her head and concentrates in the way a composer might focus on different elements of an orchestra.

“People’s sense of smell is always better in the morning,” she says. “After a big meal, digestion lessens your perception.” I ask her why Paris makes such a natural home for the world’s biggest perfume houses, and she smiles. “Being positive isn’t really in the Parisian character. We’re never happy — we’re always moaning. But when we create something, we create it from our hearts.”

Five minutes’ walk away, I visit an artisan of a different sort. Cifonelli is a family business that’s been tailoring bespoke suits from its Rue Marbeuf atelier since 1936. The current caretakers of this heritage are Massimo and

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ESSENTIALS

Gare St-Lazare

Gare de l’Est

PA R I S

The Harmonist Cifonelli Shangri-La

Sein

Gare du Nord

e

Rue St-Sulpice

Patrick Roger

Viaduc des Arts Gare de Lyon

Gare Montparnasse

1 mile

Gare d’Austerlitz

e in e

not concerned with brands. But it’s not easy work. I never deliver a suit unless I’m 100% happy. When a client puts a jacket on for the first time, I have to see a smile.”

I’d been hoping, while in Paris, to meet Serge Lutens — the 76-year-old fashion designer, photographer and perfumier who singlehandedly sums up much of what makes the city what it is. He’s out of town, but he does send an email a few days after I leave. His thoughts on perfume are impassioned (“it contains anger, love, tenderness — it’s a treasure hunt, a labyrinth”) and he provides a neat final word on Paris itself, too.

“The distance isn’t so great from gaining a reputation to achieving legendary status,” he writes, “and Paris is unquestionably une ville de plaisirs — a city of pleasures.”

S

Lorenzo Cifonelli, the great-grandsons of the founder. I find them leaning intently over a worktop with scissors, fabrics and rulers.

Lorenzo leads me through to a plush carpeted room hung with stylised lampshades and lined with shelves of fabrics.

He’s impossibly dapper, wearing a velvet jacket and stroking a long, sculpted beard.

“Every suit requires three fittings,” he tells me. He’s softly spoken and bright-eyed. “It takes 80 hours to make by hand. We have the biggest bespoke suit workshop in the world here, with 45 people. A suit costs €6,500, but that’s a reflection of the work.”

He spends a huge amount of time on the road, visiting clients. “Mainly in London, New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong,” he explains. “They’re people who care about look, quality and craftsmanship — they’re

Getting there & around Eurostar has services between London St Pancras and Paris Gare du Nord roughly hourly, seven days a week. The fastest journey time is two hours 15 minutes. eurostar.com There are direct flights to Paris from more than 15 UK airports.

Airlines that serve these routes include British Airways, Flybe, and Vueling. ba.com flybe.com vueling.com Paris has a cheap and comprehensive Metro system. A single journey costs €1.90 (£1.70).

There are also 64 bus lines and four tramway lines. Taxis are widespread. parisinfo.com

When to go The temperatures, weather patterns and seasons broadly mirror those in the UK. It’s popular year-round, but avoid the heavy crowds and hotel prices of peak summer.

Places mentioned Parasolerie Heurtault. parasolerieheurtault.com L’Abeille. shangri-la.com/paris Patrick Roger. patickroger.com Cire Trudon. trudon.com Sabbia Rosa. T: 00 33 1 4548 8837 Boulangerie Poilane. poilane.com The Harmonist. theharmonist.com Cifonelli. cifonelli.com Grand Amour Hôtel. hotelamourparis.fr/en

More info parisunlocked.com enparis.info.com

Lorenzo Cifonelli

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MAP ILLUSTRATION: JOHN PLUMER

How to do it ABERCROMBIE & KENT offers a three-night stay at the five-star Shangri-La Hotel Paris, a former palace with three restaurants and an excellent cocktail bar, from £2,705 per person. The price includes breakfast, a private half-day walking tour, Paris Museum pass, Metro carnet, return flights, private luxury transfers and an A&K concierge. abercrombiekent.co.uk

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City life

DALLAS

Banish notions of Stetsons and Lone Star patriotism — Dallas may be synonymous with Texan tradition but it’s one of the state’s most youthful, energetic cities, where old money is making way for a new crop of innovators WORDS: Stephanie Cavagnaro PHOTOGRAPHS: James Breeden

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‘T

oo normal for Austin, too cool for Houston’ reads a T-shirt in Bullzerk boutique. ‘Keep Dallas boring’, another suggests, while a third pleads to ‘Keep Dallas better than Austin’.

Looking around, it seems Dallas is struggling with an identity crisis, measuring itself against its confident cousins to the south.

I’ve always thought of Dallas as composed of equal measures of pioneer spirit and Southern hospitality, with a few dashes of haughty nouveau riche thrown in.

Yet it’s always hidden its light under the bushel of Texan identity. Above Bullzerk’s racks of T-shirts hangs a sign: ‘Proudly made in Texas’. “We do all the production here,” says Dan Bradley, Bullzerk’s founder. “All hand-printed; it’s crazy, nobody does this anymore.”

But there are signs this city is forging its own distinct identity as a city.

Outside, buzzy bars spill onto the pavement and a queue snakes slowly towards gourmet popsicle outfit Steel City Pops. “Greenville used to be like the hood, and now it’s one of the most popular areas, with restaurants and bars,” says Dan. “There are only a couple areas where it’s like this — true city living, you know: character, uniqueness. This area is one of them. Deep Ellum is another.”

Hopping in an Uber — no metros mean ridesharing is Dallas’s transportation du jour — I head there next. I slip into Off the Record, an industrial-chic bar with local beer and vinyl for sale. “Over the past two to three years, this area has undergone a resurgence,” Norell, the bartender says. “At first it was super grungy. East Dallas is like

Austin — very blue, very liberal, very chilled.

You go to Fort Worth, the cops still wear cowboy hats — it’s more country; Dallas is very metropolitan.” This rapid transformation from down and out to des res is especially evident over in West Dallas, at Trinity Groves, a mini-mall of foodie startups. Chino Chinatown, for example, blends Latin and Asian dishes; while Kate Weiser Chocolate sells hand-painted bonbons; and LUCK serves craft beer brewed within a 75-mile radius.

I down my Silly Gose sour, a citrusy, German-style wheat beer — currently a LUCK staple — and order an Uber to take me to West Dallas. My driver, Dalph, tells me it’s changed. “I remember this area used to be crud,” he laughs. “Now everyone is returning — it’s for the better. The old money has died off, and the new generation is here.”

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PREVIOUS PAGES: Truck Yard beer garden

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Braindead Brewing; Dallas Museum of Art; Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, Downtown

SEE & DO DALLAS ARBORETUM AND BOTANICAL

GARDEN: Packed with beautiful blooms, this is where Dallasites find Zen. It’s a 66-acre technicolour wonderland with hummingbirds dipping their beaks into bright red fairy dusters, pink azaleas swaying drunkenly, and coleuses fringing the scenic White Rock Lake. dallasarboretum.org SIXTH FLOOR MUSEUM: Dallas remains synonymous with the JFK assassination — and this museum poignantly sits at the spot where Lee Harvey Oswald fired his fatal shots at the motorcade in 1963. It provides a thorough overview of the life, career, death and legacy of the ill-fated president. jfk.org GEO-DECK: The city’s most recognisable landmark, Reunion Tower, resembles a giant disco ball — and you can join the party at its observation deck. This isn’t for those prone to vertigo — the panoramic view is from 470ft. Interactive touchscreens and telescopes are also on hand to help you get familiar with the Big D. reuniontower.com NASHER SCULPTURE CENTER: Perhaps one of the most serene settings for art aficionados — over 300 masterpieces by the likes of Rodin, Noguchi and Picasso are peppered throughout a light-filled indoor gallery and leafy garden. Grab a salmon salad and glass of white in the minimalist cafe, which spills outside in summer. nashersculpturecenter.org M-LINE TROLLEY: These vintage streetcars — the oldest dates back to 1909 — rattle past uptown’s galleries, bars and restaurants. Hop on one — for free — and you’ll feel like you’re riding a twee time machine. mata.org PIONEER PLAZA: Calling all cowboys!

Imagine driving Texas longhorn steers at this sculpture park, which commemorates 19th-century cattle drives. Created by Robert Summers, 49 six-foot bronze statues ‘gallop’ across this peaceful public space.

