Discovering the real China, with amazing food, incredible scenery and authentic culture October 24, 2025 From City AM The magazine, Autumn edition, with photos by Nicolas Quiniou I love China. There, I said it. Nowhere else I have visited has caused such a ruckus among my friends and family. My departure was marked by a stream of messages warning me to ‘be careful’ and ‘make sure you behave’. At first, [...]
Toast the City: What is the Square Mile’s Best Overnight Stay? October 22, 2025 The Toast the City Awards are here to celebrate the very best in hospitality of placemaking in the Square Mile. On the eve of the big night, we are highlighting each of the 138 finalists who have beaten off competition from more than 2,000 entrants. Luxury hotels have cropped up all over the City over [...]
Exploring the cannabis farms of wild, untamed Canada October 20, 2025 In Boundary Country in British Columbia, Canada, mountain ranges give way to impossibly wide valleys. Inhabitants range from descendants of Doukhobor settlers, a radical and pacifist Russian sect, to those from the varying First Nations groups. Fortunes were made down forgotten mines that never managed to truly alter the feeling of this wilderness. Many of [...]
Margate House: A super-stylish long weekend away October 13, 2025 Margate is a place of contradictions, gentrified yet still infused with an unmistakable sense of character. Wandering its blustery streets reveals a town that’s at once affluent and deprived, sometimes on the same street. It’s now more famous for its robust arts scene than it is for penny arcades and fish and chips, with a [...]
How sound became the new luxury wellness frontier October 1, 2025 For City AM The Magazine, Autumn edition, Adam Bloodworth explores the ways real-world sound is transforming the wellness industry I’m lying on my back with my eyes closed, listening to the sounds of the Outer Hebrides. I can hear water trickling into rock pools and great thunderous waves. I couldn’t feel further away from my [...]
The Italy coastline adored by the A-List (no, it’s not Amalfi) September 30, 2025 The quietly spectacular coastline of Puglia in Italy is fast being snapped up by the big hotel groups. Anna Moloney spent a week exploring Italy’s heel “It was a nightmare,” drawls Steven Risely, describing the four-year-long restoration process that led to the reopening of Castle Elvira, an 18th-century Puglian castle which lay abandoned for 100 [...]
I lived like a queen at the fabulous Raffles The Palm Dubai September 25, 2025 Dubai for the weekend? It’s easier than you’d think with direct flights from London, guaranteedsunshine and the promise of being thoroughly spoilt at Raffles The Palm. Raffles started as a humble 10-bedroom bungalow in Singapore in 1887 and evolved into one of theworld’s most legendary hotels. More than a century later, one of its newest [...]
The remote Maldives island blending local culture with luxury September 18, 2025 We all do the same thing when we arrive in paradise. Snap-happy eager beavers, scrambling to photograph the first swinging hammock, the first lopsided shell, the welcome coconut drink raised towards the sea, held out like a newborn Simba over Pride Rock. Arriving at Banyan Tree Vabbinfaru in the Maldives, you will undoubtedly do this. [...]
A French city break with amazing food, wine and hotels September 17, 2025 Our food columnist and restaurateur Martin Williams takes a city break to Limoges in south-west France Famous for its AOP-protected cattle, veal and lamb, along with the only apple to enjoy AOP status, the city is of Limoges is not just known for its food: it is renowned for producing some of the finest porcelain [...]
The Dominican Republic hotel where half the rooms have private pools September 17, 2025 The Eden Roc on the Dominican Republic’s luxurious Cap Cana is nirvana for those who love golf and cigars, which is about as overlapping as Venn diagrams get. I spent the whole time trying not to get ash on my shorts as I practiced my swing. Personally, I enjoy a cigar but it has to [...]