August 2017

Southeast asia

august 2017

The world’s best awards Your favorite cities, islands, resorts, hotels, airlines and more

Singapore S$7.90 / Hong Kong HK$43 Thailand THB175 / Indonesia IDR50,000 Malaysia MYR18 / Vietnam VND85,000 Macau MOP44 / Philippines PHP240 Burma MMK35 / Cambodia KHR22,000 Brunei BND7.90 / Laos LAK52,000

Seoul by night from Artmonstay Guesthouse (“Legend of the Blue Sea”).

SEOUL

FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF KOREAN CELEBRITIES

I’VE BEEN KNOWN TO GET A LITTLE starstruck when meeting Korean celebrities. Yet, as these opportunities are few and far between, then next best thing is to visit the shooting locations of some of my favourite TV dramas and walk in their footsteps of the stars. And fortunately for me, Seoul is full of them.

Thanks to the huge popularity of hallyu, or the Korean Wave, so many TV dramas and movies have been filmed here so the city has almost become a virtual outdoor entertainment museum, with dozens of familiar attractions and cozy hideaways where actors entertained thousands of fans.

Take, for example, my first visit to Artmon Stay, made famous from the TV hit “Legend of the Blue Sea” starring Jun Ji-hyun and Heo Joon-jae. It is here, up on the rooftop that overlooks the neon city below, that the two stars shared romantic encounters. And given the glowing urban backdrop, it’s not hard to understand why. This location is

A night view from Artmon Stay (“Legend of the Blue Sea”).

View from the bridge overlooking the stream (“The Liar and His Lover”).

perfect for spending the night huddled up close and enjoying the surrounding cityscape. I still consider this to be one of my favourite scenes from the show.

Next up, Cafe Plate B. This cozy setting was used for “Strong Woman Dobongsoon”, starring Park Bo-young, Park Hyung-sik and Ji Soo. Fans of the show may recognize the small walnut-shaped cake. It is a Korean delicacy and a signature dish served here. It is absolutely delicious and not at all surprising that it appeared in this notable scene.

My journey finally brings me to the relatively remote set

Colorful murals along the stream (“The Liar and His Lover”).

Inside of Cafe Plate B (“Strong Woman Dobongsoon”).

**FOR MORE INFORMATION: WWW.VISITSEOUL.NET

of “The Liar and His Lover”, starring Kang Han-Kyeol and Yoon So-Rime. It is here along this peaceful stream where they strolled together. The area has a really quaint feel to it, and its mountain backdrop only adds to its charm.

As I walk along the path I am instantly transported back to the show.

Walking in the footsteps of Korean celebrities reignites my appreciation for the aforementioned TV drama and shines a new light on the growing success of hallyu.

TRAVEL MADE AUTHENTIC MERCURE HOTELS TAKE GUESTS OFF THE BEATEN TRACK AND LET THEM DISCOVER A NEW CITY IN A TOTALLY AUTHENTIC WAY. EVERYTHING FROM DESIGN TO FOOD IS CAREFULLY CRAFTED TO SHOWCASE THE LOCAL FLAVOUR AND HELP TRAVELLERS EXPERIENCE WHAT MAKES A PLACE UNIQUE.

Lumpini Park

Jim Thompson House

Staying true to that promise, Mercure hotels in Thailand make each neighbourhood’s history and hidden stories accessible, creating memorable stays for every guest in this magical country.

With excellent access to transportation and within walking distance to the city’s best shopping, Mercure Bangkok Siam’s central location is perfect for on-themove guests. And it has another advantage for the active set: the nearby Lumpini Park. As the sun rises, the place is buzzing as old friends practice tai chi, play board games, and chat over breakfast. Office workers start their day with a jog around the lake or an aerobics class set to booming dance hits. From yoga to basketball to weight lifting, the park really has something for everyone.

Well of Good Luck

An exceptional value in the heart of the city, Mercure Chiang Mai provides for guests’ every need and offers easy access to northern Thailand’s shopping, dining, and historic cultural sites. One such site is just a minute’s walk from the hotel. Part of the ancient Wat Chedi Dang Nok temple, a hundred-year-old pagoda stands among modern buildings and attracts locals with its Well of Good Luck. Believed to draw from a fortune-changing pool beneath the pagoda, it has never failed to supply luck-seekers with its special water.

Newly renovated, Mercure Bangkok Sukhumvit 11 features spacious and contemporary rooms, creative dining options, and a breathtaking rooftop swimming pool. It’s a taste of modern Bangkok living, but also offers guests a glimpse of the past a few minutes away at the Jim Thompson House. An intelligence operative, architect and art collector, Jim Thompson revitalised the Thai silk industry before disappearing mysteriously while on a hike in Malaysia. Today, his charming wooden Thaistyle home is a slice of Bangkok life in the 1960s that also showcases the craftsmanship of local silk weavers.

Panoramic views of the skyline, gourmet food, and signature wine list make Mercure Bangkok Makkasan’s sophisticated M Wine Lounge and pool bar ideal for a romantic evening on the hotel’s 10th floor. But mornings bring a very different experience as farmers from across the country turn Makkasan train station into a bustling market. With a variety of exotic fruits and vegetables, as well as authentic Thai dishes, this is the best place to experience the absolute best farm-fresh mango, durian, longan, mangosteen and other offerings.

Makkasan Train Station Market

For more information, visit mercure.com or accorhotels.com.

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August

ON THE COVER

features

Limestone cliffs soar out of the deep-blue seas around El Nido, Palawan.

Photographed by Sunny Merindo.

53

Special

World’s Best Awards The top hotels, cities, islands, cruises, airports and more, as voted by T+L readers.

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c l o c k w i s e F R O M t o p LE F T: l a u r y n i s h a k ; j u l i a n b r o a d ; c o u r t e s y o f t h e p e n i n s u l a h o t e l s ; p e t e r b o h l e r

Wild, Wild Life On Lombok, Brian Spencer trails in the footsteps of pioneering naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace to a tropical paradise on the ecological edge. Photographed

by Lauryn Ishak 82 100 90 53

90

Song of the Forest Canada’s province of British Columbia is home to First Nations communities whose history is deeply intertwined with the mountains, woods and waters. By Craig Taylor. Photographed

by Peter Bohlery

100

Greek Revival Despite the adversity it has faced in recent years, maybe even because of it, Athens is an incredibly fun place to wander. By Stephen Heyman.

Photographed by Julian Broad

tr av el andleisure asia .com / augus t 2017

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In Every Issue

T+L Digital 12 Contributors 14 Editor’s Note 16 The Conversation 18 Deals 50 Wish You Were Here 114

departments Here+Now

Beyond

The Place

23 The Grass Is Always Greener

37 A Taste of Rangoon Burmese

108 Jaipur Bring an empty suitcase

bars in Kuala Lumpur pours

26 Asian Sensations A trio of new generous cocktails, with a splash of Oriental charm.

Cambodian coastal town is

finding its voice, with a new train service opening access to its buzzy new arts scene, hip restaurants and cafés.

one of Hong Kong’s last true boat

emerging and established are

46 Wander Women Outfitters both catering to female adventurers looking for excitement, wellness and social engagement—without the guys around.

shadow, culture-rich Taichung is

30 Made in Taiwan Long in Taipei’s marrying heritage and futurism to carve out an identity all its own.

32 Cross-Country Style New takes on Argentinian country style.

26

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to Rajasthan’s famed Pink City, because you’re going to want to buy everything in this creative hub. By Rachna Sachasinh.

Photographed by Ankush Maria

40 The Kampot Express The quiet

28 The Last Junk Handcrafted by builders, the new Aqua Luna II pays homage to the city’s maritime past.

food is a mix of savory and funky, with influences from China and India. It just might be the next global culinary phenomenom.

augus t 2017 / tr av el andleisure asia .com

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F R O M LE F T: c o u r t e s y o f M r c h e w ’ s c h i n o l at i n o b a r ; c o u r t e s y o f a q u a l u n a ; c o u r t e s y o f r a n g o o n t e a h o u s e ; a n k u s h m a r i a

A new resort in central Vietnam is a quicker, more candescent ticket to paradise.

17_247 © 2017 Preferred Hotels & Resorts

The Preferred Life J U S T A S H O R T WA L K T O WA R D T H E U N D I S C O V E R E D

Move your mind to a place of calm — where priorities align and relaxation ensues.

P R E F E R R E D H O T E L S . C O M

THE TEMPLE HOUSE

THE SIAM

T H E L E E L A PA L A C E NEW DELHI

PREFERRED HOTELS & RESORTS WARMLY WELCOMES

SM

+

t+l digital

Lookout

Vientiane’s Artists Are Making Waves Find out how a new generation is changing the face of the Laotian capital with their bold, fearless work.

How to Meet New People While Traveling Making friends is often how we make travel memories.

Here’s a look at some hightech ways to go about it.

Explore the Mekong on a Four-Country River Cruise Discover a whole new side of these lands on an intrepid voyage from Laos to China from Pandaw Cruises.

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augus t 2017 / tr av el andleisure asia .com

tleditor@ mediatransasia.com

travelandleisureasia.com

fr o m l e f t: m i c k s h i p p e n ; a u t c h a r a pa n p h a i ; c o u r t e s y o f pa n d aw r i v e r e x p e d i t i o n s

this month on tr avel andleisureasia.com

A new JapanesePeruvian restaurant in Hong Kong; in Singapore, a bartender forages for drinks; a Michelin-lauded chef moves to Bali; masterful soba in Bangkok; the latest travel deals and more.

contributors

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Holly Robertson

Rachna Sachasinh

The Kampot Express Page 40 — “The train from Phnom Penh to Kampot is a journey to another era,” Robertson says, “starting with the oldworld charm of the restored 1960s carriages and carried on by the grand yet decaying buildings in Kampot town center.” Amid the relaxed, easygoing vibe, “I love its mix of colonial architecture and top-notch restaurants, ringed by mountains, pepper farms and rice fields.” Visit Twenty Three for “a decadent cheese soufflé well worth the indulgence.” Likewise the guilt-free shopping at Dorsu: “any of their ethically made basics make a great addition to your wardrobe.”

Twitter: @robertson.holly.

The Place: Jaipur Page 108 — “Jaipur is all about beauty,” the Chiang Mai–based writer says. “Even freight trucks are in gorgeous colors and patterns. Creative energy is youthful and global.”

Prime example: India Beat’s Dig Vijay ‘Diggy’ Rathore (pictured left). “Hands down the best local guide, he brought me to generationsold craftsmen and young upstarts. His knowledge is encyclopedic and he’s funny.”

Hit Hibiscus Court for dishes with grains and veggies from their garden. “Baajra (millet) rotis slathered in ghee and jaggery is a wholesome meal and a decadent dessert, all in one!” she says. “I ate like a pig.” Instagram: @b438.

3

4

Lauryn Ishak

Brian Spencer

Wild, Wild Life Page 82 — Compared to Bali, Lombok “is less crowded and feels very lush and rustic. It’s wild but at the same time accessible,” says the Singapore-based photographer. Her favorite adventure of the trip was a hike into the headlands at Jeeva Beloam, on the island’s southeastern tip, in search of a Japanese cannon from World War II. “We evaded wild boars, saw a monkey the size of a medium dog, nearly walked into a snake and did walk into a thorny bush.

The views were absolutely stunning”—if not exactly what they were looking for.

Turned out the cannon was up the other side of the coast.

Instagram: @laurynishak.

Wild, Wild Life Page 82 — “Naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace survived four years in the Amazon, a shipwreck in the middle of the ocean, and eight years in the Malay archipelago,” Spencer says, “and he collected 200,000 specimens.” Follow his trail with caution: “While hiking, we heard this thunderous crash. My heart skipped a few beats; there were some expletives; we both took a few steps back and then two massive boars came stomping out, and all I could think of was a friend telling me that boars would charge. We stood motionless for a few minutes, then pressed on—this time with a large rock in hand.”

Instagram: @brianbspencer.

Ph o to gr a p h er

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W r i t er

W r i t er

fr o m t o p : c o u r t e s y o f h o l ly r o b e r t s o n ; c o u r t e s y o f r a c h n a s a c h a s i n h ; c o u r t e s y o f l a u r y n i s h a k ; c o u r t e s y o f b r i a n s p e n c e r

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august 2017

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W r i t er

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editor’s note

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august 2017

corner of the Philippines that begs to be explored for its multi-hued seas, abandoned beaches and serrated-edge rock outcrops. Home to a land- and seascape that slows your internal clock, which is reason enough for our readers to choose it as their favorite island in the World’s Best Awards (page 53). After a couple of visits—you can’t go just once—what stands out in my memory is not the seclusion or the crystal clear seas but an Italian resort owner. The panorama of sheer cliffs and colorful seas sweeping across his beachfront was a view most would kill for. Despite this, he was grumpy, hilariously so. That said, what I wouldn’t give to be sitting on that beach right now with him muttering in Italian watching the sun sink in the distance.

What’s new, what’s trendy, what still checks off all the right boxes after all these years? Around Asia, there are a handful of winners who have made the grade for 10 years now. So it’s no big surprise to see Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific, the Mandarin Oriental Bangkok and The Peninsula Hong Kong as repeat winners.

In the airline rankings, where Singapore takes top billing, five of the other top 10 call Asia home. So take a bow, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Korean Air, All Nippon Airways and EVA Air. It’s a safe bet to book a flight on one of them to your next, best destination.

@CKucway chrisk@mediatransasia.com

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a u g u s t 2 0 1 7 / t r av e l a n d l e i s u r e a s i a . c o m

From My Travels

One of those cities where the skyline is in continual flux, Hong Kong always aims to squeeze something more out of the little space or time it confronts. But the surprises it comes up with aren’t always modern.

Oddly, I had never been to the Mido Café, so jumped at the chance for a morning breakfast meeting in Yau Ma Tei— who could be disappointed with the Canto movie-set, retro surrounds?

fr o m l e f t: t h a n a k o r n c h o m n awa n g ; c h r i s t o p h e r k u c way

If you’ve never been to Palawan, start making plans to visit. It’s a

the conversation How much bang can you get for your buck when you move abroad?

If you choose your destination based on human-resource consulting firm Mercer’s most recent cost of living survey, Asia might not be where you end up. The continent dominates their annual roundup of the world’s most expensive places for expats, with five Asian cities in the top 10. “Although a number of Asian cities remain amongst the world’s most expensive, key financial hubs such as Hong Kong and Singapore continue to attract talent and remain top choices for relocation,” says Mario Ferraro, Mercer’s global mobility leader for Asia, Middle East and Africa. He attributes the results to currency fluctuations and notes that cities like Mumbai are moving up the list because of their increasingly strong economies. Here, the top 10:

zurich Switzerland

Chinese cities fell in ranking because of the weakening of the yuan.

bern Switzerland

geneva Switzerland

new york U.S.

Shanghai China

Luanda Angola The price of imports and security makes life costly for expats, most of whom work in the oil industry.

seoul South Korea The high cost of rent earns Seoul a top spot on the list.

singapore

This month, readers share with us how they get their daily caffeine fix.

Thai tea to get the day started in Bangkok. By @supawitket.

Coffee for two in Hanoi.

By @milesofsmiles._.

A morning well spent in Phnom Penh. By @jackiecole_.

Share an Instagram photo by using the #TLAsia hashtag, and it may be featured in an upcoming issue. Follow @travelandleisureasia.

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augus t 2017 / tr av el andleisure asia .com

i l l u s t r at i o n b y A u t c h a r a pa n p h a i

Mandatory latte stop in Bali.

By @evadneang

Concurrent with the rise in the value of the yen is Tokyo’s rise from fifth place.

hong kong China The Hong Kong dollar is pegged to the U.S dollar, which drives up living costs.

#TLASIA

Tokyo Japan

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A Sublime Maldives Immersion

ROMANCE, RAW BEAUTY AND A SENSE OF PLACE AT MILAIDHOO ISLAND MALDIVES IN THE HEART OF the UNESCO World Biosphere Baa Atoll, Milaidhoo Island Maldives is not just another five-star resort. Their philosophy of reinvented luxury starts from the very beginning: the boutique resort thinks of its guests as storywriters, crafting their dream holiday.

The aim is to create a place where guests feel like they belong. Service from everyone including your island host, who is on hand to ensure every detail of the stay is perfect, is tip top but always friendly, in line with the resort’s ‘barefoot informality’ ethos. Above all, Milaidhoo offers a taste of the true Maldives, opening doors to Maldivian culture and unique experiences.

Opened in November 2016, Milaidhoo has its own coral reef, which completely circles the island and is noted as an outstanding snorkelling and diving site.

A member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, Milaidhoo has just 50 thatched-roof villas, designed by a local architect and made by master craftsmen. Spacious and bright, each has a private freshwater pool on the sundeck and opens up 180 degrees to allow the natural beauty of the island into the villa. The room rate includes wi-fi, laundry, movies-on-demand, snorkelling equipment and in-villa treats such as a bottle of champagne and fruit basket on arrival, and evening turn-down with gourmet snacks. Toiletries are full-sized from the ultra-luxurious Acqua Di Parma.

The over-water Serenity Spa is all natural and organic, using the power of plants from famous British brand Elemis and innovative African brand TheraNaka.

Sports include yoga, sailing, catamarans, kayaks, a 24-hour gym, yacht trips, dolphin cruises, whale shark spotting, manta ray watching, conservation activities with the resident marine biologist, diving, snorkelling, and an open-air infinity pool.

Guests don’t just go fishing, but go out on a local boat with Maldivian fishermen and help bring in the day’s catch.

Food lovers will enjoy the Milaidhoo Gourmet dine-around meal plan offering daily breakfast, lunch and dinner plus all drinks including premium alcohol and wine. In the three wonderful restaurants, no shoes are required. Ever. The signature restaurant, Ba’theli, is on three replica wooden boats, and its menu is inspired by the spice trade routes when, 5,000 years ago, local-made cargo boats sailed the archipelago spreading knowledge about different lands, their customs and cuisine.

Dine on the ‘deck’ underneath starry skies or in the ‘cabin’ of the boat and watch sealife below through glass floors.

Milaidhoo is tailor-made for couples, with no children under the age of nine allowed on the island. The Perfect Honeymoon package includes romantic dinners, spa treatments and even a star in the night sky named after them—certainly not your average holiday souvenir.

Reservations tel: +960 665 4441 • For information: www.milaidhoo.com • Email: reservations@milaidhoo.com

Near-Away! by American Express

THE SULTAN 101 Jalan Sultan #01-01 Singapore 199002 Call 65 6723 7101 or email info@thesultan.com.sg to make your bookings now.

The Sultan is a historical shophouse hotel located in the hip and eclectic Kampong Glam district in Singapore.

The hotel is just minutes away from the cool boutiques and bars on Haji Lane, the traditional carpet sellers on Arab Street and some of the hottest restaurant tables at Kandahar Street.

Boasting 64 individually designed guest rooms, the hotel is a gleaming testament to both the preservation of Singapore’s historical architecture and also the country’s

warm hospitality. Whether you like generous handcarved King size boat beds, Japanese-inspired platform beds, or skylights that allow you to wake up to the Singapore sunrise, the rooms have a little something special for each and every traveller.

No stay at The Sultan would be complete without experiencing the sumptuous and hearty halal European fare at Classified Cafe.

To enjoy a one night’s stay in Puteri Room at American Express subsidised rate of S$150 nett, please present the voucher located in your Platinum Reserve Credit Card Welcome Pack or annual Renewal Pack.

T H E S U LTA N NEAR-AWAY! BY AMERICAN EXPRESS IS OPEN TO AMERICAN EXPRESS® PLATINUM RESERVE CREDIT CARD MEMBERS. • Card Member must make advance reservation with The Sultan, Singapore at +65 6723 7101. Any use of vouchers must be stated at time of reservation.

• All reservations are subject to availability and not applicable during blackout dates (i.e. eves of Holidays and Public Holiday) or days of high occupancy. Please contact The Sultan, Singapore for more information. A room reservation confirmation letter or email (in softcopy or hardcopy) must be presented, along with the physical voucher and your American Express Platinum Reserve Credit Card upon check-in.

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• Accommodation is for a maximum of two (2) adults and is inclusive of all applicable tax and service charges for such accommodation. Breakfast is not included. Cost of meals and all other incidentals (including applicable tax and service charges), will be charged to the Card Member’s American Express Platinum Reserve Credit Card.

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News + trends + discoveries

Debut

The Grass Is Always Greener A new resort in central Vietnam is a quicker, more candescent ticket to paradise. Jeninne Lee-St. John checks in to The Anam.

Photogr aphed by Morgan Ommer

P h oto C r e d i t T e e k ay

The chill life in The Anam’s main pool.

“Faster! Go faster!” Mr. Thanh, the watersports director, has been hollering in my ear, which really feels like the opposite of goodpassenger behavior, and when he jumps off and starts swimming to shore, his exhortations echo in my wake. “Faster! Farrrrrrther!”

If he says so. It’s been a while since I last drove a Jet Ski, >> tr av el andleisure asia .com / augus t 2017

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/ here&now / so I’m psyched to practice cutting and swerving at increasingly high speeds through these mini whitecaps on water that is clear to at least a meter. There’s the occasional fishing boat bobbing to my east; on the dunes of the mostly empty shoreline to my west are a couple of local hotels and a few beach-shack eateries; and above...? Right above me is a plane heading in the same direction, surprisingly close. It’s coming in for a landing and I remember that Cam Ranh Airport lies just 11 kilometers—as the crow flies, car drives or, if you were ambitious, Jet Ski cruises—from where I started.

That’s the amazing thing about The Anam. The newest entry into Vietnam’s ultra-high-end market feels a like a fairy-land fusion of the remote purity of Koh Rong, Cambodia, with the playful, lawnparty luxury of the Florida Keys. But it is a straight 12-minute shot to a little airport in the center of the East Sea coastline and 35 minutes to Nha Trang—a bustling beach city better suited for a diving or drinking daytrip than a relaxing vacation terminus. Sheltered on a long empty shore south of Cu Hin Mountain with the requisite private-pool villas, a palatial Thémaé-product spa (plus two spa-centric guest villas with their own treatment rooms), a 3-D movie theater, three photogenic pools, and the best private-dining set-up I’ve ever experienced, The Anam has all of the elements of exclusive-resort style, none of the far-flung-hideaway inconvenience.

Thanks to the spare-no-expenses dedication to landscaping of founder Pham Van Hien, it looks like no other property in the country. Two long, Kelly green fairways run from the main pool down towards the shore where they join at a central lawn dotted with towering palms (3,000 were responsibly transplanted from a nearby grove). Volleyball nets and a couple of soaring kites overlook a sweep of sand the color of unbrushed silk and the bright azure ocean

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augus t 2017 / tr av el andleisure asia .com

Clockwise from top left: The Anam’s

Saigon bar; the villalined Lagoon Pool; lunch at the Beach Club; take to the seas with the resort’s Jet Skis, kayaks, surfboards, bravo sailboats or snorkeling gear; a guest room cocoon; the private-dining gazebo. bottom right: A traditional basket boat for fishing excursions.

beyond. Stepping out of your villa— each has a garden-wrapped sunken tub and a bed of lush Irish linens in a cocoon of French-Vietnamese overlap best exemplified by the floor tiles made by local artisans to evoke colonial-era grace—onto the soft golf grass each morning, you’ll rub your eyes and wonder if you’re standing in an oversaturated photograph. Or perhaps forgot to take off those 3-D glasses.

Conquering water skis, sipping fresh coconuts, swinging in hammocks— it all seems so much more fulfilling in these high-definition greens, blues and whites.

Yes, the place is social media gold, but it’s also got warm, small-town service. Just ask the team of spidermen who set up the private-dining experience for us, tight-roping on the gazebo to ensure the drapes billowed just so, carefully arranging the candles into a romantic ring of fire. It was logically tucked into a copse of trees on the front lawn, about 15 meters from the chef and his grill, to perfectly balance privacy and proximity. This means you get close to the sounds of the surf, without uncomfortably sandy feet to distract from the wine-paired meat and seafood extravaganza served by the attentive but decidedly nonintrusive waiter.