DALLAS MUSEUM OF ART: It doesn’t get much more comprehensive than this — over 24,000 works spanning 5,000 years. Time travel from ancient Egypt, with amulets dating back to 332 BC, to 20th-century America, and Pollock’s iconic drip paintings. A full calendar of events includes midnight openings on the third Friday of every month. dma.org GEORGE W BUSH PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND

MUSEUM: This 23-acre library and museum is well worth a visit, whatever your political views. Artefacts and documents relating to the 43rd president (who grew up in Texas, and served as its Governor) are on view, along with a replica of the Oval Office. georgewbushlibrary.smu.edu

At the Dallas Museum of Art, time travel from ancient Egypt, with amulets dating back to 332 BC, to 20th-century America, and Pollock’s iconic drip painting

AFTER HOURS

TRUCK YARD: A beer garden with

a rotating rota of food trucks paper plating American classics including the cheesesteak. There are plenty of novel places to take a seat, including a treehouse and the cargo beds of vintage Chevy pickups. texastruckyard.com CIDERCADE: A nerd’s dream house packed with over 150 classic arcade games, including Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Donkey Kong, plus a whole wall lined with pinball machines — all free to play when you buy a pint of the hard stuff from Bishop Cider Co, which has around two dozen ciders and meads on tap. cidercade.com BRAINDEAD BREWING: A sprawling brewpub that has a lively outdoor patio with trees strung with fairy lights. There are around 30 beers on tap, from a Chardonnay barrelaged saison to a blood orange hibiscus radler and a coffee scotch ale. The food offering, meanwhile, is as sizeable as the brewery. Go for the Coma Burger, containing a mound of brisket and bacon topped with stout mustard, sweet onion jam and smoked cheddar. braindeadbrewing.com

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LIKE A LOCAL

KLYDE WARREN PARK: It may be built

over the six-lane freeway that connects Uptown and Downtown, but this five-acre green space is much more serene than it sounds. It’s served by a fleet of food trucks, kids play in water fountains, and runners whizz across jogging trails. There are also free events including yoga, book signings and outdoor concerts. klydewarrenpark.org CATCH A GAME: When you’re in the Big D, root, root, root for the home team, as the old baseball song goes. That team is the Texas Rangers, which hits balls out of the park in nearby Arlington. The city is also home to the Dallas Cowboys, a football team with a rabid fan base. Hut, hut, hike! dallascowboys.com mlb.com BARBECUE: Texas’s unofficial national dish (Tex-Mex is a close second). Head to Lockhart Smokehouse for a pile of oaksmoked beef brisket with a side of blue cheese slaw. More top-notch barbecue can be gobbled up at Smoke, where brunch means dishes like brisket cornbread hash; or Pecan Lodge, whose ultimate carnivore sharing option is termed The Trough. lockhartsmokehouse.com pecanlodge.com smokerestaurant.com

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Z SLEEP

ZZ

NYLO DALLAS SOUTH SIDE: This is one very hip home away from home. Inside the red-brick building, urban vibes extend to polished concrete floors, industrial fittings and expansive loft rooms with leafy green plants. Next to the rooftop pool is the SODA Bar, where you can neck Negronis while taking in the stunning Dallas skyline. nylohotels.com/dallas THE ADOLPHUS HOTEL: The grande dame of Dallas hotels, this extravagant Parisian beaux-arts building has been welcoming the well-to-do for over a century. It’s red-brick and granite facade topped by Greek gods and gargoyles is an immutable Dallas landmark, but a 2016 renovation has spruced up the interior — think dark woods and deep blues, gilded chandeliers, copper-topped bars and a wedding-cake-white bistro. adolphus.com HOTEL ZAZA: Splurge on a ‘concept suite’, each decked out in a different, but equally bonkers, theme. The Houston We Have a Problem, for instance, contains a fullsized spacesuit, moon-landing photos, space rocket lava lamps, and a bubble chair. The leafy, marble-clad poolside, meanwhile, is where A-listers kick back; it’s a showstopper. hotelzaza.com

FROM LEFT: Klyde Warren Park, Downtown; The Wild Detectives bookstore and cafe, Bishop Arts District, Oak Cliff

DALLAS

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chocolatier Katherine Clapner crafts creations like Crack in a Box (cocoa nibs, hazelnut, almond, macadamia), Chocolate ‘Salami’, and Break Up Potion — made with agave nectar, bourbon and dark chocolate — ideal smothered on a tub of ice cream. dudesweetchocolate.com THE WILD DETECTIVES: Vonnegut, Salinger, Mailer, Orwell… there’s a fantastic selection of curated tomes in this cosy independent bookshop — plus a wood-top bar from which to sup local brews. Frequent readings and film screenings also pull in the punters, but booze and books is the store’s winning combo. thewilddetectives.com ROCKET FIZZ DEEP ELLUM: Dying to know what dirt tastes like? Well, now you can indulge your peculiar palate at this quirky candy and soda shop. Pop flavours include dirt, butter, bacon and even barf, which has ‘great chunky flavor’. rocketfizz.com

ESSENTIALS Getting there & around American Airlines flies three times daily from Heathrow to Dallas/Fort Worth. British Airways offers frequent nonstop flights to Dallas. WOW Air has new flights to DFW from Stansted and Gatwick, via Reykjavik. aa.co.uk ba.com wow.co.uk Average flight time: 10h.

The Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) offers affordable bus and rail options, but ridesharing (Uber, Lyft) tends to be a more popular option for visitors who don’t rent a car. dart.org

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EAT

DALLAS FARMERS MARKET: An artisanal grub hub, where you can buy local products or eat at stalls serving up such treats as a moreish Texas cheese plate from Scardello — a great precursor to a Steampunk amber lager at the Noble Rey Brewing taproom. dallasfarmersmarket.org TRINITY GROVES: Home to the Restaurant Incubator programme, which encourages entrepreneurs to develop culinary concepts.

The result is like an epicurean theme park.

Try LUCK, serving hyper-local brews and upscale Texas comfort food such as smoked pastrami sandwiches. trinitygroves.com FRANK: Fusing fine dining and secret supper club aesthetic, this underground restaurant is run by MasterChef finalists Jennie Kelley and Ben Starr. The multicourse menu has playful themes like ‘poison’, using ingredients with toxic properties.

This is an unapologetic gastronomical celebration. frankunderground.com

When to go Mild and pleasant all year, apart from high summer when temperatures soar to the high 30Cs.

More info visitdallas.com Lonely Planet Texas. RRP: £14.99.

How to do it AMERICA AS YOU LIKE IT has four nights in Dallas from £1,150 per person, including return flights on American Airlines from Heathrow, staying at the Adolphus Hotel, room only. americaasyoulikeit.com

ABOVE: Chocolatier Eddie Murphy at Dude, Sweet Chocolate, Bishop Arts District

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Dallas

Texas

Dallas Arboretum & Botanical Gardens

Greenville

MEXICO

Uptown

Klyde Warren Dealey Park Deep Ellum Trinity Plaza Downtown Groves Dallas Farmers Market Reunion Pioneer Tower Plaza

Bishop Arts District

1 mile

ILLUSTRATION: JOHN PLUMER

BUY

DUDE, SWEET CHOCOLATE: Local

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SYDNEY One of the world’s most iconic views is Sydney Harbour Bridge with the Opera House in the background.

Take a harbour cruise, or hop on the ferry to Manly for that classic OperaHouse-and-Bridge photo. Surfers and sunbathers can get their fix on Bondi Beach, while a day trip to the beautiful Blue Mountains — cloaked in indigo-hued eucalyptus mist — is another must.

ROCK Fly from Sydney to Uluru, the sacred Aboriginal site in the Red Centre.

During the day, see the colour changing from dusky pink to fiery red. Uluru isn’t the only attraction here — the smooth sandstone domes of nearby Kata Tjuta come a close second to The Rock. Don’t miss ‘A Night at Field of Light’ where 50,000 glass spheres come to life as sunset falls over Uluru.

REEF Fly on to Cairns, gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. You can opt to stay in the city itself or perhaps transfer to the seaside town of Port Douglas. Topping the list of activities here is snorkelling or diving on the reef, or if masks and flippers aren’t your thing, try a semi-sub tour or an ‘Ocean Walker’ helmet dive experience. Not to be missed is the Daintree Rainforest, a lush playground filled with flowers, gorges, waterfalls and walking trails.

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P R O M O T I O N A L F E AT U R E

To p 5 activities in

GUATEMALA

From tropical beaches to soaring volcanic highlands, Guatemala’s landscapes lend themselves perfectly to adventure.

Travelling in this verdant land offers glimpses into both ancient and modern cultures, thriving cities and local indigenous communities, as well as beautiful landscapes and spectacular wildlife. The varied terrain makes it perfect for adventures, like hiking the volcano trail, mountain biking through lush forest, and deep-sea fishing. But it needn’t be all high-octane thrills — go on a gentle stroll, unwind in a thermal spring, or indulge in a spa treatment.

FEED YOUR INSPIRATION AT vi s i t g u a t e m ala . c o m fa c e b o o k . c o m/ vi s i t g u a t e m ala @ vi s i t g u a t e m ala @ vi s i t g u a t e m ala _ Yo uTub e : vi s i t g u a t e m ala

P R O M O T I O N A L F E AT U R E

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3

2

1 ADVENTURE AWAITS

2 THE GREEN CARIBBEAN

3 NATURAL INSPIRATION

4 THE MAYA CULTURE

5 COLONIAL CHARM

Semuc Champey, meaning ‘where the river hides in the mountains,’ is one of the country’s most beautiful sites. Venture into the thick, tropical forest to find the bridge across the Cahabón river, where a series of colourchanging turquoise pools are a welcome reward for travellers after the hike. Adrenalin junkies are catered for, too — there’s ziplining, tubing and caving on offer; an excellent opportunity for some high-octane fun.

Head to Izabal and the heart of the unique Garifuna culture for a different side to the Caribbean. Take in the imposing fortress of Castillo San Felipe, built to keep out English pirates in the days of Spain’s colonial empire, or enjoy a boat ride on the sparkling lake it overlooks. Don’t leave without immersing yourself in the region’s history at the Quiriguá Archaeological Park, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981.

