February travel news

LET THE GAMES BEGIN
The English capital is in the middle of a building boom as hoteliers race to capitalise on the expected influx of visitors come July. The city already boasts a smorgasbord of world-class digs, including a reinvigorated Whitehall Place classic Corinthia Hotel London – with its David Collins-designed Massimo restaurant and bar and gargantuan ESPA Life spa – and the recent arrival 45 Park Lane, the clubby, compact little sister of The Dorchester. So what’s next?

The new Bulgari Hotel and Residences in Knightsbridge is looking as though it will up the ante when it opens in April. Bulgari London will flaunt all the opulence associated with the Italian brand, with a two-storey spa and a sizeable private cinema. Naturally.

US boutique brand Thompson Hotels – the group that first shook up downtown New York when it launched 60 Thompson a decade ago – has opened Belgraves London. Penhaligon’s is doing the toiletries; Mark Hix, the food.

Kit and Tim Kemp’s Firmdale group – the name behind London’s Covent Garden and The Soho hotels – is soon to come full circle. Dorset Square Hotel, in now-flourishing Marylebone, kicked off Firmdale Hotel’s rapid ascension to the top of London’s boutique-hotel tree, but was sold in 2002. The Regency townhouse has been recently reacquired and is now being overhauled in Kemp’s signature style (think contrasting patterns, whimsy and best-of-British eccentricity) in readiness for a May opening.

And it’s not just hotels making waves. Bill Granger has been beating diners off with a stick since opening Granger & Co in Notting Hill late last year. Great breakfasts and good coffee have fans queuing around the block, even on pitch-black winter mornings.

ARTISTIC LICENCE
Highly regarded for his colourful prints of LA, British artist David Hockney puts his home county of East Yorkshire front and centre in his new exhibition “David Hockney RA: A Bigger Picture”. On display until 9 April at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, the exhibition coincides with plans for a new official trail through Yorkshire. In Hockney’s hands, the northern county’s often-bleak vistas get the pop-art treatment, and the exhibition – which includes the artist’s recent work on iPad and new films – is expected to lure people to Bradford and Yorkshire Wolds to experience the source of his 50-year fascination with landscape.

SAMUI: BRINGING SEXY BACK
No one would blame you for dismissing Koh Samui as a charmless place if your experience was limited to the tourist-drenched beaches of Chaweng and Lamai. It’s only in the past 20 years that it’s gone from blip on the hippie trail to a hot spot of sorts. And while the island is in danger of becoming overrun with tourists, a handful of new openings capitalise on Koh Samui’s natural attributes (views, climate, the smiles of staff, food) while keeping you pleasantly removed from the riff-raff.

Indeed, you can’t get any further from the madding crowds than the just-opened Conrad Koh Samui Resort & Spa on the island’s isolated south-western tip. The new retreat seems to balance on a sheer peninsula, with its villas – each with circular stone bath, private infinity pool and incredible views of the Gulf of Thailand – stacked up the hillside. This is not the resort to choose if you’re looking to mingle. The villas are gloriously isolated and, while compact in Thai terms, supremely comfortable. If you’re looking for privacy with a capital P, check in to the Royal Villa, which is surrounded by a vast acreage of tropical landscape.

All but the truly fit (or masochistic) will need to summon the buggy for the trip back up the mountain to Conrad’s fine-diner Jahn and its perfectly positioned adjacent bar, Aura Lounge. Albert Roux had a hand in the menus, so a French influence is discernable in some of the Thai classics found here.

In contrast, the sexy new beachfront W Retreat Koh Samui is all about sharing. You won’t find too many shrinking violets in the sunken lounge pods that dot the illuminated lotus ponds of the resort’s theatrical entrance: here the emphasis is on the scene and being seen. The tongue-in-cheek dedication to glamour is balanced by humorous touches such as “munchie boxes” instead of minibars and the relaxed Kitchen Table restaurant, which is a free-for-all in the best possible sense. Conrad Koh Samui Resort & Spa, +66 77 915 888; W Retreat Koh Samui, +66 77 915 999.

MODERN LOVE
Getting a glimpse of the magnificent Sunnylands Estate won’t be possible unless you booked a tour long ago – passionate fans of mid-century-modern snapped up tickets in minutes – but there’s a plethora of other architectural wonders to enjoy as part of this month’s Modernism Week in Palm Springs. The city’s unique architectural aesthetic is celebrated from 16 to 26 February with modernists getting the chance to see inside Frank Sinatra’s Twin Palms Estate; attend lectures on some of the movement’s leading lights, including architect Albert Frey and designer William Haines; view a collection of restored vintage travel trailers; and see films such as Eames: The Architect and the Painter, on iconic design duo Charles and Bernice “Ray” Eames. Dig out your Pucci mini for cocktails by the pool at the bijoux Desert Star Hotel or raise a Gimlet glass to the 60th birthday of the Horizon Hotel, where Marilyn Monroe caused quite the stir by using her suite’s outdoor shower.

