Author: Charlotte Gill

R&R in the Maldives

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

It is a strange view of island life from down here, some 150m below the surface of the Indian Ocean. Diving is a popular sport in these parts – indeed, it is widely ranked as one of the best five dive spots on the planet. But this is diving of another order, on the world’s largest, deepest-diving passenger submarine. It is very Boy’s Own. As you board you are reassured that the Whale, as the vessel is called, has enough air and supplies to keep a full passenger complement of 50 going for 100 hours in the event of an emergency. But even by the 99th hour you may not have tired of the sights: the weird marine life, the coral, the cliché crystalline seas.

Back on the surface, things are on the up. The Maldives may be the world’s smallest Asian state, with a population of only 300,000, and it may have suffered badly during the tsunami of 2004, which killed over 100 and left over $400m of damage, contracting GDP the following year by 3.6 percent and threatening to wipe out its cash crop for good: the 680,000 or so tourists who visit every year. Perhaps out of necessity, it effected a remarkable recovery – in 2006 it saw an 18 percent increase in GDP and by 2007 it was recording the highest GDP per capita of all south Asian countries outside of the Persian Gulf.

Tourism has seen a capital injection that, once again, has made the Maldives something of a dream destination, with recent months seeing new promotion drives into South Africa and Eastern Europe. Earlier this year the Holiday Inn opened its first property on the islands, in their capital, Male, the city’s first international-class hotel. Its conference and communication facilities are likely to help make the Maldives a more attractive business convention destination. Airlines too are looking to the archipelago: direct charter flights from Milan and Frankfurt to Male Airport are now on line, China Eastern has started flying direct from Shanghai, Singapore Airlines has launched a daily route and Island Aviation Service, effectively the Maldives’ internal airline, has in recent years doubled its fleet.

Granted there is not much to do when travellers get here, with, excepting the national museum and markets full of lacquered handicrafts, none of the cultural highlights that (together with time pressure) have seen a huge boom in city breaks over the last five years. This is water sports and spa territory, a getaway location for those wanting to abandon all thought, indulge the senses, feel the sand between the toes. And that seems to be more than enough for most people. The Maldives have recently won a World Travel Awards nomination for best Indian Ocean destination (the winner is announced this November), hotly tipped to triumph over the likes of Mauritius and the Seychelles. Last year it picked up their World’s Most Romantic Destination Award. For praise from the horse’s mouth, last year Conde Nast Traveller’s readers’ awards gave the archipelago its Best Island Award, with the highest possible mark for its beaches.

The Maldives have even found themselves in company with the likes of Rolex, Bose and Ducati – according to research body YouGov and the UK Superbrands organisation, the Maldives is now officially one of its ‘CoolBrands’. That is because its scope of hotels – from ultra-luxury and private hideaways, through to more barefoot chic for the would-be castaway (who still likes a turn-down service) – has made it “extremely desirable among many style leaders and influencers”, according to the Superbrands survey.

Of course, while the hotels are of a high standard – Cocoa Island Resort, Huvafenfusi and the Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Kuda Huraa are among those that pick up their own gongs – they are not why people come to the Maldives. Location, location, location, as property agents have it: and it is small wonder that early this year the Maldives were nominated for the New Seven Wonders of Nature campaign launched by the Swiss-based New7Wonders Foundation, an organisation running a global poll to find the world’s seven natural wonders. The results are not out until 2011. But the Maldives must be in the front running.

After all, some 89 of the coral islands may now have resorts, with others in the pipeline – that is going some for a tourist industry that did not exist here before 1972, when it rescued the islands, economically, from dependence on fishing (even as the fishing industry here also revamped, the traditional dhoni fishing boats undergoing mechanisation and a fish canning plant opening). That might suggest some crowded, loutish ‘all you can drink’ arrangement – the Costa Del Sol with coconuts, the coconut being the national tree. And certainly publicity stunts such as 2005’s attempt to break the world dive record – bringing together 1,000 locals and tourists in a bid to top the 722 gathered at the Thailand’s Koh Tao Underwater Festival earlier the same year – do not really help to counter this impression.

But a broader look at the figures is reassuring. Never mind all those resorts – only 185 of the archipelago’s islands are even occupied. And there are 1,190 of them in the chain, closely packed along the equator and accounting for only one percent of the country’s 90,000sq. km territory. Most of that is water ­– transparent, warm, turquoise water. That means, for anyone willing to get on one of the many charter boats, a day spent on an island alone is quite feasible. And few experiences are better able to clear the head of the daily round of meetings and decisions than playing at Robinson Crusoe.

Most will return for supper at one of the growing number of top-rated restaurants, with local, European and fusion cuisines all available, often accompanied by a Bodu Beru dance troupe. But those who want to live hand to mouth have washed up on the right isles. Covered in lush vegetation and rain forest, banana, breadfruit, plantain and papaya are all native. Keep your eye out for giant fruit bats, scorpions and flying foxes after the same snacks. The wildlife is as exotic as the flora.

Indeed, the hospitality industry here seems especially adept at creative escapism, at making the best of the natural resources to create an adventurous environment acutely unlike that experienced by big city dwellers. This past summer, for example, saw the Shangri-La hotel company’s Villingili Resort and Spa launch some new 218sq. m villas, complete with private infinity pool. The difference? The villas are perched some 12ft up in the canopies of beach-front trees. These tree-houses are Famous Five stuff, if Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy the dog also travelled to Kirrin Island by powerboat and drank champagne instead of ginger beer.

Certainly while the lap of luxury, and its cosy, cashmere-wrapped comfort, is never far away, the Maldives does present a sweetened taste of the great outdoors. There are plenty of spectacular beaches to lie on, for those for whom sun, space, sand and Stephen King are plenty. The Maldives may have been a British colony – it achieved full political independence in 1965, when it continued as a sultanate under the fantastically-named Ibrahim Nasir Rannabandeyri Kelegefan for three years before becoming a republic – but the climate could not be less British: the temperature rarely drops below 77ºF, with a monsoon season most pronounced in June and July and winter sunshine more or less a sure thing. The first settlers of the islands, around 2000 BC, were the Redin, seafarers who worshipped the sun. They came to the right place.

For the more active type, the diving, sailing, snorkelling and wind-surfing are all world-class, with night fishing a must-have experience – it is something of a local tradition, offering cooler conditions for the fishermen and, if the catch is poor, the pleasure of a few hours rocking under a star-spangled sky. Whale and dolphin watching is also memorable, especially since the Maldives are a magnet to marine biologists who rank it one of the best places in the world for studying over 20 species that call the Maldives home. Spinner dolphins congregate around the islands in their tens of thousands, so sightings from the many safari boats are frequent, but the greatest animal on earth, the blue whale, also stops by. Don’t mistake it for another island.

It would be hard to mistake the Maldives for any other islands, that much is clear. They have their regulars, but visiting is really a once in a lifetime event, worth every laaree (though US dollars are accepted in most places). It is a place as far from the grind of the desk as might be imagined. One phrase in dhivehi, the local language, that you won’t need often? ‘Gadin kihaa ireh?’ ‘What time is it?’

Understanding Oslo

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

Relaxed, friendly, clean – these are words that are often associated with Oslo. While Norway’s capital and largest city lacks the frenetic pace common to many European hubs it maintains a wealth of cultural, sightseeing and entertainment options for visitors to discover. Excellent transportation options and five-star facilities also make Oslo the perfect location for business travellers.

Ever since it was founded by Harald Hardråde in the 1048, Oslo has played a major part in Norwegian history. Today it’s the country’s demographic, business and commercial centre, with a population of 550,000. If you are travelling to Norway on business, chances are you’ll find yourself in Oslo for the majority of your trip. With one of the highest GDPs in Europe, Norway is an economic powerhouse with Oslo at its epicentre.

The city’s profile as a business destination is changing as its important history is blended with an increasingly cosmopolitan present. But it’s not all business and no pleasure: Oslo is home to a number of sights and diversions to keep visitors entertained irrespective of whether it’s their first or their fiftieth time in the city.

Sights for sore eyes
The Opera House is one of the city’s main attractions – its exterior pays testament to Scandinavia’s cutting edge architecture and design. The building is shaped like a glacier, seemingly floating on the Bjørvika inlet next to which it is located. The inside is equally impressive and hosts a diverse array of performances throughout the year. Address: Kirsten Flagstads plass 1, 815 444 88, www.operaen.no

No visit to Oslo is complete without a trip to the Royal Palace. Situated on the city’s arterial KarlJohans gate, the palace is an imposing building that dominates the area’s landscape. Tours are available on weekdays throughout the summer, though tickets for these sell out very quickly, if possible, buy in advance from one of the post offices. (Henrik Ibsens gate 1, 815 33 133, www.kongehuset.no)

Although Oslo’s Cathedral isn’t the most impressive edifice, it’s currently undergoing refurbishment, which, when finished next year, will restore it to its former glory dominating the downtown skyline. Kirkeristen, the old bazaar surrounding the church, is now used by artisans and craftsmen, and holds a couple of cafes and restaurants.

The home of the Nobel Peace Prize, Oslo’s City Hall stages the annual presentation of the prize as well as houses a number of historical collector’s pieces and impressive murals depicting socialist themes. (Rådhuset) (T-Nationaltheateret, tram 12 to Rådhusplassen, bus 70-74 to Vika). Much better for information about the history of the prize and its winners is the Nobel Peace Centre, which has some unflinching and truthful exhibitions in addition to those on the winners of the prize. (Brynjulf Bulls plass 2, Aker Brygge, 48 30 10 00, www.nobelpeacecenter.org).

As most of the city’s original buildings were destroyed in the 17th century visitors should take the opportunity to see the Akershus festning. A medieval castle built in 1299, the festning is one of the better preserved remnants of the original city. After exploring the winding passages, take some time to take in the excellent views of the surrounding areas afforded by the festning, including views of the Oslofjord. Those interested in Norwegian military history should also look at the two museums located at the festning. (Akershus festning, 23 09 35 53, www.akershusfestning.no)

When it comes to museums, visitors are spoilt for choice. Start off at the museum of one of the country’s best loved authors and playwrights: the Henrik Ibsen museum pays tribute to the works of the internationally-famed author with an interactive and enjoyable experience. (Arbins gate 1, Centrum, 22 12 35, www.ibsenmuseet.no)

Those wanting to find out more about the history of Norwegian art should visit the National Gallery which features work by Norwegian artists predominantly from the romantic period. There are also several pieces by well-known international artists. (Universitetsgata 13, Centrum, 22 20 04 04 , www.nasjonalmuseet.no).

If this has whetted your appetite, delve into the world of the Norwegian painter Edward Munch at the Munch Museum (Tøyengata 53, Tøyen, 23 24 14 00, www.munch.museum.no). Though you might not recognize his name, you’ll almost certainly recognize his most famous work ‘The Scream’ and shouldn’t miss this chance to find out more about the artist and his works.

The Viegeland Sculpture Park in the vast Frogner Park is one of Norway’s most visited attractions – and no wonder. The park features hundreds of sculptures by Norwegian Gustav Viegland – though veering towards the moribund, the statues are undoubtedly impressive.

Lesser well-known, Vigeland´s brother Emanuel’s works can also be seen at the fascinating Emanuel Vigeland Museum. This weird and wacky enterprise features a number of the artist’s pieces including the 800sq m “Vita” fresco, which explores the progression of human life between birth and death. (Grimelundsveien 8, Skøyen, 22 14 57 88, www.emanuelvigeland.museum.no)

If you’re in town for a short period of time, consider buying the Oslo Pass, which includes free entry to most of the museums and free travel on public transport within the city. The pass is available for 24, 48 or 72 hours, prices vary.

Diversions
Though it maintains its status as the country’s capital, one of the main attractions of Oslo is how rural it has managed to stay. Venture out from the downtown city centre and you’ll discover places a world away from the usual hustle and bustle of a city. The wooden houses in Kampen, Vålerenga, Rodeløkka and Telthusbakken are an example of what makes this city so special. Narrowly avoiding destruction in the seventies, the houses are not commonly visited by tourists but are an essential part of Oslo’s Norwegian identity.

As we move into the colder months, Oslo’s sporting repertoire leans towards the winter sports afforded by plenty of snow but pleasant temperatures. Cross-country skiing is a popular option, especially around the Holmenkollen area – sledges and sleighs can be rented for a true alpine adventure. Though the Holmenkollen jump is currently being renovated for the 2011 Alpine Competition, there are still plenty of skiing options in the area.

Shopping in Norway is sometimes cheaper than elsewhere, but most international brands are the same price as they would be in the UK. Still, if you want to pick up a few things, Karl Johans Gate is a good place to start. Oslo City shopping centre and Byporten are two of the city’s biggest shopping centres and have a huge variety of wares for visitors to splash their cash on.

Culinary fusion
With a large immigrant population from destinations all over the globe (over 20 percent of the population is from abroad), Oslo is a multicultural melting pot with a diverse dining and entertainment scene. Oslo’s gastronomic scene is as remarkable as it is varied. Everyone should try one of the stomach-busting 19NOK hotdogs available at stands throughout the city.

For something with a little more sophistication there are plenty of options to tempt all palates, as you’d expect from the world’s 6th most expensive city. The coastal area of Aker Brygge is a whirlwind of restaurants, bars and cafes – many of which offer al fresco eating in the summer months. It’s also one of the most exclusive areas and home to many of the city’s best restaurants such as Lofoten Fish Restaurant (Stranden 75, 22 83 08 08, www.lofoten-fiskerestaurant.no).

For those looking to impress, Bagatelle is widely recognised as the best restaurant in Norway and has two Michelin stars to prove it (Skovveien). Equally extravagant, the one Michelin-starred Feinschmecker is the place to go for a feast of epic proportions and flavours (Balchens gate 5).