Lake Atitlán is often considered one of the world’s most beautiful lakes, and surrounded by mountains, volcanoes and rolling forest, it’s easy to see why. The still waters make it the ideal spot for watersports, such as flyboarding or kayaking, while visiting the communities in and around the region offer a great chance to interact with locals and experience some authentic Mayan culture, such as local cuisine and cloth-making.

Perhaps the country’s most iconic landmark, Tikal National Park is one of the world’s most important pre-Hispanic settlements. With more than 3,000 archaeological structures, the ancient city dominated this part of the Mayan world, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

Surrounded by lush forest, where the sound of howler monkeys ripples through the trees, it’s an absolute must for travellers discovering Guatemala.

Spanish flair fuses with traditional native art in La Antigua Guatemala, creating a unique city that bubbles with history, mysticism and tradition.

Wander the cobbled streets that wind between colonial churches, convents, monuments and museums, with buildings painted in beautifully bright colours. Peruse local handicraft s at one of the markets, or head out of town to one of the renowned coffee plantations.

IMAGES: GETTY

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ASK THE EXPERTS

Q // I’m planning a two-week birthday celebration trip to Miami. What do you recommend?

The obvious place to stay is South Beach, but why not mix things up and head to the formerly unfashionable Mid-Beach?

New hotels such as the Edition, Faena and Como Metropolitan (a restored art deco gem) make this Miami’s most talked-about stretch of shore. For a change of scene, relocate inland to affluent Coral Gables for a few days at The Biltmore Hotel, a recently-refurbished Miami icon that’s home to America’s largest swimming pool. After that, take a short flight to Key West and check into the Southernmost Beach Resort (literally the USA’s most southerly

address). Then, because it’s your birthday, rent a convertible and island-hop your way back to Miami on the Overseas Highway via a final few days on Islamorada at the newly renovated Cheeca Lodge & Spa. Bon Voyage can tailor-make this holiday from £2,987 per person, based on two sharing (including flights, roomonly accommodation and car hire). JAMES LITSTON South Beach is an architecture buff ’s paradise, but you’ll definitely want to spend some of your time in Miami exploring other areas. At the top of my list is the Wynwood Arts District, one of Miami’s trendiest, up-andcoming neighbourhoods. The best way to see the district is to take a mural tour with Miami’s Best Graffiti Guide, where you can explore the neighbourhood by bike or on a golf cart (great way

to beat the heat and cover lots of ground). There are lots of local breweries to help with that too.

My favourite spots are Wynwood Kitchen & Bar, 1-800-Lucky and the Wynwood Yard.

Nearby, you can visit the aspirational Miami Design District, a creative neighbourhood and shopping destination dedicated to innovative fashion, design, art, architecture and dining.

Even if you can’t afford to shop there, you’ll find lots of art in public places, plus the new St Roch Market and Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA).

Finally, no trip to Miami would be complete without a visit to the Everglades National Park. Don’t miss the Everglades Alligator Farm — you can take a 10-minute airboat ride there that beats any ride at an amusement park.

SUZIE SPONDER

IMAGES: GETTY

NEED ADVICE FOR YOUR NEXT TRIP? ARE YOU AFTER RECOMMENDATIONS, TIPS AND GUIDANCE? THE TRAVEL GEEKS HAVE THE ANSWERS…

Q // Where can I go off-grid for a digital detox to really get away from it all without compromising on luxury?

Q // I’m pregnant and want to escape somewhere not too far from the UK before the baby is born.

Where can I go to relax with good food?

You’re in luck: as the idea of a digital detox gets more and more popular, destinations are rushing to cater to it — at all budget levels.

You’ll now find it in destinations from Australia’s Gold Coast, where the Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat (gwinganna.com) bans phones from public areas and exhorts you to leave your devices at home, to the Maldives, where Mirihi Island Resort (mirihi.com) has jettisoned wi-fi from the restaurants and TV from its villas. There are even companies and tour operators that do nothing but match you with suitable detox locations

— try Off Grid Hideaways (offgridhideaways.com), which lists its properties by longitude and latitude, and has places on its books such as Fazenda Catuçaba, an eco-villa swamped by 12,000 acres of farmland.

Not that you have to be in the middle of nowhere. Le Monastère des Augustines (monastere.ca), in Québec City, is a non-profit ‘wellness hotel’ attached to a convent that encourages you to leave your devices at check-in and enjoy the monastic silence in your cell (room) and over breakfast.

Depending on where you live in the UK, Eurostar offers a direct service to the South of France, avoiding the stress of an airport.

Avignon, for example, is a pretty, low-key city with a great bistro scene. Country house-style retreats just outside of town include Domaine de Manville (domainedemanville.fr), a five-star foodie hotel and spa in a soulsoothing setting, deep in the lavender-perfumed Provence mountains, with doubles from €250 (£180) a night.

If you’re able to fly (check with your GP), a two-hour flight from

the UK brings you to Málaga, currently enjoying a renaissance thanks to its ever-growing crop of galleries and museums, including the Centre Pompidou and Picasso Museum. Food here is excellent: affordable Mediterranean fare.

Málaga’s hotels haven’t yet caught up to its tourist boom, so Airbnb dominates, with some chic, affordable apartments to rent from around £50 per night. Or treat yourself to a stay at Finca Cortesin (fincacortesin.com), a glam yet unfussy spa hotel. Suites from €500 (£440) per night.

JULIA BUCKLEY

SARAH BARRELL

health corner Q // What’s the ideal medical kit for an African safari?

Travel vaccinations recommended for Africa include tetanus/diphtheria/polio, Hepatitis A and B, yellow fever, meningitis, typhoid and rabies, plus anti-malarial tablets, of course. Travel insurance with a repatriation clause is a must, too.

Your medical kit for overlanding in Africa should include: sun cream and block, a thermometer, insect repellent, water-purifying tablets, oral rehydration sachets (Dioralyte), anti-diarrhoeals (loperamide), antihistamines (Piriton), painkillers and antiinflammatories (paracetamol and ibuprofen), antibacterial and antifungal creams, plus antibiotics (should your doctor feel happy to prescribe). And don’t forget a triangular sling, bandage, basic dressings, syringes and needles, and condoms.

Finally, if your destination is very remote, a satellite phone could save your life. DR PAT GARROD

THE EXPERTS JAMES LITSTON // FREELANCE TRAVEL WRITER & INDUSTRY CONSULTANT

SUZIE SPONDER // DIRECTOR OF MEDIA RELATIONS, EUROPE, GMCVB

JULIA BUCKLEY // REGULAR CONTRIBUTOR, NATIONAL

Q // Do I still need travel insurance if I’m having a staycation?

Co-op Travel Insurance’s research shows that 59% of UK adults who staycate are doing so without taking out travel insurance.

Most feel that because they’re holidaying in the UK, travel insurance is unnecessary.

However, if you’ve booked something that could potentially be cancelled, such as a hotel, domestic flight, coach trip or activity, you should consider protecting yourself financially.

For example, say a hotel you pay for upfront goes out of business — rather than cancel your entire trip, or spend even more money booking alternative accommodation, travel insurance would enable you to claim the money back.

Travel insurance is also useful if you or a member of your party becomes ill and can’t travel — or the trip has to be extended to cater to the illness. COLIN BUTLER

GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER (UK) SARAH BARRELL // ASSOCIATE EDITOR, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER (UK) COLIN BUTLER // HEAD OF CO-OP TRAVEL INSURANCE

DR PAT GARROD // THEWORLDOVERLAND.COM

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2118

THE INFO

ENDANGERED LANGUAGES

The year around 2,500 languages will likely have become extinct according to UNESCO

BY THE END OF THE CENTURY AROUND 50% OF THE WORLD’S CURRENT SPOKEN LANGUAGES WILL BE EXTINCT, ACCORDING TO UNESCO. DO YOU KNOW HOW TO SAY GOODBYE?

Europe’s lesser-spoken lingua

7,000+

Number of languages spoken worldwide

Breton (northern France):

250,000

“A different language is a different vision of life”

North Frisian (Germany):

10,000

— Federico Fellini

Irish Gaelic:

HEAR IT: 25 native speakers of some of the listed endangered languages have recorded themselves saying this sentence.

LISTEN HERE: gocompare.com/travelinsurance/endangered-languages

440,000

THE ENDANGERED LIST

Just

30,000

ONLY 40 OF THE COUNTRY’S ORIGINAL 250 INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES REMAIN, WITH JUST 30 WIRADJURI SPEAKERS LEFT

2 Nawat, El Salvador SPOKEN BY ONLY 200 PEOPLE. THERE IS NOW A REVIVAL THANKS TO A GROWING NUMBER OF SECOND-LANGUAGE SPEAKERS

SPOKEN BY JUST 9,500 PEOPLE

CREE & CHEROKEE

3 Choctaw, USA IN LOUISIANA, MISSISSIPPI AND

ARE TWO OF THE WORLD’S THREATENED LANGUAGES THAT DON’T

OKLAHOMA, IT BELONGS TO AN

HAVE A WORD FOR GOODBYE. THEY USE A PHRASE THAT

INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE FAMILY

LOOSELY MEANS: “I WILL SEE YOU AGAIN”

Top 10 most-spoken languages: Mandarin, Spanish, English, Hindi, Arabic, Portuguese, Bengali, Russian, Japanese, Punjabi 152

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DID

YOU

People speak North Saami — despite it being recognised as an official language in Norway, a minority language in Finland and Sweden, with speakers also found around the Scandinavian/Russian borders

KNOW?

