Author: Charlotte Gill

Top five German cities

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

If you’re visiting Germany on a business trip, you can expect all the standard clichés about German efficiency to ring true. Public transport is rapid and timely, city halls imposing and well run, food is fresh and wholesome, and beer served in chilled glasses which have been polished to a high shine.

It’s also a country well set up for business, with the financial capital of Frankfurt boasting the second largest airport in Europe and every city having sterling capacity for travelling corporates.

But whilst you may find yourself comfortably ensconced in a well-run business hotel in Germany, there are other stereotypes of the nation which hold less true. Historically this is a country which has only been united relatively recently, and a few hundred years ago existed as separate nations and republics. The effect of this divided past has filtered into the country as a whole, and while a certain combined identity might have been established overseas, within Germany the different regions often feel as distinct from one another in their customs as if they were unique states.

So although a love for well brewed beer spans the nation, the light wheat beer of Cologne is markedly different from the dark Altbier of Düsseldorf.

Whilst an enviable capacity for contemporary living might show itself in a skyscraper in Frankfurt and a jazz bar in Berlin. Whichever area of the country you find yourself you may well also be surprised by the warm welcome and the open mindedness with which most Germans greet strangers.

Particularly if you happen to find yourself in one of the country’s most affable meeting spots, the traditional beer hall.

Munich
When it comes to fulfilling expectations of a German city, Munich does the job whole-heartedly. It is located in the heart of Bavaria, which tends to showcase every national cliché going. It is this part of the country from whence oompah bands and forest-green leiderhossen hail. Whilst many a native from a different region will blame outlandish behaviours or customs associated with their people soley on the Bavarian heritage. This means that Munich is the expected showcase of baroque architecture, traditional beer halls, lively local music and that most famous of German exports, Oktoberfest.

If you’re in the city with some time on your hands to wander around, there’s plenty to see on the pleasant cobbled streets, and many of the iconic city buildings are found in a compact central area spanning out from Marienplatz.

This main square alone is home to the imposing city hall, and the much loved glockenspiel – a many layered cuckoo clock, whose wooden figures mark the midday hours of 12pm and 11am with a complex dance to the chimes of a clockwork band.

If musical puppetry displays aren’t your thing, then Munich’s other trump card is its several grand palaces, complemented by the Residentz Museum which displays untold quantities of palatial artwork and treasures. The main Residenzt palace is a medley of over 500 years of architectural accomplishment, whilst the smaller Schloss Nymphenburg took up the royal slack as a summer residence and is located a short tram’s ride outside the city centre.

Those with time to savour a bite to eat in Munich should take advantage of the many restaurants serving traditional Bavarian food – Fraunhofer on Fraunhoferstrasse is always a good bet for a rowdy local choice. The obligatory beer hall experience can be enjoyed throughout the city, but a particularly good cluster of watering holes can be found slightly south of the centre in the Glockenbach-Viertel district and around.

Berlin
While Germany’s major cities are for the most part orderly places, Berlin breaks the mould with a bohemian style of its own. In fact it’s becoming well known as a spot for an alternative nightlife, arts and music scene like nothing else in the country. This is mostly due to the subversive history of its eastern quarter, which although reunited for nearly two decades, still retains some if its edgier characteristics.

Berlin has several impressive architectural accolades, including the Brandenburg Gate and the nearby glass-walled Reichstag or Parliament. But if you want to see attractive monuments of this kind, there are many other German cities who can accommodate.

Where Berlin really shines is in its more subversive and contentious accomplishments. More symbolic of the city than the grand parliament is the enormous bombed out remains of the city cathedral Gedächniskirche, which has been left unrestored as a memorial to World War II. The dramatic unroofed structure towers over the central shopping district and is a fitting tribute to Berlin’s heritage of a city which was left incomplete for so many years.

More controversial but nonetheless dramatic is the city’s Holocaust Memorial which teams a museum experience with an artistic rendering of many hundreds of victim’s faces at ground level, to be walked over by visitors. In contrast the Wall Victims Memorial opposite the city parliament is a more conservative tribute to the last 191 people who were killed attempting to cross from east to west during Berlin’s time as a divided city. Those interested in this particular history will be overwhelmed with possibilities to find out more. The wall itself can still be traced through the centre, while Check Point Charlie is now a tourist attraction and numerous tours and guides are available on the subject.

Moving to a more modern experience, the best of Berlin can also be found in their innovative bars and clubs. These include Brokers Bier Borse, where drinkers can match their choice to the on-site beer ‘stockmarket’ price. The more a brand sells the more its stock (and hence price) increases, while regular stock market crashes ensure happy hours throughout the night.

Berliners love to eat out too, and while the city has numerous good restaurants, business types should try out social concept eatery Sankt Oberholtz – an establishment destined to house the city’s ‘office-less creatures’ who are accommodated with WiFi and good quality food.

Frankfurt
Although Munch is ostensibly the capital of Germany, it is Frankfurt where the real economy thrives. As the financial powerhouse for the entire nation Frankfurt is unashamedly a business destination, with a glass and steel skyline, and parts of the centre are more reminiscent of New York than a European city. The trading centre houses Europe’s largest stock exchange, together with the national bank, and the entire financial district teams with business people from all over the world.

That’s not to say that Frankfurt has lost touch entirely with its German past. Although almost all of the centre and infrastructure was destroyed by World War II, the citizens almost unanimously elected to restore rather than destroy the much-loved opera house, and this along with the historic town centre were spared the relentless march of progress.

For the most part, however, this is a city which means business and you’ll see evidence of it in every bar, café and restaurant. Whilst there are some undoubted lovely tourist sights, including the magnificent cathedral and the Romerberg or old square, which reveal how lovely the city must have been pre-war. The Museum Embankment is also a justly celebrated area for its density of well kept and interesting museums, documenting everything from Botticelli masterpieces to contemporary film legends.

Aside from the numerous attractive hotel bars and eateries, some of the best places for dining in Frankfurt tend to be found in traditional tavern style places such as Adolf Wagner on Schweizer Strasse.

Hamburg
If you end up in Hamburg on business there is plenty to keep you entertained once the working day is done. This lively portside city has a history of mixing many nationalities, leading to an open-minded and friendly outlook amongst its people. This, combined with a healthy student population means the streets are always abuzz with some new theatrical, cultural event, or simply a new bar opening to draw the crowds.

Those who expect Hamburg to be an industrial sort of place will also be pleasantly surprised. This is a canal city which built its money on water-haulage, and like many others of its type, experienced a sharp downturn in prospects only to rise again, with brighter lights and trendier venues. Hamburg’s waterside area has received substantial investment, and warehouses which were once emptying of business have now been re-let to boutique hotels and a hip new bar and restaurant scene. Urban regeneration notwithstanding, the canal areas make for pleasant strolling about the city, and Hamburg boasts more ornate bridges and waterways than Venice.

The city is also renowned for its love of football, and the beautiful game is Hamburg’s number one spectator sport. Fans are well catered to, with a spectacular 55,000 seater arena housed just outside the city centre.

Düsseldorf
If Munich is Germany’s cultural heart, and Berlin her political soul, then Düsseldorf is home to the nation’s fashion and art interests. The city has an almost accidental designer heritage by privilege of being the chosen location for Germany’s first fashion exposition back in the fifties.

Following the unprecedented success, Düsseldorf became the place for big fashion names to set up shop, with Karl Lagerfeld, JOOP!, and Escada all attributing great retail successes to this German conurbation. The centre is seen as the place to go shopping in Germany, with the famous Konigsallee Street housing the best of the city’s fashion names.

All this high fashion has had something of an effect on the psyche of the people, and Düsseldorf boasts the highest standard of living in Germany.

Part and parcel of this is its multifarious supply of chic cafes, boutique shops, glamorous bars and elegant restaurants.

But the well dressed citizens also seem to have had an effect on the city culture as a whole. Unlike other German municipalities with their heavy baroque buildings and imposing town halls, Düsseldorf has done something decidedly feminine with the architecture, and the cityscape flaunts curvy contemporary buildings of glass and steel to equal numbers of the traditional brick townhouses found everywhere else.

The aim to enjoy the finer things in life has also impacted on the eating and drinking scene. Certainly, you’re more likely to find locals heading to a jazz evening or a wine bar than a rowdy beer hall. But that doesn’t mean they don’t share the nation’s enthusiasm for beer. In fact the city’s signature altbier or dark beer is a flavoursome change to the popular light wheat beers found in the nearby city of Cologne.

To enjoy Düsseldorf nightlife at its best, head to Altstadt – routinely described by guides everywhere as ‘the world’s longest bar’ due to the sheer pavement space allocation to watering holes. Across the river, Im Alten Bierhaus offer traditional German food to line your stomach in preparation.