MAKING NOISE UP NORTH
The Top End is where it’s all unfolding in 2012. Not only is Wild Bush Luxury’s Kuri Bay about to open on the site of Paspaley’s original pearling camp but Sails in the Desert, part of the Ayers Rock Resort at Uluru, is also getting an overhaul, with renovation of its rooms to be complete by May and the public areas to follow. Most significant, however, is September’s planned opening of Cicada Lodge. The new 18-room eco-lodge, set on the Katherine River in Nitmiluk National Park, is a collaboration between traditional landowners the Jawoyn people and Indigenous Business Australia. Cicada’s drawcard is its proximity to what is possibly the world’s oldest rock-art site: accessible only by air, the paintings were discovered in 2010 and depict a bird that has been extinct in Australia for the past 40,000 years. Guests of Cicada Lodge will be able to visit the site, which is not open to the general public.

BAJA BOUND
Many skip over Mexico’s northern region and head straight for the party scene in Cabo San Lucas, but those who detour through the tranquil Valle de Guadalupe will find that visionary winemakers are turning this hidden valley into the next Napa. Not surprisingly, this is where Grupo Habita, Mexico’s top boutique hotel collection (their most recent opening was Hôtel Americano in Manhattan’s Chelsea arts district), has launched its latest project: Endémico – Resguardo Silvestre.

Endémico comprises 20 eco-friendly bungalows perched on rocky outcrops on a 40-hectare property that overlooks the valley’s vineyards. Each has its own terrace – replete with Mexican clay chiminea – for star-gazing on clear nights, and instead of a minibar, personal wine fridges are stocked with Baja bottles: be sure to make the Vino de Piedra cabernet tempranillo blend from pioneering vintner Hugo D’Acosta the first bottle you uncork.

The hotel is dedicated to a locavore sensibility, so the restaurant and cooking school focus on dishes that use wild desert herbs (damiana, epazote) and seafood sourced from the nearby fishing port of Ensenada. And if you want to know more about the terroir and grapes of the region you can attend a winemaking class run by a Napa Valley oenologist. Rooms from $200. +52 555 282 2199.  Shane Mitchell

SHACKED UP
Sawyers Bay Shacks on Flinders Island puts a modern spin on that particularly Tasmanian pursuit of shack-going. The two open-plan cubes – one with two bedrooms, the other three – are just 15 minutes’ drive from the town of Whitemark, yet feel a thousand miles from care, fringed as they are by 12 hectares of farmland and a beach accessible only to Sawyers guests. An ideal option for a family weekend. From $350.

HEALTHY HOLIDAYS
Thinking your next holiday should be of the clean-living variety? Cabarita Ocean Retreat offers a luxurious version of bootcamp on the far-north NSW coast. The new centre is intimate in scale but strict in focus, with programs of two, three, five and seven nights. Want somewhere more exotic? Jiva Healing’s 2012 program includes detox- and fitness-focused retreats in Spain’s Andalusia and India’s Goa.

SHORT BUT SWEET
Some 750 entrants jostled for the chance to have their name in lights at this year’s Mudgee Mudfest short film festival, but just 14 budding filmmakers will see their credits roll at the outdoor theatre come Saturday 17 March. The giant screen will take up residence once again at Bunnamagoo Estate Wines. Tickets are $30 and include pre-show jazz and a glass of, you guessed it, Bunnamagoo Estate wine.

TALL ORDER
”Going up, sir?” Never a truer word was spoken as you step into the lift at the new Ritz-Carlton in West Kowloon. A full 90 seconds after you leave the entry level (on the ninth floor), you emerge into the hotel lobby – wait for it – 103 storeys off the ground. The Ritz’s 312 guest rooms take up the top 11 floors of the city’s tallest building, and while Kowloon proper hasn’t quite yet met the West Kowloon development, you can hop aboard the airport train without leaving the building. The hotel hasn’t skimped on glitz, whether it’s the vertiginous pleasures of Ozone, the world’s highest bar (a complement to the world’s highest hotel spa), or the char siu made with Ibérico pork in Tin Lung Heen, the Cantonese signature restaurant. And then there are the views. If heights aren’t your thing, perhaps this isn’t the hotel for you, but for everyone else, the Google Earth-like vistas afforded from the floor-to-ceiling windows are, to put it mildly, hard to top. Rooms from $685. The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong, +852 2263 2263. Pat Nourse

COFFEE TO GO
Great coffee is but a dream in some countries (we’re looking at you, France). But with Market Lane’s Jet Set Coffee Kit, $150, containing plunger, filter papers, grinder and scales, you can go forth and caffeinate.