Midrange options abound for those looking for an enjoyable meal without the hefty price tag – you’ll see where the international community comes into full force – this is one city where you can dine around the world in the course of a week without ever leaving its boundaries.

Mucho Mas, a Cal-Mex restaurant with vast portions and excellent quality is a continuing favourite, as it Olympen, one of the largest places to eat in Oslo. Affectionately known as Lompa by the locals, this venue encompasses a beer hall, restaurant and nightclub under the same roof and serves up excellent Norwegian dishes for those uninitiated to this unique cuisine (Grønlandsleiret 15, 24 10 19 99, www.olympen.no)

Sleeping
Finding somewhere to bed down for the night is no problem, the city has a number of mid-range to top end hotels to suit the demands of the business traveller. The Radisson SAS Plaza Hotel (Sonja Henies Plass 3, http://www.radissonblu.com/plazahotel-oslo) has 37 floors and is the country’s tallest hotel.The bar on the 37th floor offers stunning views over the city and the Oslo Fjord, and is a particularly good choice for sunset and after dark. If money’s no issue, the Thon Hotel Bristol is a haven of tradition in the midst of all the action of downtown and has been since 1920. Or, do as the Nobel Prize winners do and stay in the Grand Hotel Oslo (Karl Johans gate 31, 23 21 20 00, www.grand.no).

The best of the US

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

New York

Four Seasons Hotel New York, 57 East 57th Street, New York, NY, 10022
www.fourseasons.com
Doubles from $595
For many visitors the Four Seasons is the New York hotel, and the hallowed lobby is often a stop-off for camera toting tourists anxious to get a glimpse of the rich and famous. The average guest list includes movie stars, business tycoons, pop stars and supermodels, and as you might imagine, a clientele of this standing stems from accommodation of the highest calibre.

Business facilities inside the hotel are no less expansive, with 9,580sq ft of high-tech function space, encompassing nine multi-purpose rooms suitable for grand galas, business meetings or private celebrations.

The hotel also prides itself on a simple yet elegant décor allowing for useful flexibility in event theming and decoration. The jewel in the conference crown is the Cosmopolitan Suite, accommodating special events from 75 to 190. But an elegant Metropolitan Suite and traditional boardroom step in to offer all-day executive meetings or high-level dinners. Two private meeting suites, strategically secluded in a quiet corner of the fifth floor, are also supplied for the purposes of more confidential negotiations.

Even if your expense account can’t quite stretch to a penthouse suite and week-long boardroom hire, the enormous selection of resident restaurants are extremely popular with the business community for the New York corporate staple – the business brunch. Just suggesting a meeting here will earn you insider brownie points, but the lovely columned lobby is also a suitably impressive spot even for those unaware of the hotel’s legendary reputation.

The Ritz-Carlton, Central Park
Central Park South, 50 Central Park South New York, NY
www.ritzcarlton.com
Doubles from $595
Many business travellers see little more than the inside of their rooms on busy trips which makes it doubly refreshing that this particular Ritz Carlton enjoys a Central Park location whilst simultaneously boasting a ‘heart of the city’ vibe. Unlike many well-sited hotels, however, business is the prime concern of this residence, with fast WiFi in every public space, and contemporary meeting rooms decked out with the very latest in conferencing technologies.

Those looking to arrive in their downtown meetings in style will appreciate the chauffeured Bentley access, whilst corporates hoping to relax before the big event will enjoy privileged access to the only one of two La Prairie Spas outside of Switzerland.

The hotel has also thoughtfully laid on a myriad helpful staff, from personal trainers at the extensive Fitness Centre, to a ‘Technology Butler’ who can aid guests with everything from configuring a tricky Internet connection to hooking up that complicated new Skype phone.

W Union Square
201 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003
www.starwoodhotels.com
Doubles from $400
When it comes to places to see and be seen, the W brand is always a few steps ahead of the competition. And whilst their Union square branch might not seem as immediately ‘business’ as some other New York stalwarts, it comes with some major advantages. The W has managed to build a reputation as a destination hotel for non-guests, and the attached Olive Restaurant by Todd English, Rande Gerber’s chic Underbar and the understated and effortlessly cool Living Room are all worth the price of a room just for privileged access.

Hosting clients back at one of the hotel’s enviable list of entertainment environs will gain you genuine business kudos. But it’s all the other little touches which many guests come to appreciate about the brand. These include luxuriously stocked mini bars a ‘farewell kiosk’ which can print your boarding pass on departure, and a branded fitness centre.

For those wanting to host meetings and events in the hotel 7,000sq ft of conference facilities includes seven state-of-the-art meeting rooms, alongside four studios perfect for a breakout or small reception. The 880sq ft Gathering Place makes a perfect reception area before hosting an event in style in the 2,300ft Great Room complete with original detailing from the 1911 Guardian Life Beaux-Arts Building.

Chicago

Sofitel Chicago Water Tower
20 East Chestnut Street, Downtown ?Chicago, 60611
www.sofitel.com
Doubles from $120
The Sofitel water tower is a genuine landmark on the Chicago skyline – a glittering glass edifice of 412 rooms and 32 floors masterminded by famed design genius Jean-Paul Viguier. The hotel does well to compete with the nearby Museum of Contemporary Art for sheer architectural showmanship, but for most business travellers it is the calibre of the service which raises the Softel to internationally revered status.

An army of bellhops, chamber maids, concierge and reception staff are on hand to ensure every need is catered to, from last minute tickets to dry cleaning and restaurant recommendations. With more than 10,000sq ft of downtown Chicago meeting space, Sofitel Chicago Water Tower also provides a spectacular event venue, showcasing an extensive range of amenities for corporate groups. The range includes a 4,500sq ft ballroom and eight meeting rooms, complete with floor-to-ceiling windows for those fabulous Chicago views.

Peninsula Chicago
108 Superior Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60611
www.peninsula.com
Superior room from $575
Superbly situated right amongst Chicago’s towering skyscraper in the ‘magnificent mile’, the Peninsula lives up to its name with staggering cityscape views. Boasting some the most spacious accommodation in the region, the hotel is dedicated to making business travellers feel at home in the windy city. This extends to an award-winning room service offering and a comprehensive wellness service, with gym, spa, own spa range and dedicated spa restaurant designed specifically for health conscious diners.

The Peninsula’s meeting facility has won coveted five star accolades every year since 2002 and the high rise architecture of the hotel is perfectly suited to housing distinct groups of guests on their own floor with bespoke facilities and an atmosphere rich with understated elegance.

Boston

The Colonnade
120 Huntington Avenue, Boston, 02116
http://www.colonnadehotel.com
Doubles from $339
Following the trend for boutiques with comprehensive business facilities, The Colonnade has broken onto the Boston hotel scene to the great acclaim of the corporate world. With a $25 million renovation it’s perhaps not hard to see why this revamped venue has managed to incorporate intimate guest access and practical business facilities so seamlessly. There’s an attached brassiere, and rooftop for lounging, all perfectly appointed with WiFi, whilst the hip location in the Back Bay area makes it the ideal for those hoping to make a statement about their neighbourhood nous.

But perhaps the most impressive achievement for this boutique is the addition of a conference facility worthy of a far bigger brand. This comprises a total of 15 thoughtfully appointed function rooms of various sizes and styles, all fully sound proofed and equipped with the latest technology. Ranging from a traditional ballroom to classic boardroom the hotel can meet the full gamut of business needs.

Philadelphia

The Rittenhouse
210 West Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, PA 19103,?
T. +1 215 546 9000
www.rittenhousehotel.com
Weekend rates start from $270
If you’re looking for some luxury to contrast with your Philly Cheese Steak, The Rittenhouse is an exceptional five diamond Philadelphia luxury hotel, located on the prestigious Rittenhouse Square. Boasting a slew of global awards, including Finest Place to Stay, and City’s Best Hotel, this is a residence which basks in its status as one the finest accommodations in the world.

For those making a speedy entrance for business, the Rittenhouse is only fifteen minutes from the city airport, whilst simultaneously being placed in the heart of Philadelphia’s elegant boutiques, galleries and attractions. In addition a dedicated an extensive business centre is teamed with four distinct conference and meeting venues, with a maximum capacity of 275 in the Grand Ballroom and several smaller choices for more discreet events.

The Four Seasons in Philadelphia
One Logan Square, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19103-6933
http://www.fourseasons.com/philadelphia
Standard rates start from $395
Those searching for old-world elegance will adore The Four Seasons in Philadelphia which comes complete with contemporary classic furnishings inspired by the handsome Federal period. The hotel is the city’s first choice for business, being close to the financial and commercial districts yet surrounded by museums, shopping and history at One Logan Square, and comes with a number of enviable business offerings.

This includes facilities for corporate groups from 15 to 550 guests with 10,877sq ft of function space in 14 distinctive venues. The hotel is justifiably proud of boasting the city’s only outdoor reception and dining area – a lovely secluded courtyard with a gentle waterfall, whilst five boardrooms on upper floors also form a secluded part of the facility. A Grand Ballroom with adjoining terrace and courtyard, comprises a final striking venue for events. Every gathering can include high-tech audiovisual technology, including wired and wireless high-speed internet access, and the supervision of a dedicated Four Seasons event planner.

The Independent
The Independent Hotel, 1234 Locust St, Philadelphia, PA 19107
www.theindependenthotel.com
Standard and double rooms from $149
Business travellers tiring of big name brands, and looking to dip their toe in the burgeoning world of boutiques will find the best of both worlds in Philadelphia’s latest hotel. The Independent is a stunning boutique hotel located in the city’s historic district, just blocks away from the Convention Center and to Philadelphia’s world-class performing arts district.

Despite a diminutive offering of only 24 rooms, guests enter a crystallier adorned four storey hotel lobby and lounge, complete with a striking 30ft hand painted feature wall designed by a local muralist. Whilst each room enjoys a variety of unique features such as fireplaces, exposed brick walls, cathedral ceilings and French windows or loft bedrooms.

At this size, business guests will have to host their events and conference exterior to the hotel, but a dedicated staff support service can help identify the most suitable nearby venues. And for those bored with the mega-hotels of standard business trips, the intimate nature of The Independent will provide a welcome temporary lodging.

Seattle

Grand Hyatt Seattle
21 Pine Street,?Seattle,?Washington
www.grandseattle.hyatt.com
Doubles from $167
Hyatts have renowned status the world over, but this particular branch of the elite Grand Hyatt selection was designed with business travellers in mind, and is situated a stone’s throw from Seattle’s Convention Centre. With dark wood panelling and low lighting throughout public areas, the hotel cultivates a refined atmosphere for corporate guests and the lobby is perfect for a low key meeting.

Most visitors on conference assignments will most likely to utilising the facilities of the adjoining convention centre, but for ambitious planners looking for overflow space, or those who’d prefer not to leave their hotel, more than 25,000sq ft of meeting and events space is on hand to accommodate bookers.

Business facilities throughout the hotel are also enviably well appointed, with a bespoke business centre as well as in-room desk and internet facilities and WiFi throughout the hotel.

California

The Fairmont San Francisco
950 Mason Street, San Francisco, California
www.fairmont.com
Doubles from $180
Comprising a hefty chunk of elegant Georgian-style real estate, the Fairmont is an iconic sight in San Francisco’s Nob Hill, and the destination of choice for the discerning business visitor. Managing to secure a spot so central that all cable car lines converge just short of the entrance, the Fairmont is close to both down town and the well known Fisherman’s Wharf area with its towering Golden Gate bridge.

The hotel’s status is so apparent throughout the US that it even became the subject of Aaron Spelling’s popular TV series ‘Hotel’ which used the hallowed hallways for filming. And if you’re looking for a similarly laudable precedent on the MICE side of things, the Fairmont has been the meetings venue of choice for the city’s most important events since 1907, and in 1945 played host to delegates from 40 nations to draft the United Nations Charter.

Nowadays the hotel capitalises on these lofty claims with 55,000sq ft of elegant and well-equipped function space. Meeting rooms include everything from grand and glamorous ballrooms for large conferences or conventions, and intimate spaces for smaller meetings. They’ve also thrown in a free of charge Global Events and Meetings Solutions service for those looking for extra help choosing the best environs for their upcoming event.

Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons
9500 Wilshire Boulevard
Beverly Hills, California
1 (310) 275-5200
www.fourseasons.com/beverlywilshire
Doubles from $395
In a city famous for ‘don’t call us we’ll call you’, jaded executives will find a welcome reprieve in the Beverly Wilshire’s sanctuary of considered service. Situated smack bang in the heart of Rodeo Drive, the hotel’s exterior is part of the landscape of this high-living area of town. But whilst nearby designer shops and boutiques might be known for catering only to the young, beautiful and well connected, the hotel has an altogether more civilised approach to life in LA. From the moment of arrival guests names and particulars are noted, right down to temperature preferences of their chosen room, and staff encouraged (with impressive success) to memorise the names of those staying with them.

Sumptuous marble lobbies and effortlessly chic penthouses are all par for the course in a residence of this calibre, but business types might also be intrigued to know that the hotel was also the scene for popular eighties film Pretty Woman, starring Richard Gere as a millionaire executive guest.

Those looking to host events here can lean on the world-renowned standard of Four Season’s catering, whilst in terms of stats, two high-tech ballrooms seat up to 880 and 330 guests, while six, more intimate function spaces each offers distinctive character.