Berliners love to eat out too, and while the city has numerous good restaurants, business types should try out social concept eatery Sankt Oberholtz – an establishment destined to house the city’s ‘office-less creatures’ who are accommodated with WiFi and good quality food.

Frankfurt
Although Munch is ostensibly the capital of Germany, it is Frankfurt where the real economy thrives. As the financial powerhouse for the entire nation Frankfurt is unashamedly a business destination, with a glass and steel skyline, and parts of the centre are more reminiscent of New York than a European city. The trading centre houses Europe’s largest stock exchange, together with the national bank, and the entire financial district teams with business people from all over the world.

That’s not to say that Frankfurt has lost touch entirely with its German past. Although almost all of the centre and infrastructure was destroyed by World War II, the citizens almost unanimously elected to restore rather than destroy the much-loved opera house, and this along with the historic town centre were spared the relentless march of progress.

For the most part, however, this is a city which means business and you’ll see evidence of it in every bar, café and restaurant. Whilst there are some undoubted lovely tourist sights, including the magnificent cathedral and the Romerberg or old square, which reveal how lovely the city must have been pre-war. The Museum Embankment is also a justly celebrated area for its density of well kept and interesting museums, documenting everything from Botticelli masterpieces to contemporary film legends.

Aside from the numerous attractive hotel bars and eateries, some of the best places for dining in Frankfurt tend to be found in traditional tavern style places such as Adolf Wagner on Schweizer Strasse.

Hamburg
If you end up in Hamburg on business there is plenty to keep you entertained once the working day is done. This lively portside city has a history of mixing many nationalities, leading to an open-minded and friendly outlook amongst its people. This, combined with a healthy student population means the streets are always abuzz with some new theatrical, cultural event, or simply a new bar opening to draw the crowds.

Those who expect Hamburg to be an industrial sort of place will also be pleasantly surprised. This is a canal city which built its money on water-haulage, and like many others of its type, experienced a sharp downturn in prospects only to rise again, with brighter lights and trendier venues. Hamburg’s waterside area has received substantial investment, and warehouses which were once emptying of business have now been re-let to boutique hotels and a hip new bar and restaurant scene. Urban regeneration notwithstanding, the canal areas make for pleasant strolling about the city, and Hamburg boasts more ornate bridges and waterways than Venice.

The city is also renowned for its love of football, and the beautiful game is Hamburg’s number one spectator sport. Fans are well catered to, with a spectacular 55,000 seater arena housed just outside the city centre.

Düsseldorf
If Munich is Germany’s cultural heart, and Berlin her political soul, then Düsseldorf is home to the nation’s fashion and art interests. The city has an almost accidental designer heritage by privilege of being the chosen location for Germany’s first fashion exposition back in the fifties.

Following the unprecedented success, Düsseldorf became the place for big fashion names to set up shop, with Karl Lagerfeld, JOOP!, and Escada all attributing great retail successes to this German conurbation. The centre is seen as the place to go shopping in Germany, with the famous Konigsallee Street housing the best of the city’s fashion names.

All this high fashion has had something of an effect on the psyche of the people, and Düsseldorf boasts the highest standard of living in Germany.

Part and parcel of this is its multifarious supply of chic cafes, boutique shops, glamorous bars and elegant restaurants.

But the well dressed citizens also seem to have had an effect on the city culture as a whole. Unlike other German municipalities with their heavy baroque buildings and imposing town halls, Düsseldorf has done something decidedly feminine with the architecture, and the cityscape flaunts curvy contemporary buildings of glass and steel to equal numbers of the traditional brick townhouses found everywhere else.

The aim to enjoy the finer things in life has also impacted on the eating and drinking scene. Certainly, you’re more likely to find locals heading to a jazz evening or a wine bar than a rowdy beer hall. But that doesn’t mean they don’t share the nation’s enthusiasm for beer. In fact the city’s signature altbier or dark beer is a flavoursome change to the popular light wheat beers found in the nearby city of Cologne.

To enjoy Düsseldorf nightlife at its best, head to Altstadt – routinely described by guides everywhere as ‘the world’s longest bar’ due to the sheer pavement space allocation to watering holes. Across the river, Im Alten Bierhaus offer traditional German food to line your stomach in preparation.

Christmas commerce in Germany
While Germany might be a sensible and efficient nation, all austerity is neatly dispensed with for the festive period. The country is well-loved for its all out approach to festivities which sees almost every town square festooned with Christmas wooden huts selling everything from reindeer woollens to giant lollipops. In contrast to most seasonal markets the arrangements manage to be both appropriately festive and surprisingly tasteful, as towns carefully vet stallholders for the quality of their stock.

Interspersed with all the gift paraphernalia is at least one gluehwein stall selling hot wine by the refillable cup for rosy-cheeked shoppers to warm their cockles. The good cheer carries on after the gift stalls pack up their wares, as the gluehwein is ladled out long into the cold evenings.

While most towns will have at least a few stalls, serious shoppers can conduct their own tour of the best markets by car or public transport. A good place to start is Maastricht to explore the Valkenburg Markets, which are situated in a network of underground caves. Next stop might be the historic German town of Aachen, which has some beautiful festive displays, alongside yet more shopping opportunities.

From Aachen it’s only a short drive to Cologne, which has no less than seven dedicated Christmas markets. And if you want to immerse yourself in traditional festivities, Alter Markt among the old town offers a collection of picturesque gabled houses. There is also an old-style children’s roundabout, puppet show, and Santa’s grotto.

Lisbon’s dream

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

I am outside a tiny bar in Lisbon at 9.30 on a Saturday morning when it strikes me that it’s too early to be sampling the local fire water — our guide’s suggestion. “I be here since yesterday. Is birthday,” says the swaying Portuguese man. “Fifty-two year before, my mammy screw my daddy, and here I.” Definitely too early. This is my first experience of what happens if you drink too much ginjinha (cherry liqueur).

For years, Portugal has been the holiday destination of my dad and his golfing cronies, and that’s how I thought of the place: sunny, golfy, middle-aged. Until I went. It may be steeped in history and tradition, but Lisbon is a fun, young city, with great nightlife and fantastic food.

Even though I don’t golf, I wanted to stay at Penha Longa Hotel and Golf Resort on the edge of Sintra, a small town about 30 minutes’ drive from Lisbon. It’s nestled between wooded hills and a landscaped garden leading down to a sprawling 16th-century monastery. You can breakfast on the club-lounge balcony and watch the sun rise, with the golf course stretching out to the west.
The dining is reason enough to go in itself. On our first night we ate wafer-thin presunto ham, a gooey, fondue-like cheese called queijo de Azeitao, and, of course, bacalhau (salt cod), Portugal’s national dish.

We explored Sintra, a rickety old town full of cobbled streets that climb into the cliffs, topped by a picturesque castle. Everywhere, buildings are decorated with hand-painted tiles. We discover another speciality, pasteis de nata (custard tarts). Too long spent in Portugal’s charming cafes would result in a waistline catastrophe.

And there’s lunch waiting for us back at Penha Longa. A huge seabass is brought to the table, cased in a shell of salt, which is bashed off in one hard crust. The fish is soft and mouth-watering — not salty in the least — with earthy potatoes and a little caperberry sauce. We eat on the lawn outside the monastery.

It’s warm and the sky is cloudless — and there’s time for a swim in the outdoor pool. There’s plenty to do at Penha Longa: relaxing at the Six Senses spa; cookery classes in the old monastery kitchen.

The best parts of Lisbon are the older, traditional quarters: the Belem district, home of the Jeronimos monastery; the beautiful squares overlooking the Tagus; the labyrinthine Alfama region. Here, locals gossip on shady steps, children help hang washing on communal lines, people carry towels to communal bathrooms.

This is the place to hear fado by candlelight. Whether in a tiny cafe or at the Clube de Fado, it’s hard not to be moved by the melancholic songs of love, war and family. Often love songs are sung for Portugal herself. It’s easy to see why.

Rolling Rovinj

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

Follow the labyrinth of steep, cobbled, car-free streets down from the church through a pretty Baroque archway, and you’ll encounter elegant piazzas, busy food markets, open-air galleries and bustling pavement cafes – some of which serve examples of the best pizza you’ll have tasted outside Italy, if you can be tempted away from the seafood. These only add to Rovinj’s Italian spirit – and serve as a reminder that it is just a two-hour ferry ride across the Adriatic Sea to Venice. The area was ruled by the Venetian empire and belonged to Italy for much of the first half of the twentieth century, and the country has certainly left a legacy.

There’s still something pleasantly old-fashioned about Rovinj (the country itself is sentimentally described by its tourist board as “the Mediterranean as once it was”), but its harbour’s mix of rustic fishing boats and snazzy yachts gives some indication of the new direction the town is taking.