ALMOST HALF OF THE WORLD’S POPULATION CLAIMS ONE OF ONLY 10 LANGUAGES AS THEIR MOTHER TONGUE

IMAGES: GETTY

1 Wiradjuri, Australia

TRAVEL GEEKS

HOT TOPIC

SPACE TOURISM: FINALLY A REALITY? WITH COMMERCIAL ZERO-GRAVITY FLIGHTS PREDICTED BY THE END OF 2018 AND SPACE HOTEL STAYS BY 2022, YOUR NEXT LUXURY TRIP COULD BE OUT OF THIS WORLD. WORDS: JAMES DRAVEN As the archetypal travel addict — and a man of humble abilities living well after the zenith of the age of adventure, when most summits of global exploration have been crested, and depths plumbed — I can’t tell you how much I’d love to go into space.

Up until now, though, I’d have needed Bruce Wayne levels of wealth to experience genuine zero gravity — like the first space tourist, Dennis Tito, who travelled with Space Adventures in 2001 — or the kind of scientific skills that differentiate we shaven cavemen from those who have made the human race what it’s cracked up to be.

You see, our real-life Bruce Waynes — Virgin’s Richard Branson, Tesla’s Elon Musk and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — are planning to bring trips to space to the masses, or at least within reach of the luxury traveller.

Justin Bieber is among the celebrities signed up for the first Virgin Galactic flights into outer space. Having found fame from singing and being generally disagreeable, he does have the disposable $250,000 (£185,000) for air fare. Branson started selling tickets for this flight more than a decade ago — with stars like

Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, and Angelina Jolie, also poised to travel — but after a high-profile test flight fatality, his dream of taking tourists on his planned two-and-a-half-hour suborbital voyages, with six minutes of zero-gravity, seemed no closer to reality.

Since then, though, there’s been a sudden flurry of activity, with Virgin Galactic receiving a $1bn (£741m) investment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in October 2017, which Branson claims will bring forward launch dates to the end of 2018, saying: “We’re now just months away from Virgin Galactic going into space with people on board.”

In February 2018 Elon Musk’s project, SpaceX, launched his Tesla Roadster automobile into space using Falcon Heavy, the most powerful operational rocket in the world, making him the lead car in the billionaire space race.

Jeff Bezos’s entrant, Blue Origin, offers a similar experience to Virgin Galactic’s, giving guests the chance to somersault weightlessly in a space capsule, while looking out the windows at Earth, 60 miles below. He says he’ll

Q&A IS THIS SPACE HOTEL ALREADY UP THERE?

Not yet. Orion Span’s CEO Frank Bunger tells me: “We’ll be building Aurora Station in Houston, starting in early-tomid 2019.”

AND WILL IT HAVE GUESTS BY 2022?

Bunger says: “We recognise that 2022 goal may seem optimistic, however, we’ve been developing proprietary technology that vastly simplifi es the design and manufacture of Aurora Station enabling us to build much faster.”

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BLUE ORIGIN AND VIRGIN GALACTIC?

Blue Origin will send a capsule of six people on a rocket, which will detach and parachute back to Earth. Virgin will fly a spaceship, carrying six passengers and two pilots, up to around the same altitude as Blue Origin, and then fly back home.

ARE THERE CHEAPER WAYS TO VISIT SPACE?

Zero2Infinity and World View are using helium-filled balloons to take capsules of six paying customers and two crew members to near-space altitudes and back again, for between $75k-$136k (£55.5k-£101k) per seat.

be sending his first tourists into space in 2019.

It’s not just day trips to space we can expect over the next few years, though. Orion Span is planning 12-day vacations to the world’s first luxury space hotel, Aurora Station, from as early as 2022. With the cabin capacity of a large private jet, accommodation will initially be for four people and two crew, in private suites. Described as looking like a utilitarian space laboratory inside, Aurora has more windows than any other spacecraft ever, and — orbiting at 200 miles above the Earth’s surface — weightlessness.

“Orion Span will combine the luxuries of a fine hotel with an authentic astronaut experience,” Frank Bunger, CEO of Orion Span, tells me. “Luxurious design, high-quality bedding, top-notch space food and private suites. Aurora Station will stay in orbit permanently, and guests will come up and return separately with a rocket launch, potentially partnered with space agencies, or companies like SpaceX or Blue Origin.”

Orion Span is planning to run one trip per month, but these rooms won’t be cheap: the starting price is $9.5m (£7m) per person, including training, 12days on Aurora Station, and the launch. So it will cost you nearly $40m (£29.6m) to ensure you’re not trapped in space with Justin Bieber. orionspan.com

AND ANOTHER THING… DOWN LOW EATING WITH THE FISHES

SEA BEDS

NETWORKING

AND BREATHE

Slated to open next year, architect firm Snøhetta is working on a halfsubmerged dining experience in Norway, allowing guests to tuck into dinner — underwater. snohetta.com

The world’s first underwater hotel accommodation is due to open at Conrad Maldives Rangali Island in November. There’ll be a gym, bar, infinity pool and a team of butlers. conradmaldives.com

Off the coast of Tulum, Mexico, there is what’s believed to be the world’s largest underwater cave.

The entire 215-mile-long system sustains huge biodiversity and evidence of Mayan civilisation.

Crowdfunded new breathing device Seagow allows divers to breathe sub-aqua for up to 15 minutes with a nift y mini dive tank device that’s refillable via an electric compressor. seagow.com

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SAVVY CARRY-ON LUGGAGE

HORIZN MODEL M

USB charger/GPS, lightweight hard shell + leather. RRP: £299 horizn-studios.co.uk

TUMI LATITUDE

Light, slimline hard shell, with extra flex and durability.

RRP: £595 tumi.com

7FLYways to...

BY PRIVATE JET FOR LESS THANKS TO SOME HIGH-FLYING START-UPS, THE PRIVATE JET MARKET HAS BECOME MORE ACCESSIBLE TO THE AVERAGE TRAVELLER. WE LOOK AT THE BEST WAYS TO FLY LIKE A VIP — SOMETIMES AT ECONOMY PRICES

1 // USE EMPTY LEGS

4 // COMPARE AND BOOK ONLINE…

When a jet has only been booked one-way, or has to return to base without having sold the route, it may offer an ‘empty leg’. It’s tricky to find one for a specific journey — in terms of exact location and travel times — so this works for more flexible travellers. Victor (flyvictor. com) and VistaJet (vistajet.com) have luxurious fleets often travelling to far-flung destinations, making flights beyond the means of most travellers but empty leg fares are still a tiny fraction of standard pricing.

… just like you would when booking a regular flight. For lauded algorithms filtering live availability and pricing for thousands of aircraft , StrataJet (stratajet.com) leads the way. Other award-winning booking or ‘flight brokering’ sites with access to thousands of craft and routes include PrivateFly (privatefly. com), and JetApp ( jetapp.com).

5 // CHOOSE YOUR AIRPORT Landing and handling costs at some airports are cheaper than others, so you’ll save money if you’re flexible about where you travel from/ to. Accordingly to PrivateFly, for example, you could save up to $2,000 (£1,484) by landing at Stansted rather than London City.

2 // FIND CHEAPER EMPTY LEGS At the more affordable end of the spectrum, there’s Surf Air (surfair.com/eu). This subscription service offers unlimited flights for £1,825 a month. App-based JetSmarter ( jetsmarter.com) describes itself as the ‘Uber’ of jet travel, charging per flight, or offering unlimited flights for an annual membership; while LunaJets (lunajets.com) offers empty legs charged per flight. Prices vary wildly but flying one-way from the UK to France could be as little as £350.

THULE SUBTERRA

Wheelie duffle that splits into two: one check-in or two smaller carry-ons. RRP: £295 thule.com

6 // CHOOSE YOUR JET Nerves — or possibly just the status factor — mean private jet passengers often insist on travelling only in the newest planes. But the age of the craft doesn’t necessarily mean less comfort or safety. Flying on a 10-year-old jet costs less than one just off the production line, and the older plane may have recently undergone a high-spec refurbishment and have excellent maintenance records.

3 // BE A GROUPIE

Flight sharing helps lower costs. A ‘budget’ model, Wingly (wingly.io) pairs passengers with 7 // FLY NO-FRILLS, IN FAIR WEATHER pilots. Dubbed the Airbnb of jet travel, verified Forgo the fizz? More often than not, catering is pilots register for the service and add details factored in as part of the fare, so you of their planned flights, which are end up forcing down the in-flight then available to book. Planes are Champagne. But many services let usually lower spec (this isn’t Learjet you stipulate what extras you want, territory), and the service favours which can vastly reduce costs. pilots who simply love flying and Other additional costs can include want to keep their hours up, so thumb de-icing. In cold weather, your plane it’s cheap and definitely cheerful. may need de-icing before it’s safe There’s no subscription, and Downsize your craft to to take off, so ensure that cost is passengers split the cost of the trip keep the cost lower and either included in a flat waiver fee (fuel, landing fees etc). A one-way over short distances, fl y or as part of the headline price. flight from the UK to Europe by cost-effective prop Alternatively, fly in fair weather only. can cost as little as €20 (£18). See plane (as opposed to jet) if available.