Florida

The Breakers Palm Beach
One South County Road, Palm Beach, Florida 33480
www.thebreakers.com
Doubles from $222
Offering exceptional meeting facilities in an extraordinary setting this exceptional destination combines the best attributes of Florida’s sun sea and sand with true business flair. The expanded conference centre, high-level amenities, recreational activities and dedicated service are matched only by the breathtaking ocean views, with full service meeting and event planners attend to every detail. Beachside parties and formal black tie dinners form only part of the compliment of possible services, and some $250 million has been invested in the continuing expansion and improvement of the business offering since 1990.

Marco Beach Ocean Resort
80 South Collier Boulevard, Marco Island, Florida 34145
www.marcoresort.com
Doubles from $179
Enjoying the climatic conditions of nearby Mexico, this is a resort in the true sense of the word, offering a touch of exotic bliss in Florida’s balmy climate. But whilst luxury swimming pools and perfect sunbathing conditions are the order of the day, the Marco Beach Ocean Resort still finds time to include an impressive compliment of business facilities.

Winner of Successful Meetings’ Pinnacle Award, Marco Beach Ocean Resort provides a variety of elegantly appointed meeting rooms and catering facilities. Whilst business guests can also enjoy casual and fine dining, a spa and fitness centre, pool and hot tub, rooftop gardens, and four miles of white sand beach. The resident Chef Concierge holds Le Clefs d’Or designation, and service provided by all staff is above and beyond the call of duty.

Out of town

The Umstead Hotel and Spa
100 Woodland Pond, Cary, NC, 27513
www.theumstead.com
Doubles from $359
When it comes to business offerings outside the big cities, luxury accommodation can sometimes be few and far between. But the Umstead is a shining beacon of global standard in the world of business hotels. Located in humble North Carolina, the hotel has managed to snare membership to both Leading Hotels of the World and Leading Spas of the World, in addition to being the 2009 Mobil Travel Guide Five Star Award recipient and 2009 AAA Five Diamond winner.

Perfectly designed for both conferences and meetings with a difference the Umstead has also made a name for itself as a favourite executive retreat. And despite an impressive natural backdrop has located a mere six minutes from the RDU International Airport, and close to all area attractions in Downtown Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Durham and Research Park.

Calistoga Ranch
580 Lommel Road, Calistoga, CA 94515
www.calistogaranch.com
Luxury Ranch Lodge from $879
Nestled in a private canyon and situated between the towns of St. Helena and Calistoga, Calistoga Ranch is a serene hideaway for the ultimate executive retreat. Among the 157 acres of trees and hills, 46 guest lodges and several intimate meeting rooms are tucked into this spectacular natural setting, creating the ideal environment for visitors to clear their minds and focus on the task at hand.

Less than two hours north of San Francisco, and accessible by private jet through the Napa County Airport, Calistoga Ranch is an ideal retreat for events and conferences with a difference. And from intimate board meetings to incentive trips, the venue also offers a variety of locations for presentations, break-out sessions and dining.

Guests can try out an afternoon of spa treatments in the adjoining Bathhouse or bring out their competitive spirits with a Bocce Ball Tournament. Additionally, activities in the local area include tours of the famed Napa Valley vineyards, complete with tastings and educational tutorage.

Ojai Valley Inn & Spa
905 Country Club Road, Ojai, California, 93023
www.ojairesort.com
Doubles from $350
For those hoping to make best use of America’s land expanse, Ojai Valley Inn and Spa offers a sumptuous locale in which to enjoy golf, tennis, and extensive spa facilities. The favourite of many LA based executives, Ojai offers a great chance to team business and pleasure in a perfectly appointed residence.

Only 90 minutes drive from LAX, the resort has recently been awarded a ‘Gold Key’ by Meetings & Conventions Magazine, and an ‘Award of Excellence’ by Corporate & Incentive Magazine. This is at least in part to the advantage of out-of-town space and a recently revamped conference offering.?OVIS boasts 11,000 sq ft of meeting space, and can accommodate groups from 10-450, whilst the expansive new conference centre includes two ballrooms, and numerous meeting and breakout rooms.

The Inn also boasts an advantage of a private and distraction free environment for business, and the resort has a top-rated golf course, spa and tennis facilities for relaxation and down-time. Additionally, an in-house conference team including award-winning chefs are on hand to cater to every minutia of the seamless business experience.

Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain
5700 East McDonald Drive, Paradise Valley, Arizona, 85253
www.sanctuaryoncamelback.com
Spa Casita rooms from $199
The Sanctuary Camelback Mountain was Beyonce and Jay Z’s choice of location for their honeymoon last year and is a perfect choice for business incentive packages. Sanctuary is a legendary boutique resort located high on the north slope of Camelback Mountain in Paradise Valley.

The resort’s Sanctuary Spa offers Asian-inspired treatments along with a relaxing meditation garden, movement studio and fitness centre. Whilst the on-site restaurant features fresh cuisine with Asian accents and an extensive local wine list. Guests can also enjoy the infinity pool, tennis and hiking in the shadows of Camelback Mountain.

On the up

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

In 2008, London Luton Airport reached a notable milestone as passenger numbers soared past the ten million mark for the first time. One of London’s major International Airports, Luton is the fifth busiest airport in the UK, but what is less well known is that only Heathrow has a higher percentage of business passengers. And the airport’s popularity among business travellers is set to continue, says Jo-Ann Lloyd, marketing manager at London Luton Airport, with more changes in the pipeline.

The only major London airport to post increased passenger numbers during 2008, London Luton has made significant improvements to its service provision over the last eighteen months or so, says Lloyd, even at a time when the aviation industry, like many other industries, is under pressure because of a turbulent global economy.

“As the market place has changed, businesses and travel management firms are looking to lower the cost of their business travel needs, and we see this as a real opportunity. We feel very strongly that we provide both value for money, as well as a broad range of travel options,” says Lloyd. “It is about providing flights to key city destinations at different times of the day, so that the business traveller, who is often looking to travel out and back in a short space of time, has plenty of choice.”

New routes, new carriers
The figures are impressive. Passenger numbers at London Luton airport were 10.2 million in 2008, up by 3 percent year on year. The airport bolstered its destinations roster with 15 new routes in 2008, and has added an additional 11 new routes in 2009 so far. From Alicante to Vienna, Bratislava to Zurich, executives can travel directly to over a hundred cities across Europe.

As well as new routes and more frequent flights, London Luton continues to add choice through new carriers. Blue Air and Wind Jet are recent additions, as is El Al. “The introduction of El Al, Israel’s flag carrier, operating from Luton to Tel Aviv, marked a new departure for the airport which has, until now, mainly served European destinations,” says Lloyd. “The flight through Tel Aviv actually provides interlining and onward connection to destinations such as Mumbai, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Bangkok, for example.”
As Lloyd points out, catering for the needs of the business traveller goes beyond the provision of a greater choice of destinations and flight times. Convenience and ease of use is also important.

Fortunately, London Luton benefits from excellent transport links, with fast and trouble-free access available. “A lot of people are unaware of how easy it is to get to the airport,” notes Lloyd. “By rail you can go from London St. Pancras into Luton Airport Parkway station in as little as 20 minutes. Plus, by road, we have benefited from the M1 motorway widening programme, and there is a dual carriageway link right up to the airport as well.”

To add to the ease of access the airport has introduced valet car parking, so passengers can just arrive and walk straight into the terminal. There has also been more investment in the car parking areas.

The ability to speed up the journey through the airport extends to check-in, security controls and boarding. “This airport has one of the best records for security processing,” says Lloyd. “However, we now provide the choice of buying a priority lane pass for security, which is ideal for those business travellers on a tight schedule, or those passengers simply looking for the ultimate in convenience.”

An improved experience
The management team continues to look at ways that it can differentiate London Luton, making the airport even more convenient and easy to use.

“It is really important to provide a fast and efficient airport experience. We work with all the departments and with our business partners to make that process as simple and straightforward as possible, and the priority parking, priority lane, fast check-in to gate, go together with initiatives such as the priority boarding that a lot of our airlines also offer,” says Lloyd. “So comparing Luton to Heathrow, for example, we are a much more compact airport, and moving through the airport here is much simpler.”

To ensure continuous improvement in service provision, the management team has implemented a consumer research programme which monitors different stages of the passenger experience using Bluetooth technology. Elements such as queuing, and the dwell time in different areas of the airport, are measured, the results assessed, and potential service enhancements acted upon.

In addition, of course, there are all the other facilities that business passengers expect of modern international airports. Food and drink provision is fully catered for, with everything available from full service dining at the Est restaurant, to Pret-a-Manger and Starbucks. There is a good range of shops, including luxury brand names such as Kurt Geiger. And, for executives working on the move, the airport has wi-fi access, two newly refurbished executive lounges, mobile charging and various other facilities.

London Luton Airport has made significant advances in recent years; increasingly, it is the airport of choice for many business travellers and travel management firms. And the airport continues to develop, with ambitious plans for the future, says Lloyd.

“London Luton has a great potential to grow, the demand is definitely there. We will see growth, although until 2015 at least, it will be growth within the existing boundary,” she says. “We are speaking to new and existing airlines on an ongoing basis about increasing services, and will continue to work to provide information about new routes, additional flight capacity and new products and services.

In all this it is important to emphasise that we make a point of listening and responding to the needs of the business traveller.”

Whole lot of Seoul

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

It is said that New York is the city that never sleeps. That may be true, but it has an Asian rival in Seoul. This city not only never sleeps, it never even relaxes. With a lively, bloody past and decades of aggressive economic growth, you would think that Seoul would be feeling now is the time to take a long, deep breath and maybe even a nap. But no, it continues to grow and reinvent itself and consolidate its position as one of the most important cities on the planet. It may lack the sleek beauty of Tokyo, the sheer hedonism of Hong Kong or the safe-as-houses feel to Singapore but it has bundles of character, vibrancy and a distinct culture that is refreshingly overpowering. Although much of the city has been bulldozed and rebuilt, there are echoes of the past in the form of temples, palaces and hanoks (traditional houses) that are sprinkled throughout the cities gleaming high-rises.

Seoul’s ascendancy to become one of the most important places of business on earth is astonishing. The Korean War left the city in ruins, but a determined rebuilding and regeneration programme during the 1960’s and 1970’s coupled with a tough economic policy meant that by the time the 20th century was drawing to a close, Seoul was firmly established as an economic powerhouse. Although the economy has periodically dipped and wobbled and looked on the verge of collapse, both the present and the future look very secure indeed. It is home to some of the world’s largest corporations (Samsung, Hyundai, Kia and LG among them), has the fourth highest GDP in Asia, and was considered by Forbes last year to be the sixth most economically powerful city in the world. The proximity to Beijing and Tokyo – both are around a couple of hours away by air – mean that Seoul is quickly building a reputation as the most important and used travel hub in the region. Such a reputation is made easier to uphold when you have Incheon airport nearby, voted the world’s best airport three years in a row by ACI (the Airports Council International).

It’s little wonder then that Seoul is becoming increasingly popular with business travellers and those in the know. It’s always been popular among westerners teaching English to the Koreans and, with a huge army barracks in the city, with US soldiers, but the government is making huge strides forward in bringing tourists and business people to the area. Not that this has diluted the atmosphere at all. Seoul can appear confusing and brash and noisy, but peel back those layers and a friendlier, more serene Seoul will emerge. Rather surprisingly, the city is in the process of reinventing itself yet again, this time as an ecologically sound destination. Pollution has been a problem here due to industry, climate and geographical location: the surrounding mountains mean that much of the polluted air doesn’t get the chance to escape. That 10 million people live in the city and a further 10 million in the wider metropolitan area doesn’t help too much either. The government, however, is focussing on creating more parks and green spaces and the catalyst for this change was the regeneration of the Cheonggyecheon stream.

Lying under concrete roads for decades, the Cheonggyecheon stream came alive again in 2005 as part of a $900 million project. The 6-km long stream affords much needed relief from the buzz of the city and exists 15 foot below street level. It has brought affluence, tourists and 90,000 locals a day to the area. It’s brought plenty of animals too: the new ecosystem is reckoned to have introduced dozens of new fish, bird and insect species to the area. It’s also brought about a shift in attitude. At the time of opening, Lee In Keun, Seoul’s assistant mayor for infrastructure, said: “We’ve basically gone from a car orientated city to a human orientated one”.

If you’re visiting this human-orientated city for the first time, business practices may seem a little, well, foreign. There are a few things to bear in mind and perhaps one thing to practice, even master. That thing is the use of chopsticks. Business meetings will often be conducted over lunch and knives forks will often be notably absent. You might also be introduced to floor seating where you must take off your shoes, so remember that threadbare socks with holes in them don’t really cut it. Remember too, that alcohol is considered integral for bonding between business associates. More often than not, such lubrication will lead to one of Seoul’s most popular pastimes – karaoke. In such circumstances it’s best to swallow your pride and heartily belt something out rather than refuse to join in – Korean people don’t like to lose face. Even though English is studied religiously and widely spoken in business circles, it might be an idea to learn a few local words and phrases too. Your efforts won’t go unnoticed.

Disorientating it may be, but if you take your time Seoul is easy enough to navigate. Taxis are cheap and plentiful and the underground system is fast, clean and efficient with signs and announcements in English. Hiring a car and driving around the city is not recommended, unless you are particularly fond of traffic jams, stress, and getting lost. Better to walk and enjoy the tea rooms, the saunas, the labyrinthine alleyways, opulent palaces, modern-as-hell skyscrapers, smoky barbecues and an exhilarating atmosphere. An atmosphere that is constantly changing, yet, at its heart, forever remaining the same.