While the whole of Croatia appears to be catching up fast with its Mediterranean cousins as far as leisure and business tourism development goes, Rovinj is leading the way in its region, Istria. The town is not only peaceful and quaint, but is easily accessible thanks to modern road links to Zagreb, Trieste and Ljubljana and five nearby international airports (it takes less than two hours to fly to Pula from London). Developers are beginning to think beyond the hearty Euro-nosh cafés and ubiquitous ‘resort hotels’ and have their sights set on the luxury end of the market – as demonstrated by the opening of the very first five-star hotel in the area, Hotel Monte Mulini.

Although one may hope that those snazzy yachts don’t replace the rustic fishing boats entirely, Rovinj’s aspirations of affluence make sense considering the town’s opulent gastronomic associations. For many years, visitors have travelled to the area to take advantage of its freshly caught seafood; the exceptional, locally grown olives and olive oil; the black and white truffles used to infuse everything from those olive oils to fiery grappa (admittedly with mixed results) or slivered onto pasta; the regional prociutto, bacon, sausages and pork loin; and, of course, the deliciously blossomy local wine (try the fruity, white Malvazija Alba Matoševic or the slightly herbal Merlot Kabola, a red). The fact that you can savour all of this against a backdrop of impossibly turquoise, island-speckled sea and crooked buildings painted in faded apricot and lemon shades makes this ideal for a potential millionaire’s playground.

So Hotel Monte Mulini is aiming high. Forming a substantial part of hotel company Maistra’s 335 million euro investment into the area, this exclusive boutique hotel was designed by leading architects and interior designers WATG to be at the forefront of Rovinj’s makeover. It is perched on the hillside of the Zlatni Rt (Golden Cape) and a century-old wooded nature park – a few minutes’ gentle seafront stroll from the town centre – and its careful design has ensured it makes the most of the fact it overlooks the small, clear-watered bay teeming with bobbing boats. The grand entrance foyer, paved in local stone, has enormously high ceilings with sweeping windows framing the magnificent view, and every one of its 107 bedrooms and ten guest suites faces either the Old Town or the sea. What’s more, the designers have made sure you’ll feel as comfortable in winter as you will in the summer, as the venue’s simple style features a warm colour scheme of burnished golds and deep aubergines as well as generously sized fireplaces in the public areas.

The foodies have not been forgotten, naturally. Croatian chef Tomislav Gratic has been coaxed over from the award-winning Palace Hotel in Dubrovnik, in the far south of the country – where his dishes were sampled by the celebrity mouths of Michael Palin and Roger Moore, apparently – to head up the Monte Mulini’s two gourmet restaurants (one is à la carte, the other is fine dining). Before that, Gratic had launched Dubai’s popular Asia de Cuba restaurant and worked at Zurich’s Dolder Grand. His latest culinary creations, which celebrate the finest seasonal and local produce, are complemented by the work of Emil Perdec, the “best sommelier in Croatia”, and twice winner of the prestigious Trophée Ruinart in France (the European championship for sommeliers). Perdec presides over the hotel’s vast, traditionally styled wine vault situated below the restaurants, which includes a private tasting room, dining room and even a spacious terrace.

The business traveller is well-catered for, too, as investors are keen on promoting the area as a high-end destination for conferences. You can take advantage of the superb conference centre offered by the hotel and its nearby sister venues – Hotel Lone, Hotel Park and Hotel Eden – with a total of 30 top-notch halls, two of which are based in the Monte Mulini. Both boast gorgeous views of Rovinj and its picture-perfect 60ft tower, making them ideal for gala evenings or banquets. Then there is the central hall, the largest of its kind along the Adriatic coast, with room for 650 to 700 delegates.

Despite being a five-star trail blazer in Rovinj, the new Hotel Monte Mulini should have no difficulty drawing in wave after wave of visitors. Luxurious hotel facilities aside, the forest reserve surrounding the complex offers a unique opportunity for hiking and cycling – and if you enjoy more watery sports, you can also try diving, snorkelling and sailing in the crystal-clear waters surrounding the peninsular. For those looking for a more relaxing break, there are plenty of chances to take a gentle swim in the warm sea or stroll the cobbled streets, perusing the tiny craft shops, and galleries and sampling the wares of the open-air food market. Alternatively, hop on one of the regular ferries to explore one of the 13 islands and islets that make up Rovinj’s spectacular archipelago – or simply take your pick of the many waterfront trattorias and terrace bars in the Old Town, kick back with an espresso or ice cream and relish the way the Istrians seem to be able to do ‘old Italy’ even better than many Italians can.

Rovinj fact box
Currency: Kuna
(1 kuna =10p)
Time: GMT+1
Population: 14,234

Climate: The climate is warm and semi-arid. The average yearly temperature is 14 degrees Celsius, while the average summer temperature is a pleasant 23 degrees Celsius. The sea’s average temperature in the summer is 24 degrees Celsius.

Getting there: Flights from London airports to Pula (the nearest airport to Rovinj) take about two hours. Pula is a 30-minute drive from Rovinj. Hotel Monte Mulini offers a dedicated shuttle service for its hotel guests for an additional fee. Fly to Pula with Croatia Airlines (croatiaairlines.com) from London Gatwick; Thomsonfly (thomsonfly.com) from London Gatwick, Birmingham or Manchester; Ryanair (ryanair.com) from London Stansted; or FlyGlobespan (flyglobespan.com) from Edinburgh.

Stay: Hotel Monte Mulini is situated at A. Smareglia bb, 52210 Rovinj.Telephone +385(0)52 636 000. For further details or to book, visit maistra.com/en

Contact: Croatian National Tourist Office,
020 8563 7979; croatia.hr.

Did you know? Rovinj started life on the island of Mons Albanus in the third century. It wasn’t until 1763 that the channel between the island and the mainland was filled with earth, creating the peninsula.

Further reading: The Rough Guide to Croatia, £12.99.

Outside Rovinj
Should you decide to venture out of Rovinj itself, through the greenery of cypress trees and olive groves, there is plenty more to see in the vicinity. Pula is just a half-hour drive away along virtually empty roads, dotted with olive-oil stalls. It is home to an impressive amphitheatre, the town’s most popular (and oft-photographed) tourist attraction, built by the Romans on their arrival in 177BC. There’s also an art deco market and – if you’ve tired of gazing upon pretty things in Rovinj – a busy working port that was once the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s primary naval base. Another scenic local highlight is the 11km-long Lim Fjord, which is not actually a real fjord, I was sternly informed, but a channel or “ria”, due to the way it was formed by a river rather than a glacier. It’s a protected nature area, teeming with Mediterranean flora and fauna, and is perfect for Nordic walking or simply sight-seeing by boat.

Nevis today, Nevis tomorrow

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

Lying near the top of the Lesser Antilles archipelago, just west of Antigua and the eastern Caribbean, Nevis is a volcanic, sombrero-shaped island, a mere seven miles long and five miles wide. With a population of around 12,000 it is the smaller of the twin-island state of St Kitts and Nevis, with offshore finance and upmarket tourism being the most important sources of income.  

Nevis is well positioned as a mature, well-regulated, international financial centre offering a full range of financial services, and with a government that promotes an investor-friendly environment it draws considerable interest.

There’s no personal income tax, net worth tax, gift tax, sales tax, turnover tax or estate duty in Nevis. With the watchwords quality, efficiency, integrity and innovativeness it has carved a niche for itself in this competitive area.

English is the official language of the island, which boasts high standards of education, a 98 percent literacy rate, and a state-of-the-art telecommunications network. Within a strong professional infrastructure, there are over 50 registered service providers specialising in company formation and management, trusts, international insurance, fund administration, banking, wealth management and asset protection.  Nevis mandates that all international finance business be conducted in accordance with international best practices and has introduced legislation aimed at strengthening its regulatory framework. It has representation within all major regional and international bodies, such as the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) and the International Trade and Investment Organisation (ITIO), and has a tax treaty with the United Kingdom.

The British established a colony on Nevis in 1628, five years after they’d established their first Caribbean colony on neighbouring St Christopher (its name probably shortened by British sailors to the now familiar St Kitts). With the wealth of their sugar plantations, and their strategic position as a gateway to the Caribbean, for centuries the two islands occupied a critical position in the European struggle for dominance over the West Indies.  St Kitts and Nevis jointly attained independence within the British Commonwealth in 1983. Queen Elizabeth II is Head of State, represented by Governor-General Sir Cuthbert Sebastian. The political structure is based on British parliamentary democracy. While part of the Federal Parliament, Nevis has its own Nevis Island Administration headed by a Premier.  Elected Premier in 1992, the Hon.