SARAH BARRELL also: coavmi.com

BRIGGS & RILEY

Sympatico Bronze, with zipless expansion-compression.

RRP: £429 briggs-riley.com

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IMAGE: GETTY

RULE OF

TRAVEL GEEKS

Tech trave er LIFE’S A BEACH

TECHNOLOGY REPORTER FOR @BBCCLICK AND AUTHOR OF WORKING THE CLOUD, KATE RUSSELL PICKS THE LATEST INNOVATIONS

TOP APPS FOR...

Beach bumming

If you’re heading to the beach this summer there’s plenty of not-so-essential tech to help you relax and have fun No-one likes sand in their pants.

CGear has a range of products, from beach mats to tote bags (amazon.com from around £20), made with a high-tech weave originally developed for military use. It lets sand fall through but not come back up, so give your mat a good pat down and it’ll once more be a sand-free zone.

Technology doesn’t usually like sandy, salt-watery places, but the Scosche boomBOTTLE H2O Bluetooth Wireless Speaker (amazon.com from £70.48) is waterand dustproof, and really packs an audio punch. The compact cylinder design is perfect for tucking into a water-bottle holder, housing a high-quality up-firing omni-directional speaker and passive sub-woofer. The wireless connection means you can leave your phone tucked safely away.

Snapchat your memories in 10-second clips direct from your sunglasses with the social media

platform’s own sunnies (spectacles. com from £129.99). These really do look good, with high-quality UV lenses and a tiny camera mounted in the frame. Link to the Snapchat app on your phone and you can add funky video effects and post straight away. To avoid the privacy issues of covert filming, a ring of LEDs lights up around the lens when recording.

If you really want to make your mark on the beach, literally, check out the FlipSidez site for personalising a range of good quality flip-flops with laser cut custom messages in the soles (flipsidez.com from £12).

And if you want to stay out late, try a LuminAID PackLite solarpowered lantern (amazon.com from £14.99). The inflatable design creates a diffused lighting effect with four brightness settings and packs down flat for easy carrying.

The PackLite Max 2-in-1 (£39.99) also lets you charge your phone.

ANTI-THEFT ALARM ANDROID FREE

With your beach bag full of costly tech, you might find it hard to relax. This motiontriggered alarm immediately blares if anyone tries to lift your stuff, even if your phone is muted. It’s free but will show you an advert when the alarm is triggered. iAnti Theft is a similar free app for iOS devices. play.google.com/store/apps itunes.apple.com

SURFLINE IOS/ANDROID FREE

Get location-based information about good surf spots near you, including weather forecasts, surf conditions, and surfing-related news and videos. discover.surfline.com/app

SPOTIFY IOS/ANDROID FREE (£9.99 P/M PREMIUM SUB)

Find the right tunes to listen to as you lounge with this music-streaming app. Avoid using up your data with the premium subscription for ad-free listening and the option to download playlists. spotify.com

GET THE GADGET GoXtreme ‘Barracuda 4K’ Ultra HD Waterproof Action Cam Action cameras are all the rage, whether you’re an adrenalin junkie or just want to capture your day at the beach in high definition, the GoXtreme Barracuda 4K has all the modes you’d expect from a camera of this type; up to 20-megapixel resolution on still shots; burst photo mode; and ultra-sharp videos up to 4k/25fps. It also has

a 170-degree ultra-wide view to capture as much of the vista as possible. You can operate the camera via the touchscreen controls or download the free app for iOS and Android for a remote controller and viewing screen that connects via built in wi-fi.

The camera is also waterproof to a depth of 10 metres. RRP: £119.99 available from Argos. argos.co.uk

@katerussell katerussell.co.uk

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FREQUENT FLYER

AIRPORT LOUNGES GAINING LOUNGE ACCESS ISN’T JUST FOR THOSE TURNING LEFT — IT CAN BE A RESPITE FOR WEARY TRAVELLERS ON A PAY-PER-GO BASIS TOO WORDS: DAVID WHITLEY What are the benefits?

Not everyone has to fight for a seat in the crowded departures area — secreted away in most airports are special, more exclusive lounges. Here, at the very minimum, there are fewer people, comfier seats, more charging sockets, and free food and drink.

How do I get in?

Well, if it’s a lounge run by the airline, you’ll need to be flying business class or have high frequent-flyer scheme status.

Major full-service airlines such as British Airways or Emirates tend to have a lounge at most airports they fly to — or will at least have a partner airline’s lounge that’s usable. These tend to be more luxurious than the pay-to-play lounges run by independent companies within airports — but it’s the latter that Average Joe on

Can I buy in bulk?

an economy ticket can get into.

Names to look out for include Aspire, Escape and No1, which have several lounges in the UK.

major UK airports; for example, £20 at Gatwick and £26.99 at Heathrow, both including access to snacks and drinks.

How much do they cost?

What do I get for that?

Standards roughly match up to price — the No1 lounges tend to have table-served, freshcooked meals, premium drinks and occasionally showers, while at the lower end of the scale the overall offering can be fairly miserable — dull sandwiches and pastries, bog-standard booze and sometimes not even separate toilet facilities. Review sites such as LoungeBuddy (loungebuddy. com) and Lounge Review (loungereview.com) can give an idea of quality, while airport and lounge operator sites list facilities.

Most lounge operators have annual pass schemes, while some bank accounts and credit cards (especially American Express) throw in some degree of lounge access as part of the perks package. An alternative is Priority Pass, which is aimed at frequent travellers and brags of offering members access to ‘1,200 lounges in 500 cities across 130 countries’.

Packages range from £69 for £15-a-pop lounge entry, to £259 for free entry everywhere. All allow guests to enter for £15. The downside is that entry is subject to availability; in busy season it might be worth paying the extra £5 fee to advance reserve a space in the lounge you’ve got your eye on.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS FIRST CLASS LOUNGE, ABU DHABI

LUFTHANSA FIRST CLASS TERMINAL, FRANKFURT

THAI AIRWAYS ROYAL FIRST LOUNGE, BANGKOK

This lounge has been designed to make you feel like you’re relaxing in a top hotel rather than waiting for a flight; once you’ve been welcomed in by a hostess (no queuing at a desk here), pick your spot in one of 16 different zones.

The dining area is something like a members’ club, with a 24-hour a la carte restaurant. Got the kids with you? Pop them in the creche, staffed with Norland nannies.

TOP PERK: Those flying Etihad’s super-exclusive The Residence have access to a special lounge within the lounge.

You don’t have to mix with the hoi polloi at all at Frankfurt Airport if you’re flying first class with Lufthansa — there’s an entirely separate terminal. Quiet rooms have day beds and there are spacious bath and shower rooms. This is stress-free travel: a personal assistant will greet you in the entrance area and take care of all the boring travel admin — they even come through security with you and check you in.

TOP PERK: Once the plane is ready for boarding, you’ll be taken by limousine to the aircraft.

Some airport lounges have a somewhat clinical edge; not in this warm and welcoming space at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.

There’s a dining room serving Thai and international food; after eating have a rest in one of the slumber rooms or freshen up in a shower suite before checking out the music room and mini library. The real attraction here is the Royal Orchid Spa, which has three spa suites, and a gym and yoga room.

TOP PERK: First-class passengers can treat themselves to a 60-minute full-body massage.

When booking online — and you’ll generally save between £3 and £10 doing so, as opposed to paying full price when rocking up on the day — these will cost somewhere between £19 and £45.

It’s worth checking your airline frequent-flyer scheme pages for discounts — for example, going through the Virgin Atlantic site can reduce the price of the No1 Lounge at Gatwick from £32 to £25. Holiday Extras (holidayextras. com) also offers reduced-price entry to airport lounges at select international destinations and all

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IMAGE: GETTY

LUXE LOUNGES

P R O M O T I O N A L F E AT U R E

TIMELESS

Puglia Shaped by the sea, centuries of history, and a colourful array of cultures, there’s a fascinating heritage to discover in this Southern Italian region

Castel del Monte ABOVE: Santuario di Michele Arcangelo

RECIPE: FAVA BEANS AND CHICORY ■ ■ ■

IMAGES: UMBERTO LOPEZ; GETTY; ALAMY

■

400g dried fava beans 400g wild chicory Extra virgin olive oil Sea salt

Soak the beans in water for 10 hours. Drain and cook at medium heat for two hours in salted water, then mash with a spoon to get a thick purée. Meanwhile, boil the chicory in salted water for a few minutes. Drain the chicory, plate with the purée and drizzle with olive oil.

History and tradition are everywhere in Puglia. Whether you begin your adventure winding along the coast, delving into the landscape or wandering its thriving cities, the region’s deep, intriguing past reveals itself.

Follow in the foosteps of pilgrims along the Via Francigena and admire Romanesque or baroque churches and palaces that dot the trail, such as the magnificent San Giovanni Battista church in Lecce, or the UNESCO-listed Shrine of San Michele Arcangelo in Foggia.

Time your visit during one of the region’s lively festivals, including the vibrant music and dance of the Carpino Folk Festival.

Puglia doesn’t disappoint when it comes to its ancient past — explore the region’s prehistory at one of the ‘ecomuseums’ or megalithic parks, take a pew in a Roman amphitheatre, or head underground for a world of karstic caves and rural dwellings.

Puglia also has numerous fortresses and castles. Perhaps the most visually arresting is the Castel del Monte, near Andria. Don’t miss its majestic architecture and the idyllic countryside views.

