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THE
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 Jul/Aug
2018

Contents

78

78 Big Sleep Awards 110 Cornwall 130 Paris

We’re saluting the best of the
hotel world with our annual
awards. Who’s got the top spot?
98 Mozambique
With infrastructure improving,
this pristine, vibrant corner of
Africa is forgotten no more
On the edge of England, an
artistic spirit and myriad myths
colour this mercurial landscape
120 Australia
Welcome to the Outback — a
land of searing ochre sunsets
and silent, sacred, giant rocks
In a city where food tempts from
every corner, the term ‘artisan’ is
a tightly pinned badge of pride Issue 67
Paddleboarding in
140 Dallas the Maldives
Forget stetsons and Lone Star IMAGE: Ibrahim Asad/
patriotism, this Texan city is Picfair
sizzling with youthful energy ABOVE: W Barcelona

Jul/Aug 2018 5
 Jul/Aug
2018

Contents

29 63 68

SMART TRAVELLER 37 Top 5 TRAVEL GEEKS

Must-visit music festivals in Lucca
15 Snapshot 150 Travel Geeks
Palm Springs’ Hot Rodeo 39 Stay at Home The experts’ travel manual
Escaping the city for the Surrey Hills
17 Editors’ picks 160 Sailing in the Aegean
These are a few of our favourite things 41 Books Setting sail on Greece’s turquoise seas
Taschen’s The Grand Tour
18 Big picture 166 Luxury travel
A bolt from the blue in Jersey 47 Author Series When money’s no object, what is luxury?
Wilbur Smith’s On Leopard Rock
20 What’s new GET IN TOUCH
The latest female-only travel tours 48 View from the USA
Aaron Millar on Nederland, Colorado 177 Inbox
23 What’s new Your letters, emails and tweets
From ultra-luxe experiences to the QE2 50 Online
Weekly highlights from natgeotraveller.co.uk 178 Your pictures
26 Do it now This month’s best travel photos
Making waves with stand-up paddleboarding INSIDER

29 Food 52 Weekender: Ghent DON’T MISS

Sampling the sunny flavours of Cuba The laid-back, quirky Belgian gem
12 Reader Awards 2018
31 On the trail 56 Eat: Malmö Your awards are back for another year
Cape Town’s gin scene Sinking our teeth into the Swedish city
43 Competition
32 Rooms 63 Neighbourhood: Venice Your chance to win a twin-city break
Marbella’s slumber-worthy beds Discovering the city’s hidden highlights
44 The Masterclasses
34 Family 68 Sleep: Maldives Our day of travel writing and photography
The latest from Legoland Where to rest weary heads in paradise sessions is fast approaching

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

6 natgeotraveller.co.uk
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 Contributors
National Geographic Traveller (UK) APL Media

Editorial Director: Maria Pieri Editorial Manager:

Shaney Hudson
Venice is one of the most misunderstood
and fascinating cities in the world
— beautiful and frustrating, suffocated
with tourists and yet, despite the vulgar
cruise ships that clog the waters, timeless.
After six visits, I still love it. VENICE P.63
Emma Gregg
I learned how to say hello to wild
bottlenose dolphins on my journey through
southern Mozambique. They probably
found my daft English accent hilarious,
but they were kind enough not to show it.
MOZAMBIQUE P.98
Editor: Pat Riddell
Deputy Editor: Stephanie Cavagnaro
Executive Editor: Glen Mutel
Associate Editors:
Sarah Barrell, Nicola Trup
Assistant Editors:
Tamsin Wressell, Connor McGovern
Project Editor: Zane Henry
Online Editor: Josephine Price
Content Editor:
Charlotte Wigram-Evans
Sub Editors: Chris Horton,
Ben Murray, Nick Rutherford
Operations Manager:
Seamus McDermott
Events Manager: Natalie Jackson
Art Director: Chris Hudson
Art Editor: Lauren Atkinson-Smith
(maternity leave)
Acting Senior Designer: Philip Lay
Designers: James Ladbury,
Kelly McKenna
Production Manager:
Daniel Gregory
Special Projects Consultant:
Matthew Midworth
Business Development Team:
William Allen, Bob Jalaf, Kevin Killen,
Lianna Mazure, Glyn Morgan,
Adam Phillips, Mark Salmon,
John Stergides
Head of National Geographic
Traveller — The Collection:
Danny Pegg
Jo Fletcher-Cross
Contributing Editors:
Sam Lewis, Farida Zeynalova
Designers: Lauren Gamp,
Becky Redman
Production Controllers:
Karl Martins, Joaquim Pereira,
Lisa Poston, Joanne Roberts,
Anthony Wright
Head of Creative Solutions:
Chris Debbinney-Wright
APL Business Development Team:
Neil Bhullar, Chris Dalton, Adam Fox,
Cynthia Lawrence, Sinead McManus
Chief Executive:
Anthony Leyens
Managing Director:
Matthew Jackson
Sales Director: Alex Vignali
Sales Administrators:
Melissa Jurado, Hayley Rabin
Executive Assistant: Taylah Brooke
Financial Controller: Ryan McShaw
Credit Manager: Craig Chappell
Accounts Manager: Siobhan Grover
Accounts Assistants:
Jana Abraham, Stefano Pica

National Geographic Traveller (UK) is published by APL Media Limited,

Unit 310, Highgate Studios, 53-79 Highgate Road, London NW5 1TL
natgeotraveller.co.uk
Editorial T: 020 7253 9906. editorial@natgeotraveller.co.uk
Sales/Admin T: 020 7253 9909. F: 020 7253 9907. sales@natgeotraveller.co.uk
Subscriptions T: 01293 312 166. natgeotraveller@subscriptionhelpline.co.uk

Nigel Richardson
Cornwall is a place that’s always reached out
to the rest of the world. I tread the beautiful
landscapes of the Lizard and West Penwith
to strike rich cultural lodes, from painting to
National Geographic Traveller (UK) is published by APL Media Ltd under license from National
Geographic Partners, LLC. For more information contact natgeo.com/info. Their entire
contents are protected by copyright 2018 and all rights are reserved. Reproduction without
prior permission is forbidden. Every care is taken in compiling the contents of the magazine,
but the publishers assume no responsibility in the effect arising therefrom. Readers are
advised to seek professional advice before acting on any information which is contained in
the magazine. Neither APL Media Ltd or National Geographic Traveller magazine accept any
liability for views expressed, pictures used or claims made by advertisers.

mining, from megalithic tombs to cutting-

edge connectivity. CORNWALL P.110 National Geographic Traveler (US) National Geographic Society

Editor-in-Chief: George W. Stone Interim President & CEO:

Ben Lerwill
It takes minutes to fall for Paris, but a
lifetime to really get to know it. I met some
of the city’s top artisans and each one
taught me something new about the place.
I’m not sure there’s a city anywhere that’s
more densely layered. PARIS P.130
Stephanie Cavagnaro
I went expecting traditional Texan culture,
but I instead found something very different.
An energetic city that’s rapidly gentrifying
and celebrating youthful innovation, as old
money makes way for a new generation of
local movers and shakers. DALLAS P.140
Director of Photography:
Anne Farrar
Editorial Projects Director:
Andrew Nelson
Senior Editor: Amy Alipio
Associate Editor: Brooke Sabin
Deputy Art Director:
Leigh V. Borghesani
Research Editor: Alexandra E. Petri
Copy Editors: Amy Kolczak, Preeti
Aroon, Cindy Leitner, Mary Beth
Oelkers-Keegan
Communications Vice President:
Heather Wyatt
Communications Director:
Meg Calnan
Publisher & Vice President,
Global Media: Kimberly Connaghan
Senior Vice President, Global
Media & Experiences: Yulia P. Boyle
Senior Manager, International
Publishing: Rossana Stella
Editorial Director, International
Editions: Amy Kolczak
Editorial Specialist, International
Editions: Leigh Mitnick
Copyright © 2018 National Geographic Partners, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
National Geographic Traveler: Registered Trademark. Printed in the UK.
Michael L. Ulica
Board of Trustees Chairman:
Jean M. Case
Vice Chairman: Tracy R. Wolstencroft
Explorers-in-Residence: Sylvia Earle,
Enric Sala
Explorers-at-Large: Robert Ballard,
Lee R. Berger, James Cameron,
J. Michael Fay, Beverly Joubert,
Dereck Joubert, Louise Leakey,
Meave Leakey
National Geographic Partners
CEO: Gary Knell
Editorial Director: Susan Goldberg
Chief Financial Officer:
Marcela Martin
Chief Communications Officer:
Laura Nichols
Chief Marketing Officer: Jill Cress
Consumer Products & Experiences:
Rosa Zeegers
Digital Product: Rachel Webber
Global Networks CEO:
Courteney Monroe
Legal & Business Affairs:
Jeff Schneider
Sales & Partnerships: Brendan Ripp

8 natgeotraveller.co.uk
 We’re here to help you discover the world.

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 HIGHLIGHTS

Editor’s
letter
W
Trips of a Lifetime
hat is luxury? Is it a boutique villa in the In our free, 68-page guide, we take a look at
Maldives with a private beach, a personal chef some of the most unforgettable adventures in
travel, from Machu Picchu to the Taj Mahal.
and a butler on hand for your every whim?
Or is it a simply a case of less is more? We know there’s
so much more to luxury than money. It’s about those
meaningful, authentic experiences; it can be something
you’ve saved a lifetime for, but it can often be one of the
undefinable — often free — moments that travel delivers
in spades.
Reader Awards 2018
In this issue, we look at both — exploring all that money From your favourite long-haul destinations to
can buy, and the riches it cannot. the best travel books this year, have your say
in this year’s awards (p.12).
We discover the traditions of Paris’s ever-innovative
artisans — their passion for parfum, perfect tailoring,
Michelin-starred cuisine and exquisite chocolate. We
spend a fortnight adrift in the Aegean on a sailing ship, and
explore Venice’s lesser-known neighbourhoods. Then to
Dallas, where we find unexpected food trucks and
seriously good craft beer, before landing on the pristine
Reader offers with Flight Centre
coast of Mozambique, where conservation projects see Take a look at the latest deals from our reader
wild dolphins and wide-eyed travellers swim side by side. offers provider, Flight Centre (p.147).
And sometimes luxury can simply be a top-notch place
to stay. This issue, we also bring you the results of our Big
Sleep Awards — 51 of the world’s finest hotels, from budget
to boutique and beyond; and reveal your nine favourites
from our reader categories.

PAT RIDDELL, EDITOR Subscription offers

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@patriddell an award-winning magazine? Check out our
@patriddell latest subscription offers (p.176).

AWARD-WINNING NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER

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

SEARCH FOR NATGEOTRAVELUK ON FACEBOOK TWITTER GOOGLE+ TUMBLR PINTEREST INSTAGRAM

10 natgeotraveller.co.uk
SMART TRAVELLER // READER AWARDS

W E WA NT
TO H E A R
FROM YOU !
Our fourth annual Reader Awards will be
the definitive word on the best places,
experiences, hotels, operators, travel
personalities, podcasts and more, as
shortlisted by our judges and voted
for by you. With a host of exciting new
categories, it’s time to get online, think
back over the past year in travel and pick
your winners! Which destination deserves
our Rising Star rosette? Which landmark
deserves legendary status? Trains, planes,
VOTE ONLINE boats and boutique hotels: get online and
IN
AND YOU’LL BE help your favourites get recognised!
E
WITH A CHANC
OF WINNING But don’t worry, it’s not all altruistic: when you
ONE OF THE cast your votes, you’ll be in with a chance of
winning some of these fantastic prizes. Voting is
FANTA STIC
IMAGE: GETTY

open now until 31 September. Vote online at

PRIZES!
natgeotraveller.co.uk/readerawards

12 natgeotraveller.co.uk
 READER AWARDS // SMART TRAVELLER

TH E PRIZE S

FIVE-NIGHT HOLIDAY IN PHUKET,

THAILAND
Win a five-night luxury bed and breakfast stay
at Banyan Tree Phuket, Thailand, in a Banyan
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from London to Phuket with Destinology,
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Surrounded by a saltwater lagoon, Banyan
Tree Phuket is nestled in the enclave of Laguna
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banyantree.com/en/thailand/phuket

TWO-NIGHT LUXURY SPA STAY

IN WILTSHIRE
Win a two-night stay in Wiltshire’s luxury
Bowood Hotel, Spa & Golf Resort. The prize
includes two nights on a B&B basis, with one
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gardens included. A boutique-style hotel,
offering luxury accommodation and unrivalled
leisure facilities, it’s the perfect retreat for
weekend escapes, golf and spa breaks. Bowood
Hotel offers dining in the Shelburne Restaurant
and two lounges for morning coffee, afternoon
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sauna, aromatherapy showers, four treatment
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AMAZON KINDLES
We’ve got two of these terrific touchscreen
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20 FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS
Fancy 12 months of National Geographic
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TH E RE S U LT S
Winners will be announced on 26 November
Sponsors at The May Fair Hotel London and in our
Jan/Feb 2019 issue. Prize draw closes 31
September at 23:59 GMT. Voting and prize
draw open to residents of the UK and
Republic of Ireland aged 18 and over. Prizes
are subject to availability. Full T&Cs available
at natgeotraveller.co.uk/readerawards

Jul/Aug 2018 13
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SMART TRAVELLER
What’s new // Do it now // Food // On the trail // Rooms // Family // Stay at home // The word

SNAPSHOT

Palm Springs, USA

The Hot Rodeo kicks off
every year near Palm Springs,
California. There’s the usual
rodeo programme of bull and
steer riding, chute dogging
and calf roping, but there’s the
Gay Rodeo, too, packed with a
schedule of camp events.
A highlight is the Wild Drag
Race, where three contestants
— one male, one female and one
dressed in drag — must work
together to lead the steer to
the finish line. The fastest time
wins, and the contestant in
drag must mount the steer
before crossing the line. I took
this photograph of Miss Palm
Springs last year, a title that was
decided by the International Gay
Rodeo Association.
ALEX GRACE // PHOTOGRAPHER

@alexgracephoto
alexgracephoto.com
@alexgracephoto

Jul/Aug 2018 15
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 EDS’ PICKS // SMART TRAVELLER

Bristol International Balloon Fiesta

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

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

IN NUMBERS OUR
A NEW
KENNEDY LOOK AT RUSSIA
FAVOURITE UK
SPACE CENTER Videographer David SUMMER SPOTS
Urban is documenting Russia’s

40+
28 UNESCO World Heritage Sites
during this summer’s World Cup. Pembrokeshire Coast Path
Beyond Your World: Into Russia STEPHANIE CAVAGNARO
rocket launches planned for 2018

3 miles
aims to show a different side to
the host country in 2018. Salcombe, Devon
bit.ly/2x1JfOP CONNOR MCGOVERN The plastic problem
as close as you can get to
PAT RIDDELL
Start-up company Loliware has
a rocket launch as an observer Broughty Ferry, Scotland created edible straws, cups and lids
(with a VIP ticket) JO FLETCHER-CROSS to help reduce the amount of plastic

24
the number of people in a group
Seven Sisters, East Sussex
TAMSIN WRESSELL
ending up in rivers and oceans.
The company’s products are mostly
made out of seaweed, with other
who can train at the Astronaut
Hertford Union Canal alongside
flavours added to complement
Training Experience
different drinks. loliware.com

3.8 million
Victoria Park, London
JOSEPHINE PRICE TAMSIN WRESSELL

the distance in miles the new Parker

Solar Probe is expected to orbit from
the surface of the sun when
it launches on 31 July
kennedyspacecenter.com
rt attack
MARIA PIERI If you’re in LA this summer, don’t miss the eye-
popping Beyond The Streets exhibition. The
graffiti and street art showcase celebrates how
this thoroughly modern art movement has
boomed, with works by the likes of Banksy and
Jean-Michel Basquiat colouring the streets. Until 6
IMAGE: GETTY

July. beyondthestreets.com discoverlosangeles.com

CONNOR MCGOVERN

Jul/Aug 2018 17
SMART TRAVELLER

18 natgeotraveller.co.uk

BIG PICTURE
Saint Helier, Jersey
Surrounded by beautifully blue waters that wouldn’t look
out of place lapping the beaches of the Côte d’Azur, the
largest of the Channel Islands is a popular spot for boat
owners to moor up and indulge in some island life. This
shot was captured over the Elizabeth Marina in the island’s
bamperspectives.com bamperspectivesjersey @bam_perspectives
SMART TRAVELLER
capital, Saint Helier. Rows of boats bob in the water,
quietly waiting for the next adventure: be it an encounter
with dolphins, stopping for lunch in one of the island’s
sheltered bays or the short hop across the Channel to
France. MARC LE CORNU // PHOTOGRAPHER
Jul/Aug 2018 19
SMART TRAVELLER // WHAT’S NEW

Explore & empower

THE RISE OF
WOMEN-ONLY
TRAVEL
The travel industry is finally waking up to the HOW TO DO IT

demand for female travel, with a raft of new Intrepid Travel Exodus
women-only tours, many of which help to WHERE? Morocco, Iran WHERE? Worldwide, from
fund initiatives for local women and girls and Jordan Croatia to Costa Rica
WHAT? Led by women, WHAT? The company’s 11
tours focus on local female-led, female-only
The unprecedented rise of the female traveller knows no women; their customs and adventure-based trips help
limits. Nearly two-thirds of travellers are now women. From the challenges they face. to support local women.
the boom in women-only wellness weeks to girls-only surf GIVE ME A TASTER: The GIVE ME A TASTER: The
clubs, and single-gender travel networking groups to many eight-day Morocco trip Indochina and Angkor
far-flung expeditions hosted by, and catering to, women, it’s begins in Marrakech then tour takes in nine days of
clear that sisters increasingly want to do it for themselves heads to more remote cycling through Thailand,
when it comes to exploring the world. Tour operators areas to visit Berber Cambodia and Vietnam.
are finally waking up to this rising demand, offering families. A highlight is ANYTHING ELSE? Exodus is
more than just token ‘female’ products. There’s a raft of a visit to an artist co-op supporting women in low-
adventurous new itineraries catering to female travellers, supporting female rug- income areas of Nepal by
many exploring places previously considered off-limits weavers in small villages. partnering with Freedom
to females by the mainstream travel market — notably in ANYTHING ELSE? The Kit Bags, which supplies
Asia and the Middle East. And many of these tours help company aims to double reusable sanitary products.
fund the communities they visit, offering employment and its number of female One kit is donated for
education to local women and girls. tour leaders by 2020. every booking.
TAMSIN WRESSELL & SARAH BARRELL intrepidtravel.com exodus.co.uk

3 TRAVEL COMPANIES MAKING A DIFFERENCE

G ADVENTURES RESPONSIBLE ONE TRAVELLER

Working in TRAVEL The company is
partnership with A sustainable helping to support
Planeterra, G tourism Ladli (a project
Adventures is organisation whose run by non-profit
IMAGES: ONE TRAVELLER; GETTY

funding Women women-only trips organisation

on Wheels, a Delhi use companies I-India). It houses,
airport service run owned or run and helps to
by local women by local women educate, local
to ensure safe in developing girls. Guests on its
hotel transfers for countries. India itinerary can
female travellers. responsibletravel. visit the schools.
gadventures.co.uk com onetraveller.co.uk

20 natgeotraveller.co.uk
 NAME: JAMIE SPARKS. AGE:26.
OCCUPATION: MAGAZINE EDITOR.
LOCATION: BRECON BEACONS, WALES.
51.884258, -3.436449

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 WHAT’S NEW // SMART TRAVELLER

THE
REINVIGORATION

Heritage
OF LUXURY

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

Full steam ahead Renaissance reborn A royal retirement

The undisputed duchess of luxury rail travel, the Not all bathrooms are made Dewy-eyed devotees of the QE2’s
BELMOND VENICE SIMPLON-ORIENT-EXPRESS , has turbo- equal — take the COMODO DI days under Cunard will bemoan
charged its offerings. If the world’s most famous train COSIMO I DE’ MEDICI , which has her decade of doing nothing
wasn’t already opulent enough, passengers can now book been given a new lease of life as a since she made her last voyage to
into one of a trio of new, private Grand Suites, named seriously high-end ‘Renaissance’ Dubai from Southampton back
for and styled around three of its iconic destinations: spa in Florence’s Palazzo in 2008. The recession might
Paris, Venice and Istanbul. Each suite takes up an Vecchio. The spa’s centrepiece have put a halt on the ship’s
entire carriage, so there’s plenty of room to kick back is a massive stone bathtub, initial renovation plans, but it
and admire the views — not least the craftmanship with steam created by an old- was full steam ahead this year,
that keeps this classic twinkling with its original 1920s, fashioned hydraulic system to when the QUEEN ELIZABETH 2
Agatha Christie-esque glamour. You’d need £5,500 heat water, and the walls are floating hotel opened in April.
per person for the classic, one-night London to Venice adorned with frescoes by Marco The venerable old vessel has had
journey, but this is the golden age of travel brought da Faenza. The revitalisation a dose of the Dubai treatment
right up to date, after all. Once on board, passengers is part of the ‘Florence I Care’ with new bars and restaurants, a
can live the high life with free-flowing bubbly, in-suite project, which enables private pool deck, spa, shopping arcade,
dining and a personal cabin steward — and the art deco citizens and companies to assist cinema, and conference rooms
bathrobe isn’t a bad touch, either. belmond.com in the restoration of the city’s spread out across 13 decks.
ZANE HENRY & CONNOR MCGOVERN heritage sites. flic.comune.fi.it qe2.com

Jul/Aug 2018 23
 Enjoy summer
a bit closer
to the sky
This is THE OMNIA

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

 WHAT’S NEW // SMART TRAVELLER

Ex pe ri e n c e s
OUT-THERE

For the deep-pocketed traveller,

there are some truly exceptional,
once-in-a-lifetime tours to discover
that redefine luxury travel

For any self-respecting lux brand, offering premium

products to high-net-worth consumers is no longer
enough. Today, you need to get those moneyed spenders
to embrace the intangible: the authentic experience.
Niquesa Travel, a new ultra-lux experience brand, aims
to do just that with a sparkling roster of tours and trips
that really take you out there. We’re not just talking
behind the velvet rope, but into the deepest chambers of
royalty, or out into the field with documentary makers,
explorers, and religious gurus.
Of the company’s 12 signature itineraries — which
include Morocco, the Himalayas, Botswana, Scotland,
India and Mexico, to name a few — the Harleys & Havana
tour of Cuba is the most brilliantly bonkers if you and
a bunch of mates don’t mind burning rubber and cash.
This eight-night trip speeds through Florida astride
Harley-Davidsons, before crossing the Straits of Florida
to Cuba in a high-performance speedboat (with a chance
to break the world record in doing so). Then, once in
Cuba, it’s back on the bikes to meet island’s cigar-making
royalty, hang out with Che Guevara’s son, spar with
a former Cuban Olympic boxing champion, and
get tactical training in ‘deep cover’ from a
former FBI agent. If you’ve got any energy
left, hosted evenings in Havana’s hottest
bars, clubs and restaurants are, of
course, at your behest. The price?
A mojito-cool £28,000 per person,
based on six travelling, including
business class flights.
niquesatravel.com SARAH BARRELL

WHAT TO EXPECT FOR

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

• FBI ‘deep cover’ training

Jul/Aug 2018 25
SMART TRAVELLER // DO IT NOW

EPIC SUP EVENTS

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

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

Leisure
NAUTIC SUP PARIS CROSSING: Join hundreds of SUP
athletes on a six-mile course on the River Seine,
passing the French capital’s most iconic sights.
There’s a longer race for the more advanced.
salonnautiqueparis.com

Stand-up addleboarding
MAKING WAVES
Grab your board, engage your core
and get paddling — from scenic
leisurely tours to high-speed races,
SUP is a must-try

What astarted as a way for ancient cultures to fish and navigate

waterways, modern SUP was pioneered by surfers in Hawaii and is
now a high-adrenalin competitive sport. Competitions take place all
over the world in locations ranging from California, Mexico, Florida,
Perth and Spain, with shorter and longer races requiring different
categories of boards. With surfi ng scheduled to appear in the 2020
Tokyo Olympics, it might not be long before we see SUP racing in the
games too, with the Stand Up Paddle Athletes Association lobbying
THE
for its inclusion. Those with a more casual interest can simply rent a
MUST-HAVE
board for an afternoon or even try SUP-yoga. supathletes.com Allround Inflatable
Quroc Qi Crossover
10’4”. RRP: £699
qurocpaddleboards.
STEPPING STONES co.uk

Basic training GET THE GEAR

Beginners keen to try the
IMAGES: GETTY; ROBERT HARDING

sport on flat water, surf, white

‘READY TO RIDE’ COURSE
BSUPA LEVEL 1
Learn the correct stance,
technique, different types of
turns and how to fall safely. The
two-hour course typically costs
from £30-£55.
‘READY TO TOUR’
TEACHING SCHEME
BSUPA LEVEL 2
Get further paddling skills and
details on how to plan your own
adventures. A half- or full-day
course costs between £60-£99.
‘READY TO RACE’
TEACHING SCHEME
BSUPA LEVEL 2
Learn everything you need to
know to enter your first race.
A half- to full-day course costs
from £75. bsupa.org.uk
water, rivers or lakes should
buy a versatile Allround
Inflatable Paddleboard.
Prices start from £250, but
a good quality board will
cost between £699-£1,000.
inflatablepaddleboardreviews.
co.uk SAM LEWIS

26 natgeotraveller.co.uk
With 3,165km of pristine coastline to explore,
sweeping desert dunes to discover and majestic
mountain hikes there's a lot to see and do in Oman.
Choose from a wide range of luxury accommodation,
enjoy the legendary Omani hospitality, bring your
spirit of adventure and get ready to make a splash.
 FOOD // SMART TRAVELLER

MAKE IT AT HOME

Squid in its ink

INGREDIENTS
125ml olive oil
10 small squid (about 1kg in total)
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

�u��
4 tbsp chopped parsley
240ml dry white wine
1 tsp vinegar

METHOD
Separate each squid’s head and
body. Remove the ink sacs from
the head and set aside; discard
the head itself, along with the
tentacles and quill. Cut the body

A TASTE OF
into rings. Gently fry the squid,
onion and garlic in a pan until
the onion turns translucent. Add
the parsley, wine and vinegar,
plus salt and pepper, and cook
until the wine begins to reduce.
Transfer half the sauce to a bowl
The Caribbean island’s culinary scene is booming. and add the ink sacs. Strain into

Cookbook author Imogene Tondre takes us on a the pan along with the squid;
cover and cook on low until the
foodie tour of the island squid is soft (about an hour).

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

WHAT TO EAT various fillings, most the western side it’s

PLANTAIN: My favourite often ham and/or cheese. simply dressed with the
ways to eat this staple cooking juices.
are as chicharritas (very PORK: Cubans love
thinly sliced chips) and pork. Traditionally, on TETÍ: This tiny, seasonal
simply fried. Seek out the eastern side of the fish is best eaten with
tasty tostones rellenos island you’ll find pork tomatoes and as part of
— these fried plantains stuffed with rice and a traditional Baracoan
come stuffed with black beans, while on dish called bacán.