Take one look round Nevis and is not hard to see why it is a favoured destination for eco-tourist. Spectacular natural vegetation, with cloud forest and brilliant tropical flowers, and the inviting azure-clear waters, attract today’s visitors. The unspoilt, green landscape is beautiful, serene and a sight to behold. The wildlife is colourful, with chattering green vervet monkeys, mongooses, dolphins and whales, and sea turtles. There are126 species of birds to set your sights on, from bold bananaquits descend on breakfast tables in search of sugar and hawks soar overhead.  Pinney’s Beach with its reef-protected waters is recognised as one of the best beaches in the Caribbean. Nearby, a palm-fringed lagoon is where Admiral Lord Nelson is said to have drawn his ships’ supplies of drinking water when he was Commander of the Leeward Islands Squadron.

In the 18th century, Nevis was known for its extravagant social life and grand estate houses, some of which are now among the Caribbean’s finest plantation inns. The capital, Charlestown, has an atmosphere redolent of traditional Caribbean life. It boasts some of the best examples of colonial era architecture in the region. Sailing is a popular activity, and local captains and boats are available for hire, by the day or week. The island’s Trent Jones golf course is internationally ranked. Informative guides lead hikers and mountain climbers on rainforest trails and snorkellers revel in the vibrant colours of the fish that inhabit underwater reefs. Nevis retains its natural beauty and tranquillity – tourism has been deliberately kept to the high end sector.

Busiest airports

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

By total passengers (in millions)

 

   

   

   

 

 

   

   

   

 

 

   

   

   

 

 

   

   

   

 

 

   

   

   

 

 

   

   

   

 

 

   

   

   

 

 

   

   

   

 

 

   

   

   

 

 

   

   

   

 

1 Atlanta, Hartsfield 84.8
2 Chicago, O’Hare 76.2
3 London, Heathrow 67.5
4 Tokyo, Haneda 65.2
5 Los Angeles, International 61.0
6 Dallas, Fort Worth 60.1
7 Paris, Charles de Gaulle 56.8
8 Frankfurt, Main 52.8
9 Beijing, Capital 48.5
10 Denver, International 47.3

Trading in Cape Town

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

The third biggest city in South Africa, Cape Town was built on trade. The city grew around the harbour, which was established in the 17th Century as a refuelling stop for Dutch ships sailing to East Africa, Asia and beyond. It was South Africa’s largest settlement until the discovery of gold and diamonds near Johannesburg in 1887.  

The city still has a European flavour – the quaint cobblestoned Bo-Kaap neighbourhood wouldn’t look out of place in Amsterdam or Brussels, while the the Pan-African Market reminds you that African continent extends for 5,000 miles behind you.

Considered to be the safest city in South Africa, the centre of Cape Town is located at northern end of the Cape Peninsula. Table Mountain forms a dramatic backdrop to the city with it’s 1,000m plateau flanked by near vertical cliffs.  The precipitous peninsula juts southwards, plummeting into the Atlantic Ocean at Cape Point.

Cape Town is the economic centre of the Western Cape and the regions manufacturing base. The economy is reliant on tourism, and attracts more visitors than any other city in South Africa – over five million annually.  The tourism industry alone accounts for 10 percent of the Western Cape’s GDP, and in turn 10 percent of the region’s workforce.

The city has a large political presence, and acts as South Africa’s legislative seat of Parliament. Consequently, there’s a large concentration of professionals in the town. Energy is increasingly important to Cape Town’s economy – oil and gas fields have both recently been discovered off the coast.  The city is experiencing a construction boom with massive urban renewal and numerous developments augmenting the business district.  

Many of the suburbs of Cape Town are located on a large plain, known as Cape Flats, which joins the peninsula to the mainland. The pace is relaxed, and the Mediterranean climate enhances the unproblematic mood of Capetonians. Rainfall is low, and the temperature here rarely drops below 7°C (45°F).

Restaurants
Emily’s Bistro – Clock Tower Centre, V&A Waterfront.  tel 021 421 1133.
Modern translations of traditional Afrikaans recipes make this restaurant one of the best in the region.  The waterside locations doesn’t impair the experience, either.

La Colombe – Constantia Uitsig Wine Estate, Constantia. tel 021 794 2390.
Widely regarded as one of the best in South Africa, this breezy, French restaurant rarely fails to impress.  Seasonal ingredients are prepared in the Provençale manner – a perfect for Cape Town’s climate.

Buitenverwachting – Buitenverwachting Estate. tel 021 794 3522.
Dining on the terrace overlooking the vineyards and mountains is one of the finest experiences in South Africa.  The poised, creative menu completes the occasion.

Hotels
Mount Nelson Hotel – 76 Orange St, Gardens – tel 021 423 1000
Cape Town’s finest lodgings, the hotel was built in the aftermath of the gold rush to accommodate the South Africa’s new wealth.  Arrive in style though a colonnade of palms, and soak up the luxury.

Bay Hotel – Victoria Road tel 021 438 4444
Built in the late 1980s, this five-star neo-colonial palace has the best views of any hotel in Cape Town. It’s a toss-up which rooms are best, ones that face the ocean, or Table Mountain.

Steenberg Hotel – Tokai Rd – tel 021 713 2222
Cape Town’s wineries account for some of the best in the world, and this five-star hotel at the foot of Steenberg Mountain is the oldest wine estate of them all.  Dating back to 1682, the whitewashed walls, elaborate gables, and thatched roofs account for some of the finest Dutch architecture in South Africa.

Joburg bound

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

Fast-paced and frenetic Johannesburg is in complete contrast to laid-back Cape Town. Ever since gold and diamonds were discovered here in 1887, it seems the city has been in a rush. Today, it’s the biggest city in South Africa, and Africa’s third most populous behind Cairo and Lagos.

With connections across the world, Jo’burg is a truly global city, and it’s influence on the world’s markets is far in advance of any other city on the continent. Without the distractions of tourism, politics or administrative power, the main concern here has always been business.

Since the first gold was found to the east of present-day Johannesburg, in Barberton and subsequently the Witwatersrand, the city has retained a large-scale gold and diamond trade. In fact, 40% of the world’s gold is believed to have originated here.

Production in 1970 accounted for 79 percent of the world supply, producing about 1,000 tonnes.  However, in 2004 production was down to 342 tonnes due to the increasing difficulty of extraction. The classic postcard image of Johannesburg still abides – dusty gold mine dumps in the foreground and skyscrapers in the background.

Johannesburg has Africa’s largest stock exchange, the JSE Securities Exchange, as a consequence, the bulk of South Africa’s financial services are based here. The city also has a strong manufacturing base, with steel and cement production bolstering the city’s economic influence.

Home to nearly five million, Johannesburg looks much like Los Angeles – in climate and appearance. It’s is a young and sprawling city built around the motorcar and possessing an insufficient public transportation system. To make matters even more interesting,  there are seven official languages in Jo’burg: Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, English, Tswana, Sotho, Swati, and South Ndebele.

Crime is notorious in Jo’burg, but most travellers come and go without incident but common sense prevails: be aware of your surrounds and do not publicize your wealth, and drive with your doors locked.

Situated 550km inland on a vast plateau 1,700m high, the heat can be stifling in summer (November-March), but cooling breezes from the highveld make life in Jo’burg bearable. The average maximum temperature is 16°C in June, but it’s not unknown for the city to receive a dusting of snow.

Restaurants
Melville Grill – 11 7th St.  Tel: 011 727 2890
The finest steak house in South Africa and a Jo’burg institution, the Melville Grill is no place for vegetarians.  Perfectly aged beef is the order of the day here, but other meats get a look in.

Le Canard -163 Rivonia Road, Morningside – Tel: 011 884 4597.
Housed in a Georgian homestead, this elegant restaurant has been entertaining Jo’burg’s brass with classic French cuisine.  Veal, seafood, and of course, duck are the house specialities.

Moyo – 5 Melrose Square, Melrose Arch, Melrose – Tel: 011 684 1477
Beneath beaten copper ceilings, Moyo explores Africa’s multifarious cooking traditions.
The menu features samaki kavu from Kenya, chicken yassa from Nigeria, venison babootie from South Africa, and sweet-smelling tagines from Morocco.

Hotels
Michelangelo – 135 West St – 011 282-7000
Centrally located near Nelson Mandela Sq, the Michaelangelo is handy for restaurants, theatre and shopping.  Of course, the main draw here is the opulence and attention the hotel lavishes on its guests.

The Grace in Rosebank –  54 Bath Ave, Rosebank – tel 011 280 7200
One of the most luxurious hotels in town, it’s perennially popular with visiting business execs.  Set in the secure leafy suburb of Rosebank, everything you need is close at hand.

Saxon – 36 Saxon Road, Sandhurst – Tel: 011 292 6000
The hotel has scooped four international awards since it opened in 2000, and has been voted one of the world’s best boutique hotels. Style and luxury in buckets.