The hotel also has a communityfocused mission championed heartily by general manager Herbert Laubichler-Pichler, who wanted to do more than just decorate his guest rooms with local originals. And so, a mixed-media art tour was recently launched by The Anam in conjunction with the Vietnamese Art Association of Khanh Hoa Province, a place that photographer Mai Loc— who worked his way up from being an impoverished cyclo driver to an internationally recognized professional who has showed with the likes of James Nachtwey—tells me “is good inspiration for artists, not so good for art business.” The circuit varies by the day to share the spotlight among a diverse batch of

creatives; an afternoon drive through Nha Trang takes us to meet him, a sculptor, and painters of varied styles and renown.

At the home gallery that demure Bao Tran runs to display the work of various painters including herself and her husband, Luu Thanh Qua, we’re saying our see-you-laters when Luu pulls out a sketchpad and charcoal pencils and shyly asks if, actually, I have five more minutes to spare. A lieutenant in the military, he mostly oil paints traditional bucolic scenes… although, watching him make effusive squiggles on the page, I suspect it is my nontraditional curly hair that was today’s inspiration.

I’m delighted to accept his drawing of me, and even more so that a couple of hours later we will meet again. We reconvene with all of the artists for an aperitif at Laubichler-Pichler’s home, drinks on the beach at the Nha Trang expat institution Sailing Club (also The Anam’s partner for diving and island-hopping excursions) and then a big fresh-seafood feast. On a balcony overlooking the two twinkling spans over the city’s estuary, picking out snails and sucking down enormous steamer clams, a few rounds of 333 beer facilitates our group chat, a mash-up of their stilted English and my elementary Vietnamese. What a perfect setting it is to bridge the hotel community with this local fellowship, who themselves embody life in Technicolor. theanam.com; doubles from US$215.

tr av el andleisure asia .com / augus t 2017

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/ here&now / Cocktails fl avored by spices from a Nyonya granny’s garden. A dance floor in a neo-Japanese subterranean bar. A lounge with Chino-Latino flare to spare. KL now has a crop of Asian-themed bars on its radar, encouraged by enthusiastic barmen inspired by the spices, produce and art that surround them.

Af ter Dark

Asian Sensations

A trio of new bars in Kuala Lumpur pours generous cocktails, with splash of Oriental charm. By Mark Lean

Shelley Yu’s This Peranakan bar and restaurant is a charmer, matching Straits Chinese culture with a dash of irreverence. The gin-based cocktails steal the show, peppered with fruits and herbs that wouldn’t look out of place in a Nyonya grandmother’s spice cabinet: salted pineapples, dried sour plums and jackfruit leaves. Try the Roselle Spritz, squeezed from the roselle plant typically grown in Malaysian gardens. The drinks are creative, but when it comes to cuisine, Shelley Yu’s sticks to classic Malaccan Nyonya fare—still on-theme, and equally delicious. shelleyyus.com; drinks for two RM60.

from top: Bartender Rick Joore brings the heat at Mr. Chew’s;

Peranakan style with an irreverent twist at Shelley Yu’s.

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Kyo This nightclub in the Mandarin Oriental has all the ingredients for a killer party: beautiful people, oodles of champagne, a strict door policy (a RM40 cover charge), and a pedigree in Singapore, where the original club had enough DJ-cred to launch a record label. A subterranean energy dominates Kyo (the dance room) and Ren (the cocktail lounge), both decked out in wood panels from tugboats in Port Dickson. Art by emerging talent depict tropes from Japanese anime and 90s movies, which speak to the club’s affluent millennial clientele. On the decks is a roster of local and regional DJs spinning a mix of blistering house, Afro, disco, hiphop, funk, R&B and lounge tunes. clubkyokl.com; drinks for two RM100.

fr o m t o p : c o u r t e s y o f mr . c h e w ’ s ; c o u r t e s y o f s h e l l e y y u ’ s

Mr. Chew’s Chino Latino Bar At this crayola-colored penthouse atop the WOLO Hotel, owner Eddie Chew has forgone the practiced sophistication of his other bars (Coppersmith, Claret) in favor of a louche, anything-goes vibe. A blend of Christian Lacroix fabric prints, imposing murals above the bar, and a champagne bathtub, the interiors are part Manhattan loft, part Cuban residence, and anything but dull. Bartender Rick Joore’s drink creations—like the Chew’s Daiquiri, a blend of rum, hanoho ziso flowers, lime, grapefruit and a plum wine reduction— evoke lazy Havana afternoons spent in the sun. mr-chew.com; drinks for two RM80.

A UNIQUE LIFESTYLE

/ here&now /

cruising

The Last Junk Handcrafted by one of Hong Kong’s last true boat builders, the new Aqua Luna II pays homage to the city’s maritime past.

Ivory and imperial-blue sails,

arched like dragon wings, pull taut in the evening breeze as the teakwood hull plies an easy 45-minute loop through Victoria Harbour. The sail design is inspired

by Ming Dynasty–era ceramics, featuring a dragon motif as a symbol of luck, and cuts a dramatic silhouette against the night sky, glittering with city lights. There are other ships aplenty in these waters—cruise liners, cargo vessels, fishing boats, and motorized yachts—but I’m aboard what might be Hong Kong’s last true junk.

The Aqua Luna II was built by hand and without a single nail by Au

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Wai, an octogenarian junk builder and the last of his ilk in the city until he recently retired. These traditional boats emerged during China’s Han Dynasty, and were used for shipping, fishing, exploration—even in battle—for the next two millennia. As recently as the 1970s, Au says, “the industry was thriving and there were a lot of traditional junks docked in the harbor.” But over the years, the boats have slowly disappeared.

Despite a few modern adjustments to comply with government regulations, Au’s building process remained firmly rooted in time-honored methods. He

augus t 2017 / tr av el andleisure asia .com

uses bamboo for waterproofing and Indonesian teak wood to construct the hull, carefully cutting pieces according to their flexibility. The curved bottom of the boat, for example, requires the most malleable planks. Each piece is heated into shape, then locked together with a tree-derived glue.

Together with his son, Au Sai-Kit, and a team of builders, the elder Au spent two years constructing the Aqua Luna II in mainland China, before moving his work to Hong Kong. The ship took its maiden voyage in April, joining its sister craft, the red-sailed Aqua Luna, on Victoria Harbour.

c o u r t e s y o f a q u a l u n a (4 )

By K ate Springer

the trade, and eventually came to run Shau Kei Wan shipyard on the northeast corner of Hong Kong Island. While Au has passed his skills onto his son, the younger shipbuilder works mostly on repairing yachts, and doesn’t plan to take up the tradition due to increasing government regulations and a lack of demand. Though his father has another theory: “the new generation isn’t interested—they don’t like manual labor.”

Hong Kong is unlikely to see any more labors of love quite like this.

“You have to be very precise with the wood cutting; even if it is one centimeter too short or too long, it

Sails aside, it is a near mirror image of the Aqua Luna, though more posh thanks to newer furniture and a bigger bar area where guests are served all manner of drinks. Up close, the 27-meter boat looks nothing short of cinematic, with its polished wood decks and fan-like sails unfurling overhead. It’s a regal valediction from a consummate junk builder who dedicated his life to these historic boats. Originally from China, Au fled by bicycle to Macau during the second Sino-Japanese War when he was around five years old. He later made his way to Hong Kong, where his uncle taught him

could mean that you have to start all over again,” Au says. “It’s a trade that does not allow for mistakes.”

The Aqua Luna II is a triumph of precision, and Au expects it to last 40 years—plenty of time for travelers to experience the journey. “I’m incredibly proud of the work I have done,” Au says. “This boat will leave a lasting impression, as junks have done on maritime history, of Hong Kong’s culture and heritage.” aqualuna.com.hk; Symphony of Lights cruise from HK$295 per person, including one cocktail; private charters from HK$10,000 per hour, maximum 80 people.

clockwise from top left:

Aqua Luna II sails Victoria Harbour at nightfall; crafting the hull of Aqua Luna II; Au Wai, Hong Kong’s last junk builder; the bow of Aqua Luna II, in November 2015.

tr av el andleisure asia .com / augus t 2017

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/ here&now /

e xplore

Made in Taiwan Long in Taipei’s shadow, culture-rich Taichung is marrying heritage and futurism to carve out an identity all its own. By Christine Wei

Most tr avelers to Taiwan get a taste of its urban life

via Taipei, the country’s dense and dynamic capital. Few have ever had much of a reason to linger in Taichung, Taiwan’s third-largest city, beyond using it as a way station en route to hiking trails and hot springs in the surrounding mountains. But lately Taichung has been changing. Hop on the high-speed rail from Taipei and 45 minutes later you’ll find yourself in a city that’s emerging as one of Asia’s newest hubs of creativity and culture.

Food lovers have been flocking to the city since 2014, when chef Lanshu Chen’s French-inspired restaurant Le Moût (lemout.com; tasting menus from NT$3,500) was first named one of Asia’s 50 Best. More recently, government loans have paved the way for young entrepreneurs to revitalize the old town: additions like the boutique hotel RedDot (reddot-hotel.com; doubles from NT$2,280) and dessert emporium Miyahara (miyahara.com.tw) have made Japanese Occupation–era buildings into destinations. They’ve also cast a new light on beloved institutions nearby, like the Chun Shui Tang Cultural Tea House (chun​shui​tang.com.tw), where bubble tea was invented, and the street markets where vendors hawk oyster omelettes and braised pork over rice.

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In the Western District, the Calligraphy Greenway serves as a cultural artery, its paths and park spaces featuring art installations, a retail center lined with vertical gardens, and a museum of Taiwanese art. There are sleek new architectural gems, too: the massive, Toyo Ito–designed National Taichung Theater (en.npac-ntt.org) has curved walls that lend it a surreal vibe.

Preserving Taichung’s heritage remains a priority. A veteran’s housing complex in the Nantun District was on the chopping block until its last inhabitant covered the walls with murals, creating an attraction known as Rainbow Village (1949rainbow.com.tw). History meets retail at Fantasy Story (fantasy​story.com.tw), a collection of traditional buildings that house shops where screen printers, perfumers and bakers sell their wares. And ambitious initiatives are on the horizon—such as an improved bike-share program and a subway system— promising to make Taichung even more of a complement to the natural wonders nearby.

C l o c k w i s e fr o m l e f t: © C av i a r l i u / Dr e a m s t i m e . c o m ; C o u r t e s y o f L e M o û T; S a m Y e h /A F P/ G e t t y Im a g e s

Clockwise from left: A bird’s-eye view of the National Taichung Theater; a water-lilyinspired dessert at Le Moût; Rainbow Village, a former housing complex decorated with murals by artist Huang Yongfu.

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/ here&now / Sofia Sanchez de Betak at New York Fashion Week 2017.

Lagomarsino hat US$425.

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Anushka capybara espadrilles US$855.

32

It was never Sofia Sanchez de Betak’s

intent to start a travel-inspired fashion business. On her jaunts across the globe, the Argentina-born, New York City–based creative consultant would buy handmade jewelry and clothing, only to get home and never wear them. She started having pieces altered for everyday use, and the idea for her clothing and accessories line, Chufy, was born. The inspiration for her new Argentina collection, however, came from a little closer to home. “I grew up wearing gaucho clothes in the country, so I took them for granted,” de Betak says. But when her riding garb drew compliments, something clicked. Working with craftsmen and designers in Argentina, de Betak uses refined materials—buttery leather instead of sturdy hides, linen in lieu of gabardine—and more feminine cuts for her eminently wearable, updated takes on gaucho style. These easygoing looks work as well on the streets of a big city as they do in a rugged countryside. chufy.world. — LILA BATTIS

augus t 2017 / tr av el andleisure asia .com

Aux charpentiers gaucho pants US$1,960.

CLOCKWISE F R O M TOP : M i c h a e l S t e wa r t/ g e t t y i m a g e s ; P h i l i p F r i e d m a n ( 5 ) . S t i l l- L i f e S t y l i ST: C h a n e l K e n n e b r e w

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Start your Vietnam odyssey in one of two cities: the historic capital Hanoi, or Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s steamy southern hub that moves fast and furiously.

Hanoi blooms with tranquil lakes and its legendary Old Quarter, a trade center for centuries. Retail addicts will love the night market, and the city is a launch point for two of Vietnam’s best highlights: the karst-studded maritime wonderland of Halong Bay, renowned for junk trips and floating villages, and the charming hill town of Sapa, where emerald rice terraces offer visual manna.

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Elsewhere, Bagan and Inle Lake offer contrasting but equally enlivening experiences. Bagan boasts the largest and densest concentration of Buddhist temples, pagodas, stupas and ruins in the world. A balloon ride over the complex showcases a grandstand view, as does the sunset vista from Mount Popa.

Tranquil Inle Lake, meanwhile, is a prime spot to get away from it all, with stilt house villages, lake markets, a wide range of culture and local artisanal crafts such as weaving and blacksmiths making it a place to linger.

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Shrimp biryani at Rangoon Tea House.

courtesy of Rangoon Tea House

the dish

A Taste of Rangoon Burmese food is a mix of savory and funky, with influences from China and India. It just might be the next global culinary phenomenon. BY CHANEY KWAK tr av el andleisure asia .com / augus t 2017

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I couldn’t tell if Desmond Tan was crying from jetlag-induced delirium, sweating from the spicy food or both. We were diving in to sea bass with mustard greens and vibrant herbs that I couldn’t name, all steamed in a banana leaf. It was complex yet comforting, hitting every note from sweet to sour to bitter.

Tan, a San Francisco area–based Burmese restaurateur, and I were at Shan Yoe Yar (fb.com/ shanyoeyar; mains K2,700–K15,000) in downtown Rangoon, a stop on our tour of Burmese cuisine. The restaurant specializes in the food of the Shan ethnic group in the country’s northeast. Combining seasonal vegetables, foraged herbs and hearty meats, the dishes defy modern borders and reflect Laotian, Thai and Chinese influences. Opened in late 2013, the restaurant in an 80-year-old teak mansion is adorned with folksy traditional instruments. Before we could cool our palates, more plates landed: pleasantly bitter leeks pounded with dried soybeans and coriander, pork rinds drizzled with a tamarind sauce, eggplant pulp smoked to a sultry perfection, and tofu home made with chickpeas.

“A couple of years ago, you wouldn’t have seen a restaurant that has good food and great ambience,” Tan said, wiping away at his face. I had to agree—on my last trip six years ago, fine dining consisted of curries drowning in oil served under fluorescent lighting.

For nearly half a century, Burma languished in isolation as its military junta fended off the progress that swept across much of the rest of Asia. But since the democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in 2010, Rangoon has had its first free election, seen an increase in overseas investment, and introduced affordable SIM cards for better phone and Internet service. Suddenly the city is in dialogue with the world, and with this has come a reimagined dining scene.

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Tan, the owner of San Francisco’s Burma Superstar, has been watching this transformation closely. He returned to his birthplace regularly to research his cookbook.

He brought a copy of it with him to dinner, and his friends passed it around the table, incredulous to find familiar Burmese dishes in a glossy book—published in America, no less.

The unspoken question: Is Burmese cuisine ready for the international spotlight?

In short, yes.

Burmese food draws culinary traditions from its geographic proximity to India, China and Thailand; British rule in the 19th and 20th centuries brought additional influences. I ventured out the next day to find this diversity in action. Getting lost in downtown Rangoon’s checkerboard of monsoon-beaten Edwardian town houses and fin-de-siècle edifices, I discovered old-school businesses like a dairy shop next to the Shri Kali Hindu temple. The boyish proprietor, Dhana Shekaran, scoops mustard oil and ghee out of big jars, just like his South Indian immigrant grandfather did.

These days, the shop’s star product is its yogurt, made fresh with buffalo milk and served in clay jars. Cool and custardy, it also has a tangy kick, not unlike a summery salad of mozzarella dressed with vinegar—just the thing I needed after a stroll through Rangoon’s oppressive humidity.

Amid the cacophony of the produce market on 17th Street, I encountered a spring-rollpaper maker, whose hand dipped into a watery rice batter and flashed across a dozen hot

fr o m l e f t: S t e v e V i d l e r / p r o f i l e p h o t o l i b r a r y; c o u r t e s y o f S h a n Y o e Ya r R e s ta u r a n t; N at h a l i e C u v e l i e r / g e t t y i m a g e s

/ beyond /th e d i sh

from far left: the colorful Shri

Kali Hindu temple; Shan noodles, tofu ohn, fried water crest and nam phe (tomato paste with vegetables); a shop full of bananas.

plates so quickly that my phone’s camera could only capture blurry streaks of white. Slices of pomelo and papaya were piled up high on carts, sugarcane juicers jangled incessantly and samosas floated in vats of hot oil.

Businessmen, wearing starched white shirts tucked into their longyi, slurped the national breakfast of mohinga (fish stew).

“Burma’s food has always had a lot of potential to appeal to different palates,” said Ngwe San Aung, who goes by Axiao. His café, Pansuriya (fb.com/pansuriyamyanmar; mains K2,700–K8,100), serves a mean salad of tamarind leaves tossed in garlic oil and sesame. The kitchen uses hyperlocal ingredients, like most restaurants in Rangoon, where locavorism isn’t a recent fad but a way of life. The people have always had to make do with whatever is on hand—a side effect of weak infrastructure.

That’s not to say Rangoon is a bubble. Axiao has never lived abroad, but after a couple years of study he picked up fluent English by interacting with the city’s expat community, one that has grown exponentially since the U.S. and European Union eased sanctions in

Cool and custardy, the yogurt had a kick— just the thing I needed after a stroll through Rangoon’s humidity

2012. Another thing he learned from the foreigners: the food served in Rangoon’s restaurants needed less salt and oil to broaden its appeal and allow the flavors to shine. In a way, this year-old café exemplifies the city’s potential: it’s locally rooted and globally inspired. A collaboration with art dealer Aung Soe Min, who champions Burmese artists at his downtown gallery, Pansuriya is really an upstart cultural center that happens to serve excellent food. Paintings by Rangoon artists hang alongside vintage photographs and posters. The café has hosted cultural events, such as a screening of a documentary on human rights—an act of defiance that could easily have gotten it shuttered a few years back. Axiao pointed out the moss-covered Victorian building across the street.

“That’s a police station,” he said, shrugging. “Why should I be afraid? I’m not doing anything illegal.” Seeing his success, a number of cafés and restaurants targeting monied Burmese and expats have followed suit on Bogalay Zay Street.

To explain how the food here is changing, Tan took me to Sharky’s (fb.com/sharkys.yangon), a deli run by an eccentric food maker who has lived in Switzerland and Israel. Sharky, whose given name is U Ye Htut Win, makes gelato, Camembert and other foreign food from scratch. “He created a market for things people didn’t know about,” Tan said.

Locals like Sharky returning from abroad are reshaping Rangoon’s food scene. Next door to the new downtown Sharky’s store is Rangoon Tea House (fb.com/ rangoonteahouse; mains K2,700–K5,400), opened by 27-year-old Htet Myet Oo, who came back to Rangoon after attending college in London. He takes a barista-like approach to tea. (Try cho kyat, or sweet and bitter, flavored with condensed milk.) Upstairs, German expat Ulla Kroeber runs an accessories and décor boutique named Hla Day (hladaymyanmar.org). As the spouse of a UN diplomat, Kroeber is aware that much of Burma’s population still struggles for survival, with one-quarter living below the poverty line. Her enterprise works with artisans to design and market products, from handwoven textiles to candied pomelo peel.

Inevitably, some worry that these accoutrements of globalized taste run the risk of homogenizing Rangoon.

Tan is well aware of the consequences. “It makes me sad to think that, in a few years, Rangoon will be like any other city in Southeast Asia,” he said, pointing at the streets full of Korean and Japanese cars. And for a second, I could see what he meant: teenagers passed by, their eyes fixed on their mobile phones. But for now— with food this eclectic and underrated—Rangoon is in a class by itself. tr av el andleisure asia .com / augus t 2017

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/ beyond /e m e r g i n g Chartreuse rice paddies

The Kampot Express The quiet Cambodian coastal town is finding its voice, with a new train service opening access to its buzzy new arts scene, hip restaurants and cafés. BY Holly Robertson. Photogr aphed BY Thomas Cristofoletti

FROM TOP: Passengers board the Royal Railway in Phnom Penh; old-colonial style flowers in Kampot town.

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and tree-covered hills ease by as I gaze out the window on the four-hour train journey from Phnom Penh to the southern riverside town of Kampot. Arriving at the tumbledown station, before bumping along a dirt track in an outsized tuk tuk, I’m prepared for the possibility that Kampot is little more than a rural backwater. But the approach belies the increasingly cosmopolitan nature of this emerging destination, with a boom of new café, bar and restaurant openings propelling this historic port forward.

Set on the banks of the winding Praek Tuek Chhu River in Cambodia’s south, Kampot has long attracted foreigners, from the Malaysian and Chinese merchants plying their wares before French colonizers stamped their presence on the port town, to the Americans, Aussies and Europeans who are making it their home now, with a growing number of creative-types drawn to the city’s laidback vibe.

The days of the Khmer Rouge are finally behind it (Kampot was one of the regime’s last strongholds until the mid-1990s), and the delightfully restored Royal Railway (royalrailway.com; tickets from Phnom Penh to Kampot US$6 one way) trains began running again from the capital last April, with bright yellow and blue exteriors, pull-down windows and comfortable vinyl seats offering a charming way to journey towards a much-changed Kampot. Today you’ll find international standard restaurants tucked into crumbling French colonial buildings, attractive shopfronts that peer onto the faded beauty of the tree-lined riverfront, and cute cafés that add sparkle to the town’s languid pace. While worldfamous among foodies for its pepper, Kampot receives few visitors compared to Cambodia’s temples and beaches. But with a new literary festival, a range cuisines on offer and its bucolic surrounds ripe for exploration, travelers should visit soon, before it truly takes off.

clockwise FROM above: Sunset at

Fishmarket; roasted seabass at Twenty Three; the diner-style interior of Twenty Three; rice fields on the town outskirts.

The Food + From the outside, there is little to distinguish Twenty Three (fb.com/ 23kampot; mains US$4–$8) from the dozens of other restaurants housed in the colonial-era buildings that line the streets of Kampot. But the unassuming eatery has flair where it matters most: in the kitchen. Since opening in May last year, head chef Owen Kaagman has quickly carved out a reputation in the town’s dining scene with perfectly balanced dishes such as the smoked mackerel pâté appetizer and roasted seabass with cauliflower puree main, which I wash down with a glass of white wine at lunch, followed by a decadent chocolate-and-salted caramel pot for dessert.

Trained in high-end London restaurants including the Michelinstarred Medlar, Kaagman now works with two domestic stoves and substitutes cold-climate vegetables with whatever approximations he can find in the local market. “It’s been a massive learning curve in terms of

adapting,” he says. But while the potholed streets of sleepy Kampot are a long way from London’s fine-dining scene, that’s just the way he and co-owner Jeremy Ashby like it. “It’s a beautiful, sleepy little town,” Ashby says, “but it’s getting busier now; you can see it happening.” + A sunset cocktail on the riverfront at the centrally located Fishmarket (fb.com/fishmarketkampot; mains US$7–$30) is the perfect way to wind down at the end of the day. Hugh Munro, who spent four years refurbishing the 1930s Art Deco building before opening the restaurant early last year, admits the town’s growth spurt has taken him by surprise. “I thought we would be

ahead of the curve, but in the last six months or so we’ve had five great new places open,” he says as green-hued fishing boats putter along the river behind him. “And it’s only going to get better.”

The Fuel + Café Espresso (kampotcoffee. wixsite.com/espresso; mains US$3– $7) is a Kampot institution that last year moved to one half of a cavernous former salt-storage warehouse outside the Old Market area where most other tourist-oriented businesses are clustered. “This is one of the last abandoned industrial buildings,” says Angus Whelan, who owns the popular spot with his wife,

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/ beyond /e m e r g i n g Kiara Notaras. “I had to do all of the plumbing, electrics, water in, water out. It was a challenge.” The update was worth the work: the minimalistindustrial feel in the space is balanced by a friendly atmosphere (dogs and children are most welcome) and hearty, modern brunch fare such as the pork tacos followed by ricottaand fig-jam pancakes that I devoured there on a recent lazy morning. + As the trickle of travelers to the town has turned into a stream, this high standard of cuisine is what people are now expecting, according to Angus, who also recently opened Kampot Espresso Bar (fb.com/ kampotespressobar; coffee and small bites US$1–$5) in the center of town.

