https://www.scmp.com/rss/322880/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com This looks like another planet. It’s the otherworldly Sonoran Desert, less than 30 minutes from Scottsdale, Arizona, in the United States. And those gargantuan granite boulders are 12 million years old. What is this place? An environmentally sound, family-owned luxury complex in the middle of the gold dust- and orange-toned Sonoran, the Boulders Resort spreads like an unexpected mirage across 525 hectares (1,300 acres). Huge irregular stones, many as tall as buildings, define the landscape,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3004775/boulders-resort-spa-arizona-desert-retreat-made?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3004775/boulders-resort-spa-arizona-desert-retreat-made?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Apr 2019 13:30:08 +0000 What is it? Set in 2.5 hectares of rolling olive groves, Villa Jasmine is a privately owned property that lords it over a beach on Paros’ less trammelled southern coast. Where is Paros? A short flight from Athens, the island was once known as “the poor man’s Mykonos” because its central location amid the Greek Cyclades ensured nearly everyone, from ancient philosophers to modern backpackers, stopped over to refuel or change craft en route to their actual destination. As other islands grew more... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2164216/forget-santorini-truly-greek-holiday-check-private?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2164216/forget-santorini-truly-greek-holiday-check-private?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Sep 2018 08:02:19 +0000 What is it?  Hotel brand Montage has just opened its first property outside the United States, in Baja California’s Los Cabos. Wait a minute. I thought California was in the US.  It is, but Baja California is the 1,600km-long peninsula that lies just south of the American state, in Mexico. A water lover’s paradise, home to whales in winter, it has desert terrain and a rugged Pacific-facing coastline. In the north, vine­yards thrive and stellar wine is made. At its southern­most tip, the resort... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2162134/sun-soaked-mexican-holiday-try-montage-los-cabos-baja?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2162134/sun-soaked-mexican-holiday-try-montage-los-cabos-baja?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 03 Sep 2018 18:00:00 +0000 What are the main attractions? Kenya’s Laikipia County is home to the nation’s second largest population of ele­phants. Its lions and reticulated giraffes are the stuff of safari dreams. The night sky, when viewed from bushland, shimmers like a Habsburg crown, and now you can see for yourself at the Loisaba Conservancy, a 22,660-hectare, sustainable, fenceless, private property that stretches across the Laikipia plains to Mount Kenya. There, in the Elewana Collection’s Loisaba Star Beds (below),... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2153881/night-under-african-sky-kenyan-resort-takes-glamping?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2153881/night-under-african-sky-kenyan-resort-takes-glamping?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 08 Jul 2018 07:18:43 +0000 Chinatown, New York – I wish somebody would open a hotel emblematic of the district. You are in luck. Last year, Hotel 50 Bowery began welcoming visitors to a stylish, 21-storey celebration of the community. Bowery is the name of a street and neighbourhood in Manhattan and No 50 is the first New York property of lifestyle boutique brand Joie de Vivre Hotels; a 229-room extravaganza of chic that delves into the district’s Chinese roots. It’s the brainchild of two families – the Harilelas from... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2150905/chinatown-inspired-new-york-hotel-cool-comfortable?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2150905/chinatown-inspired-new-york-hotel-cool-comfortable?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 15 Jun 2018 12:04:42 +0000 Wait a minute, this place looks like a museum. It might as well be. The five-star First Hotel Roma houses so much art, it could easily be mistaken for a gallery. Like a jewel box brimming with treasure, the hotel holds more than 100 works by Italian and inter­national artists, both emerging and estab­lished. Moreover, the restored, 19th-century neoclassical palazzo building boasts a stellar address. It lies just a pizza’s toss from the Spanish Steps, a stairway built with funds bequeathed by a... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2149868/amazing-art-filled-hotel-rome-its-staying-gallery?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2149868/amazing-art-filled-hotel-rome-its-staying-gallery?