IMOGENE
TONDRE
has lived in Cuba for eight
years, having grown up in the
USA. She has a master’s degree
in Cuban food culture. She co-
authored Cuba: The Cookbook
with Madelaine Vázquez
Gálvez. RRP: £29.95
(Phaidon)
INSIDER’S HAVANA
LA GUARIDA: All meals at this beautiful
restaurant start with complementary malanga
fritters — a Cuban classic. laguarida.com
SAN JUAN BAR & GRILL : This place does stylised
versions of traditional dishes. Try the tostones
rellenos, fried plantain stuffed with ceviche and
pico de gallo. San Juan de Dios 9
AJIACO CAFÉ: In the fishing village of Cojímar,
on the eastern edge of Havana, this cafe serves
a delicious ajiaco (a thick stew of taro root,
vegetables and meat). Calle Los Pinos 267, Cojímar

Jul/Aug 2018 29
 The soul of Adriatic

The heritage
of centuries

The
Mediterranean
flavours
www. budva.travel
 ON THE TRAIL // SMART TRAVELLER

C��e Town
GIN SPOTS

South Africa may be known as a wine destination,

but the Mother City’s burgeoning gin scene is well
worth a woozy wander. Words: Zane Henry

1 THE GIN DOCK 2 THE GIN BAR

This gin bar, nestled in the bosom
of the Victoria & Alfred (V&A)
Waterfront, is curated by three
local distillers: Geometric Drinks,
A Mari, and Hope On Hopkins.
Come for excellent negronis and
martinis, but stay for the big draw:
the sun-sparkled view across the
marina. waterfront.co.za
Head towards the heart of town
to the imaginatively named Gin
Bar. It’s a speakeasy-style joint
accessed through a chocolate cafe
on Wale Street. The bar itself is
modelled after an old-time
apothecary and features an
intimate courtyard lit by twinkling
fairy lights. theginbar.co.za

3 NEW HARBOUR DISTILLERY

Pray to the holy spirits of gin and 4 WOODSTOCK GIN COMPANY
vodka at this spot in the trendy Take a short stroll just around 5 HOPE ON HOPKINS
neighbourhood of Woodstock. the corner to find yet another For a thoroughly South African
ILLUSTRATION: MARTIN HAAKE

It’s a fully functional distillery that
also offers beginner classes on
home distilling, as well as tastings
and distillery tours. You might
even get some secret info on their
vodka and gin recipes, including
their glorious Rooibos Infused Gin.
newharbourdistillery.co.za
neighbourhood distillery. Rather
than using a grain or sugar base,
the team at the Woodstock Gin
Company distil their gin from
wine and beer. This adds an extra
punch of flavour and complexity.
They make their own tonic too.
woodstockginco.co.za
affair, head to the neighbouring
’hood of Salt River for gin made
with unique local ingredients such
as fynbos and sour figs. You can
even hang out with Mimo and
Martini, the distillery cats, and
their buddy Mr Scruff, the resident
dog. hopeonhopkins.co.za

Jul/Aug 2018 31
SMART TRAVELLER // ROOMS
M���ell�
WHERE TO STAY
While misconceptions might linger, this
renowned resort on the Spanish coast has
some seriously chic new beds on the Med
32 natgeotraveller.co.uk
1 NOBU
If anything can transform Marbella’s reputation, it’s this.
Opened in March, it’s the latest outpost for Robert De Niro
and Nobu Matsuhisa’s fast-growing hotel chain. Adults
only, and a member of Small Luxury Hotels, it has a more
sophisticated feel than your typical Marbs resort. Rooms
have floor-to-ceiling windows, with the outside feel
spilling in via blond wood furniture and cool tiled floors.
The spa — a Six Senses outpost — continues the theme,
with a relaxation area gazing at the Mediterranean on the
other side of a glass wall, and a menu that incorporates
local ingredients into its treatments. There’s a Nobu
restaurant onsite, and it’s responsible for the room service
menu, too. Doubles from £259, B&B. nobuhotels.com
2 LA POSADA DEL ANGEL
Six miles from Marbella’s beaches in Ojén are
these very Andalusian lodgings spread over
five old houses, with 16 rooms. The owners
also own four houses for rent in and around
Ojén. Doubles from £83, B&B; houses from
£484 per week. laposadadelangel.net
3 MEDINA PENTHOUSE
This 30sq metre duplex villa is set in a
modern complex close to the beach and
Puerto Banus. There’s a plunge pool and floor-
to-ceiling windows make the most of the
views. From £335 per night, minimum stays
depend on the season. vacationmarbella.com
4 FINCA CORTESIN
A mere 20-minute drive but a world away from
Marbella is this sprawling 530-acre estate.
Nobu faces stiff competition here — the
onsite Japanese restaurant, Kabuki Raw, is
Michelin-starred. Doubles from £520, B&B.
fincacortesin.com JULIA BUCKLEY
SMART TRAVELLER // FAMILY

Legoland
LITTLE BRICKS, BIG IDEAS

Lego’s appeal shows little sign of abating, and the

Legoland theme parks continue to build on the toy
brand’s ongoing popularity
Hot on the heels of The Lego Ninjago
Movie, Legoland Windsor has gone big
on Kai, Zane, Jay, Cole, Nya and Lloyd,
its diminutive protagonists.
Having opened Lego Ninjago World
last summer with attractions such as
the 4D Lego Ninjago The Ride and a
‘ninja training camp’, it’s now added a
12-minute film, complete with effects
including water, wind,
fire and even snow.
As if that wasn’t
enough ninja-
ness, four
rooms at
Legoland
Windsor
Resort
Hotel
also
enables guests to ‘sleep like a ninja’
— meaning themed wallpaper, models,
clues to solve and a building station,
not violent nightmares.
Little ones can feel like giants at
Windsor’s Miniland Explore the World,
where additions to the micro skyline
include a mini Taj Mahal, Sydney Opera
House, Forbidden City and Empire State
Building. Assembling all two million
bricks took a team of 55 a far from mini
12,000 hours.
Elsewhere, at Lego Reef, visitors
can create their own virtual Lego fish
using touchscreens.
Lego Ninjago-themed rooms from
£99 per person for a family of four.
Includes breakfast and park tickets for
two days. legoland.co.uk
PAT RIDDELL

AROUND THE WORLD

DID YOU KNOW?
DENMARK
The world’s first Legoland, in Billund , The word ‘Lego’ comes from the
celebrates its 50th birthday this year
first two letters of ‘leg’ and ‘godt’
DUBAI — meaning ‘play well’ in Danish
Joined the Legoland family in 2016 with a
water park offering over 20 rides

KOREA
The world’s largest Legoland is on course to There
open its doors in 2019 are about 600
billion Lego bricks
AMERICA in circulation — that’s
Legoland New York will be the third US outpost roughly 80 for every
(after California and Florida) from 2020 person on Earth

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

GERMANY
IMAGES: ALAMY; GETTY

The third Legoland celebrates its 16th

birthday this year

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

34 natgeotraveller.co.uk
 ENJOY THE VERY BEST OF IRISH HOSPITALITY
IN IRELAND'S ANCIENT EAST
Experience the old world charm and luxury of the exclusive 16th Century Castle.
Taste the very best of our award winning traditional and contemporary Irish cuisine.
Roam the 310 acres of the enchanted private Island. Play your way through the
magnificent golf course and enjoy all the island has to offer.

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

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

Waterford Castle Hotel & Golf Resort I The Island, Waterford, Ireland I + 353 51 878 203
info@waterfordcastleresort.com I www.waterfordcastleresort.com
 Andy & Alejandra welcome you in the andino hotel in the centre of St. Anton am Arlberg
in Tyrol, Austria. The hotel unites the world-wide history of Tyrolean pioneers with the Andes.
In the 16 comfort rooms, which are individually furnished with wood and alpaca
weavings, you will find the deep bond of the hosts.

andino **** — The Bergweltenhotel, 6580 St. Anton am Arlberg centre, Arlbergstraße 61
+43 5446 30390  info@andinohotel.at  www.andinohotel.at
 TOP 5 // SMART TRAVELLER

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

Whether you’re after classic composers or a stage of

headline bands, discover Lucca’s best music festivals
through the eyes of a local

PUCCINI FESTIVAL
One of the highlights of the
Tuscan calendar, the festival
takes place in the outdoor theatre
by the composer’s home at
LUCCA SUMMER FESTIVAL Torre del Lago from 14 July to 25
We’re lucky to have August. Make sure to book a seat
superstars come to in the first few rows for the best
Lucca for this summer sound, and take something warm
festival, running from to wear — it can get chilly by the
7-25 July. Norah Jones, lake. puccinifestival.it/en
Lenny Kravitz, Gorillaz
— this year’s headliners
look as impressive as PUCCINI E LA SUA LUCCA FESTIVAL
ever. But what I find Missed the Puccini Festival? You
really special about this can still get your fi x of his work
festival is the fact that (and Verdi’s) every night from
the concerts don’t take April to October at the church
place in a stadium, but of San Giovanni in Lucca. While
right in the city itself, in the church doesn’t quite have
the Piazza Napoleone, the beautiful setting of Torre
one of the main squares. del Lago, I fi nd the intimate
summer-festival.com atmosphere quite magical.
puccinielasualucca.com

ANFITEATRO JAZZ
If jazz is your thing, head for the
Piazza dell’Anfiteatro in summer.
I’d almost recommend this as
much for the venue as the music.
This is one of Italy’s smaller jazz
festivals and those who perform
here are generally from the
region, so it’s where I’d go to get
a flavour of jazz — Tuscan style.
anfiteatrojazz.it

LUCCA COMIC AND GAMES FESTIVAL

You might not think this is
the place to go for musical
entertainment but I’d
recommend it nonetheless.
IMAGES: GETTY; ALAMY

At the end of October, free

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

Jul/Aug 2018 37
AUSTRIAN WILDERNESS.
www.gesaeuse.at
 STAY AT HOME // SMART TRAVELLER

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

WHY GO?
Just 30 miles from the centre of London,
stretching across the chalky North Downs,
the Surrey Hills are full of life. The area’s
market towns and villages are packed with
galleries and cafes, while families and
ramblers enjoy local beauty spots. And they
all come with good reason. This year sees
the 60th anniversary of its designation as an
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty — and
it’s this beauty and vibrancy that’s drawing
in a growing number of winemakers,
breweries and distilleries. This is no sleepy
backwater but the perfect place to escape the
urban grind. surreyhills.org/surrey-hills-60
WHAT TO DO
Hike with llamas. Yes, llamas.
The woodland, heathland and
rolling hills make for prime
walking territory and are also
home to several collections of
the charming camelids. The
Merry Harriers have 12 resident
llamas and offer several treks,
taking you on a three-hour
meander along part of the
108-mile Greensand Way with
the llamas in tow.
merryharriers.com/llama-treks

DON’T MISS
Set aside several hours to wander the
meandering paths through the vast number
of trees at Winkworth Arboretum. This ever-
popular, 46-hectare National Trust site leads
down a valley to a lake. Staff at the entrance
will advise on which route to take in order
to make sure you catch the most impressive
sights: bluebells in spring and kaleidoscopic
maples in autumn are the most popular.
nationaltrust.org.uk

WE LIKE
Where to eat Where to stay Gin. The Silent Pool distillery might
The William Bray The Merry Harriers be young but has already achieved
IMAGES: MERRY HARIER; ALAMY; GETTY

is in the village is a 16th-century inn international popularity (more than

of Shere, where outside the village 20 countries and counting). The
Hollywood fi lm The of Hambledon. Cosy distillery is based around
Holiday was fi lmed. rooms are situated a natural spring steeped
The crowds come above the lively in local legend, and its
for its gastropub pub — swing by on gin is distilled with 24
classics: fishcakes, a Saturday night botanicals. Book a tour for
pork belly and to catch live bands an all-important tasting.
baked Camembert. and cheery locals. silentpooldistillers.com
thewilliambray.co.uk merryharriers.com JOSEPHINE PRICE

Jul/Aug 2018 39
 Mount Bromo

Accommodation Jeep Check Point Dining Culture

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

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

Discover more at www.plataran.com/bromo

HOTELS & RESORTS • PRIVATE CRUISES • VENUES & DINING • ECO TOURISM DEVELOPMENT

Borobudur | Bromo | Canggu | Cilandak | Dharmawangsa | Komodo

Menjangan - West Bali National Park | Menteng | Sumba 2017 T AI N A BL
US
Tugu - Puncak | Ubud | Wijaya
E
S

2018
NS
DE

ST
www.plataran.com INA TI O

THE GRAND TOUR: THE
GOLDEN AGE OF TRAVEL
Countless travel books have charted the so-called ‘golden age’
of travel, but none are quite as epic as this hefty new tome
Why should you stump up £150 for
this latest book on the much-
eulogised era of the Grand
The Grand
Tour: The Golden Tour? Because — like many
Age Of Travel, by Marc of the fi rst Grand Tours
Walter & Sabine Arqué is themselves — this book is
published by Taschen, of epic scale. Weighing in
RRP: £150 at a heft y 15lbs and standing
one-and-a-half-feet tall, it’s
not a holiday read unless you
have a steamer trunk and
a team of luggage wallahs.
But it is comprehensive,
exploring the Tour heyday
of 1869 to 1939, divided into
IMAGES: MARC WALTER COLLECTION
six geographical sections
based on the classic routes
favoured by privileged pre-
Second World War travellers:
Southern & Western Europe;
Rhine to Black Sea, Northern,
Orient, Far East & Australia, and New World
& Africa. It traces these routes via vintage
posters, and brochures from tour operators,
BOOKSHELF // SMART TRAVELLER
WISE WORDS:
SKY, SEA & SOFA
SKYBOUND
This story, of a woman
temporarily liberated from
a battle with breast cancer
by learning to fly a glider,
is both a personal journey
taken above the great
landscapes of the world,
from the Alps to Himalayas,
and a passionate study of
the history of powerless
flight. RRP: £16.99 (Picador)
LONDON ON SEA
This illustrated guide of day-
tripping ideas from London
instantly makes us want to
swap desk for deckchair. Like
its colour-soaked drawings,
recalling tourist posters of
yore, the book’s destinations
are pretty timeless, so
sailing ships, steam liners, and elegant railway shouldn’t suffer too much
hotels, along with archive photography and from coastal hipsterisation.
postcards featuring everything from the RRP: £9.99 (Ebury)
dining room aboard a Graf Zeppelin to ornate
villages at the foot of the pyramids. There are
also such escapist ephemera as luggage labels
from baggage rooms and hotels of yesteryear,
restaurant menus, tourist brochures and
illustrated maps.
It’s a hymn to transport: a gallery
of trains, planes and oldsmobiles, Zeppelins,
boats, horses, donkeys, and camels, many of
them rendered in atmospheric turn-of-the-
century photochroms in which the book’s COUCHSURFING IN IRAN
graphic designer and photographer, Marc German journalist Stephan
Walter, specialises. The supporting text Orth chronicles his 62-day
trip through Iran. Driven
— by documentarian Sabine Arqué — is in
by a desire to reveal Iran’s
French, German and English, which certainly
‘hidden world’, a maxim Orth
contributes to the book’s formidable bulk, picks up from one Iranian
but seeing these Old World languages sitting host goes “there are no bad
side by side seems fitting: the lexicons of places if the reason you are
Grand Tour exploration. This is a passport travelling is to meet people”.
into a lost epoch of aristocratic adventure, RRP: £12.99
albeit a jumbo, 634-page one. SARAH BARRELL (Greystone Books)
Jul/Aug 2018 41

Win
TO ENTER
Answer the following question
online at natgeotraveller.co.uk/
competitions
WHICH OF THE TWO CAPITALS HAS
THE NICKNAME OF THE ‘CITY OF
LIGHT’?
Competition closes 31 August 2018.
Train fares and accommodation up to a
value of £3,000 are covered by sponsor.
IMAGES: GETTY
The winner must be a resident of the
UK and aged 18 or over. Trip is subject
to availability. Full T&Cs available at
natgeotraveller.co.uk
SPECIAL PROMOTION
A TWIN-CITY
BREAK TO PARIS
AND BRUSSELS
National Geographic Traveller (UK) has teamed up
with Loco2 and Thalys to offer a four-night getaway
for two to both Paris and Brussels
The destinations
Few cities can rival Paris: whether it’s
whiling away the afternoon in a world-class
museum or sipping coffee in a kerbside
cafe, the City of Light never disappoints.
Meanwhile, Brussels beats as Europe’s
political heart and is one of the continent’s
most dynamic and cosmopolitan capitals.
Take in the spectacular Grande Place or
indulge in the world’s finest chocolate.
The prize winner and a guest will travel by premium
It’s hard enough finding time for one city high-speed rail on a four-night city break
break, so why not fit two into a European to Paris and Brussels. With a value of up
getaway? Avoid all the hassle of airports and to £3,000, the prize includes all rail travel
air travel by travelling by high-speed train from any UK station to Paris, the ongoing
instead, courtesy of pan-European train journey to Brussels, and return journey
booking service, Loco2, and high-speed to the UK. The remaining funds will be
rail operator, Thalys. It’s the perfect way to allocated to four nights’ accommodation of
fast-track to the destination, enjoying every the winner’s choice, and additional expenses
moment of the journey along the way. The in-accommodation. loco2.com thalys.com
Jul/Aug 2018 43
SMART TRAVELLER // EVENTS

WHEN: Sunday 1
July 2018, 10am-6pm
WHERE: University of
Westminster, Marylebone
Road, London NW1 5LS
TICKETS: £40, or two for £70.
One-on-one tutorials £25.
Book online.

With less than a month to go, we’re getting ready for

The Masterclasses — our first-ever day of inspiring,
informative travel writing and photography sessions

MORE INFORMATION ON SESSIONS, SPEAKERS AND TICKETS

AT NATGEOTRAVELLER.CO.UK/THEMASTERCLASSES

44 natgeotraveller.co.uk
 EVENTS // SMART TRAVELLER

If you’ve dreamed SESSIONS INCLUDE:

TICKETS of making the leap
SELLING FAST! from budding TRAVEL WRITING
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All topics and dates subject to change

Jul/Aug 2018 45

NOTES FROM AN AUTHOR // WILBUR SMITH
In the first work of non-fiction of his 50-year career, bestselling novelist
Wilbur Smith shares how his experiences in Africa shaped his many novels
M
y father was a man of action and
my mother was an artist, a very
gentle person who loved books and
painting. My father taught me the outdoor
life of hunting and shooting and fishing; my
mother gave me an appreciation of the arts
with music and books. Before I could read
myself, she’d read to me every night. That
hour or so was the greatest pleasure I can
remember, because she instilled in me such
a love of stories. I used to look at the book in
her hand and think: she’s not making that
up; it’s all coming out of that book. And from
then on, books always played a central part
in my life.
The novelist H Rider Haggard has
always been one of my greatest influences
because he set his books mainly in Africa.
King Solomon’s Mines showed me that
Africa was a treasure house of stories.
CS Forester was another influence with
the Hornblower series.
I’m an old-fashioned writer. I believe in
a structured novel: a beginning, a middle
and an end. I spend a great deal of time
thinking about the book before I sit down
and start writing it. The research I do is a
mixture of personal knowledge, my own
reading, talking to other people and meeting
experts in whatever field that I’m engaged
in. In the novel Those in Peril, for instance,
there’s a great deal about oil exploration
and oil exploitation. One of my very dear
friends, a doctor of geology, lives just across
the road from me. I asked him to read the
novel through and check everything I’d
written on the subject. It’s amazing how
once you become a well-known author
people are eager to share their knowledge
and experiences. When I wrote a book about
jet fighter pilots, at least four men with a
great deal of experience contacted me and
we had very interesting conversations — I’ve
used some of the things they described to
ILLUSTRATION: JACQUI OAKLEY
me in subsequent books. People can be very
generous with their time and insight and I’m
very grateful to them for sharing their lives
with me.
Each of my characters is built differently.
Some are an amalgam of people that I’ve
known, but there’s always a liberal pinch
of imagination thrown into the mix: none
AFRICA
It’s amazing how once you
become a well-known author
people are eager to share their
knowledge and experiences...
People can be very generous
with their time and insight
and I’m very grateful to them
for sharing their lives with me
AUTHOR SERIES // SMART TRAVELLER
of them are exactly drawn from life. But, as
they say, the character fits the job and when
there’s a job to do there’s always someone
who’ll do it. And these are my characters.
I’ve been on local hippopotamus hunts
on the great lakes of Africa — on Lake
Tanganyika and Lake Malawi — where all
the villagers around the lake get together
and hunt exactly as I describe the Ancient
Egyptians doing on the Nile in River God.
The hippopotamus is such a successful
creature when given enough water that there
must have been tens of thousands of them
in the Nile. And so I’m sure the Ancient
Egyptians would have hunted them. Why
not? They were great hunters: they hunted
all the birds of the Nile. They were also great
fishermen, fishing all the river’s waters, too.
There’s no reason why they would not also
have hunted the hippopotamus.
I don’t like writing political stories,
but at times politics can make for great
historical fiction. Cry Wolf is set against the
1935 Italian invasion of North Africa and
Ethiopia. During a previous invasion in
1896, the Ethiopians had roundly defeated
the Italians, so when Mussolini came to
power, he wanted to show his credentials as
a conquering hero. He launched a successful
invasion of Ethiopia with massive power,
and aircraft and tanks against men on
horses with swords. The novel is based
around two friends, Jake Barton, a tough
Texan, and Gareth Swales, an Old Etonian
gunrunner, who are trying to sell second-
hand shoddy armoured cars to the Italians,
who needed any form of armament
that they could get. They’re different in
background but similar in their charm and
persuasiveness — I find charming rogues
very interesting!
There’s also a very beautiful woman
involved. I imbued Vicky with as much
courage and determination as either male
character because I like strong women as a
foil to tough men. And she gives as good as
she gets throughout the whole story...
Wilbur Smith is a novelist whose works have sold more
than 120 million copies. His memoir, On Leopard Rock,
is published by Zaffre. RRP: £20.
wilbursmithbooks.com
Jul/Aug 2018 47
SMART TRAVELLER
VIEW FROM THE USA // AARON MILLAR
DEAD FUNNY
Each year, a Colorado town throws a party to honour the corpse of a frozen
grandpa — proof it’s not just us Brits with a talent for eccentric humour
e do eccentricity well in Britain:
Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly
Walks, the plain wackiness of
Morris dancing and the Official Monster
Raving Loony Party, whose manifesto
includes nationalising crime to make sure it
doesn’t pay. They’ve got my vote.
Then there are our eccentric sports. We’ve
got cheese-rolling, bog-snorkelling, gurning
championships and, speaking from my own
experience, the maddest of all: The World
Extreme Lilo Championship. That’s right.
I once navigated the class IV rapids of the
River Nevis on an inflatable bed. I was one of
the lucky ones — the chap next to me, riding
a blow-up doll, nearly drowned.
In America, it’s different. Crazy here
means Scientology and stockpiling guns. It’s
altogether less fun. So, imagine my delight
when I discovered a bit of British-level
eccentricity here, in my adopted home of
Colorado. The mountain town of Nederland
(not to be confused with Michael Jackson’s
Neverland) is like the love child of Davy
Crocket and Timothy Leary — part 1960s acid
casualty, part beaver-skinning Armageddon
survivalist. It’s also the home of, perhaps, the
world’s craziest festival.
The story starts in 1989 with a Norwegian
called Bredo Morstoel biting the bullet and
getting packed in ice and sent to the hills
above Ned, where grandson Trygve Morstoel
had built a cryogenic facility in his garden
shed to house him. Talk about a man cave.
Fast forward a few years: Trygve’s been
deported and Grandpa’s left out in the
cold (or not, as was the problem). What
did the town do? Call the cops? Contact a
legitimate cryogenic facility? No. They hired
an ‘Iceman’ to deliver 1,600 pounds of dry
ice to Bredo’s sarcophagus every month
and threw a party. That’s why I’m here. For
two days every year, Frozen Dead Guy Days
pays homage to the dead dude they found
in the shed. There’s Ice Turkey Bowling, the
Frozen T-shirt Contest, Brain Freeze Contest,
Salmon Toss and, just because it’s weird,
the Rocky Mountain Oyster Eating Contest
(that’s bull testicles to you and me).
But the star event is the Coffin Races — a
cross between Tough Mudder and the zombie
apocalypse. Teams of six pallbearers must
48 natgeotraveller.co.uk
ILLUSTRATION: JACQUI OAKLEY
carry a homemade coffin over an obstacle
course without it breaking or killing the
‘corpse’ for real. I talked my wife and five
friends into it, then bought seven royal
family masks, a Queen outfit, a ridiculous
amount of lumber, and enough beers to get
us through the build. Finally, Team ‘Royal
Bloody Family’ was ready to be the UK’s first
official entry in America’s most bonkers race.
We’re one of 30 teams competing on a
200-metre course dotted with hay-bale
chicanes, mud pits and icy banks. We race in
pairs. First up, the gold-suited Disco Queens
versus a team in Beetlejuice outfits. Then
the Unicorns pit their rainbows against the
Knight’s toilet-plunger swords. The Lady
Lumberjacks impress, despite the weight of
their fake beards. Team Blue Balls seem to
just shrivel and hide.
Then it’s our turn on the starting line:
Charles and Camilla up front, Will and Kate at
the back, Her Majesty royal-waving from the
coffin, two inflatable corgis trailing behind.
I’d love to tell you we snatched victory from
death’s icy grip, but coffins are heavy, we’re
old, and haring around an obstacle course
wearing a mask is like sprinting into a china
shop with your eyes shut. We nearly dropped
the Queen on the first bend, got thrashed in
the mandatory snowball fight and crashed
through the last mud pit with our royal faces
firmly in the arse of the team in front. We lost.
Or did we? Afterwards, the teams take part
in a death march through town. Sure, the
whizz-kids throwing Mario Kart banana skins
out the back are fast; and, yes, the Jamaican
bobsleigh team are agile and have nice buns.
But we have the crowds in hysterics, high-
fiving us as we pass. We may have lost the race,
but we triumphed at the parade. And that’s
the thing about eccentricity — to win is fun,
but to laugh at yourself is truly enlightened.
Grandpa Bredo would’ve been proud.
frozendeadguydays.org
British travel writer Aaron Millar ran away from London
in 2013 and has been hiding out in the Rocky
Mountains of Boulder, Colorado ever since. His latest
book, The 50 Greatest National Parks of the World, is
available through Amazon and other retailers.
@AaronMWriter
 ‫הרשות לפיתוח ירושלים‬

THE JERUSALEM DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

Experience JERUSALEM
CULTURE, CULINARY, A GREAT FAMILY VACATION

Whilst Jerusalem’s deep significance to three monotheistic religions draws

thousands of devoted visitors to the city every year, there is a changing face
of the city which lies beyond the city walls. Past, present and future blend
together inseparably in this extraordinarily unique city, making it a creative
hub for innovative young entrepreneurs.

From food markets, technology, film, restaurants, spas, hotels and bars,
Jerusalem is at the forefront of modern culture and continues to push the
boundaries, creating original spaces and immersive experiences for people
to enjoy.
SMART TRAVELLER
The
Blog
Calm sapphire waves turn
slate grey as clouds sweep
across the sky, and we are
on tenterhooks. Waiting
for a whale shark is a bit
like waiting for a bus; you
never know if, or when,
it’ll show up
50 natgeotraveller.co.uk
AUSTRALIA
WHALE SHARK
WONDERS
Australia’s Ningaloo Reef is the perfect place
for a thrilling swim with the world’s largest fish
“
They only reach speeds of three miles an
hour. Not fast, in the scheme of things,”
says marine biologist guide Natalie
Yeates. In the scheme of things, perhaps. But,
when a creature about the length of a
double-decker bus swims straight towards
you, three miles an hour feels pretty zippy.
“Remember to swim once you’re in the
water,” Natalie adds, addressing our group
of 10. Like a wetsuited queue of lemmings,
snorkels in mouths, we wait to slip off our
boat in Australia’s Ningaloo Reef. “It sounds
daft, but some people forget to move; these
fish don’t hang around.”
Bobbing atop the Indian Ocean seems a
long way from Exmouth, the frontier-feel
town we left an hour ago. About 800 miles
north of Perth, it’s a place where bohemian
souls settle, and emus outnumber cars on
its dusty roads. A tiny tender has whizzed
us to a 40ft vessel at sea, crewed by Natalie
and three more of the Live Ningaloo team.
Calm sapphire waves turn slate grey as
clouds sweep across the sky, and we are on
tenterhooks. Waiting for a whale shark is
a bit like waiting for a bus; you never know
if, or when, it’ll show up. The air, however,
is fogged with anticipation rather than the
lethargic lull prior to the arrival of the 210 to
Finsbury Park.
Here, beneath the surface, lie wonders;
Australia’s largest fringing reef, a biodiverse
UNESCO World Heritage Site, home to no
less than 400 types of coral and explosions
of psychedelic-hued fi sh. Ningaloo’s
remote location means it’s under the radar
compared to the Great Barrier Reef. The
schlep is worth it though, to see marine
megafauna royalty: the whale sharks (sharks,
not whales) that roam here between April
and September.
Despite their gargantuan size (up to 40ft
in length and weighing up to 21 tonnes) and
gaping jaws, whale sharks are docile fi lter
feeders, and today we’ll snorkel with them in
the wild — if any show up, of course.
 SMART TRAVELLER

�ost �ead
VISIT US ONLINE AT From Michelin stars in Birmingham to hill tribes in Thailand
NATGEOTRAVELLER.CO.UK — here’s what you’ve been devouring online
With daily updates, including
a blog every Tuesday and our
Travel Video of the Week each
Friday, get your fix of National
ITALY
Geographic Traveller online The ultimate guide
You’ve admired the Colosseum and soaked up
the sights and sounds of Venice, but another
Italy is waiting in the wings. We uncover the
faces and places — old and new — that are
First — safety. Rules and regulations: no INDIA rewriting this much-loved classic
touching, no flash photography, at most 10 Breaking bread:
swimmers in the water keeping at least 10ft Eating with a
from the whale shark’s head and 13ft from Kayasth family
its tail. Some whale shark ‘experiences’ India’s Kayasth
are less scrupulously regulated, leading to people sit outside the
overcrowded waters and distressed animals. A caste system. In
capped number of permits and Delhi, the Chandra
strict rules mean Ningaloo is a family throws plenty
LIKE THIS? READ MORE shining example of responsible of its own andaz
ABOUT AUSTRALIA whale shark tourism. — personal style
ONLINE Above, a spotter plane — into the mix
whirrs. Its pilot shares real-
NEIGHBOURHOOD:
MELBOURNE
time insight with our captain, UNITED KINGDOM
Famed for its food scene Murray, so he can position the Where to eat in
and creative spirit, boat — at a safe distance — to Birmingham
Melbourne isn’t just coincide with passing sharks. Britain’s second city
Australia’s coolest city, Suddenly, Natalie is in the is riding high on a
it’s also the most liveable water, giving hand signals to wave of Michelin
indicate the shark’s trajectory stars, creative
EXPLORING WESTERN and the formation we’ll take. cocktails and
AUSTRALIA’S In we go, thrusting our masks multinational flavours
CORAL COAST
under the water. Cruising past
This epic road trip takes
is a 26ft whale shark, oscillating THAILAND
in singular sea creatures,
space travel and even a
from side to side, its deep blue The spirit of the
seceded state skin a riot of spots and stripes. hill tribes
I freeze. I’ve seen manta A homestay with the
rays in Indonesia, and swum hill tribes of northern
THE NULLARBOR: THE in tornadoes of jackfish in Thailand’s Golden
LONG & LONELY ROAD Borneo, but nothing feels as Triangle means a trek
Stick your Outback
exhilarating as this. “Swim!” through dense, cool FAMILY
soundtrack on the stereo:
Natalie screeches at me as my forests — and a Back to nature
the quintessential
pan-Australian road trip is
head pops above water. A hasty chance to honour the in Paris
a soul vacation that offers front crawl and I catch our spirits of these An unlikely new TOP 4
a lot of time to think starfish-shaped convoy. Arms remote reaches partnership between UK beer hotels
— and the chance to play cut into water — murky with Disneyland and BrewDog has a new
a few holes of the world’s the microscopic plankton on Center Parcs scores hotel in the works,
longest golf course which the sharks feast — and high for a wholesome complete with
fin-clad feet kick hard. With outdoors holiday in-room beer taps,
each flick of the whale shark’s tail a current where new skills can but there are plenty
reverberates through the water; its force is be acquired, and of other UK beer
astonishing. About 20 minutes later, heart teens placated hotels to stay in
booming like a bass drum and nursing a
stitch, I’ve swallowed three margaritas’
IMAGES: GETTY; MATT PARKER

worth of salt. I climb back on the boat.

