How to fly to New York in style (and why The Devonshire is overrated) May 7, 2025 Flying to New York to visit the Evolv Collection Restaurants last week, I was reminded that the British Airways loyalty scheme conditions had changed. For reference, here are my own (slightly tongue in cheek) rules for any self-respecting ‘City Guy’ visiting Terminal Five: 1. Arrive at the airport in a cab and ask for the [...]
The Vineyard in Berkshire is the perfect pre-summer holiday May 6, 2025 With the weather improving but summer holidays still a way off, it’s the perfect time to cast around for mini-break options closer to home. The UK’s luxury spa market has recovered strongly from the hospitality-wide hit at the beginning of the decade, but how to distinguish between the many options? The Vineyard in Berkshire has [...]
Why Florence, Italy makes the ideal spring break from London May 3, 2025 If I were searching for heaven on Earth, Florence is the first place I would look. The Italian city‘s Renaissance art and architecture make my spirit soar with their otherworldly beauty, the mountainous backdrop refreshes my eyes and soul, and the food and drink? Well, a Tuscan feast is exactly what my body ordered, in [...]
Libby’s Naked Wines Diary: Quaffing Spanish wine in the Parisian Pulitzer April 29, 2025 Paris has often been described as “magical” but I experienced my own miracle this weekend. The Significant Other and I were dining at Le Patio, the restaurant of Hotel Pulitzer in the Opera Quarter of Paris. Over squidgy, crispy croquettes and pesto laden burrata, I realised I had lost an earring. An earring my late [...]
Paradise ploughed: Laferm Coco is a pastoral oasis in Mauritius April 29, 2025 Wandering through Laferm Coco, you pass through neat little fields packed with guava and papaya and bananas and coconuts and turmeric, all hemmed in by jagged volcanic mountains, the splashes of colour from the produce impossibly saturated beneath a clear blue sky. Elsewhere farmyard animals flap and graze and squabble. There’s a duck pond that [...]
Maradiva: Mauritius in five-star style April 29, 2025 It is rare that I feel an urge to return to a hotel – part of the joy of travel is to experience a place for the first time, after all. But I’ll make an exception for Maradiva, the five star resort in Mauritius where your dreams of borderline-pornographic beachfront perfection are dragged, startled and [...]
London Stansted – The gateway to more possibilities April 15, 2025 Many of us may currently be enjoying an Easter family holiday on a sunny beach, catching up with family or friends overseas, hitting the ski slopes one last time or sightseeing on a city break. Travel unlocks so many possibilities, whether that’s connecting with family and friends or seeing more of the world. And one [...]
Derby, Bourbon and Gatsby: Louisville’s Triple Crown April 15, 2025 THERE’s a particular kind of energy that buzzes through Louisville in spring. It’s part old-money elegance, part bourbon-infused swagger. And this year, there’s a distinct whiff of 1920’s glamour in the air. Why? Because Louisville isn’t just hosting the 151st Kentucky Derby — it’s also toasting 100 years of The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s [...]
Aboard the real Orient Express train from Europe to the East April 9, 2025 It has always irked me that trains billed as the Orient Express, like the Venice-Simplon-Orient-Express, only go as far as Istanbul. Why evoke the romance of the Orient only to end the journey at the edge of Europe? It’s a disappointment, but more gallingly for anyone passionate about long-distance train travel, it’s also a missed [...]
The White Lotus Season 3 finale sucked: Here’s why April 8, 2025 The White Lotus Season 3 is over. In this spoiler-heavy take, Steve Dinneen laments an ending that went awry. The final episode of The White Lotus Season 3 pulled off the dubious trick of ending with both a bang and a whimper. It’s been a rollercoaster: the season opened to a fairly tepid reaction – [...]