Few businesses now rely on the backpacker trade of 50-cent beers

and “happy” pizzas (toppings mixed with marijuana) that were once Kampot staples. “We’ve got to the point that unless you’re doing something new and original, you’re not lasting,” he says.

The Arts + One of the first creative initiatives that attracted visitors was Epic Arts (epicarts.org.uk), which began with a café that opened in 2006 to empower the local disabled community by providing them with employment opportunities and the chance to experiment with different art forms.

Last year, the organization started staging—in the town’s iconic Old Royal Cinema—its well-received Come Back Brighter, a live telling of the country’s story, featuring some

dancers who have disabilities. Shows will resume in December. + The Kampot Arts and Music Association ( fb.com/kampotarts), established a couple of years ago by the famed rock n’ roll band Cambodian Space Project and operating out of a crumbling colonial building that once served as a bordello, is providing a space for aspiring musicians to hone their myriad skills. + More recently, band founder Julien Poulson was part of a team that set up the Kampot Writers and Readers Festival (kampotwritersfestival.com; November 1–6), which had its first edition in late 2015 and has proved a rallying point for members of the country’s literary set. As well as being the staging point for several book launches, last year’s event fostered a relaxed atmosphere by including music workshops and oral storytelling.

The Shops + Wandering along the riverfront, I stumble upon Atelier (atelierkampot. com; condiment packages from US$7–$34), a gorgeous store-meetseatery designed by French- >>

clockwise from above: Café

Espresso; the café’s pulled pork tacos; pouring a cocktail at Fishmarket; sunny shades at Rikitikitavi hotel.

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/ beyond /e m e r g i n g Cambodian architect Antoine Meinnel and run by his brother, David. Set up to showcase the famed Kampot pepper grown on their family’s plantation, every element of the space has been meticulously thought out, from the mosaic patterned floor tiles to the softleather menu covers. The pepper culture started around the 13th century, in the Angkorian era, according to the writings of Chinese emissary Zhou Daguan; the Meinnel

FROM top: All the

clothing at Dorsu is made at the shop’s in-house studio; Ellen Tirant (left) and Kunthear Mov of Dorsu; the Meinnel family’s Kampot pepper; inside their shop/eatery Atelier.

family only purchased their farm a couple of years ago after returning to Cambodia, following the civil war that ripped the country apart and scattered its citizens around the world. “Kampot pepper is a really interesting product, because [cultivation] knowledge nearly disappeared in the dark period, and there’s really a lot of knowledge in Cambodia,” David says. Atelier hopes to seamlessly blend the new with the old, a trend that’s becoming de rigueur in Kampot. + Next door to Café Espresso I meet Kunthear Mov, who moved from her hometown in nearby Takeo province in 2008. She co-founded ethical clothing label Dorsu (dorsu.org; clothing US$25–$60) after spending four years working in one of Cambodia’s many garment factories.

“We can employ people in fair conditions so women don’t have to work just any job,” Mov says. She now oversees a team of 16 who produce the label’s classic, comfortable clothing lines that are sold both online and at a reduced rate from their Kampot showroom.

The Stay + This creative vibe is increasingly attracting people from all over the world, Denise Ruygrok tells me at Rikitikitavi (rikitikitavi-kampot. com; doubles from US$48), my accommodation for two nights in Kampot. Along with her husband, she opened the comfortable, Asianinfluenced hotel in a converted rice barn the same year that Epic Arts sprang up. “It was love at first sight.

There was nothing then,” she says.

“The atmosphere is the same, but so much has changed: there are paved roads now, restaurants, hotels, shops. Kampot has progressed.” I take in that progress as I stroll one last time along the riverbank before departing for Phnom Penh. Pepperinfused ice cream in hand, I muse over how classic Kampot and its evolving charms now manage to mingle in such sweet combination.

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/ beyond /T h e B i g I d e a

Wander Women Outfitters both emerging and established are catering to female adventurers looking for excitement, wellness and social engagement—without the guys around.

Outdoor co-op REI aims to inspire women to embrace outdoor adventure.

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It was New Year’s Day 2012, and Allison Fleece was feeling unmoored. On a whim, she e-mailed a group of her most intrepid friends.

“This time next year,” she wrote, “I want to be standing on the roof of Africa.” The following winter, she was on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, exhausted and giddy, with nine women beside her. She turned to Danielle Thornton, a climbing buddy who would soon become her best friend, and said, “This is what all travel should be like.”

The next year, Fleece and Thornton headed back to Kilimanjaro—this time leading a group of 29 women from 11 countries on the

augus t 2017 / tr av el andleisure asia .com

first trip of WHOA Travel, their fledgling adventure-tour company for women. In their previous lives, Fleece, now 31, had been an education advisor and Thornton, 34, a creative director at an ad agency. But a few months after their Kilimanjaro expedition, they’d quit their jobs, Googled how to form an LLC, and launched a travel business. WHOA stands for Women High on Adventure or Women Hooked on Awesomeness, depending on whom you ask.

It’s one of the latest additions to the growing list of women-only adventure companies— outfits that cater to a generation of female travelers who prefer surf weekends and

courtesy of rei

BY LILA BATTIS

fr o m t o p : V e r o n i q u e Va n H o o r i c k ; R e n F u l l e r

mountain-climbing expeditions to the spa weekends of old. The idea goes back to the late 1970s, when women who’d come of age in the era of second-wave feminism began starting scrappy programs providing outdoor adventures to the kinds of customers attending the feminist music festivals and conferences that were then sprouting up around the country. By the late 90s, upscale operators had joined the fray, courting luxury travelers— often widowed or divorced retirees who had the time and money to travel but didn’t want to be the loner in a group of couples. More recently, with a certain demographic of women rebranding feminism as less a political calling than a lifestyle choice—one focused on personal empowerment and self-care— female-centric travel companies are retooling and expanding once again.

“We were around back when women-only travel was kind of a joke,” says Jennifer Haddow, who seven years ago took over Wild Women Expeditions, a Canada-based company founded in 1991. “People didn’t really see why it was valuable.” Now veteran outfitters like Haddow are diversifying their offerings to take advantage of a growing market. Wild Women has added horseback riding in Mongolia and cycling, trekking and rafting in Thailand to its original roster of kayaking and canoeing trips in Ontario and British Columbia. Adventure Women, a 35-year-old Massachusetts company that changed hands last year, has begun catering to younger clients with its “adventurettes”— bespoke getaways, like long weekends of riding, river floating, fine dining and massages in Montana, for women who don’t want a traditional bachelorette party—in addition to its journeys to places like Japan and Nepal.

Some lifestyle companies outside the travel industry see all-female trips as a way to extend their brands. REI’s recently expanded Outessa program brings women to different U.S. mountains for long weekends of yoga, hiking and bonding. The sporting-goods giant has also ramped up its backpacking- and campingcentric REI Women’s Adventures, which offer rugged outdoor experiences in locations ranging from Africa to New Zealand’s Southern Alps. For the crystals-and-Coachella crowd, the bohemian apparel brand Free People operates FP Escapes. Its wellnessfocused itineraries, including sailing from Sardinia to Corsica, and yoga workshops in Yelapa, Mexico, come with cleanses, meditation

rituals, new-moon ceremonies, and Instagram-friendly accommodations like tepees and tree houses.

For some upstart outfitters, personal growth is as central to the mission as having fun. Damesly, founded last year, emphasizes professional networking and skill building, combining volcano hikes in Iceland and surfing lessons in Hawaii with workshops on

from top: Rafting

in Thailand on a Wild Women tour; a WHOA group hikes Mount Kilimanjaro.

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/ beyond /T h e B i g I d e a A few months after their Kilimanjaro expedition, they’d quit their jobs, Googled how to form an LLC, and launched a travel business

IMAGINE THE MAGIC OF MAYA Take advantage of our guaranteed best available rates online. Book now and get additional benefits for a minimum 3 nights stay.

Valid until December 20, 2017.

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topics like video editing. Fit & Fly Girl’s healthfocused retreats come with daily workout classes and nutritious meals. Explorer Chick has several offerings for beginners to develop wilderness survival skills and learn backpacking basics.

But for all the attention these programs devote to women’s individual well-being, many also emphasize social responsibility and making lasting connections in the places they visit. “You have to be participating in the communities and engaged in their issues,” says Wild Women’s Haddow. “Clients respond to authenticity.” For her company, that means striving to partner exclusively with women—even in places like Nepal, where female guides are hard to find—and supporting socialjustice groups. On its Morocco trips, Adventure Women brings guests to a women’s textile cooperative outside Fez to speak with the artisans about their lives and work. Before its Kilimanjaro treks, WHOA puts guests up at a nonprofit hotel that funds a primary school for area children; travelers’ fees also help sponsor two local women to join the group on every climb. The company operates a similar program for its Machu Picchu treks.

Despite the wide range of experiences offered by these companies, all tend to attract travelers who, whatever their age or background, have reached a turning point in their lives. Kelly Luck, 42, booked her Kilimanjaro trip with WHOA after a grueling battle with breast and thyroid cancer. On a cold, clear night this past March 8— International Women’s Day—Luck summited the mountain with 30 other women. “I don’t think I could’ve done this with my husband,” she says. “Being there with this powerful collective of women was the only way for me to go. It makes you so strong.”

More women seem to want the kind of sisterhood Luck and Fleece both found on Kilimanjaro. “We as a gender are done compartmentalizing ourselves,” Fleece says. “We like to go out for a nice dinner in heels, but we can also put on hiking boots and camp on a mountain for seven days. And women are realizing that there are others out there who want the same thing.”

Resting at Karanga Camp in Tanzania, on a WHOA trip.

10 FEMALE-FOCUSED TRAVEL COMPANIES TO KNOW

1/

Adventures in Good Company

Specializes in outdoor expeditions like trekking through Bhutan (from US$4,295 for 14 days). adventuresingoodcompany. com.

2/

Adventure Women

Books luxe trips, most lasting at least a week, to 26 destinations—including Burma, where you can climb sacred peaks and bike through villages (from US$5,690 for 12 days). adventurewomen.com.

3/

Gutsy Women

Offers itineraries that will coax out your inner Amazon, including an 18-day, four-nation journey through Southeast Asia (from US$3,895). gutsywomentravel.com.

4/

Damesly

Hosts self-discovery workshops in Arizona (from US$1,850 for three days), Hawaii and Iceland. damesly.com.

Nicola Bailey

5/

Explorer Chick

Arranges backpacking trips in the American West and Appalachia, including a trek in through Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains (from US$699 for four days). explorerchick.com.

6/

Fit & Fly Girl

7/

FP Escapes

8/

REI Women’s Adventures

9/

WHOA Travel

Daily workouts anchor retreats to party-friendly locales like Bali (from US$3,700 for eight days). fitandflygirl.com.

The clothing brand’s itineraries in places like Nicaragua’s Playa Maderas (from US$1,600 for seven days) emphasize mind-body connection. freepeople. com/fpescapes.

The outdoor-gear co-op leads ambitious expeditions, like a 10-day wilderness hiking adventure in New Zealand’s Southern Alps (from US$4,999). rei. com/h/force-of-nature.

Besides Kilimanjaro (from US$3,450 for seven days), destinations include Bavaria, Peru, Nepal, Russia and India. whoatravel.com.

10 /

Wild Women Expeditions

Leads intimate and adventurous journeys, like a horseback ride across Mongolia (from US$2,995 for 14 days) and a trek to Everest Base Camp (from US$2,995 for 18 days). wildwomenexpeditions.com.

HERITAGE OF SERENITY

Escape to the peace and tranquility of Kamandalu Ubud, a 5-star boutique resort situated amid lush paddyfields in the green hills of Ubud. From your very own Balinese-inspired villa, step out to enjoy the warm hospitality of our staff and explore the natural surroundings that lie just beyond.

Jalan Andong Banjar Nagi Ubud, Bali 80571 Indonesia T +62 361 975 825 reservation@kamandaluresort.com www.kamandaluresort.com

/ upgrade /

DEALS | t+l reader specials

CITY BANGKOK

From a hip new beach resort in Bali to an iconic colonial landmark in Rangoon, this month’s deals are perfect for that final summer sojourn.

The Dhara Dhevi Chiang Mai’s grand entrance.

Mandarin Oriental Rimowa and Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, two icons of luxury in the travel world, are teaming up to celebrate the hotel’s recent restoration. With this special offer, guests who book a night in a Garden room or suite will receive a 35-liter or 85-liter, respectively, limited edition Rimowa roller bag.

You’ll also get daily breakfast, an afternoon tea for two at the Authors’ Lounge, and a jar of the hotel’s homemade jam.

The Deal Rimowa x Mandarin Oriental package: from Bt39,140 for two nights in a Garden room for two, through December 31. mandarinoriental.com.

SUPERSAVER

The PuLi Hotel and Spa, Shanghai This high-rise hotel in Jing’an district combines the convenience of urban living with the tranquility of a spa resort. This special not only gives you a free night in one of their four spacious suites, but also includes daily breakfast, laundry service and a one-way airport transfer in a limousine. The Deal Pay One Stay Two Suite Promotion: a night in a Junior suite, from RMB7,888 for two, through December 31. Save up 50%. thepuli.com.

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SINGAPORE

Hilton Garden Inn Singapore Serangoon In the heart of Little India, one of Singapore’s more pulsating neighborhoods, this new hotel boasts refined, comfortable rooms in a locale surrounded by temples, shopping and

fr o m t o p : c o u r t e s y o f T h e D h a r a D h e v i ; c o u r t e s y o f T h e P u L i H o t e l a n d S pa

MACAU

The Four Seasons Hotel Macao Cotai Strip An intimate escape is hard to come by in bustling Macau, but this hotel provides a homey vibe while still offering easy access to Cotai Stip’s famed shopping centers and casinos.

Newly renovated rooms have been designed to deliver the perfect sleep with soundproofed walls, blackout shades, top-quality bedding and three choices of both mattresses and toppers. The hotel’s Michelin-starred Cantonese restaurant, Zi Yat Heen, is just another reason you’ll want to book this package that grants you discounted accommodations for a stay of three or more nights. The Deal Stay Longer, Save More: from MOP1,690 for three nights in a Deluxe room, for two, through December 31.

Save 15%. fourseasons.com.

dining options. With this deal, plan your trip ahead and save on accommodations, plus get complimentary access to their vast breakfast buffet at The Garden Grille restaurant. The Deal Advance Purchase Offer: a night in a King Deluxe room, from S$139 for two, through December 31. Save 15%. hiltongardeninn3.hilton.com.

BEACH BALI

Hotel Indigo Bali Seminyak Beach Just opened last month, this vibrant boutique hotel is making waves on Seminyak Beach with its Balinese flair.

The eclectic design matches the island’s lively culture, whether through artworks by local artists or the tropical cocktails at their happening beach club. With this opening special, enjoy discounted accommodations in any of their rooms, suites or private villas.

A bountiful daily breakfast is also included in this package.

The Deal Resort’s Opening Experience: a night in a Classic room, from Rp3,900,000 for two, through September 30.

Save up to 20%. seminyak. hotelindigo.com.

CULTURE

courtesy of L a Ver anda Resort Phu Quoc

BURMA

The Strand Yangon With new renovations like in-room technologies and an upgraded lobby, this legendary hotel’s past isn’t its only draw anymore. This two-night package celebrates the best of Rangoon with an itinerary curated by the city’s insiders.

Included are two walking tours with visits to art galleries, a handcrafted jewelry shop, the spice market, a fortune-teller and local fair-trade boutiques.

Also enjoy accommodation in a suite and return airport transfers. The Deal Off the Beaten Track Artisans package: two nights in a Superior suite, from US$927 for two, through December 31. hotelthestrand.com.

The Deluxe Garden room at La Veranda Resort Phu Quoc.

NEPAL

Fairfield by Marriott Kathmandu Whether it’s eating savory Tibetan momos (dumplings), exploring the medieval temples or preparing for a trek through the Himalayas, there is plenty to do in Kathmandu, and this new hotel serves as a great home base from which to do it all. Welcome Marriott’s first outlet in Nepal with this package that includes discounted accommodations, breakfast (you’ll want to start your day with the chai tea) and 20 percent off all food, beverage and laundry services.

The Deal Monsoon Special package: a night in a Fairfield room, from US$72 for two, through September 30. Save 20%. marriott.com.

SPA CHIANG MAI

The Dhara Dhevi Chiang Mai Chiang Mai is laid-back, and this resort, spread across 25 hectares of lush landscape, serves to heighten a peaceful mindset. Indulge in a weekend

of wellness with this package and, on top of villa accommodations, breakfast and airport transfers, you and a guest will each receive a power-nap treatment, a Thai boxing class and an Abhyanga massage, as well as access to wellness workshops like “Juicing for Beauty and Energy” or “Asian Scrub Secrets.” The Deal A Blissful Escape: a night in a Deluxe villa, from Bt27,500 for two, through September 29. Save 30%. dharadhevi.com.

FAMILY VIETNAM

La Veranda Resort Phu Quoc Reminiscent of a French seaside mansion and tucked away on the languid shores of Phu Quoc Island, this resort is all palm fronds and sun porches. This kid-centric package encourages bonding through planned family activities like group yoga sessions, cooking classes, a mommy-and-me spa session, and beach games. The hotel will hook your kiddos up with

welcome cookies, a red carpet photo shoot and a special nightly turndown. The Deal Very Important Kid package: a night in a Deluxe Garden room, from US$150 for two, through October 31. Save 35%. laverandaresorts.com.

SIEM REAP

Heritage Suites Hotel Only a stone’s throw away from the Angkor temples, this boutique hotel combines tradition with modern influences. This three-day package in the hotel’s best suite includes free breakfast, lunch and dinner; a painting and pottery lesson; a tour to Angkor Wat with a personal guide and tuk tuk driver; a performance at Phare Circus; a head massage; and round-trip airport transfers. The Deal An Angkorian Summer Adventure package: two nights in a Red Poppy suite, from US$1,099 for two adults and one child, through October 31. Save 15%. heritagesuiteshotel.com.

—veronica inveen

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Near-Away! by American Express

STUDIO M HOTEL SINGAPORE No. 3 Nanson Road Singapore 238910 Call 65 6808 8890 or email reservations.SMH@millenniumhotels.com to make your bookings now

Studio M Hotel Singapore also boasts lifestyle elements throughout its public areas including a dedicated openair tropical deck complete with reflection pools, a signature 25-metre lap pool and an open-air (naturally ventilated) gym. The spaces allow both privacy and accessibility in comfortable, chic environment.

Set within the bustling entertainment precinct of Robertson Quay and minutes away from the Central Business District (CBD) and renowned Orchard Road, Studio M Hotel Singapore is Singapore’s first fully loft-inspired hotel where style and functionality is key.

Experience innovative accommodation with contemporary living spaces in which to work, rest and play in the heart of the city for a new generation of savvy travellers.

Ranging from Studios to Moonlight lofts, each of the 360 designer rooms feature a mezzanine level that combines style and functionality with comfy living areas. Guests can step into the comfort of the urbaninspired and stylish rooms with 3m high ceiling and sleek amenities including hotel-wide WIFI connectivity, separate work and rest areas.

To enjoy one night’s stay in Studio Loft at an American Express subsidised rate of S$150 nett, please present the voucher located in your Platinum Reserve Credit Card Welcome Pack or annual Renewal Pack.

STUDIO M HOTEL SINGAPORE NEAR-AWAY! BY AMERICAN EXPRESS IS OPEN TO AMERICAN EXPRESS® PLATINUM RESERVE CREDIT CARD MEMBERS. • Card Member must make advance reservation with Studio M Hotel Singapore at +65 6808 8890 or enter the promotional code ‘AMEX150’ when making reservation online at millenniumhotels.com.sg/studiomhotelsingapore/. Any use of vouchers must be stated at time of reservation.

• All reservations are subject to availability and not applicable during blackout dates (i.e. eves of Holidays and Public Holiday) or days of high occupancy. Please contact Studio M Hotel Singapore for more information. A room reservation confirmation letter or email (in soft or hardcopy) must be presented, along with the physical voucher and your American Express® Platinum Reserve Credit Card.

• Offer may not be combined with other hotel programmes or special offers and is not available on pre-existing reservations.

• Cancellation or changes are not allowed upon confirmation of reservation. All no show reservation will be charged based on one (1) night’s room rate.

• Card Member is responsible for their parking charges during the whole period of stay at Studio M Hotel Singapore and no complimentary parking will be provided.

• Accommodation is for a maximum of two (2) adults and is inclusive of all applicable tax and service charges for such accommodation. Breakfast is not included. Cost of meals and all other incidentals (including applicable tax and service charges), will be charged to the Card Member’s Platinum Reserve Credit Card.

• Merchant’s Terms and Conditions apply – please check with respective merchants for details. American Express acts solely as a payment provider and is not responsible or liable in the event that such services, activities or benefits are not provided or fulfilled by the merchant. Merchants are solely responsible for the fulfilment of all benefits and offers.

• American Express does not assume liability and American Express Card Member(s) shall not make any claim whatsoever for (i) injury or bodily harm or (ii) loss of damage to property, howsoever caused, arising from, or in connection with these benefits and privileges.

• Programme benefits, participating merchants and Terms and Conditions may be amended or withdrawn without prior notice at the sole discretion of the American Express International Inc. In the event of any dispute, the decision of American Express will be final and no correspondence may be entertained.

American Express International Inc., (UEN S68FC1878J) 20 (West) Pasir Panjang Road #08-00, Mapletree Business City, Singapore 117439. americanexpress.com.sg Incorporated with Limited Liability in the State of Delaware, U.S.A. ® Registered Trademark of American Express Company. © Copyright 2017 American Express Company.

The world's best awards

It’s a big world out there—so many destinations to visit, so many ways to get there, so many places to stay. How to choose?

Answering that question is the aim of T+L’s World’s Best Awards, the annual survey where we invite you, our trusted, globetrotting readers, to rate your recent trips to identify the leaders shaping travel today by providing top-notch service and remarkable experiences. More than 300,000 respondents submitted ratings in categories ranging from cities and hotels to airlines and destination spas. As always, the results surprise, delight and inspire. (For more details on how the survey was conducted, turn to page 79).

Thanks to everyone who took the time to participate, and congratulations to all the 2017 winners—bravo!

Edited by Sara Clemence

courtesy of the temple house. logo design by mikey burton

The Temple House, in Chengdu, is partially set in a restored Qing dynasty building.

tr av el andleisure asia .com / augus t 2017

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Loden Hotel Vancouver Magnolia Hotel & Spa Victoria Thompson Seattle

Le Méridien Chambers Minneapolis

Hotel deLuxe Portland Crawford Hotel Denver

The Peninsula Chicago

Hotel Vitale San Francisco Hotel Bel-Air Los Angeles

PACIFIC O C E A N

Inn of the Five Graces Santa Fe

Four Seasons Hotel St. Louis

Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas Westin Austin Downtown Mokara Hotel & Spa San Antonio

Hotel ZaZa Houston Museum District

Hotel Matilda San Miguel de Allende

St. Regis Mexico City

The World’s Best

Hotel Finder A secluded Indonesian getaway claims top hotel honors, and five of the top 10 cities and airlines in the world are in Asia—just a few ways Asian hospitality dominates this year’s list.

M a p Il lu s t r at ion by

Jimmy Gleeson

Hótel Borg Reykjavík

The Balmoral, a Rocco Forte Hotel Edinburgh

Merrion Hotel Dublin

Le Bristol Paris

XV Beacon Boston

Shangri-La Hotel Toronto

The Surrey New York City Ivy Hotel Baltimore The Jefferson Washington, D.C.