Running on adrenalin, 10 minutes later we
line up again. The bus gods are on our side;
some days none come, on others, they all
show up at once.
Search for NatGeoTravelUK on...
IANTHE BUTT
FACEBOOK TWITTER GOOGLE+
liveningaloo.com.au TUMBLR PINTEREST INSTAGRAM

Jul/Aug 2018 51
GHENT

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

W
hen it comes to nicknames for
its cities, Belgium goes all out.
Brussels is seen as the ‘Capital of
local traditions and a quirky history still
hold sway in this thriving student city.
And although the students keep the place
IMAGES: MILO PROFI ; LUKASWEB.BE ; GETTY

Europe’, Bruges is oft dubbed the ‘Venice of
the North’, and Antwerp shimmers as the
‘City of Diamonds’. Ghent? Well, exactly.
Not that this bothers the locals; they’re
more than happy for tourists to bypass their
backyard and head elsewhere, leaving their
city with just a handful of the visitors that
nearby Bruges draws in. And it all works
in Ghent’s favour. The result is a laid-back
city that has managed to hold on to its
slightly irreverent personality — proud
feeling young and vibrant, don’t be fooled;
the city wears its years well. The Belgian
beauty still seduces with pretty, small-town
Flemish charm, and is packed with history,
too, glimpsed in the likes of fairy-tale castle
turrets, historic quaysides and dreamy
belfries that dominate the skyline. Throw in
leisurely walks along the canals, big bowls
of mussels in creaky wooden pubs and a car-
free cobbled centre, and you’ve got a failsafe
recipe for your next city break.

52 natgeotraveller.co.uk
 GHENT

PILLOW TALK
For the best beds in town,
check in to 1898 The Post,
which cuts a handsome
gothic-revival figure on
Graslei, by the river. Unwind
amid huge windows, moody
clay and bottle-green tones,
and curios carefully selected
to reflect its bygone days as
the city’s former post office.
Standard doubles
from €180 (£158),
room only.
zannierhotels.com

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

DON’T MISS

Ambling through the city after dusk. Ghent has

a special lighting system that illuminates all its
glorious towers and turrets, making the city
look all the more like a fairy tale.

STEP UP TO THE PLATE

THREE TO TRY Ghent is in the grip of a foodie

Take a bite boom. You can still get your fi x of

CUBERDONS
Called ‘Ghent noses’ in Dutch,
these are popular with the locals,
so grab some while you can from
the stalls at Groentenmarkt.
Sweet and squidgy, think
grown-up jelly babies.
GANDA HAM
Aged for 10-16 months, rose-
hued Ganda has a deliciously
deep, mature flavour. Try a few
slices with some Limburger
cheese bought from Petite
Normandie cheese shop.
MUSTARD
The Tierenteyn-Verlent mustard
shop has been making the
condiment since 1790. You can
only buy it here, and its recipe is
a closely guarded secret.
tierenteyn-verlent.be
waffles and frites, although exciting
culinary offerings are now putting
Ghent fi rmly on the gastronomic
map. Try Cochon De Luxe for fun
(but delicious) plates, or, if you can
bag a table, the lauded Chambre
Séparée — a laid-back showstopper
of an evening out, with a roster
of ever-changing courses from
star of Flanders’ food scene,
Kobe Desramaults. Book online.
cochondeluxe.be chambreseparee.be

Jul/Aug 2018 53
GHENT

EYEWITNESS

BEERS, BIKES & BENGALS

“Mayor of the Night?” I ask as we enter Café den Turk, From there, we wander to our third port of call, in the
supposedly the oldest pub in Ghent. The city’s most quiet maze that is the Patershol district, where streets
venerable watering hole is a contested title, but with that are quiet by day now simmer with life. We step into
its low ceilings and warped wooden beams, den Turk ’t Velootje, a little townhouse clad in flashing lights,
makes a convincing case. Around us there’s a quiet street signs and flags. Inside, hundreds of bikes hang
clink as people finish their meals; an obscure chanson from the ceiling of the tiny room and towering piles of
française comes from a radio somewhere. “A Mayor boxes and books surround just a handful of benches.
of the Night does sound like an exciting title.” Cramped it may be, but ’t Velootje is still buzzing; a dozen
Tall, bespectacled Mong Cocquyt looks at me or so Ghentians are sipping away to the soundtrack of
sceptically. “It’s a stupid title, actually. I just have to crackly tunes coming from an iPhone somewhere in the
make sure all the pubs and bars in Ghent are full of corner. Liewen, the white-bearded owner, eventually
money, and people are so drunk they’re crawling back emerges from a doorway cradling a Bengal cat.
home on all fours.” I say to Mong: “I assume he’s a Ghentian?” He beams:
It’s a novel way to say he’s responsible for keeping “Ah, yes, he’s my king. He is the real Ghent.”
Ghent’s nightlife thriving, but he’s probably the best
man for the job. By day he’s a cartographer and spent
three years calling in at every pub in Ghent, Antwerp
and Brussels to make a comprehensive map of the three
cities’ pubs and bars. As a proud Ghentian through and
through, nobody knows the city’s pubs better. “So, we’ll
go to all the best pubs in Ghent,” he says. “You have lots
of nice restaurants and bars here, but you can find them
anywhere in the world. This is the [real] Ghent.”
I don’t know what he’s ordered us, but two glasses
of frothy, maple-coloured beer are in his hands. “You see
this part here,” he says, pointing to the fluted bottom half
of the glass. “You hold this part because it avoids contact
with the glass. If you hold the smooth glass at the top
then your body heat warms the beer and that’s a sin.” Eurostar offers
Life lesson learned, we head out to ’t Dreupelkot, tickets from London to
a tiny little bar by the canal. It’s so crowded inside Brussels (with the ‘any
Belgian station’ ticket
that locals are spilling out on to the street and the air
option), from where it’s a
is thick with the smell of hops and liqueur. And the
simple change and
floor is so sticky I find myself walking on the spot just 30-min train journey to
IMAGES: GETTY

so I don’t get stuck. Bizarrely, it’s wonderful. Ghent. From £35

I’m handed a shot of Albatross, a strong, sweet lurid one-way. eurostar.com
liqueur that could have featured in my university days. visitgent.be
I prefer the beer. visitflanders.com

54 natgeotraveller.co.uk
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 Lunch at Saltimporten
Canteen. RIGHT:
Möllevångstorget Market in
Möllevången district, Malmö
 Eat
MALMÖ
This coastal Swedish gem is a place where chefs are
taking delicious risks, seasonality is gospel, and Middle
Eastern spices are abundant. Words: James Clasper
T
he menu at Lyran looks more
like a luxury shopping list than a
description of dishes. A few items
— rhubarb, poppy seeds, coriander, black
garlic — sound simple enough. But most
are distinguished by their seemingly exotic
origins. Capers from Pantelleria. Scanian
beef. Chioggia beetroot. Mascarpone from
La Treccia. Ramsons from Mushroom
Mike. Only the smattering of Swedish
words — the names of local farms that
supply the restaurant — remind you that
you’re in Malmö.
Still, Lyran’s eclectic menu is a sign of
IMAGES: ALAMY; KARINA SZUTER / KARINASZUTER.COM
the times in Sweden’s third-largest city.
After years of industrial decline, Malmö has
emerged as a forward-thinking metropolis
— one that champions sustainability and
start-ups, and is attracting newcomers from
far and wide. It’s also Sweden’s most diverse
city. An influx of immigrants — many from
Syria — means that almost 180 countries
are represented.
Little wonder, then, that its food scene
is exploding. From third-wave coffee to
artisanal bakeries, bustling markets to
cutting-edge cuisine, Malmö has everything
you’d expect from a cosmopolitan city. Fancy
a splurge? Head to one of its four Michelin-
starred restaurants. Prefer street food? There
are dozens of falafel shops, some started by
Syrian refugees. Locals debate who makes
the best. To resolve it, perhaps, Malmö is
hosting the Falafel World Cup this summer.
Local chef Alexander Norén has worked
in the city all his life and describes it as the
“Brooklyn to Copenhagen’s Manhattan”.
Besides the geographic parallel — the two
cities are linked by an iconic bridge — his
clear inference is that Malmö is edgier
than the Danish capital, its cheaper rents
inspiring a number of restaurants to
take risks.
Alexander’s own venture, SOI 29, is a case
in point. It’s a Thai restaurant, yet there
isn’t a bowl of noodles in sight. Instead, it
offers classic Thai cuisine such as green
papaya salad, Tom Yum Goong (prawn soup),
and Pla Thot Sam Rot (fried whole sea bass
with a tamarind-tangy three-flavour sauce).
Or, as Alexander puts it, “street food with a
chef ’s touch”.
Jul/Aug 2018 57
 Your special hideaway
in Merano
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Five food finds
FALAFEL & BURGERS
Located in new food hall, Malmö
Saluhall, this spot stands out from
the city-wide competition by
frying its falafel in olive oil and
using freshly baked pitta bread.
B.A.R.
Enjoy natural wine by the glass
and small plates such as beef
tartare with wild garlic and
crunchy rye bread at this casual
New Nordic bistro.
KÖLD
Exotic flavours — such as
‘raspberry ripple’ made with
cashews and balsamic vinegar
— make this Malmö’s standout ice
cream parlour.
LEVE
Locals flock to this tiny bakery
near Triangeln every Thursday
for its vegan doughnuts, though
it’s also home to Malmö’s tastiest
cardamom buns.
MAT- & CHOKLADSTUDION
Head to pastry chef Joel
Lundqvist’s shop for excellent
IMAGE: ALAMY
chocolate pralines, which are
handmade using exotic organic
ingredients such as damson
and yuzu.
Alexander launched SOI 29 in spring this
year, with three other chefs, including his
wife, Johanna. “Everyone was doing the
same thing, this Scandi thing,” he explains.
“I was so tired of cooking that food and felt
like I wanted to take the ball and run the
other way.” This meant taking a ‘deep dive’
into Thai cuisine, culminating in a trip
to Bangkok, where Alexander spent a
month cooking at the celebrated restaurant
Nahm alongside noted Thai food expert
David Thompson.
He brought some of Nahm’s dishes back
to Malmö — including a recipe for Yam
Pak, a flavour bomb of fruit and herbs (as
well as the phone number of the company
that supplies Nahm with shrimp paste).
EAT
THIS PAGE FROM TOP: Chefs at Falafel & Burgers;
plating up at Saltimporten Canteen
Ingredients are everything at SOI 29.
Alexander gets fresh produce flown in
from Thailand every Monday, along with
authentic spices including galangal and
holy basil. The fish and meat are local and
organic, as is that most Scandinavian of
herbs — dill. “People come here and say: ‘Is
this really Thai food? It’s a salad with dill.
Do they eat dill in Thailand?’” He laughs. “I
tell them, in northern Thailand and Laos,
they eat lots of dill.”
A pedal push away, I meet Petra Jarl,
who’s every bit as uncompromising about
her ingredients. Petra is the owner of a
delicatessen called Ola & Ko. She launched
it four years ago with one goal: “To serve
only the best produce, preferably from the
surrounding region, Skåne — and always,
always, always without containing anything
that isn’t food.”
Today that means focusing on anything
from local goods such as cloudberry jam
and rhubarb soda to dry-aged pork and
Wagyu beef. Between customers, Jarl slips
me a slice of salami she made herself,
and counts off the ingredients: lamb,
white wine, Szechuan pepper and salt.
Her criteria for stocking items are equally
simple. “Does it taste exceptionally good?
Does it have a connection with Skåne? If so,
let’s bring it here.”
There’s a similar dogma on display at
one of Malmö’s trendiest restaurants.
Saltimporten Canteen occupies a glass-
fronted warehouse in the city’s northern
harbour. It was launched by acclaimed local
chefs Ola Rudin and Sebastian Persson a
couple of years ago, following their decision
to work more family-friendly hours. To this
end, it’s only open for lunch on weekdays
(the duo also runs a catering business). The
menu is simpler still: Rudin and Persson
offer diners just two dishes, which range
from classic Swedish to more exotic fare.
No matter what, says Rudin, the trick is
seasonality, and working directly with
local farmers and producers. “It tastes
better and feels better,” he explains. “We
stay in contact with the farmers and they
let us know when, for example, the carrots
taste just right.” Rudin acknowledges that
compared to Copenhagen across the water
“Malmö is still in many ways the underdog”
but believes in its potential. “We’re part of a
generation of chefs who want to put Malmö
Jul/Aug 2018 59
EAT
on the culinary map with local quality-
driven food and a unique identity.”
Which brings us back to Lyran. This tiny
neighbourhood restaurant opposite a once-
dubious park is the jewel in the crown of
Malmö’s food scene. I eat at the countertop
opposite its open kitchen, and at the end of
service, owner Jörgen Lloyd pours himself
a glass of wine and starts jotting down
ingredients he’d like to use the next day.
“Right now I’m in a bubble where I want my
food to be as pure as possible,” he says. That
means working with as few ingredients as
he can. Later he’ll text his farmers and find
out what they’ve got — “whether it’s spot-
on and needs to be taken right now”. He
meets them every morning and conjures up
that day’s dishes with his two other chefs.
Lloyd’s devotion to seasonal ingredients
means dishes are often on the menu for just
a few days at a time. I got lucky, dining on
the last day for a standout dish: rainbow
trout fillet, served with its own roe. “The
eggs are whipped with a bit of salt, and are
very fresh and pert,” Lloyd says.
60 natgeotraveller.co.uk
ABOVE: Vendors
at Malmö Saluhall
I can see why everyone I meet in Malmö
tells me to dine at Lyran. Lloyd is a self-taught,
homegrown hero. “I could never read a recipe
because it bores me,” he laughs. “I started to
cook from inspiration, from pure instinct.”
And today, his inspiration comes from
the melting pot of his city. Look closely, and
you’ll spot pistachios from Iran, pine nuts
from Pakistan, and freshly ground spices
from the Palestinian bazaar across the road.
“They make it themselves — harissa, za’atar,
all kinds of spice mixes I’ve never heard of,”
Lloyd says. “They say you have to try this,
and the next day it’s on my menu.” Indeed,
“a dash of this and a pinch of that” is how
Lyran’s menu describes the spices. This also
happens to be a very good description of
Malmö’s food scene today.
Numerous airlines fly to Copenhagen from airports
around the UK. From there, trains to Malmö leave
Copenhagen Airport every 20 minutes and cost £13.
Rooms at the CLARION HOTEL & CONGRESS MALMÖ
LIVE cost from £86 B&B. clarionlive.se
A TASTE OF
Malmö
SALTIMPORTEN CANTEEN
Chefs Ola Rudin and Sebastian
Persson dish out simple but
delicious fare such as beef tartare
with beetroots, blackcurrants
and tarragon; pickled herring
with beetroot and browned
butter; and braised pork belly,
cauliflower, ramson and leek ash.
There are only two options — one
meat, one veggie — so the queue
moves quickly.
HOW MUCH: Lunch costs about £7
per person, excluding drinks.
saltimporten.com
BASTARD
Occupying a townhouse in the
prettiest part of Malmö, Bastard
is the elder statesman of its
contemporary dining scene, but it
remains a fun place to knock back
a bottle of natural wine and tuck
into something casual — a pot of
pig’s head terrine, say, or green
asparagus with almonds and
lumpfish roe.
HOW MUCH: Dinner costs around
£40 per person, excluding drinks.
bastardrestaurant.com
SOI 29
Of the dishes that head chef
Alexander Norén picked up at
IMAGES: ALAMY; PER-ANDERS JÖRGENSEN
Bangkok restaurant Nahm, one of
the best is a salad of sour mango,
physalis and Asian pear with
coriander, mint and dill, and a
dressing of palm sugar, tamarind,
sesame seeds and deep-fried
shallots. It’s a dish of weapons-
grade deliciousness.
HOW MUCH: Dinner costs around
£32 per person, excluding drinks.
soi29thaikitchen.com
LESS IS
MORE

Hotel Castel — multifaceted,

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

Here, less is more. The hotel has just 25 rooms

and 20 suites, all of which have been renovated
recently. Guests are given the time and space to rest
in an atmosphere of relaxed understated luxury.

The hotel’s cuisine is another highlight: in both

restaurants, two Michelin-star executive chef
Gerhard Wieser combines creative inspiration with
the best ingredients from the region into a delightful
synthesis of light Alpine/Mediterranean cuisine.

To help guests relax, the Carpe Diem spa has a

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

T +39 0473 923693 | info@hotel-castel.com

www.hotel-castel.com
 Alpine luxury.
Totally private.

Luxury Chalet
Schmiedalm
The exclusive holiday hideaway above Saalbach
Hinterglemm nestled amongst the Kitzbühel Alps
enjoys a fabulous location in the most beautiful
mountain area in Austria, 1.5 hours from Salzburg, a
Unesco World Heritage side.

A unique and tailored holiday. The Schmiedalm is a chalet

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

Experience Austria. With daily flights from major London Airports

to Salzburg and organized transfers, unwind and relax in your
very own chalet, where all your holiday wishes come true, from a
relaxed family holiday through to the sumptuous luxury of your
own private hideaway.

www.unterschwarzach.at
Luxury Chalet Schmiedalm | Austria
+43 6541 6633 | info@schmiedalm.at
 Neighbourhood
VENICE
Venice is a thriving city but visitors often fail to get to the heart of it. Turn away
from the crowds to find out why sestieri are doing it for themselves
Words: Shaney Hudson Photographs: Chris Van Hove

Venezia è una vera città. These words are proudly unfurled from windows,
on dozens of green banners that hang prominently along the Grand Canal.
Chewing over the Italian for a few minutes, I ask an older Venetian next to me
ILLUSTRATION: KERRY HYNDMAN

on the vaporetto for the missing word to help me solve my puzzle.

“Vera?” I ask, while smiling and pointing to the sign.
“Real,” he says, gesturing around him with pride. “Venice is a real city.”
This may be so, yet many tourists miss the ‘real’ city. The key to understanding
and enjoying it, is to explore its sestieri, the Venetian neighbourhoods. Go down
the back alleys. Sit by the canals. Wander and get lost, and Venice will find you.

Jul/Aug 2018 63
NEIGHBOURHOOD
Dorsoduro
It’s dawn, and there are no other tourists
but us on the Punta della Dogana at the tip
of the Dorsoduro neighbourhood. It’s quiet,
but thriving. Runners loop past, an empty
vaporetto drops off a single passenger, and
elderly men sit on upturned buckets casting
a line in the Giudecca Canal. It’s the everyday
and extraordinary, awash in the golden light
of the rising sun.
Poised between the Grand Canal and the
Giudecca Canal, the Dorsoduro is home
to the city’s most prestigious galleries,
including the Accademia, Peggy Guggenheim
and Punta della Dogana.
“If you really know Venice, you want to
stay here, not near San Marco,” says Paolo
Morra, manager of the Sina Centurion
Palace, a 50-room design hotel overlooking
the Grand Canal. “It’s in the historical centre,
but away from the historical centre.”
Despite its elegant pedigree, local life
dominates the streetscape. On one canal, a
fórcole workshop makes traditional wooden
oars, while on a floating barge near the
64 natgeotraveller.co.uk
Campo San Barnaba, a greengrocer peels
artichoke hearts by hand.
We search for the Squero di san Trovaso,
one of the last working gondola shipyards
in Venice. We find the backdoor, but to see
the shipyard we must double back, cross two
bridges, walk along a portico and down a
canal: the Venetian version of Pac-Man.
It’s high tide, and water slaps over the path.
I slip off my shoes and get my feet wet. It’s
no acqua alta (seasonal flooding), but it’s
enough to make me smile.
Directly opposite the shipyard is the
Osteria Al Squero, a cicchetti bar serving
small bites. While reports of €800 (£700)
meals in San Marco fill the international
press, a water view and lunch for two here
costs under €20 (£18). CLOCKWISE FROM
In the afternoon, we visit a place Morra BELOW: Punta della
Dogana in the Dorsoduro;
calls “The real life of Venice”: the Campo
a gondola in Cannaregio;
Santa Margherita. At 5pm, the square
a display in the Fortuny
is pumping. Kids shout and chase each factory in Giudecca;
other, friends chat in groups, grocers do a a women walks
roaring trade, and a buzzing set of terrace alongs the promenade
restaurants drain the city’s supply of Aperol. in Giudecca

When in Venice
VENETIAN ROWING
Rowing is everything in Venice:
a means of transport, a sport, a
profession and pastime. Amateur
and professional races run
throughout the year, but two of
the most prestigious events are
Vogalonga to Burano in May,
and the Regata Storica, which
travels along the Grand Canal
in full costume. vogalonga.com
regatastoricavenezia.it
BIENNALE
Renowned worldwide, Venice’s
Biennale showcases art during the
odd years (the next is scheduled
for 2019), while the architecture
Biennale runs during even years
(2018). Held in public spaces
throughout Venice as well as
purpose-built pavilions, the
central organisation also overseas
dance, theatre, film and music
events. labiennale.org
CICCHETTI
Served with an ombra (glass of
wine), and costing just a euro or
two, the small bar snacks known
as cicchetti keep the city fuelled
and ready to go — at least until
the locals go home for dinner.
OUTER LAGOON
When locals want to escape the
crowd, they head to the outer
lagoon, where a sea breeze cools
things down and the tourist crowd
thins out.
GREEN SPACES
With space at a premium, Venice’s
parks and gardens are treasured.
One of the biggest is the Giardini
della Biennale in the Castello.
Giudecca
Part of the Dorsoduro sistieri, Giudecca is
easily seen from San Marco but is considered
just a bridge too far for most tourists. Back
in the day, Venetians felt the same: the
geographical distance across the deep and
wide Giudecca canal was considered so
daunting that the children of aristocrats
not fortunate enough to inherit were exiled
here, residing in religious orders, far from the
temptations across the water.
Today, Giudecca is one of the few places
you can stroll in Venice where locals clearly
outnumber tourists, despite the area
being bookended by one of the city’s most
luxurious hotels on one side, and one of the
biggest chain hotels on the other.
“People who come to Giudecca are people
who see the real Venice,” says Rosangela,
who welcomes me into the showroom of the
Fortuny factory, one of the last bastions of
thriving industry on the island. Creating
textiles for theatre, interiors and clothing
using techniques that remain shrouded
in secrecy, the Fortuny showroom can be
visited during business hours, but book
ahead for a glimpse of the secret garden, part
of the original convent grounds.
Most recently, Giudecca is experiencing
a new life as the home of Venice’s thriving
NEIGHBOURHOOD
contemporary art scene. Flushed from the
centre of the city by rising rents, artists
including the Giudecca 795 collective have
set up here, and in the cloisters of Convento
dei Santi Cosma e Damiano, which has been
repurposed into artists’ studios. Described
as ‘labs’, the former convent is occupied
by a community of local artisans, creating
everything from glass to handmade paper,
restoring antique books and making masks.
Two major attractions stand out for those
who venture this far: the Casa dei Tre Oci,
which acts as both a neo-gothic architectural
highlight and photography museum; and the
iconic Il Redentore church, built to celebrate
the city’s salvation from the plague. On the
third weekend in July a temporary pontoon
is built across the canal for pilgrims to travel
to the church, attracting thousands. But
outside that one weekend, you get the sense
things are slower here.
Nuns in brown habits wheel shopping
trolleys in and out of the supermercado,
while men sip beer and eat cicchetti
outside the Osteria da Moro. A self-service
laundromat has a prime water view of the
Giudecca Canal across to San Marco; but its
occupants flick through their phones as their
whites and brights spin, indifferent to the
vista some wait a lifetime to see.
Jul/Aug 2018 65
NEIGHBOURHOOD
Cannaregio
Part of the Jewish Ghetto from the 16th to
18th centuries, Cannaregio has primarily
become more of a middle-class residential
area. It’s a place where locals visit the
unassuming shop front of Nicolao Atelier in
the back canals for their carnival costumes,
and the local Spar supermarket sits in
the belly of exquisitely restored theatre.
However, it’s also a neighbourhood growing
in popularity.
“This area has become a lot more lively,”
says Jane Corporal from Row Venice, as we
paddle her traditional prawn-tailed batellina
along the canals. A champion Venetian
rower who has lived here for 27 years, she
founded the non-profit Row Venice, which
offers lessons in voga alla veneta, or Venetian
stand-up rowing.
A chance to paddle the neighbourhood
with oar in hand is not to be missed. We
dip beneath bridges and glimpse private
gardens obscured from street view, skim
the petticoats of crumbling buildings and
cross paths with other new operators along
the waterway, including a stand-up paddle-
boarding outfit.
Jane sees the SUP operation, run by local
Eliana Argine, not as competition, but a
complement to the city’s growing menu of
paddle sports. While passing, Jane calls out
66 natgeotraveller.co.uk
in Italian on my behalf, to ask if anyone ever
falls in.
“Only occasionally,” Eliana replies.
Staying firmly in our seats, we pass bars
and restaurants, their terraces packed with
punters. Most recently, Fondamenta della
Misericordia and Fondamenta dei Ormesini
streets have become popular, garnering
a reputation for quality bites and wine at
reasonable prices.
Accompanying Cannaregio’s new
popularity, there’s been an upswing in
people interested in staying in the area, and
we struggle to find a hotel, with slim pickings
and high prices on Airbnb. Luckily, locals
have taken things into their own hands. One
B&B owner who’s booked out recommends a
collective called Breakfast in Venice.
It offers ‘true traditional B&B’ set to a strict
criteria: accommodation must be family-run
with no more than three rooms, and guests
share the house with the owner. I send off
an email and within a few hours, my inbox
is filled with vacancies. It’s a nice twist that
in an area increasingly encroached upon by
tourists, tourism has strengthened the sense
of community.
ABOVE FROM LEFT: The Cannaregio neighourhood;
gelato in Cannaregio
A chance to paddle
the neighbourhood
with oar in hand is
not to be missed. We
dip beneath bridges
and glimpse private
gardens obscured
from street view
MORE INFO
Sina Centurion Palace. sinahotels.com
Breakfast in Venice.
breakfastinvenice.com
Osteria Al Squero.
osteriaalsquero.wordpress.com
Casa dei Tre Oci. treoci.org
Fortuny Factory. fortuny.com
Row Venice. rowvenice.org
Giudecca 795. giudecca795.com
Al Timon. altimon.it
Nicolao Atelier. nicolao.com
SUP in Venice. supinvenice.com
Osteria da Moro. 00 39 041 099 5884
Ca D’oro Alla Vedova.
00 39 041 528 5324
Venice, by Jan Morris (Faber),
RRP: £10:99.
Venice & The Veneto (Lonely Planet 9th
Edition, 2016), RRP: £12.99.
111 Places in Venice That You Must Not
Miss, by Gerd Wolfgang Sievers (Emons;
Gerd Wolfgang Sievers), RRP: £10:99.
weareherevenice.org
EXPEDIA offers five nights at the
Sina Centurion Palace and flights from
London from £1,441 (peak season). All
hotels must collect an additional tourist
tax (of a few euros), dependent on the
length of your stay. expedia.co.uk
YOUR HIDEAWAY IN THE DOLOMITES

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

When the first tourists arrived in the Maldives in 1960s, they made their way to
Malé by hitching rides on cargo ships. They then negotiated with fishing boats
to drop them at island homestays. Fast forward to 2018 and the allure of these
islands stretching from Sri Lanka to the equator is obvious; bone-white beaches
and swaying palm trees, blue seas teeming with Disney-worthy marine life,
life-affirming sunsets and night skies so clear you can watch shooting stars. The
further you go from Malé, the more delicious the sense of isolation. Head north
for large species of marine life — mantas, turtles, dolphins in their hundreds
IMAGES: GETTY; PAUL THUYSBAERT

— or to the far south for deep dives, shipwrecks and encounters with whale
sharks, nurse sharks and hammerheads. The Maldives’ far-flung location and
logistical challenges ensure a holiday here is never going to be cheap so it makes
sense to go all-inclusive, full or even half-board when you can.

F
68 natgeotraveller.co.uk
For creative types
FAIRMONT MALDIVES
SIRRU FEN FUSHI
Few places in the Maldives manage to
combine culture with barefoot chic quite like
Sirru Fen Fushi. It’s the only resort on the
northern Shaviyani Atoll, so remote it takes
over an hour to reach by seaplane from Malé,
meaning immaculate reefs, empty horizons
and not a chink of light pollution. It’s also
the first resort to have its own underwater
gallery. There are a dozen life-size figures
planted on the seabed, sewn with corals and
turned into a mesmerising artificial reef,
which will grow and evolve over time.
ROOMS: Villas from £792, half-board.
sirrufenfushi.com

Jul/Aug 2018 69
SLEEP

For wellness
COMO MAALIFUSHI
Como Maalifushi, the only resort in the
northern Thaa Atoll, is quite the celebrity
hideaway — although staff will never
say who has stayed. They’re lured by vast
sun-drenched villas, attended to by butlers
who won’t bat an eyelid at requests for 100
white, scented candles, and a wondrous
range of activities — £1m yachts for hire,
night snorkelling with whale sharks, diving
with hammerhead sharks. But the real star
is the peerless Como Shambala spa, where
Ayurvedic doctors prescribe morning
meditation, stress-busting breathing,
beachside yoga, and hours-long massages
and facials, alongside delicious spa cuisine.
ROOMS: Villas from £612, B&B. comohotels.com

70 natgeotraveller.co.uk
 SLEEP

For added extras

AMILLA FUSHI
The thoroughly modern Amilla Fushi, a
30-minute seaplane journey from Malé, has
banished teak and thatched-roofs in favour of
angular white villas, stacked along the beach
or over the Tiffany-blue sea. Inside, there are
polished concrete walls, aquamarine floor
tiles, wicker chairs and jumbo bathrooms
stocked with eco-friendly Aesop amenities.
Elsewhere, there are treehouses, with an
extra bedroom and stilted swimming pools.
Go full-board and on top of three meals a
day, you can have breakfast delivered to your
room for free, afternoon tea, daily laundry
and a 50-minute massage at the Javvu spa.
ROOMS: Villas from £1,123, full-board.
amillafushi.com

Jul/Aug 2018 71
OH-SO STYLISH
Welcome to a place where almost everything is possible, and boredom
simply does not exist. Kandima Maldives is much more than just a
holiday, it’s a lifestyle! Experience a new type of destination with
extraordinary restaurants and bars and plenty of onsite activities to
choose from. This game-changing resort is anything but ordinary.