Austria’s charm

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

With a history of business networking to rival any in Europe, Austria’s historic ability to make advantageous royal matches once made it one of the most powerful Empires in Europe. And whilst her territories may have been somewhat diminished by WW1, it’s position bordered by Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Czech Republic still affords it a panoramic sweep of Europe’s cultural highlights.

With Swiss-style scenery, a German menu of hearty meals, Italian café culture and more chocolate-box architecture than anywhere else in Europe, Austria manages to incorporate the best of its regional neighbours – and that’s before you’ve even mentioned Mozart.

Austria’s Habsburg Empire saw successive generations of royalty offer strong patronage to Europe’s most talented musicians, and was the reason why Beethoven, Haydn, Brahms and Mahler all decamped to her capital city.

Teaming their interest in talented musicians with strong investment in stunning buildings to host music events it’s not wonder that the tuneful context also gave birth to the country’s ‘favourite son’ in the form of composer Mozart.

Whilst rococo Vienna might be the capital of all that royally appointed melody, lovely Salzburg also manages a rather less official claim to musical fame in its devotion to The Sound of Music. Outside the cities Austria manages to sustain some gratifyingly rural and highly scenic villages and landscapes. Whilst its mountain ranges house some incredible ski resorts, boasting un-crowded slopes and an après ski unique to Austria.

Vienna
Vienna is a superbly pretty city, whose cobbled streets lead visitors a winding path through innumerable back streets and ancient houses before propelling them out again onto the grander walkways. It’s a city which benefited enormously from the Hapsburg influence, which built music halls, theatres and opera houses throughout the city. You can’t miss the references to Mozart either, sign-posed on every major road, and the subject of a large number of restaurants cafes and bars.

Once you’ve accepted that classical music will form a meaningful part of your visit, Vienna also has a great deal to offer in terms local places to eat and drink. Whilst most European city centres are populated mostly by eateries designed to snare tourists, Vienna’s bars and cafes are a great tribute to the city as a whole.

Most of the other city attractions are within easy walking distance and located well within the ‘ringstrasse’ or ringroad which encircles the city.

Besides the attractive Danube Canal to the north-east, visitors can easily stroll past the inner baroque edifices, taking in St Stephens Cathedral, the Imperial Palace, the Art Nouveau Secession Building and the Museum Quarter which warrants a guidebook all of its own.

Salzburg
Salzburg is one of Austria’s top spot for attracting visitors, and given its perfectly preserved old town centre, it’s no wonder that guests come in their droves to marvel at the 250 year old UNESCO Heritage site. It may not claim as many visitors as Vienna, but at peak times of the year (during the summer months) Salzburg actually has more tourists than locals, making it arguably more wedded to visitors than the capital.

Whilst the plethora of day-trippers can make the streets crowded, it’s still well worth taking a walk around some of Salzburg’s best. In the centre these include the Residenzplatz which houses the majestic cathedral, the thousand year old St Peterskirche abbey and the almost excessively baroque Universitatskirche church, on the Universitats Plaza.

Besides well preserved architecture, Salzburg’s next claim to fame is its ties to popular musical The Sound of Music, which was based in the city and filmed several key scenes at iconic landmarks. Even if you’re not a fan of the film, the Nonnberg Abbey which is the backdrop to Maria’s first scene is well worth a visit, and for more dedicated devotees, several companies run Sound of Music Tours through the city.

Graz
Whilst Vienna and Salzburg may have the classic frilly cityscapes one might expect of Austria, the southern city is a woefully unknown treasure amongst visitors. Most people outside of Austria haven’t even heard of Graz, and yet it is in fact the capital of the southern part of the country, technically placing it higher in status than well-known Salzburg.

A claim to fame which the city is hoping will help catapult it into the geography lessons of non-natives is that it is actually the birth-place of arguably Austria’s most famous export – Arnold Schwarzenegger. Whilst local claims that the Californian ‘Gubernator’ has become better known than Mozart may be somewhat exaggerated, there is no doubt that in America at least, Arnie has helped raise the capital’s profile.

But Graz has considerably more appeal than links with the ex-bodybuilder.

Starting life as something of a retirement home in the 19th century, it’s an Austrian region which benefits from a definite Italian holiday feel. Whilst its nearest neighbour is actually Slovenia, the scattering of renaissance buildings lining its historic streets and squares could convince the casual visitor they were in a part of alpine Italy.

Since the Latin architects made their mark, however, Graz has taken several steps towards making it a thoroughly modern sort of place. The advent of a large university now means that 20 percent of the population are students, bringing with them a creative bent to the nightlife and café culture. The addition of the Jazz University means that Graz’s stature as a city with a bohemian edge is assured, and the usual straight-laced Austrian austerity is decidedly shrugged off in favour of a much funkier vibe. Not to mention the best buskers this side of New Orleans.

So whilst there may be slightly less prettiness, and much less classical music than other parts of the country, those ensconced in Graz for business purposes may find themselves enjoying a better social scene than anywhere else in the country.

Innsbruck
With a small airport serviced by a handful of budget airlines, Innsbruck is becoming an increasingly popular landing spot for visitors to Austria. And whilst the usual choice of cheaper airlines tends to be rather charm-less industrial towns, this is certainly not the case with Innsbruck. Like a bite-sized summary of all that’s good about Austria, Innsbruck has lovely winding cobbled streets, historic municipal buildings, and a slew of well-appointed coffee shops serving mouth-watering cakes and all kinds of strudel.

It’s also only a half hour drive or so from some of the country’s best ski resorts, which partially explains the town’s growing popularity as a flight destination. But if you mange to drag your eyes from the snow-capped mountains in the distance for long enough, it’s a town with more than enough charm to keep you occupied.

In terms of historic buildings, the well-preserved Old Town showcases the Goldenes Dachl or ‘Golden Roof’ – an imperially appointed creation topped by no less than 2657 highly polished copper tiles. And if this brilliant display fails to dazzle, the same emperor responsible for the latter works is immortalised in a bronze sarcophagus in the nearby church. Innsbruck’s bordering mountains are also the home of Swarovski crystals, whose legacy is showcased perfectly in the town’s ‘Crystal Works’ (Kristallwelton).

Skiing
If your winter business trip allows you to drag yourself away from the capital cities, then you should definitely head to an Austrian ski resort.

This tiny country has arguably some of the best ski resorts in Europe, with St. Anton and Kitzbuhel in Tirol and Lech am Arlberg. The resort town of Mayrhofen is also home to an annual ski and snowboard Snowbombing festival which combines big music events with access to the slopes. Sponsored by Microsoft, the festival champions ‘moofing’ or ‘Mobile Out of OFice’ working, and so is wired for business travellers to plug in their laptops and get online between trips down the slopes.

Besides the larger resorts, Austria has also championed lesser known boutique spots and less crowded ‘valley-skiing’. So those looking for some clear open spaces to recover from the daily commute can get away from the hoards and still enjoy quality ski experiences.

Eating and drinking
This being Austria, coffee culture is superbly executed in more or less every café on every street corner. The trend began in the 18th century where the unheated homes of impoverished artists drew them to while away a day by the fireside of a local café. The tradition continues and whilst a coffee might set you back €3.50 or more, you can easily sit out an entire afternoon with no-one to suggest you move on. This being the millennium, laptops are more often seen than artists pads and writer’s notebooks, but if you’ve work to do and are bored with the inside of your hotel room, they’re the ideal spot to decamp for a day.

Part of coffee house culture is Austria’s legendary predilection for cakes and pastries, which for the most part eclipses their more workmanlike savoury dishes. Classic strudel comes in every fruit flavour, whilst impossibly rich chocolate cakes are also favourite. In Salzburg (and beyond) a fluffy soufflé dessert titled Salzburger Nockerl is also popular.

Main meals are usually hearty, combining pork of some description with dumplings, potatoes, and cabbage. The classic Austrian dish is veal or wiener schnitzel – pork or veal battered flat and deep fried in bread-crumbs.

Drinking in Austria is a very civilised affair. And in fact, depending on what kind of atmosphere best suits your mood, you have the pick of several rather rigidly wrought locations for which to head. First up is the traditional inn, known as beissel or stuberl, which is similar to a British pub in origins. These convivial spots came about as the result of entrepreneurial hosts opening their homes up to guests, along with a barrel or two of good local beer sold by the glass. Then as today the emphasis is more on drinking, and although food forms an indispensable part of the format, it is secondary to whatever brews the landlord has to offer.

Heurigan are rather delightful local wine taverns, which produce their own ‘new’ wine on the premises from Austria’s wealth of vineyards. With wine on sale for around €2.50 a litre, they’re understandably lively places, where the usual formality accompanying wine tasting mercifully dispensed with.