Urban Cowboy Nashville

41 London

Auberge Saint-Antoine Quebec City

Hôtel Le Crystal Montreal

Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia

Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam

Ritz-Carlton Charlotte The Vendue Charleston

St. Regis Atlanta

NORTH AT L A N T I C

Four Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon

Only You Boutique Hotel Madrid

O C E A N

East Miami

Royal Mansour Marrakesh

Casa San Agustín Cartagena Waldorf Astoria Panama City

Casa Gangotena Quito

SOUTH AT L A N T I C

Belmond Palacio Nazarenas Cuzco

O C E A N Belmond Copacabana Palace Rio de Janeiro

Ritz-Carlton Santiago Alvear Palace Hotel Buenos Aires t r av e l a n d l e i s u r e a s i a . c o m / a u g u s t 2 0 1 7

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The Thief Oslo

Four Seasons Hotel Lion Palace St. Petersburg

Grand Hôtel Stockholm

Hotel Bristol, a Luxury Collection Hotel Warsaw

Hotel d’Angleterre Copenhagen

Ritz-Carlton Moscow

Das Stue Berlin

Dolder Grand Zurich Mandarin Oriental Milan

Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace Budapest

Portrait Firenze Florence Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at Sultanahmet

Hotel Grande Bretagne, a Luxury Collection Hotel Athens

The Norman Tel Aviv Four Seasons Hotel Doha

Burj Al Arab Jumeirah Dubai

Leela Palace New Delhi

Jumeirah at Etihad Towers Abu Dhabi Sofitel Winter Palace Luxor

The Oberoi Mumbai

Giraffe Manor Nairobi

TH NTIC

INDIAN O C E A N

A N

Ellerman House Cape Town

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Waldorf Astoria Beijing The Shilla Seoul The Peninsula Tokyo St. Regis Osaka Temple House Chengdu

The Peninsula Shanghai

PACIFIC

Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at West Lake The Peninsula Hong Kong

Grand Hyatt Taipei

O C E A N

Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi

Mandarin Oriental Bangkok

The Peninsula Manila

Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore

QT Sydney The Langham Auckland Crown Towers Melbourne

World's Best awards The Six Senses Seychelles occupies its own island, with 30 individual villas in all, each with a private pool and nearby beaches.

Top 15

Hotel Brands

1 Six Senses 96.15 2 Oetker Collection 96.09 3 Auberge Resorts 95.39 4 Alila Hotels & Resorts 94.71 5 Capella Hotels & Resorts 94.57 6 One&Only Resorts 93.95 7 The Peninsula Hotels 93.91 8 Oberoi Hotels & Resorts 93.74 9 Aman 93.72 10 The Leela Palaces, Hotels & Resorts 93.33 11 Rosewood Hotels & Resorts 93.19 12 Montage Hotels & Resorts 93.07 13 Rocco Forte Hotels 92.93 Trending: 14 Thompson Hotels The Celtic92.90 Tiger 15 Belmond 92.71

Trending: Next-Generation Cruise Ships

Winner’s spotlight: the perfect long we

All hotels want their guests to get a good night’s rest. But few properties go so far as to offer a dedicated team of on-call Sleep Ambassadors—whose mission is to make your room conducive to superior shut-eye— as well as a sleep-tracking app. These are just two of the amenities offered by firsttime World’s Best winner Six Senses, whose nine resort hotels around the globe—from Vietnam to Oman to the Seychelles—have wellness in their DNA. At the spas, guests can undergo a screening to measure stress levels, heart rate and tissue oxygen uptake, among other markers; a personalized fitness and diet routine is created based on the results. Many of our readers raved about the brand’s practices. “Their wellness emphasis, plus the organic food, is over the top,” said one. “Very cool approach,” added another. “Six Senses is on the move and is pioneering in this space.”

Six Senses, a Feel-Good focus

Winner’s spotlight:

58 Six Senses, a Feel-Good brand

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Winner’s spotlight: TCS World Travel, A Soaring Success

courtesy of six senses

Winner’s Spotlight

Florence for World’s

Cities & Islands Far-flung Palawan tops the global list of islands for the second year in a row, with Boracay and Bali also cracking the top 10.

Plus, half of the top 10 cities are in Asia.

Top 10

Cities Overall

1 San Miguel de Allende Mexico 92.12 2 Charleston South Carolina 91.54 3 Chiang Mai Thailand 91.40 4 Kyoto Japan 91.13 5 Florence 90.75 6 Oaxaca Mexico 90.41 7 Hoi An Vietnam 90.31 8 Cape Town 90.24 9 Ubud Indonesia 90.13 10 Luang Prabang Laos 90.10

Top 10

Islands Overall

The secluded, backto-nature charms of Palawan are key to its being voted as the best island in the world for the second year in a row.

jin chu ferrer /get t y images

T+L online

Want more World’s Best Awards?

Head to tandl.me/ worldsbest for photos, extended lists and videos.

From safari lodges to Caribbean beach resorts, you’ll find inspiration for your next getaway with photographs of all the winners.

Check out some of the World’s Best destinations—Siem Reap, Kyoto, Maui and more—with our immersive video content.

Don’t see some of your favorites in our rankings? You can nominate them on our site as potential candidates for the survey.

Hall of Fame On the list for the past 10 years.

1 Palawan Philippines 93.15 2 Hilton Head Island South Carolina 90.83 3 Boracay Island Philippines 89.67 4 Galápagos Islands Ecuador 89.20 5 Santorini Greece 89.19 6 Maui Hawaii 89.17 7 Kauai Hawaii 88.72 8 Ischia Italy 88.53 9 Hvar and the Dalmatian Islands Croatia 87.75 10 Bali Indonesia 87.61

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World's Best awards

Top 100 Hotels Nihi Sumba Island earns the No. 1 ranking for the second year in a row, while Rosewood, Oberoi, andBeyond, Auberge and Four Seasons scored big, with a combined 20 hotels in the top 100.

17 Kamalame Cay Andros, Bahamas 97.49 18 La Residence Franschhoek, South Africa 97.41 19 Temple House Chengdu, China 97.37 20 Hacienda AltaGracia, an Auberge Resort Pérez Zeledón, Costa Rica 97.33 21 andBeyond Kichwa Tembo Tented Camp Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya 97.17 22 Castello di Casole—A Timbers Resort Casole d’Elsa, Italy 97.12 23 Four Seasons Resort the Nam Hai (formerly the Nam Hai) Hoi An, Vietnam 97.11 24 Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at West Lake Hangzhou, China 97.05 25 Jade Mountain St. Lucia 97.03 26 Nisbet Plantation Beach Club Nevis 97.00 27 Manoir Hovey North Hatley, Quebec 96.96 28 Resort at Pedregal Cabo San Lucas, Mexico 96.88 29 Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan Indonesia 96.88 30 Rabbit Hill Inn Lower Waterford, Vermont 96.87

In addition to world-class surfing, Nihi Sumba Island offers trekking to waterfalls and cultural tours to a nearby village.

31 Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle Chiang Rai, Thailand 96.86 32 EcoCamp Patagonia Torres del Paine National Park, Chile 96.84 33 Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco Montalcino, Italy 96.80 34 Leela Palace Udaipur, India 96.73 35 Londolozi Sabi Sand Game Reserve, South Africa 96.71

36 andBeyond Nxabega Okavango Tented Camp Okavango Delta, Botswana 96.71 36 Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui, Thailand 96.71 38 Mont Cervin Palace Zermatt, Switzerland 96.63 39 Ballyfin County Laois, Ireland 96.55 40 Farm at Cape Kidnappers Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand 96.54 41 Curtain Bluff Antigua 96.45

42 Gasparilla Inn & Club Boca Grande, Florida 96.43 43 Rambagh Palace, a Taj Hotel Jaipur, India 96.41 44 andBeyond Phinda Forest Lodge Phinda Private Game Reserve, South Africa 96.40 45 The Willcox Aiken, South Carolina 96.38 46 Blackberry Farm Walland, Tennessee 96.37 47 Southern Ocean Lodge Kangaroo Island, Australia 96.30

48 Ko’a Kea Hotel & Resort Kauai, Hawaii 96.30 49 Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace Budapest 96.26 49 Rosewood Mayakoba Playa del Carmen, Mexico 96.26 51 Château du Sureau Oakhurst, California 96.25 52 Gateway Canyons Resort & Spa Gateway, Colorado 96.24 53 The Louise Barossa Valley, Australia 96.22

Courtesy of Nihi sumba

1 Nihi Sumba Island (formerly Nihiwatu) Indonesia 99.12 2 The Brando Tetiaroa, French Polynesia 98.91 3 Lodge & Spa at Brush Creek Ranch Saratoga, Wyoming 98.77 4 Lodge at Kauri Cliffs Matauri Bay, New Zealand 98.61 5 Gibb’s Farm Karatu, Tanzania 98.59 6 Tswalu Kalahari Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, South Africa 98.40 7 Triple Creek Ranch Darby, Montana 98.23 8 Cavas Wine Lodge Mendoza, Argentina 98.22 9 Inn at Willow Grove Orange, Virginia 98.13 10 Rosewood CordeValle San Martin, California 98.00 10 Zarafa Camp Selinda Reserve, Botswana 98.00 12 Fogo Island Inn Newfoundland 97.76 13 137 Pillars House Chiang Mai, Thailand 97.71 14 Singita Sabi Sand Sabi Sand Game Reserve, South Africa 97.63 15 Twin Farms Barnard, Vermont 97.54 16 Oberoi Vanyavilas Ranthambhore, India 97.50

54 Wequassett Resort & Golf Club Chatham, Massachusetts 96.21 55 41 London 96.17 56 Milestone Hotel London 96.16 57 Beau-Rivage Palace Lausanne, Switzerland 96.14 57 Nayara Springs Arenal Volcano National Park, Costa Rica 96.14 59 Ashford Castle County Mayo, Ireland 96.10 60 The Surrey New York City 96.09

61 Farmhouse Inn Forestville, California 96.06 62 Alfond Inn Orlando Area, Florida 96.00 62 Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru 96.00 62 Tierra Atacama Boutique Hotel & Spa San Pedro de Atacama, Chile 96.00 65 andBeyond Ngorongoro Crater Lodge Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania 95.91

66 Old Edwards Inn & Spa Highlands, North Carolina 95.89 67 Belmond Palacio Nazarenas Cuzco, Peru 95.88 68 Oberoi Rajvilas Jaipur, India 95.84 69 Oberoi Amarvilas Agra, India 95.84 70 Blantyre Lenox, Massachusetts 95.83 71 Jumeirah at Etihad Towers Abu Dhabi 95.81 72 Egerton House Hotel London 95.79

73 Ellerman House Cape Town 95.78 74 Hard Rock Hotel Vallarta Riviera Nayarit, Mexico 95.78 75 Portrait Firenze Florence 95.77 75 21c Museum Hotel Oklahoma City 95.77 77 Aria Hotel Budapest 95.73 78 Wilderness Safaris Mombo Camp and Little Mombo Camp Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana 95.72

79 Capella Ixtapa, Mexico 95.71 80 Singular Patagonia Puerto Bories, Chile 95.70 81 Stephanie Inn Cannon Beach, Oregon 95.64 82 Post Hotel & Spa Lake Louise, Alberta 95.64 82 White Elephant Village Nantucket, Massachusetts 95.64 84 Oberoi Udaivilas Udaipur, India 95.61

85 Inn at Rancho Santana Rivas, Nicaragua 95.60 86 The Chatwal New York City 95.57 87 Las Ventanas al Paraíso, a Rosewood Resort San José del Cabo, Mexico 95.53 88 Singita Grumeti Serengeti National Park, Tanzania 95.52 89 Shinta Mani Resort Siem Reap, Cambodia 95.48 90 Tambo del Inka, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa Sacred Valley, Peru 95.47 91 Inn & Club at Harbour Town Hilton Head, South Carolina 95.45 92 Katikies Hotel Santorini, Greece 95.45 92 St. Regis Osaka, Japan 95.45 94 Acqualina Resort & Spa Sunny Isles Beach, Florida 95.42 95 Little Palm Island Resort & Spa Little Torch Key, Florida 95.38 96 Inn at Hastings Park Lexington, Massachusetts 95.38 97 Auberge du Soleil Rutherford, California 95.36 98 Tierra Patagonia Hotel & Spa Torres del Paine National Park, Chile 95.29 99 InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort Vietnam 95.20 99 Wilderness Safaris Little Kulala Sossusvlei, Namibia 95.20

Readers say...

“Nihi Sumba Island is the epitome of escape, adventure and luxury.”

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World's Best awards

Destination Spas

Schloss Elmau is a 101-year-old, family-owned retreat in Germany’s Bavarian Alps with several spas, including one dedicated to Chinese medicine.

Top 10

Readers say...

“At Schloss Elmau, all is extraordinary: delicate food in five-star restaurants, swimming, yoga, sports, spa treatments in wonderful locations, and cultural programming.”

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International Spas

1 Schloss Elmau Luxury Spa Retreat & Cultural Hideaway Elmau, Germany 97.69 2 Rancho La Puerta Tecate, Mexico 95.64 3 Mountain Trek Ainsworth Hot Springs, British Columbia 95.36 4 BodyHoliday St. Lucia 93.98 5 Fonteverde San Casciano dei Bagni, Italy 93.88

6 Ananda in the Himalayas Uttarakhand, India 93.73 7 Chiva-Som Hua Hin, Thailand 93.33 8 Les Prés d’Eugénie– Michel Guérard Eugénie-lesBains, France 92.57 9 Les Sources de Caudalie BordeauxMartillac, France 91.43 10 Kamalaya Koh Samui, Thailand 91.20

Courtesy of schlos s Elmau

Wellness tourism is on the rise, and our readers found exceptional health-focused escapes all over the globe, from Germany to India to Thailand.

Top 10

International Airlines

Attention to the finest of details sees Singapore Airlines top our list of airlines once again this year.

Transportation Most of the top five airports and half of the top 10 airlines are based in Asia, with Singapore Airlines holding on to No. 1 for the 22nd year in a row.

Winner’s Spotlight

singapore airlines has its perks

courtesy of sigapore airlines

Winner’s spotlight:

Virgin America has its perks Their flight attendants are icons of the aviation industry

They are bringing airline food to whole new heights

Singapore Airlines flight attendants are well known around the world, not only for their impeccably groomed appearance—there are five approved hairstyles, and eye shadow corresponds to the color and rank of their uniform—and the legendary sarong kebaya that “Singapore Girls” don, but also for their unwavering grace and good service.

Chefs have spent hours in simulated pressurized cabins tweaking their recipes to ensure flavors aren’t bland when eaten on board. Fly premium economy class or above and choose from a menu of sumptuous dishes ranging from French duck confit to Japanese nigiri sushi, all which have been curated by a panel of eight world-renowned chefs. They

even boast a special “Deliciously Healthy” menu that features dishes made with quinoa and steamed fish for those who don’t want to be tempted by the scent of a warm bread roll.

Top-notch amenities Passengers in suites and first class receive truly covetworthy in-flight amenity kits.

Ferragamo has designed bags of in-flight essentials, tailored separately for men or women, but all including a

30-milliliter bottle of one of the brand's frangrances. The airline also has an entertainment system loaded with more than 1,000 options of TV shows and movies, and, as of last year, a smartphone app for passengers to plan and control their in-flight entertainment even before takeoff. When your eyes begin to glaze over from too much screen time, playing cards are available if you want to get social, or ask for a writing kit to start that travel diary.

1 Singapore Airlines 90.56 2 Emirates 90.24 3 Qatar Airways 87.22 4 Cathay Pacific Airways 86.11 5 Japan Airlines (JAL) 85.58 6 Virgin Atlantic 85.42 7 Air New Zealand 85.34 8 Korean Air 85.08 9 All Nippon Airways (ANA) 84.54 10 Eva Air 84.32

Top 5

International Airports

1 Singapore Changi Airport 90.64 2 Hamad International Airport Doha, Qatar 86.05 3 Dubai International Airport 85.30 4 Incheon International Airport South Korea 84.46 5 Hong Kong International Airport 83.81

Top 5

Car-Rental Companies

1 National Car Rental 80.23 2 Enterprise Rent-A-Car 79.20 3 Hertz 77.69 4 Avis Car Rental 75.90 5 Alamo 75.87

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World's Best awards

Trending

Cruise Lines Longtime favorite Crystal Cruises enters two new categories—and vaults straight to the top.

Top 10

Top 10

1 Cunard 87.70 2 Disney Cruise Line 87.55 3 Princess Cruises 86.64 4 Celebrity Cruises 83.67 5 Holland America Line 83.60 6 Royal Caribbean International 79.45 7 Carnival Cruise Line 78.85 8 Norwegian Cruise Line 78.16 9 MSC Cruises 78.00 10 Costa Cruises 75.63

1 Viking Cruises 95.99 2 Crystal Cruises 93.38 3 Regent Seven Seas Cruises 91.90 4 Cunard 87.51 5 Oceania Cruises 87.29 6 Azamara Club Cruises 86.89 7 Princess Cruises 86.19 8 Costa Cruises 84.38 9 Celebrity Cruises 81.55 10 Holland America Line 81.28

Mega-Ship Ocean Cruise Lines

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Large-Ship Ocean Cruise Lines

Top 5

MidsizeShip Ocean Cruise Lines 1 Paul Gauguin Cruises 93.62 2 Seabourn 92.79 3 Windstar Cruises 92.77 4 Regent Seven Seas Cruises 90.61 5 Silversea 87.27

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Top 5

Top 5

1 Crystal Cruises 98.17 2 Ecoventura 97.26 3 Australis 95.44 4 Lindblad Expeditions 94.12 5 SeaDream Yacht Club 91.94

1 Crystal Cruises 97.08 2 Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection 95.32 3 Viking Cruises 95.19 4 Aqua Expeditions 95.04 5 Tauck 94.59

Small-Ship Ocean Cruise Lines

Trending: The Celtic Tiger

RiverCruise Lines

NextGeneration Cruise Ships One common thread among this year’s winning cruise lines: they’re either growing their fleets with new vessels or dramatically refitting older ones. As part of a multi-year expansion, Crystal Cruises debuted the Crystal Esprit, a 68-passenger yacht that sails to Croatia and the Caribbean, as well as Crystal Mozart, a 154-passenger river ship that plies the Danube. Both are marked by cream, blue and silver-gray palettes that feel smartly contemporary.

One year ago, Cunard’s 2,691-guest Queen Mary 2 received a US$132 million, Art Deco–inspired revamp of its public spaces, cabins and restaurants. “The renovation is great,” one reader said. “The ship is the only way to do the transatlantic.”

And in 2015, Viking Cruises debuted Viking Star, a 930-passenger vessel with a Scandinavian-inspired look—think blond woods and Eames chairs—that has few precedents on the high seas. The aesthetic continued on sister ships Viking Sea and Viking Sky. “The décor is so harmoniously assembled that it added to the pleasure of sailing,” said one fan.

Courtesy of cunard

Readers appreciated the old-school glamour of Cunard’s Queen Mary 2, which makes regular transatlantic voyages between Southampton, England, and New York City.

Trending: Next-Generation Cruise Ships

Tour Operators & Safari Outfitters Companies that get their clients into the great outdoors, whether on a bike ride through Tuscany or a trek through the Himalayas, come out ahead.

Winner's Spotlight

TCS World Travel, A Soaring Success Founded more than 25 years ago, TCS World Travel was the first private-jet-expedition company to offer global tours—and, according to T+L readers, it remains the standard-bearer. Travelers fly to destinations as varied as Thailand, Botswana and Easter Island in the comfort of a Boeing 757 outfitted with business-class or flat-bed seats, depending on head count (the planes seat up to 78). Overnights are in five-star hotels and lodges, with prices for two- to three-week journeys starting at US$89,000 per person, double occupancy. T+L spoke to TCS’s president, Shelley Cline, to find out why the business is thriving.

Q: Beyond having an “enrichment” officer, a doctor and a chef on every trip, what else do you offer?

A: Our guests are curious, and we try to surprise them. We do private events in a temple at Angkor Wat and at the Giza Pyramids; we meet with veterinarians taking care of the gorillas in Rwanda; and we spend the night with monks in a Korean temple.

TCS World Travel creates private-jet itineraries to destinations like Chile's Easter Island.

Trending: The Celtic Tiger

Top 5

c o u r t e s y o f TCS w o r l d t r av e l

Safari Outfitters

1 Rothschild Safaris 98.24 2 Micato Safaris 98.15 3 Alluring Africa 98.10 4 Extraordinary Journeys 97.69 5 Deeper Africa 97.52

Top 10

Tour Operators

1 TCS World Travel 97.94 2 DuVine Cycling & Adventure Co. 97.52 3 Heritage Tours Private Travel 97.05 4 Gray & Co. 96.86 5 Mountain Lodges of Peru 96.72

6 Classic Journeys 96.20 7 Asia Transpacific Journeys 96.13 8 VBT Bicycling & Walking Vacations 95.93 9 Journeys Within 95.90 10 Backroads 95.72

Winner’s spotlight: Six Senses, a Feel-Good brand

Readers say...

“Rothschild Safaris took the time to learn what I was looking for, added their own suggestions, and together the trip was perfect.”

Q: What does the private plane add to the experience?

A: You save so much time traveling, and it’s a fun atmosphere. You board the plane, get your glass of champagne, and everyone knows who you are—it’s a home away from home.

Q: What’s your own dream itinerary?

Trending: A: My 25th anniversary with the Next-Generation Cruise Ships company is coming up, and we’ve put together a trip in January that includes places I’m passionate about. Vietnam—long ago, my husband and I backpacked there— and Morocco, which I love. Rwanda for gorilla tracking, the Galápagos and Kyoto, since I’ve never been to Japan.

Winner’s spotlight: TCS World Travel, A Soaring Success

World's Best awards

Lush and historic Chiang Mai, the templefilled capital of northern Thailand, ranks No. 1 in Asia.

Asia

When it comes to city hotels, China stands out from the pack—claiming five out of the top 10 spots—while heritage-rich destinations like Chiang Mai, Kyoto and Hoi An continue to dominate in the Asian cities category.

Top 5

Top 10

Top 10

1 Chiang Mai Thailand 91.40 2 Kyoto Japan 91.13

1 Palawan Philippines 93.15 2 Boracay Island Philippines 89.67 3 Bali Indonesia 87.61 4 Panglao Island Philippines 87.37 5 Maldives 86.69

1 Temple House Chengdu, China 97.37 2 Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at West Lake Hangzhou, China 97.05 3 Shinta Mani Resort Siem Reap, Cambodia 95.48 4 St. Regis Osaka, Japan 95.45 5 Mandarin Oriental Bangkok 95.07 6 The Oberoi Mumbai 94.76 7 Waldorf Astoria Beijing 94.61 8 Taj Mahal Palace Mumbai 94.60 9 The Peninsula Hong Kong 94.59 10 Opposite House Beijing 94.52

1 Nihi Sumba Island Indonesia 99.12 2 137 Pillars House Chiang Mai, Thailand 97.71 3 Oberoi Vanyavilas Ranthambhore, India 97.50 4 Four Seasons Resort the Nam Hai (formerly the Nam Hai) Hoi An, Vietnam 97.11 5 Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan Indonesia 96.88 6 Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle Chiang Rai, Thailand 96.86 7 Leela Palace Udaipur, India 96.73

Cities

3 Hoi An Vietnam 90.31 4 Ubud Indonesia 90.13 5 Luang Prabang Laos 90.10 6 Siem Reap Cambodia 89.57 7 Udaipur India 89.54 8 Bangkok 89.45 9 Tokyo 87.79 10 Thimphu Bhutan 87.12

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Islands

City Hotels

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Resort Hotels

8 Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui, Thailand 96.71 9 Rambagh Palace, a Taj Hotel Jaipur, India 96.41 10 Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru 96.00

Readers say...

“The Temple House is right in Chengdu's city center. But the hotel still feels like a calm oasis.”

Top 5

Hotels Beijing

1 Waldorf Astoria 94.61 2 Opposite House 94.52 3 The Peninsula 93.67 4 Ritz-Carlton Beijing, Financial Street 92.13 5 Fairmont 91.71

Pat h o m pat m e e l a r p/ g e t t y i m a g e s

Top 10

Top 5

Hotels Hong Kong

1 The Peninsula 94.59 2 Upper House 94.29 3 Island Shangri-La 94.00 4 Mandarin Oriental 93.33 5 Four Seasons Hotel 92.21

The Peninsula Tokyo impressed readers with its service and central location near Ginza and the Imperial Gardens.

