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太太's love
travelling
so here's a list of the must-see's.
Hotels for Romance
NEWS
STORY
Hôtel de Crillon, Paris
Rock stars go to the Ritz but old money goes to the Crillon, the most
beautiful and truly elegant of all the five-star hotels in Paris.
The staff flatter you by first addressing
even the most obviously English guest in French. The food is fabulous, the
bedrooms deeply comfortable. And you feel wrapped in well-being from the second
your heels sink into the carpets. Which means the only potential hazard - given
the delusion of wealth all this can engender - is the rue du Faubourg-St-Honore
waiting just round the corner.
Double rooms from £390 per night
Anassa, Cyprus
There aren't many parts of the Mediterranean where you can still breakfast on a
terrace listening to birdsong and gazing out over blue merging into blue - pool,
sea, sky - with empty countryside all around. Anassa (built, rather
scandalously, on national parkland) sprawls across a hillside on one such
stretch, the far north-west coast of Cyprus. Excellent for a really peaceful few
days away a deux, with unexpectedly good food and a spa.
It's big with City couples - except in the
school holidays, when it fills up with families. It also has its own church,
which is convenient should one thing lead to another.
Five nights' b & b, with flights and transfers, from £1,035 per person with
Mediterranean Experience
Le Château du Domaine St Martin, Vence, Côte
d'Azur
Another place to come and stay put for a few days of peace and quiet, but with
forays down the hill to Vence to contemplate 20th-century art, indoors and out,
at the Maeght Foundation; to St-Paul-de-Vence to eat at the renowned La Colombe
d'Or restaurant; and perhaps down to the coast at Cagnes-sur-Mer, to the Renoir
museum. Rather formal, extremely luxurious, the Chateau serves absolutely
outstanding food in the Michelin-starred La Commanderie, while in summer it also
provides one of the coast's loveliest places for an open-air lunch in
l'Oliveraie, where the tables are set out under olive trees entwined with rose
trees.
Three nights' accommodation with flights and transfers, from £725 per person
with Mediterranean Experience
Hostellerie les Remparts, St-Paul-de-Vence,
Côte d'Azur
And if you can't afford the St Martin, this is the one-star bargain alternative.
It's small, relaxed, run by an amiable manager, and has almost the same view -
red roofs, ochre walls, distant Mediterranean. Combined with an EasyJet flight (£25
if you book early enough), it's irresistible.
Double rooms from £23-£48 a night
Hazlitt's, Frith Street, London
The closest you can get to experiencing what it was like to live in 18th-century
Soho, but with phones, loos and TV. Wood panelling, roll-top baths, old prints,
oil paintings and uneven floors - the essayist William Hazlitt's house has it
all. Of the 23 rooms, the biggest is the four-postered Baron Willoughby (though
clampers and high-spirited club-goers outside at 1am can make it noisy).
Top-floor rooms are quieter. Wandering out into early-morning Soho for a
cappuccino and a look at Hazlitt's gravestone in St Anne's Church is part of the
pleasure of staying here.
Double rooms from £229 a night
The Royal Crescent Hotel, Royal Crescent,
Bath
Given all there is to see in Bath it would be awful to stay here and not leave
the premises, but one can see how it could happen. The hotel is made up of three
18th-century houses knocked together and, across the garden, two new buildings
housing a spa with a candlelit pool, a restaurant and more rooms. Stay in the
main house (the best bet, as some suites have a log fire) and the short walk
over to get a massage or have dinner makes you feel as if you're going out.
That, you see, is how it happens.
Two nights with breakfast and dinner from £260 per person
Cliveden, Taplow, Berkshire
A visit here is a bit like staying at Buckingham Palace when the Queen is away.
Once owned by the richest man in America, Waldorf Astor, it's filled with the
bits of Europe that he took a liking to, such as Mme de Pompadour's dining room.
Walking into the walled garden of Profumo-Keeler fame is a thrill, while the
Fountain of Love at the end of the drive has to be one of the most romantic
places by which to propose.
A double room with breakfast costs from £355 a night (01628 668561).
Four Seasons, E 57th Street, New York
Quintessential NYC, highly suitable for Masters of the Universe types. It almost
vibrates with an aura of success. Even the views from the rooms could make you
punch the air. In the spa, Suk Manzinelli gives a facial so comprehensively
restorative that it extends to a leg and foot massage. After which you feel
ready for anything.