Dhaalu Atoll , Republic of Maldives

T. +960 676 0077 I E. mykindofplace@kandima.com
kandima.com I #MyKindOfPlace
 SLEEP

For photographers
THE ST REGIS
MALDIVES VOMMULI
Sitting on the rim of the Dhaalu Atoll, the
St Regis Volummi is a super-luxe property
that can do it all — romantic, spa, family-
friendly. All of the accommodation is large
and opulent; the water villas the most
dramatic, with razor-sharp lines and huge
infinity pools. Then there’s the over-water
spa, shaped like a lobster with six treatment
rooms positioned in the pincers, and the
curvaceous Whale Bar where you can
swallow up those Indian Ocean sunsets.
ROOMS: Villas from £1,435, room only.
stregis.com

For a Bond hideaway

VELAA PRIVATE ISLAND
Stepping into Velaa’s watersports centre feels
like diving into James Bond’s toy box. Aqua-
gadgets include racing trimarans, jet skis,
parasails, a two-man submarine and sea-
bobs. Villas are huge, with interiors that feel
almost urban; black-and-white photographic
feature walls, smoky-hued sofas and eclectic
artworks, alongside massive open-plan
bathrooms. Other conspicuous displays
of wealth include a six-hole golf course, a
IMAGE: RALF TOOTEN

Clarins spa (with a snow chamber), and the

ABOVE: The St Regis highest rooftop bar in the Maldives, 75ft atop
Maldives Vommuli; a building that looks like a spaceship.
Velaa Private Island ROOMS: Villas from £3,087, B&B, including
seaplane transfers for two. velaa.com

Jul/Aug 2018 73
 Step into your eco resort sanctuary

Sustainability is at the heart of Gili Lankanfushi™, with emphasis

on preserving the natural environment, protecting the fragile
marine ecosystem and leaving only footprints behind.

ESCAPE NOW AT www.gili-lankanfushi.com

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

For a fly & flop

NALADHU
This sweet retreat can be reached in just 30 minutes from Malé via
the resort’s leather-lined, wi-fi-enabled Sunseeker yacht. You can
stroll its entirety in 15 minutes but what it lacks in size it makes
up for in the enormous villas; 20 in all, with outdoor bathrooms
the size of your average city centre apartment, and beds so grand
couples could roll around all night and never touch each other.
ROOMS: Villas from £530, B&B. anantara.com

For families For romance For manta-spotting

SONEVA FUSHI
Perfectly embodying all your Swiss Family Robinson
fantasies, thatched-roofed double-decker villas have
paprika-red sofas, netted beds and bamboo-shrouded
outdoor bathrooms. Take the clan dolphin-spotting
on a dhoni, explore the island on bicycles (stopping at
the ice cream parlour), snorkel, kayak or drop into The
Den, a kids’ club with a Lego room, a music studio and
pirate ship. After dark, rocket up to the observatory
and gawp at the rings of Saturn. Service is super
— every villa gets their own Man or Girl Friday.
ROOMS: Villas from £817, B&B. soneva.com
HURAWHALI
Astonishingly beautiful and adult-only, all your
romantic needs are covered here, from the spectacular
30-minute seaplane transfer to boozy picnics on a
secluded sandbank to coconut-y couples’ massages.
The beach villas are the most private, with jungle-
wrapped plunge pools and flowery paths streaming
straight on to sandy shores. And the house reef is a
beauty, bursting with brilliant, energetic marine life.
View it at its romantic best with dinner at 5.8, the
world’s largest undersea restaurant.
ROOMS: Villas from £350, B&B. hurawhali.com
FOUR SEASONS LANDAA GIRAAVARU
Manta rays are playful, have the biggest brains in
the fish world and a wingspan that can reach up to
18ft, and you’ll find more of them here in the Baa
Atoll Biosphere Reserve than anywhere else on earth.
This is where Blue Planet II came to film 200 mantas
hoovering up plankton in Hanifura Bay, an excursion
that can be arranged by the Four Seasons Landaa
Giraavaru in partnership with the Manta Trust. After
being awed by nature, relax in supersized villas, with
private pools and beds facing the ocean.
ROOMS: Villas from £756, room only. fourseasons.com

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For beaches
KANUHURA
Resting in the peaceful Lhaviyani Atoll
and ringed by a mile of soft, sparkly sand
so broad and white it’ll make your eyes
water, Kanuhura is the stuff your beach
dreams are made of. With more than enough
sandy square-footage to go around you’ll
always be able to find a spot to cast off your
(complimentary) kayak or SUP, join some
early morning Maldivian warrior training
(tossing coconuts and lugging logs up the
beach), or kick back and slow down with a
good book. Further isolation can be found
by nipping on the hotel’s little blue dhoni
over to two smaller — utter beautiful
— uninhabited islands, spotting stingrays
and purple starfish along the way.
ROOMS: Villas from £690, B&B.
kanuhura.com

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

O P ENING M ID 2018
www.kudadoo.com
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 WHEN THE HOTEL IS A
DESTINATION IN ITSELF, YOU
KNOW YOU’VE ARRIVED. SO
STEP INTO OUR BIG SLEEP
AWARDS, WHERE WE CHAMPION
THE NEW HOTELS, LODGES,
B&BS AND GLAMPSITES THAT
ARE RAISING THE BAR

Jul/Aug 2018 79
BIG SLEEP AWARDS 2018

The winners

Spoilt Rotten Lord of the Manor

CHABLÉ, YUCATÁN, MEXICO ADARE MANOR, IRELAND

Castaway Game Changer

BAWAH ISLAND, INDONESIA THE SIREN HOTEL, DETROIT

Design Den Love Shack

THE SILO HOTEL, ASILIA JABALI RIDGE,
CAPE TOWN TANZANIA

Family Favourite On the Money

ANOTHER PLACE, DOCK INN, WARNEMÜNDE,
ULLSWATER GERMANY

Clean & Green Hometown Hero

BISATE LODGE, RWANDA THE GOOD HOTEL, LONDON

City Slicker Boutique Break

THE MURRAY, HONG KONG ARTIST RESIDENCE,
OXFORDSHIRE
Hangout
DOWNTOWN CAMPER, Comeback Kid
STOCKHOLM BÜRGENSTOCK RESORT,
SWITZERLAND
Landmark Legend
HÔTEL DE CRILLON, Home from Home
A ROSEWOOD HOTEL, LE MANOIR AUX
PARIS QUAT’SAISONS,
OXFORDSHIRE
Gourmet Getaway
AKELARRE, SPAIN Euro Star
W BARCELONA
Happy Glampers
VENTANA BIG SUR, Far-Flung Fancy
CALIFORNIA TAJ PALACE, MUMBAI

The judging panel

JULIA BUCKLEY FRANCISCA KELLETT ALASTAIR SAWDAY

Freelance travel writer Travel editor, Tatler Founder, Sawday’s
IMAGES: DEL SOL PHOTOGRAPHY

tatler.com sawdays.co.uk
LEE COBAJ
Freelance travel writer TOM CHESSHYRE DAVID WHITLEY
Travel writer, The Times Freelance travel writer
EMMA GREGG thetimes.co.uk
Freelance travel writer NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
RICHARD FRAIMAN TRAVELLER (UK) TEAM
JULIET KINSMAN Editor, Good Hotel Guide
Luxury travel writer goodhotelguide.com

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 BIG SLEEP AWARDS 2018

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

CHABLÉ, YUCATÁN,
MEXICO
A painstakingly restored 19th-
century sisal estate is home
to this new jungle-fringed
hacienda hotel, with a spa at its
heart and soul.
OUR PANEL SAID: With crumbling
walls, slick rooms, plunge pools
and a brilliant restaurant, there’s
much to award this hotel. The
highlight, however, is its spa,
centred around an ancient
cenote (freshwater pool) with
cabins angled to maximise the
surroundings and the Mayan-
inspired menu: including
everything from three-hour
rituals to meditation led by local
shamans, and a trio of temazcals
(local saunas) in which to sweat
it out. chableresort.com

Runners-up

SIX SENSES DUXTON, SINGAPORE

An opulent, Oriental-inspired outpost in
the heart of Chinatown has all the
trappings of a luxe retreat — from
five-star service to traditional Chinese
medicine. sixsenses.com

FOUR SEASONS RESORT BALI

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

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

BAWAH ISLAND,
INDONESIA
A quintet of rainforest-carpeted
tropical isles set in three luminous
blue lagoons, home to 13 beaches
and unlimited spa treatments.
OUR PANEL SAYS: This new tropical
island escape has all that you’d
expect of a luxury island fantasy
— white sand, turquoise water
teeming with fish, lush jungle, cool
architecture, great food, a spa and
endless watery activities. And it’s
also pleasingly environmentally
responsible. bawahisland.com

Runners-up

KOKOMO PRIVATE ISLAND, FIJI

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

GLADDEN PRIVATE ISLAND, BELIZE

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

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 BIG SLEEP AWARDS 2018

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

THE SILO HOTEL, CAPE

TOWN
Set on top of the Zeitz Museum of
Contemporary Art Africa, The Silo Hotel is
the ultimate destination hotel for lovers of
art and architecture.
OUR PANEL SAID: British designer Thomas
Heatherwick was charged with remodelling
the industrial concrete facade of this former
1920s grain silo, and the result has launched
a thousand magazine covers: industrial
concrete and striking windows conceal a
rich and confidently eclectic decor. In terms
of design, this is the most exciting hotel
ever to open in Cape Town and it’s set the
benchmark high. theroyalportfolio.com

Runners-up

BARCELÓ TORRE DE MADRID

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

HOTEL EMC2, CHICAGO

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

Family Favourite Clean & Green

This place treats your offspring like a little prince or princess The very best ‘green’ hotels live and breathe the natural
while also catering to adults. Are there activities to make world. We celebrate the most sustainable, carbon-neutral
even the most truculent of teens express gratitude? champions out there.

ANOTHER PLACE, Runners-up BISATE LODGE, RWANDA Runners-up

ULLSWATER
This property from the owners of
Cornwall’s Watergate Bay Hotel
is the new benchmark for brilliant
family holidays.
OUR PANEL SAID: Here, tots can
fling fish goujons around in the
restaurant without reproach, and
teens can frolic in the water with
abandon. The pool’s good, too.
another.place/the-lake
The first foray into Rwanda
WILD COAST TENTED by Wilderness Safaris has us ROSEWOOD PHUKET
LODGE, SRI LANKA singing its wildlife-conscious and This beautiful Thai retreat
Luxurious four posters, beautifully designed praises. is gloriously green.
teak floors and copper OUR PANEL SAID: With a unique rosewoodhotels.com
tubs, all under canvas. THE SILL,
design, it’s a beautiful tribute to
resplendentceylon.com NORTHUMBERLAND
Rwanda’s cultural heritage, and
LEGOLAND, WINDSOR The Youth Hostels
This site now comes with
its six rooms snuggle onto a slope Association’s new flagship
a Castle Hotel, complete where locals and guests have is entirely run on
with themed rooms. already planted more than 15,000 renewable energy.
legolandholidays.co.uk trees. wilderness-safaris.com thesill.org.uk

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

THE MURRAY, HONG KONG

One of the most hotly anticipated hotel openings
in Hong Kong in years, this 1960s high-rise has been
reimagined, retrofitted and refurbished to hotel
perfection by Foster + Partners.
OUR PANEL SAID: This former office block scooped up
armfuls of prizes for its pioneering energy-efficient
design when it opened in 1969. Nearly 50 years on, it’s
been transformed into one of the hippest hangouts in
Asia, with monochrome rooms, leafy terrace restaurants
and a sensational rooftop bar. niccolohotels.com

Runners-up
THE WHITBY, NEW YORK
Fresh, fun and slap bang in the middle of Manhattan, expect
bold, boutique design from Kit Kemp and an in-house cinema
and library. firmdalehotels.com

PALÁCIO TANGARÁ, SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL

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

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

DOWNTOWN CAMPER,
STOCKHOLM Runners-up
The latest addition to the growing crop of hip
hotels on central Stockholm’s former no-go SELINA, MEDELLÍN,
Brunkebergstorg Square has multitasking COLOMBIA
communal spaces, a wild ‘nest’ rooftop spa This boutique, budget
and happening cocktail bar. place has brought its
OUR PANEL SAID: From the locally made laid-back ambience to
kayaks, longboards and bikes available to this up-and-coming
metropolis. selina.com
borrow in the lobby, to its campfire, hammock
THE HOXTON, PARIS
and giant swing chairs, this is a playful urban
A brand that goes
retreat. There are no less than five communal from strength to
areas, including lively games rooms and a strength, The Hoxton
popular workspace, and recommendations is the epitome of a
for joining everything from rooftop walks to cool urban refuge.
barefoot running groups are as individual as thehoxton.com
the locally made goodies for sale in the pop-
up shop. scandichotels.com

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Landmark
Legend
Venerable. Classy. Established.
Properties in this category
represent the greatest grande
dames of the hotel world. Whether
they’re one-off, big-name hotels
or a branch of a chain whose
reputation transcends that of its
umbrella company, we’re simply
looking for a hotel that’s a celebrity
— a place that’s a destination in its
own right.
HÔTEL DE CRILLON, A
ROSEWOOD HOTEL, PARIS
The legendary Hôtel de Crillon had a
much-needed overhaul at the skilled
hands of the Rosewood Group last year.
The result is sensational.
OUR PANEL SAID: This is Parisian
perfection, with beautiful dove-grey
and pale blue rooms (including the most
comfortable bed we’ve ever slept in), pretty,
leafy courtyards for cocktails, two brilliant
restaurants, and a bar with preserved
fresco-covered ceilings. There’s a spa
downstairs, with a pool topped with a glass
roof, and the service throughout is spot-on.
rosewoodhotels.com/en/hotel-de-crillon
BIG SLEEP AWARDS 2018
Runners-up
HOTEL EDEN, ROME
After a hefty sprucing up, Rome’s
elegant grande dame is ready for its
close-up, with sizeable suites,
gleaming white marble and Bottega
Veneta toiletries for all to see.
dorchestercollection.com
ONE&ONLY LE SAINT GÉRAN,
MAURITIUS
A masterclass in refurbs, this
long-time favourite is now classic
contemporary to its core, swathed in
tropical gardens and situated right on
the beach. oneandonlyresorts.com
Jul/Aug 2018 85
 BIG SLEEP AWARDS 2018

Gourmet Getaway Happy Glampers

Log cabins. Yurts. Gers. Teepees. Safari tents.
Hotels are forming a formidable front line in the foodie revolution, Treehouses. Upcycled horseboxes. Airstream
with guests willing to travel to the ends of the earth to sample the trailers. What’s the coolest, quirkiest outdoor
latest tasting menu. We reveal those hotels with the finest kitchens fed glamping experience out there?
by only the freshest ingredients and most adventurous culinary talent.
VENTANA BIG SUR, CALIFORNIA
Sleep like a starlet under the stars in
AKELARRE, SPAIN this new luxury campsite on the Pacific Coast
The newest hotel in Runners-up between LA and San Francisco.
Spain’s Basque region has OUR PANEL SAID: This former Hollywood hideout,
immaculate credentials, built perched over the Pacific at Big Sur, has
JACKALOPE HOTEL, AUSTRALIA
around the three Michelin- reopened under the Alila Hotels banner. Doze
This winery with rooms on the
starred Akelarre restaurant. off beneath the skies on custom-designed
Mornington Peninsula ticks all the
OUR PANEL SAID: This five-star right boxes: sublime plates of mattresses, and scrub up for dinner in the inn,
boutique hotel just outside San grub and lavish beds to retreat to. at the Glamping Bath House, complete with
Sebastián serves up food for all jackalopehotels.com showers and heated floors. ventanabigsur.com
the senses and boasts a soul-
stirring setting on a hillside SÃO LOURENÇO DO BARROCAL, Runners-up
overlooking the Bay of Biscay. PORTUGAL
Plating up rustic, regional fare, LUAMBE CAMP, ZAMBIA TINY HOMES HOLIDAYS,
Inside, the 22 rooms are set
this lovingly restored estate is the These four beautifully ISLE OF WIGHT
deferentially into the hillside simple tents offset all the Tiny but firmly on-trend
perfect Portuguese bolthole.
beneath Akelarre restaurant, a barrocal.pt carbon emissions from for glamping rentals that
Basque culinary landmark since tourist activities. sleep just two.
the 1970s. akelarre.net luambe.com tinyhomesholidays.com

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Lord of the Manor

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

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 BIG SLEEP AWARDS 2018

ADARE MANOR, IRELAND Runners-up

This recently renovated 19th-century stately home in County
Limerick is a neogothic masterpiece reborn.
OUR PANEL SAID: The first glimpse of the new wing — a seamless
addition to the manor house — confirms the largest-ever Irish hotel
renovation was worth the 21-month wait. The 842-acre estate offers
falconry, fishing, cycling, archery and a world-class golf course, but
we wonder if you’ll make it beyond the Great Hall lobby, where a new
bar adjoins the 17th-century Flemish choir stalls. adaremanor.com
LYMPSTONE MANOR, EXMOUTH
With acclaimed chef Michael Caines in
the kitchen rustling up modern British,
seasonal creations, this Grade II-listed
rural escape, on the Exe Estuary, is a
magnificently contemporary take on the
classic country house.
lympstonemanor.co.uk
CHÂTEAU DE FONSCOLOMBE, FRANCE
A short drive from Aix-en-Provence, this
former private residence is now a full-on
French fairytale of a hotel, with fresh,
minimalist rooms and spectacular
grounds, containing a heated pool,
ancient statues and a kitchen garden.
fonscolombe.fr

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 BIG SLEEP AWARDS 2018

Game Changer Love Shack

This category celebrates the true innovators in service, tech and
design; the top hotels offering more than just a place to stay — from
buzzing rooftop bars to shared workspaces and battle-tested wi-fi.
Whether it’s time to fall in love again or to fan
the flames of romance, a great hotel getaway
can be the sweetest solution. We’ve found
the ideal couples’ getaways — we’re talking
couples hammocks, honeymoon suites, and
balconies worthy of Romeo and Juliet.

THE SIREN HOTEL, JABALI RIDGE, TANZANIA

DETROIT
Once a symbol of American
architectural excellence, this
revamped 1920s office building is a
beacon of Motor City’s renaissance.
OUR PANEL SAID: When it opened
in 1926, Robert Finn’s Wurlitzer
Building was a shining symbol of
Detroit’s unstoppable energy, and
almost a century later — reinvented
as a hotel — it once again shines,
this time as a symbol of a once-
floundering city reborn. The latest
Runners-up This swoon-worthy safari lodge — part of
a project to protect an African ecosystem — will
DREAM HOLLYWOOD, steal your heart and seduce your conscience.
LOS ANGELES OUR PANEL SAID: Set on a hill overlooking
With dining rooms the vast wilderness of Ruaha National Park
galore and a lush pool (second only to the Serengeti in size), there’s
deck, this hedonistic
plenty of big game to see. But the wows also
hub has revitalised
come from within. Using elegant wooden
this once run-down
part of town. bridges and stilted terraces, its eight rooms,
dreamhotels.com infinity pool and lounge areas really bring the
outside in, so you can remain in the nook and
SIR ADAM HOTEL, watch the wild world go by. asiliaafrica.com
AMSTERDAM

of several hotels to venture back 1970s skyscraper Runners-up

turned happening
into Detroit, The Siren — with
hangout; this hotel
its panoramic rooftop bar, and CASA TELMO, MENORCA HABITAS TULUM, MEXICO
has helped to turn
tasting-menu restaurant helmed A true Balearic gem, the Set in the town of Tulum,
the waterfront into a
cosy quintet of rooms in in the Yucatán Peninsula’s
by James Beard Award nominee, hive of activity.
this quaint townhouse in hippy heartland, this
chef Garrett Lipar — sends out the sirhotels.com
the Menorcan capital, minimalist, chic getaway
loudest signal so far that Detroit is Mahón, feature gorgeous, has a clutch of stylish
back. thesirenhotel.com individual designs and no suites and a private
end of original features. beach for lovebirds.
casatelmo.com habitastulum.com

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

DOCK INN HOSTEL WARNEMÜNDE,

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

Runners-up
JO&JOE HOSSEGOR, STEEL HOUSE
IMAGES: CHRISTIAN HARDER

FRANCE COPENHAGEN
Four minutes from the This luxury hostel with
surf, these bargain beds modern, on-trend rooms
near Biarritz are prime in the heart of the city is a
millennial fodder, with rare thing in Denmark: a
chilled vibes, watersports bargain; with dorms from
lessons, and great value as little as £14. steelhouse
rates. joandjoe.com copenhagen.com

Jul/Aug 2018 91
EXPERIENCE ANOTHER SAINT-TROPEZ

1, traverse de la Gendarmerie, 83 990 Saint-Tropez •

T. : +33 (0)4 83 09 60 00 • hoteldeparis-sainttropez.com
 BIG SLEEP AWARDS 2018

Hometown Hero Runners-up

There’s a growing expectation that our globetrotting adventures MAGDAS HOTEL,

should have a meaningful social impact wherever possible. And VIENNA
a good hotel can allow us to do just that: give back as much as we Refugees getting
take, and more. This category rewards hotel ventures that kept training in hospitality
make up much of the
the community front and centre when developing their products.
staff at this inner-city
hotel — expect Syrian
food at the cafe and
GOOD HOTEL LONDON mezze for breakfast.
Moored at the Royal Victoria Docks, this former magdas-hotel.at
floating prison shipped from Amsterdam certainly lives
up to its name. All profits go to an educational charity in NEKUPE, NICARAGUA

Guatemala, while the hotel itself offers unemployed local This luxury resort with
a social mission
youngsters training in the hospitality industry and help
sources all its staff
applying for jobs.
from impoverished
OUR PANEL SAID: Owner Marten Dresen was inspired to set up local communities. It’s
the Good Hotel Group — which combines doing business with also reforested 1,300
doing good — after meeting a little girl while backpacking surrounding acres.
through Antigua, and gifting her some much-needed shoes. nekupe.com
The social business’s mission is to benefit deprived youngsters
in the immediate community and beyond. goodhotellondon.com

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

ARTIST RESIDENCE OXFORDSHIRE

The newest opening from Justin and Charlotte
Salisbury’s eccentric mini franchise has turned a local
drinking hole into a bucolic bolthole.
OUR PANEL SAID: Set in the Cotswolds village of South
Leigh, this six-bedroom farmhouse retreat, complete
with a cosy inn, blends urban cool and rustic romance.
Within the revamped 16th-century thatched farmhouse,
rooms offer a mix of antiques and flea market finds, plus
House of Hackney wallpaper, Morris & Co fabrics, neon
signage, modern art, rainfall showers and roll-top baths.
artistresidence.co.uk

Runners-up

SANTA CLARA 1728, LISBON HOTEL SANDERS,

Smooth, sleek and seriously
stylish, this historic
townhouse-turned-minimalist
pad is so chic it hurts.
santaclara1728.com
COPENHAGEN
Features Murano
chandeliers, bespoke
furnishing and original
artwork. hotelsanders.com

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

BÜRGENSTOCK RESORT,
SWITZERLAND Runners-up
Popular with the Hollywood crowd, this
sprawling property set high above Lake
ALILA FORT
Lucerne has finally opened its doors after
BISHANGARH, INDIA
a nine-year, £440m investment.
Set inside an 18th-
OUR PANEL SAID: There’s much to admire
century fort near Jaipur,
about the new-look Bürgenstock Rajasthan, expect
Resort, which comprises four hotels, majestic yet minimalist
12 restaurants and a medical wellness decor and antique
centre. But the showstopper is the touches. alilahotels.com
spectacular glass-enclosed 10,000sq
metre spa, set amid meadows and snowy THE SETAI TEL AVIV
An infinity pool,
peaks. The main Palace Hotel has seen
12th-century features
its fin de siècle marble pillars, hardwood
and sea-view suites are
parquet flooring and hand-blown among the hallmarks of
glass chandeliers reincarnated with a this superbly grand
boutique-y edge, while the Victorian renovation in historic
timbers of the chalet-style Restaurant Jaffa. thesetai.co.il
& Pension Taverne 1879 have been fully
restored. buergenstock.ch/en

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READERS’ CATEGORIES

Home from Home Euro Star

The best Continental breaks revolve around
hotels that are destinations in their own right.
There are plenty of great staycation spots for us Brits to be proud This competitive category included an Eiffel
of — from fashionable forest retreats to grand seafront edifices, and Tower-view palace hotel and a beautiful
country houses with a foodie focus. But which ones earned your ocean-vista mansion.
patriotic vote?
W BARCELONA
This hip seafront hotel, in an achingly
BELMOND LE MANOIR cool city, sets the bar very high.
AUX QUAT’SAISONS, Runners-up OUR PANEL SAID: This beauty won your hearts.
OXFORDSHIRE The floor-to-ceiling windows in most guest
One of the UK’s finest foodie getaways, THE ATLANTIC rooms offer incredible views over Barceloneta
with the venerable Raymond Blanc at HOTEL, JERSEY Beach, while the service and amenities also
the helm. Family-run retreat scored top marks from you. And that’s before
OUR PANEL SAID: It’s been setting with sweeping sea we get to the sleek indoor pool and buzzing
views, rolling lawns
the bar consistently high since it rooftop bar. w-barcelona.com
and standout dining.
IMAGE: PAUL WILKINSON PHOTOGRAPHY LTD

opened in 1984, both in terms of its

theatlantichotel.com
cookery school and restaurant. This
stately Oxfordshire country house CHEWTON GLEN, Runners-up
hotel tops our Big Sleep podium, NEW FOREST
lauded by readers not only for its Quintessential SHANGRI-LA HOTEL BELMOND REID’S
country house PARIS PALACE, MADEIRA
‘fantastic facilities and food’ but for its
retreat set in 130 Within striking distance This rose-hued mansion
‘thoughtfulness to surroundings and
acres with a of the Eiffel Tower, this on the lush Portuguese
care of environment’. When walking
world-class spa and Parisian jewel shimmers island is easy to fall in
around its glorious environs, you with huge rooms, lavish love with — surrounded
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notice ‘everything about it is perfect’, chewtonglen.com touches and grand, by subtropical gardens
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belmond.com shangri-la.com views. belmond.com

Jul/Aug 2018 95
BIG SLEEP AWARDS 2018

Far-flung Fancy
A stand-out hotel stay lingers in the mind. They’re the stuff of office
daydreams; they fire up our imagination and coddle with comfort.
This year, casting the net far and wide, you plumped for a palace fit
for a royal; a Koh-i-Noor diamond in the crown of any long-haul trip.