Hotels Shanghai

Top 5

Top 5

Hotels Singapore

Top 5

Top 10

Hotels Tokyo

1 The Peninsula 93.82 2 Waldorf Astoria Shanghai on the Bund 93.26 3 Fairmont Peace Hotel 92.48 4 Ritz-Carlton Shanghai, Pudong 92.42 5 Mandarin Oriental Pudong 92.00

1 The Peninsula 92.99 2 Ritz-Carlton 92.42 3 Palace Hotel 91.93 4 Mandarin Oriental 91.73 5 Shangri-La Hotel 91.39

1 Ritz-Carlton, Millenia 92.06 2 Fullerton Hotel 91.44 3 Shangri-La Hotel 90.21 4 Mandarin Oriental 89.56 5 Raffles 89.46

1 Nihi Sumba Island 99.12 2 Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan 96.88 3 Amandari Ubud, Bali 94.20 4 Four Seasons Resort Bali at Jimbaran Bay 93.42 5 St. Regis Bali Resort Nusa Dua 90.24

1 137 Pillars House Chiang Mai, Thailand 97.71 2 Four Seasons Resort the Nam Hai (formerly the Nam Hai) Hoi An, Vietnam 97.11 3 Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle Chiang Rai, Thailand 96.86 4 Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui, Thailand 96.71 5 InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort Vietnam 95.20 6 Four Seasons Resort Chiang Mai, Thailand 94.65 7 Discovery Shores Boracay Island, Philippines 94.04 8 Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort Chiang Rai, Thailand 93.26 9 Dhara Dhevi Chiang Mai, Thailand 92.86 10 Sofitel Angkor Phokeethra Golf & Spa Resort Siem Reap, Cambodia 92.61

Top 5

Resort Hotels Indonesia

Resort Hotels Southeast Asia

Top 5

courtesy of the peninsula hotels

Resort Hotels India 1 Oberoi Vanyavilas Ranthambhore 97.50 2 Leela Palace Udaipur 96.73 3 Rambagh Palace, a Taj Hotel Jaipur 96.41 4 Oberoi Rajvilas Jaipur 95.84 5 Oberoi Amarvilas Agra 95.84

World's Best awards

Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific Repeat winners Sydney, Waiheke Island and the Brando rub shoulders with two debut properties.

The 24-suite Lodge at Kauri Cliffs, on New Zealand’s North Island, is set on 2,430 hectares and overlooks Matauri Bay.

Cities

1 Sydney 87.31 2 Queenstown New Zealand 86.45 3 Melbourne 85.47 4 Wellington New Zealand 83.95 5 Auckland New Zealand 81.87

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Top 5

Islands

1 Waiheke Island New Zealand 87.47 2 Moorea French Polynesia 87.24 3 Bora-Bora French Polynesia 86.60 4 Cook Islands 86.23 5 Huahine French Polynesia 85.81

Top 5

Resort Hotels The South Pacific 1 The Brando Tetiaroa, French Polynesia 98.91 2 InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa French Polynesia 93.90 3 Four Seasons Resort Bora-Bora, French Polynesia 93.62 4 St. Regis Bora Bora Resort French Polynesia 91.93 5 InterContinental Bora Bora Le Moana Resort French Polynesia 91.14

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Top 5

Resort Hotels Australia & New Zealand 1 Lodge at Kauri Cliffs Matauri Bay, New Zealand 98.61 2 Farm at Cape Kidnappers Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand 96.54 3 Southern Ocean Lodge Kangaroo Island, Australia 96.30 4 The Louise Barossa Valley, Australia 96.22 5 Matakauri Lodge Queenstown, New Zealand 94.97

Top 5

City Hotels Australia & New Zealand 1 QT Sydney 92.67 2 The Langham Sydney 92.21 3 Pullman Quay Grand Sydney Harbour 90.89 4 Park Hyatt Sydney 90.14 5 Crown Towers Melbourne 89.49

Readers say...

“The Lodge at Kauri Cliffs is a truly remarkable find at the end of the Earth. The sommelier is extraordinary, as is the chef.

Service is outstanding.”

C o u r t e s y o f t h e L o d g e at k a u r i c l i f f s

Top 5

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World's Best awards

Europe Top 10

Cities

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Top 10

Top 10

1 Santorini Greece 89.19 2 Ischia Italy 88.53 3 Hvar and the Dalmatian Islands Croatia 87.75 4 Crete Greece 87.30 5 Páros Greece 87.06 6 Rhodes and the Dodecanese Greece 86.32 7 Azores Portugal 86.29 8 Sicily Italy 86.17 9 Skye and the Hebrides Scotland 85.84 10 Menorca Spain 85.33

1 Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace Budapest 96.26 2 41 London 96.17 3 Milestone Hotel London 96.16 4 Egerton House Hotel London 95.79 5 Portrait Firenze Florence 95.77 6 Aria Hotel Budapest 95.73 7 Mandarin Oriental Milan 94.95

Islands

City Hotels

8 Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at Sultanahmet 94.84 9 Le Bristol Paris 94.82 10 Hotel Maria Cristina, a Luxury Collection Hotel San Sebastián, Spain 94.72

Top 10

1 Castello di Casole—A Timbers Resort Casole d’Elsa, Italy 97.12 2 Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco Montalcino, Italy 96.80 3 Mont Cervin Palace Zermatt, Switzerland 96.63 4 Ballyfin County Laois, Ireland 96.55 5 Beau-Rivage Palace Lausanne, Switzerland 96.14 6 Ashford Castle County Mayo, Ireland 96.10 7 Katikies Hotel Santorini, Greece 95.45 8 Canaves Oia Santorini, Greece 95.17 9 J.K. Place Capri, Italy 95.03 10 Trianon Palace Versailles, a Waldorf Astoria Hotel Versailles, France 94.91

1 41 96.17 2 Milestone Hotel 96.16 3 Egerton House Hotel 95.79 4 The Goring 94.00 5 Corinthia Hotel 93.98 6 Chesterfield Mayfair 93.54 7 Ham Yard Hotel 93.30 8 Rosewood 93.01 9 Rubens at the Palace 92.97 10 Claridge’s 92.72

Resort Hotels

Hotels London

Mi c h e l e Fa l zon e / ge tt y i mag es

10

Florence 90.75 Rome 89.73 Barcelona 89.52 San Sebastián Spain 89.52 Budapest 89.19 Siena Italy 88.97 Seville Spain 88.91 Kraków Poland 88.61 Porto Portugal 88.51 Lisbon 88.02

The region continues to beguile readers with its combination of old-world and contemporary retreats—from a sleek hotel in Rome to a grand palace in Budapest.

Top 10

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Top 10

Hotels Paris

1 Le Bristol 94.82 2 La Réserve—Hôtel & Spa 94.37 3 The Ritz 93.86 4 Four Seasons Hotel George V 93.65 5 The Peninsula 93.12 6 Hôtel Plaza Athénée 93.03 7 Shangri-La Hôtel 92.74 8 Hôtel Prince de Galles, a Luxury Collection Hotel 92.18 9 Le Meurice 91.37 10 Saint James 91.32

Top 5

Hotels Rome

1 Hotel de Russie, a Rocco Forte Hotel 93.95 2 J.K. Place Roma 93.82 3 First Luxury Art Hotel Roma 92.55 4 Hassler Roma 90.80 5 Hotel Eden 90.52

Top 5

Hotels Florence

1 Portrait Firenze 95.77 2 Villa Cora 93.78 3 Hotel Savoy, a Rocco Forte Hotel 93.55 4 Four Seasons Hotel Firenze 93.17 5 J.K. Place Firenze 92.95

Top 5

Hotels Venice

Winner's Spotlight

why I love Florence

By David Amsden

1 Belmond Hotel Cipriani 93.26 2 Gritti Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel 91.19 3 San Clemente Palace Kempinski 90.67 4 Ca’Sagredo Hotel 90.07 5 Baglioni Hotel Luna 89.90

Santorini has won for best European island 14 times.

Trending: The Celtic Tiger

Trending: Next-Generation Cruise Ships

Winner’s spotlight: Six Senses, a Feel-Good brand

Winner’s spotlight: TCS World Travel, A Soaring Success

You arrive in Florence clutching the inevitable checklist: to stand before Michelangelo’s David, to marvel at the Botticellis in the Uffizi, to scale Brunelleschi’s Duomo and take in a terra-cotta skyline that remains little changed since the Medicis rose to power.

But it’s during the moments in between when you fall for the town. Maybe you discover an inventive restaurant in a crumbling palazzo. Or stumble upon the studio of an artisan applying medieval techniques to his new creations. Suddenly it hits you: there’s a renaissance happening here! In recent years, Florence has taken bold steps to temper the effects of mass tourism that leached Venice of its soul—discouraging daily tour buses, reasserting its cultural relevance by inviting contemporary artists like Jeff Koons to show work alongside the old masters.

Winner’s spotlight: The result is the perfect weekend in charleston a citylong that invites you to revel in the interplay of antiquity and modernity, adamantly insisting that it be savored rather than merely seen.

Florence for World’s Best

Ballyfin, in Ireland, is a 20room countryhouse hotel where guests can participate in period costume parties.

World's Best awards

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The Celtic revival

Top 5

Top 5

Top 5

Top 3

1 Castello di Casole— A Timbers Resort Casole d’Elsa 97.12 2 Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco Montalcino 96.80 3 J.K. Place Capri 95.03 4 Palazzo Avino Ravello 94.62 5 Caesar Augustus Capri 94.47

1 Trianon Palace Versailles, a Waldorf Astoria Hotel Versailles 94.91 2 La Colombe d’Or St.-Paul de Vence 94.00 3 Hôtel du CapEden-Roc Cap d’Antibes 93.66 4 Château de la Chèvre d’Or Èze Village 93.63 5 Domaine Les Crayères Reims 93.33

1 Katikies Hotel Santorini 95.45 2 Canaves Oia Santorini 95.17 3 Blue Palace, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa Crete 93.18 4 Vedema, a Luxury Collection Resort Santorini 92.92 5 Mystique, a Luxury Collection Hotel Santorini 91.92

1 Ballyfin County Laois, Ireland 96.55 2 Ashford Castle County Mayo, Ireland 96.10 3 Sheen Falls Lodge County Kerry, Ireland 94.78 4 Powerscourt Hotel Resort & Spa County Wicklow, Ireland 91.30 5 Old Course Hotel, Golf Resort & Spa St. Andrews, Scotland 91.21

1 Convento do Espinheiro, a Luxury Collection Hotel & Spa Évora, Portugal 94.22 2 Penha Longa Resort Sintra, Portugal 92.85 3 Marbella Club Hotel, Golf Resort & Spa Marbella, Spain 88.76

Resort Hotels Italy

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Resort Hotels France

Resort Hotels Greece

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Resort Hotels United Kingdom & Ireland

Resort Hotels Spain & Portugal

c o u r t e s y o f B a l ly f i n

Top 5

Four of the five top resort hotels in the British Isles this year are in Ireland—a strong showing propelled by passionate hoteliers determined to reinvigorate the country after the 2008 recession. The No. 1 property, Ballyfin, opened in 2011 after a nine-year renovation of a Neoclassical mansion in the Irish Midlands. Owner and Chicago businessman Fred Kreihbel filled the vast library with some 5,000 books and decorated the walls with Irish art from the 18th through the 20th centuries. Also benefiting from a renovation is Ashford Castle, in County Mayo. After acquiring the estate in 2013, the Tollman family, the owners of Red Carnation Hotels, embarked on a US$75 million update that included adding a billiards room and a swimming pool.

Rounding out the list are the refurbished fly-fishing haven Sheen Falls Lodge in County Kerry and Powerscourt Hotel Resort & Spa, Ireland’s first Autograph Collection hotel, in County Wicklow.

Trending: The Celtic Tiger

Africa & the Middle East South Africa claimed the most wins in the region— including the No. 1 city, Cape Town.

7 andBeyond Nxabega Okavango Tented Camp Okavango Delta, Botswana 96.71 8 andBeyond Phinda Forest Lodge Phinda Private Game Reserve, South Africa 96.40 9 andBeyond Ngorongoro Crater Lodge Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania 95.91 10 Wilderness Safaris Mombo Camp and Little Mombo Camp Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana 95.72

Richard Branson’s Kasbah Tamadot, in Morocco's Atlas Mountains, has lavish tented suites and a pool overlooking nearby peaks.

Top 3

Top 5

Top 5

Top 5

Top 10

1 Seychelles 84.57 2 Mauritius 83.71 3 Madagascar 80.63

1 Jumeirah at Etihad Towers Abu Dhabi 95.81 2 Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem 93.03 3 Royal Mansour Marrakesh, Morocco 92.89 4 Burj Al Arab Jumeirah Dubai 92.72 5 Sofitel Winter Palace Luxor, Egypt 92.40

1 Kasbah Tamadot Atlas Mountains, Morocco 94.67 2 Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach 93.93 3 One&Only Royal Mirage Dubai 93.68 4 Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi, Grand Canal 91.78 5 One&Only The Palm Dubai 91.06

1 La Residence Franschhoek, South Africa 97.41 2 Delaire Graff Lodges & Spa Stellenbosch, South Africa 95.10 3 Le Quartier Français Franschhoek, South Africa 92.95 4 Birkenhead House Hermanus, South Africa 92.24 5 Four Seasons Resort Seychelles 91.26

1 Gibb’s Farm Karatu, Tanzania 98.59 2 Tswalu Kalahari Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, South Africa 98.40 3 Zarafa Camp Selinda Reserve, Botswana 98.00 4 Singita Sabi Sand Sabi Sand Game Reserve, South Africa 97.63 5 andBeyond Kichwa Tembo Tented Camp Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya 97.17 6 Londolozi Sabi Sand Game Reserve, South Africa 96.71

Islands

Top 5

courtesy of virgin limited edition

Cities

1 Cape Town 90.24 2 Jerusalem 89.03 3 Beirut Lebanon 88.41 4 Marrakesh Morocco 85.72 5 Fez Morocco 85.48

City Hotels North Africa & the Middle East

Resort Hotels North Africa & the Middle East

Resort Hotels Africa

Safari Lodges

Top 5

City Hotels Africa

1 Ellerman House Cape Town 95.78 2 Twelve Apostles Hotel & Spa Cape Town 94.59 3 Cape Grace Cape Town 94.10 4 Saxon Hotel, Villas & Spa Johannesburg, South Africa 94.00 5 One&Only Cape Town 92.97

Readers say...

“I still shake my head in wonder at the romantic luxury of Kasbah Tamadot.”

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World's Best awards

Continental United States Southern cities fared the best— claiming seven of the top 10 spots—while a luxury Wyoming ranch is the highest-ranking hotel in the country.

Top 10

Top 10

1 Hilton Head Island South Carolina 90.83 2 Nantucket Massachusetts 87.26 3 Mount Desert Island Maine 86.69 4 Golden Isles (Jekyll Island, Little St. Simons Island, Sea Island, St. Simons Island) Georgia 85.60 5 Mackinac Island Michigan 85.45 6 San Juan Islands Washington 83.86 7 Florida Keys 83.49 8 Martha’s Vineyard Massachusetts 83.34 9 Kiawah Island South Carolina 83.22 10 Sanibel Island Florida 82.43

1 Charleston South Carolina 91.54 2 Santa Fe New Mexico 89.94

Cities*

3 Savannah Georgia 89.30 4 New Orleans 89.15 5 Nashville 85.50 6 Honolulu 85.29 7 New York City 84.86 8 Austin Texas 84.72 9 Asheville North Carolina 84.69 10 San Antonio Texas 84.49 *Including Hawaii

Top 15

Resort Hotels

1 Lodge & Spa at Brush Creek Ranch Saratoga, Wyoming 98.77 2 Triple Creek Ranch Darby, Montana 98.23 3 Inn at Willow Grove Orange, Virginia 98.13

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4 Rosewood CordeValle San Martin, California 98.00 5 Twin Farms Barnard, Vermont 97.54 6 Rabbit Hill Inn Lower Waterford, Vermont 96.87 7 Gasparilla Inn & Club Boca Grande, Florida 96.43 8 The Willcox Aiken, South Carolina 96.38 9 Blackberry Farm Walland, Tennessee 96.37 10 Château du Sureau Oakhurst, California 96.25 11 Gateway Canyons Resort & Spa Gateway, Colorado 96.24 12 Wequassett Resort & Golf Club Chatham, Massachusetts 96.21 13 Farmhouse Inn Forestville, California 96.06 14 Old Edwards Inn & Spa Highlands, North Carolina 95.89 15 Blantyre Lenox, Massachusetts 95.83

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Top 15

City Hotels

1 The Surrey New York City 96.09 2 Alfond Inn Orlando Area, Florida 96.00 3 21c Museum Hotel Oklahoma City 95.77 4 The Chatwal New York City 95.57 5 Thompson Seattle 95.15 6 Archer New York City 95.13 7 Urban Cowboy Nashville, 95.11 8 21c Museum Hotel Bentonville, Arkansas 94.95 9 The Vendue Charleston, South Carolina 94.88 10 Roxy Hotel New York City 94.77 11 Hotel Elysee New York City 94.67 12 Zero George Charleston, South Carolina 94.52

13 Old 77 Hotel & Chandlery New Orleans 94.50 14 The Peninsula Chicago 94.44 15 Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas 94.35

Top 10

Hotels New York City The Surrey 96.09 The Chatwal 95.57 Archer 95.13 Roxy Hotel 94.77 Hotel Elysee 94.67 The Beekman, a Thompson Hotel 94.19 7 The Lowell 94.15 8 Greenwich Hotel 92.98 9 The Peninsula 92.94 10 Lotte New York Palace 92.05 1 2 3 4 5 6

Readers say...

“Charleston is a fusion of the best of Southern culture and contemporary class. Whether you're a foodie, an art lover or a history buff, there is never a dull time in this city.”

f ro m l e f t: p e t e r f ra n k e dwa rd s ; c ou rt esy of Ho min y G r il l

Islands

Left: The Vendue, the No. 1 hotel in Charleston, has more than 300 pieces of art. Right: Chicken and biscuits at Hominy Grill, a popular brunch spot in the city.

Winner's Spotlight

THE PERFECT LONG WEEKEND IN CHARLESTON How to spend three unforgettable days in America’s best city.

Friday Check in to the Vendue (thevendue. com; doubles from US$150), which is located on humming East Bay Street.

Voted the No. 1 hotel in Charleston, this property is known for its rotating art exhibits. Go for an evening stroll in Waterfront Park, then loop down to the historic Rainbow Row houses. Up the street is McCrady’s Tavern, where chef Sean Brock’s escargotstuffed marrow bone is an umamirich dream (mccradys​tavern.com; mains US$16–$32).

Saturday

Top 5

Top 5

Top 5

Top 5

1 The Jefferson 93.89 2 The Hay-Adams 92.29 3 Melrose Georgetown Hotel 91.02 4 Four Seasons Hotel 89.74 5 Sofitel Washington D.C. Lafayette Square 89.64

1 2 3 4

The Vendue 94.88 Zero George 94.52 The Spectator 94.18 French Quarter Inn 94.10 5 Wentworth Mansion 93.40

1 Rosewood CordeValle San Martin 98.00 2 Château du Sureau Oakhurst 96.25 3 Farmhouse Inn Forestville 96.06 4 Auberge du Soleil Rutherford 95.36 5 Calistoga Ranch, an Auberge Resort Calistoga 95.03

1 Hotel Bel-Air Los Angeles 92.32 2 The Peninsula Beverly Hills 92.00 2 Viceroy L’Ermitage Beverly Hills 92.00 4 Petit Ermitage West Hollywood 91.32 5 The Redbury Los Angeles 90.97

Hotels Washington, D.C.

Hotels Charleston

Top 5

Top 5

Hotels Chicago

1 The Peninsula 94.44 2 The Langham 94.26 3 Thompson 93.73 4 Chicago Athletic Association Hotel 92.88 5 Waldorf Astoria 91.50

Trending: The Celtic Tiger

Resort Hotels Florida

Resort Hotels California

Hotels Greater Los Angeles

Wake up with a Southern-style brunch at the Grocery (thegrocery​ charleston.com; mains US$12–$21).

Then head south along King Street, which is packed with quality shops like Blue Bicycle Books (blue​ bicycle​books.com). Follow shopping with a visit to one of the city's many historic homes. For dinner, Le Farfalle serves unconventional Italian, like sorghum pappardelle, and the silkiest ricotta ever (lefarfalle​charleston.com; mains US$15–$43).

Sunday Kick off your last morning with a classically Charlestonian brunch at Hominy Grill (hominy​grill.com; mains US$5–$19) followed by a kayaking excursion into nearby waterways with Nature Adventures Outfitters (kayak​ charleston​sc.com; rentals from US$40). Get a taste of home-style cooking to go at Nana’s Seafood & Soul. The deviled crab will have you planning your next trip (nanas​ seafood​soul.com; mains US$2–$15).

1 Gasparilla Inn & Club Boca Grande 96.43 2 Acqualina Resort & Spa Sunny Isles Beach 95.42 3 Little Palm Island Resort & Spa Little Torch Key 95.38 4 Biltmore Hotel Coral Gables 94.47 5 The Betsy Miami Beach 94.31

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Winner’s spotlight: the perfect long weekend in charleston

With iconic attractions like Haleakala Crater and the Road to Hana—as well as all of the beautiful beaches—it’s no surprise that Maui has won for best Hawaiian island 16 times.

Top 5

Resort Hotels Northeast

1 Twin Farms Barnard, Vermont 97.54 2 Rabbit Hill Inn Lower Waterford, Vermont 96.87 3 Wequassett Resort & Golf Club Chatham, Massachusetts 96.21 4 Blantyre Lenox, Massachusetts 95.83 5 White Elephant Village Nantucket, Massachusetts 95.64

Top 5

Islands

Top 5

Resort Hotels West

1 Lodge & Spa at Brush Creek Ranch Saratoga, Wyoming 98.77 2 Triple Creek Ranch Darby, Montana 98.23 3 Gateway Canyons Resort & Spa Gateway, Colorado 96.24 4 Stephanie Inn Cannon Beach, Oregon 95.64 5 Hotel Jerome Aspen, Colorado 94.78

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Top 5

Resort Hotels South

1 Inn at Willow Grove Orange, Virginia 98.13 2 The Willcox Aiken, South Carolina 96.38 3 Blackberry Farm Walland, Tennessee 96.37 4 Old Edwards Inn & Spa Highlands, North Carolina 95.89 5 Inn & Club at Harbour Town Hilton Head, South Carolina 95.45

Top 5

Resort Hotels Midwest

1 Big Cedar Lodge Ridgedale, Missouri 94.49 2 Grand Hotel Mackinac Island, Michigan 93.48 3 Osthoff Resort Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin 92.95 4 American Club at Destination Kohler Kohler, Wisconsin 92.93 5 Sundara Inn & Spa Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin 90.82

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Readers say...

“For young and old, Maui is a great place to visit. Just relax, take a deep breath, and enjoy the view and all its beauty.”

1 2 3 4 5

Maui 89.17 Kauai 88.72 Big Island 87.42 Oahu 85.56 Lanai 82.41

Top 15

Resort Hotels

1 Ko’a Kea Hotel & Resort Kauai 96.30 2 Hotel Wailea Maui 94.67 3 Montage Kapalua Bay Maui 93.46

4 Four Seasons Resort Hualalai Big Island 93.39 5 Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort 93.17 6 Four Seasons Resort Lanai 92.10 7 Fairmont Kea Lani Maui 91.09 8 Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea 91.04 9 Halekulani Oahu 90.45 10 Ritz-Carlton Kapalua Maui 90.29 11 Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa 89.21 12 Four Seasons Resort Oahu at Ko Olina 88.55 13 Travaasa Hana Maui 88.52 14 Fairmont Orchid Big Island 88.48 15 Mauna Lani Bay Hotel & Bungalows Big Island 88.38

r o n _t h o m a s / g e t t y i m a g e s

Hawaii

The Caribbean, Bermuda & the Bahamas Low-key luxury reigns, as Anguilla and Kamalame Cay, in the Bahamas, win as the No. 1 island and resort hotel.

Top 10

Islands

Canada

Boutique properties scored big from Victoria to Fogo Island in Newfoundland.

Top 3

Cities

1 Quebec City 88.59 2 Vancouver 86.02 3 Victoria British Columbia 85.85

Top 3

Alex fradkin

Islands

1 Vancouver Island British Columbia 85.95 2 Gulf Islands British Columbia 85.37 3 Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia 84.98

The passion project of conservationist Zita Cobb, the remote Fogo Island Inn has just 29 suites.