PARISIAN PERFECTION
J’aime Paris is a sumptuous feast that trawls through 200 of Ducasse’s favourite addresses in the city by the Seine, and is elevated to something special courtesy of Pierre Monetta’s lush photography. Ducasse’s selections take in the new as much as the old, the informal as much as the fine, as well as his preferred places to stay, take tea and shop for supplies. The book is personal in tone and content, with the chef leading readers from family-run bistros such as Café Constant in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, to the confection perfection at Glacier Berthillon in the fourth arrondissement (“A biting-cold winter has hit Paris… Who eats ice-cream in this weather? The Parisians.”)

He suggests stopping by Barthélemy for magical Fontainebleau cream cheese; fighting for a sandwich at legendary Le Petit Vendôme in the second; lining up for a caramel crêpe with salted butter and spéculoos cream at Crêpes et Galettes in the fifth; mixing it with the fashion crowd in the red-velvet-draped dining room of Hôtel Costes (“people go there to check out the scene and to be treated badly”); and stopping for a hamburger at Christian Vallette’s Aubrac Corner.

And J’aime Paris is practical as well as pretty. Particularly useful is the pull-out address book tucked inside the book’s back cover, listing each place mentioned within.

“Paris breathes an atmosphere that inspires excellence,” says Ducasse. “I love both the left and right banks of the city. I love Paris for its unpredictable diversity; it never ceases to surprise me… Paris is far from my origins in the south, but the ever-changing scenery, which invites you to go on imaginary journeys through time and space, makes it feel like home.” J’aime Paris: A Taste of Paris in 200 Culinary Destinations (Hardie Grant, hbk, $59.95).

BERLIN ON A SONG
Given that the bear is the symbol of the city of Berlin, the Australian owners of the smart new Adina Apartment Hotel Berlin Hackescher Markt, in the heart of the German capital, must have been tempted to place a koala outside the front door. In the end, they’ve settled for a traditional Eurobear, but one decorated with indigenous dot patterns. Australianisation has not spread to the gummi bears on the snack-pack tray, but there are other comfortably recognisable elements to the décor. Works by contemporary Australian artists line halls and walls; Australian wines feature prominently on the restaurant’s list; and the assortment of breakfast toast toppings includes not only traditional marmalade, jam and honey but also Vegemite. In this very chic yet pleasingly practical place, however, the aspect that will most appeal to visiting Aussies is space – that rare commodity in mid-priced European hotel rooms. The bedrooms and sitting rooms are discrete, there’s a smart fully equipped kitchen, and, a rarity, a washer and dryer are provided. Another of the hotel’s attractions is its proximity to Hackesche Höfe, a historic complex of courtyards in former East Berlin. A market is still held here every Thursday and Saturday (as it was when the area was first developed in the 18th century), and Berlin’s classic landmarks, including Museum Island, the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Cathedral and Alexanderplatz, are all within easy walking distance. Leo Schofield

AIRLINE NEWS
HIGHTAIL IT TO ASPEN
A strong Aussie dollar is luring Australians to the A-list play­ground of Aspen in ever-increasing numbers. And now American Eagle, a subsidiary of American Airlines, is flying straight to the Colorado hot spot from Los Angeles. This seasonal direct service will run until 8 April. Passionate ski-bunnies take note: a morning departure from Australia can have you on the Aspen slopes that very same afternoon. 

NEW KANGAROO HOP
Qantas celebrated the Chinese New Year by launching its A380 service to Hong Kong, with four return services operating each week. The launch follows the introduction of daily flights between Melbourne and London. The airline’s trials of onboard wireless streaming, meanwhile, are continuing, and this month passengers in first and business will have the opportunity to try in-flight connectivity on select A380 flights.

EATING ON THE FLY
Bambini for a glass of wine, Danks Street Depot for a pre-flight sandwich: Sydney International Airport had its food and drink options overhauled last year, and now it’s the domestic terminal’s turn. This month, quintessential Sydneysiders Brasserie Bread and Toby’s Estate land at T2, with Bistro Twenty-20 soon to follow. All of which make for far better gifts than a box of doughnuts.