THE TAJ MAHAL PALACE,

MUMBAI Runners-up
With its shady, leafy gardens and cool
lounges, this monument to Raj-era
RAFFLES HOTEL,
opulence is an oasis of calm in the fast-
SINGAPORE
paced Indian metropolis. The colonial-era gem
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for a second year, The Taj clearly holds this year after a
a special place in your hearts. Here’s decadent revamp.
what you said: ‘From the moment you rafflessingapore.com
set foot inside, you’re treated like a king
ATLANTIS, THE PALM,
or queen. Everywhere is spotless, the
DUBAI
food is delicious, and the staff are the
Grand and glitzy, this
loveliest people you will meet.’ It simply
family favourite wows
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‘the phenomenal food and... that view out atlantisthepalm.com
to Elephanta Island!’ In short: ‘Perfection’.
tajhotels.com

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

WORDS EMMA GREGG

98 natgeotraveller.co.uk
IMAGE: ALAMY

FRONTIER
Jul/Aug 2018 99
MOZAMBIQUE
L
ove is in the air. I’m bouncing across a bay in
southeast Mozambique as we’ve set our hearts on
snorkelling with dolphins in the wild — and the
conditions are looking perfect.
Briefing us before we pushed out from Ponta Mamoli
beach, our skipper, Lourenzo Mpanza, said he could offer
no fairy-godmother guarantees. But on this sheltered
stretch of the Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve
in Matutuíne, the odds are on our side. Thanks to
effective habitat protection, a code of conduct that’s
widely respected by operators, and the achievements
of a long-running cetacean research project, the reserve
is one of the best places in the world for an ethical
dolphin encounter.
What’s on offer here is the antithesis of the tourist-
trap experiences available in certain countries, where
unenlightened operators either keep dolphins captive
or harass wild pods, chasing and crowding them in their
eagerness to get close. In Matutuíne, there’s a desire to
keep things as low key and low impact as possible. Just
four licensed cetacean-watching outfits operate on the
65-mile Indian Ocean coast within the reserve, each
using a single boat at a time. Take a short trip with any
of them and you’ve an excellent chance of seeing wild
bottlenose, spinner or humpback dolphins at a respectful
distance. With luck, you can even join the dolphins in
the water, on the animals’ own terms.
Ours is the only boat as far as the eye can see. Wishing
hard, we squint into the brightness, scanning the gentle
waves. We don’t have to wait long. “Look, over there!”
squeaks one of my companions. And there it is, our
first fleeting glimpse: the dark dorsal fin of a bottlenose
dolphin, slicing through the blue.
Immediately, more dolphins appear, and Lourenzo
watches carefully. “We don’t want to disturb them if
they’re snoozing or there’s a mother with a baby,” he says,
then signals that we can get ready. Soon, we’re sliding
carefully into the water.
At first, I’m on guard. When you’re peering through
a mask, refraction makes the underwater world seem
strangely enlarged, and the seven dolphins that zoom up
to check us out appear very big, very muscular and very
close indeed.
On my travels, thanks to the trust that dedicated
wildlife researchers engender in their subjects, I’ve been
lucky enough to find myself within inches of some of
WHEN YOU’RE PEERING THROUGH A MASK, REFRACTION MAKES THE UNDERWATER
WORLD SEEM STRANGELY ENLARGED, AND THE SEVEN DOLPHINS THAT ZOOM UP TO
CHECK US OUT APPEAR VERY BIG, VERY MUSCULAR AND VERY CLOSE INDEED
100 natgeotraveller.co.uk
Africa’s most impressive megafauna, from lions and
elephants to families of mountain gorillas. But this is
different. While most fully grown wild animals — even
those habituated to humans — respond to people with
detachment, avoidance or aggression, these dolphins
exude cheerful curiosity. I’m in their domain and they’re
circling me, staring me straight in the eye.
How do you greet a dolphin? I’ve been given some
pointers, so make my best attempt at staring back,
emitting friendly noises through my snorkel and trying
to imitate their movements. But while the pod seems
tolerant of my clumsy efforts, they have more pressing
matters on their minds. All but one are male, and the
female is sexually receptive. Twisting together in a
cluster, belly to belly, they dive to the sandy seabed in a
sinuous, sensuous courtship.
Such is our affinity with bottlenose dolphins, it’s all
too tempting to anthropomorphise them, right down
to their sexual preferences. As one of the few species
that, like humans, mates in ways that can’t possibly
result in procreation, they attract a catalogue of labels
— flirtatious, bi-curious, shameless — and their habits
run to sexual piracy; gangs of males sometimes ‘kidnap’
a young female, bullying her for sex. But no matter what
scenario may be unfolding today, there’s something
exquisitely beautiful about their movements. I could
glide among them forever.
When we’re back on the boat, Lourenzo puts a delicate
gloss on the matter. “Social bonding,” he says. “That’s
something we don’t often see. What a privilege!”
BUILDING BRIDGES
You’d think the chance to befriend wild dolphins and
scuba dive over starfish-spangled coral reefs would
be enough to lure droves of tourists to Mozambique’s
dazzling south east. But while South Africans have been
visiting Matutuíne for ages, European beach-lovers have
been slow to explore beyond the barefoot-luxury lodges
IMAGES: EMMA GREGG; ALAMY
on the Bazaruto and Quirimbas islands further north.
On many of Matutuíne’s beaches, human footprints
— barefoot or otherwise — are rare.
It’s the prospect of combining a city, bush and beach
trip into one that clinches the region’s appeal. It’s as close
to Mozambique’s intriguing capital, Maputo, as Sussex
is to London, and Kruger National Park in South Africa
is only 100 miles away. Access used to be challenging,
 MOZAMBIQUE

PREVIOUS PAGE: Fishing settlement

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

Jul/Aug 2018 101

MOZAMBIQUE

ABOVE: Maputo Railway Station

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

102 natgeotraveller.co.uk
 MOZAMBIQUE

requiring either a boat, light aircraft, helicopter or a ferry

crossing, and a nerve-jangling drive along soft, sandy
tracks by chapa (shared vehicle) or private 4x4. But now,
the journey’s a breeze — a pristine ribbon of tarmac runs
straight through the region, connecting Maputo’s brand
new suspension bridge (the longest in Africa) to KwaZulu-
Natal, in South Africa. Just before the border, it branches
east to Ponta do Ouro, a small but expanding beach town
where dive centres, dune-shack guesthouses and R&R
(rum and raspberry) bars cluster along sandy lanes.
Inevitably, the new road will bring changes to
Matutuíne, some good, some bad. Conservationists
fear that unless they can make a cast-iron case
for the financial benefits of coastal eco-tourism,
a long-discussed industrial port could be built at
Techobanine, inside the Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine
Reserve (‘partial’, because certain licensed activities
are permitted). From an environmental perspective,
this could be disastrous, causing irreversible damage.
But for now, much of the reserve remains an unspoilt
wilderness, where ghost crabs skitter along the shoreline
and sea turtles nest in the white-gold sand.
Before hitting the coast, I spend a long weekend in
Maputo, checking out the phantasmagoric paintings and
scrap-ammunition sculptures that (along with piri-piri
prawns) have become its trademarks, and dancing to
marrabenta, Mozambique’s irresistible guitar music, in
sea-breezy city bars.
Named after its bay and shaped by waves of
reinvention, Maputo is a rough-edged but likeable
African capital with a laid-back Mediterranean
flavour. Its colonial founders, who called it Lourenço
Marques after a 16th-century explorer and ivory dealer,
grew wealthy on trade; before independence was
declared in 1975, around a third of the city’s population
were Portuguese.
“Even now, we’re Laurentinos; we’re still taught
Portuguese in school,” says Herminio Milando of
walking tour company Maputo a Pé, who’s helping me
get my bearings. As we set out from the Polana Serena
Hotel to explore, fragments of black-and-white calçada
mosaic pavements and pastelarias selling pastéis de nata
(custard tarts) remind me of Maputo’s faraway cousins,
Lisbon, Luanda and Rio.
But Portugal isn’t the only influence. I discover traces
of Victorian England in the Tunduru Botanical Gardens,
where wedding parties pose for photos and fruit bats
hang like handbags in the Indian almond trees. While
much of the city centre is dilapidated, the historic Baixa
district contains some well-preserved architectural
IMAGE: ALAMY

masterpieces. Herminio glows with pride as we approach

the beaux arts-style railway station, steeped in the
romance of early-20th-century train travel, and again
as we climb the steps to Cathedral of Nossa Senhora da
Conceição, easily the most striking art deco cathedral
this side of Casablanca.

Jul/Aug 2018 103

MOZAMBIQUE
MAPUTO IS PEPPERED WITH IDIOSYNCRATIC ARCHITECTURAL
CLASSICS: CONCRETE VILLAS, A CHURCH SHAPED LIKE A LEMON SQUEEZER
AND TOWER BLOCKS EMBELLISHED WITH BOLD MODERN ART
Nearby, a 30ft statue of Mozambique’s first president,
Samora Machel, adds the stamp of Soviet-inspired
socialism to Praça da Independência, a public square
and focal point of the city, while in the airy Mercado
Municipal, the market aromas are spicy and timelessly
African. Herminio stops at a fruit stall laden with
plump mangoes and papayas, gives a vendor wearing
a traditional, brightly printed capulana sarong a few
meticais for a massala the size of an orange, and cracks
it open. “Try some,” he says, indicating the seed’s pulp.
It’s a taste of pure nostalgia, tart as sherbet lemons and
sweet as a banana chew.
I spend a day with local academic Walter Tembe
and British expat Jane Flood dipping into the world
of Maputo’s creative greats — the arms-to-art pacifist
Gonçalo Mabunda, politically driven painter Malangatana,
and breathtakingly prolific architect Pancho Guedes.
Jumping in and out of chopelas (tuk-tuk taxis), we explore
the well-to-do Polana and Sommerschield districts,
chatting to gallery owners and gazing at remarkable
buildings, sculptures and murals from the street.
In the mid-20th century, the top layer of Lourenço
Marques’ society was as glamour hungry as Monaco’s or
London’s, and futuristic architecture was all the rage.
Today, thanks to the cold-storage effect of a slow, late
route to independence and a 15-year civil war that ended
in 1992, the city is peppered with idiosyncratic classics:
concrete villas, a church shaped like a lemon squeezer
and tower blocks embellished with bold modern art.
When I ask Walter where his love of architecture
came from, he beams. “There was an abandoned Pancho
Guedes building next to the place where I grew up,” he
says. “I used to play there as a child. It fascinated me. It
was a perfect combination of mathematics and art.”
From 1950-1974, Guedes made Lourenço Marques his
laboratory, inventing an elegant response to the city’s
climate: tropical modernism. His buildings were angled
to catch the breeze and featured shutters and brise-soleil
shades. Their designs also referenced African culture
and made use of local materials in their construction. All
of this marked Guedes out as way ahead of his time.
There’s much to admire, but no sign of any tourists.
“We don’t really get many,” says Walter. “The people who
visit tend to be working, or seeing family or friends.”
With the West’s fascination with mid-century design
growing apace, perhaps Maputo’s time has come.
104 natgeotraveller.co.uk
Immediately before independence, Maputo’s European
community vanished, but expats are steadily trickling
back. “A friend once put it like this: if Africa is a mighty
river, Maputo is the tangle of mangroves at its mouth,”
says Jane. “People drift downstream from all over the
continent, get caught in the roots, discover they rather
like it, and that’s it — they never really leave.”
A WILDERNESS REBORN
Having Matutuíne’s alluring coastline on the
doorstep must help. I take a boat across Maputo Bay
to the Laurentinos’ favourite retreat, the Machangulo
Peninsula, an idyllic finger of forested dunes between
the bay and the open sea. As I settle into the capulana-
covered cushions at my hideaway, Machangulo Beach
Lodge, white-fronted plovers are exploring the sun-
marbled shore and greenbuls as cheerful as chaffinches
are singing brightly in the trees. After a few days of scuba
diving with inquisitive turtles, drinking from coconuts
in palm-shaded villages and drifting off to sleep to the
sound of the waves, it’s hard to tear myself away.
Further south, the rampart of dunes borders a
hinterland of licuati sand forest, grasslands, wetlands and
lakes, wedged between the ocean and the Maputo River.
A treasure trove of endemic plants and birds, much of this
habitat is part of the Maputo Special Reserve, a wilderness
that’s slowly coming back to life. Although many of its
mammals were lost to poachers during Mozambique’s
anti-colonial struggle and post-independence civil war,
its elephants fared better, due in part to a wariness of
humans coupled with aggressive territorial displays.
Tragically, the long years of conflict blocked the
ancient wildlife migration routes between Matutuíne
and Maputaland, separating the reserve’s elephants
from their relatives in South Africa’s Tembe Elephant
Park, but a cross-border initiative led by the Peace
Parks Foundation hopes to reunite the herds. The
Reserve and Tembe belong to the 3,860sq mile Lubombo
IMAGES: EMMA GREGG; ALAMY
Transfrontier Conservation and Resource Area, which,
once its internal fences are removed, will be the only
transfrontier park on the continent to allow free
movement of both land and marine mammals. It’s
excellent news for Africa’s Big Seven (elephants, rhinos,
lions, leopards, buffaloes, dolphins and whales).
If well-managed eco-tourism takes off in Maputo
Special Reserve, its future should be secure. Matutuíne’s
MOZAMBIQUE

Jul/Aug 2018 105

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most ambitious beach resort, White Pearl, in Ponta
Mamoli, is already on board. While I’m there, Lourenzo
Mpanza and his colleague, Lauren Arnold, a young
British naturalist, take me on a recce in their safari
vehicle and I’m so enchanted by the reserve’s landscapes
that we spend the whole day in the bush, scoping out
ideas for future adventures.
Like its city namesake, the reserve oozes vintage cool.
Its vistas are huge, its tracks are sandy, and its elephants
— which perhaps still remember the poachers — have
attitude. When a matriarch blocks our route, Lourenzo’s
forehead beads with sweat. “OK, I get the message. We’ll
go another way,” he says. We don’t really have time for a
diversion — but they do say elephants never forget.
For South African freediver Hanli Prinsloo, every
encounter with Matutuíne’s wildlife is a delight. “I’ve
seen more marine megafauna here than in any other place
— manta rays, whale sharks, guitar sharks, the list goes
on,” she says. “The dolphins are now like family. When I’m
away, I miss their faces like I miss my nieces and nephew.”
Hanli runs yoga and freediving holidays near Ponta
do Ouro and her conservation foundation, I Am Water,
Maputo’s Central Market
IMAGE: SUPERSTOCK
MOZAMBIQUE
helps local children take their first steps towards marine
custodianship by teaching them to swim. “It’s heart-
breaking that kids living within walking distance of
the beach don’t get to see what lies beneath the waves,”
she says. “We’re so quick to judge local communities for
failing to take care of litter or catching the wrong species
of fish, but if they feel no connection to the ocean, it’s not
surprising. You protect what you love.”
Hanli is one of a band of enthusiasts doing their
utmost for conservation in Matutuíne. Citizen scientist
Angie Gullan, of Ponta do Ouro’s Dolphin Encountours
Research Center, is another. A licensed ocean safari
operator, she gathers data that’s shaping top-level policy.
She’s already discovered that in peak season, December-
January — when there are more boats and fishing lines
in the water and noise pollution rockets — the dolphins’
stress levels rocket too. “Within the reserve, eco-
tourism — with strict limits on numbers — is part of the
solution,” she says. She teaches tourists and locals how to
act responsibly in a dolphin habitat, and is campaigning
for the coast to be declared one of the world’s first Whale
Heritage Sites.
Jul/Aug 2018 107
MOZAMBIQUE

On the penultimate day of my stay, Angie invites me to ESSENTIALS

MOZAMBIQUE
join her on a boat trip. We’ll set out at dawn the next day
and be back in time for me to hurtle up to Maputo for my MOZAMBIQUE
fl ight. One last chance to swim with dolphins before I Getting there & around
Maputo
There are no direct flights from the UK
leave? Without a moment’s hesitation, I say yes. Maputo INDIAN
Bay to Mozambique. The best-value daily
At 4am, my alarm jolts me awake. Packing the last of OCEAN
MACHANGULO option is from Heathrow to Maputo via
my things, gulping a coffee and shoving my bags into PENINSULA
Addis Ababa with Ethiopian Airlines
the back of the Land Rover, I set out into the velvety Bela Vista
PONTA DO OURO (average flight time 15h 25m).
blackness. The dune forest track is dark as a tunnel PARTIAL MARINE
RESERVE Alternatives include TAP Air Portugal
and in Ponta do Ouro, nothing moves, save the sleepy M AT U T U Í N E via Lisbon (15h 45m) and South African
blinking of coloured lights at deserted R&R bars. 20 Miles Airways via Johannesburg (14h 45m).
By fi rst light, we’re all assembled — Angie, her ethiopianairlines.com flytap.com
assistants and six visitors from Germany and South flysaa.com
Hotels and lodges in southern
Africa. Angie’s briefi ng is detailed and impassioned. “I
Mozambique offer transfers by road,
like to think of dolphins as nonhuman persons,” she
boat, helicopter or light aircraft on
says. “They’re the people of the sea — self-aware, creative request. Alternatively, arrange transfers
and cultural — and the most important thing I’ve learned or 4x4 hire via a ground handler such as
from them is respect.” Infinite Africa: infi niteafrica.com
Angie’s confidence and calm is infectious. As soon In Maputo, Maputo a Pé offers guided
as we fi nd some dolphins (or, perhaps more accurately, walks on a variety of themes. Taxis,
they fi nd us), they make me feel totally at ease. And later, tuk-tuks and shared minibuses are
BELOW: Fishing boat,
plentiful. maputo-a-pe.com
when, with salty hair and sandy toes, I start my journey Matutuíne District,
home, there’s a tsunami of happiness in my soul. Maputo Province
When to go
April to October, when the weather is
dry and calm and daytime temperatures
hover around 20-25C. South African
school holidays are the busiest times,
especially the festive period and Easter.

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

More info
Mozambique, by Philip Briggs.
RRP: £16.99. (Bradt Travel Guides)

How to do it
IMAGE: EMMA GREGG. ILLUSTRATION: JOHN PLUMER

TRIBES TRAVEL has seven nights in

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

108 natgeotraveller.co.uk
Volcanic
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OUT
ON
Looking out to the Atlantic, Cornwall has always
been defined by the elements and its mercurial,
mystical landscapes, haunted by the ruins of old
industries and the stomping grounds of our
prehistoric ancestors

WORDS NIGEL RICHARDSON PHOTOGRAPHS E M I LY M O T T

THE

110 natgeotraveller.co.uk
Jul/Aug 2018 111
CORNWALL
In summer, the artist Kurt Jackson paints in
his bare feet. This is not merely a question of
taking off his socks and shoes. He works en
plein air, unrolling monumental canvases on
moors or clifftops and walking across them,
feeling them under his toes as he layers on
the paint. “I want to capture and celebrate
what I'm looking at and what I’m feeling and
hearing and seeing and smelling,” he tells me
when I meet him at his gallery in the town of
St Just. The result is paintings that channel
the very Cornishness of Cornwall — as if the
viewer can reach into the paint layers to feel
the heather and gorse, the texture of granite
and the ocean swell.
Ten years after my last visit, I too am
seeking to capture something of the essence
of England’s westernmost county — to feel
beneath my toes, as it were, its culture and
beauty, and the paradox of its position on
the edge of things. After arriving from ‘up-
country’ on the Night Riviera sleeper train
(a pasta supper in Paddington, a breakfast
croissant as we cross the Tamar), I pick up
a hire car in Truro, set the satnav for The
Lizard Peninsula and drive off into a glorious
autumn morning. The Lizard is a geological
oddity that juts out from Cornwall’s
south coast into one of the busiest, most
treacherous shipping lanes in the world.
Below my tyres, as I reach the peninsula’s
lower half, are gabbro and serpentine rocks
— layers of ocean crust and Earth’s mantle
pushed upward in a tectonic convulsion, now
underpinning a wild heathland of rare plants
and prehistoric settlements. Just off the east
112 natgeotraveller.co.uk
coast lie the crocodile-like Manacles; rocks
that have ripped the bottom from over a I WANT TO
CAPTURE AND
hundred ships and the life from more than
a thousand mariners. And all round is some
of the cleanest sea you’ll find this side of
the Arctic. CELEBRATE
Soon, I’m slithering towards it down a
chute of a footpath enclosed by high banks WHAT I’M
of sloe, blackberry and gorse bushes. The
path has a secretive air, as if the spirits of LOOKING AT
the smugglers and wreckers who once trod it
haunt it still. My companion for the morning,
Tim van Berkel, tells me that donkeys also
used it to bring seaweed up for the fields.
Until the advent of artificial fertiliser,
seaweed was widely used on coastal arable
land. I’m about to discover how history has
come full circle on this stretch of The Lizard,
for seaweed is once more being harvested
— this time as a superfood.
Dutchman Tim is the co-owner of The
Cornish Seaweed Co, which farms a five-
mile stretch of the intertidal zone, from
where we are now, Lowland Point, past the
fishing village of Coverack towards Lizard
Point. The idea for the business came to van
Berkel’s partner, Caro Warwick-Evans, when
she heard an item on the radio programme
Farming Today about the harvesting of
seaweed in Ireland. “‘Hey, there’s lots of
seaweed in Cornwall,’ we thought. ‘If the
health benefits are so great and it’s so
sustainable, why don't we give it a go?”’ she PREVIOUS PAGES FROM LEFT: Coverack
tells me. Beach; St Just
At the bottom of the path, we clamber over FROM LEFT: Kurt Jackson; harvesting
an old granite stile onto the grassy foreshore of seaweed, Coverack Beach
CORNWALL

Jul/Aug 2018 113

CORNWALL
Lowland Point. Out on the barely ruffled sea,
a couple of container ships sit just below the
horizon line. The tide is coming in, filling rock
pools with tea-coloured water in which the
seaweed sways. The harvesters have finished
for the day — they’re laying out glistening
piles to dry in polytunnels at nearby Roskillys
(an organic farm where the Cornish Seaweed
Co rents some land). But Tim is keen to give
me a tour of the seaweed fields.
Skipping from boulder to boulder as the
sea gurgles in beneath our boots we step
over clusters of dark brown dulse (“a meat
alternative, like bacon”), vivid green sea
lettuce (“fried and mixed with dulse, it’s good
on omelettes or fish pie”) and razor wrack
(“not really edible but good for the skin. We
make a bath bag out of it”). The tide advances
fast, forcing us back to shore, where a circle
of stones marks the site of a Romano-British
salt works. This is another Cornish industry
that’s been recently revived, for not far from
114 natgeotraveller.co.uk
WHAT A
where we’re standing the Cornish Sea Salt
Co harvests pure Atlantic salt and sells it to
CROWD
discerning kitchens across Britain, as well
exporting to over 35 countries worldwide.
Throughout history, Cornwall has made
connections across the seas — ancient
Phoenicians were said to have come here for OF CUCKOLDS AND
the tin, although there’s no archaeological
evidence. As my exploration of The Lizard CUCKOLD
MAKERS
continues, I find myself standing on cliffs at
Poldhu, on the west side of the peninsula,
holding onto my cap in a buffeting breeze.
All around me, cows fertilise the tufty
pastureland — known as morrops, in Cornish
WE HAVE HERE
— with khaki pats. All around me are the
ruins of granite foundation stones; at the
cliff edge stands a granite obelisk. “You’re
standing on one of the great sites of world
history…” declares the plaque at its base.
This is all that’s left of Guglielmo
Marconi’s Wireless Station, which, on 12 FROM LEFT: The Allotment Deli, St Ives;
December 1901, transmitted the first radio cobbled streets, St Ives

signal across the Atlantic to Newfoundland:
a repetition of the letter ‘s’ in Morse Code.
The station was dismantled in the ’30s but
there’s a small museum nearby, The Marconi
Centre, dedicated to the great man and his
telecommunication experiments.
Cornwall has specialised in sending
information long-distance since 1588, when
lookouts lit a chain of beacons to alert the rest
of England to the approach of the Spanish
Armada. The museum’s guide, Robin Ridge,
is a former engineer at the vast Goonhilly
Satellite Earth Station on The Lizard. He tells
me that by the 1870s, Cornwall was in touch
with the rest of the world via a telegraph cable
on the ocean bed, and that breaking news was
greeted as excitedly then as it is today, if not
as quickly. “Expats in India knew the result of
the Boat Race within 20 minutes,” he says.
The telegraphy cable came ashore at
Porthcurno, around three miles from Land’s
End on the south coast. Porthcurno bills
itself as ‘the most connected valley on the
planet’. The former telegraph station there
is now the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum,
but Porthcurno remains plugged into the
world as the landing point on the eastern
side of the Atlantic of FLAG (Fibre-optic
Link Around the Globe), a mostly undersea
telecommunications cable that carries much
of the world’s telephone and internet traffic
between North America, Europe and Asia.
Unsurprisingly, GCHQ operates a monitoring
station a little way inland from Porthcurno, at
Skewjack, and there’s a poetic logic in the fact
John Le Carré, creator of that consummate
eavesdropper, George Smiley, lives nearby.
Moor than meets the eye
Besides the telegraphy, Porthcurno has one
of Cornwall’s best beaches, a wedge of fine
sand hemmed by cliffs and sloping to a sea
that turns Caribbean-green at the first hint
of sun. And above it, slotted into those cliffs
CORNWALL
like some ruined amphitheatre in Sicily, is
the open-air Minack Theatre. My destination
that evening for a performance of William
Wycherley’s Restoration comedy The Country
Wife. As we take our seats, the sky above is
wearing its comedy and tragedy masks at the
same time — billows of innocuous cumulus
lit by the setting sun and, out to sea, purple
clouds threatening rain. “What a crowd of
cuckolds and cuckold makers we have here,”
exclaims the periwigged Pinchwife as the
rain begins to fall and the audience rustles
into plastic ponchos. But the rain abates and
by the time we clamber back to the car park
after a rollicking evening of shenanigans
and double entendres, the moon is trailing a
glittering causeway across the sea.
The following morning I’m up on the
moors of West Penwith. Around me is
Chysauster Ancient Village, a Romano-
British settlement of 10 stone-walled
houses, now shrunk to shoulder height and
Jul/Aug 2018 115
––
A PL ACE TO
RESTORE WITH
A VIEW OF
OUR MOUNTAINS.

––
EIN KRAF TPL AT Z
MIT AUSBLICK AUF
UNSERE BERGE .

––
UN CENTRO
D’ENERGIA CON
VEDUTA SUI MONTI.

SÜDTIROL / ALTO ADIGE (BZ) / ITAL IAN AL P S

ST. JAKOB IM AHRNTAL / S. GIACOMO IN VAL L E AURINA

T +39 0474 650309 / INFO@ BUEHELWIRT.COM

WWW.BUEHELWIRT.COM

covered in heather and bracken. In the 19th
century, Methodist preachers held open-air
sermons up here, their fiery rhetoric echoing
across a landscape of heather and rock, of
megalithic tombs and standing stones, and
underground chambers known as fogous.
Towards Land’s End, a rescue helicopter
hovers and two structures break the horizon:
to the south west, the church tower at St
Buryan, the village inland from Porthcurno,
where Sam Peckinpah shot Straw Dogs;
and due west, the engine house of the Ding
Dong Mine which ceased operations in the
late-19th century, its chimney rising like an
offensive middle finger.
Of mines and men
D H Lawrence, who lived hereabouts (in the
village of Zennor) during the First World War,
detected in the landscape “that flicker of
Celtic consciousness before it was swamped
under Norman and Teutonic waves”. The
artist Kurt Jackson, who lives in of West
Penwith and has immortalised it in countless
paintings, doesn’t buy into such mystical
interpretations. But, he reckons, walking
here is “a glorious way of getting to know
and understand the Cornish landscape and
therefore the culture, the history, everything”.
I’m drawn by that Ding Dong engine house,
so, having parked in a lay-by on the edge of
Bosullow Common, I head there on foot.
The footpath that crosses the lay-by is The
Tinner’s Way, a waymarked path from St Ives,
in the east, to Priest Cove, beyond St Just. I
follow the path as it winds up between pin-
cushion banks of heather and gorse, past the
Nine Maidens stone circle, to Mên-an-Tol, a
Neolithic formation of two granite standing
stones either side of a ring-stone — viewed
from the side the stones look like the acronym
for ‘laugh out loud’. On top of the ring-stone
— said to be imbued with various magical and
magical powers — people have left seashells
and sprigs of heather, possibly petitioning
to get pregnant. I continue past the ‘Four
Parish Stone’ that marks the meeting point
of the parishes of Zennor, Gulval, Madron
and Morvah — Cornish names that sound
like Old Testament prophets — gulp in the
sudden view of Mount’s Bay (with St Michael’s
Mount rising, Avalon-like, from it) that opens
up to the south east, and reach the sombre
precincts of the Ding Dong engine house.
CORNWALL
Tin mines, Penwith coast
These granite structures, which once
housed the steam engines that pumped
water from the mines, have been called by
some ‘moorland cathedrals’ for the way they
embellish the Cornish landscape. Close
up, however, Ding Dong has a sullen air; a
burnt-out car sits in a gully of rainwater;
the fathomless mouth of the mineshaft is
covered with rusted iron railings crudely
anchored by boulders. And this feels right,
for there’s really nothing romantic or
spiritual about this place.
As Kurt Jackson says, quoting Cornish
artist Peter Lanyon, “The engine houses
should be seen as memorials to the suffering
of the miners.” Indeed, working conditions
and life expectancy in the mining industry
were dreadful. One of the worst of Cornwall’s
mining disasters occurred at Levant Mine,
on the coast, just over four miles west of
Ding Dong. On 20 October 1919, a link broke
on Levant’s ‘man engine’ — the system of
platforms that lowered and raised men
between the surface and the working
shafts — plunging 31 miners to their deaths.
“Their descendants still live round here, the
tragedy is still felt keenly,” says Richard, a
Jul/Aug 2018 117
CORNWALL

RIGHT: Tate St Ives

volunteer guide at the museum on the site

where the mine once stood. Richard leads
the way down the tunnel, from the miners’
‘dry’ (changing room) past the ‘clay drop’ — a
chute where miners scooped up clay to affix
candles to their felt hats — to the shaft of the
man engine. Here, poised above the place
where the men fell, he talks of the miners’
superstitions, how they believed the spirits
of those who died underground stayed down
there in the deep, dark places and needed to
be placated, usually with scraps of food. The
story of the miner rash enough to defy these
spirits is told in the folk song The Ballad of
Tommy Trevorrow; the first verse of which
Richard duly recites:
“Tom Trevorrow! Tom Trevorrow!
Leave some of thy fuggan for bucca
Or bad luck to thee to-morrow!”
When I emerge, a red-billed chough
— Cornwall’s emblematic bird — is tumbling
and soaring above the cliffs. Out on the ocean,
within the reef that lies a mile offshore,
basking sharks and dolphins regularly breach
the waves. It’s a wildly beautiful spot.
My Cornish exploration concludes in St
Ives, a former pilchard port that reinvented
itself in the postwar years as a hub of artistic
innovation. At its forefront was the sculptor
Barbara Hepworth. In St Ives, the place where
she lived and worked, Trewyn Studio, has
become a museum affiliated to Tate St Ives.
Filled with flowers, fragrance and shapes,
the garden of Trewyn is as perfect as the
trademark holes in Hepworth’s sculptures. ESSENTIALS
It’s here I meet Tate St Ives’ executive
director, Mark Osterfield. We admire
Getting there & around Minack Theatre. minack.com
Hepworth’s cluster of perpendicular pieces,
Cornwall can be accessed by rail and Trewyn Studio and Tate St Ives.
Conversation with Magic Stones, and discuss
road from across the UK. tate. org.uk/visit/tate-st-ives
her love of what she called “the remarkable FlyBe flies four times daily to Newquay
pagan landscape” of West Penwith. “If you from Gatwick and Stansted, twice daily Further information
think of Nine Maidens, Mên-an-Tol, etcetera, from Manchester to Newquay and once visitcornwall.com
you can see it, can’t you,” he says. daily from Birmingham and Edinburgh.
As we leave Trewyn, I ask Mark about the flybe.com How to do it
large, whitewashed, apparently redundant Car hire is available in several locations. Great Western Railway’s Night Riviera
building, resembling a giant doorstop as hertz.co.uk Sleeper departs London Paddington
it follows the gradient of the hill. “The old station at 11.45pm, arriving in Truro at
Where to stay 7.06am and Penzance at 7.53am. From
Palais de Danse,” he says; then elaborates. Not
West by Five. westbyfive.com £66 per person, off peak. gwr.com
only was it once the jitterbug capital of west Hotel Tresanton. tresanton.com
Cornwall but — when the feet stopped tapping
— Hepworth used it as a studio for pieces too Places mentioned
big for Trewyn, notably the 21ft-high bronze Roskillys. roskillys.co.uk AT L A N T I C
Truro
Single Form, which has stood outside the UN Kurt Jackson Foundation. OCEAN
St Ives
C O R N WA L L
Headquarters in New York since 1964. “You jacksonfoundationgallery.com DING DONG MINES
Chysauster
The Marconi Centre. MÊN AN TOL
ILLUSTRATION: JOHN PLUMER

can still see the outline of the sculpture on WEST

marconi-centre-poldhu.org.uk PENWITH Penzance
the floor,” says Mark. The Tate plans to open
Porthcurno Telegraph Museum. LAND’S END
the Palais to the public some day. Meanwhile, Porthcurno LOWLAND
POINT
telegraphmuseum.org Poldhu
I contemplate the idea that, on this salty old
Chysauster Ancient Village. english-
back street, with the beady-eyed herring gulls heritage.org.uk/visit/places/ UNITED LIZARD
KINGDOM POINT
crying overhead, Hepworth did what Cornwall chysauster-ancient-village ENGLISH CHANNEL
does best. She forged something unique and Levant Mine. nationaltrust.org.uk/
CORNWALL
5 Miles

sent it out across the seas. levant-mine-and-beam-engine

118 natgeotraveller.co.uk
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 THE