Korean DMZ
Slicing the peninsula virtually in two, the Korean DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) is roughly 155 miles long and 2.5m wide, and acts as a buffer between North Korea and South Korea. Lying to the north of Seoul, the DMZ has been the scene of high-profile skirmishes over the last 50 years, though things have got better. Day trips are fascinating – you’ll get the opportunity, albeit briefly, to step foot on North Korean soil. Rules for visitors are: surrender your passport and dress smartly – flip-flops, shorts, t-shirts and denim will stop you getting in.

When to go
Seoul is bitterly cold from December to February but the snow makes it popular with skiers and snow-boarders and makes the place a treat to look at. It’s an idea to avoid late June and July which is the wet season and sees 60 percent of the annual rainfall. August is pretty muggy. Spring and Autumn then, are probably the best times to visit: September and October are still sunny and the city and surrounding areas are bursting with colour.

Vive le Paris

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

If you’re looking for a city break with style, there are few better places to do it than in the cosmopolitan hub that is Paris. Famed as being the city of love, there’s much more to Paris than late-night walks along the left bank and stolen kisses at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Few places are as effortlessly sophisticated as France’s capital city. Always on the move and ever-changing there’s more than enough to occupy any visitor for a day, week, month or a lifetime.

Famous museums such as The Louvre and the Musee D’Orsay are just the tip on the iceberg when it comes to the city’s vast collections of all things art-related. The home of many of fashion’s biggest names, those looking for a spot of retail therapy will not be disappointed – from quirky boutiques to high-end department stores, there’s enough to entertain even the most dedicated shopper. And when it comes to dining, few people do it better than the French where a casual lunch can become a work of art and where there are almost more Michelin-starred restaurants than metro stops.

Seeing the sights
Though people might turn their noses up at hitting the well-beaten tourist track, first time visitors shouldn’t miss out on the city’s treasures, no matter how many thousands have marvelled at their beauty before. Yes, almost every visitor to the city will take a trip the Eiffel Tower, but that doesn’t make the view from the top of arrondissment after arrondisment spreading out from the Seine any less magnificent.

The city’s architecture relays its full and often turbulent history. Turn any corner and you’ll find buildings dating from different centuries, each one with its own unique story to tell. From the imposing facades of the Sacre Coeur and Notre Dame to the quaint and simple lines of the Eglise de St Germain des Pres, there’s so much to discover.

Tucked away behind the Palais de Versailles, the Unesco world heritage Jardin des Tuileries is just as elegant and relaxing a place to take a stroll as it was when it opened centuries ago. Key historical figures such as Voltaire, Victor Hugo and Jean-Jacques Rosseau are buried in the gloomy interiors of the Pantheon, or commemorate the French Revolution at the monument in the Place de la Bastille, or admire the 3,300-year-old obelisk at Place de la Concorde – your options are endless.

Museum lovers find their home in Paris, where one museum alone can demand several days to explore thoroughly. One of the oldest and arguably the most famous of them all, The Louvre contains an impressive 35,000 exhibits housed in buildings that date back to the 12th century. Attracting over six million visitors yearly, it’s advisable to avoid the museum at peak times.

However apart from the room housing the Mona Lisa, which is almost always entertaining a steady stream of onlookers, it can often be surprisingly quiet as you wander from section to section. The collections span the history of French art up until 1848 – the year of the French Revolution. In addition to works of French origin, it’s collections of Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Islamic pieces should not be missed. (place du Louvre, 40205317).

Across the river, the Musee D’Orsay picks up where the Louvre finishes. Housed in a former railway station, the museum’s collection mainly covers the period between 1848 and 1915 and includes a vast amount of impressionist pieces by Degas, Van Gogh, Manet, Monet, Renoir and Cezanne, to mention a few. (62, rue de Lille, 40494814)

While the Louvre and the Musee D’Orsay often dominate the city’s art scene with their extensive collections, they are by no means all it has to offer. For those whose tastes run more to contemporary pieces, the Foundation Cartier Pour l’Art Contemporain is a stunning building that hosts temporary exhibits of all genres and styles of contemporary art. (261 blvd Raspail, 42 18 56 50) when it comes to museums dedicated to one artist, the choice is unsurpassable – Picasso, Edith Piaf, Dali, Rodin and Monet are among those who merit their own spaces.

Across from the Eiffel Tower the Palais de Tokyo exhibits works of the crème de la crème of modern art including Jeff Koons and Vanessa Beecroft. The dominating space is the perfect antidote to those who are tired of the city’s more traditional museums and contains a bookshop that’s great for picking up beautiful books to adorn your coffee table back at home. (13 av du Président Wilson, 47 23 38 86)

Shopping
Parisians are famed for always being immaculately turned out, the very definition of haute couture – a look that’s aided by the countless boutiques and stores packed with chic items and this season’s trends. When paired with the off the wall boutiques – the perfect places for buying gifts for those at home – it becomes clear that shopping in Paris is an experience that can be rivalled by few cities.

At present buying time, forget the tacky Eiffel tower replicas and ‘I love Paris’ t-shirts and plump for something with a bit more personality. The Champs Elysees remains one of the city’s shopping hubs: the flagship Guerlain store has been brought into the 21st century with a redesign by Andree Putman but the age-old atmosphere of pampering that comes with their cosmetics and perfumes lives on. (68 Av des Champs Élysées, 45 62 52 57)

If you can manage to resist the temptation to eat them all yourself, the jars and boxes at Fouquet filled with expensive and tasty confectionery are the perfect gifts to take back with you, as are the jars of foie gras on sale at La Petite Scierie. (60 rue Saint Louis en l’Ile, 55 42 14 88)

The business of buying for others under wraps, it’s only fair you get a thing or two for yourself. The area of Faubourg Saint-Honore is where to go if you are looking for some designer threads. Along the road from the Louvre, you’ll find big names such as Hermes, Versace and Yves St Laurent to sate your shopping fix.

Alternatively, Boulevard Haussmann is the place to go to get lost in the city’s impressively large department stores. Printemps and Galeries Lafayette are the main draws here: an afternoon in Galeries Lafayette is like a lesson in fashion, packed as it is with almost every conceivable designer brand and provides plenty of opportunity to buy a few extra pieces to put into the suitcase. (40, Boulevard Haussmann, 42 82 34 56)
The timeless beauty of Printemps offers a similarly decadent shopping experience, along with the largest amount of floor space dedicated to cosmetics of any department store in the world. For those who aren’t particularly enamoured by clothes, the stores also sell high-end homeware, gourmet food, jewellery and electronics. (64 Boulevard Haussmann, 42 82 50 00)

But shopping in Paris isn’t all about big brand names. The Marais is the place to go to find eclectic one-off pieces, and a home away from home for art and antique lovers. The up-and-coming darlings of fashion are mainly located on the Rue des Rosiers, while the Place des Vosges is home to a number of antique shops and small art galleries. St Germain des Pres is another good area for smaller boutiques and lesser-known designers.
If that’s still not to your tastes, the Saint-Ouen flea market is guaranteed to rouse the interest of even the most shopping-averse. The largest flea market in the city, you can spend hours browsing the antique furniture, vintage clothes and other miscellaneous items to be found in the treasure trove of stalls.

Dining
Paris is sure not to disappoint anyone who is willing to abandon themselves to its gastronomic delights. Few cities can boast of population of epicureans who take the business of eating as seriously.

Just a stone’s throw from the Louvre and the Jardin des Tuileries on Rue de Rivoli, Angelina’s is a great stop for a little afternoon decadence. Their gloriously thick chocolate l’Africain has won over many a patron with each rich, flavourful sip. And when that fails, the Mont Blanc, their other signature dish, a meringue confection filled with cream and chestnut cream, strides in to save the day. (226 Rue de Rivoli, 42 60 82 00)

Round the corner, Jean Paul Hevin serves up an altogether different afternoon experience. Expert chocolatier Hevin creates a range of toothsome tartelettes and confectionery to satisfy even the most fanatic chocolate lover. All the pieces on offer can be expertly paired with one of the many aromatic teas on offer by the knowledgeable staff. (231 Rue St Honore, 55.35.35.96)

After dark, the city’s dining scene comes to life. You’re sure to find something to suit your palate, whether you’re looking for a casual bistro affair or a ten course gastronomic feast. The seafood dishes at L’Ecume St – Honore have placed the eatery firmly on the city’s dining map – choose from the endless varieties of lobster and  build up to the mouth-wateringly fresh seafood platter (6 Rue du Marché-St.-Honoré, 42 61 93 87)
Another favourite can be found in Le Comptoir, whose small space remains packed night after night. You might wonder at people’s willingness to wait for a table in a city where there are so many bistros serving similar fare, that is until you try the food. Bursting with flavour and depth, each dish at Comptoir is well worth a long wait (9 Carrefour de l’Odéon, 44 27 07 97)

If you’re bursting to dip your fork into a Michelin-starred dish or two, there are many places willing to oblige. Joel Roubouchon’s L’Atelier is a culinary performance worthy of attention. With seats encircling a central bar behind which chefs prepare dishes, you can watch as they work their culinary magic. The tapas style portions make it easy to explore the menu and can be paired with wines from the expansive wine list. (5, rue de Montalembert,42 22 56 56)

Nightlife
Like any European capital, Paris has no shortage of entertainment to keep you awake into the early hours of the morning. If you’ve found the sightseeing of the day a bit of a drain, unwind with a few laughs at the Comedie Francaise. Doing exactly what the title suggests, France’s oldest theatre entertains crowds with comedies both old and new – just make sure your language skills are up to the challenge as most performances are in French. (place Colette, 08 25 10 16 80) Or, get your evening kicks at the Folies-Bergere in the style of Charlie Chaplin, Hemingway and Josephine Baker, former patrons and performers at this age-old institution. The club hosts musicals most evenings – Caberet is a particular favourite. (32 rue Richer, 44 79 98 98)

For something a little more laid back, Le Caveau de la Huchette is the city’s most famous jazz club. With the who’s who of the genre having graced the stage at one point or another (former players include Count Basie and Memphis Slim), it’s no wonder that Le Caveau still attracts jazz greats to work their magic in the underground cellar setting. (5 rue de la Huchette, 43 26 65 05)

Enchanting, brash and loud, the Moulin Rouge continues to be the heart and soul of Parisian nightlife. The world’s most famous caberet, it’s inspired endless spinoffs, posters and the film of the same name. Get caught up in the fervour as the performers sing, dance and high-kick their way through the night aided by opulent costumes and a breathtaking set. (82 blvd de Clichy, 53 09 82 82)

Where to stay
The city’s preoccupation with style and class isn’t just limited to clothes and accessories: Paris is home to some of the chicest hotels to be found in any city, many of which make for the perfect base from which to explore each day. Accommodation ranges from century old grand-dames of the hotel scene such as the Ritz to designer-clad funky and cosmopolitan newcomers, like Hotel Costes, not forgetting the city’s traditional hotels, often served with lashings of character and friendly service.

If you want to go all out, you needn’t look further than the Meurice. Perched on the edge of the rue de Rivoli and overlooking the Jardin des Tuileries, the Meurice is arguably Paris’s most sensational hotel. The centuries’ old exterior gives way to a gold, marble and glass interior that manages to stay on the right side of understated. Many of the rooms have stunning views over the Jardin and the Michelin-starred restaurant should not be missed. (228 rue de Rivoli, 44581010, www.meuricehotel.com)

At the other end of the spectrum are places such as Costes. Thoroughly modern and effortlessly chic, Costes is the beautiful but slightly wild child of the Parisian hotel family. By day its lavish style and opulently decorated rooms hum with activity, by night, top DJ Stephane Pompougnac takes to the decks and spins chillout tunes into the early hours (239 rue St-Honoré, 4244 5000)

The owners of the famous Cowley Manor hotel in the UK have made a scene with their simply-named, extravagant L’Hotel.

The final home of Oscar Wilde during his stint in the city and favourite haunt of celebrities in the sixties and seventies, L’Hotel’s individualistic rooms are a far cry away from the soulless chain hotel rooms that dominate much of the city’s hotel scene (13 rue des Beaux-Arts, 44419900)

Eat like an Alexandrian

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

At 6am on the dot, the energetic bustle in Alexandria’s wholesale fish market breaks into pandemonium. For the past hour the auctioneers and callers have been setting out their pitches; now Morning Prayer is over and the market is ready for business. Wellie-clad porters steam into the main hall, their shoulders stacked three-high with wooden crates overflowing with the night’s catch. Red and grey mullet, sole, sparkling sea bass, and octopus, tentacles dangling through the slatted bases of the wooden crates; the porters smack the crates to the floor and rush to get more, making clicking and whistling sounds to warn anyone in their way. They are paid by the morning, but they work as if it were by the crate.

‘Kabouria, ged’aan!’ (Crabs, guys!) shouts a caller, indicating an auction is about to start. Ten crates, writhing with small pink and blue crabs, are laid in a row along the shin-high trestles. A crowd of potential buyers gathers, stout matrons in headscarves jostling with young men, linking arms to stay upright like rugby players in the front row of a scrum. ‘Sold!’ As one crate is whisked off, the scrum heaves down to the next and the bidding intensifies. Across the hall other auctions are taking place: clams, eels, mounds of twitching prawns, and squid which slip-slide out of their crates on to the tiled floor.

Trophy monuments
Alexandria is not a city that offers itself easily to the casual visitor. Despite its antiquity (it was founded in 332BC by Alexander the Great), there are few ‘trophy’ monuments to visit. The Roman catacombs of Kom es-Shoqafa are beautiful and the modern library magnificent, but they are no match for the picture postcard sights of Luxor or Giza. And although its Mediterranean beaches are packed in the summer, with Cairenes escaping the ferocious heat of the capital, they cannot compete with the pristine waters of the Red Sea.