Top 5

Top 5

1 Magnolia Hotel & Spa Victoria, British Columbia 93.69 2 Loden Hotel Vancouver 92.33 3 Auberge SaintAntoine Quebec City 92.32 4 Wedgewood Hotel & Spa Vancouver 92.07 5 Rosewood Hotel Georgia Vancouver 91.91

1 Fogo Island Inn Newfoundland 97.76 2 Manoir Hovey North Hatley, Quebec 96.96 3 Post Hotel & Spa Lake Louise, Alberta 95.64 4 Wickaninnish Inn Tofino, British Columbia 91.64 5 Nita Lake Lodge Whistler, British Columbia 91.30

City Hotels

Resort Hotels

1 Anguilla 86.87 2 Culebra Puerto Rico 86.03 3 Vieques Puerto Rico 85.06 4 Virgin Gorda British Virgin Islands 85.03 5 St. John U.S. Virgin Islands 84.38 6 Harbour Island Bahamas 84.36 7 Bermuda 84.10 8 The Exumas Bahamas 84.08 9 Turks and Caicos 83.96 10 Jost Van Dyke British Virgin Islands 83.44

Top 25

Resort Hotels

1 Kamalame Cay Andros, Bahamas 97.49 2 Jade Mountain St. Lucia 97.03 3 Nisbet Plantation Beach Club Nevis 97.00 4 Curtain Bluff Antigua 96.45 5 Cap Maison St. Lucia 95.16 6 Anse Chastanet Resort St. Lucia 94.59

7 Rockhouse Negril, Jamaica 94.50 8 Round Hill Hotel & Villas Montego Bay, Jamaica 94.33 9 Guana Island British Virgin Islands 94.30 10 Zemi Beach House Anguilla 94.27 11 Couples Sans Souci Ocho Rios, Jamaica 94.18 12 Hôtel Le Toiny St. Bart’s 93.77 13 Rosalie Bay Resort Dominica 93.73 14 The House Barbados 93.58 15 Couples Negril Jamaica 93.55 16 Eden Rock St. Bart’s 93.44 17 Jumby Bay, a Rosewood Resort Antigua 93.31 18 Dorado Beach, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve Puerto Rico 93.28 19 Malliouhana, an Auberge Resort Anguilla 93.08 20 Gansevoort Turks and Caicos 92.90 21 Cheval Blanc St.-Barth Isle de France 92.85 22 Petit St. Vincent St. Vincent and the Grenadines 92.80 23 Couples Swept Away Negril, Jamaica 92.46 24 Hermitage Bay Antigua 92.44 25 Jamaica Inn Ocho Rios, Jamaica 92.43

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In the Galapagos Islands, Blue-footed Dancing Boobies are only one of the wildlife attractions for naturalists.

Top 10

Top 5

1 Resort at Pedregal Cabo San Lucas 96.88 2 Rosewood Mayakoba Playa del Carmen 96.26 3 Hard Rock Hotel Vallarta Riviera Nayarit 95.78 4 Capella Ixtapa 95.71 5 Las Ventanas al Paraíso, a Rosewood Resort San José del Cabo 95.53 6 Esperanza, an Auberge Resort Cabo San Lucas 95.00 7 Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita 94.61 8 Viceroy Riviera Maya Playa del Carmen 94.55 9 Royal Hideaway Playacar Playa del Carmen 94.55 10 Nizuc Resort & Spa Cancún 94.19

1 Cavas Wine Lodge Mendoza, Argentina 98.22 2 EcoCamp Patagonia Torres del Paine National Park, Chile 96.84 3 Tierra Atacama Boutique Hotel & Spa San Pedro de Atacama, Chile 96.00 4 Singular Patagonia Puerto Bories, Chile 95.70 5 Tambo del Inka, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa Sacred Valley, Peru 95.47

Mexico & Central & South America A mountaintop hacienda in Costa Rica and a contemporary boutique hotel in top-rated city San Miguel de Allende are first-time winners.

Top 10

Cities

1 San Miguel de Allende Mexico 92.12 2 Oaxaca Mexico 90.41 3 Cuzco Peru 89.36 4 Mexico City 88.39 5 Antigua Guatemala 86.65

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6 Guadalajara Mexico 85.80 7 Mérida Mexico 85.67 8 Bogotá Colombia 84.68 9 Mendoza Argentina 84.00 10 Buenos Aires 83.96

Top 3

Islands

1 Galápagos Islands Ecuador 89.20 2 Easter Island Chile 84.92 3 Isla Mujeres Mexico 81.95

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Top 5

Resort Hotels Central America

Top 5

City Hotels Mexico

1 Hotel Matilda San Miguel de Allende 91.85 2 Rosewood San Miguel de Allende 90.89 3 St. Regis Mexico City 90.25 4 Las Alcobas, a Luxury Collection Hotel Mexico City 89.50 5 Casa Oaxaca 89.26

1 Hacienda AltaGracia, an Auberge Resort Pérez Zeledón, Costa Rica 97.33 2 Nayara Springs Arenal Volcano National Park, Costa Rica 96.14 3 Inn at Rancho Santana Rivas, Nicaragua 95.60 4 Nayara Hotel, Spa & Gardens Arenal Volcano National Park, Costa Rica 94.34 5 Mukul Rivas, Nicaragua 94.00

Resort Hotels South America

Top 10

City Hotels Central & South America 1 Belmond Palacio Nazarenas Cuzco, Peru 95.88 2 Casa San Agustín Cartagena, Colombia 95.09 3 Alvear Palace Hotel Buenos Aires 94.36 4 Casa Gangotena Quito, Ecuador 94.00 5 Belmond Hotel Monasterio Cuzco, Peru 93.19 6 Waldorf Astoria Panama City 93.08 7 Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt Buenos Aires 93.00 8 Four Seasons Hotel Buenos Aires 92.95 9 Palacio del Inka, a Luxury Collection Hotel Cuzco, Peru 92.75 10 Belmond Copacabana PalaceRio de Janeiro 92.45

Jessie Reeder /get t y images

Resort Hotels Mexico

Methodology How we conduct the world’s best awards

A survey developed by the editors of Travel + Leisure, in association with digital marketing firm Wylei, was made available at TLWorldsBest. com/intl from November 7, 2016, to March 6, 2017.

Readers were invited to participate through Travel + Leisure magazine, T+L tablet editions, newsletters, social media and travel​a nd​leisure. com. Wylei maintained, monitored and kept the survey website secure, and also collected and tabulated the responses. To protect the integrity of the data, after the survey closed, Travel + Leisure and Wylei screened the responses to identify fraudulent votes, which were eliminated.

Respondents were asked to rate airlines, airports, car-rental agencies, cities, cruise ships, destination spas, hotels, hotel brands, islands, tour operators and safari outfitters on a number of characteristics. For each characteristic, respondents could choose a rating of excellent, above average, average, below average or poor. The final scores are indexed averages of these responses. Scores shown have been rounded to the nearest hundredth of a point; in the event of a true

tie, winners share the same ranking. In most categories, respondents could also rate optional characteristics; these ratings are not included in the overall scores.

Hotels were categorized as City or Resort based on their locations and amenities. For the cruise category, respondents were asked to rate individual ships; the results were combined to generate scores for cruise lines in different categories. The categories are: mega-ship ocean cruise lines (capacity of 2,200 passengers or more), large-ship ocean cruise lines (600 to 2,199 passengers), midsize-ship ocean cruise lines (250 to 599 passengers), small-ship ocean cruise lines (249 or fewer passengers), and river cruise lines.

Some cruise lines may appear in multiple categories depending on the makeup of their fleet.

A minimum number of responses was necessary for a candidate to be eligible for inclusion in the World’s Best Awards rankings.

Some companies were eligible to be rated in multiple categories; they were scored independently for each category.

categories and characteristics Airlines Cabin comfort, in-flight service, customer service, value.

Airports Access, check-in/ security, restaurants/bars, shopping, design.

Car-rental agencies Vehicle selection, vehicle availability, car-rental location, service, value.

Cities Sights/landmarks, culture, food, friendliness, shopping, value.

Cruise ships Cabins/facilities, food, service, itineraries/ destinations, excursions/ activities, value.

Destination spas Accommodations/ facilities, treatments, service, food, value.

Hotels Rooms/facilities, location, service, food, value.

Hotel brands Locations, rooms/ facilities, food, service, value.

Islands Natural attractions/ beaches, activities/ sights, restaurants/food, people/ friendliness, value.

Tour operators and safari outfitters Staff/guides, itineraries/ destinations, activities, accommodations, food, value.

One of the world’s most renowned dance companies stage its landmark production of one of the greatest ballet comedies of the 20th century by John Cranko.

Wednesday 18 October, Thursday 19 October (7.30 pm) Supported by Embassy of Germany Tickets: Bht 5,500 / 4,500 / 3,500 / 2,500 / 2,000

TAMING OF THE SHREW Classical ballet

Venue: Main Hall, Thailand Cultural Centre. Performance starts: 7.30pm.

Doors open: 30 minutes before. FREE shuttle from MRT station. Thailand Cultural Centre, Exit 1, During 5.30-7.00pm.

Tickets on sale now

Hotline 02 262 3191 (24 hrs) www.thaiticketmajor.com

L auryn ishak

The rough-andtumble Tanjung Ringgit Peninsula, in Lombok, Indonesia, page 82.

/ august 2017 / Searching for rare beasts, finding rugged serenity in

Lombok | What the First Nations of British Columbia can teach us about cultural tourism | Collectivist artists and dreamers help Athens get back on its feet.

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Trekking to Benang Kelambu waterfall in Rinjani National Park.

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Wild, Wild Life

Lombok Island is so close to Bali, but a zoological world away. Brian Spencer trails in the footsteps of pioneering naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace to a tropical paradise on the ecological edge.

Photographed by Lauryn Ishak

“Do you know why I’m so small?

Because when I was young, I carried so much grass on my shoulders that it pushed me down!”

Ron might reach 1.5-meters-tall on his toes. But the swaggering 37-year-old isn’t close to that height in the purple kid-sized flipflops he wears on a hike deep into the terraced rice paddies surrounding Tete Batu, a sleepy farming community in the verdant forests of Lombok’s Mount Rinjani National Park. We’re in pursuit of animals that reside on the east side of the Wallace Line, such as the floppy-eared Sunda sambar (Rusa deer) and the rare black lutung (ebony leaf monkey), a forest-dwelling herbivore that seldom strays from trees. I’m particularly curious about the latter, which are native to Indonesia and one of the few mammals found on both sides of the Wallace Line. Sightings are sporadic in Lombok yet still more likely than in Bali, where development threatens the monkeys’ already-shrinking habitat. However, in diminutive, quick-witted Ron, a lifelong resident of Tete Batu, I find as much local color as anything I see in the wilderness.

Wearing basketball shorts (sized small but well past his knees), Ron dashes nimbly in his flip-flops down a slippery trail with no footholds and stops next to a plot teeming with red chili pepper plants. We hear lilting birdsong, and cascading water pummeling rock at Tibu Topat waterfall, and nothing else—until Ron picks a pepper and exclaims in his high-pitched, raspy voice, “The Lombok chili peppers are like the Lombok people: short and spicy. Ha ha.”

On November 3, 1859, Welsh naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who forwarded the theory of natural selection and was a colleague of Charles Darwin, presented field research on the Malay archipelago, from his eight-year scientific tour of the region, that revealed surprising ecological changes between the Lesser Sunda Islands of Bali and Lombok, which lie just 30 kilometers apart.

After observing barbets, thrushes and other birds, for example, in abundance in Bali, Wallace went to Lombok and found no traces of these and other common Balinese species. Furthermore, the Welshman was baffled that the islands’ distinct zoological contrasts did not coincide with a likewise fluctuation in topography or temperature. In other words, the two places were geographically the same, but the animals were conspicuously distinct.

“In a few hours,” he wrote, “we may experience an amount of zoological differences which only weeks or even months of travel will give us in any other part of the world.”

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Ten years later Wallace published further studies in The Malay Archipelago, his influential 19th-century account of the region’s geography and inhabitants, which formed the basis for what became known as the “Wallace Line.” This theoretical boundary cuts through the Lombok Strait between Bali and Lombok, delineating the sudden faunal shift from Sundaland, to the west, and Near Oceania, to the east. Apes, tigers and other mammals once or now found on Southeast Asian land masses west of and including Bali were never recorded on or east of Lombok, where the Rinjani Scops owl—the island’s only known endemic bird species—and many of the bats, rodents and reptiles more closely resemble those found in Australia. Wallace acknowledged some faunal overlap—distinct but related species of babi hutan (wild boar) roam both islands, for instance—but found the abrupt overall transition of species unmistakable.

I continually stumble upon traces of Wallace’s legacy in Lombok, which boasts no traffic jams, and thinner, more infrequent crowds than in Bali. During wildlife chases that span fertile interior pastures, arid southeastern coastal tracts, and damp western beaches with charcoal-black sand that sparkles like smoky quartz in the sun, I have the consistent feeling that it’s not just the rare animals living a secret life but the island itself.

At Jeeva Klui Resort, where 35 suites and villas are tucked into a beautifully landscaped seaside strip north of mellow Senggigi Beach, the common room is the Wallace Library, and on the shelves I find three copies of Wallace’s books. At dusk I sip a fruity Wallace cocktail at the resort’s warung, watching from under the canopy of a ketapang tree the sun falling behind Bali’s rugged coastline across the strait.

“This island is part of Wallacea,” says Afif, referring to the island chain east of the Wallace Line. I meet him in the central highland village of Teratak at the entrance to

Clockwise from top left: In

a harem of rare black lutung; barbecued fish for lunch; ripe cacao; Afif, a founding guide in Rinjani Geopark; in a zeroconnectivity room at Jeeva Beloam; fishing boats off the coast of Ampenan.

I have the consistent feeling that it’s not just the rare animals leading a secret life, but the island itself

Off the grid and into the light at Jeeva Beloam. opposite: Rugged Tanjung Ringgit Peninsula.

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Geopark Rinjani Lombok. A member of the indigenous Sasak people, soft-spoken Afif is one of 43 guides who escort visitors in the park’s jungle; once each guide completes a tour, his name drops to the bottom of the list and he waits 42 more turns before doing it again.

I draw this earnest fellow by lucky chance.

After the park opened in 2000, he recognized the positive impact tourism might have on his village, and soon after initiated the guide program. Today the park gets thousands of visitors every month and is maintained by the local guides, ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers and shopkeepers who benefit from the foot traffic.

“Each group takes turns cleaning the park twice a week,” Afif says—which doesn’t stop him from picking up errant trash throughout our two-hour hike, or from reminding a food vendor to serve his fragrant meatballs in something more sustainable than plastic bags.

The park’s main draws are its waterfalls, Benang Setokel and Benang Kelambu (one of the few waterfalls in the world fed only by lava rock; Afif is hopeful it will gain unesco World Heritage status in the coming years) but before we reach them, we get a lesson on the wildlife.

“We have owls and luwaks [civets] endemic to Lombok here, and sometimes you see a flying lizard with wings in the trees,” Afif says. What about Sunda sambar and black lutung? “Yes, we have those, but the deer only come out at night, and those monkeys are shy.”

The cheeky troupes of macaques scurrying in the undergrowth are an everyday sight in rural Lombok—and the only mammals we meet in the geopark, though daredevil humans put up strong competition for our attention. We watch kids no more than six years old taking leaps of faith into a clear blue quarry. Nearby, two streams flow from the emerald jungle 40 meters above to a rocky canyon floor. Locals take turns standing beneath the thundering falls, and when I join them I become a temporary celebrity asked to pose for pictures with ecstatic families and bashful teens. For

d e e r : © K u n a l S e h r awat/ Dr e a m s t i m e . c o m

from top: The elusive Sunda sambar; an ocean-view villa at Jeeva Klui; Tangsi Beach, at Jeeva Beloam.

m a p b y a u t c h a r a pa n p h a i

them, the novelty of a nearly two-meter-tall white guy with a bushy beard might be the equivalent of me spotting a black lutung.

During the hike back from the falls, my Wallacean wildlife hunt becomes a crash course on Lombok’s herbaceous plants and folk medicine. Afif plucks one root, breaks it in half, and reveals a sticky, gooey substance—natural white glue. He asserts that jambu (rose apples) alleviate symptoms of dengue fever, and that leaves from a certain flower, which also produces ink, cure asthma. “It’s a long process, but it permanently kills it,” he swears. Mangosteen, papaya, avocado, pineapple and 17 different types of bananas are among the long list of fruits and vegetables that he says grow naturally in Teratak.

A day later in Tetebatu, Ron shows me wild candlenut, cinnamon, durian, jackfruit, guava, pomelo and cacao trees. There are cassava shrubs, as well as coffee plants taller than any I’ve ever seen. He pats one of the countless mahogany trees that fill a dense woodland once ravaged by deforestation and says he planted it 25 years ago. Near Tibu Topat waterfall, he forages in the brush, returns with a small pink flower, and squeezes clear liquid from its pistil into his eye. “This is for eye infections,” he says. “In Lombok, we only go to the doctor if we cannot cure something first.”

Snacking high atop a green bamboo thicket, long black tails hanging like rope swings, a harem of black lutung clamber from branch to branch, the rustling of leaves and cracking of twigs in the trees resounding through the mute forest. We’ve spotted one of our elusive targets. Although many are shrouded in lush foliage, I make out tufted fur, like shaggy sideburns, on the one nearest us. “We are lucky,” Ron says in a hushed tone. “They usually run back into the forest if they hear somebody.”

Lucky indeed. Though they live on both sides of the Wallace Line, the black lutung are only found on a few select Indonesian islands and there is a minor population in Lombok; in fact, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources considers the species “vulnerable.” Researchers are uncertain as to how these monkeys, and other Lombok mammals, reached the island—some believe humans introduced them from Bali, perhaps when the Balinese invaded Lombok in the 17th century, while others argue that they migrated via a Pleistocene land bridge that once linked Bali and Lombok.

In some ways, the evasive wildlife defines my journey as much as the scarcity of people—particularly at the remote Jeeva Beloam Beach Camp, a cluster of 11 wooden bungalows with views of Sumbawa to the east. Here, luxury means pure seclusion. I only see the resort’s handful of staff and other guests during meals, and with no Wi-Fi, TV, or even room service to distract, I pass the time reading on my bungalow’s sea-facing deck, listening to the waves crashing ashore on Beloam Beach and soaking up the complete but momentary disconnection from the outside world.

Before snorkeling the next morning at the tiny Gili Petelu islets, just off the wild southeastern coast, and its string of sleepy, largely untouched beaches, I hike the cliffs rising above Jeeva Beloam. I’m concerned more with snakes than anything else in this dry, untamed backcountry, but as I maneuver through thorny bramble and flowering kapal-kapal bushes, two large, lumbering boars rumble across the trail no more than eight meters ahead. Thick, ridge-backed and sharp snouted, they’re formidable. I’m terrified.

It’s my closest wildlife encounter—and one that I’m sure is more jarring than if I’d crossed paths with the Sunda sambar,

which proves too elusive for my limited expedition. However, even an accomplished naturalist like Wallace catalogued in three months here just a fraction of Lombok’s nowknown fauna. So as I hold my breath and anxiously listen for signs that the boars are trundling off into the bush, instead of back towards me, I silently thank the island, and its inhabitants, for revealing some of its closekept secrets in a few short days.

The details Getting There Direct international service to Lombok is via AirAsia from Kuala Lumpur, and SilkAir and Singapore Airlines from Singapore.

Garuda Indonesia and Lion Air offer connections from Denpasar International Airport in Bali.

Hotel s Jeeva Beloam Beach Camp Go off the grid at this rustic luxury resort near pretty Tangsi Beach in the far-off southeastern tip.

There’s no room service, Wi-Fi or TV, but that’s the point. The room rate covers all meals and daily activities, including guided snorkeling and cycling.

Jalan Pantai Beloam; 62-370/693-035; jeevaresorts.com/beloam; bungalows from US$285.

Jeeva Klui Resort Take a dip in a beachside infinity pool and unwind with a massage at Jeeva’s serene

flagship resort. Some of Klui’s 35 spacious villas and suites include an outdoor shower; all of them have big patios and ocean views.

Jalan Raya Klui Beach No. 1; 62-821/5000-0800; jeevaresorts.com/klui; doubles from US$156.

Guided Tours Backyard Travel Bespoke tours with local pros in 10 Asian countries. In April, it launched two new Lombok itineraries, the weeklong “Reefs, Rainforest and Relaxation” package (US$993 per person) and the four-day, three-night “Lombok Bliss Island Getaway” (US$425 per person). Both include accommodations, guide services and premium vehicle transfers. backyardtravel.com.

Gunung Rinjani National Park rinjaninationalpark. com; trekking packages from US$300 per person.

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SONG OF THE The province of British Columbia, on Canada’s west coast, is home to First Nations communities whose history is deeply intertwined with the mountains,

woods and waters. On a tour

from Vancouver to Haida Gwaii, CR A IG TAY LOR encounters poetry

and pride— and learns to see his

homeland with fresh eyes.

Photographed by PET ER BOH LER

FOREST

A totem pole in Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, on Moresby Island, part of the Haida Gwaii archipelago.

OPPOSITE: Sailing the waters off Vancouver Island.

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rowing up on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, I found it easy to mock visitors from abroad. “This place,” they’d whisper. “I can go swimming in the morning, skiing in the afternoon, then kayak home for dinner.” The views, the landscape, the wildlife—that was the refrain. Even in the cities, the scenery dominates. On any clear afternoon, look up from the streets of downtown Vancouver and you’ll see the snowcapped North Shore mountains glowing pink, an ostentatious show of natural beauty so commonplace that most residents barely take notice.

There were times when visitors’ compliments sounded like admiration for a two-dimensional backdrop. But B.C. is a complex place, especially when it comes to its aboriginal communities. With a population of just more than 4.5 million, the province is home to around 230,000 aboriginal people from 203 different

First Nations, who among them speak 34 languages and 60 dialects. Today, these groups live a life of ostensible equality, but centuries of oppression began a cycle of social devastation that hasn’t yet been fully resolved. In many aboriginal communities, poverty, homelessness and substance abuse still loom large.

Indeed, residents of B.C. live in a province of uneasy contrasts. My village on the island was a haven of middle-class comfort, bordered by the poverty of a First Nations reserve. As a child, I walked down the stony beach and saw wealth and privilege give way to sudden hardship. This, I was told once, was my first experience of apartheid.

As an adult I spent more than 15 years living outside Canada, and from time to time I would catch a glimpse of the ancient cedars and airborne orcas used to advertise my home province. I wondered which B.C. the visitors were coming to see. Was it possible to engage with the region’s complexities and to approach its original residents in a way that went beyond the superficial?

If I was asking that question of others, I realized, I first needed to answer it myself. So I planned a trip that took me from mid-Vancouver Island, the land of Snuneymuxw and Snaw-Naw-As First Nations, north to Port Hardy, then on to the remote, fog-shrouded islands

from far left:

the site of an infamous potlatch—a feast and gifting ceremony through which First Nations chiefs would assert their status and territorial rights.

(Potlatches were banned in 1884 by the Canadian government, on the grounds that they were contrary to “civilized values.”

The ban was repealed in 1951.) As we set off, Willie told me about the ceremony. “The potlatch was an opportunity to reaffirm who you were,” he said. “It was a way to get through the harsh winters.

We gathered: that was the medicine.”

Willie took me to my lodgings, a beachfront cabin at the Cluxewe Resort outside the logging town of Port McNeill. The resort was comfortable but definitely designed to propel visitors outdoors. (A note inside my room reminded guests to please refrain from gutting fish on the porch.) I spent the evening reading, accompanied by a soundtrack of waves sweeping the beach outside, and the next morning, I took a walk along the stretch of pebbly Pacific shore in front of my cabin. I wanted to reacquaint myself with the past, inhale the moisture in the air, smell the cedar. Up above, unhurried eagles swooped, exuding a proprietary air as they circled and fell and circled again.

As I walked, it struck me that this beach, like so many others, has been home to the Kwakwaka’wakw people for thousands of years. Canada, on the other hand, turns a mere 150 this year, and it seemed to be a good time to reflect on the nation’s progress. The contrasts and contradictions I found in B.C. are playing out on a national scale. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, set up as a response to the abuse inflicted on indigenous students in residential schools, concluded its findings in December 2015, attempting to redress the legacy with 94 Calls to Action. The Idle No More movement has been confronting the issues facing First Nations through a series of rallies and protests.