OUTBACK

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

WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHS EWEN BELL

Jul/Aug 2018 121

AUSTRALIA

A SEA OF SAND AND SCRUB

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

122 natgeotraveller.co.uk
 AUSTRALIA

Jul/Aug 2018 123

AUSTRALIA

124 natgeotraveller.co.uk
 AUSTRALIA

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

Jul/Aug 2018 125

AUSTRALIA

126 natgeotraveller.co.uk
 AUSTRALIA

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

Jul/Aug 2018 127

AUSTRALIA

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

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

130 natgeotraveller.co.uk
Jul/Aug 2018 131
PARIS
T C’est chic // Paris is a
he air smells of pastries, tobacco
smoke and Metro tunnels. It’s a spring
afternoon in the French capital, and
the cliches have been let out to play. There’s
sunshine on the cobbles, burnishing the
shop awnings and the chestnut trees. The
boulevards are full of scarf-wearing couples
and wedge-heeled dog-walkers. It’s cold
enough to sting the cheeks, which in Paris
terms makes it the sort of day that begs to be
spent strolling from cafe to cafe. Unless, of
course, you’ve got a job to do.
Tucked away inside his workshop in the
12th arrondissement, Michel Heurtault
looks around the room — an ordered jumble
of silks, sewing machines and bare-ribbed
umbrellas — and smiles. “I work to the same
rhythm as a man from the 19th century,” he
says. “You know, in the year 1860, France
exported around six million umbrellas to the
rest of the world. Just imagine that.”
Michel is a maître d’art, a kind of official
guardian of French craftsmanship, and for
the past decade has handmade between
200 and 300 parasols and umbrellas a year.
These aren’t your average brollies. He holds
out a recently waterproofed example for my
inspection. The turned handle is carved
from ebony, the end is a length of polished
bullhorn and the canvas itself is cut from
patterned, jet-black Asian silk. “An umbrella
like this lasts a lifetime,” he says. “And when
you pass away — it goes to your children.”
His devotion to his trade is nothing
unusual. Not in France, and certainly not
here in Paris. Michel’s workshop, Parasolerie
Heurtault, occupies an arch of the Viaduc des
Arts, an old railway viaduct close to the Gare
de Lyon. Every arch, and there are dozens
of them, holds a similar enterprise. Walk in
one direction and you pass the premises of a
furniture-maker, a chocolatier, and a luthier
whose windows are full of lushly varnished
cellos. Walk in the other and you pass a
master bootmaker, a mosaic atelier and
— improbably — a specialist in bronze
door knockers.
It’s a great pocket of the city in which to
while away a few pre-dinner hours. The upper
level of the viaduct has been turned into a
promenade plantée, a long open-air walkway
lined with trees and plant beds — predating
New York’s similar High Line by nearly 20
years. When you wander along its length,
you know that under your feet are workshops
keeping the old ways alive. “Yes, you pay more
for things that have been made by hand,” says
Michel. “But you get true quality.”
How is it that the city has constructed such
an unshakable reputation for artisanship
— for making things so well? Think Paris,
think tailors, perfume houses, restaurants,
and galleries lined with masterpieces; not to
mention daintily flavoured macarons baked
to precisely the perfection that makes you
want to simultaneously wolf one down and
132 natgeotraveller.co.uk
treasure it. Other European capitals have
style and heritage, but none has quite the
same cachet and panache as Paris. Why? globalised city, but it also
It’s a question of legacy, according to city
expert Courtney Traub, who runs the online fiercely resists the homogeny
travel guide ParisUnlocked.com. “We need to
look back to the medieval city as a powerful
of global culture. You see
European centre for craftsmen’s guilds,” she fewer chains here than you do
tells me. “They put into place traditions and
regulations, which is why the term ‘artisan’ in London, and there’s good
carries such respect in France. This is true
whether you’re a fabric-maker, baker, chef
reason for that
or cheesemonger.”
In other words, quality still matters.
“There are governing bodies that give their
approval to differentiate between ‘authentic’
and ‘inauthentic’ products. These labels
are taken very seriously,” she continues.
“More generally, there’s an emphasis on
both respect for tradition and innovation
that seems a bit contradictory but tends to
inspire creativity. Great chefs or couturiers
manage to innovate while still showing great
respect for traditions and standards. Paris
is a globalised city, but it also fiercely resists
the homogeny of global culture. You see
fewer chains here than you do in London,
and there’s good reason for that.”
PROUDLY PRETENTIOUS
In the depths of a hotel, 10 voices chorus two
words. “Oui, chef!”
I’m standing in the forensically clean
kitchen of a two Michelin-starred restaurant.
It’s 8pm, and four orders have just reached
the pass. Within seconds, the whole space
is alive with the sizzle of duck breasts, the
stirring of sauces and the tack-tack of rapid
knife-chops. There’s soft conversation, even
laughter, but it’s of the focused, eyes-down,
this-soufflé-will-change-the-world kind.
This is L’Abeille, the leading restaurant at
the Shangri-La Hotel Paris, a property that
occupies the former palace of Napoleon’s
grand-nephew. It’s fair to say they do things
properly here.
“Cooking is personal. Above all, it’s
about sensitivity,” explains executive chef
Christophe Moret, raising his finger to
emphasise the point. He is shaven-headed
and jovial, a former rugby flanker. “A chef
has to put their soul into their cooking. If a
customer doesn’t like a dish — aargh!” He
mimes thrusting a dagger into his own heart.
I get the impression negative feedback isn’t
received too often. “Our strength here is the
sauce. For French cooks, the sauce is the first
thing you have to learn. Because,” he smiles,
“we are a little bit pretentious.” PREVIOUS PAGE: Place
I get pretentious myself when I sit down to settings before evening
service at the Shangri-La
taste the food. It’s the main course that gets
Paris’s two-Michelin star
me. Lobster, vanilla, chestnuts and pumpkin
restaurant, L’Abeille
sounds an unlikely combination, but the CLOCKWISE: Michel
kitchen weighs the flavours until they’re Heurtault at work;
tousled and sauced into something woozily Michel’s parasols; a dish
transcendent. They arrange the food like at L’Abeille restaurant
 PARIS

Jul/Aug 2018 133

PARIS

Work of art // “Our strength here is

the sauce. For French cooks, the sauce
is the first thing you have to learn...”

134 natgeotraveller.co.uk
 PARIS

Jul/Aug 2018 135

PARIS

136 natgeotraveller.co.uk

Know thyself // Being
positive isn’t really in the
Parisian character. We’re
never happy – we’re always
moaning. But when we create
something, we create it from
our hearts
PREVIOUS PAGE: Roasted
pigeon at L’Abeille
CLOCKWISE: Chocolatier
at Patrick Roger’s
Saint-Germain boutique;
Cafe La Favourite; tailor
João Paulo Rodriguez at
Cifonelli; fabric samples
in storage at Cifonelli’s
an artwork. They serve it in a belle époque
dining room. They pair it with a chilled glass
of 2014 Hermitage Chevalier de Sterimberg.
I’m slayed, frankly — and that’s before
the desserts redefine my notions of what
desserts should be. What kind of brilliant
mind thinks to partner roasted pears with
beer ice cream and bergamot?
Christophe has been cooking in Paris for
23 years, many of which were spent working
with the legendary Alain Ducasse. So what
has he learned from more than two decades
in the capital’s best kitchens? “Three things,”
he says. “Firstly, rapidity — you have to
be quick and consistent on every service.
That’s not easy. Secondly, anticipation of
what customers want. And thirdly, a sense
of competition. You could give 10 grand
chefs the same ingredients, and you’d get 10
different dishes. Competition is healthy.”
In his workshop on the southern outskirts
of the city, chocolatier Patrick Roger is
surrounded by dozens of life-sized emperor
penguins and chimpanzees, all sculpted
from chocolate. They are, however, a mere
backdrop to his current project — an edible
statue of a Thriller-era Michael Jackson. This
one isn’t life-sized. That would be ridiculous.
It’s bigger than that.
Patrick is Willy Wonka meets Auguste
Rodin meets Heston Blumenthal. His
workshop smells exactly how you’d hope:
sweet, goodly and all-pervasive. His team
of 20 are dressed in black, busy creating
hundreds of glazed hemispherical caramels.
Patrick is in cocoa-dusted whites and
constantly moving, consulting his iPad
one minute, sampling a praline the next,
stipulating to the team the exact thickness of
a chocolate egg the next.
“When I was 18, I discovered good
chocolate, proper chocolate. It was a
revolution,” he tells me animatedly. His
childhood was spent in a small village in
northern France. Three decades later, he has
six dedicated chocolate boutiques in Paris. “I
understood that it could give me a passport to
the world. Of course, I had no business plan.
I had to let everything happen naturally. But
my mum tells me I’ve always been that way.”
He sources premium ingredients from
overseas for use in his creations: oranges
from Corsica, whisky from Scotland, marrons
glacés from Turin. “Taste has no borders, so
it’s important to look for the best ingredients
in the world.” And why Paris as a base?
“People have high expectations. It’s an
extraordinary city. Everything happens here.
But listen — the city’s not just about luxury.
To want to eat well is normal. That’s just how
it goes here.”
Later in the day I visit his boutique in
the St-Germain-des-Prés district. There’s a
long queue winding around the store, and
the chocolate aroma drifts to the pavement
outside. This is another Paris neighbourhood
PARIS
that’s not only primed for walking — thanks
to the sweepingly landscaped Jardin du
Luxembourg — but packed with upscale
artisan outlets.
In the narrow streets around Rue
Saint-Sulpice, they come thick and
fast. Cire Trudon, the world’s oldest
active candlemaker; Sabbia Rosa, where
supermodels reputedly stock up on
underwear; Boulangerie Poilâne, baking
since 1932 and proving Patrick’s theory that
Paris is about far more than indulging in
luxury items. Here, a modest £1.70 buys me
an oven-warm chausson aux pommes (apple
turnover) fit for Napoleon himself.
CITY OF PLEASURES
Back to those smells. Paris has many scents.
Some are pleasing, some are less so; all are
evocative. Ever since the lavishly fragrant
days of Louis XIV, who insisted on bowls of
rose petals being placed around the Palace
of Versailles and reputedly had his shirts
rinsed in a jasmine, orange flower and musk
solution, the city has had a close relationship
with perfume.
More than two centuries later, I’m in
a fashionably lit room on Avenue George
V being told things about myself that I
never suspected. “You are a vast, powerful
ocean,” says Carole Aymé, store director at
The Harmonist, a new perfume house. She
has just calculated my perfect scent, using
a feng shui-inspired theory that involves
my birthday, my own smell preferences
and my place of birth. Who would have
thought Reading held such potency? “You
are sometimes calm,” she continues, “and
sometimes stormy.”
The perfume she suggests is a bouquet she
calls Golden Wood, which uses ingredients
that include tonka beans, oak, mandarins
and Southeast Asian beeswax. The end
result is heady enough to give pause to the
aftershave-shunning doubter in me — but
then Carole knows her stuff, having spent
18 years working for Guerlain, one of the
biggest and oldest names in the trade. When
she raises something to her nose, she closes
her eyes, tilts her head and concentrates in
the way a composer might focus on different
elements of an orchestra.
“People’s sense of smell is always better
in the morning,” she says. “After a big meal,
digestion lessens your perception.” I ask
her why Paris makes such a natural home
for the world’s biggest perfume houses, and
she smiles. “Being positive isn’t really in the
Parisian character. We’re never happy
— we’re always moaning. But when we create
something, we create it from our hearts.”
Five minutes’ walk away, I visit an artisan of
a different sort. Cifonelli is a family business
that’s been tailoring bespoke suits from its
Rue Marbeuf atelier since 1936. The current
caretakers of this heritage are Massimo and
Jul/Aug 2018 137
PARIS
Lorenzo Cifonelli, the great-grandsons of the
founder. I find them leaning intently over a
worktop with scissors, fabrics and rulers.
Lorenzo leads me through to a plush
carpeted room hung with stylised
lampshades and lined with shelves of fabrics.
He’s impossibly dapper, wearing a velvet
jacket and stroking a long, sculpted beard.
“Every suit requires three fittings,” he tells
me. He’s softly spoken and bright-eyed. “It
takes 80 hours to make by hand. We have the
biggest bespoke suit workshop in the world
here, with 45 people. A suit costs €6,500, but
that’s a reflection of the work.”
He spends a huge amount of time on the
road, visiting clients. “Mainly in London,
New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong,” he
explains. “They’re people who care about
look, quality and craftsmanship — they’re
Lorenzo Cifonelli
138 natgeotraveller.co.uk
not concerned with brands. But it’s not easy ESSENTIALS
work. I never deliver a suit unless I’m 100%
happy. When a client puts a jacket on for the
first time, I have to see a smile.”
I’d been hoping, while in Paris, to meet Gare Gare
du Nord
Serge Lutens — the 76-year-old fashion
St-Lazare Gare
de l’Est
designer, photographer and perfumier The Harmonist PA R I S
Cifonelli
who singlehandedly sums up much of Shangri-La
Sein
e
what makes the city what it is. He’s out Patrick
Roger
of town, but he does send an email a few Rue St-Sulpice Viaduc
des Arts
days after I leave. His thoughts on perfume Gare Gare de Lyon
are impassioned (“it contains anger, Montparnasse
Gare
d’Austerlitz
love, tenderness — it’s a treasure hunt, a 1 mile
S
labyrinth”) and he provides a neat final word
e
in
e
on Paris itself, too.
“The distance isn’t so great from gaining a
reputation to achieving legendary status,” he Getting there & around
writes, “and Paris is unquestionably une ville Eurostar has services between
de plaisirs — a city of pleasures.” London St Pancras and Paris Gare du
Nord roughly hourly, seven days a
week. The fastest journey time is
two hours 15 minutes. eurostar.com
There are direct flights to Paris
from more than 15 UK airports.
Airlines that serve these routes
include British Airways, Flybe,
and Vueling. ba.com flybe.com
vueling.com
Paris has a cheap and
comprehensive Metro system. A
single journey costs €1.90 (£1.70).
There are also 64 bus lines and four
tramway lines. Taxis are widespread.
parisinfo.com
When to go
The temperatures, weather patterns
and seasons broadly mirror those in
the UK. It’s popular year-round, but
avoid the heavy crowds and hotel
prices of peak summer.
Places mentioned
Parasolerie Heurtault.
parasolerieheurtault.com
L’Abeille. shangri-la.com/paris
Patrick Roger. patickroger.com
Cire Trudon. trudon.com
Sabbia Rosa. T: 00 33 1 4548 8837
Boulangerie Poilane. poilane.com
The Harmonist. theharmonist.com
Cifonelli. cifonelli.com
Grand Amour Hôtel.
hotelamourparis.fr/en
More info
parisunlocked.com
enparis.info.com
How to do it
ABERCROMBIE & KENT offers a
MAP ILLUSTRATION: JOHN PLUMER
three-night stay at the five-star
Shangri-La Hotel Paris, a former
palace with three restaurants and an
excellent cocktail bar, from £2,705
per person. The price includes
breakfast, a private half-day walking
tour, Paris Museum pass, Metro
carnet, return flights, private luxury
transfers and an A&K concierge.
abercrombiekent.co.uk
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 City life
DALLAS
Banish notions of Stetsons and Lone Star patriotism
— Dallas may be synonymous with Texan tradition but it’s
one of the state’s most youthful, energetic cities, where old
money is making way for a new crop of innovators
WORDS: Stephanie Cavagnaro PHOTOGRAPHS: James Breeden

140 natgeotraveller.co.uk
‘T
oo normal for Austin, too cool
for Houston’ reads a T-shirt in
Bullzerk boutique. ‘Keep Dallas
boring’, another suggests, while a third
pleads to ‘Keep Dallas better than Austin’.
Looking around, it seems Dallas is struggling
with an identity crisis, measuring itself
against its confident cousins to the south.
I’ve always thought of Dallas as composed
of equal measures of pioneer spirit and
Southern hospitality, with a few dashes
of haughty nouveau riche thrown in.
Yet it’s always hidden its light under
the bushel of Texan identity. Above
Bullzerk’s racks of T-shirts hangs a sign:
‘Proudly made in Texas’. “We do all the
production here,” says Dan Bradley,
Bullzerk’s founder. “All hand-printed; it’s
crazy, nobody does this anymore.”
But there are signs this city is forging its
own distinct identity as a city.
Outside, buzzy bars spill onto the pavement
and a queue snakes slowly towards gourmet
popsicle outfit Steel City Pops. “Greenville
used to be like the hood, and now it’s one of
the most popular areas, with restaurants and
bars,” says Dan. “There are only a couple areas
where it’s like this — true city living, you
know: character, uniqueness. This area is one
of them. Deep Ellum is another.”
Hopping in an Uber — no metros mean
ridesharing is Dallas’s transportation du
jour — I head there next. I slip into Off the
Record, an industrial-chic bar with local
beer and vinyl for sale. “Over the past two
to three years, this area has undergone a
resurgence,” Norell, the bartender says. “At
first it was super grungy. East Dallas is like
Austin — very blue, very liberal, very chilled.
You go to Fort Worth, the cops still wear
cowboy hats — it’s more country; Dallas is
very metropolitan.” This rapid transformation
from down and out to des res is especially
evident over in West Dallas, at Trinity
Groves, a mini-mall of foodie startups. Chino
Chinatown, for example, blends Latin and
Asian dishes; while Kate Weiser Chocolate
sells hand-painted bonbons; and LUCK serves
craft beer brewed within a 75-mile radius.
I down my Silly Gose sour, a citrusy,
German-style wheat beer — currently a
LUCK staple — and order an Uber to take me
to West Dallas. My driver, Dalph, tells me it’s
changed. “I remember this area used to be
crud,” he laughs. “Now everyone is returning
— it’s for the better. The old money has died
off, and the new generation is here.”
Jul/Aug 2018 141
DALLAS

142 natgeotraveller.co.uk
 DALLAS

PREVIOUS PAGES: Truck Yard beer garden

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

SEE & DO At the Dallas Museum

DALLAS ARBORETUM AND BOTANICAL
GARDEN: Packed with beautiful blooms, of Art, time travel
this is where Dallasites find Zen. It’s a
66-acre technicolour wonderland with from ancient Egypt,
hummingbirds dipping their beaks into
bright red fairy dusters, pink azaleas swaying
with amulets dating
drunkenly, and coleuses fringing the scenic back to 332 BC,
White Rock Lake. dallasarboretum.org
SIXTH FLOOR MUSEUM: Dallas remains to 20th-century
synonymous with the JFK assassination
— and this museum poignantly sits at the
America, and
spot where Lee Harvey Oswald fired his fatal Pollock’s iconic
shots at the motorcade in 1963. It provides a
thorough overview of the life, career, death drip painting
and legacy of the ill-fated president. jfk.org
GEO-DECK: The city’s most recognisable
landmark, Reunion Tower, resembles a giant
disco ball — and you can join the party at
its observation deck. This isn’t for those
prone to vertigo — the panoramic view is
from 470ft. Interactive touchscreens and
telescopes are also on hand to help you get
familiar with the Big D. reuniontower.com
NASHER SCULPTURE CENTER: Perhaps one of
the most serene settings for art aficionados
— over 300 masterpieces by the likes of
Rodin, Noguchi and Picasso are peppered
throughout a light-filled indoor gallery and
leafy garden. Grab a salmon salad and glass
of white in the minimalist cafe, which spills
outside in summer. nashersculpturecenter.org
M-LINE TROLLEY: These vintage streetcars AFTER HOURS
— the oldest dates back to 1909 — rattle past TRUCK YARD: A beer garden with
uptown’s galleries, bars and restaurants. Hop a rotating rota of food trucks paper
on one — for free — and you’ll feel like you’re plating American classics including the
riding a twee time machine. mata.org cheesesteak. There are plenty of novel places
PIONEER PLAZA: Calling all cowboys! to take a seat, including a treehouse and
Imagine driving Texas longhorn steers at the cargo beds of vintage Chevy pickups.
this sculpture park, which commemorates texastruckyard.com
19th-century cattle drives. Created by Robert CIDERCADE: A nerd’s dream house packed
Summers, 49 six-foot bronze statues ‘gallop’ with over 150 classic arcade games, including
across this peaceful public space. Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Donkey
DALLAS MUSEUM OF ART: It doesn’t get much Kong, plus a whole wall lined with pinball
more comprehensive than this — over 24,000 machines — all free to play when you buy
works spanning 5,000 years. Time travel a pint of the hard stuff from Bishop Cider
from ancient Egypt, with amulets dating Co, which has around two dozen ciders and
back to 332 BC, to 20th-century America, and meads on tap. cidercade.com
Pollock’s iconic drip paintings. A full calendar BRAINDEAD BREWING: A sprawling brewpub
of events includes midnight openings on the that has a lively outdoor patio with trees
third Friday of every month. dma.org strung with fairy lights. There are around
GEORGE W BUSH PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND 30 beers on tap, from a Chardonnay barrel-
MUSEUM: This 23-acre library and museum aged saison to a blood orange hibiscus radler
is well worth a visit, whatever your political and a coffee scotch ale. The food offering,
views. Artefacts and documents relating to meanwhile, is as sizeable as the brewery. Go
the 43rd president (who grew up in Texas, for the Coma Burger, containing a mound
and served as its Governor) are on view, of brisket and bacon topped with stout
along with a replica of the Oval Office. mustard, sweet onion jam and smoked
georgewbushlibrary.smu.edu cheddar. braindeadbrewing.com

Jul/Aug 2018 143

DALLAS
LIKE A LOCAL
KLYDE WARREN PARK: It may be built
over the six-lane freeway that connects
Uptown and Downtown, but this five-acre
green space is much more serene than it
sounds. It’s served by a fleet of food trucks,
kids play in water fountains, and runners
whizz across jogging trails. There are also
free events including yoga, book signings
and outdoor concerts. klydewarrenpark.org
CATCH A GAME: When you’re in the Big D,
root, root, root for the home team, as the
old baseball song goes. That team is the
Texas Rangers, which hits balls out of the
park in nearby Arlington. The city is also
home to the Dallas Cowboys, a football
team with a rabid fan base. Hut, hut, hike!
dallascowboys.com mlb.com
BARBECUE: Texas’s unofficial national
dish (Tex-Mex is a close second). Head to
Lockhart Smokehouse for a pile of oak-
smoked beef brisket with a side of blue
cheese slaw. More top-notch barbecue can
be gobbled up at Smoke, where brunch
means dishes like brisket cornbread hash;
or Pecan Lodge, whose ultimate carnivore
sharing option is termed The Trough.
lockhartsmokehouse.com pecanlodge.com
smokerestaurant.com
144 natgeotraveller.co.uk
Z SLEEP
ZZ
NYLO DALLAS SOUTH SIDE: This is
one very hip home away from home. Inside
the red-brick building, urban vibes extend
to polished concrete floors, industrial
fittings and expansive loft rooms with leafy
green plants. Next to the rooftop pool is the
SODA Bar, where you can neck Negronis
while taking in the stunning Dallas skyline.
nylohotels.com/dallas
THE ADOLPHUS HOTEL: The grande dame
of Dallas hotels, this extravagant Parisian
beaux-arts building has been welcoming the
well-to-do for over a century. It’s red-brick
and granite facade topped by Greek gods and
gargoyles is an immutable Dallas landmark,
but a 2016 renovation has spruced up the
interior — think dark woods and deep blues,
gilded chandeliers, copper-topped bars and a
wedding-cake-white bistro. adolphus.com
HOTEL ZAZA: Splurge on a ‘concept
suite’, each decked out in a different, but
equally bonkers, theme. The Houston We
Have a Problem, for instance, contains a full-
sized spacesuit, moon-landing photos, space
rocket lava lamps, and a bubble chair. The FROM LEFT: Klyde Warren Park,
leafy, marble-clad poolside, meanwhile, is Downtown; The Wild Detectives
where A-listers kick back; it’s a showstopper. bookstore and cafe, Bishop Arts
hotelzaza.com District, Oak Cliff
 DALLAS

Jul/Aug 2018 145

DALLAS
BUY
DUDE, SWEET CHOCOLATE: Local
chocolatier Katherine Clapner crafts
creations like Crack in a Box (cocoa nibs,
hazelnut, almond, macadamia), Chocolate
‘Salami’, and Break Up Potion — made with
agave nectar, bourbon and dark chocolate
— ideal smothered on a tub of ice cream.
dudesweetchocolate.com
THE WILD DETECTIVES: Vonnegut, Salinger,
Mailer, Orwell… there’s a fantastic selection
of curated tomes in this cosy independent
bookshop — plus a wood-top bar from which
to sup local brews. Frequent readings and
film screenings also pull in the punters,
but booze and books is the store’s winning
combo. thewilddetectives.com
ROCKET FIZZ DEEP ELLUM: Dying to know
what dirt tastes like? Well, now you can
indulge your peculiar palate at this quirky
candy and soda shop. Pop flavours include
dirt, butter, bacon and even barf, which has
‘great chunky flavor’. rocketfizz.com
ESSENTIALS
Getting there & around
American Airlines flies three times daily from
Heathrow to Dallas/Fort Worth. British Airways offers
frequent nonstop flights to Dallas. WOW Air has new
flights to DFW from Stansted and Gatwick, via
Reykjavik. aa.co.uk ba.com wow.co.uk
Average flight time: 10h.
The Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) offers
affordable bus and rail options, but ridesharing (Uber,
Lyft) tends to be a more popular option for visitors
who don’t rent a car. dart.org
146 natgeotraveller.co.uk
EAT
DALLAS FARMERS MARKET: An
artisanal grub hub, where you can buy
local products or eat at stalls serving up
such treats as a moreish Texas cheese plate
from Scardello — a great precursor to a
Steampunk amber lager at the Noble Rey
Brewing taproom. dallasfarmersmarket.org
TRINITY GROVES: Home to the Restaurant
Incubator programme, which encourages
entrepreneurs to develop culinary concepts.
The result is like an epicurean theme park.
Try LUCK, serving hyper-local brews and
upscale Texas comfort food such as smoked
pastrami sandwiches. trinitygroves.com
FRANK: Fusing fine dining and secret
ILLUSTRATION: JOHN PLUMER
supper club aesthetic, this underground
restaurant is run by MasterChef finalists
Jennie Kelley and Ben Starr. The multi-
course menu has playful themes like ‘poison’,
using ingredients with toxic properties. ABOVE: Chocolatier Eddie Murphy
This is an unapologetic gastronomical at Dude, Sweet Chocolate, Bishop
celebration. frankunderground.com Arts District
When to go
UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA
Mild and pleasant all year, apart from high summer Dallas
when temperatures soar to the high 30Cs. Texas
Dallas Arboretum &
Botanical Gardens
More info MEXICO Greenville
visitdallas.com Uptown
Lonely Planet Texas. RRP: £14.99. Klyde Warren
Dealey Park Deep Ellum
Trinity Plaza Downtown
Groves
How to do it Dallas Farmers Market
Reunion Pioneer
AMERICA AS YOU LIKE IT has four nights in Dallas Tower Plaza
from £1,150 per person, including return flights on
American Airlines from Heathrow, staying at the Bishop Arts
District 1 mile
Adolphus Hotel, room only. americaasyoulikeit.com
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 P R O M O T I O N A L F E AT U R E

1 3

1 ADVENTURE 2 THE GREEN 3 NATURAL 4 THE MAYA 5 COLONIAL

AWAITS CARIBBEAN INSPIRATION CULTURE CHARM

Semuc Champey, meaning Head to Izabal and the Lake Atitlán is often Perhaps the country’s Spanish flair fuses with
‘where the river hides in heart of the unique considered one of the most iconic landmark, traditional native art in
the mountains,’ is one Garifuna culture for world’s most beautiful Tikal National Park is La Antigua Guatemala,
of the country’s most a different side to the lakes, and surrounded one of the world’s most creating a unique city
beautiful sites. Venture Caribbean. Take in the by mountains, volcanoes important pre-Hispanic that bubbles with history,
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hike. Adrenalin junkies leave without immersing around the region offer a Surrounded by lush forest, bright colours. Peruse
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excellent opportunity for declared a UNESCO World culture, such as local must for travellers the renowned coffee
some high-octane fun. Heritage Site in 1981. cuisine and cloth-making. discovering Guatemala. plantations.