Once a cosmopolitan city, filled with louche Europeans, Alexandria is no longer a place of beauty. Its neo-classical and Art Deco villas, in melancholy decay since the westerners fled during the Suez crisis in 1956, are now squeezed between the square shoulders of concrete high-rises. Most of Alexandria’s classical past has disappeared too, buried beneath the modern streets and under the sea. Its most famous monument, the colossal Pharos lighthouse that marked the entrance to Alexander’s city, was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world; it was reduced to rubble by an earthquake in 1303.

Yet Alexandria contains rich rewards for the persistent visitor. It is a city of layers, cultural and historic, laid down over 2,000 years by a succession of foreign rulers. And there is an easy – and pleasurable – way to peel back the layers: through the food. The foundations of every cuisine are built on geography. Alexandria sits on the olive belt, the strip of land that encircles the Mediterranean, bounded by the olive line in the north, where the olive groves stop, and the palm line in the south where palms begin.

Each region on this narrow coastal strip, from Morocco sweeping east across Africa, then north through Syria and finally back west again as far as Spain, has adopted the same fundamental style of cooking. They have an abundance of seafood and olive oil and, marshalled carefully, the water to cultivate vegetables. The result: fish simply grilled over small quantities of charcoal (there isn’t enough firewood for ovens); not much dairy because the dry Saharan winds don’t lend the land to pasture; plentiful offal to ensure maximum return from what meat there is; lots of olive oil and citrus; and small vegetable dishes on the side. On the north coast, fresh herbs are more plentiful; in the south they add flavour with spices from the orient. Alexandria is celebrated for its seafood, cooked in this simple style. To taste it at its best, head north-east from the fish market to the top of the El-Anfushi district. Behind the boatyards lies Safar Street, a narrow dirt-strip of shops and restaurants serving fish by the kilo, some still twitching on their beds of ice. You could choose any one of five or six restaurants on Safar Street and come away happy. We picked the cavernous Hossny, tiptoeing over a stream of freshly slaughtered lamb’s blood that was forming a valley in the dust outside the neighbouring butcher’s shop. We ate clams cooked on a skillet with parsley and garlic; a delicate fish broth of crab and clams; and from the charcoal grill, prawns with garlic and cracked black pepper, sea bass with chopped tomatoes, olive oil and spices, and tar’b – spiced lamb mince stuffed into a fatty strip of small intestine.

Generous hosts
Like all good Muslims, the Alexandrians pride themselves on being generous hosts, and are not content unless their guests crawl from the table engorged and groaning. At every restaurant, waiters rush forward bearing armfuls of mezze to be eaten while the main dishes are cooked. Most of these recipes have worked their way down from Lebanon, where the mezze tradition was invented in the Twenties. We walked off lunch with a stroll down The Corniche, the dramatic promenade which forms the seaward boundary, and the backbone, of this long, thin city. Here, vendors sell chargrilled corn-on-the-cob, and brightly painted fishing boats bob in the harbour behind them.

Further south, we stopped for tea in the main square, Midan Sa’ad Zaghloul. It is here that the European influence is most keenly felt. The Hotel Cecil, where Churchill, Lawrence Durrell and Noel Coward all stayed, dominates one corner by the sea. Trams clatter by as newspaper vendors and shoe-shine boys tout for business. Friends meet at Art Deco coffee shops to eat French pastries and exchange chit-chat. This square, with its colonial-style architecture, was the creation of an Albanian, Mohammed Ali, who saw the city through its second golden age. Pasha of Egypt under the Ottomans from 1802 to 1849, he launched a huge building programme, bringing in French engineers and Italian architects to give the city a sophisticated, European look. He encouraged foreigners to settle and sent Egyptians to be educated in Paris. Trade flourished.

It was Ali rather than Napoleon (who ruled the city for four brief years before him) who gave Alexandria its Gallic streak. Patisseries sell croissants and pain au chocolat alongside mearmish, sameed and thum. Crèpes are everywhere. Alexandrians use the word ‘merci’ interchangeably with the Arabic ‘shokrun’. So completely has French cuisine been absorbed that I found it impossible to persuade one woman – with whom I was discussing Egyptian home cooking – that béchamel wasn’t an Egyptian word. Yet some elements of Egyptian food remain stubbornly native. At the tram station close to the square, you can pick up exquisite sandwiches of sliced brain – either marinated overnight in lemon then coated in bread and fried (à la schnitzel), or steamed and marinated in a vinaigrette sauce.

Glossary of terms

Food
Aaysh feeno ­­– Baguette
Babaganoush ­­– Aubergine hummus
Baharat – A ground spice mixture that is usually a combination of black pepper, coriander seeds, cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg and paprika
Balawa ­­– Layers of filo pastry and nuts, soaked in syrup
Basboosa ­­– Semolina cake with nuts, soaked in syrup
Falafel ­­– Chickpea based pattie
Fel forn ­­– Baked dishes
Frakh ­­– Chicken grilled or stewed with vegetables
Gibna ­­– Cheese
Fuul ­­– Brown Egyptian beans similar to broad/fava beans, usually served with oil and lemon, sometimes also with onions, meat, eggs or tomato sauce
Halawayat ­­– Desserts
Khodar ­­– Vegetables
Kofta ­­– Spicy ground meat patty
Koushari ­­– Rice, macaroni, lentil, chickpeas, topped with spicy sauce
Ma’lee ­­– Fried dishes
Mahalabaya ­­– Milk pudding with rice, cornflower and rosewater, topped with pistachios
Mahshee ­­– Stuffed dishes, usually with minced meat, rice, herbs, pinenuts
Mashwee ­­– Grilled dishes
Mearmish ­­– White, crisp, savoury biscuits
Meze ­­– Small dishes served as an appetiser, usually of different colours, tastes and textures
Sameed ­­– Crisp savoury biscuits in the shape of a loop
Shakshooka ­­– Chopped meat and tomato sauce with an egg on top
Stakosa ­­– Lobster
Tagin samak ­­– Baked fish with rice or cracked wheat
Tahini ­­– Sesame paste
Ta’amiya ­­– Falafel
Tar’b ­­– Spiced lamb mince stuffed into intestine
Thum ­­– Sweet date biscuits
Zayt zatoon ­­– Olive oil

Drink
Kahooa ­­– Coffee
Ziyada ­­– Sweet coffee
Miya maadanaya ­­– Mineral water
Nebeet ahmar ­­– Red wine
Nebeet abyad ­­– White wine
Saada ­­– Bitter coffee
Shay bel laban ­­– Tea with milk
Shay ben ­­– Mint tea

Behind the square on Shakour Street, the bustling fast-food institution Mohamed Ahmed serves up the most ubiquitous Egyptian dishes of all: fuul (a simple stew of fava beans, topped with spices at your own discretion) and ta’amiya – otherwise known as falafel. Falafel is a staple on the Leon menu, so I was keen to see how they do it here.

Eygptians make the best falafel in the world, and Alexandrians, by common consent, make the best falafel in Egypt. Unlike the Palestinians, Lebanese and Israelis, they use dried white broad beans – also from the fava family – rather than chickpeas. Soon the Formica table was covered in dishes; full with various toppings, fried white cheese, tomato salad, and finally a pyramid of piping hot falafel. The falafel was extraordinary: light and crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside, flecked green with fresh coriander and spring onion. Four of us ate until our waistbands could take no more, and the bill came to eight Egyptian pounds per head – or 88p. In a Red Sea resort, that wouldn’t even buy you a Big Mac. Henry Dimbleby is co-founder of Leon restaurant in London, leonrestaurants.co.uk. Henry and Martin Thompson flew courtesy of British Mediterranean Airlines. See page 118 for recipes from the trip.

All change in Alexandria
Alexandria was run by foreigners for 2,000 years until Nasser’s 1952 revolution. Founded by Alexander the Great in 332BC, and built by his successors the Ptolemies, the city was ceded to the Romans after Cleopatra killed herself rather than be taken prisoner by Octavian.

In 616 the Roman Empire – by then the Byzantine Empire – lost it to Abu Bakr, the prophet Mohammed’s successor. The city remained under Islamic rule – Turk, Circassian and Ottoman – until Napoleon’s invasion in 1798. The French lasted only four years, and it was the Albanian Mohammed Ali – in name an Ottoman Pasha, but effectively an autonomous ruler – who brought about the cultural renaissance.

His heirs, however, brought the economy to a state of collapse under the weight of massive foreign loans used to finance the building of the Suez Canal and construction projects in Cairo. In 1876 a Franco-British condominium took control of the economy and, following nationalist uprisings, the British shelled Alexandria and took control of the country as an effective protectorate until 1952.

Eat and drink
– Mohamed Ahmed, 17 Shakour Street, is a packed little café with Formica tables and a sawdust-swept floor. The best fuul and falafel in town. Dinner for four for under a fiver.
– Mohamed Hossny, 46-48 Safar Street. Point at your fish and they’ll grill it for you. Very friendly waiters, grumpy owner, delicious food. Elaa, 3 Al-Quwat, Al-Musalaha. Tucked behind the fish market, it’s a simple place doing fresh fish and little else.
– Adu Shakra, The Corniche. A combination of a fast-food joint and casual restaurant with a standard Egyptian menu and a kitsch leopard skin theme. The chef kindly agreed to cook us the traditional molokhyia, a glutinous soup made from the eponymous herb – delicious, but something of an acquired taste.
– Trianon and Athineous, both near the main square, are the places to drink tea or coffee, eat mille feuille and soak up the bygone spirit. Worth it for the opulent décor alone.
– Saber, Saber Street. Such an institution that the locals have named the street after it. A small strip-lit shop, it may look unprepossessing, but it serves some of the best puddings you’ll eat anywhere on earth. It specialises in mahallabiya (milk pudding flavoured with rosewater), rice pudding and ashoura (like rice pudding but made with wheat). The rice pudding with ice-cream is pure genius.
– Le Cap d’Or, Sharia Adib. If, like John Mills in Ice Cold in Alex, you are after a beer ‘so ruddy cold there’s a sort of dew on the outside of the glass’, you could try this wonderfully atmospheric bar, although we found the management a little light with our change (the Spitfire nearby is said to be more friendly).

Travel information
– The dialling code for Egypt is 00 20.
– The currency is the Egyptian pound divided into 100 piastres. £1=EG£10.12.
– Alexandria is two hours ahead of GMT.
– The best time to travel is between April and September when the temperature rarely goes over 30ºC. Avoid travelling during Ramadan (usually October-November).
– British travellers require a passport valid for at least three months and a visa (valid for 30 days), which can be obtained upon entry or at a consulate, and costs £15 (single) or £18 (multiple).
– Vaccinations are recommended but not required. For current advice visit egypt.embassyhomepage.com.

Where to stay
– Sheraton Montazah, Corniche Road (00 20 3548 0550; sheraton.com/montazah). This hotel is in a superb location overlooking the Mediterranean shoreline and Montazah Gardens. It is a well-equipped modern luxury hotel and its restaurants and cafés offer a fine dining experience with a choice of either local or European cuisines. Doubles from US$275 per night.
– Hilton Alexandria, Green Plaza, 14th of May Bridge Road, Smouha (00 20 3420 9120; hilton.co.uk). A modern five-star hotel with friendly staff, located at the heart of one of Alexandria’s biggest shopping areas. Doubles from £54 per night.
– Hilton Borg El-Arab Resort, Km 52, Alexandria-Matrouh Road, Borg El Arab, Alexandria 94 (00 20 3374 0730; hilton.co.uk). This is worth considering if you feel like a break from the city. Doubles from £57 per night.
– El Salamlek Palace Hotel, Montazah Gardens (00 20 3547 7999; sangiovanni.com), is the former hunting lodge of the Ottoman rulers of Egypt. It’s considered one of the most luxurious hotels in the city. Doubles from US$258 per night.
– Sofitel Cecil, 16 Saad Zagloul Square (00 20 3487 7173; sofitel.com). Steeped in the history of the 20th century, the hotel was built in 1929 and has played host to Churchill, Elvis and Omar Sharif among others. Doubles from £92 per night.

The cream of Scotland

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

As always, one of the biggest attractions to Scotland is the ever-increasing appeal of golf in the country where it all began and where there are now more than 550 courses.

Sean Connery lent his support to the Homecoming celebrations by pointing out: “I’ve been a lifelong supporter of golf and Burns, so to combine the two seems very appropriate.”

Today, thanks to some exciting changes over the last couple of decades, Scotland offers golfers an irresistible combination – some of the world’s best, most challenging and beautiful golf courses, alongside some of its finest hotels and resorts. These days, most major golf resorts have gone gourmet, with fine dining facilities becoming par for the course.

In Scotland, there are four exceptional venues to delight the most demanding visitor – St Andrews, Turnberry, Gleneagles and Carnoustie. Mere mention of the names is enough to spark the imagination of most golf enthusiasts. But link them with luxurious hotels or resorts and you have a sure-fire formula for success. If you’re going to play these classic courses, then there’s only one place to stay – the hotel or resort situated just a long putt from the greens and fairways.

The superlative St Andrews Old Course is the most famous in world golf, the spiritual home of the sport, and the ultimate pilgrimage to which every golfer aspires. Even America’s prestigious Golf Digest magazine has acknowledged this by naming St Andrews as the world’s “pre-eminent destination” for golf. The hallowed turf of the Old Course is the classic seaside links – although the sea is rarely in view other than at the first and last holes. Obligingly, the fairways are wide and the double greens immense – but the bunkering is among the severest to be found anywhere the game is played.

The Old Course Hotel
This legendary course boasts an exceptional hotel – the Old Course Hotel St Andrews (www.oldcoursehotel.kohler.com) – to complement the golfing experience of a lifetime. It features spacious and stylish guest rooms, along with every stay-and-play luxury including the widest selection of whiskies, more than 200, of any bar in the land.