Meanwhile in B.C., tourism revenue is expected to double in the next 20 years, with the aboriginal sector playing a starring role. (This year it is forecast to bring in C$90 million.) Something is happening. This is not about “having a moment”; moments recede. This is a long slog for respect, an effort to change the way Canadians view the aboriginal community’s land and lives.

Mussels at Cowbay Café, in the port town of Prince Rupert; a pole on the grounds of a waterfront home on Haida Gwaii; Haida chief James Hart carves a totem pole on Haida Gwaii.

of Haida Gwaii, home of the formidable Haida people, to find out whether it was possible for a visitor to take in B.C.’s nuanced human stories while still keeping those forests and snowcapped peaks in view.

P

ort Hardy, a seaside town of 4,000 people on the northern tip of Vancouver Island, is today known as a destination for stormwatchers, sport fishermen and hikers, though the place has retained a plaid-shirt solidity that reflects its past as a center for logging and mining. Outside the airport I was met by Mike Willie of Sea Wolf Adventures. Willie is a member of the Musgamakw Dzawada’enuxw First Nation, and he runs what he calls boat-based cultural tours across the waters into Kwakwaka’wakw territory. That includes the village of Alert Bay, the Namgis Burial Ground, with its totem poles, and the unpredictable waters nearby. He goes from Indian Channel up to Ralph, Fern, Goat and Crease Islands, and as far north as the Musgamakw Dzawada’enuxw territory, also known as the Great Bear Rainforest—a 65,000-square-kilometer nature reserve that is home to the elusive white “spirit” bear.

I’d arranged to travel with Willie to the U’mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay, as well as to Village Island,

I

n preparation for our trip to Alert Bay, Willie drove me into Port McNeill for a breakfast of eggs and bacon at an unpretentious place called Tia’s Café. The town is small, so it wasn’t a huge surprise when Willie’s uncle Don wandered in.

He told us there was excitement up in Kingcome, site of the family’s First Nations community. He said the oolies, or oolichans—smelt fish used for making oil—had arrived, and the villagers were out fishing last night.

“Sea lions were spotted in the river,” Uncle Don said.

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“And there’s excitement?” Willie asked.

Don raised an eyebrow. “Oh sure.”

Willie came to the guiding business in an organic way.

In 2013, he started a water-taxi service between Alert Bay and neighboring Telegraph Cove, and en route he’d tell passengers about Kwakwaka’wakw life. Back then, the creaky remains of the notorious First Nations residential school in Alert Bay, which housed aboriginal children from 1929 to 1975, were still standing, and visitors were sometimes moved to tears when he told them about the abuses that took place there. But there was so much more: the totem-pole ceremony; the death protocol; family crests. You can look at a totem pole and appreciate the art, Willie explained to his passengers, but true appreciation comes from an understanding of its meaning. As he put it, “Wouldn’t you rather see B.C. through fourteen thousand years of history?”

I

nside the U’mista Cultural Centre, in Alert Bay, which was set up to protect the heritage of the Kwakwaka’wakw community, I walked among the masks—a collection of painted wooden beaks and faces peering forth into the dimly lit exhibition room. In this culture, masks function not only as decoration but also as a form of historical and legal documentation. They also serve as tools of social instruction. Willie and I stopped in front of Gwalkwamł, or the Deaf Man, a one-eared mask with a downturned mouth and wisps of black horsehair. “It shows a head chief of a clan,” Willie explained. “He didn’t want to hold a potlatch, and the clansmen weren’t happy about that, so they killed him.” The mask, worn during retellings of the story, became a warning.

Back at the dock in Alert Bay, brightly colored houses huddled alongside boats ranging from weathered to freshly painted. As we left the harbor, Willie offered me pâté of wild sockeye salmon from the Nimpkish River, and I ate as much as I could before we began cresting waves. Over the roar of the engine, I asked him why interacting with tourists was important. “We need to be vocal,” he said. “We need to talk about our evolution and bring people closer to our reality.” Oral-history cultures, I was reminded, need audiences. “Every time we tell this truth,” he said, “it’s strengthened.”

We pulled up to a red-ocher pictograph on a rock face on Berry Island, and Willie cut the engine. The image depicted Baxbakwalanuksiwe’, a crucial figure in Kwakwaka’wakw spirituality. Bestowed with the power to transform himself into multiple man-eating birds, and adorned with mouths all over his body, his imposing presence on the rock meant burial sites were nearby.

We finally put down anchor in a small inlet on Village Island, or Mimkwamlis. It was here, in 1921, that government agents raided a potlatch and arrested the hosting chief and 44 other members of the community.

Of those arrested, 20 did time in a B.C. prison for the offense. We walked inland on a damp soil path that gave a little under each footstep, surrounded by the smell of blackberries ripening from their springtime red. We

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Sea lions gather on a rocky Windy Bay, off the coast of Haida Gwaii.

were headed toward the potlatch site, the remnants of a longhouse—a traditional family dwelling where up to 40 people would have lived. “Longhouse is a new term,” Willie told me. “To us they were just houses.” All that was left was a beam and some fire-cracked rock. “Deeper down,” Willie said, “you’ll find the ash and fish oil, the evidence of everyday living.”

The site was lush and green, the silence softened by the faint buzzing of bees. I tried to picture the ceremony that ended so badly that day. A member of the community, who is rumored to have been a Christian convert, had informed the police. The authorities forced the Kwakwaka’wakw to surrender their masks and carvings or go to jail. If entire tribes gave up their potlatch paraphernalia, individual members would have their sentences suspended. The objects from the raid were only recently returned to the community.

“People lived a dual life,” Willie explained. “I had an uncle who became an Anglican priest and also potlatched—he was a hereditary chief.” We remained at the site a while longer, and I tried to imagine the informer sitting among their people, torn between her two worlds.

Back in Vancouver that evening, I dined at a restaurant called Salmon n’ Bannock, which has we got game written proudly on its sign. Inez Cook and Remi Caudron opened the place when they realized there was no indigenous food on offer for the tourists who came to the city for the 2010 Olympics. Their remedy is a menu that includes bison, sockeye salmon, bannock (or unleavened bread) and even oolichans like the ones I saw glittering in the sunlight on the dock in Port McNeill.

I met a friend at the restaurant, an academic who works at a local university, and explained to her that the oolies on the menu were wondrous fish that were probably being plucked from the maws of angry sea lions up in Kingcome as we spoke. When conversation turned to aboriginal tourism, she was skeptical. “I don’t know if there is really such a thing as cultural tourism,” my friend said as we ate the oolies, which were oily and smoky and delicious. “Whose life, after all, gets marked as ‘culture,’ and whose remains unmarked?”

I

spent the night across town at Skwachàys Lodge, which advertises itself as a “fair trade gallery, boutique hotel and an urban aboriginal artist residence.” The building, owned and operated by the Vancouver Native Housing Society, contains 24 shelter-rate apartments for aboriginal people at risk of homelessness. There are 18 hotel rooms on the top three floors, which has walls hung with works by a team of aboriginal artists. My suite was near the smudging room, where cedar, sage and sweetgrass are burned during traditional cleansing rituals.

The next morning I caught a flight to Haida Gwaii, an archipelago of around 150 islands that sits at the north of B.C.’s coastline, just south of Alaska. The islands are separated from the mainland by the capricious waters of the Hecate Strait, named after a British vessel that bore

the name of the Greek goddess of magic and witchcraft. It’s a region where weather slips around from hour to hour, and rain might appear six times in a day. Even the name of the islands has shifted—they were known as the Queen Charlottes after their “discovery” by the British in 1787. In 2010 they were renamed Haida Gwaii, or “Islands of the People.”

The Haida are one of the most celebrated, and perhaps infamous, tribes of the Pacific Northwest. They’ve been dealing with the vagaries of the chilly Pacific for thousands of years and were known for their lightning raids up and down the coast, the islands acting as their launching points and fortresses. They are said to have traveled in canoes wrought from a single cedar, each warrior rubbed down with grease and charcoal and wrapped in the hides of sea lions and elk to keep the elements at bay.

At the time of first colonial contact, in the late 18th century, there were around 10,000 Haida, and the remoteness of the islands meant it was tougher for missionaries to spread the word to Haida Gwaii, though they did eventually make the journey. As did smallpox, which decimated the Haida in the 1860s. The population dipped to a mere 500 in 1900. Nowadays, signs of resilience are evident across the archipelago. When I was there, the carving house at the Haida Heritage Centre at Kay Llnagaay, an ancient village site, contained two new totem poles, the curving beak of an eagle emerging from fresh cedar shavings.

I was staying in the town of Skidegate, on Graham Island, the archipelago’s second largest. At my lodgings, Jags Beanstalk, I was met by the proprietor, Jags Brown.

A rangy man with salt-and-pepper hair, Brown is a member of the Juus Xaayda clan; his Haida name is Yestaquana. When he was young, he became one of Haida Gwaii’s first Watchmen, a group that protected the community’s ancient sites. On his early travels around Gwaii Haanas, the island’s national park, he would find bones and other moss-covered remains of smallpox

above: Wooden masks carved by the Kwakwaka’wakw First Nation on display at the U’mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay. opposite: A path leading into the forests of Naikoon Provincial Park in Masset, Haida Gwaii.

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victims in the brush; in one cave, he found a cedarwood box containing a shaman’s wand. Back then, his group protected the sacred sites from looters and vandals.

Today their role is to educate, offer marine forecasts and make sure visitors don’t leave any traces behind.

If you want to go somewhere in Haida Gwaii, it’s best to learn the original name. Skedans, for example, comes from a European rendering of a chief’s name; the traditional name, K’uuna Llnagaay, means “Village on the Edge,” and in the 19th century, this wind-whipped peninsula was the winter home of around 450 Haida.

Early one morning I headed there in a Zodiac, out past the village of Sandspit on a thudding journey of extraordinary beauty, islands looming and receding through the mist. Along the way a rainbow formed, and, in the waters just past Sandspit, I saw a humpback breach.

There were once 26 longhouses on Skedans, each occupied by multiple families. Now evidence of that ancient populace has been reduced to the faint outlines of animal symbols on a group of towering, weathered totem poles: eagles, frogs and killer whales. Unlike many of the world’s cultural heritage sites, the poles of K’uuna Llnagaay are not roped off and protected; instead, in accordance with Haida beliefs, they have been left to collapse back into the earth. I’d never seen totem poles of this magnitude, left to disintegrate. Up close, even the cracks in the weathered wood seemed to hold meaning.

As Mike Willie said, an oral history needs to be repeated to ensure it is propagated, scattered around the world. The story of being on that beach, in the presence of those momentous totems and longhouse remains, is connected to stories that are inextricably linked to the geography of B.C. This place can never serve simply as a backdrop, and traveling to these beaches, through this water, forges those links again and again. In this province, listening pays off. The scenery’s great, but the stories are even better.

The details Getting There Masset and Sandspit are the two main airports on the islands of Haida Gwaii, off the coast of.

British Columbia. The Port Hardy Airport, serving Port McNeill as well, is accessible via a connection in Vancouver.

TOUR OPER ATORS Haida Style Expeditions Explore the waters of Haida Gwaii on a 8.5-meter Zodiac.

Summertime cultural tours include visits to the villages of Skedans, Windy Bay and more. haidastyle.com; from C$365 per person.

Sea Wolf Adventures Learn about Kwakwaka’wakw culture throughout the Broughton Archipelago. You may spot a few grizzlies along the way. seawolfadventures.ca; from C$240 per person.

A floatplane docks in Prince Rupert.

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LODGING Cluxewe Resort Twelve cabins near Port McNeill with full kitchens and views of the Broughton Strait. cluxeweresort. com; cabins from C$140.

Jags Beanstalk A collection of comfortable rooms upstairs from a café. Take advantage of the bike and kayak rentals. Skidegate; jagsbeanstalk.com; doubles from C$140.

Skwachàys Lodge This boutique hotel in downtown Vancouver has

18 uniquely designed suites filled with aboriginal art. skwachays. com; doubles from C$219.

RESTAUR ANTS Cowbay Café Pasta, pizza and locally sourced seafood, accompanied by B.C. wines and beautiful waterfront views. Prince Rupert; cowbaycafe.com; mains C$12–$30.

Salmon n’ Bannock Inspired by First Nations cuisine, the menu at this Vancouver favorite features hearty fare like boar meatballs and variations on bannock, the traditional First Nations unleavened bread. salmonand​ bannock​.net; mains C$22–$46.

LIVING HISTORY

Longhouses, once used to shelter multiple families, are common at Northwest First Nations sites, where they’ve been preserved as artifacts.

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Greek Revival

Despite the adversity it has faced in recent years—maybe even because of it—Athens has become an incredibly fun place to wander.

by ST E PH E N H E Y M A N . photogr a ph e d by J U L I A N BROA D

Clockwise from left: On the streets of Athens; Tyre, a sculpture by Ai Weiwei, from an exhibition of his work at the Museum of Cycladic Art; the grounds of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center; a patron at Beaver, a femaleowned co-op café.

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The view of Athens from Philopappou Hill, near the Acropolis.

I started where everyone does, in the mythic Athens, the tourist Athens.

But when I reached the Acropolis, I kept walking: past the stands selling archaeological schlock, past the spectators on Segways, into the park that surrounds Philopappou Hill. I took a seat on a rock ledge overlooking olive trees, where a few smart Athenians had strung hammocks to watch the sunset.

Someone was playing a bouzouki.

Someone else was practicing the trumpet. Everywhere there were ruins. The yawning sun cast the whole park in a strange sepia glow.

I followed ancient stone pathways to the western edge, clambered down a dirt trail, and emerged in Petralona, a neighborhood that felt like it was in an entirely different city. It had bougainvillea, jasmine, cats, funky 1960s apartment buildings. Everyone was on their terraces, on the street. I had that pleasant sensation, unique to urban travel, when you find your neighborhood, relax your shoulders, and think, I could live here. I sat down at a sidewalk café and asked for an ouzo. “No, we drink raki,” the waiter said with a smile, “because we are from Crete.” An icy pitcher arrived.

The sharp, anise-flavored liqueur went down smoothly with what I had ordered: sausage marinated in vinegar, tomatoes sprinkled with oregano, olives, cheese.

Soon it was dark. I was pleasantly drunk, wandering again. Every restaurant was flung open, the interiors empty, the tables and chairs spilled onto the street. You could not

tell, based on the confusion of small plates arriving and departing, whether people were just starting dinner or almost finished. No one, as far as I could tell, had any intention of leaving.

I approached an old red building with film reels mounted on its façade; zefyros, the sign said. I knew it was a cinema, but I didn’t realize until I was inside that it was open to the night sky. I took a seat at a patio table in the garden. The air was cool and vaguely botanical, the walls covered in vines.

The film was black-and-white, Italian with Greek subtitles, and the only thing I understood was that I did not want it to end.

When mark Twain

arrived in Athens, in 1867, his ship was quarantined, so he sneaked ashore after dark. As he recounted in his grouchy travelogue The Innocents Abroad, he bribed his way into the Parthenon, stole a “gallon of superb grapes” from a nearby vineyard, and then completely bypassed modern Athens while dismissing its inhabitants as “pirates,” “villains,” and “falsifiers of high repute.” On his boat the next day, having visited only moonlit ruins, Twain concluded, “We have seen all there is to see,” and set sail for the islands.

To this day, Twain’s attitude persists with too many travelers.

The rap on Athens is that it’s ugly, dirty, even dangerous, that you should just get in and get out. See the

Acropolis, eat a gyro and hop a ferry to Santorini. The Greek capital may be many things—chaotic, complicated, enthralling—but a layover should not be one of them.

This city demands attention.

It deserves it, too, especially right now. Years of economic catastrophe and political fecklessness have instilled in its residents an almost heroic fatalism. I recently spent a week in the city talking to everyone from soup-kitchen volunteers to anarchist waiters to local art- and fashion-world denizens. No one I met believes a real recovery is coming.

But what’s inspiring is that Athenians are getting on with their lives anyway. They’ve stopped waiting—for the government to get its act together, for the EU to bail them out. They’re finding ways, small and large, to move forward.

This process, however painful, has unexpectedly dynamized Athens.

A desperate creative energy has gripped its art world. Chronically underemployed young people are launching cooperative restaurants and cafés. And an audacious generation of entrepreneurs is investing in locally made luxury products. All of this creative bootstrapping has coincided with an unexpected surge in foreign tourism.

A record 27 million people visited Greece in 2016. Suddenly, the city’s cafés are full, restaurants are opening and hotels are going up.

At the same time, Athens has experienced an eruption of high

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culture. In recent years, it has become a hot spot for avant-garde performance, like Katerina Evangelatou’s staging of Euripides’ Rhesus as a Sleep No More–style journey at Aristotle’s Lyceum. The prestigious German art festival Documenta began a three-month run here in April, its first-ever event outside its home country. And last fall, after more than a decade of management fiascoes, the National Museum of Contemporary Art opened in a once-derelict 1950s-era brewery south of the Acropolis, showcasing leading Greek artists and international stars like Shirin Neshat and Bill Viola.

Even more ambitious is the €600 million Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, the new home of Greece’s national opera and library.

Designed by Renzo Piano, this waterfront temple to the arts sits atop an artificial hill in the workingclass neighborhood of Kallithea, overlooking a rambling park filled with aromatic herbs. The building at once references and defies Athens’s classical architecture: its scale is epic, but the columns and canopy roof are built out of a paper-thin concrete that makes it look like it’s about to float out to sea.

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You can get so lost in Athens’s anarchic beauty and sprawling vastness that you forget, if only for an evening, that this city is living through a depression. Over the past decade, Greece’s GDP has fallen 25 percent. Youth unemployment hovers around 60 percent.

Exacerbating all of this is Greece’s role in Europe’s refugee crisis: more than a million people fleeing conflict have arrived on its shores on their way to other countries. “It’s almost like you can’t complain about your own situation anymore,” a local gallerist, Nadia Gerazouni, told me.

“Because the refugees are here to remind you what real misery is.”

Gerazouni is the director of the Breeder, one of the city’s most influential art spaces. It is located down a pedestrian alleyway in Metaxourgeio, a graffitied old factory district. Gerazouni likes the atmosphere. She appreciates the way the brothel owners and the neighborhood pharmacist gather in the mornings to discuss whatever mural work the gallery has put on its façade—such as the bawdy characters painted by Ath1281, a local street artist.

While acknowledging how much Greeks have suffered, Gerazouni sees upside in disaster. What if, she asks, Greek art is entering a kind of Weimar period, a creative flourishing born out of instability and economic ruin? “The fact that the art market here has shrunk to the point of extinction has been very

liberating for artists,” she says.

“There’s no commercial impulse, and this makes them produce really interesting work.”

With her giant glasses and flowing brown hair, Gerazouni would not look out of place in a gallery in New York’s Chelsea or London’s East End. At the Breeder, a former ice cream factory that’s now all smoky steel and cool concrete, she showed me large-scale paintings by Stelios Faitakis, who recently unveiled a major mural commission at the Palais de Tokyo, in Paris.

Adorned in gold leaf and dripping with bloody red, Faitakis’s work blended Greek Orthodox religious iconography with the dystopian mood of Expressionist artists like Otto Dix. Gerazouni pointed to what looked like a crumpled, water-stained cardboard box. “This is white marble,” she said, enjoying my shocked expression. The sculpture was by Andreas Lolis, who deploys all his artistic gifts to make the most sacred of Greek materials look worthless, like a discarded shipping container or a homeless person’s shelter. You don’t need to be an art critic to understand the metaphor.

Rebecca Camhi, another top gallerist in Metaxourgeio who represents international artists like Rita Ackermann and Nobuyoshi Araki, can’t quite bring herself to share Gerazouni’s optimism. “I’m not giving up, but I say that every year,” she told me. Camhi got her start in

square the knowledge that athens is in crisis with the feeling it’s never been more alive

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Paris and comes off as a world-weary, glamorous eccentric. She loves Greece, but is frank about its shortcomings. In 2008, she moved her namesake gallery to a light-filled Neoclassical town house in Metaxourgeio. After the Breeder took up residence nearby, Camhi hoped that the whole neighborhood would transform into a vibrant cultural quarter.

Since the crisis hit, Camhi has tried to stay afloat by doing fewer shows, selling Greek artisan-made goods and hosting an occasional supper club on her garden patio. “All the Greeks care about is eating and drinking,” she said to me, only half-joking. “One of these days, when I can no longer take it, maybe I’ll open a restaurant.”

Still, she persists. Last fall, she filled the gallery with stunning architectural installations by the Greek-American artist DeAnna Maganias. And she still believes that Metaxourgeio can blossom into a bohemia. She took me to a broad, tiled public square two blocks from her gallery where Seychelles, one of the best restaurants for New Greek cuisine, opened a few years ago. The laid-back café Ble Papagalos recently joined it.

At night, young Greeks stream into the alleyways between the Metaxourgeio and Kerameikous metro stations. Follow them and you’ll discover some of the best nightlife spots in Athens, like the sexy patio bar Cabezón or the untucked after-hours canteen Louis.

Kafeneío Saites, a co-op café, where backgammon is a popular pastime. from top left: Clothing by the fashion label Zeus & Dione; the terrace at Ble Papagalos, a café and bar.

To spend an evening here is to experience a strange kind of cognitive dissonance, as you try to square the knowledge that Athens is in crisis with the feeling that it’s never been more alive.

Irony has always been a local specialty in Athens, but that seems particularly true today. You wouldn’t expect an extravagant cultural complex like the Niarchos Center to rise in the midst of a grinding depression. You also wouldn’t expect that the most successful businesses to emerge from the crisis would sell luxury goods. And yet, in the leafy, upscale neighborhood of Kolonaki sits Yoleni’s, a gleaming new seven-floor Greek-food emporium that stocks Cretan escargots, gold-flecked Corinthian honey and super-premium olive oil.

The place is the Greek answer to Eataly. Styled like a 1950s provincial grocer, with vintage refrigerators and burlap sacks of grain, the store is full of charming stations offering

hand-made spanakopita and cold-pressed cucumber juice. Yoleni’s hopes to carve out a global niche in fine food in much the same way that Coco-Mat, another breakout Greek business, has done with luxury bedding.

Founded in 1988, Coco-Mat has gone global, opening stores from SoHo to Seoul. The company’s springless mattresses—made entirely from natural materials like dried seaweed, coconut fiber and Mongolian horsehair—can cost as much as a Volvo. The new Coco-Mat flagship, also in Kolonaki, doubles as a high-end hotel. It’s a rather awkward configuration for hotel guests, who stumble into the lobby at night only to discover they’re in a mattress showroom. Still, the whole project radiates eco-friendly bonhomie, from the cuddly organic linens to the recycled-wood bicycles for guests to borrow.

Perhaps the most sophisticated business to emerge from the crisis is the fashion house Zeus & Dione, founded in 2013 by Mareva Grabowski, a Harvard Business School grad and former executive for Deutsche Bank, and Dimitra Kolotoura, who ran a London-based travel-PR company. They wanted to create a modern label out of ancient craft traditions. They sourced talent from all over Greece and helped revive the silk industry in Soufli, which once supplied couture labels like Chanel and Dior. The clothes are minimalist yet luxurious, like a beachy, folkloric version of Chloé (where head of design Lydia Vousvouni cut her teeth). Their collections, which have been featured in Vogue and are stocked by Bergdorf Goodman and Le Bon Marché, often sell out. In Athens, the brand now has an airy boutique inside the famous Hotel Grande Bretagne.

Grabowski’s takeaway from the crisis was that Greeks could no longer rely on the public sector, tourism and shipping to support themselves. “This whole model of not really producing anything was dysfunctional,” she said. “When it collapsed, it forced people to start

‘how simple and frugal a thing is happiness’ —nikos k azantzakis

Video spheres by the Greek artist DeAnna Maganias at the Rebecca Camhi gallery.

thinking differently, to realize the old way had no future.”

Of all the examples of crisis-era entrepreneurship, one of the most heartwarming is the rise of cooperative cafés. The traditional Athenian coffee shop, or kafeneío, has been a fixture here since the Ottoman occupation. For many people, it’s a second home—a place to hash out family problems, play back-gammon, enjoy the day’s first drink. It is of course also where you take your

coffee, which in the summer is Nescafé whirred with sugar and ice into the classic Greek frappé.