4 5
IMAGES: GETTY
 ASK THE
EXPERTS
NEED ADVICE FOR YOUR NEXT TRIP?
ARE YOU AFTER RECOMMENDATIONS,
TIPS AND GUIDANCE? THE TRAVEL
GEEKS HAVE THE ANSWERS…
Q // I’m planning a The obvious place to stay is South
Beach, but why not mix things
two-week birthday up and head to the formerly
celebration trip to unfashionable Mid-Beach?
Miami. What do you New hotels such as the Edition,
Faena and Como Metropolitan
recommend? (a restored art deco gem) make
this Miami’s most talked-about
stretch of shore. For a change
of scene, relocate inland to
affluent Coral Gables for a few
days at The Biltmore Hotel, a
recently-refurbished Miami icon
that’s home to America’s largest
swimming pool. After that, take a
short flight to Key West and check
into the Southernmost Beach
Resort (literally the USA’s
most southerly
address). Then, because it’s your
birthday, rent a convertible and
island-hop your way back to
Miami on the Overseas Highway
via a final few days on Islamorada
at the newly renovated Cheeca
Lodge & Spa. Bon Voyage can
tailor-make this holiday from
£2,987 per person, based on two
sharing (including flights, room-
only accommodation and car
hire). JAMES LITSTON
South Beach is an architecture
buff ’s paradise, but you’ll
definitely want to spend some
of your time in Miami exploring
other areas. At the top of my list
is the Wynwood Arts District, one
of Miami’s trendiest, up-and-
coming neighbourhoods. The
best way to see the district is to
take a mural tour with Miami’s
Best Graffiti Guide, where you can
explore the neighbourhood by
bike or on a golf cart (great way
to beat the heat and cover lots of
ground). There are lots of local
breweries to help with that too.
My favourite spots are Wynwood
Kitchen & Bar, 1-800-Lucky and
the Wynwood Yard.
Nearby, you can visit
the aspirational Miami
Design District, a creative
neighbourhood and shopping
destination dedicated to
innovative fashion, design,
art, architecture and dining.
Even if you can’t afford to shop
there, you’ll find lots of art in
public places, plus the new St
Roch Market and Institute of
Contemporary Art (ICA).
Finally, no trip to Miami would
be complete without a visit to the
Everglades National Park. Don’t
miss the Everglades Alligator
IMAGES: GETTY
Farm — you can take a 10-minute
airboat ride there that beats any
ride at an amusement park.
SUZIE SPONDER
Q // Where can I go You’re in luck: as the idea of a
digital detox gets more and more
off-grid for a digital
detox to really get
away from it all
popular, destinations are rushing
to cater to it — at all budget levels.
You’ll now find it in destinations
from Australia’s Gold Coast, where
without compromising the Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat
on luxury? (gwinganna.com) bans phones
from public areas and exhorts you
to leave your devices at home, to
the Maldives, where Mirihi Island
Resort (mirihi.com) has jettisoned
wi-fi from the restaurants and
TV from its villas. There are even
companies and tour operators
that do nothing but match you
with suitable detox locations
Q // I’m pregnant and Depending on where you live in
the UK, Eurostar offers a direct
want to escape service to the South of France,
somewhere not too far avoiding the stress of an airport.
from the UK before Avignon, for example, is a pretty,
low-key city with a great bistro
the baby is born. scene. Country house-style
Where can I go to retreats just outside of town
relax with good food? include Domaine de Manville
(domainedemanville.fr), a five-star
foodie hotel and spa in a soul-
soothing setting, deep in the
lavender-perfumed Provence
mountains, with doubles from
€250 (£180) a night.
If you’re able to fly (check with
your GP), a two-hour flight from
Q // Do I still need Co-op Travel Insurance’s research
shows that 59% of UK adults who
travel insurance if I’m staycate are doing so without
having a staycation? taking out travel insurance.
Most feel that because they’re
holidaying in the UK, travel
insurance is unnecessary.
However, if you’ve booked
something that could potentially
be cancelled, such as a hotel,
domestic flight, coach trip or
activity, you should consider
protecting yourself financially.
— try Off Grid Hideaways
(offgridhideaways.com), which
lists its properties by longitude
and latitude, and has places on its
books such as Fazenda Catuçaba,
an eco-villa swamped by 12,000
acres of farmland.
Not that you have to be in the
middle of nowhere. Le Monastère
des Augustines (monastere.ca),
in Québec City, is a non-profit
‘wellness hotel’ attached to a
convent that encourages you to
leave your devices at check-in and
enjoy the monastic silence in your
cell (room) and over breakfast.
JULIA BUCKLEY
the UK brings you to Málaga,
currently enjoying a renaissance
thanks to its ever-growing crop of
galleries and museums, including
the Centre Pompidou and Picasso
Museum. Food here is excellent:
affordable Mediterranean fare.
Málaga’s hotels haven’t yet caught
up to its tourist boom, so Airbnb
dominates, with some chic,
affordable apartments to rent
from around £50 per night. Or
treat yourself to a stay at Finca
Cortesin (fincacortesin.com), a
glam yet unfussy spa hotel. Suites
from €500 (£440) per night.
SARAH BARRELL
For example, say a hotel you
pay for upfront goes out of
business — rather than cancel
your entire trip, or spend even
more money booking alternative
accommodation, travel insurance
would enable you to claim the
money back.
Travel insurance is also useful
if you or a member of your party
becomes ill and can’t travel — or
the trip has to be extended to
cater to the illness. COLIN BUTLER
health corner
Q // What’s the ideal medical kit
for an African safari?
Travel vaccinations
recommended for Africa include
tetanus/diphtheria/polio,
Hepatitis A and B, yellow fever,
meningitis, typhoid and rabies,
plus anti-malarial tablets, of
course. Travel insurance with a
repatriation clause is a must, too.
Your medical kit for
overlanding in Africa should
include: sun cream and block, a
thermometer, insect repellent,
water-purifying tablets,
oral rehydration sachets
(Dioralyte), anti-diarrhoeals
(loperamide), antihistamines
(Piriton), painkillers and anti-
inflammatories (paracetamol
and ibuprofen), antibacterial
and antifungal creams, plus
antibiotics (should your doctor
feel happy to prescribe). And
don’t forget a triangular sling,
bandage, basic dressings, syringes
and needles, and condoms.
Finally, if your destination is very
remote, a satellite phone could
save your life. DR PAT GARROD
THE EXPERTS
JAMES LITSTON //
FREELANCE TRAVEL WRITER
& INDUSTRY CONSULTANT
SUZIE SPONDER // DIRECTOR
OF MEDIA RELATIONS,
EUROPE, GMCVB
JULIA BUCKLEY // REGULAR
CONTRIBUTOR, NATIONAL
GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER (UK)
SARAH BARRELL //
ASSOCIATE EDITOR,
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
TRAVELLER (UK)
COLIN BUTLER // HEAD OF
CO-OP TRAVEL INSURANCE
DR PAT GARROD //
THEWORLDOVERLAND.COM
Jul/Aug 2018 151
TRAVEL GEEKS

THE INFO

ENDANGERED LANGUAGES 2118

The year around 2,500 languages
will likely have become extinct
BY THE END OF THE CENTURY AROUND 50% OF THE WORLD’S CURRENT according to UNESCO
SPOKEN LANGUAGES WILL BE EXTINCT, ACCORDING TO UNESCO. DO YOU
KNOW HOW TO SAY GOODBYE?
Europe’s
7,000+
Number of languages
lesser-spoken
lingua
spoken worldwide Breton (northern France):

“A different
language is
250,000
North Frisian (Germany):
a different
vision of life”
— Federico Fellini
10,000
HEAR IT: 25 native speakers of some of the Irish Gaelic:
listed endangered languages have recorded

440,000
themselves saying this sentence.
LISTEN HERE: gocompare.com/travel-
insurance/endangered-languages

THE ENDANGERED LIST Just

1 Wiradjuri, Australia
ONLY 40 OF THE COUNTRY’S
ORIGINAL 250 INDIGENOUS
LANGUAGES REMAIN, WITH JUST
30 WIRADJURI SPEAKERS LEFT
30,000People speak
North Saami
2 Nawat, El Salvador — despite it being
SPOKEN BY ONLY 200 PEOPLE. recognised as an
THERE IS NOW A REVIVAL THANKS official language in
TO A GROWING NUMBER OF
Norway, a minority
SECOND-LANGUAGE SPEAKERS
language in Finland
and Sweden, with
3 Choctaw, USA
SPOKEN BY JUST 9,500 PEOPLE
IN LOUISIANA, MISSISSIPPI AND
CREE & CHEROKEE
ARE TWO OF THE WORLD’S THREATENED LANGUAGES THAT DON’T
speakers also
found around the
OKLAHOMA, IT BELONGS TO AN HAVE A WORD FOR GOODBYE. THEY USE A PHRASE THAT Scandinavian/Russian
INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE FAMILY LOOSELY MEANS: “I WILL SEE YOU AGAIN” borders

Top 10 most-spoken YOU KNOW?

languages: DID
Mandarin, Spanish,
English, Hindi, Arabic,
IMAGES: GETTY

Portuguese, Bengali, Russian,

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

152 natgeotraveller.co.uk

HOT TOPIC
SPACE TOURISM: FINALLY A REALITY?
WITH COMMERCIAL ZERO-GRAVITY FLIGHTS PREDICTED BY THE END OF
2018 AND SPACE HOTEL STAYS BY 2022, YOUR NEXT LUXURY TRIP COULD BE
OUT OF THIS WORLD. WORDS: JAMES DRAVEN
As the archetypal travel addict
— and a man of humble abilities
living well after the zenith of the
age of adventure, when most
summits of global exploration
have been crested, and depths
plumbed — I can’t tell you how
much I’d love to go into space.
Up until now, though, I’d have
needed Bruce Wayne levels of
wealth to experience genuine
zero gravity — like the first space
tourist, Dennis Tito, who travelled
with Space Adventures in 2001
— or the kind of scientific skills
that differentiate we shaven
cavemen from those who have
made the human race what it’s
cracked up to be.
You see, our real-life Bruce
Waynes — Virgin’s Richard
Branson, Tesla’s Elon Musk and
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — are
planning to bring trips
to space to the masses,
or at least within reach
of the luxury traveller.
Justin Bieber is
among the celebrities
signed up for the
first Virgin Galactic
flights into outer
space. Having
found fame
from singing and
being generally
disagreeable, he does
have the disposable
$250,000 (£185,000) for
air fare. Branson started
selling tickets for this
flight more than a decade
ago — with stars like
AND ANOTHER THING… DOWN LOW
EATING WITH THE FISHES
Slated to open next year, architect
firm Snøhetta is working on a half-
submerged dining experience
in Norway, allowing guests to
tuck into dinner — underwater.
snohetta.com
Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks,
Brad Pitt, and Angelina Jolie,
also poised to travel — but after
a high-profile test flight fatality,
his dream of taking tourists on
his planned two-and-a-half-hour
suborbital voyages, with six
minutes of zero-gravity, seemed
no closer to reality.
Since then, though, there’s
been a sudden flurry of activity,
with Virgin Galactic receiving a
$1bn (£741m) investment from
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment
Fund in October 2017, which
Branson claims will bring
forward launch dates to the
end of 2018, saying: “We’re now
just months away from Virgin
Galactic going into space with
people on board.”
In February 2018 Elon Musk’s
project, SpaceX, launched his
Tesla Roadster automobile
into space using Falcon
Heavy, the most
powerful operational
rocket in the world,
making him the lead
car in the billionaire
space race.
Jeff Bezos’s entrant,
Blue Origin, offers a
similar experience to
Virgin Galactic’s,
giving guests
the chance to
somersault
weightlessly in
a space capsule,
while looking out
the windows at Earth,
60 miles below. He says he’ll
SEA BEDS
The world’s first underwater hotel
accommodation is due to open at
Conrad Maldives Rangali Island in
November. There’ll be a gym, bar,
infinity pool and a team of butlers.
conradmaldives.com
Q&A
IS THIS SPACE HOTEL ALREADY
UP THERE?
Not yet. Orion Span’s CEO
Frank Bunger tells me: “We’ll
be building Aurora Station in
Houston, starting in early-to-
mid 2019.”
AND WILL IT HAVE GUESTS
BY 2022?
Bunger says: “We recognise
that 2022 goal may seem
optimistic, however, we’ve
been developing proprietary
technology that vastly simplifi es
the design and manufacture of
Aurora Station enabling us to
build much faster.”
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN BLUE ORIGIN AND
VIRGIN GALACTIC?
Blue Origin will send a capsule of
six people on a rocket, which will
detach and parachute back to
Earth. Virgin will fly a spaceship,
carrying six passengers and two
pilots, up to around the same
altitude as Blue Origin, and then
fly back home.
ARE THERE CHEAPER WAYS TO
VISIT SPACE?
Zero2Infinity and World View
are using helium-filled balloons
to take capsules of six paying
customers and two crew
members to near-space altitudes
and back again, for between
$75k-$136k (£55.5k-£101k)
per seat.
NETWORKING
Off the coast of Tulum, Mexico,
there is what’s believed to be the
world’s largest underwater cave.
The entire 215-mile-long system
sustains huge biodiversity and
evidence of Mayan civilisation.
TRAVEL GEEKS
be sending his first tourists into
space in 2019.
It’s not just day trips to space
we can expect over the next
few years, though. Orion Span
is planning 12-day vacations to
the world’s first luxury space
hotel, Aurora Station, from as
early as 2022. With the cabin
capacity of a large private jet,
accommodation will initially be
for four people and two crew,
in private suites. Described as
looking like a utilitarian space
laboratory inside, Aurora has
more windows than any other
spacecraft ever, and — orbiting
at 200 miles above the Earth’s
surface — weightlessness.
“Orion Span will combine the
luxuries of a fine hotel with an
authentic astronaut experience,”
Frank Bunger, CEO of Orion
Span, tells me. “Luxurious
design, high-quality bedding,
top-notch space food and
private suites. Aurora Station will
stay in orbit permanently, and
guests will come up and return
separately with a rocket launch,
potentially partnered with space
agencies, or companies like
SpaceX or Blue Origin.”
Orion Span is planning to run
one trip per month, but these
rooms won’t be cheap: the
starting price is $9.5m (£7m) per
person, including training, 12-
days on Aurora Station, and the
launch. So it will cost you nearly
$40m (£29.6m) to ensure you’re
not trapped in space with Justin
Bieber. orionspan.com
AND BREATHE
Crowdfunded new breathing
device Seagow allows divers to
breathe sub-aqua for up to 15
minutes with a nift y mini dive
tank device that’s refillable via an
electric compressor. seagow.com
Jul/Aug 2018 153
TRAVEL GEEKS

SAVVY CARRY-ON
LUGGAGE

HORIZN MODEL M
USB charger/GPS, lightweight
hard shell + leather. RRP: £299
horizn-studios.co.uk
7FLYways to...
BY PRIVATE JET FOR LESS
THANKS TO SOME HIGH-FLYING START-UPS, THE PRIVATE JET MARKET HAS
BECOME MORE ACCESSIBLE TO THE AVERAGE TRAVELLER. WE LOOK AT THE
BEST WAYS TO FLY LIKE A VIP — SOMETIMES AT ECONOMY PRICES

1 // USE EMPTY LEGS 4 // COMPARE AND BOOK ONLINE…

TUMI LATITUDE
Light, slimline hard shell, with
extra flex and durability.
RRP: £595 tumi.com
THULE SUBTERRA
Wheelie duffle that splits into
two: one check-in or two smaller
carry-ons. RRP: £295 thule.com
When a jet has only been booked one-way, or
has to return to base without having sold the
route, it may offer an ‘empty leg’. It’s tricky to
find one for a specific journey — in terms of
exact location and travel times — so this works
for more flexible travellers. Victor (flyvictor.
com) and VistaJet (vistajet.com) have luxurious
fleets often travelling to far-flung destinations,
making flights beyond the means of most
travellers but empty leg fares are still a tiny
fraction of standard pricing.
2 // FIND CHEAPER EMPTY LEGS
At the more affordable end of the spectrum,
there’s Surf Air (surfair.com/eu). This
subscription service offers unlimited flights
for £1,825 a month. App-based JetSmarter
( jetsmarter.com) describes itself as the ‘Uber’
of jet travel, charging per flight, or offering
unlimited flights for an annual membership;
while LunaJets (lunajets.com) offers empty
legs charged per flight. Prices vary wildly but
flying one-way from the UK to France could be
as little as £350.
3 // BE A GROUPIE
Flight sharing helps lower costs. A ‘budget’
model, Wingly (wingly.io) pairs passengers with
pilots. Dubbed the Airbnb of jet travel, verified
pilots register for the service and add details
of their planned flights, which are
then available to book. Planes are
usually lower spec (this isn’t Learjet
territory), and the service favours
pilots who simply love flying and
want to keep their hours up, so
RULE OF
thumb
it’s cheap and definitely cheerful.
There’s no subscription, and
Downsize your craft to
passengers split the cost of the trip
keep the cost lower and
(fuel, landing fees etc). A one-way
… just like you would when booking a regular
flight. For lauded algorithms filtering live
availability and pricing for thousands of
aircraft , StrataJet (stratajet.com) leads the
way. Other award-winning booking or ‘flight
brokering’ sites with access to thousands of
craft and routes include PrivateFly (privatefly.
com), and JetApp ( jetapp.com).
5 // CHOOSE YOUR AIRPORT
Landing and handling costs at some airports
are cheaper than others, so you’ll save money
if you’re flexible about where you travel from/
to. Accordingly to PrivateFly, for example, you
could save up to $2,000 (£1,484) by landing at
Stansted rather than London City.
6 // CHOOSE YOUR JET
Nerves — or possibly just the status factor
— mean private jet passengers often insist on
travelling only in the newest planes. But the
age of the craft doesn’t necessarily mean less
comfort or safety. Flying on a 10-year-old jet
costs less than one just off the production
line, and the older plane may have recently
undergone a high-spec refurbishment and
have excellent maintenance records.
7 // FLY NO-FRILLS, IN FAIR WEATHER
Forgo the fizz? More often than not, catering is
factored in as part of the fare, so you
end up forcing down the in-flight
Champagne. But many services let
you stipulate what extras you want,
which can vastly reduce costs.
Other additional costs can include
de-icing. In cold weather, your plane
may need de-icing before it’s safe
to take off, so ensure that cost is
either included in a flat waiver fee
IMAGE: GETTY

BRIGGS & RILEY over short distances, fl y

Sympatico Bronze, with zipless flight from the UK to Europe by cost-effective prop or as part of the headline price.
expansion-compression. can cost as little as €20 (£18). See plane (as opposed to Alternatively, fly in fair weather only.
RRP: £429 briggs-riley.com also: coavmi.com jet) if available. SARAH BARRELL

154 natgeotraveller.co.uk
 TRAVEL GEEKS

Tech traveer TECHNOLOGY REPORTER FOR @BBCCLICK AND

AUTHOR OF WORKING THE CLOUD,
KATE RUSSELL PICKS THE LATEST INNOVATIONS

TOP APPS FOR...

LIFE’S A
Beach bumming

BEACH
If you’re heading to the beach
this summer there’s plenty of
not-so-essential tech to help
you relax and have fun

No-one likes sand in their pants. platform’s own sunnies (spectacles.

CGear has a range of products,
from beach mats to tote bags
(amazon.com from around £20),
made with a high-tech weave
originally developed for military
use. It lets sand fall through but
not come back up, so give your
mat a good pat down and it’ll
once more be a sand-free zone.
Technology doesn’t usually like
sandy, salt-watery places, but
the Scosche boomBOTTLE H2O
Bluetooth Wireless Speaker
(amazon.com from £70.48) is water-
and dustproof, and really packs
an audio punch. The compact
cylinder design is perfect for
tucking into a water-bottle holder,
housing a high-quality up-firing
omni-directional speaker and
passive sub-woofer. The wireless
connection means you can leave
your phone tucked safely away.
Snapchat your memories in
10-second clips direct from your
sunglasses with the social media
com from £129.99). These really do
look good, with high-quality UV
lenses and a tiny camera mounted
in the frame. Link to the Snapchat
app on your phone and you can
add funky video effects and post
straight away. To avoid the privacy
issues of covert filming, a ring of
LEDs lights up around the lens
when recording.
If you really want to make
your mark on the beach, literally,
check out the FlipSidez site for
personalising a range of good
quality flip-flops with laser cut
custom messages in the soles
(flipsidez.com from £12).
And if you want to stay out late,
try a LuminAID PackLite solar-
powered lantern (amazon.com
from £14.99). The inflatable design
creates a diffused lighting effect
with four brightness settings and
packs down flat for easy carrying.
The PackLite Max 2-in-1 (£39.99)
also lets you charge your phone.
ANTI-THEFT ALARM
ANDROID FREE
With your beach bag full of costly tech, you
might find it hard to relax. This motion-
triggered alarm immediately blares if anyone
tries to lift your stuff, even if your phone is
muted. It’s free but will show you an advert
when the alarm is triggered. iAnti Theft is a
similar free app for iOS devices.
play.google.com/store/apps itunes.apple.com
SURFLINE
IOS/ANDROID FREE
Get location-based information about good
surf spots near you, including weather
forecasts, surf conditions, and surfing-related
news and videos. discover.surfline.com/app
SPOTIFY
IOS/ANDROID FREE (£9.99 P/M PREMIUM SUB)
Find the right tunes to listen to as you lounge
with this music-streaming app. Avoid using up
your data with the premium subscription for
ad-free listening and the option to download
playlists. spotify.com

GET THE GADGET

GoXtreme ‘Barracuda 4K’ Ultra HD
Waterproof Action Cam
Action cameras are all the rage,
whether you’re an adrenalin
junkie or just want to capture
your day at the beach in high
definition, the GoXtreme
Barracuda 4K has all the modes
you’d expect from a camera of
this type; up to 20-megapixel
resolution on still shots; burst
photo mode; and ultra-sharp
videos up to 4k/25fps. It also has
a 170-degree ultra-wide view
to capture as much of the vista
as possible. You can operate
the camera via the touchscreen
controls or download the free app
for iOS and Android for a remote
controller and viewing screen
that connects via built in wi-fi.
The camera is also waterproof to
a depth of 10 metres. RRP: £119.99 @katerussell
available from Argos. argos.co.uk katerussell.co.uk

Jul/Aug 2018 155

TRAVEL GEEKS
FREQUENT FLYER
AIRPORT
LOUNGES
GAINING LOUNGE ACCESS
ISN’T JUST FOR THOSE
TURNING LEFT — IT
CAN BE A RESPITE FOR
WEARY TRAVELLERS ON
A PAY-PER-GO BASIS TOO
WORDS: DAVID WHITLEY
What are the benefits?
Not everyone has to fight for a seat
in the crowded departures area
— secreted away in most airports
are special, more exclusive
lounges. Here, at the very
minimum, there are fewer people,
comfier seats, more charging
sockets, and free food and drink.
How do I get in?
Well, if it’s a lounge run by the
airline, you’ll need to be flying
business class or have high
frequent-flyer scheme status.
Major full-service airlines such as
British Airways or Emirates tend
to have a lounge at most airports
they fly to — or will at least have
a partner airline’s lounge that’s
usable. These tend to be more
luxurious than the pay-to-play
lounges run by independent
companies within airports — but
it’s the latter that Average Joe on
LUXE LOUNGES
156 natgeotraveller.co.uk
an economy ticket can get into.
Names to look out for include
Aspire, Escape and No1, which
have several lounges in the UK.
How much do they cost?
When booking online — and
you’ll generally save between £3
and £10 doing so, as opposed to
paying full price when rocking
up on the day — these will cost
somewhere between £19 and £45.
It’s worth checking your airline
frequent-flyer scheme pages for
discounts — for example, going
through the Virgin Atlantic site
can reduce the price of the No1
Lounge at Gatwick from £32 to
£25. Holiday Extras (holidayextras.
com) also offers reduced-price
entry to airport lounges at select
international destinations and all
ETIHAD AIRWAYS FIRST CLASS
LOUNGE, ABU DHABI
This lounge has been designed to
make you feel like you’re relaxing
in a top hotel rather than waiting
for a flight; once you’ve been
welcomed in by a hostess (no
queuing at a desk here), pick your
spot in one of 16 different zones.
The dining area is something like
a members’ club, with a 24-hour
a la carte restaurant. Got the kids
with you? Pop them in the creche,
staffed with Norland nannies.
TOP PERK: Those flying Etihad’s
super-exclusive The Residence
have access to a special lounge
within the lounge.
major UK airports; for example,
£20 at Gatwick and £26.99 at
Heathrow, both including access
to snacks and drinks.
What do I get for that?
Standards roughly match up to
price — the No1 lounges tend
to have table-served, fresh-
cooked meals, premium drinks
and occasionally showers, while
at the lower end of the scale
the overall offering can be fairly
miserable — dull sandwiches and
pastries, bog-standard booze
and sometimes not even separate
toilet facilities. Review sites such
as LoungeBuddy (loungebuddy.
com) and Lounge Review
(loungereview.com) can give an
idea of quality, while airport and
lounge operator sites list facilities.
LUFTHANSA FIRST CLASS TERMINAL,
FRANKFURT
You don’t have to mix with the
hoi polloi at all at Frankfurt
Airport if you’re flying first class
with Lufthansa — there’s an
entirely separate terminal. Quiet
rooms have day beds and there
are spacious bath and shower
rooms. This is stress-free travel: a
personal assistant will greet you in
the entrance area and take care of
all the boring travel admin — they
even come through security with
you and check you in.
TOP PERK: Once the plane is ready
for boarding, you’ll be taken by
limousine to the aircraft.
Can I buy in bulk?
Most lounge operators have
annual pass schemes, while some
bank accounts and credit cards
(especially American Express)
throw in some degree of lounge
access as part of the perks
package. An alternative is Priority
Pass, which is aimed at frequent
travellers and brags of offering
members access to ‘1,200 lounges
in 500 cities across 130 countries’.
Packages range from £69 for
£15-a-pop lounge entry, to £259
for free entry everywhere. All
allow guests to enter for £15. The
downside is that entry is subject
to availability; in busy season it
might be worth paying the extra
£5 fee to advance reserve a space
in the lounge you’ve got your
eye on.
THAI AIRWAYS ROYAL FIRST LOUNGE,
BANGKOK
Some airport lounges have a
somewhat clinical edge; not in
this warm and welcoming space at
Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.
There’s a dining room serving Thai
and international food; after eating
have a rest in one of the slumber
rooms or freshen up in a shower
suite before checking out the
music room and mini library. The
real attraction here is the Royal
Orchid Spa, which has three spa
suites, and a gym and yoga room.
IMAGE: GETTY
TOP PERK: First-class passengers
can treat themselves to a
60-minute full-body massage.

Castel del Monte
ABOVE: Santuario di Michele Arcangelo
RECIPE: FAVA
BEANS AND
CHICORY
■ 400g dried fava beans
■ 400g wild chicory
■ Extra virgin olive oil
■ Sea salt
IMAGES: UMBERTO LOPEZ; GETTY; ALAMY
Soak the beans in water for
10 hours. Drain and cook at
medium heat for two hours
in salted water, then mash
with a spoon to get a thick
purée. Meanwhile, boil the
chicory in salted water for
a few minutes. Drain the
chicory, plate with the
purée and drizzle
with olive oil.
SERVES
4
P R O M O T I O N A L F E AT U R E
TIMELESS
Puglia
Shaped by the sea, centuries of history, and a
colourful array of cultures, there’s a fascinating
heritage to discover in this Southern Italian region
History and tradition are
everywhere in Puglia. Whether
you begin your adventure winding
along the coast, delving into
the landscape or wandering its
thriving cities, the region’s deep,
intriguing past reveals itself.
Follow in the foosteps of
pilgrims along the Via Francigena
and admire Romanesque or
baroque churches and palaces
that dot the trail, such as the
magnificent San Giovanni
Battista church in Lecce, or the
UNESCO-listed Shrine of San
Michele Arcangelo in Foggia.
Time your visit during one of the
region’s lively festivals, including
the vibrant music and dance of
the Carpino Folk Festival.
Save the date
7 JULY - 11 AUGUST
Locus Festival 2018 – 14th Edition
Locorotondo, Ostuni
The international lineup at this festival keeps the
Locorotondo summer nights aflame. At the heart of Valle
d’Itria, diverse cultures, traditions and avant-garde musical
events are to be experienced: from Afro-American jazz to
the Brazilian grooves of Rodrigo Amarante.
Puglia doesn’t disappoint when
it comes to its ancient past
— explore the region’s prehistory
at one of the ‘ecomuseums’ or
megalithic parks, take a pew
in a Roman amphitheatre, or
head underground for a world of
karstic caves and rural dwellings.
Puglia also has numerous
fortresses and castles. Perhaps
the most visually arresting is
the Castel del Monte, near
Andria. Don’t miss its majestic
architecture and the idyllic
countryside views.
With their iconic conical roofs,
the best preserved collection of
trullo houses is to be found in
Alberobello — another UNESCO
World Heritage Site.
Pugliapromozione is the
destination partner of The
Masterclasses 2018. Turn to
p.44 to find out more!
FLY TO BARI AND BRINDISI
we areinpuglia . it
 P R O M O T I O N A L F E AT U R E

THE DHARMAWANGSA JAK ARTA

Showcasing Indonesian heritage in style

The Dharmawangsa Jakarta, in the heart of
Indonesia’s largest, most dynamic city, is so
much more than a place to rest your head.
Architecturally, the Dutch-colonial building
bears Indonesian flourishes, a striking nod to
the country’s past.
Inside, guests are greeted by an array of
fascinating artefacts, while walls are hung
with beautiful local artwork. All this combines
to give a gallery-like feel, albeit in luxurious,
five-star surrounds.
Every room showcases a different aspect
of the Indonesian way of life, including
the minimalist reception, which evokes a
traditional home. The wooden panels in The
Library are delicately carved into flower
patterns, while cabinets in The Caviar Lounge
display beautiful jewellery, originating from
various regions in Sumatra. Dazzling displays
of wealth and status — the sort of love tokens
a Sumantran prince would have bestowed
upon his bride, a Majapahit princess.
The hotel features 99 luxurious rooms
and suites, all of which open onto private
verandas and overlook extensive, manicured
grounds. The Dharmawangsa Jakarta is a
cultural extravaganza in an exquisite setting.