Instead you can enjoy decidedly young tasting wine by the carafe, often along with piano accordion accompaniment to set the food, and a buffet meal to take the edge of more tart offerings on the drinks front. You can spot Heurigan by the wreath of vine-leaves hanging from the door, and they often cluster in one spot, making a sampling of several in one evening imminently possible.

Fast business facts
If you’re doing business in Vienna, it pays to remember your manners.

Austrians, and older Austrians in particular set a lot of store by formality and courtesy, and in a business setting this will be much appreciated.

Smart dress is generally well-received, although there are some younger companies with a more smart-casual policy. If in doubt, opt for formal attire, impeccable manners, and save the risqué jokes for Mexico.

Leadership skills the Austrian way
Walking is a very popular activity in Austria, and with such spectacular scenery on display, can form a very attractive alternative to the clichéd round of golf on a business trip. If you’re looking for a walk with something more unusual thrown in, Austria is one of the growing number of countries which now offers llama trekking through its spectacular scenery.

Walkers are matched with a likely llama to carry their packs as they traverse the hillier inclines of the native landscapes, and before you write off the idea as an Austrian oddity, there are actually a number of advantages to this mode of transport. Llamas can be stubborn animals which require considered leadership ability (not to mention patience) to behave as instructed. So in addition to getting some spectacular views and healthy outdoor exercise you’ll also be brushing up on your ability to mentor that difficult staff member when you get back to the office.

Rapa Nui any time of the year

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

Over eight hundred moai statues pepper the island and such a rich history has led to the island being dubbed ‘The largest outdoor museum in the world.’ The sheer size and magnificence of the statues has, prompted a number of debates: Are they the remnants of a lost continent? Were elephants shipped over to help shift them around the island? Are they gifts from outer space? Almost certainly not, on all three counts. The moais – often placed on a stone platform or ahu – are thought to represent ancestral deities and are made from volcanic ash. The majority hail from a quarry in Rano Raraku where many still lie, including a mighty 155 tonne figure considered too heavy to move. Most were carved between 1250 and 1500 and both the physical and intellectual effort gone into them is a struggle to fully comprehend. Brief, dry history lessons are all very well and good but fail to do the relics justice. To fully appreciate the moai statues is to see them in the flesh.

The moniker ‘Easter Island’ was first coined by Dutch Commander Jacob Roggeveen after he became the first European to discover the island – rather fortuitously – on Easter Sunday in 1722. The Polynesian name for the island is Rapa Nui (the same name given to the people and the language), though it’s been variously known as ‘The Eyes That Talk to the Sky’ and ‘The Navel of the World’. Lying in the centre of the Pacific Ocean, the island is one of the most isolated in the world, situated over 2,000 miles from Chile on one side and Tahiti on the other. Formed by three volcanoes emerging from the floor of the Pacific, Easter Island has been under Chilean law since 1888.

Getting there
The traveller doesn’t simply stumble upon the place; it’s an effort to get here. Such isolation doesn’t come without niggles – flights are expensive and often overbooked, prices are considerably higher than mainland Chile – but such niggles are a small price to pay when faced with the islands exquisite, almost supernatural beauty.

The capital, Hanga Roa, is home to several impressive moai, although the largest tend to be found on other parts of the island. Hanga Roa is the main – in fact the only – town on the island and as such is the administrative centre. It’s also home to the Mataveri International Airport with regular flights to and from Santiago and Papeete in Tahiti, with the Chilean national airline LAN. The majority of islanders live in Hanga Roa (87 percent of the island’s 3,304 population, according to a 2002 census) and for such a small town it functions pretty well. There are decent hotels and restaurants, shops, a church, a museum, a couple of internet cafes and a bank with a functioning cash machine. Expect to queue for it though. It’s also good fun: for a culture that has survived famine, civil war, slavery, epidemics and colonialism, it’s refreshingly safe and friendly. According to Sernatur, the Chilean tourist board, “delinquency does not exist on the island.” Crime is pretty much unheard of here.

Getting around
If you are planning to travel elsewhere, there are a few things to bear in mind. Although it’s a small place (64 square miles) it’s always good to be prepared. Outside of Hanga Roa there aren’t really any places where supplies can be picked up, so taking water and food for a day out is a must, and it’s always advisable to take a waterproof jacket: showers are common and, due to the weather systems, often come without warning. If you’ve hired a vehicle be wary of the hundreds of wild horses that roam the island – they appear to be immune to the dangers of a car. For the more energetic, mountain bikes are readily available and considered the best way to get around the island. Guides are available and are a good idea for at least one trip; many speak English, Spanish, French, German and Italian.

Getting by
Those in the know consider Anakena to be the best part of the island, a mesmeric white coral sand beach, located in the Rapa Nui National Park . Anakena has two  Ahu one with a single  Moai and the other with six. A day of trekking around the place will leave the traveller not only awe-struck, but hungry, thirsty and in need of a good place to sleep. Thankfully, such needs can be accommodated. Plenty of good restaurants serving fresh fish decorate Hanga Roa, and a sprinkling of lively, popular bars (Topa Tangi Pub and Bar Te Moana are among the best) can quell any thirst. Friendly guest houses provide an insight into the local way of life, and the recently opened Posada de Mike Rapu (run by the Explora chain) is a high-end hotel aimed at the more discerning traveller.

It is often said that the rise and fall (and rise again) of the island provides an accurate model for the wider world. It has seen the best of times and the worst of times, and adapted accordingly. Many travellers who come to the island, find themselves engaging in an activity that doesn’t cost a thing: contemplation. It is said that people who come to the island, often leave feeling different. Easter Island’s magical ambience makes a lasting impression.

When to go and what to take
The bulk of tourists head here for the solitude and isolation and to appreciate the history. In that sense, anytime is a good time to go. The hottest months are January and February, though bear in mind the weather can change rapidly. February also sees the annual Tapati festival. The winter months are cooler, a situation not helped by the rasping Antarctic winds, though you will encounter fewer tourists.

Don’t leave home without…
Respect. The locals take respect of their ancestors very seriously indeed. A Finnish tourist snapped a bit of ear off a moai and received a $17,000 fine and a three year ban from the island.

Waterproofs and sun block. An odd combination, but the changeable weather means you could spend the afternoon flipping between one and the other.

Lord of the tribe

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

Tribe Wanted, now run by founding member Ben Keene, is both a real-life and internet based community building project. Styling itself as a paradigm of democratic eco tourism, the venture seeks to harness the power web-based social networks and translate it into a conservation project. It links tourists and the Fijian natives of the island Vorovoro: 200 acres of picturesque tropical land located in the South Pacific and the location of the tribe’s endeavours away from the internet.

As a project it has never been short of controversy and criticism. Although it launched in 2006 to critical acclaim and an overwhelmingly positive media response, the project was threatened with collapse as rumours began to circulate that it was little more than a hoax. Ben mentions that the “scam accusations online burst our internet bubble and almost closed the business as quicky as it had exploded out of the blocks.” But the desire to achieve the dream that originated as a “young persons railcard was about to expire, which basically meant I was looking for an excuse to grow up and take a risk” .

Having fought off the early negativity, the project has recently garnered accusations of stagnation. A trip to the online home of the community reveals that membership levels are hovering at around 1,400, short of the 5,000 target set at the projects inception. Initially this total was set as a necessary requirement of members traveling to the islands; this project is a business venture after all.  “Getting the lease money deposit (£27,000) down in 6 weeks from a £3,000 investment (flights to Fiji) was easy in hindsight because we believed it was possible.” Although there is little information available on whether the project has made any money – quick math would suggest that it hasn’t made a substantial amount – it originated out of ideas for possible internet start ups at the start of the second generation of dotcom ventures.

Fundamentally Tribewanted is a business venture, and although it may not prove to be a large money spinner, part of this being down to the self-imposed visitor limits that the tribe members place on the islands capacity. For the founders it’s a limit on their earnings. However, what it may probe to be is a decent prototype for larger scale future projects. Currently the lease that Tribewanted have on the island runs out in September 2009 and the direction that it will take after that is still uncertain.

With the rise of web-based social networking contributing to the interest in the Tribewanted project, the objective of building a flourishing web community to govern the decisions of the real world tribe attracted significant interest. Decisions are made via a voting process, undertaken on the websites forums. In the beginning almost everything was debated with an intensity exclusive to the new and zealous. Heated debates over the smallest of choices ensued, influencing the overall direction of the project and in the past “conflict has taken place on-line where non face-to-face debate is open. As soon as everyone gets to the island they don’t waste their time arguing and the Fijian way to resolve things is not through argument which is refreshing.”

