Brave sub-zero temperatures to discover Moscow’s hidden cultural treasures February 24, 2017 Russia’s sprawling capital teems with magnificent onion-domed churches, candy-coloured Baroque buildings and compelling, clean-lined, Stalin-era skyscrapers. Pretty parks such as the vast, green Gorky Park dot the city, and at its heart is the imposing plaza of Red Square. This is home to the showpiece cathedral of St Basil, Lenin’s mausoleum and the state-owned department [...]
Opinion: If you’re an Airbnb host, there are a number of legal potholes that can catch you out if you’re not careful February 24, 2017 Airbnb is now a hugely popular online platform connecting would-be landlords (or “hosts”) with tenants (or “guests”). The site allows for the vetting of both hosts and guests through online reviews and provides hosts with insurance in case things go wrong. But that still leaves a number of legal snags, however, which can be easily [...]
Airbnb isn’t only revolutionising the holiday market; it’s also changing the way offices are designed February 23, 2017 When Airbnb sent round a survey to its employees in Paris asking what they’d like in their new office, the request was for a petanque field. For the uninitiated, petanque is a form of boules played with a wooden ball. “We were like, ‘weeeelllll, that may not happen, it could be a little dirty and [...]
Long Weekend: Check into Marbella Club, a golf hotel in Malaga with an aristocratic pedigree February 20, 2017 The weekend: Marbs, as certain raffish reality TV characters call it, occupies a prime location by the Med on southern Spain’s Sunshine Coast. Behind this famous tourist town rises the jagged Sierra Blanca mountain range. You can shop, swim, hike, or mountain-bike, but most visitors are here to play a round with their balls. Thanks [...]
Reach stunning landscapes, luxury hotels and the national speed limit driving in the Scottish Highlands February 20, 2017 The soul-crushing experience of driving in London can be enough to grind down even the most dedicated fan of cars. No matter how many horses are hiding under the bonnet, they’re not much use if you’re crawling along at 4.8 miles per hour. That’s why Scotland’s North Coast 500 is such a tantalising prospect – [...]
How to find quiet sanctuary in the buzzy, bohemian city of Prague February 10, 2017 Widely regarded as one of Europe’s prettiest capitals – and one of the only European cities that remained largely undamaged during the Second World War – Prague is like an ornate display cabinet of architectural styles throughout the ages. From the 14th century Gothic wonder that is Charles Bridge to the graffiti-strewn John Lennon Wall, [...]
I went to Hollywood and, following a brief and unaccountable sense of impending doom, found it to be lovely February 10, 2017 "Look, there’s Angelyne." Our tour guide to the stars pointed to a woman in the lane next to us riding a hot pink Corvette. She looked pale and ageless, like hummus that had been moulded into the shape of a sad Dolly Parton. Her cloud of yellow hair was puffed out like a big candyfloss, [...]
Karma Group’s founder and chairman John Spence explains how and why he plans to double the size of his business February 6, 2017 I cleaned toilets in Gatwick Airport for a bit, but that’s the only real job I’ve ever had,” says John Spence, founder and chairman of The Karma Group. A university drop-out, the hotelier and resort-owner originally became a tea boy for a music agency. Before long, he was representing bands like Culture Club, Bananarama and [...]
Picture perfect: A photography tour of the Caribbean island of St Lucia February 3, 2017 So if my aperture is f/3.5 and my shutter speed is 1/125th of a second, what should my ISO be if I want to properly expose this image?” “Four…hun…dred?” I ventured timidly. “Nooooo,” Kirk said, as we took a pew in a cathedral in Castries. To the casual passerby, he must have sounded like he [...]
The Long Weekend: The alpine retreat of Le Grand Bellevue is an ice-cool luxury break February 3, 2017 Gstaad is everything you could wish for in a traditional alpine town: chocolate-box wooden chalets, pine trees, mountain air, glaciers among the peaks and the clanging of cow bells as the dairy herds come in for milking. A handful of grandes dames hotels, called the palace hotels, continue to attract the jet-set for winter sports, [...]