In Athens, mom-and-pop kafeneía, with their straw-seat chairs and cheap table wine in metal carafes, have been overtaken by bigger, slicker establishments. But the economic crisis has given this traditional staple of Greek culture a new lease on life. A few years ago, unemployed and overeducated young Greeks began opening their own austerity-era versions of Greek coffee shops. Helped in part by a new

business law, they pooled whatever money they had or could borrow, raided their home kitchens, used humble local ingredients, and split whatever they made.

One of the first cooperative kafeneía was To Pagaki, which opened in central Athens in 2008, at the height of the global financial crisis. It established the template: modest prices, anarchist literature, Zapatista-grown coffee and a contagious spirit of youthful solidarity. Others have since riffed on the original recipe. In Petralona, I visited a foodie co-op café, To Perivolaki, which serves delicious meze, house-made lemonade and unpasteurized beer from the Ali microbrewery in Thessaloniki. A 15-minute walk takes you to yet another iteration: Beaver, which calls itself a cooperativa. Note the feminine ending. This place was created “by and for women,” though men are welcome. The vibe is hard-edged: found furniture, raw concrete columns, lights hanging from electric

cords. The beer is cheap, the room filled with smoke and laughter.

It’s impossible to visit these co-op cafés without being struck by their scruffy charm, by the sweet welcomes of the workers, by how each place prepares a little €2 or €3 peasant platter loaded with cheese, bread, cold cuts, olives—a way for those who are hard up to eat well cheaply. The cafés reminded me of a line by the Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis: “How simple and frugal a thing is happiness.”

Alas, frugal happiness is the only kind many young Greeks can afford. Three out of four recent university graduates have left the country to find jobs. For most who remain, like Maryanne Kanellopoulo, a 32-year-old with degrees in psychology and education, there is no work. “I tried to find something, anything,” she told me. “Restaurants, tutoring Greek, nothing worked. This was my only chance.”

By this, Kanellopoulo means Saites, the co-op café she and five

friends created a few years ago in the Athens suburb of Nea Smirni. It has wooden mobiles, political literature espousing workers’ rights, and excellent homemade meze like tzatziki and chickpea fritters. “We’re trying to find solutions together,” Kanellopoulo said. “It’s hard because none of us planned to do this, but at least we know that we’re helping our friends, supporting small Greek farmers, and not taking advantage of people. That, to me, is more important than making money.”

This depression, while difficult, has also given many Greeks a chance to rethink what their lives should be about. “This is not just an economic crisis, it’s also a crisis of values,” said Gerazouni, the gallerist, echoing a sentiment I heard often during my visit. “This situation forces us to be more innovative, to be happy with less, to enjoy the sunset, the sea, or country life, to grow our own vegetables. Slowly, this is changing the whole mentality. In a way, it sets things straight.”

The details getting there Scoot (flyscoot.com) has just launched direct flights from Singapore to Athens four times a week. Otherwise, several carriers can get you from Southeast Asia to Greece with a layover.

HOTELS AthensWas A luxurious refuge steps from the Acropolis, this Design Hotel is done up in a postwar style that’s heavy on marble and natural woods. athenswas.gr; doubles from €175.

City Circus If you’re game for staying in the edgy Psirri neighborhood, this quirky, upmarket hostel is a real value. citycircus.gr; shared rooms from €23; private doubles from €60.

Coco-Mat Get a great night’s sleep on the famous mattresses from the Greek bedding company behind this eco-friendly hotel. cocomatathens.com; doubles from €140.

Hotel Grande Bretagne Europhiles will feel right at home

The Stavros Niarchos Park (snfcc.easybike.gr) was converted from an Olympics parking lot into a horticultural Eden in 2016. Rent a bike from the visitors’ center and explore the vast green space.

in this classic embodiment of a 19th-century grand hotel. grande bretagne.gr; doubles from €320.

RESTAUR ANTS & CAFES Beaver Run “by and for women,” this café-bar combines great music, a charmingly gritty scene and an eclectic, found-furniture aesthetic. beaver.gr.

Seychelles With its open kitchen turning out refined small plates and a long list of esoteric Greek cheeses, this restaurant gives

traditional Hellenic cuisine an elegant update. 49 Kerameikou; 30-21/ 1183-4789; mains €6–€12.

To Perivolaki A laid-back spot in Petralona serving meze and local beer on a pretty terrace. 7 Athineou; 30-21/3023-7687.

To Therapeftirio This fishfocused taverna in Petralona is justly famous for its mashed fava beans and taramasalata. 41 Kydantidon; 30-21/0341-2538; mains €5–€32.

GALLERIES & SHOPS Benaki Contemporary Museum This private museum is known for its millennia-spanning collection of Greek art and artifacts, but it also hosts daring contemporary exhibitions. benaki.gr.

The Breeder With a mission to promote Greek art abroad, this gallery represents the best artists of the crisis generation. thebreedersystem.com.

National Museum of Contemporary Art Greece’s new home for contemporary art is in a

former brewery from the 1960s and connects internationally renowned artists like Bill Viola and Shirin Neshat with their local counterparts. emst.gr.

Rebecca Camhi The country’s top gallerist for international artists like Nan Goldin and Rita Ackermann also runs a shop with Greek ceramics and hosts an occasional supper club. rebeccacamhi.com.

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center The first major work of architecture to arrive in Athens since the crisis, Renzo Piano’s temple to high culture houses the Greek national library and opera. snfcc.org.

Yoleni’s A new gourmet emporium in Kolonaki stocked with delicacies like gold-flecked Corinthian honey. yolenis.com.

Zeus & Dione By blending ancient craft traditions with modern design, this young fashion label has become one of the most successful in Greece. zeusndione.com.

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place j ai p u r

Amer Fort, outside Jaipur, dates to 967, the reign of Raja Man Singh.

Bring an empt y su famed Pin itcase to k City, bec Rajasthan a u ’s s e you’re goin buy ever y th g to want ing in this to creative hu b.

By R ach na Sach Ph o t o g a s in h r aphed b y An k u s h M a r ia

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“Jaipur is slow life!” my taxi driver declares. All around us, cars, pedicabs, bicycles and cattle are stuck in hardcore commuter gridlock. Horns screech, elephants trumpet, and pedestrians tumble in and out of the disorderly scrum.

Young boys jog in between the cars and oxcarts hawking fresh coconuts, marigold garlands, and saris. A horse cart waits patiently next to us, the turbaned driver casting a betelstained grin. My driver responds by pressing on the horn for an unnecessarily long time. Slow life?

Sure, in the literal sense. But it definitely doesn’t seem relaxing.

After a few days in the Rajasthani capital, however, my taxi driver’s declaration begins to make sense. In spite of the log-jammed roads and dizzy markets, folks here take their time. Like the horse-cart driver who smiles in traffic, shopkeepers linger over tea and conversation, and skilled artisans work slowly and deliberately to create swoon-worthy architecture, textiles, art and jewelry that stand the tests of time. This is no accident.

Back in 1726, Maharaja Jai Singh, the city’s namesake, summoned skilled craftsmen—bricklayers, stone masons, marble cutters, metal smiths, potters, weavers— from the farthest reaches of the Subcontinent to build a new capital from the ground up. City planners followed architectural blueprints detailed in Vastu Shastra, a part of the Vedas, or Hinduism’s religious texts. Think of it as Vedic feng shui.

Balanced aesthetics and details of

extraordinarily exquisite filigree, inlay and gilt are the cornerstones of the city’s iconic structures: the old city wall, the City Palace, Jal Mahal (or Water Palace, on Man Sagar Lake), and the pink Hawa Mahal, (Wind Palace), for example.

Jai Singh launched one of modern India’s first intentional artisan communities. Deep inside the dusty warrens of the walled old city, artisans—or karighars—turn out extraordinary objects much like they have for the past three centuries.

Craftsmen chisel marble, cut gems and hand-embroider garments with solid-gold thread with casual expertise. The level of detail is staggering. More than once on my visit, I was given a magnifying glass to properly appreciate gold inlaid with precious gems, highly technical weaving techniques, and pichwai or gota embroidery, which resembles a painted tapestry.

Modern designers—native and foreign-born—still flock to Jaipur.

Tapping indigenous artisans’ knowhow, the new kids are repurposing folksy styles into edgy, appealing fashion, furniture and practically anything else. The contemporary craft movement, in turn, gives a lifeline to the karighars in their continual defense against machinemade wares. We can all thank the Maharaja for inuring his subjects with an abiding appreciation for hand-hewn beauty and intricacy—an ethos of living and enjoying creative pursuits that continues to underscore the city’s character.

Here, the slow life is the good life.

Neighborhoods Zip around the Pink City’s eclectic enclaves—a seamless blend of ancient and avant-garde, bustling and sleepy—via autorickshaw or Uber.

Old City

The Pink City got its rosy paint job in 1876, and the original walled core still blushes with glorious palaces, forts and temples. The old markets are full of treasure; it’s worth elbowing you way through the mayhem to get your piece of Jaipur’s magic.

Civil Lines

The posh district’s graceful treelined streets and colonial and Midcentury bungalows appeal to dignitaries and design-types.

C-Scheme

Teeming with youthful energy, this burb mixes cool cafés and crafty threads with the ubiquitous sidewalk chai wallah, or tea seller.

MI Road

Endless rows of multi-generation jewelry shops, snack stalls and sari boutiques make this iconic street a one-stop shopping (and eating) hub.

m a p b y a u t c h a r a pa n p h a i

Vaishali Nagar

The up-and-coming district's low rents and broad avenues lure fresh start-ups looking for space to flex their creative muscles.

Kanota Bagh

Left: Hawa Mahal. right: Block printing at Bagru village.

Not a neighborhood per se, the pretty shopping complex’s bougainvillea-covered courtyards are home to trendy ateliers peddling contemporary and vintage crafts.

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Life in Miniature India’s Mughal rulers introduced miniature art (intricate painting on paper) in the 16th century, and over time Jaipur added its own iconography and motifs to the tradition.

Modern studios revamp the craft with new mediums and fresh themes.

Studio Kassa: laser-cut clutch and Cloud lamps.

Modern Ateliers

Painter Rohini Singh (rohinisingh.co.in; studio visits by appointment; prices Rs15,000– 60,000) uses block prints on canvas and traditional wasli (layered, handmade paper), issuing a contemporary take on Jaipur’s old-world visuals.

Recent works are inspired by the frescoed interiors of palaces in northeastern Rajasthan’s Shekhawati district.

Andraab: eccentric art and handwoven textile.

+ Studio Kassa’s (studiokassa.com; prices Rs500–19,000) Arpan Patel and Aarushi Kumar spin old-school handiwork into “art with utility”.

The Chappa Chippa lighting is hand-carved wood and brass discs taking cues from wood block-print stamps. In the Cloud lighting line, tear- and waterproof natural paper are tucked and pinned with origami-like precision.

Smart Rooms The latest boutique rooms tap into the city’s deep regal roots, albeit with a refreshingly smart and modern footprint.

The result? Basics done right and luxury that knows no end.

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Leather bags and brogues get a techy makeover with laser tessellations. And traditional silversmiths have recast industrial metal shavings into futuristic jewelry that looks like it’s molded from Saturn’s rings. + At Kannbar (kannbar.com; clutches from US$120) simple dhurries get jazzed up with metallic threads and edgy motifs that are at once tribal and

Mosaics Guesthouse

An airy, harmonious and drop-dead gorgeous Midcentury bungalow in the swanky Civil Lines enclave, built originally as a homestay for clients of the late Munnu Kasliwal, Jaipur’s jeweler to the jet-set. Kasliwal’s provocateur son Siddharth enlisted Lebanese interior designer Nur Kaoukji to update the pad into a slice of heaven, where the city’s artisan roots take a fresh vibe. Endless cups of ayurvedic tea and homemade vegetarian dinners in the starlit garden make you never want to leave. 28kothi.com; doubles from US$140.

28 Kothi

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Nestled in Amber, a tiny hamlet 15 minutes from town, featuring four minimalist rooms and bougainvillea-filled garden nooks that breathe Mughal-era grandeur. Fortunate guests may get a chance to see owner and mosaic artist Hervé Vital in action, piecing together masterpieces in his pebble-, brick- and stone-filled workshop. A rooftop veranda offers breathtaking views of nearby Amber Fort. mosaicsguesthouse.com; doubles from Rp3,800.

fr o m r i g h t: c o u r t e s y o f s av l s ta r e t r e at; c o u r t e s y o f s u j u n r a j m a h a l pa l a c e ; c o u r t e s y o f f o r t b i s h a n g a r h

Newly opened Jaimini (fb.com/ jaimini.india; prices from Rs7,500) commissions local miniaturist painters to focus on fresh subjects. Traditional court and battle scenes, flora and fauna are replaced with vintage cars, modern monuments and holy men from different faiths.

l a m p s : s a k i a pat e l

Hip and heritage, bohemian and luxe come together in the city’s avant-garde ateliers and design studios.

S h i r t: c o u r t e s y o f p o l o fa c t o r y. d r e s s : c o u r t e s y o f R a s a

post-modern. + Ecru's (ecruonline.com; US$10–$680) Nur Kaoukji partners with old city brass-, marble- and glassmasters for ethereal home accoutrements.

Gem cutters etch palm fronds onto glass carafes and stemware with mind-boggling precision. And, classic block print textiles and kaftans are updated with modern motifs and rich colors. + Anantaya (anantaya decor.com; Rs250– 40,000) draws on kalighar know-how in practically every medium. Eschewing woven cotton, designers Geetanjali and Ayush Kasliwal cast block prints onto ultrasoft knits, putting a timeless spin on the modern T. Indigenous rohinda wood is whittled into stacks of smooth nesting bowls inspired by Jain alms bowls. + Rasa (rasajaipur.com; silk

dresses from Rs6,950, bedding from Rs3,950) connects the hip and the historic with their silk and cotton garments, dainty ballet slippers and luxury bedding, all block-printed in abstract and geometric motifs. + Cool peeps head to Hot Pink (hotpinkindia. com; Rs800–78,000) for khadi, or handwoven cottons, and linens in updated silhouettes and beaded velvet Rajasthani jootis (loafers). Co-owned by jeweler Siddharth Kasliwal of The Gem Palace, the shop is one of the few spots in town to get a Kasliwal original. + Pashmina’s authentic roots are revealed at Andraab (andraab.com; handwoven pieces US$100–$1,500, embroidered shawls US$2,500–$10,000).

The sumptuous stoles and shawls bear classic embroidery

details, and a few are updated with playful stripes and minimalist motifs. + O’d Gulabee (Kanota Bagh; 91-141/ 256-8834; Rs150– 9,000) peddles vintage wares dripping with royal pedigree. Despite the patina of age, the objets d’art here are impeccably hip. + For Polo Factory (polo factoryonline.com; Cavalry shirt Rs2,650 in store), leather craftsmen fashion the country’s first and only line of bespoke polo equipment. The Cavalry Shirt and mulmul (muslin) scarves, both blockprinted with images of the indigenous Manipur polo ponies, keeps Rajput nobles playing smart and looking dapper.

Polo Factory: Cavalry shirt.

Rasa: blockprint silk dress.

Anantaya: tchotchkes and knitting baskets.

Mixes heritage and hip as precociously as it did when Maharaja Jai Singh built the palace for his favorite Queen 250 years ago. Forty-nine wallpapers and a mesmerizing catalogue worthy of a modern art gallery grace the interiors. Individually designed royal suites and apartments have seduced dignitaries and Bollywood types for ages. The cheeky 51 Shades of Pink dishes superb breakfast and brunch. The Polo Bar, with well-curated gin and aperitif menus, is a tap room for the city’s polo-playing gentry, a spot to see and be seen. sujanluxury.com; doubles from US$730.

Sujan Rajmahal Palace Jaipur’s bestkept secret, in the rolling farmlands just out of town.

Visionary owner Bhanwar Rishyasringa resuscitated his family’s country estate and hunting grounds into a green retreat with a working farm, solar panels and an ingenious water-recycling system. The 14-room whitewashed haveli (noble house) has graceful cupolas, arched doorways and plant-filled pavilions. In the erudite artand literature-filled library, tea service offers respite from the heat. savista.com; doubles from US$149.

Savista Retreat

Newly opened heritage hotel standing sentry on a ridge over the Rajasthani countryside. The 230-yearold fort-turned-luxury settlement is full of old-world and modern fittings from near and far, with strong Middle Eastern and Mediterranean overtures. alilahotels.com; doubles from Rs26,000.

Fort Bishangarh

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What to Eat

Rajasthan is the birthplace of kachori, a power meal of fried pastry stuffed with onions, potatoes or spicy lentils that fueled warriors and tradesmen on long marches. Today, lighter fare balances the penchant for sweet and spice.

Caffé Palladio: sublime saffron setting.

eating hall with artfully designed spaces. meraaki kitchen.com; dinner for two Rs1,500.

Tapri: hipster-approved tea service.

Tapri The standard Indian teahouse is moving on up—to this roof lounge serving brews in handsome copper kettles to a broad audience.

Rajasthani teahouse fare is on the menu, with portions large enough for two. tapri. net; lunch or dinner for two with chai Rs800.

Caffé Panchranga At this Italian-inspired spot with lovely garden seating, expect woodfired pizzas, homemade pastas, fusion sliders and great wines. Veggies come from Sujan Rajmahal hotel’s organic gardens. fb.com/

caffepanchranga; lunch for two Rs4,000.

Caffé Palladio Your sublime repast in these gardens or saffron-hued pavilion may include lime- and mint-infused couscous or pomegranate tabbouleh. A deli is stocked with fresh bread, sweets and cool ceramics. The Caffé follows on heels of last year’s nightlife-revving Bar Palladio, with its

Italian frescos and outdoor fire pits. barpalladio.com; lunch for two Rs1,500.

The Kitchen at Jaipur Modern Its updated menu stars farm-to-table quinoa options. Savory quinoa maki rolls and jaggerysweetened coconut laddoos (a local confection) beg for seconds. jaipurmodern. com; lunch for two Rs1,500–1,800.

Caffé Panchranga: burgers on parade.

DIY

+ Practice block printing and create your own masterpiece in Bagru, a village dedicated to the craft.

India Beat’s Block Print Workshop (indiabeat.co.uk; US$100 per person) offers half-day excursions with a master craftsman learning woodblock-printing and dabu, or mud-printing. + Chillies Walk The Town (mita.kapur@gmail.com; Rs8,500 per person) dishes a deep-fried tryst with Rajasthani street food, taking intrepid eaters through the old city haunts, sampling kachoris stuffed with lentil and spice, refreshing neera, water from the bark of the date tree, and prasad, or holy food, presumably blessed by Lord Krishna. + Jaipur’s polo heritage is legendary, and Rajput noblemen still pony up competitively for the winter season. Polo Factory’s (polofactoryonline.com; clinics from Rs8,000 per day, or US$500 for a week including lodging) day- and week-long clinics will get you riding and playing chukkas like a pro.

Crafting, eating and riding: three different ways to dive headfirst into Jaipur.

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Learn to ride at

j u l y 2 0 1 7 / t r a v e l a n d l e i s u r e a s i a . c oPolo m Factory.

b u r g e r s : c o u r t e s y o f C a ff é Pa n c h r a n g a . r i d i n g : c o u r t e s y o f p o l o fa c t o r y

Meraaki Kitchen Fusion vegetarian bites in an industrial chic

Lessons with a block-printing master.

INSIDERS' tips The power couple behind the city’s modern craft revival likes their together-time old-school. “We start off with dosas (potato-stuffed crepes) and chai at Old India Coffee House (indiancoffeehouse.com; dinner for two Rs300); nibble on fresh gajak (sesame flour ghee and raw jaggery baked into crisp sheets) at Ishwar Ji Gajak Wale (279 Chaura Rasta; Rs300 per kilogram); chew on paan (digestive herbs and spices wrapped in betel leaf) at Special Paan Ki Dukkan (Chaura Rasta opposite Ishwarji; one paan Rs30) and drive up to Suriya Mandir to view the city lights. This was our first date, and it never gets old.”

fr o m t o p : A n k u s h M a r i a ; c o u r t e s y o f s i d d h a r t h K a s l i wa l ; c o u r t e s y o f m i ta k a p u r ; c o u r t e s y o f n u r k a o u k j i . s i d e b a r fr o m t o p : c o u r t e s y o f i n d i a b e at; c o u r t e s y o f t h i n g s t o d o

s h o p p i n g f o r s pa r k l e s

siddharth Kasliwal Co-owner of The Gem Palace

market hopping

d at e n i g h t

Geetanjali & Ayush Kasliwal Founders of Anantaya & AKFD Studio

From the glitterati to the imminently wed, the city is a gem bank. Kasliwal pays homage to his famous jeweler father, Munnu, and his clan's prior eight generations of goldsmiths, with coveted handmade pieces at his atelier (munnuthegempalace.com; 91-982/901-0858 for private appointment) and these tips for shopping in Jaipur: “Don’t buy rubies and sapphires without certificates. Don’t let a taxi driver or a guide persuade you to go to a particular shop.

And don’t get seduced by healers and astrologers suggesting you buy random stones for your safety.”

Before the Jaipur Literary Festival consecrated the city as a belletristic hub, Kapur says, Jaipur was already peddling stories and ideas with a vibrant kavi sammelan, oral tradition of storytelling—think poetry slam meets stand-up comic. “For those of us who grew up in the 1970s, the dark and crammed Book Corner (81 Mizra Ismail Rd., opposite Niros Restaurant) was a royal mess but a godsend. These days, Rajat Book Corner (rajatbookcorner.com) and Bookwise (110 Mizra Ismail Rd.; 91-141/236-4755) make for a better browsing experience.”

Nur Kaoukji Founder & Creative Director at Ecru

GREAT GUIDES India Beat An agency that fashions bespoke itineraries based on interest and budget.

The charming, knowledgeable guides rattle off local lore and crack jokes. Tap them for hardto-find and appointment-only access to the likes of famous textile designer Brigitte Singh, and private lessons with blockprinting masters in Bagru village. indiabeat.co.uk.

Things To Do This online portal curates cool happenings, activities and bespoke experiences, including cycling tours, jeep safaris, arts and craft lessons, golfing, festival hopping, cooking classes and private excursions to hidden spots. Peruse and book their selections directly. thingstodoinjaipur.com.

sanghmitra voyages The Welcome Ambassador, a handpainted vintage Hindustan Ambassador that cruises the sun-streaked countryside, is the city’s best-looking ride. Be chauffered in it to the Aravali Hills for a morning trek followed by serviced breakfast, private yoga in a historic courtyard, or sundowners at Nahargarh Fort. sanghmitra.in; full-day sightseeing Rs4,500.

book club

Mita Kapur Founder of Siyahi Literary Agency

When not fashioning her glamorous line of kaftans and homeware, Kaoukji hits the city’s colorful markets in the old city. “I am constantly going to the bazaar in search of inspiration and raw materials. At Badi Chaupad (intersection of Tripolia Bazar and Ramganj Bazar Rd, Old City) and Johari Bazar (along Johari Bazar Rd, Old City), you can see artisans working on Zardori and Gota embroidery.

The Museum of Indology (24 Gangal Park, near Albert Hall Museum; entry Rs100) was started by the world’s biggest hoarder, I think. A bit distressing, but an incredible library of objects.”

Jeep safaris.

t r a v e l a n d l e i s u r e a s i a . c o m / A u g u s t 2 0 1 7

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wish you were here

David Hartung / Macau / China Modern Macau is a place like no other, where Portuguese colonial meets casino glitz, and sometimes the two merge into a strange architectural hybrid.

The futuristic mirrored-glass side of the city lights up the historical port at night, and is home to all manner of devilish diversions. But don’t overlook the streets and alleyways of the older parts of town, routes that offer a rich background to Macau.

Having evolved from a key trading port in the middle of the 16th century to a colonial dot on the map to a state-of-the-art entertainment center, today’s Macau still stands out. Success at the gaming tables has attracted every manner and price range of cuisine— but don’t miss the great Macanese restaurants that blend Portugese and southern Chinese flavors. The plethora of Asia’s top sporting events and shows put on here is a strong draw.

But beyond that, and like its Iberian cousins, it’s simply a great place for a stroll.

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augus t 2017 / tr av el andleisure asia .com

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