With their iconic conical roofs, the best preserved collection of trullo houses is to be found in Alberobello — another UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Save the date 7 JULY - 11 AUGUST Locus Festival 2018 – 14th Edition Locorotondo, Ostuni The international lineup at this festival keeps the Locorotondo summer nights aflame. At the heart of Valle d’Itria, diverse cultures, traditions and avant-garde musical events are to be experienced: from Afro-American jazz to the Brazilian grooves of Rodrigo Amarante.

Pugliapromozione is the destination partner of The Masterclasses 2018. Turn to p.44 to find out more!

SERVES 4 FLY TO BARI AND BRINDISI

we areinpuglia . it

P R O M O T I O N A L F E AT U R E

THE DHARMAWANGSA JAK ARTA Showcasing Indonesian heritage in style The Dharmawangsa Jakarta, in the heart of Indonesia’s largest, most dynamic city, is so much more than a place to rest your head.

Architecturally, the Dutch-colonial building bears Indonesian flourishes, a striking nod to the country’s past.

Inside, guests are greeted by an array of fascinating artefacts, while walls are hung with beautiful local artwork. All this combines

to give a gallery-like feel, albeit in luxurious, five-star surrounds.

Every room showcases a different aspect of the Indonesian way of life, including the minimalist reception, which evokes a traditional home. The wooden panels in The Library are delicately carved into flower patterns, while cabinets in The Caviar Lounge display beautiful jewellery, originating from

various regions in Sumatra. Dazzling displays of wealth and status — the sort of love tokens a Sumantran prince would have bestowed upon his bride, a Majapahit princess.

The hotel features 99 luxurious rooms and suites, all of which open onto private verandas and overlook extensive, manicured grounds. The Dharmawangsa Jakarta is a cultural extravaganza in an exquisite setting.

THREE MORE CULTURAL GEMS

Museum Nasional — This enormous collection features millennia-old statues, textiles and artwork.

Galeri Nasional — More than 1,700 artworks by both Indonesian and foreign artists are housed here.

Plaza Indonesia — One of the oldest malls in Jakarta, visitors can find everything from high-end fashion to restaurants.

Jalan Brawijaya Raya No. 26, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta 12160, Indonesia E: reservation@thedharmawangsa.com the-dharmawangsa.com

IN THE NEXT ISSUE

Barcelona Whimsical architecture, colourful history and a fervent local spirit — Barcelona dazzles as one of the world’s most seductive cities.

In our next issue, we look past the sun-drenched sights and meet the people weaving the rich tapestry of Spain’s second city

IMAGE: ALAMY

Plus // Orkney Islands, Dordogne, Dublin, Beijing, Nicaragua, Colorado, Laos, Rio de Janeiro, Leipzig

September issue On sale 2 august 2018 For more information on our subscription offers, see page 176 Jul/Aug 2018

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IMAGES: AWL IMAGES

Oia village on Santorini

ALL AT SEA: A GREEK ODYSSEY FORGET COLOSSAL CRUISE VESSELS AND COMPLICATED FERRY SCHEDULES — ON A VESSEL SMALL ENOUGH TO SAIL INTO SECLUDED BAYS, EXPLORE THE GREEK ISLANDS IN BREEZY STYLE, TUCKING INTO FRESH FISH, DOCKING AT PASTORAL ISLANDS FOR BIKE RIDES OR HIKING UP TO MEDIEVAL MONASTERIES ALONG THE WAY WORDS: CHRIS LEADBEATER

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t’s been half an hour now, and I can’t locate SeaDream I. I’ve opted to walk around the waterfront from Piraeus metro station, figuring that the Greek capital’s port district can’t be that complicated; that it’s silly to grab a taxi for a trip of just a few feet. But the underbelly of Athens’s dockside is defeating me, placing ship after ship in my path — freighters, ferries, cruise giants. None of them is the boat I’m seeking. And the temperature rises even as a gust whips the water, as if Aesop’s fable about the sun and wind thrusting their weight at an embattled traveller is being restaged for my benefit.

So by the time she finally materialises by the quay, hidden in the shadow of an MSC behemoth, my home for the next 10 days already resembles some sort of oasis. Stepping on

to SeaDream I certainly seems a moment of respite. My bags are removed from my shoulders and spirited towards my cabin.

A glass of Champagne is folded into my hand. And a picture quickly emerges of happy passengers, settled in and ready to go, some already lounging around the compact swimming pool on the rear deck. I drain the fizz, amble the corridors, attempt to establish my bearings.

And once I’ve done this, I try to push towards a decision on the pertinent question — am I pleased to be here?

I’m not, in general, a lover of cruises; of big beasts of the ocean, barging into harbour, disgorging hundreds of passengers who may, or may not, know or care where they are. And yet the SeaDream proposition — of travelling with a company that describes

itself as a ‘Yacht Club’ — has proved seductive. It’s not just the opportunity to spend the best part of a fortnight slipping between Aegean islands whose existence has enchanted visitors since the legendary Odysseus was lost on his way home from the Trojan War. There’s the Cyclades outcrops of Sifnos, Naxos, Mykonos and Santorini; that celebrated Saronic shard Hydra; distant Patmos, cast adrift on the cusp of Turkish terrain in the Dodecanese. It’s the chance to do so on a vessel small enough to sidle softly into the most secluded bays — or lower anchor directly outside them, unobtrusively, without hogging the horizon.

SeaDream I — I soon come to appreciate — is little. ‘Yacht’ may be a misleading term, a stretching of the obvious definition of the word (there are no sails here)

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GREECE

AEGEAN ATTRACTIONS SANTORINI AKROTIRI

Santorini’s links to the mythological lost realm of Atlantis are strengthened by the ruins of this Bronze Age settlement, which was covered in volcanic ash by the eruption which half destroyed the island in 1627 BC. odysseus.culture.gr

MYKONOS ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF MYKONOS

The museum peers back at life on the island as far back as the 14th century BC via gold necklaces and images of Poseidon on vases. odysseus.culture.gr

SIFNOS KASTRO

It’s entirely possible that there’s no more photogenic a Greek village than this wonder, which waits on cliffs on the opposite side of the island from the port (Kamares). passe-partoutsifnos. weebly.com

PAROS EKKLISIA PANAGIA EKATONTAPYLIANI

The sixth-century ‘Church of a Hundred Doors’ in Parikia wears its age with dignity, all stone arches, angelic murals, cold marble — and a dome which pushes into the sky. ekatontapyliani.gr

NAXOS SANCTUARY OF

IMAGE: GETTY

DIONYSUS

You have to search for this 14th-century-BC site, concealed amid working farms and the grumble of tractors in miniscule Yria, close to Agia Anna. naxos.gr

— but she occupies barely more of the sea than the most winsome of tall ships. There are only 56 ‘staterooms’, equating to a maximum capacity of 112 guests.

At just 355ft in length, she’s a slight presence on the surface of the Aegean — so slight, in fact, that as she slips away from Athens, she moves quietly into the evening, seeming scarcely to stir a ripple. And, at some juncture, once dusk has fallen, she halts 50 miles south of her start point, where, amid the hopeful shimmer of morning, she will present Hydra as a glorious fait accompli.

Mountain monastery

In The Odyssey, the ancient scribe Homer describes ‘the long hill-paths, the welcoming bays, the beetling rocks and the leafy trees’ of Ithaca in the hour Odysseus finally sets foot on home soil. There is something of this pastoral wonder about Hydra in my initial glimpse of it. The capital, Hydra Town, spreads up its hillside on the north coast, a thin trail ebbing along the shoreline in search of the hamlet of Kamini, doughty fishing boats forge out in search of a catch sufficient to fuel the restaurants on the harbourside.

A simple ferry hop from Piraeus, Hydra is enormously popular with Athenian weekenders. But there is no discernible capital-city hubbub today. Rather, there’s the braying of the donkeys tethered at the dock — there to provide rides for the less athletic visitor — and a rattle of shutters opening in the adjacent cafes. Life feels local and languid.

Not that I have time for languidity. “How are we all doing today?” Jeff Fithian inquires of the 12 of us who’ve disembarked.

“It’s a really good day for a hike.”

A wiry American, somewhere indefinably in his 50s, he is the force of enthusiasm behind the daily active excursions — partially focused on fitness, partly on showing passengers something of each stop — that are included in the price of a SeaDream cruise.

Even the shortest of conversations reveals him as a man who has carved out an ideal existence, sailing both the ship’s seasons (one in the Mediterranean, the other in the Caribbean), and spending the weeks between living in Cartagena in southeast Spain. But now, here, he is a picture of energy. “We’re going up there,” he says, pointing towards the monastery of Profitis Ilias

— which is, as yet, invisible, some 1,640ft up on the roof of Hydra’s resident rock titan, Mount Eros.

“It’s a bit steep-going in parts, but if we get moving, we’ll be back well in time for lunch.”

Off he sets, at a decent pace, up through the town. And we try to keep up — ‘we’ being a disparate bunch whose variety underscores the broad appeal of a SeaDream cruise. There’s a twenty-something Australian who lives in London and has met her mother on the far side of Europe for a holiday catchup; a thirty-something Croatian man from Zagreb who loves to explore Greece; a Californian couple from the Los Angeles suburbs, hideously jet-lagged but determined not to waste a second of their getaway; another American wife and husband — he’s a pilot with a major airline whose job has given him some serious wanderlust.

