It’s hard to think of anything as simple in Dubai. You might even call the glitzy city a Babylon for our era: built to wow the world and endowed with the world’s tallest tower, man-made islands shaped like palm trees and marble everything, ideally inlaid with gold. Ferraris and Rolls…
Category
Hotels
Let’s begin with the 46-suite MERCHANT HOUSE in Manama, which is Bahrain’s first five-star boutique hotel and just the second Middle Eastern property for Campbell Gray Hotels (after Le Gray in Beirut). Highlights include an abundance of art, an impressive library and a delightful rooftop garden and restaurant. Next we…
Discretely built into volcanic rock and surrounded by the curative waters of Iceland’s most popular tourist attraction, The Retreat at Blue Lagoon is the country’s first five-star resort and a perfect way to brave the Arctic Circle. Winter can take its toll on even the hardiest of Canadians, which is…
Adrian Zecha may be well into his 80s but that hasn’t stopped the celebrated hotelier from launching a new affordable luxury chain with two properties in Vietnam, and others in the pipeline. Adrian Zecha is quite simply a legendary hotelier and someone who has built a career on doing things…
There are already so many awards in our region that we definitely don’t need more. But Haute Grandeur is quite different to the others. For a start, it has no judges or experts, and there’s no voting or payment system to influence the outcome. Instead Haute Grandeur relies on a…
There comes a time for every parent when they’re suddenly faced with the prospect of organising a family trip to Disney World. That’s not so bad, some of you singles and newlyweds might be naively thinking – it is the happiest place on Earth after all, right? Well, that description…
We were given one rule. One simple rule. One code of conduct for avoiding a catastrophe during our excursions in the bush: never stand up in the Land Cruiser. So here we are, in the wild, surrounded by a pride of lions. Two of them to our left, the dominant…
You might say many of us already live in a bubble, and that would actually be a good thing if the bubble in question was an eco-friendly, stargazing one like you’ll find at Full of Stars Hotel. Set in Jordan’s Wadi Rum – that scenic, ochre desert you may recall…
First a disclaimer: I have long had a soft spot for the Four Seasons New York. In fact we go way back. That’s because, during the four years I spent in Rhode Island studying for my bachelor’s degree, I would often try to explore as much of the East Coast…
Is Morocco on your bucket list? It oozes wanderlust, yet for us, it somehow always seems to slip in terms of travel priorities. Perhaps it’s too close to home, or maybe over popular with our region’s masses, but the North African country certainly deserves a fair shake. With its colourful…