Three nights, with flights and transfers, from £1,360 per person
- Adriaane Chenecey Telegraph
December 2002
The Peak of Luxury
There was a time when even the most fashion-minded had
to succumb to a certain Heidi aesthetic when setting out for a luxurious ski
vacation. But on the heels of the boutique hotel boom of the last decade, ski
resorts have also taken the cool route, providing everything from night haunts
run by London megaclub Ministry of Sound, to nutso surrealist décors that make
even a hotel such as Philip Starck's Hudson in Manhattan seem like a Best
Western.
And thanks to certain avant-garde developers, the
crowds have changed, too. You won't find mink-drenched Euro trash in Chanel
moonboots at Rider's Palace in Laax, Switzerland. And the ski bunnies at Les
Dromonts in Avioraz, France, may very well have degrees in architecture, or at
least a subscription to Metropolis. Here is a selection of some of the newbie
ski resorts featured in the book Hip Ski Hotels. Slightly off the beaten track,
they give new meaning to skiing on the edge.
RIDERS PALACE Laax-flims, Switzerland
(41-81-927-9700)
Until very recently, "snowboarders'
accommodation" meant a three-bunk hostel room with mom's towels hanging
from the radiators and six stinky guys sleeping off Jaegermeister hangovers. But
a new crop of resorts has introduced an alternate option for boarders with
fancier pretensions. Opened last year, the Sony-sponsored Riders Palace features
PlayStations in the lobby and a ravy-gravy Ministry of Sound-run nightclub. The
décor is cookie-cutter urban boutique hotel -- clean lines and
impossible-to-find light switches. The accommodation is affordable, though, as
strapped boarders can always book one of Riders Palace's bunks instead of a
private room. The Laax-Flims area is the real rider's palace here anyway -- with
three halfpipes with walls of 6.7 metres, the area has become known as the top
snow-surfing destination in the Alps.
AMANGANI Jackson hole, Wyoming (307-734-7332)
Among the world's wealthiest travellers, there is the
cult of Aman. The small, prestigious hotel chain first made a name for itself
with its Asian properties, all emblems of the most awe-inspiring real estate and
the most staggeringly altitudinous room rates (think thousands, not hundreds).
That the chain chose Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for its latest site was a surprise
-- Jackson is an old cattle town, albeit one peopled with ranchers more
blue-blooded than rough-and-tumble. But a look at the view from the Amangani and
suddenly this Aman fits with its brothers. Whether the sort of people who can
afford the hotel would brave Jackson Hole's ski terrain is another matter: The
sheer verticality of Jackson's fey-sounding Rendezvous Mountain is not for the
gentleman skier -- though the thought of retreating to the Amangani might be
salvo enough to get any CEO down the mount.
LES DROMONTS Avioraz, France (33-4-5074-0811)
It's seldom that an architect gets to design an entire
village, but such was the brief for Jacques Labro in the 1960s with Quartier des
Dromonts. The Hotel Les Dromonts was the building that set the tone for the
town. Built in a modern, stepped-terrace style, the timber-clad structure looks
like the sort of place Serge Gainsbourg might have chosen to rest after a hard
day of skiing. Back in the 1960s, the hotel was the epitome of swinging cool for
France's go-go cognoscenti. By the 1980s, it had fallen into disrepair. But a
few years ago, Les Dromonts returned to its '60s splendour: Its interiors'
irregular angles and organic swoops have been restored to their original
high-gloss red and the restaurant nears in sophistication Paris's starred best.
At the smokers'-hell altitude of 1,800 meters, the car-free town is connected to
the Portes du Soleil, one of Europe's most extensively linked ski areas.
BUFFALO MOUNTAIN LODGE Banff, Alberta
(403-609-6150)
Calgary's Pat and Constance O'Connor bought their
first Banff resort, the Emerald Lake Lodge, more than 20 years ago. Almost as
soon as the ink on the contract was dry, they were served with a notice from the
federal government asking them to cease operations for problems including noisy
generators. After endless negotiations, the O'Connors prevailed, reopening
Emerald, then Deer Lodge, and their newest jewel, Buffalo Mountain. Now the
couple are staunch conservationists and the food they serve at Buffalo Mountain
is sourced from their own ranch. The complex itself is built in an unobtrusive
post-and-beam style, with tartan and wooly-bully décor within. Modernity is
obscured at all turns (TVs are hidden in wooden cupboards). Sunshine Mountain,
Goatshead and Lake Louise are all a short drive away. -
Mireille Silcoff
Saturday
Post 21 Dec 2002
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