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 10 Jun 2018 06:00:15 +0000 I love Mexico, but get bored at the beach resorts. Rather than lounging by a pool, I want to taste authentic food and walk in the shadows of historical architecture. Where should I go? You’re in luck. Puebla, Mexico’s fourth largest city, a fusion of Spanish colonial and pre-Hispanic culture, awaits. A two-hour drive from Mexico City, the town, with cobbled streets and centuries-old, brightly painted buildings, lies in a verdant valley surrounded by four volcanoes. One of them, Popocatépetl,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2146761/forget-mexicos-beach-resorts-try-puebla-unusual?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2146761/forget-mexicos-beach-resorts-try-puebla-unusual?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 19 May 2018 04:17:02 +0000 I’d love to see Canada’s country­side but I won’t have much time. You’re in luck. Langdon Hall Country House & Spa lies just an hour’s drive south of Toronto. In a bucolic setting far from hectic urbanity, the 60-room hotel occupies 25 hectares of woodlands and has evocative, manicured gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who is better known for having planned New York City’s Central Park. What’s the mood? Built by Eugene Langdon Wilks, great-grandson of fur trader and real-estate magnate... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2071099/great-canadian-countryside-getaway-near-toronto-spa?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2071099/great-canadian-countryside-getaway-near-toronto-spa?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 Feb 2017 12:03:24 +0000 What is it? Laucala is an island in Fiji owned by Dietrich Mateschitz, co-founder of Red Bull. It comprises 3,500 verdant acres, including beaches, mountains and 25 Fijian-style villas. The thatched-roofed, tropical-garden-ensconced dwellings range in size and vary in location. You can stay over the water, cresting a hilltop or – literally – on the beach. As ideal for romantic getaways as it is for family holidays, Laucala can be a hideaway or a social event.   Red Bull? Is it about extreme... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2057396/laucala-fijian-island-paradise-free-red-bull?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2057396/laucala-fijian-island-paradise-free-red-bull?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Dec 2016 02:17:08 +0000 What, exactly, is the Serengeti? This Unesco-protected, national park in northern Tanzania mesmerised the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Beryl Markham. Known for its vast expanses of amber-hued grassland, swamp land and peculiar boulders, called kopje, the 30,000-sq-km ecosystem is home to the stately Maasai tribe, cattle tenders who live as they have for centuries. Dotted with mushroom-shaped acacia and healing baobab trees, and hailed for its life-affirming sunsets, the park is a draw for... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/1997695/four-seasons-serengeti-lavish-way-get-close-big-five?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/1997695/four-seasons-serengeti-lavish-way-get-close-big-five?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Aug 2016 12:00:45 +0000 What’s this place, then? Nirvana for those in need of a bit of vinotherapy. Vinotherapy? IS THAT SOME SORT OF HAPPY HOUR? No, that’s spa talk for treat­ments that involve wine. You won’t have to wait ’til five o’clock to indulge at Santuario, a subter­ra­nean spa in Spain’s Duero Valley. An hour’s drive from Valladolid, surrounded by vineyards and housed in a 12th-century, fully restored monastery, Abadia Retuerta LeDomaine is Spain’s first Relais & Châteaux hotel. The spa, which opened... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/1992773/spanish-monastery-turned-spa-they-treat-you-wine-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/1992773/spanish-monastery-turned-spa-they-treat-you-wine-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Jul 2016 13:00:25 +0000 Describe this place in six words. The Venice of the Yucatan awaits. Isn’t Venice in Italy? Well, yes. But we’re talking about the Venice of the Yucatan, and that’s in Mexico. A meticu­lously main­tained ecosystem of mangroves, dunes and freshwater lagoons (which the locals call cenotes), Mayakoba occupies a verdant patch of the Riviera Maya on the Caribbean coast. Not part of the Cancun party scene, this eco-conscious resort development, about 40 minutes from the airport and 10 minutes from the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/1986278/bliss-out-mexicos-banyan-tree-mayakoba-resort-fusion?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/1986278/bliss-out-mexicos-banyan-tree-mayakoba-resort-fusion?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 06 Jul 2016 12:48:23 +0000