The reward for our firstmorning commitment to Hydra is a view which unspools slowly — a sprinkle of sparkle on the bay at first, apparent between the whitewashed houses and shoebox churches which adorn the gradient, then a widescreen vision of flawless blue as the town

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Smooth sailing

I settle into a routine — an early breakfast of eggs and fresh fruit at the open-air Topside Restaurant on Deck Five, followed by whatever Jeff suggests as an excursion. Generally, this is a three-hour tour of an island on one of the ship’s 10 mountain bikes, returning aboard for lunch — before pedalling out by myself to see whatever we’ve missed in the morning. This allows me to burn, in advance, the many calories I ingest at the Topside over dinner, where there’s a perfect steak with a side of foie gras one evening, a succulent slab of seabass another, served

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by a well-rehearsed crew of 95 — a number almost matching the passenger head-count one-forone. SeaDream I begins to look like home. And if my cabin is mildly chintzy in its floral carpets, it’s never less than comfortable when I fall into bed, and sleep through the Aegean’s playful moods.

My approach each morning provides Aegean snapshots aplenty — Sifnos, where the impossibly pretty village of Kastro gleams on the east coast; Paros, where north-coast Naoussa is still protected by its 13th-century Venetian fortress; the Cyclades hotspot Mykonos — where, suddenly, there’s a thrum of people, milling around the cool cafes and bars in Chora, and posing for selfies by the Kato Myli windmills. I absorb each destination in turn, with a burgeoning appreciation of the process, tacitly acknowledging how much trickier the journey would be if relying on ferries rather than the SeaDream I. It seems odd, in such a context, to think of the end of the world.

But there it is all the same when I land on Patmos — the island where, according to biblical lore, St John the Evangelist penned the fire and brimstone that is the Book

PREVIOUS PAGE: View of Mykonos in the Cyclades ABOVE: Naoussa on the island of Paros

MORE INFO

SeaDream Yacht Club has a 10-day voyage on SeaDream I scheduled to depart from Piraeus for Civitavecchia (northwest of Rome) on 17 August 2019. It will call at Mykonos, Patmos, Santorini and Hydra (as well as Taormina, Amalfi and Capri) en route. seadream.com Carrier offers a 12-night holiday which features this cruise (reference 11934) on an all-inclusive basis — as well as return British Airways flights from London, transfers, one night at The Margi in Athens (with breakfast) and a further night’s post-cruise stay at the Hotel de Russie in Rome (also with breakfast). From £5,380 per person. carrier.co.uk visitgreece.gr

IMAGE: GETTY

concedes defeat to the mountain and the sky behind it. There are smells, too, to complement the sights — that gorgeous aroma of pine needles baking on hot stone; the vague tang of animal skin from a horse sweating in the approach to midday, carrying his owner down the slope. And then the crown on the prince’s head, the 10th-century monastery — under whose tower the whole of Hydra prostrates itself. I ask Jeff, who has done the walk more than 50 times, if he ever tires of it all. “I really can’t say I do,” he replies.

of Revelation. The cave where this act of authorship reputedly occurred is now topped by a small but ornate monastery with dark-eyed saints snared in fresco form. It’s helpful that the village it occupies is named ‘Apokalypsi’, for there are no other hints of the death of it all on this most picturesque of outcrops. The tarmac ribbon which curls up from the port town of Skala is no road to hell (though maybe to heaven) — it’s fir-fragrant and panoramic, unfurling on to the doorstep of an elevated citadel (also Chora) where another monastery claims the ridge. A plaque on the wall declares its UNESCO World Heritage status, but there are secrets too when I venture into the labyrinth of lanes behind — not least Thanasis Cafe, which dispenses Greek beer and a rumble of conversation on the miniscule space which constitutes the ‘main square’.

I could be persuaded to linger, but there’s a final challenge to tackle — to ride to the peak of the island; to a summit that hits 883ft beneath the flagstones of a tiny chapel. It is, alas, too much, the angle such that I have to walk the closing few feet. I stumble into a sunset that could have convinced Odysseus to make one more lap of the Aegean — and the company of a French couple who have had the sense to drive to the viewpoint. And I do linger, too long, only gradually realising that the gloaming is encroaching. The descent is harum-scarum, racing the last of the light to Skala. But then I round a grand corner and spot SeaDream I in a cove below.

There’ll be further stops before Piraeus — the Temple of Apollo on Naxos; the volcanic cliffs of Santorini. Yet here in the gloom, and not for the first time, all things feel in proportion.

WEALTH OF EXPERIENCES WHEN MONEY IS NO OBJECT, WHAT IS LUXURY? FOR A GROWING NUMBER OF ULTRAWEALTHY TRAVELLERS, IT’S NO LONGER ABOUT PRIVATE BUTLERS AND PENTHOUSE SUITES, IT’S ABOUT IMMERSIVE, AUTHENTIC EXPERIENCES, FROM PRIVATE AUDIENCES WITH THE DALAI LAMA TO BEING STRANDED ON BEAR GRYLLS’ ISLAND WORDS: SIMON USBORNE

W

hen Jenny Graham joined Quintessentially Travel in 2010, the itineraries it was creating for its high-net-worth clients didn’t place heavy demands on the printer at its London office. “It was very transactional in those days,” says Jenny — now the company director — as if talking about a distant decade. “We’d have just a few components — the flights, the transfer, the hotel — and we wouldn’t really be expected to do anything else. I’ve just been looking at an itinerary my team has been working on, for a three-week trip to Ecuador, and it stretches to 30 pages.”

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The trip will include a suit fitting by one of the city’s top tailors — all conducted from the comfort of clients’ hotel rooms, of course — private access to some of Ecuador’s grandest colonial buildings and natural wonders, and a flight west to join a private cruise among the Galápagos Islands. “It’s not just ‘days one to seven: overnight, half-board at a five-star hotel’ anymore,” adds Jenny. “People want to be guided, they want to be shown things that were once ‘money-can’t-buy’. They want to know that they have really immersed themselves in that destination.”

What they’re after, Jenny says, is not just a holiday but also an ‘experience’ — to be ejected from the plushest sun loungers beside the bluest resort pools and sent on a journey. For a growing number of super-rich travellers, it’s no longer enough to have a butler for tour every need, a menu of pillows or a Maybach waiting at the door of the Gulfstream jet. The buzzwords redefining the luxury market, under the experiential umbrella, are authenticity, transformation, and access.

“Now, money can buy pretty much anything,” Jenny says. “We can get shops closed down [for

IMAGE: GETTY

a private view], we can get an art buyer or art historian to guide you around a city, or arrange a private meeting with the Dalai Lama.”

Jenny recently had a client in India who gave her four days to arrange a family birthday trip in California’s Napa Valley. “Initially, they wanted something simple but, the day before, they wanted certain wineries to be closed down for private tours, and a Bollywood singer to be flown in.”

Within hours, a singer was on the way — for an additional £50,000.

Demand is rising not just for posher and more expensive, but for tougher and more transformative. Another try-

hard neologism has emerged in this new era: the ‘luxepedition’.

Jenny tells me she’s sent people to the Great Wall Marathon in China, one of the most arduous, and on demanding hiking trips to Bhutan. “When people talk about experiences, they’re motivated by how it could benefit them, be it stress management, self-reflection or a physical test,” Jenny explains.

“They want to disconnect.”

Edward Clare’s travel budget hit giddy heights when his parents sold Dreams, their bed business, for a reported £200m in 2008. The 32-year-old from Buckinghamshire works in property and has a fast, demanding life. Most of his

holidays have been conventional, by the standards of the very wealthy, often involving his fiancée, Riah. “We normally do Dubai, we’ve done Barbados quite a lot, Ibiza, Mykonos,” he says. Two years after selling the business, the Clares rented Richard Branson’s Necker Island, in the British Virgin Islands, for a fortnight. “That was about £250,000,” Edward recalls.

“We had 28 people out and it was really relaxing.”

More recently, Edward felt an itch to return to island life, but wanted something less relaxing.

“I’d been watching The Island with Bear Grylls, where people get abandoned on an island and

have to survive, and I remember thinking, ‘I’d love to do this but I’d hate to be on telly and look like an idiot,’” he says. Edward found Desert Island Survival online. The company sends clients to the same island featured in the TV show, a forbidding Pacific jewel 100 miles off the isthmus of Panama. They’re trained to build shelters and fish before being left to their own devices, minus their phones.

Edward sent an online enquiry, got a call back in just 10 minutes, and immediately booked a flight to Panama City. “It was a lot harder than I was expecting,” he says. “It was rainy season so there wasn’t much sun but the hardest thing

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was the amount of sand and salt on my skin for 10 days, with no fresh water to wash. And then the sand flies and mosquitos. But it also forced me to completely switch off and be self-sufficient. I came back really recharged and open.”

Edward says bragging rights partly explain the appeal of travelling off the moneyed path. “People are fighting for an experience now; a lifetime trip they can tell their friends about,” he says. “Anyone can go and book a flight and stay at Sandy Lane in Barbados, if they’ve got the money, but if you say I survived on an island for 10 days, or went up Everest, or whatever it is, it holds more gravitas. And you’ve also achieved something for yourself.”