Away from the temptations of the bar, the hotel is perfectly placed for all five of the St Andrews links courses as well as its own Peter Thomson-designed Duke’s Course. A team of PGA professionals are on hand for those needing a golf clinic, and there are practice areas, two pro shops and even a 19th century pub by the Road Hole fairway where you can discuss the highlights of your game over a relaxing drink. The hotel also has a spa offering head-to-toe treatments encompassing aromatherapy, reflexology, massage and beauty therapies. There are 125 guest bedrooms, plus a swimming pool and fitness centre. After you’ve worked up a healthy appetite walking the greens, the Old Course Hotel offers six unique dining and drinking experiences, ranging from a gourmet experience in the Road Hole Fine Dining restaurant to an award-winning afternoon tea.

Since re-launching in April last year, the Road Hole Fine Dining has rated 3AA rosettes and head chef Paul Hart offers a diverse selection of dishes using Scottish and, where possible, organic ingredients. There are three menus: à la carte, an eight-course tasting menu and an accompanying vegetarian menu, which all change on a seasonal basis. The two tasting menus are paired with a selection of champagne and wines specially chosen by the hotel’s sommelier Richard Coulson.

St Andrews is north of both Edinburgh and Glasgow, a 60-minute and 90-minute drive from their airports respectively.

The Turnberry Resort
The Turnberry Resort (www.turnberry.co.uk) boasts one of the most stunningly beautiful settings ever to grace the royal and ancient game, and much more besides. It occupies a dramatic location on an 800-acre estate overlooking the Atlantic, with extensive world-class golf course and training facilities, plus its own spa.
Shortly, it will become the focus of the entire golf world, drawing in visitors from all over the globe as the venue for the 138th Open Championship, from July 16-19. It will be only the fourth time Turnberry, 55 miles south of Glasgow Airport, has hosted the Open, after an absence of 15 years.

Every year, thousands of golfers of all abilities enjoy the thrill of playing an Open Championship course that’s open to all, and this year’s spin-off from the TV and Press coverage should attract as many visitors as ever.
With the sea by your side and that famous lighthouse in the distance, there are few courses in the world that can match Turnberry for scenic splendour and atmosphere. The hotel stands on a headland looking out towards the Isle of Arran and the Mull of Kintyre one way and the immaculately manicured championship links the other. If you demand more privacy than a hotel can offer, there are lodges and cottages available on the sprawling estate.

Fans booking in for the Open can expect a sparkling new look. The former Westin-branded resort closed for restoration last November and does not reopen until July after a £30m refurbishment.

Turnberry’s Ailsa Course, a true Scottish icon, is, of course, where Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson fought out their unforgettable “Duel in the Sun” in the 1977 Open Championship, and the layout of today – long and very demanding – is the work of eminent golf course architect Mackenzie Ross. If you feel the need for some coaching, there is the Colin Montgomerie Links Golf Academy, and if you fancy a break away from the golf, there are country pursuits for all ages, ranging from falconry to fishing, shooting and 4×4 off-road driving.

Gleneagles
Meanwhile, at Gleneagles (www.gleneagles.com), nicknamed “The Riviera of the Highlands” through its many links with the rich and famous, everyone is looking forward with eager anticipation to 2014, when it will host the 40th Ryder Cup tournament.

The hotel, which was the venue for the G8 Summit of world leaders four years ago, has 232 spacious rooms, including a variety of luxury suites. Just an hour from both Glasgow and Edinburgh airports, there are three room types, three restaurants and bars, plus swimming pool, gym, squash, fishing, shooting, horse riding and falconry. There is a selection of shops and free access to the leisure club and tennis courts.

Every year since 1986, Gleneagles has been awarded the full Five Red Star rating from the Automobile Association and it is a member of The Leading Hotels Of The World, listed as one of the Great Golf Resorts Of The World and is a founder member of the Connoisseurs Scotland organisation.

Gleneagles hosts the Johnnie Walker Championship, one of Scotland’s most exciting sporting occasions, and this year’s event will be played over the PGA Centenary Course, between August 27 and 30.

As part of the European Tour circuit, the Johnnie Walker Championship attracts the world’s best golfers, and last year it was the final qualifying event for the 2008 European Ryder Cup Team. Players can choose from four courses: the King’s, the Queen’s, the nine-hole Wee Course and the Jack Nicklaus-designed former Monarch’s Course, renamed the PGA Centenary Course in honour of the PGA’s 100 years in 2001.

The Carnoustie Golf Hotel
For golfers who relish tackling the ultimate challenge, Carnoustie, situated 12 miles north of Dundee, probably gets the vote. Many consider the Medal Course, nicknamed “Killer Carnoustie” by at least one top pro, to be the greatest test of championship golf to be found anywhere in the world. It was home to the 128th British Open ten years ago and has a history of having challenged even such golfing superstars as Greg Norman and Tiger Woods.

Allan Robertson, the first player to break 80 around the Old Course at St Andrews and now recognised as the game’s first professional golfer, was the man who laid out the original course in the 19th century, although it was five-times Open Champion James Braid who revamped it in 1926. There can be no finer tribute to this remarkable links than the role-call of champions who have won there. They include Sir Henry Cotton, Gary Player, Tom Watson, Paul Lawrie and the legendary Ben Hogan, who in 1953 won the only Open Championship he ever played at Carnoustie.

The luxurious Carnoustie Golf Hotel (www.oxfordhotelsandinns.com), host to the 2007 British Open, offers 75 beautifully-appointed en-suite rooms and ten suites with amazing views over the championship course, sea and nearby town of Dundee. There are extensive spa and health facilities, including a large heated swimming pool, sauna, whirlpool, steam room and fully-equipped gymnasium.

Skibo Castle
If you’re happy to travel to the northeast of Scotland to sample top-class golf and one of the world’s great residences, then Skibo Castle (www.golfing-scotland.com) will not disappoint. It was the venue for Madonna and Guy Ritchie’s wedding in 2000 and was described by movie star Catherine Zeta Jones as “the most romantic place on Earth.”

This private, residential golf and sporting club has two private golf courses and sits on its own 7,000-acre estate in the heart of the Highlands. It meets the highest standards for fine food and luxurious accommodation, and offers classic pursuits such as salmon and trout fishing, falconry, clay pigeon shooting, riding, tennis, walking, canoeing, bird watching and archery. The swimming pavilion is equipped with an original marble pool, beauty therapy and gymnasium. There is a full Clarins spa and immaculate gardens offering peace and tranquillity. Skibo Castle unashamedly sets out to let guests experience service and style dating back to the Edwardian era. It also offers a bonus for unrepentant golf addicts.

Top loch spots
Loch Ness is the most famous stretch of water in Scotland, but just one of more than 500 lochs, ranging from to tiny mountain lakes to deep-sea inlets.

In addition to stunning scenery, long walks, boat trips and the promise of  a rewarding dram of malt, many loch side hotels now offer luxurious accommodation and gourmet food. Head for Loch Lomond, the largest in Scotland, just 20 minutes from Glasgow. Set in the Trossachs national park, it offers breathtaking views to Ben Lomond. Stay at the Cameron House (www.devere-hotels.com), which has undergone a £25m refurbishment and offers fine suites, sleek drawing rooms and sophisticated cuisine.

Sea meets peaks at Loch Inver, a two-hour drive from Inverness airport, and the place to stay for great walks or mountain biking is The Albannach (www.thealbannach.co.uk), which has  just two bedrooms and three suites. Dinners are memorable – five courses of local produce, served in an oak-panelled dining room lit by candlelight. Chef/proprietors Colin Craig and Lesley Crosfield have won various awards for their skilful interpretation of modern Scottish cooking and The Albannach was recently awarded a Michelin star.
Loch Crenan, a two-hour drive from Glasgow, is a small sea loch near the Isle of Eriska, where you can spot seals, otters and badgers. Commune with nature by staying at the 1880s-built family-run Isle of Eriska Hotel (www.eriska-hotel.co.uk), where rooms range from grand Victorian to modern cottages.

Cracking castles
If you’ve always had a yen to stay in a castle, then Scotland‘s the place for you. Try 13th century Dalhousie Castle (www.dalhousiecastle.co.uk), seven miles south of Edinburgh, which won Castle Hotel of the Year 2009 in the HotelReviewScotland awards. It offers 29 bedrooms, the award-winning Dungeon Restaurant and a spa, plus falconry in the grounds.

Well placed for exploring central Scotland and the Da Vinci Trail is Shieldhill Castle (www.shieldhill.co.uk), dating back to 1199. Just 28miles from Edinburgh, it has 16 bedrooms in the castle and 10 in the converted stables, plus an award-winning restaurant.

For the ultimate romantic getaway, head off for Glengorm Castle (www.glengormcastle.co.uk), on the northern tip of the Isle of Mull. Set in dramatic scenery, the 5,000-acre estate offers five doubles, with self-catering also available in a choice of apartments in the castle and cottages on the estate.

Beijing’s opulance

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

In Centro, the city’s most fastidiously cool live music lounge, we are hanging out amid groups of young western corporate workers and hip Chinese. The drinks here come in dainty triangular glasses and are served by spiky-haired girls sheathed in black. By the bar there’s an elevated platform, studded with leather sofas, that overlooks a carefully lit Japanese garden. Two black American musicians, a saxophonist and pianist, are picked out in a pool of white light. The night is young and Centro is open 24 hours. Outside, in the very swanky foyer of the Kerry Centre hotel, a group of revellers, also fashionably suited and booted, is leaving the Grand Ballroom. On the fringes are a gaggle of good-time girls (from Mongolia, I’m told) looking for some action.

Pinch yourself. Is this really Beijing? What, in the name of bourgeois decadence, would the Great Helmsman have made of it all?

Can it really be less than 40 years since Mao’s Red Guard took to the streets and ransacked cultural sights in Beijing, even searching private homes to root out ‘bourgeois’ or ‘feudal’ items? Can it be so recently that college-educated young Beijingers were sent into the countryside to ‘learn from the peasants’, and that a vast underground city was still being dug under the streets of Beijing in preparation for nuclear war with the Soviet Union? Now, that ‘former situation’ has been knocked into a fur-lined hat (with flaps and fetching red star, available from Cultural Revolution kitsch shops and stalls across town). Welcome to the new Beijing of signature architecture, sleek apartment blocks, glossy shopping malls and Olympic success. Here, popular entertainment is Super Girls, a television talent show derivative of Pop Idol in which a staggering 20 million people cast votes on their mobile phones. The new battle on the streets of Beijing is between the free marketers who have been made rich by dot communism, and the Party, still struggling to hold on to power amid inexorable change.

Transition
The modern visitor to Beijing must prepare for excitement – and vertigo. The pace of construction is giddying and relentless. Since 2007 when, by law, every crane and scaffold in the city came down, Beijing emerged as a strikingly modern capital city – one that befits China’s place at the ‘top table’ of nations. Paul Andreu’s Opera House has landed and opened, like a glassy spacecraft, on the edge of Tiananmen Square. The Central Business District has sprouted a forest of 300 towers, including a clutch of high-end hotels; the ring roads encircling the city now number six (the joke is that the tenth one will pass through Tokyo).

The planet’s most fashionable architects unpacked their black leather bags in Beijing, teamed up with local Chinese firms (as they must) and rolled out a spectacular succession of buildings. The world’s biggest airport, 3.5 kilometres long, is a Norman Foster project; the 100,000-seater ‘Bird’s Nest’ National Stadium by Herzog de Meuron is cradled in its giant lattice of steel; the transparent ‘Swimming Cube’, fashioned from a new material that resembles frozen bubbles of air, along with the vast trapezium ‘leaning’ skyscraper that is Rem Koolhaas’s new home for China Television, CCTV. Will Alsop is in there too with a big commercial development, Raffles City, all wild colours and shapes, which stands over the new transport hub of the city – seven layers of trains and buses and a fast, 11-minute express service to the airport. Beijing is set to become the most visited city on earth by 2020, and this is its bid to out-Manhattan, out- Hong Kong, out-Toyko all-comers as top modern metropolis.

Contradiction
And yet bicycle rickshaws exist alongside Audis, fried locust alongside KFC, night markets alongside shopping malls. Old Beijing still exists in pockets, especially in the vicinity of the Forbidden City and its surrounding parks and lakes. Beijingers are social and like to do things in groups. On a Sunday afternoon we found ourselves by chance in Jingshin (also known as Coal Hill) Park. We heard singing, like a rather good Welsh miners’ choir, unaccompanied and crisp. Off the path, on a rocky bank, 12 middle-aged men were singing their hearts out, waved on by the flailing arms of their maestro. We had no idea what their songs might be about, but the crowd of Chinese who had gathered round was rapt.

Further on, against the blood-red wall of the Forbidden City, a man and woman warbled out Peking opera on a home karaoke system; beyond them was a band of saxophonists, then a lone fiddler, and then a whole party dancing and singing unself-consciously, while an artist traced patterns of branches and birds across the path with a water brush.

We strolled back through neighbouring Behai Park, Beijing’s largest and a gift to the city from Kublai Khan in the 13th century. It’s a popular place for boating, taking tea in the exquisite fretted wooden tea house and, across the bridge on Jade Island, which is topped with a 40m Buddhist shrine, for enjoying an imperial banquet at Fangshan, an opulently painted waterside courtyard house which has been serving food of the sort that the Qing emperors enjoyed since 1925.

Parks are places for learning English too. Sunday clubs called ‘English Corners’ open for conversation classes for the many Beijingers who are determined to learn. To stumble upon one of these and confess you’re from the UK is to be besieged with new friendships and plied with tea for the rest of the afternoon.