It is interesting to note that for all the press coverage and shared ideal that the project seems to capture, the online communities are smaller than you might assume. The Tribewanted site boasts around 4,700 non-paying members, while the associated groups on Myspace, Facebook and Flickr all hold fewer. There seems to be an acute interest in the project, but it fails to turn this into the sort of visitor numbers that would ensure its impact in the legacy of global tourism. Reality television shows such as Big Brother, or Shipwrecked – a lesser known social experiment involving tropical islands – cannot have created any significant appeal to spending time with a group of strangers in a isolated environment. These experiments are often marked by in-fighting and are revealing of the less appealing side of human nature.

Now though, the direction of the island’s marketing has moved from the escapist dream, to a more measured consideration of eco tourism. Ben talks at length of the community building, eco and sustainability projects that are built on the island. Sustainability projects include experiments in “biogas, solar, wind, medicinal and fruit gardens”. Although the size and environment of Vorovoro means that self-sufficiency through cultivation would be difficult to achieve, green projects are designed to minimize the impact that tourists have on the environment.

Despite the mark objective of an eco-tourist endeavour you have to question the sensibility of the majority of visitors traveling around the world in order to enjoy a week’s eco-tourism. The party, or rather, tribe line, is that the promotion of eco ideals on the island, which employs green techniques such as conservation, solar energy and intelligent building to run the community, are taken back home and spread as ideas via the members. If positive change can be made on the island, it’s hoped that it will provide some impetus to making a difference to life at home. Ben also mentions that a number of visitors are already on trips – enjoying gap year travels, or holidaying through the area and hearing about the project locally. A glance at the website reveals that the island is booked to its maximum visitor numbers for the next few months, but there is an opportunity for those lucky few who hear about Vorovoro while in the area to visit at short notice.

The main focus of Ben’s answers concerns the nature of community and the one they have developed with the native Fijians on Vorovoro. While many detractors can mention the conflicted nature of the eco project, community building and cross cultural links are an important way to propagate the sharing of ideas and shaping of perspectives. For Ben the “highlight by far has been the relationship that has been built between the local Fijian community and the visiting tribe members”. One aspect that is mentioned consistently is that the “Fijian’s are such generous people and are giving us a huge lesson in what the word ‘community’ actually means”. The passed down wisdom practiced by the indigenous people has given insights into conflict resolution and promoted harmony among the visitors.

Although Vorovoro wasn’t always the picture of inter-cultural tolerance that it is portrayed as now. In its infancy “an accidental fire in week one of the project caused tensions between non-Fijian members”. Luckily major damage to the island was avoided. The blaze crept to the edge of the village but was extinguished and the damage done to the early relationships subsequently repaired.

It’s a little slice of paradise for many, some visitors have been so entranced by the project that they have restructured their lives to become more heavily involved with running Tribewanted. Now it is staffed by a passionate group both on and off the island. The internet based part of the community is undergoing development to try and galvanize support and encourage more participation and visitors are still making regular trips to the island. Ben is keen to stress that if you want paradise don’t think it will come easy”, but the rewards have been worth the effort.

In a community that warmly embraces outsiders the future goals are to “continue our drive towards sustainability, and support more local community projects”. After all, island living is the dream of many and Tribewanted are doing their utmost to make it possible. There’s little more enticing than “waking up in my little beach hut at sunrise, grabbing my surf board and running into the sea”. Ben makes Vorovoro sound like such hard work.

Quick fire
The best thing to…

Take to the island:
Open-mind and bio-degradable washing products

Say on the island:
Yadre Sia! (good morning with a smile – its usually always a good morning)

Eat on the island:
Lovo’d (cooked in the earth) fish freshly caught by you from the cakalevu (third largest barrier reef in the world)

Drink on the island:
Kava. Numbs your mouth, loosens your tongue, unites the world (or at least those sitting around the large wooden bowl)

See on the island:
Pupu Epeli bang a nail into a piece of wood without looking at it before proclaiming, ‘Nothing hard in this world!’ Legend.

Do on the island:
For me, hang out with our Fijian family – either in the kitchen, at sea or around the kava bowl. Forget the sunsets – these are the memories that last forever.

Spain’s allure

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

Personally, there has always been something a little more extraordinario when it comes to Spain. I can’t get enough of the delicious tapas, the language is beautiful, the music sounds more romantic, the movies more entertaining and of course the men more sexy and good-looking with their Mediterranean features. Needless to say, during my excursion to the country’s more popular destinations – Madrid and Barcelona – it was like paradise come true.

As different as night and day
The must-visit cities of Spain, it is interesting to note that while in the same borders, both Madrid and Barcelona are each a city with different identities. Where one is more colonial and traditional, another is a little on the off-beaten path, with cultures coming together to meet in one place. One gives you the gloomy feel during winter while the other days full of sunshine even though the temperature says otherwise.

Having said this, both cities are still one of the best places to visit if you are looking to immerse yourself into the Spanish culture and the way of living. Take Madrid for example. As the capital and largest city of Spain, Madrid is the most populous city after Paris and London in Europe. It is a city filled with history – old buildings and monuments scatter the city as great landmarks and beautiful landscapes.

More focused on the business and industrial sectors of the country, it is not difficult to mistake Madrid as more stoic and impersonal. As I walked down the central Madrid, I was surrounded by grey dark buildings on one side and cars jammed packed in the streets, horns blaring as the drivers become more impatient.

It gives you the feeling of being rushed, the need to be somewhere important and the emergency to do something useful. Perhaps it was a busy working day when I explored the city but I couldn’t help but feel stressed out like I needed to be walking just as fast to keep up with the pace of the Spaniards who all seemed to be off for important meetings.

When I asked my lunch partner why it was this way in Madrid, her answer was easy. “It’s the capital here,” she says between sips of red wine, which is a staple at all meals here. “Everyone’s got business to run during the day and parties to go to during the night. Madrid is a big playground for us. Just wished it wouldn’t be packed with cars or else it would make the running around so much easier for us.”

And she is definitely not kidding when she talks about bad traffic. Compared to countries like Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, gridlock traffic in Madrid brings a complete new meaning of being stuck. I found myself fidgeting and on the brink of an anxiety attack after sitting in the cab for more than an hour moving ever so slowly. Maybe this is the reason why Victoria Beckham wanted to leave Madrid even faster than you can say !date prisa!

Bad traffic aside, Madrid is still an ideal city to visit for your taste of what the Spaniards can offer. As one of the older cities as well, it is filled with beautiful buildings reminiscing of its glory days. Enormous cathedrals and churches are plenty here, with other buildings are detailed with Medieval features. If you are into architecture, then make sure you don’t miss photo opportunities with popular buildings such as Palacio Real, a magnificent palace; Catedral de la Almudena, Palacio de las Telecomunicaciones, one of the world’s most beautiful postal office and more.

As one of the largest cultural and artistic spots in the world, it is no wonder too that Madrid is filled with museums for history and culture buffs. Madrid is home to many beautiful museums such as Museo del Prado with the best collection of classical art in Madrid and Reina Sofia National Museum and Art Centre, containing works by Pablo Picasso.

But if like me, all you want to do is just roam the streets for whatever surprises it may contain, then you are in for a treat at Madrid. Though more of a business capital, it is also shopping haven with popular Spanish brands dotting the streets such as Zara, H&M, Mango and designer wear such as Loewe. If shopping is not on your itinerary, then just roam into the many parks found here such as El Retiro and Paseo del Prado.

Modern in Barcelona
While Madrid is home to some of the largest businesses and industries, Barcelona is where you go to if all you want to do is relax, eat and enjoy yourself. Within a few hours here in Barcelona, I found myself wishing I were living permanently.

As if a country by its own, Barcelona is a breath of fresh air compared to the dreary Madrid. The people here converse more in the Catalan dialect, speaking Spanish only with foreigners (even those from other Spanish cities are considered foreigners!) Pebble-stoned streets paved the way for pedestrians to roam this Catalonian city. While in Madrid everyone hurries from one place to another, in Barcelona taking a slow stroll to enjoy what the city has to offer is a norm, a perfect activity for the lazy traveler like me.

In its many cafes and restaurants, take the time to enjoy the scenery that unfolds you in a typical Barcelona street. As a hub of culture, it is not unusual to see street performers trying to make a living, especially in Las Ramblas, a popular walkway with both the locals and tourists. One of the liveliest part of the city, it is filled with local artists, pavement cafes, street entertainers and one-of-its-kind boutiques bringing you the best that Barcelona has to offer.

If anything, the bright colours and beautiful streetscapes are enough to keep you enthralled in Barcelona. Visit the city during Christmas (like I did) and you will easily fall in love with it. Shops are filled with trinkets and decorative, both for Christmas and the traditional Three Kings Festival. What makes it even more heavenly is the food that I love so much and the ever-flowing consumption of wine that won’t break your budget to have a good time.