Edward says he enjoyed not being judged for how he looked while on the island, and proving he could support himself. By his standards, the holiday was one of the cheapest he’s taken, costing a relatively meagre £1,650.

Time and money

Luxury for many wealthy people like Edward often involves isolation, and when logistics become more challenging, and that hotly demanded ‘access’ more complicated, the costs of luxepeditions can mount.

Patrick Woodhead is an Antarctic

explorer based in South Africa who runs White Desert with his wife, Robyn, and a team of guides and specialists . In 2002, he was part of the youngest, and fastest, team ever to reach the South Pole, and later led a 75-day, 1,150-mile traverse of the continent. “I remember thinking at the time that if we built a little camp on Antarctica, it would be amazing way for people to explore the interior,” he says.

“Over the years, that idea has evolved into a luxury offering.”

That’s an understatement. Each winter, White Desert flies a dozen big-spending travellers at a time from Cape Town to a specially built runway on Antarctica by private jet. Visitors stay at Whichaway Camp, a collection of six luxury, dome-shaped sleeping pods surrounding a central pod.

Interiors are decked out in African safari decor and high-tech mod cons. Facilities include a fully stocked bar, with meals rustled up by an award-winning chef.

By day, Patrick’s customers can hike through ice tunnels, visit science research bases or abseil from towering peaks. Ice climbing and kite skiing can be arranged. A flight, by propeller plane, whisks visitors to an emperor penguin colony at Atka Bay. Or, for ultimate Instagram kudos, stand

on the Geographic South Pole itself after a seven-hour flight inland. The cost for a seven-night trip: £60,000 per person.

“The prices are very high because the logistics involved are phenomenal,” says Patrick.

“We have a lot of guests who have seen and done everything but being in the interior of Antarctica still blows their minds.” He adds: “I think there is a sort of nature in humans to be competitive. They want to explore something new.”

The Woodheads have entertained Saudi royalty, British royalty (Prince Harry once dropped in), space royalty (Buzz Aldrin), and dozens of CEOs. Approximately 40% of guests come from America, while almost a third are Chinese. Patrick says the commitment of time, if not money, puts off travellers solely in it to brag and take the photo to prove it. “We get them to meet scientists and learn about climate change and we’re putting these scientists in contact with billionaires, sometimes, who might be interested in funding these projects,” he adds.

The demand to do more — to experience more — is transforming luxury travel beyond these new extreme outlets for adrenalin-deficient titans of industry. The hotels

5 OUT-OF-THISWORLD TRIPS FLY TO ANTARCTICA

White Desert has built a luxury camp on the edge of Antarctica, reached via private jet from Cape Town.

Includes the option of flying to the South Pole. £60,000 per person. white-desert.com SURVIVE ON AN ISLAND

Hop on a boat to an island off the coast of Panama, where The Island with Bear Grylls was set. Includes training in shelter building and spear fishing, but otherwise you’re on your own. £1,650 per person. desertislandsurvival. com DIVE TO THE TITANIC

Blue Marble Private recently added the wreck of the Titanic to its offering. Trips are based in Newfoundland and include three-hour dives in a submersible. £76,400 per person. bluemarbleprivate.com ROUND THE WORLD BY PRIVATE JET

Join Geoffrey Kent, founder of Abercrombie & Kent, on a 25-day, global circumnavigation on a Boeing 757, starting in Miami.

From £110,000 per person. abercrombiekent.com TAKE 52 WEEKEND

IMAGE: GETTY

BREAKS

Take inspiration from one recent client of Quintessentially Travel and plan a year of long weekends away. In the client’s case, this meant kitesurfing, museum tours and fine dining. £100,000-plus. quintessentiallytravel. com

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dimensions of wellness (social, environmental, physical, spiritual, emotional and intellectual) and brings kids “back to basics” in order to reconnect with nature and others around them’.

“You don’t just tick boxes and say, we’ve got this restaurant, this spa and these facilities,” Henry says. “You have to go much deeper because we’re all competing for the same piece of pie and you have to be very competitive to get a slice.”

At Quintessentially Travel, Jenny Graham says she’s too busy to worry that the demands of the guests — who return from these trips and tell their wealthy friends about them — will only push up the bar of expectation ever higher.

The company started with three people 18 years ago, and now employs 50 travel consultants.

Jenny recently arranged 52 consecutive weekend breaks for a man in his 40s who’d sold a business and wanted a year off.

He went kitesurfing, took courses, holidayed with friends and family.

He spent very little time sitting on beaches. “We were well into the hundreds of thousands of pounds,” Jenny says. “People thought the internet would be the death of the travel specialist, but this demand isn’t going to go away.”

TALKING HEADS Edward Clare // Inspired by The Island with Bear Grylls, I found a company that takes you there. It was a lot harder than I was expecting but forced me to be self-sufficient.

Anyone can book a flight to Barbados, if they’ve got the money. But surviving on an island for 10 days holds more gravitas, plus you achieve something for yourself.

PREVIOUS PAGE:

Vineyards, Napa Valley, California ABOVE: Emperor penguin chicks, Atka Bay, Antarctica

Jenny Graham, Quintessentially Travel // Arranging luxury holidays used to be very transactional. We’d organise just a few components — the flights, the transfer, the hotel — and not much else.

Now an itinerary might stretch to 30 pages. People want to be guided, they want to be shown things that were once ‘money-can’t-buy’.

IMAGE: GETTY

that were once the centre of a brief itinerary are locked in an experiential arms race, too. “I remember when guests departed from their Caribbean resort and literally signed a cheque for their deposit for the next year,” says Henry Gray, a veteran hotelier and vice president, operations – hotels and resorts at Six Senses, a luxury spa resort group based in Thailand. “Same time, same place, same cabin — that was it.”

Henry says technology has driven the subsequent transformation, first in shaking up the way people researched and booked holidays, and then in the way they were influenced via social media. No longer can resorts rely on loyalty. At Six Senses, even sleep has become an ‘experience’. “And we don’t just mean the mattress,” says Henry. “It’s the bamboo pyjamas, the natural materials in the linen and we have a sleep tracker for guests and we use them to make recommendations.”

The traditional resort kids’ club, filled with shiny toys and nannies attempting to feed the boisterous off spring of wealthy guests, has no place in this new world. According to the Six Senses website, its Grow with Six Senses programme ‘incorporates the six

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Hainan Airlines has cooperated with the services of a number of Michelin-starred chefs to help upgrade its inflight meal service.

The airline, which is already renowned for its innovative menu and dish design, has upped its Hai Chef offering, making it a highly personal dining experience that greatly enhances passengers’ meals.

Back in August 2016, Hainan Airlines launched its meal service programme, known as the Professional Hai Chef Team, on certain international flights to provide business-class passengers with a premium exclusive and customised inflight meal service.

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Several new direct routes from China to the UK make Hainan Airlines an excellent choice. Visitors heading to Beijing will be able to catch a nonstop flight from Dublin, Edinburgh and Manchester on the sleek Airbus A330. For those wishing to visit the vibrant city of Changsha, meanwhile, direct flights now leave from London Heathrow three times a week.

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Next issue’s star letter wins a summer bundle from Gandy’s, worth £160!

STAR LETTER

Nostalgia-on-Sea

I recently bought the magazine as I was looking for some inspiration for our family holiday to some far-flung, off-the-beatentrack destination. However, your article on the Great British seaside (May 2018) was a trip down memory lane. As a youngster, our holidays were always a week away to the seaside towns of Blackpool, Southport, Rhyl and Scarborough. Many happy memories were made playing on the beach and visiting amusement arcades — all in glorious sunshine. James Draven’s article really showed what was being done to restore faith in the UK’s iconic resorts. This summer, we’ve planned a 10-day tour of Bournemouth, Brighton, Hastings and Margate — all thanks to your article. SIMON JOHNSON

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Life in Le Marche

The ‘must-visit monument’ of the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino, highlighted in The New Italy cover story (May 2018), evoked fond memories of renting a farmhouse outside the village of Santa Vittoria in Matenano. In Urbino, I remember being hurried from room to room in the Palazzo Ducale by the staff — it was a half day and they were looking forward to closing for lunch! Italy’s Le Marche region certainly hits the high notes for art, history, music and food, and it’s far less visited than other parts of the country. It’s Italy as you imagine it 50 years ago. EILEEN ROBINSON

Letter to the editor

As a global expert in aircraft cabin air quality, I believe your assertion that Aerotoxic Syndrome (March 2018) is just ‘another theory’ to be totally incorrect. Our research, published in a June 2017 WHO Public Health Panorama journal, reported a pattern of short- and long-term effects being seen in aircrew routinely exposed to this environment. Scientific knowledge always precedes regulation and current medical practice. However, we’ve recently published a suggested causative mechanism for aerotoxic syndrome. The airline industry’s assertion that there’s no evidence or that this is a rare failure scenario is flawed. susanmichaelis.com DR SUSAN MICHAELIS PHD, MSC, ATPL

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@MICKOG9 Melia Llana Beach Resort & Spa [in Cape Verde] last year — excellent friendly staff, lovely food and good entertainment, but if you want quiet you have it in abundance // @BINNYJS Pegasus Suites & Spa Hotel in Santorini // @EPPIESHEPHERD Taking a long, hot shower at Thavorn Beach Village in Phuket after a day of snorkelling in the resort’s private bay

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