Officially, of course, a visit to the Forbidden City sits at the centre of everyone’s first visit to Beijing. No wonder Chairman Mao, whose smooth, unchanging face still dominates the Tiananmen Gate, chose this historic entrance to the imperial city as the auspicious place in 1949 to announce the Communist regime to the waiting crowds and the world: ‘The Chinese people have now stood up’. In the days of the emperors, decrees were announced from the top of this gate – written commands that were lowered in the beak of a gilded phoenix and received by officials waiting on their knees below.

For most of its five centuries of imperial life, the palace (although with 900 buildings, temples and endless gardens and squares, ‘city’ seems more appropriate) was utterly out of bounds for ordinary Chinese. They were not even allowed to approach its moated walls, under pain of execution. Only now are the Chinese discovering this fabulous place of great beauty and grotesque privilege. At weekends they come in their tens of thousands, many still in the military-style jackets of the Cultural Revolution but wearing matching coloured baseball caps to show membership of a tour group. Ironically, the new signs which help English speakers identify the Palace of Heavenly Purity, the Hall of Preserving Harmony and the rest each have a little addendum in small print telling us that the scheme has been ‘made possible by American Express’.

But nothing, not even the hilariously hammy audio tour by Roger Moore, can detract from the awesome scale of the Forbidden City. It was always intended as much more than a palace. The emperors, Sons of Heaven, regarded themselves as divinely appointed intermediaries between heaven (yang) and earth (yin). The whole court, from the emperor himself down to the eunuchs, concubines and serving girls, were caught up in a relentless litany of ritual and ceremony. The alignment of buildings, their iconography, design and colours were part of a complex cosmology that provided a necessary backdrop to the drama.

Some of that taste for immense grandeur is played out in Tiananmen Square, the world’s largest public gathering space, which is, of course, etched in our memories as the site of the pro-democracy demonstrations that were brutally crushed in 1989. The square is huge and could swallow a medium-sized English market town. Around it are ranged the bulky behemoths: The Great Hall of the People, the Mao Mausoleum (his embalmed body lies in state in a crystal coffin) and the National Museum where, in the waxwork gallery, the leaders and dignitaries of China have been joined by a solitary western star – David Beckham.

Restoration
It was Mao who tore down the magnificent city walls of Beijing. There are still a few remnants to be seen with isolated gatehouses (one behind the main railway station in Beijing has been turned into an art gallery). But these days it is the disappearance of Beijing’s humbler buildings that people mourn. In the hutongs (alleyways) that were once everywhere in the city, people lived in courtyard houses. Opening from the alley by a discreet door, these homes opened out into one or a series of interlocking courtyards, depending on the size of the family. Over the years as the population grew, the yards filled with makeshift housing to accommodate the burgeoning numbers, but there was no indoor sanitation and eventually the hutongs became slums.

Now, centimetres from the blade of the final bulldozer, streets are being saved. It’s possible to take a rickshaw tour of courtyard houses, and many westerners and savvy Chinese have restored these houses beautifully and live in them. Several restaurants have opened in courtyard houses (you eat in pretty private dining rooms), and there’s now a famous hutong hotel.

One of the best restaurants in the city for Chinese food is The Courtyard, which is owned by a Chinese-American lawyer with family roots in Beijing. It’s in a restored courtyard-style house next to the Forbidden City, and while the house’s grey-brick exterior blends with the old surroundings, inside it’s a different world: modernist white and glass, with tall art-hung walls and a beckoning staircase that leads to a contemporary art gallery in the basement. The food is genuine fusion – cashew-crusted lamb chop, for example, and Alaskan black cod with baby bok choy (a kind of lettuce) are established favourites. The tender grilled chicken breast in lemon grass and coconut curry is among the best poultry dishes the city has to offer, and afterwards you can visit an old-fashioned cigar lounge upstairs that looks out across the Forbidden City’s eastern moat.

In fact, despite the recent invasion of fast food, traditional Chinese cuisine (especially Sichuan, Mongolian, Cantonese and Muslim) is alive and well. There’s less street food than there once was (the authorities have made a concerted effort to clear away the breakfast stalls that serve jidan guan bing – egg pancakes), but it’s still possible to eat cheaply and well. Or, if you choose, in sumptuous style at imperial-style restaurants. Imperial food of the royal court was cooked, over the centuries, by the finest chefs, the best of whom could expect to be given the rank of minister. They would prepare scores of exquisite delicacies for the royal party to nibble – exotic foods such as phoenix in the nest, mandarin fish, lotus prawns and thousand layer cake.

Many restaurants serve up imperial-style cuisine, but my personal favourite is Source, a splendid small courtyard restaurant where diners are treated to their own small dining rooms which let on to a tree-filled garden. The food is a sequence of small dishes (sushi-like) from traditional meat-filled dumplings to stir-fried Jizong mushrooms and stuffed mandarin fish. Chrysanthemum tea is a real treat with this food, but I also grew to like the Chinese beer Tsingtao and Chinese wine (made now in co-operation with French growers) – especially Great Wall and Dragon Seal.

Interpretation
As a visitor it’s easy in Beijing to miss the pleasures of the city that insiders enjoy. Language is a barrier and while taxis are reassuringly cheap, drivers often need your destination written down in Chinese characters before they’ll understand. Staying in a good hotel (ours was the Shangri-La) means that staff will speak English and be able to advise you and write instructions.

This is vital. How else would we have managed to get out to Dashanzi, on the road to the airport, to visit Factory 798, the hottest arts quarter in China? 798 is a disused Fifties munitions factory and, from the outside, a hulking, monochrome reminder of the ‘former situation’. But it has become what Soho once was to New York, the home of Beijing’s cultural entrepreneurs, its edgy fashion and furniture designers, experimental architects, and keepers of cool bars and performance spaces. Vitally, it is where Chinese artists, who have become hugely fashionable and popular with international collectors, make and show their most challenging work.

Wander into Chinese Contemporary, one of more than 40 galleries on the site, and you might see sculpture by Sheng Qi representing Tiananmen Gate surrounded by models of rusty tanks, some of them broken and upturned. Can this really be China where we are led to believe that freedom of expression is still pretty low on the state’s wish list? 798 pulls the rug on some serious preconceptions. The groups of young people eating Happy Together Union Pizza at the Old Factory Café, getting kitted out at the Yinshu Jewellery Studio, hanging out in 798’s art bookshop fashioned from the old workers’ canteen and in Vibes nightclub, were mostly born after the collapse of Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Now – dressed in something between working blues and fake Prada – they are witnessing their own.

Young Beijingers are drawn to this Dashanzi suburb because the Factory is so emphatically not the official face of the city – and because it looks like a film set for a movie about Mao’s Great Leap Forward. 798 once employed 20,000 workers making electronic components for the People’s Liberation Army. The buildings, in Bauhaus style, were constructed with the help of comrades from East Germany on a vast site that included housing, sports halls and a place where the factory orchestra could belt out revolutionary hymns to the workers. The factory was top security and had its own little army equipped with anti-aircraft guns. Now, a solitary soldier stands at the gate. The revolutionary graffiti, ‘Mao Zedong is the Red Sun in all Our Hearts!’, has faded on the factory walls. You can buy ‘Mao kitsch’ clothing inspired by the revolution, but the only ‘Zhongshan’ uniform on show is a massive freestanding Mao jacket, a sculpture that is, significantly, both overbearing and hollow. At 798, without missing a beat, Beijing’s past has become the future.

Where to eat and drink
– Fangshan Beihai Park (00 86 10 6404 1879). This originated as the kitchen that served the Dowager Cixi. There are 800 dishes in its imperial-style repertoire, including the familiar favourites bird’s nest soup and shark fin, as well as assorted slivers of camel hump! Set banquet menu around £15.50.
– Family Li Imperial Cuisine 11 Yang Fang Hutong, De Nei Jie, Cheng (00 86 10 6618 0107). Founded by Li Shanlin, a maths professor, this is a homely place where they also speak English. Set banquet menu around £15.50.
– Quanjude 44 Dong Jiaominxiang (00 86 01 6512 2265). Quanjude is a group of restaurants offering the best Peking duck; this ancient branch is at the south-east corner of Tiananmen Square. It has four robed chefs theatrically slicing duck in front of a stone oven. Service is at marble tables and the duck and pancakes are followed with a soup made, apparently, from the bones of the bird. Set dinner around £12.50.
– Huang Cheng Lao Ma 3 Changchun Jie, Xuanwu (00 86 10 6317 3369). A good place to sample a popular dish which is a Sichuan savoury version of fondue. Raw foods chosen by you are brought to your table and cooked in a bubbling broth. Lamb or beef are added and there’s a dipping sauce as accompaniment. Dinner for two costs around £18.
– The Courtyard 95 Donghuamen Dajie (00 86 10 6526 8883). A restored courtyard-style house next to the Forbidden City with a modernist interior and serving genuine fusion food. The Sunday brunch set menu is good value at ¥150 (£14) for three courses.
– Source 14 Banchang Hutong (00 86 10 6400 3736). Small courtyard restaurant with a series of small dining rooms which give onto the pretty tree-filled garden, serving imperial-style food. Dinner for two costs around £30.
– Alameda in Sanlitun Bar, North Street (86 10 6417 8084). Set in a street lined with restaurants and music bars, this is a Brazilian eaterie though its menu of good fish, salads and vegetables is classic Mediterranean. Two-course set dinner around £9.

Where to stay
– Lu Song Yuan Hotel, 22 Banchang Lane, Kuuanjie (00 86 10 6404 0436). An historic hotel fashioned from five courtyards, furnished in traditional Chinese style with a tea-room, study, restaurant and 58 bedrooms. From here you can tour the hutongs and other courtyard houses. From £40 for a double room.
– Kerry Centre Hotel, 1 Guang Hua Road, Chaoyang (00 86 10 6561 8833). An effortlessly contemporary five-star hotel with excellent pool and sports facilities, and the home of the ultra-cool Centro bar. Rooms from about £110.

Susan Marling travelled with the help of Thomas Cook Signature (0870 443 4580; tcsignature.com)

Australian reds

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

Australia sells more wine than any other country in the influential UK wine market. But that doesn’t mean that it enjoys the best reputation – its wines are frequently dismissed as being over-ripe, over-alcoholic and over-exposed.

And although Australia itself is well known, there is very little recognition of the individual wine regions in the country – in fact Barossa Valley in Australia was the least well-known major wine region in a recent survey of 3,000 regular wine drinkers in the US and UK.

So I set out to look for wines from Australia that have what the French like to call terroir – that elusive link between place, climate, soil and winemaker that gives the best wines their sense of identity.

Jacques Lurton Kangaroo Island, Old Rowley 2005 (approx US$25)
This Grenache/shiraz/viognier blend comes in at 13.5 percent, so straight away marking itself out from some of the more over-the-top offerings from Australia. Not surprising really, as Kangaroo Island is cool climate Oz, with an average rainfall that makes irrigation unusual rather than the rule. As winemaker Jacques Lurton says, ‘Many vineyards in Australia have been planted without terroir consideration. I tried to find a location where I could use minimum irrigation and for soils with the capacity to drain, or to capture what water moisture there is. I have schist and clay soils, but with pockets of clay to capture the moisture.’ On the palate, it has a sweetness to it that is very attractive, with slightly smoky, violet notes. It made me stop and think which is always a good sign, and is rich but surprisingly delicate.

Kooyong 2006 Pinot Noir, Mornington Peninsula, £14.50
Another Mornington Peninsula creation, this is a grape that I often have difficulty with from the hotter wine producing regions. They have kept this at 13.5 percent alcohol, using low yielding fruit from Haven, Ferrous and Meres vineyards, and all pruned, trained and harvested by hand. Winemaker Sandro Osele has chosen maturation in French oak. It is sweeter than many Burgundy pinots but it is succulent, fleshy and in no way overpowering.

Blue Poles Reserve Merlot, A$35 (approx €20)
Named after the Jackson Pollock painting, Blue Poles is located in the cool climate of Margaret River, where a long ripening season gives delicacy to the wines. This is a truly great example of a Merlot, with softness but no hint of flabbiness, great length and a real structure to it. A key indicator of quality is that winemaker Mark Gifford only make this wine when the grapes are of sufficient quality to merit it – they don’t buy in grapes from elsewhere as is often the Australian model. So in 2009 there won’t be any Merlot or Cabernet Franc as the grapes were not of sufficient quality due to the vintage conditions. Shame, but all the more reason to get hold of this bottle…

Songlines McLaren Vale Shiraz, 2004, £49
A new venture from Penfold’s legend John Duval, in collaboration with Hunter Valley winemaker David Fatches. Songlines are the invisible pathways which crisscross all over Australia, encapsulating the idea that wherever man has walked, he has left a trace, and the name has been taken to show the importance both of the land that the wine comes from, and the people who have worked on it. High-flying concept aside, this is a dense, rich wine that stands at 15 percent. So far, so Australian shiraz. But there is far more to this wine than a punch of alcohol – the vines are between 40 and 100 years old in McClaren Vale (the same region as Penfolds Grange), and it has the rich liquorice and chocolate flavours that you get from the best Shiraz, but the fruit is never cloying, and it is densely packed out from beginning to end, so the alcohol never overtakes the other elements.

Grosset, Springvale 2008, Clare Valley Watervale Riesling, £17
If you are looking for terroir-driven Australian wines, Clare Valley is the place to go to, as it has good altitude (about 400m above sea level) which moderates the temperatures and allows real freshness to develop in the wines. They are well known for the Riesling grape and this one is a very lovely example. You’ll have to get past the label, which is bafflingly ugly (very unusual for Australia), but the wine itself is dry and crisp and has a lovely freshness to it. Great lemon and lime hints, and a good grip – these flavours aren’t going anywhere fast.

Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay 2007, £29.99
Made by great Australian winemaker Brian Croser in partnership with Jean Michel Cazes of Chateau Lynch Bages in Bordeaux, this is haute-couture Australian wine.The grapes come from a single vineyard – which is what you need to look for in Australian wine for the concept of terroir to really mean something – of 30 year old vines in the Adelaide Hills. Lightly oaked, the flavours that you will find here are consciously similar to those from southern Burgundy – less a Chablis interpretation of chardonnay, more like a Montrachet. It’s rich, but there is a lovely crisp backbone to it, and the whole effect is a world away from those buttery over-oaked Chardonnays that Australia has too often managed to produce.

Old Rowley –Total Wine (US), www.totalwine.com
Tapanappa – www.tapanappawines.com.au, Edencroft Fine Wines www.edencroft.co.uk
Grosset, Watervale Riesling – www.grosset.com, Wine Society, www.thewinesociety.com
Blue Poles – www.bluepolesvineyard.com.au
Kooyong Pinot – www.kooyong.com
Songlines – Private Cellar, www.privatecellar.co.uk

Yachting done the right way

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

Yachting

To those who shudder at the idea of a 3,000-passenger floating resort, small-ship cruising is what it’s all about. Stylish. Friendly. Real. On a small ship, you commune with the sea. You bond with fellow passengers and befriend the crew. There’s no bingo, no theme nights, no shopping, nobody trying to sell you anything. Small ships sail all over the world, to ports in Arabia, South Africa, Asia, the small Greek islands, Croatia, the Grenadines, the Amazon. They can slip into exclusive harbours, out of bounds to their bigger relatives, and the locals don’t sigh with resignation (or rub their hands together with glee) as the gangway is lowered.

Admittedly, small does equal exclusive and therefore expensive, but not always. A small ship may be an expedition vessel, or even part of a cargo fleet. But whether you choose a mega-yacht, a clipper, or a humble supply ship, the voyage will inspire a sense of adventure, and new appreciation of the addictiveness of life at sea.

Mail ship
Norwegian Coastal Voyage
(020 8846 2666; norwegiancoastalvoyage.com)
A fleet of hardy ferries chugs up and down the fjord-indented coastline of Norway delivering mail, cargo, supplies and passengers. There are limited facilities and very expensive drinks, but for many, sitting in the hot tub on deck watching the northern lights dance across the sky is more dazzling than any Broadway show. Ships sail year-round calling at every tiny village and fishing hamlet, stopping several times a day. See the midnight sun in June, or experience the deep, dark and startlingly dry cold of the Norwegian winter, when the aurora borealis is at its best. The Winter Northern Lights Voyage costs from £695 for five nights, Bergen to Tromsø, including flights and half board.

Fine dining
Radisson Seven Seas Cruises
(023 8068 2282; rssc.co.uk)
These are larger ships than rival Silversea, carrying 700 passengers, but in cruise terms this is still small. Acres of space is one of the big selling points; on Seven Seas Voyager and Seven Seas Mariner, every cabin is a lavish suite with balcony. One reason you might need room to expand is the opportunity for fine dining aboard. These two ships have the only Cordon Bleu restaurants at sea, as well as Latitudes, where a menu is prepared in an open galley, as well as classic and fusion dishes in the main restaurant and a casual Mediterranean bistro. Fortunately, there’s also a gym and a Carita de Paris spa to redress the balance. A week in the Baltic in July costs from £2,361 in a suite, including wine with dinner and flights.

Galapagos expedition
Celebrity Cruises
(0845 456 1520; celebritycruises.co.uk)
Celebrity Cruises operates a fleet of large, rather grand ships and one tiny one, Celebrity Xpedition, with only 45 suites. This is based year-round in the Galapagos Islands, the unique destination 600 miles off Ecuador that was Charles Darwin’s inspiration. Itineraries vary from seven to 11 nights, travelling at a satisfyingly leisurely pace, admiring giant tortoises, frigate birds, blue-footed boobies and iguanas under the guidance of Ecuadorian ecologists. Life aboard is relaxed and informal, with surprisingly sophisticated facilities, including a small spa and a restaurant the cruise line describes as ‘five star’. Pricing is fluid but expect to pay anything from £1,300 to £3,000 per person for a seven-night cruise, including flights. Whether you choose a mega-yacht, a clipper or a humble supply ship, the voyage will inspire a sense of adventure and a new appreciation of the addictiveness of cruising.

House party
Hebridean Island Cruises
(01756 704704; hebridean.co.uk)
Voyages on Hebridean Spirit (98 passengers) and little sister Hebridean Princess (49) are like jolly house parties with an endlessly generous host. Expect friendly but attentive service, spectacular food with a Scottish influence (including a ‘wee dram’ with the porridge at breakfast) and generously sized cabins with proper bathrooms. Instead of trying to sell shore excursions, which are included in the price anyway, the daily newsletter is full of gossip about the passengers. Spirit sails in the Med and South Africa, and also the Baltic and as far north as the Arctic Circle. Hebridean Princess meanwhile potters around the Scottish coast and islands. Seven nights cruising the Hebrides and mainland Scotland in May costs from £3,020, all-inclusive. The company also offers land and cruise options in conjunction with ITC Classics. For example, you could combine a ten-night Red Sand Seas of the Namib cruise with a four-day holiday to the Western Cape, from £4,710 per person.

lake

Ultra-luxury
Silversea
(0870 333 7030; silversea.com)
Four sleek, beautiful, all-inclusive ships carry either 296 or 382 passengers in style. Silversea is Italian-owned, as you might guess by the Aqua di Parma bathroom goodies, the gourmet ‘slow food’ La Terrazza restaurant, Lavazza coffee and the appointment of Isabella Rossellini as the cruise line’s ‘ambassador’. Staterooms are superbly equipped with marble bathrooms, DVD players, complimentary drinks cabinet (far superior to a minibar and restocked daily) and pillow menus. Some 80 percent have a private balcony. Clientele is mainly American, seriously rich and usually highly entertaining company. Itineraries worldwide. Prices from £2,841 for a week in Alaska, excluding flights.

Elegant and formal
The Yachts of Seabourn
(0845 070 0500; seabourn.com)
A no-expense-spared small-ship holiday in a glamorous setting, on three 208-passenger yachts which roam the world, taking in Asia, South America and the South Pacific as well as the more standard cruising fare of the Mediterranean and Caribbean. Bring slinky gowns (or your best tux) and serious bling – there are two formal nights every week. Guest lecturers travel with most cruises and other features include personal shoppers, mini-opera performances on board and movies on the open-air deck. Menus are designed by American celebrity chef Charlie Palmer and drinks are included in the price. A 16-day Indian Ocean cruise in November costs from £3,317 per person.

Young and hip
Seadream Yacht Club
(0800 783 1373; seadreamyachtclub.com)
Deliciously decadent cruises on two 100-passenger mega-yachts with a decidedly younger and hipper clientele than other cruise lines. Unforgettable features include the sexy double sun beds on the top deck (where you can sleep under the stars if you like), the gorgeous, clubby Top of the Yacht bar and the weekly Champagne Splash, in which waiters in black tie plunge into the pool and serve bucket loads of champagne and caviar from a lifebelt. Cruise the Med in summer, and in winter head for the Caribbean or, new for 2006/07, South America. Nine nights sailing from Rio to Buenos Aires costs from $3,999, excluding port charges ($585) and flights

Relax in style
Windstar Cruises
(020 7940 4480; windstarcruises.com)
Three elegant yachts (two carrying 148, one taking 308) which motor, even while under sail. Windstar passengers would rather sip a Cosmopolitan than hoist the sails, which is done by computer in any case. Cabins have luxuries like fluffy bathrobes and DVD players and the biggest of the fleet, Wind Surf, has a smart spa. A special platform is lowered from the aft end (the back) of each yacht for watersports when the vessel is anchored in calm water. All three sail in the Caribbean, Central America, the Med and Aegean. From US$2,949, excluding flights, for a week in the Aegean in July.

Under sail
Star Clippers
(01473 292029; starclippers.co.uk)
A life-changing experience for many, when the wind’s in your hair, the teak deck is warming your bare feet and 16 huge, white sails are billowing overhead. The company has two perfectly recreated clipper ships and the world’s only five-masted square-rigger, which roam the Med, the Aegean, the Caribbean and, in winter, south-east Asia. Cabins are compact – these are real sailing ships – and life on board informal and unstructured. You can even help sail the ship if you want to, or shin up the mast. Fellow passengers are sophisticated Europeans, Australians and Americans, either incurable romantics, sailing fanatics, or both. Seven nights sailing from Phuket to Singapore in December costs from £1,065 (cruise only).

The summer wine list

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

“Wine should be an exciting experience from beginning to end – from the packaging to the story to the taste.” This comment, from the owner of an excellent new wine shop in the centre of Manchester, England, started me thinking. It can be so easy to fall into the habit of drinking the wines you know you like, from producers you know you can trust. I’m certainly guilty of that far too often. And if we do step out of our comfort zone, we tend to look to the New World for the most exciting young winemakers.
But one of the perks of my job is discovering wines that I might never have come across if they hadn’t been lined up in tastings run by importers or retailers, so I am highlighting here some of the most exciting young winemakers from old Europe. Some are from well known regions that can often be dismissed, such as Beaujolais, and others from emerging areas that deserve to be better known.

Chateau Haut Peyrous ‘Retour de Palombiere’ 2007, AOC Graves (approx £10)
Marc Darroze’s foodie credentials are pretty solid – the brother of Helene Darroze,  Michelin-starred chef at the Connaught, and from a long line of chefs and restaurant owners. Marc has now been the owner of Chateau Haut Peyrous, in the Graves region of Bordeaux, since June 2008, and has just put his first white wines onto the market. Marc makes a selection of reds that have their foodie associations right up there on the label; a palombiere is a wood pigeon, and a second red is named after a local breed of pig. The whites are named after peaches, and the local oysters in Arcachon Bay.

Pinot Noir, Kendric Vineyard, Marin County 2006 (Miller Wine Works, approx US$40)
Gary Miller spent 12 years working in New York, Chicago and Aspen kitchens before migrating to Napa in 1999 and founding Miller Wine Works.  Working with his wife Kim, they keep production small, high quality and food-focused – meaning thinking about things like good acidity, and not making wines that are so ‘big’ they drown out the food. Kendric Vineyard is located between Tomales Bay and San Francisco Bay, at about 200 metres elevation. The understanding of ingredients comes through in the subtle ways; like using seven different clones of pinot noir, all bringing a slightly different flavour profile. The wine itself has the wonderful gourmet sweetness of a good pinot noir, combined with a classic, almost austere structure that makes the whole thing delicate yet indulgent at the same time. And I love his food pairing suggestions on the website – the grilled halibut with this delicate wine was a great idea.

Tritono Malbec 2005, Mendoza Argentina (US$40)
The result of a collaboration between a New York-Italian restaurateur Joe Bastianich (who also owns his own wine estates in Friuli and Tuscany), Argentinean winemaker Matias Mayol and his Californian counterpart Steve Clifton (hence the name – a piece of music comprising three different tones – apparently you can find an example in the opening notes to Jimmy Hendrix’s Purple Haze!). Very nice depth to this wine, their second vintage, with some lovely spice and great complexity. The vineyards themselves are part of Mayol’s estates, and combine some very old vines (planted in 1926) in the Lujan de Cuyo region with younger vines from the Vista Flores district. No fining, no filtration, crying out for a good steak.

Bernat 2005 Estate Syrah, Santa Ynez Valley (US$40)
Sam Marmostein was a stockbroker before becoming a winemaker, but he now owns and runs the acclaimed Los Olivos Cafe and restaurant in California, meaning his foodie connections are right up there. His four acres of vines (making this the smallest licensed vineyard in the Santa Barbara area) are planted with Syrah, Nebbiolo, and Sangiovese, and he farms everything without the use of pesticides or herbicides. This natural approach extends through at all stages of the winemaking – there is no filtration or fining either, and the wine throws up a healthy deposit, as well as plenty of rich, round flavours of cracked black pepper, chocolate and blueberries.

2006 Wild Boar Doe, Shinn Estate Vineyards, New York State (approx US$40)
Owner David Page has spent almost 30 years in food, starting in California in the late 1970s and right now on the North Fork of Long Island in New York State. Something that I have noted with many of these foodie winemakers is how much care they take in their vineyards, and how much they lean towards organic, or at least sustainable, viticulture. No doubt because they know so much about the importance of raw ingredients – and no change here, where the vineyards are all about diversity of plant and animal life, and even the vines use several different clones for each variety (that are all vinified separately and blended at the end of ageing), and they use only organic fertilisers. This beautifully-named wine is a blend of malbec, cabernet sauvignon, merlot and petit verdot, and is rich but elegant, with melted tannins.

Paternus Cab Shiraz 2005 Ulithorne Wines, McLaren Vale (approx £40)
This winemaker, Rose Kentish, won Winemaker of the Year in McLaren Vale last year. She has a great foodie story – learning fast as a 17 year old cooking and governessing on a sheep station in central west Queensland, and later owning her own restaurant. The beautiful 19th century flour mill that she has restored with her artist husband now hosts various events that she still cooks for, but her main activity is making increasingly acclaimed and sought after bottles of wine. There is again a clear gourmet sensibility that carries through into her approach to wine-making; ‘lots of fruit but restrained use of oak and conscious focus on minimising alcohol’. This succulent mix of cabernet sauvignon and shiraz is a powerful, spicy and enormously distinctive wine.