THREE MORE CULTURAL GEMS

Jalan Brawijaya Raya

Museum Nasional — This
enormous collection features
millennia-old statues, textiles
and artwork.
Galeri Nasional — More
than 1,700 artworks by both
Indonesian and foreign artists are
housed here.
No. 26, Kebayoran Baru,
Jakarta 12160, Indonesia
Plaza Indonesia — One of the E: reservation@the-
oldest malls in Jakarta, visitors dharmawangsa.com
can find everything from high-end the-dharmawangsa.com
fashion to restaurants.
 IN THE NEXT ISSUE

Barcelona
Whimsical architecture, colourful history and a fervent local spirit
— Barcelona dazzles as one of the world’s most seductive cities.
In our next issue, we look past the sun-drenched sights and meet
the people weaving the rich tapestry of Spain’s second city

Plus // Orkney Islands, Dordogne, Dublin, Beijing,

Nicaragua, Colorado, Laos, Rio de Janeiro, Leipzig

September issue
On sale 2 august 2018
IMAGE: ALAMY

For more information on our subscription offers,

see page 176

Jul/Aug 2018 159

 IMAGES: AWL IMAGES

Oia village
on Santorini

160 natgeotraveller.co.uk
ALL AT SEA: A GREEK ODYSSEY
FORGET COLOSSAL CRUISE VESSELS AND COMPLICATED FERRY SCHEDULES — ON A
VESSEL SMALL ENOUGH TO SAIL INTO SECLUDED BAYS, EXPLORE THE GREEK ISLANDS
IN BREEZY STYLE, TUCKING INTO FRESH FISH, DOCKING AT PASTORAL ISLANDS FOR
BIKE RIDES OR HIKING UP TO MEDIEVAL MONASTERIES ALONG THE WAY
WORDS: CHRIS LEADBEATER

I
t’s been half an hour now,
and I can’t locate SeaDream I.
I’ve opted to walk around the
waterfront from Piraeus metro
station, figuring that the Greek
capital’s port district can’t be
that complicated; that it’s silly
to grab a taxi for a trip of just a
few feet. But the underbelly of
Athens’s dockside is defeating
me, placing ship after ship in my
path — freighters, ferries, cruise
giants. None of them is the boat
I’m seeking. And the temperature
rises even as a gust whips the
water, as if Aesop’s fable about
the sun and wind thrusting their
weight at an embattled traveller is
being restaged for my benefit.
So by the time she finally
materialises by the quay,
hidden in the shadow of an MSC
behemoth, my home for the
next 10 days already resembles
some sort of oasis. Stepping on
to SeaDream I certainly seems
a moment of respite. My bags
are removed from my shoulders
and spirited towards my cabin.
A glass of Champagne is folded
into my hand. And a picture
quickly emerges of happy
passengers, settled in and ready
to go, some already lounging
around the compact swimming
pool on the rear deck. I drain
the fizz, amble the corridors,
attempt to establish my bearings.
And once I’ve done this, I try
to push towards a decision on
the pertinent question — am I
pleased to be here?
I’m not, in general, a lover of
cruises; of big beasts of the ocean,
barging into harbour, disgorging
hundreds of passengers who may,
or may not, know or care where
they are. And yet the SeaDream
proposition — of travelling
with a company that describes
itself as a ‘Yacht Club’ — has
proved seductive. It’s not just
the opportunity to spend the
best part of a fortnight slipping
between Aegean islands whose
existence has enchanted visitors
since the legendary Odysseus was
lost on his way home from the
Trojan War. There’s the Cyclades
outcrops of Sifnos, Naxos,
Mykonos and Santorini; that
celebrated Saronic shard Hydra;
distant Patmos, cast adrift on
the cusp of Turkish terrain in the
Dodecanese. It’s the chance to
do so on a vessel small enough to
sidle softly into the most secluded
bays — or lower anchor directly
outside them, unobtrusively,
without hogging the horizon.
SeaDream I — I soon come to
appreciate — is little. ‘Yacht’ may
be a misleading term, a stretching
of the obvious definition of the
word (there are no sails here)

Jul/Aug 2018 161

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 GREECE

AEGEAN
ATTRACTIONS
SANTORINI
AKROTIRI
Santorini’s links to
the mythological lost
realm of Atlantis are
strengthened by the
ruins of this Bronze Age
settlement, which was
covered in volcanic
ash by the eruption
which half destroyed
the island in 1627 BC.
odysseus.culture.gr

MYKONOS
ARCHAEOLOGICAL
MUSEUM OF MYKONOS
The museum peers
back at life on the island
as far back as the 14th
century BC via gold
necklaces and images
of Poseidon on vases.
odysseus.culture.gr

SIFNOS — but she occupies barely more A simple ferry hop from Piraeus, — which is, as yet, invisible, some
KASTRO of the sea than the most winsome Hydra is enormously popular 1,640ft up on the roof of Hydra’s
It’s entirely possible of tall ships. There are only with Athenian weekenders. But resident rock titan, Mount Eros.
that there’s no more 56 ‘staterooms’, equating to a there is no discernible capital-city “It’s a bit steep-going in parts, but
photogenic a Greek maximum capacity of 112 guests. hubbub today. Rather, there’s the if we get moving, we’ll be back well
village than this At just 355ft in length, she’s a braying of the donkeys tethered in time for lunch.”
wonder, which waits on slight presence on the surface at the dock — there to provide Off he sets, at a decent pace,
cliffs on the opposite of the Aegean — so slight, in rides for the less athletic visitor up through the town. And we
side of the island from fact, that as she slips away from — and a rattle of shutters opening try to keep up — ‘we’ being a
the port (Kamares). Athens, she moves quietly into the in the adjacent cafes. Life feels disparate bunch whose variety
passe-partoutsifnos. evening, seeming scarcely to stir local and languid. underscores the broad appeal
weebly.com a ripple. And, at some juncture, Not that I have time for of a SeaDream cruise. There’s a
once dusk has fallen, she halts languidity. “How are we all doing twenty-something Australian
PAROS 50 miles south of her start point, today?” Jeff Fithian inquires of who lives in London and has
EKKLISIA PANAGIA where, amid the hopeful shimmer the 12 of us who’ve disembarked. met her mother on the far side
EKATONTAPYLIANI of morning, she will present Hydra “It’s a really good day for a hike.” of Europe for a holiday catch-
The sixth-century as a glorious fait accompli. A wiry American, somewhere up; a thirty-something Croatian
‘Church of a Hundred indefinably in his 50s, he is the man from Zagreb who loves to
Doors’ in Parikia wears Mountain monastery force of enthusiasm behind the explore Greece; a Californian
its age with dignity, all In The Odyssey, the ancient daily active excursions — partially couple from the Los Angeles
stone arches, angelic scribe Homer describes ‘the focused on fitness, partly on suburbs, hideously jet-lagged
murals, cold marble long hill-paths, the welcoming showing passengers something but determined not to waste a
— and a dome which bays, the beetling rocks and the of each stop — that are included second of their getaway; another
pushes into the sky. leafy trees’ of Ithaca in the hour in the price of a SeaDream cruise. American wife and husband
ekatontapyliani.gr Odysseus finally sets foot on Even the shortest of conversations — he’s a pilot with a major airline
home soil. There is something reveals him as a man who has whose job has given him some
NAXOS of this pastoral wonder about carved out an ideal existence, serious wanderlust.
SANCTUARY OF Hydra in my initial glimpse of sailing both the ship’s seasons The reward for our first-
DIONYSUS it. The capital, Hydra Town, (one in the Mediterranean, the morning commitment to Hydra
You have to search for spreads up its hillside on the other in the Caribbean), and is a view which unspools slowly
this 14th-century-BC north coast, a thin trail ebbing spending the weeks between — a sprinkle of sparkle on the
site, concealed amid along the shoreline in search of living in Cartagena in southeast bay at first, apparent between
working farms and the the hamlet of Kamini, doughty Spain. But now, here, he is a the whitewashed houses and
IMAGE: GETTY

grumble of tractors in fishing boats forge out in search picture of energy. “We’re going up shoebox churches which adorn
miniscule Yria, close to of a catch sufficient to fuel the there,” he says, pointing towards the gradient, then a widescreen
Agia Anna. naxos.gr restaurants on the harbourside. the monastery of Profitis Ilias vision of flawless blue as the town

Jul/Aug 2018 163

GREECE
concedes defeat to the mountain
and the sky behind it. There are
smells, too, to complement the
sights — that gorgeous aroma of
pine needles baking on hot stone;
the vague tang of animal skin from
a horse sweating in the approach
to midday, carrying his owner
down the slope. And then the
crown on the prince’s head, the
10th-century monastery — under
whose tower the whole of Hydra
prostrates itself. I ask Jeff, who
has done the walk more than 50
times, if he ever tires of it all. “I
really can’t say I do,” he replies.
Smooth sailing
I settle into a routine — an early
breakfast of eggs and fresh
fruit at the open-air Topside
Restaurant on Deck Five, followed
by whatever Jeff suggests as an
excursion. Generally, this is a
three-hour tour of an island on
one of the ship’s 10 mountain
bikes, returning aboard for lunch
— before pedalling out by myself
to see whatever we’ve missed
in the morning. This allows me
to burn, in advance, the many
calories I ingest at the Topside
over dinner, where there’s a
perfect steak with a side of foie
gras one evening, a succulent
slab of seabass another, served
164 natgeotraveller.co.uk
by a well-rehearsed crew of 95
— a number almost matching the
passenger head-count one-for-
one. SeaDream I begins to look like
home. And if my cabin is mildly
chintzy in its floral carpets, it’s
never less than comfortable when
I fall into bed, and sleep through
the Aegean’s playful moods.
My approach each morning
provides Aegean snapshots
aplenty — Sifnos, where the
impossibly pretty village of
Kastro gleams on the east
coast; Paros, where north-coast
Naoussa is still protected by its
13th-century Venetian fortress;
the Cyclades hotspot Mykonos
— where, suddenly, there’s a
thrum of people, milling around
the cool cafes and bars in Chora,
and posing for selfies by the
Kato Myli windmills. I absorb
each destination in turn, with a
burgeoning appreciation of the
process, tacitly acknowledging
how much trickier the journey
would be if relying on ferries
rather than the SeaDream I.
It seems odd, in such a context,
to think of the end of the world.
But there it is all the same when
I land on Patmos — the island
where, according to biblical lore,
St John the Evangelist penned the
fire and brimstone that is the Book
of Revelation. The cave where
this act of authorship reputedly
occurred is now topped by a
small but ornate monastery with
dark-eyed saints snared in fresco
form. It’s helpful that the village
it occupies is named ‘Apokalypsi’,
for there are no other hints of
the death of it all on this most
picturesque of outcrops. The
tarmac ribbon which curls up
from the port town of Skala is
no road to hell (though maybe
to heaven) — it’s fir-fragrant and
panoramic, unfurling on to the
doorstep of an elevated citadel
(also Chora) where another
monastery claims the ridge. A
plaque on the wall declares its
UNESCO World Heritage status,
but there are secrets too when
I venture into the labyrinth of
lanes behind — not least Thanasis
Cafe, which dispenses Greek beer
and a rumble of conversation
on the miniscule space which
constitutes the ‘main square’.
I could be persuaded to linger,
but there’s a final challenge to
tackle — to ride to the peak of
PREVIOUS PAGE: View of the island; to a summit that hits
Mykonos in the Cyclades 883ft beneath the flagstones of a
ABOVE: Naoussa on the tiny chapel. It is, alas, too much,
island of Paros
the angle such that I have to walk
the closing few feet. I stumble
into a sunset that could have
convinced Odysseus to make
one more lap of the Aegean
— and the company of a French
couple who have had the sense
to drive to the viewpoint. And I
do linger, too long, only gradually
realising that the gloaming is
encroaching. The descent is
harum-scarum, racing the last
of the light to Skala. But then I
round a grand corner and spot
SeaDream I in a cove below.
There’ll be further stops before
Piraeus — the Temple of Apollo
on Naxos; the volcanic cliffs of
Santorini. Yet here in the gloom,
and not for the first time, all
things feel in proportion.
MORE INFO
SeaDream Yacht Club has a 10-day voyage on SeaDream I scheduled
to depart from Piraeus for Civitavecchia (northwest of Rome) on 17
August 2019. It will call at Mykonos, Patmos, Santorini and Hydra (as
well as Taormina, Amalfi and Capri) en route. seadream.com
Carrier offers a 12-night holiday which features this cruise (reference
11934) on an all-inclusive basis — as well as return British Airways
flights from London, transfers, one night at The Margi in Athens
IMAGE: GETTY
(with breakfast) and a further night’s post-cruise stay at the Hotel
de Russie in Rome (also with breakfast). From £5,380 per person.
carrier.co.uk visitgreece.gr
 WEALTH OF EXPERIENCES
WHEN MONEY IS NO OBJECT, WHAT IS LUXURY? FOR A GROWING NUMBER OF ULTRA-
WEALTHY TRAVELLERS, IT’S NO LONGER ABOUT PRIVATE BUTLERS AND PENTHOUSE
SUITES, IT’S ABOUT IMMERSIVE, AUTHENTIC EXPERIENCES, FROM PRIVATE
AUDIENCES WITH THE DALAI LAMA TO BEING STRANDED ON BEAR GRYLLS’ ISLAND
WORDS: SIMON USBORNE

W
hen Jenny Graham
joined Quintessentially
Travel in 2010, the
itineraries it was creating for its
high-net-worth clients didn’t
place heavy demands on the
printer at its London office. “It
was very transactional in those
days,” says Jenny — now the
company director — as if talking
about a distant decade. “We’d
have just a few components
— the flights, the transfer, the
hotel — and we wouldn’t really be
expected to do anything else. I’ve
just been looking at an itinerary
my team has been working on, for
a three-week trip to Ecuador, and
it stretches to 30 pages.”
The trip will include a suit
fitting by one of the city’s top
tailors — all conducted from the
comfort of clients’ hotel rooms,
of course — private access to
some of Ecuador’s grandest
colonial buildings and natural
wonders, and a flight west to
join a private cruise among the
Galápagos Islands. “It’s not just
‘days one to seven: overnight,
half-board at a five-star hotel’
anymore,” adds Jenny. “People
want to be guided, they want
to be shown things that were
once ‘money-can’t-buy’. They
want to know that they have
really immersed themselves
in that destination.”
What they’re after, Jenny says,
is not just a holiday but also an
‘experience’ — to be ejected
from the plushest sun loungers
beside the bluest resort pools
and sent on a journey. For a
growing number of super-rich
travellers, it’s no longer enough to
have a butler for tour every need,
a menu of pillows or a Maybach
waiting at the door of the
Gulfstream jet. The buzzwords
redefining the luxury market,
under the experiential umbrella,
are authenticity, transformation,
and access.
“Now, money can buy pretty
much anything,” Jenny says. “We
can get shops closed down [for

166 natgeotraveller.co.uk
 a private view], we can get an art
buyer or art historian to guide you
around a city, or arrange a private
meeting with the Dalai Lama.”
Jenny recently had a client in
India who gave her four days to
arrange a family birthday trip in
California’s Napa Valley. “Initially,
they wanted something simple
but, the day before, they wanted
certain wineries to be closed
down for private tours, and a
Bollywood singer to be flown in.”
Within hours, a singer was on the
way — for an additional £50,000.
Demand is rising not just for
IMAGE: GETTY
posher and more expensive,
but for tougher and more
transformative. Another try-
hard neologism has emerged in
this new era: the ‘luxepedition’.
Jenny tells me she’s sent people
to the Great Wall Marathon in
China, one of the most arduous,
and on demanding hiking trips to
Bhutan. “When people talk about
experiences, they’re motivated
by how it could benefit them, be it
stress management, self-reflection
or a physical test,” Jenny explains.
“They want to disconnect.”
Edward Clare’s travel budget
hit giddy heights when his parents
sold Dreams, their bed business,
for a reported £200m in 2008. The
32-year-old from Buckinghamshire
works in property and has a
fast, demanding life. Most of his
holidays have been conventional,
by the standards of the very
wealthy, often involving his
fiancée, Riah. “We normally do
Dubai, we’ve done Barbados quite
a lot, Ibiza, Mykonos,” he says. Two
years after selling the business, the
Clares rented Richard Branson’s
Necker Island, in the British Virgin
Islands, for a fortnight. “That was
about £250,000,” Edward recalls.
“We had 28 people out and it was
really relaxing.”
More recently, Edward felt an
itch to return to island life, but
wanted something less relaxing.
“I’d been watching The Island
with Bear Grylls, where people
get abandoned on an island and
have to survive, and I remember
thinking, ‘I’d love to do this but I’d
hate to be on telly and look like
an idiot,’” he says. Edward found
Desert Island Survival online. The
company sends clients to the same
island featured in the TV show, a
forbidding Pacific jewel 100 miles
off the isthmus of Panama. They’re
trained to build shelters and fish
before being left to their own
devices, minus their phones.
Edward sent an online enquiry,
got a call back in just 10 minutes,
and immediately booked a flight
to Panama City. “It was a lot harder
than I was expecting,” he says. “It
was rainy season so there wasn’t
much sun but the hardest thing
Jul/Aug 2018 167

was the amount of sand and salt on
my skin for 10 days, with no fresh
water to wash. And then the sand
flies and mosquitos. But it also
forced me to completely switch off
and be self-sufficient. I came back
really recharged and open.”
Edward says bragging rights
partly explain the appeal of
travelling off the moneyed
path. “People are fighting for an
experience now; a lifetime trip
they can tell their friends about,”
he says. “Anyone can go and book
a flight and stay at Sandy Lane
in Barbados, if they’ve got the
money, but if you say I survived on
an island for 10 days, or went up
Everest, or whatever it is, it holds
more gravitas. And you’ve also
achieved something for yourself.”
Edward says he enjoyed not
being judged for how he looked
while on the island, and proving
he could support himself. By his
standards, the holiday was one of
the cheapest he’s taken, costing a
relatively meagre £1,650.
Time and money
Luxury for many wealthy people
like Edward often involves
isolation, and when logistics
become more challenging, and
that hotly demanded ‘access’
more complicated, the costs
of luxepeditions can mount.
Patrick Woodhead is an Antarctic
IMAGE: GETTY
explorer based in South Africa
who runs White Desert with
his wife, Robyn, and a team of
guides and specialists . In 2002,
he was part of the youngest,
and fastest, team ever to reach
the South Pole, and later led a
75-day, 1,150-mile traverse of the
continent. “I remember thinking
at the time that if we built a little
camp on Antarctica, it would
be amazing way for people to
explore the interior,” he says.
“Over the years, that idea has
evolved into a luxury offering.”
That’s an understatement. Each
winter, White Desert flies a dozen
big-spending travellers at a time
from Cape Town to a specially
built runway on Antarctica
by private jet. Visitors stay at
Whichaway Camp, a collection of
six luxury, dome-shaped sleeping
pods surrounding a central pod.
Interiors are decked out in African
safari decor and high-tech mod
cons. Facilities include a fully
stocked bar, with meals rustled up
by an award-winning chef.
By day, Patrick’s customers
can hike through ice tunnels, visit
science research bases or abseil
from towering peaks. Ice climbing
and kite skiing can be arranged. A
flight, by propeller plane, whisks
visitors to an emperor penguin
colony at Atka Bay. Or, for
ultimate Instagram kudos, stand
LUXURY
on the Geographic South Pole
itself after a seven-hour flight 5 OUT-OF-THIS-
inland. The cost for a seven-night
trip: £60,000 per person.
WORLD TRIPS
“The prices are very high FLY TO ANTARCTICA
because the logistics involved White Desert has built
are phenomenal,” says Patrick. a luxury camp on the
“We have a lot of guests who have edge of Antarctica,
seen and done everything but reached via private
being in the interior of Antarctica jet from Cape Town.
still blows their minds.” He adds: Includes the option of
“I think there is a sort of nature in flying to the South Pole.
humans to be competitive. They £60,000 per person.
want to explore something new.” white-desert.com
The Woodheads have
entertained Saudi royalty, British SURVIVE ON AN ISLAND
royalty (Prince Harry once Hop on a boat to an
dropped in), space royalty (Buzz island off the coast
Aldrin), and dozens of CEOs. of Panama, where
Approximately 40% of guests The Island with Bear
come from America, while almost Grylls was set. Includes
a third are Chinese. Patrick says training in shelter
the commitment of time, if not building and spear
money, puts off travellers solely fishing, but otherwise
in it to brag and take the photo you’re on your own.
to prove it. “We get them to £1,650 per person.
meet scientists and learn about desertislandsurvival.
climate change and we’re putting com
these scientists in contact with
billionaires, sometimes, who DIVE TO THE TITANIC
might be interested in funding Blue Marble Private
these projects,” he adds. recently added the
The demand to do more wreck of the Titanic to
— to experience more — is its offering. Trips are
transforming luxury travel based in Newfoundland
beyond these new extreme and include three-hour
outlets for adrenalin-deficient dives in a submersible.
titans of industry. The hotels £76,400 per person.
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TAKE 52 WEEKEND
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Jul/Aug 2018 169
LUXURY
that were once the centre of a
brief itinerary are locked in an
experiential arms race, too. “I
remember when guests departed
from their Caribbean resort and
literally signed a cheque for their
deposit for the next year,” says
Henry Gray, a veteran hotelier
and vice president, operations –
hotels and resorts at Six Senses,
a luxury spa resort group based
in Thailand. “Same time, same
place, same cabin — that was it.”
Henry says technology
has driven the subsequent
transformation, first in shaking
up the way people researched
and booked holidays, and then
in the way they were influenced
via social media. No longer can
resorts rely on loyalty. At Six
Senses, even sleep has become
an ‘experience’. “And we don’t
just mean the mattress,” says
Henry. “It’s the bamboo pyjamas,
the natural materials in the linen
and we have a sleep tracker for
guests and we use them to make
recommendations.”
The traditional resort kids’
club, filled with shiny toys and
nannies attempting to feed the
boisterous off spring of wealthy
guests, has no place in this new
world. According to the Six Senses
website, its Grow with Six Senses
programme ‘incorporates the six
170 natgeotraveller.co.uk
dimensions of wellness (social,
environmental, physical, spiritual,
emotional and intellectual) and
brings kids “back to basics” in
order to reconnect with nature
and others around them’.
“You don’t just tick boxes and
say, we’ve got this restaurant,
this spa and these facilities,”
Henry says. “You have to go
much deeper because we’re all
competing for the same piece
of pie and you have to be very
competitive to get a slice.”
At Quintessentially Travel,
Jenny Graham says she’s too busy
to worry that the demands of the
guests — who return from these
trips and tell their wealthy friends
about them — will only push up
the bar of expectation ever higher.
The company started with three
people 18 years ago, and now
employs 50 travel consultants.
Jenny recently arranged 52
consecutive weekend breaks
for a man in his 40s who’d sold a
business and wanted a year off.
He went kitesurfing, took courses,
holidayed with friends and family.
He spent very little time sitting on
beaches. “We were well into the
hundreds of thousands of pounds,”
Jenny says. “People thought the
internet would be the death of the
travel specialist, but this demand
isn’t going to go away.”
TALKING HEADS
Edward Clare // Inspired by
The Island with Bear Grylls, I
found a company that takes
you there. It was a lot harder
than I was expecting but
forced me to be self-sufficient.
Anyone can book a flight to
Barbados, if they’ve got the
money. But surviving on an
island for 10 days holds more
gravitas, plus you achieve
something for yourself.
Jenny Graham,
Quintessentially Travel //
Arranging luxury holidays used
to be very transactional. We’d
organise just a few components
— the flights, the transfer, the
hotel — and not much else.
Now an itinerary might stretch
PREVIOUS PAGE:
Vineyards, Napa Valley,
to 30 pages. People want to be
guided, they want to be shown
IMAGE: GETTY
California
ABOVE: Emperor
penguin chicks,
things that were once
Atka Bay, Antarctica ‘money-can’t-buy’.

SKY HIGH
with Hainan Airlines
With new European flight routes, Michelin-starred chefs designing the menus and high-
quality cabin products, Hainan Airlines is reaching new limits
Hainan Airlines has become
one of the ten airlines in the
world to be rated Five Star
Award by SKYTRAX for seven
consecutive years.
As the only Chinese mainland
airline to join SKYTRAX,
Hainan Airlines is committed
to providing heartfelt and
meticulous fi ve-starred service.
STAR CHEFS
Hainan Airlines has cooperated
with the services of a number of
Michelin-starred chefs to help
upgrade its inflight meal service.
The airline, which is already
renowned for its innovative menu
and dish design, has upped its Hai
Chef offering, making it a highly
personal dining experience that
greatly enhances passengers’ meals.
Back in August 2016, Hainan
Airlines launched its meal
service programme, known as
the Professional Hai Chef Team,
on certain international flights to
provide business-class passengers
with a premium exclusive and
customised inflight meal service.
Then, in April this year, the
programme was extended to all
P R O M O T I O N A L F E AT U R E
long-distance international
flights and proved very popular
with passengers.
Prominent French chef
Christophe Camacho joined the
team last year as senior catering
manager to bring four standards to
the food: seasonality and freshness,
the latest fashion, customisation
and original taste.
NEW HEIGHTS
Several new direct routes from China
to the UK make Hainan Airlines an
excellent choice. Visitors heading to
Beijing will be able to catch a non-
stop flight from Dublin, Edinburgh
and Manchester on the sleek Airbus
A330. For those wishing to visit the
vibrant city of Changsha, meanwhile,
direct flights now leave from London
Heathrow three times a week.
NEW DIRECT EUROPEAN
ROUTES FOR 2018
Brussels and Madrid to Shenzhen
London to Changsha
Vienna to Shenzhen
Dublin and Edinburgh to Beijing Visit hainanairlines.com
to find out more
www.wbtourism.gov.in / www.wbtdcl.com www.facebook.com/tourismwb
Download our app
www.twitter.com/TourismBengal +91(033) 2243 6440
DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM, GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL
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inbox@natgeotraveller.co.uk
Nostalgia-on-Sea
I recently bought the magazine as I was
looking for some inspiration for our family
holiday to some far-flung, off-the-beaten-
track destination. However, your article on
the Great British seaside (May 2018) was a
trip down memory lane. As a youngster, our
holidays were always a week away to the
seaside towns of Blackpool, Southport, Rhyl
and Scarborough. Many happy memories
were made playing on the beach and visiting
amusement arcades — all in glorious
sunshine. James Draven’s article really
Life in Le Marche
The ‘must-visit monument’ of the Palazzo
Ducale in Urbino, highlighted in The New
Italy cover story (May 2018), evoked fond
memories of renting a farmhouse outside
the village of Santa Vittoria in Matenano. In
Urbino, I remember being hurried from room
to room in the Palazzo Ducale by the staff — it
was a half day and they were looking forward
to closing for lunch! Italy’s Le Marche region
certainly hits the high notes for art, history,
music and food, and it’s far less visited than

in
Next issue’s star
letter wins a summer
bundle from Gandy’s,
worth £160!
Founded in 2012, Gandy’s is
the brainchild of brothers Rob
and Paul, whose stylish and
practical lifestyle accessories
also help support the Orphans
for Orphans foundation.
This bundle includes a Burnt
Orange Waxed Bali Authentic
Backpack, a 100% cotton The
World is Your Oyster Round
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showed what was being done to restore faith
in the UK’s iconic resorts. This summer,
we’ve planned a 10-day tour of Bournemouth,
Brighton, Hastings and Margate — all thanks
to your article. SIMON JOHNSON
other parts of the country. It’s Italy as you
imagine it 50 years ago. EILEEN ROBINSON
Letter to the editor
As a global expert in aircraft cabin air
quality, I believe your assertion that
Aerotoxic Syndrome (March 2018) is just
‘another theory’ to be totally incorrect. Our
research, published in a June 2017 WHO
Public Health Panorama journal, reported a
pattern of short- and long-term effects being
seen in aircrew routinely exposed to this
environment. Scientific knowledge always
precedes regulation and current medical
practice. However, we’ve recently published a
suggested causative mechanism for aerotoxic
syndrome. The airline industry’s assertion
that there’s no evidence or that this is a rare
failure scenario is flawed. susanmichaelis.com

gandyslondon.com DR SUSAN MICHAELIS PHD, MSC, ATPL

Chat back
NatGeoTravelUK

From five-star service to beds you didn’t want to leave, what’s your most memorable
hotel experience? #NGTUK
@MICKOG9 Melia Llana Beach Resort & Spa [in Cape Verde] last year — excellent friendly staff,
lovely food and good entertainment, but if you want quiet you have it in abundance //
@BINNYJS Pegasus Suites & Spa Hotel in Santorini // @EPPIESHEPHERD Taking a long, hot
shower at Thavorn Beach Village in Phuket after a day of snorkelling in the resort’s private bay

Jul/Aug 2018 177

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2 @mf_barranco
Look up, The Carmo Convent, Lisbon

3 @wiltonphoto
Popat Mulji & Sons’ workshop,
Stone Town, Zanzibar

4 @the.traveling.zam
Punta Cana, Dominican Republic,
The Punta Cana Fleet

5 jez_fredenburgh
Valentine’s Day at Quito’s old district

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178 natgeotraveller.co.uk
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