And of course, I was completely in awe with the Gaudi architecture that is popular here in Barcelona. A huge influence for many architects around the world, Gaudi’s creations are what bring many tourists to Barcelona aside from its influx of culture and nightlife. Unique and distinctive, you can always point out to a Gaudi creation among others – distinctive use of coloured tiles in mosaic patterns, curved construction stones and twisted iron sculptures. To be able to see it for my own eyes made the long journey to Barcelona worth every mile.

Even if you are not into Gaudi and culture, Barcelona will have something for everyone. A chilled and easy air seems to permeate the city- food’s great, the people friendly, and the city scene absolutely exciting. It is no wonder why a person I met here in Barcelona tells me it is the best city to live in.

As for me, it is the best of two cities – Madrid and Barcelona – that makes Spain the destination of choice.

© Siew Ching Chua / PLANET SYNDICATION

Floating above Venice

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

The water-taxi drivers of Venice are a flashy lot, with their gleaming engines, shiny teak decks and bright white teeth. While driving, they talk constantly on their mobile phones, and on a Tuesday back in May, I’m pretty sure this is what one of them was saying.

“Romeo? It’s Lothario. You know the big ugly cabin cruiser you told me about? Si, I’ve spotted him again: he’s up by Murano in the lagoon, about to crash into a vaporetto. Si, si, look!” [Holds up phone and snaps picture.] “ Fantastico, eh? Momento… Si! No! Missed by a metre. No, don’t call the carabinieri yet. I want to see what happens when he tries to moor up…”

In cities where cars are the chief mode of transport – that is, all other cities – they don’t let anyone loose on the roads without a licence of some sort. But in Venice, any hapless fool can rent a boat and steam around the lagoon on production of nothing more than a credit card and a gormless smile. Being in possession of both, that’s what I’d done, and now I was master of my own ship for a few days on the most seductive stretch of water in Europe. I couldn’t quite believe it. And judging by the look on that vaporetto driver’s face, neither could he.

You don’t launch directly into the lagoon – which, given the amount that can and does go wrong there, is a blessing. Jaqui and I picked up our boat a few miles inland at Casier. We were a bit shocked at the size of it – 39ft, sleeps six at a squeeze, a sort of waterborne people-carrier – but at least we had a cruise down the Sile River, past noble villas and country towns, to get used to handling the thing, and to ease the gentle, disorientating transition from land to sea.

There’s no one moment when you enter the lagoon: instead, the land just eddies away. The river banks descend from firm high ground to reedy expanses to a succession of low, muddy islets. Fishing nets stand drying on intricate rigs. Old men wade through the muck, bucket in hand, hunting clams. A vast horizon opens out, with just one or two features sprouting up from the inhabited islands to guide you – the 1,000-year-old tower of Torcello cathedral and, behind it, the drunkenly tottering campanile of Mazzorbo. If you’d come this way five centuries ago, you’d have seen much the same thing. Like the early merchants, like the very mud Venice is built on, you are swept downstream from the plains of the Veneto to a treacherous waterworld.

Why treacherous? A bit of history explains it best. In AD810, the Venetian fleet sailed out to the open Adriatic to attack the Frankish navy. Then they feigned terror and fled back to the lagoon. The Franks, a straightforward bunch, gave chase, and soon found themselves running aground all over the place.

Stuck fast as the tide retreated, their ships were picked off one by one: the heavily armoured knights aboard were either hacked to pieces or left stranded on the shoals to rust slowly to death.

What the canny locals had done was to remove the bricole, the stout wooden posts that mark the navigable channels. Because, while it might look like open sea to the casual noodle in a motor launch or a Frankish warship, the Venice lagoon is a sham. Much of it is only a foot or two deep at low tide.

Follow the thin, twisting channels created by the tidal flow and you’re fine, but stray too far and you’re stuck fast in silty goo.

The bricole are firmly in place today, and, as we didn’t fancy emulating the Frankish experience, we stuck to within a few feet of them as we cruised through open water. Only later did we learn that you’re supposed to leave room for a bigger vessel – a vaporetto, say – to pass on your inside. Which explained why, for much of our journey, we were playing chicken with purple-faced boatmen. We had near misses with vaporettos (naturally), a dredger, a rubbish boat (I mean it was carrying refuse, though it wasn’t in great shape), a freighter packed with cabbages and something that looked like a hearse. It was a lively afternoon.

We stopped for the night at Burano, the first built-up island you come to. It’s possibly the tweeest place on earth. As we chugged to the mooring, we could feel our teeth rot just looking at it: a jumble of cute, brightly painted fishermen’s cottages – candyfloss pink, lemon-sherbet yellow, Fanta orange. It’s like a Renaissance Balamory.

By day, Burano is an established excursion for tourists hoping to escape the chaos of Venice, but instead they bring it with them. Boats disgorge swarms of trippers, a human tide that surges over the green by the vaporetto stop, eddies around the washing strung between the trees, then gurgles down the little alleyways towards the main square. The island’s immense charm is swamped by the babel of sunburnt Brits, gormless Swedes, bossy Korean tour guides and whingeing American backpackers, their fluorescent fanny packs clashing painfully with the pastel houses.

By night, though, it’s transformed. The tourists depart (there are virtually no hotels, so a boat’s pretty much the only way to stay), the souvenir shops close and nearly all the two dozen restaurants on the main drag shut down, leaving a rough bar where locals argue vociferously about Formula One and football. Cats slink along the alleyways, women gossip on corners and you’re free to wander the fondamente in peace.

It’s unbelievably romantic – perfect cottages lit up by moonlight reflected off the black canals, heart-freezing views across the lagoon to floodlit cupolas – and any prose describing it runs the risk of being not so much purple as ultraviolet. So let’s keep it simple. It was very pretty. We slept well on the boat. And the next day, we set off for Venice.

For sheer architectural drama, few things on earth match the entrance to the Grand Canal. What you’re apt to forget, sitting awestruck at the wheel of your motor cruiser, is that the Bacino di San Marco, as this stretch of water is known, is also the maritime equivalent of Spaghetti Junction.

Here, the M6 of the Grand Canal meets the A38 of the Canale della Giudecca and the M1 of the Canale di San Marco. It’s chaos. There are no rules about who should go where, but there is a procedure to settle the frequent disputes, and it reads as follows: a) vaporettos are in the right; b) everyone else is in the right too, as long as they stay out of the way of the vaporettos, with the exception of c) foreigners on deeply uncool motor cruisers, who are in the wrong; and d) gondoliers must shout at everyone, but especially those covered under c).

We didn’t know all this when we rounded the point off Sant’ Elena and motored up towards the world’s most famous high street. We did know – it had been drummed into us rather at the boat yard – that we weren’t allowed to go up the Grand Canal itself, on pain of gunship attack from the local plods, who get quite aerated about such things. But I reckon we were a good 100 yards offshore when the majesty of the view overwhelmed me and I cut the engine.

We wanted a Moment of Contemplation. Anyone would. As we bobbed in the midst of the mayhem, there in front of us was the indecently curvy bosom of Santa Maria della Salute (1681), the Basilica (1094 and on), the Doge’s Palace (1300sish), and a parade of palazzos lining the world’s most illustrious waterway. It would look spectacular on any day, but with the sunshine spattering jewelled reflections off the water onto every dome and archway, it was magical.

However… for people who live in such a spiritually uplifting place, Venetians can be depressingly focused on everyday, purely material concerns. So what if we’d drifted into the path of a couple of ferries and obstructed a police boat, or if the current was sweeping our hulking cruiser into a small marina full of delicate, gleaming gondolas? You’d think they’d take it as a compliment that we’d got a bit distracted by the wonders of their city, but not a bit of it. They were really quite rude. Still, the engine caught on the third try, and we chugged off, waving cheerfully at the shaking fists and speculating as to what succhiatore might mean. It sounds like a dessert of some sort.

We moored up later and did some sightseeing on foot. It was fabulous, of course, but I’m not going to waste your time explaining how: the intricacies of Venice have been documented by scores of writers with whom I don’t have the cheek to compete. Anyway, truth be told, we spent much of the time hankering to be away from the crowds and back on the water.

Because it’s only when viewed from the water that you realise what an astonishing achievement Venice is. On land, it can seem almost normal – wonderful, but wonderful in the same way as Florence or Machu Picchu or Angkor Wat. The pavements and buildings lull you into a false sense of solidity. But from a boat, you see the truth. This is a marsh. When King Alfred got chased into a marsh by invaders, all he did was burn some cakes. When the same thing happened to the Venetians, they imported a million or two tree trunks, drove them down through the muck, laid foundations on them and built the most beautiful city on earth. They can be a hard bunch to like, but credit where it’s due.

Against the odds, we didn’t hit anything on the way home, and only ran aground once. More through luck than judgment, though. At some point, the Italians are bound to close whatever loophole it is that allows incompetent foreigners to cruise their waterways endangering essential shipping. If you’re wise, you’ll book a boat before they do. Just watch out for the vaporettos.