Owner: The Silver Lining URL:luxurytravel.blogware.com/blog Join Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2007 16:16:04 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Travel reports and photos from luxury and exotic resorts around the world, including Reethi Rah in the Maldives and Ngorongoro Crater Lodge in Tanzania. Site statistics:Click here
Review of Lake Manyara Tree Lodge, Tanzania 2007-07-15 06:15:00 Lake Manyara National Park is a lush green strip of land between the water and the Rift Valley escarpment which provides the most dramatic backdrop. The reason why this land is so green is that most of the rainfall in the area occurs on the highlands just above the lake. Read more:Lodge
, Tanzania
Review of CC Africa's Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, Tanzania 2007-07-14 08:32:00 I don’t know whether we can say that the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge
is the best hotel in the world, the second best, or trailing in at number five. What I can say is that this is an outstanding travel experience which more than justified the bank-account emptying price tag. Read more:Tanzania
, Africa
Review of the Pestana Palace, Lisbon 2007-07-08 08:29:00 Elaborate doesn’t begin to describe the interior of the Pestana Palace
. Although this is a recreation of ‘haute’ 19th century European living, I’d describe it as more Rococo than Empire - the kind of place where Louis XV would have felt right at home (or Sir Elton John, in today’s terms). Read more:Lisbon
Review of One & Only Reethi Rah 2007-07-05 17:45:00 From the moment we step onto the neat One & Only yacht in Male harbour, we are inside the Reethi
Rah universe. Four stewards in smart white costumes greet us offering drinks. It is raining as we motor towards the island. We scramble onto the top deck and enjoy getting wet as the Indian Ocean opens up in front us of. An hour passes before we approach the harbour of Reethi Rah itself.
Review of Tanzania Under Canvas 2007-06-24 11:23:00 We are staying in one of half a dozen tents in a mobile camp which moves round the Serengeti with the wildebeest. There is nothing to separate you from the life of the great plains stretching for hundreds of miles in front of us. Hyenas howl outside the tent most nights. The odd giraffe stumbles by. Leopards are chased away now and again by the staff. We are given a small whistle to use in case of ‘real emergencies’. I wonder what that might be like. Read more:Tanzania
, Canvas
The Kamp, Helsinki 2007-07-17 15:27:49 You have to love the capital of a country which single-handedly held off the might of the Red Army, enjoys a drink without behaving like British morons, and has produced some of the hi-tech products which define our age. Read more:Helsinki
Virgin Atlantic Upper Class, London to NY 2007-07-24 21:18:21 I really want to love Virgin
Atlantic. If every flight were as good as our trip to Shanghai on that awful day, I would always use them whenever possible. But Sir Richard and the gang, in my opinion, need to ask themselves a key question: are we making Upper
Class as good as it could be?
Restaurant Review : The Rivington Grill Shoreditch, London 2007-07-29 13:08:00 Returned to the Rivington with a friend for Sunday lunch today. The Rivington had been an old favourite for Sunday lunch in Shoreditch until it became annoyingly busy. The good news is that the Roast Goosnargh Chicken for two is back! Read more:Grill
, Restaurant Review
Review of Los Notros, Patagonia 2007-08-09 16:58:26 Two weeks later, we are standing across from the Perito Moreno glacier in bright sunlight. Now and again, small (by comparison) chunks of ice crash into Lago Argentino. It is quite something just to be this close to such an awesome natural phenomenon. Deep within its blue veins, could there be something magical - Superman’s secret hideaway, perhaps? Read more:Patagonia
Review of Faena Hotel and Buenos Aires 2006-03-26 18:03:00 In a city which is know for its magical realism, the Faena Hotel
& Universe is, in many ways the ultimate location. Just a few miles from where Borges wrote about fantastical other worlds - some fiction, some fiction within fiction - the Faena is almost certainly on another planet, although which one I’m not entirely sure.
Review of Kurhaus Hotel, Den Haag, Netherlands 2007-08-26 11:26:00 I could write a novel set in the Kurhaus. Having much work to do in the Dutch capital last year, I must have stayed there at least a dozen times. Last week I found myself back there for the day, and had to take the tram down to Scheveningen for a quick visit to the grand old lady of the Dutch hotel trade.For those unfamiliar with the Netherlands
, Scheveningen is the small outpost which sits right on the North Sea, about three miles from Den Haag city centre. There is a very long, straight drive down to the coast, ... Read more:Hotel
Angkor, Cambodia 2006-10-25 12:15:00 It's an unbelievable monument ! Generally considered to be the world’s largest religious edifice, Angkor
Wat itself doesn’t disappoint. Built by King Suryavarman II in the 12th century, the silhouette of the Hindu temple is instantly recognisable when you pull up to it. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. Read more:Cambodia
Review of Iguazu Falls, Argentina & Brasil 2006-04-03 08:53:00 Given my enthusiasm for ugly towns, you can imagine my joy at landing on the Brasil
-Argentina
border. We are on our way to the Parque Nacional do Iguaçu, and its magnificent falls, the world’s biggest. But forget that. I want to head downtown - to Foz do Iguaçu, the town of 300,000 people which sits, as the name implies, at the mouth of the river. Read more:Falls
Restaurants: Smiths of Smithfield, Top Floor 2007-09-15 11:33:10 It's been a tough week, and I'm feeling as old as Sir Menzies Campbell. The embattled, geriatric Liberal leader looks like he needs cheering up, and so do I. We head for Smiths of Smithfield, very much a local for KB as he lives round the corner, and one of our old favourites. This is about familiarity and comfort food. Read more:Floor
Review of Angkor, Cambodia 2006-10-30 16:50:56 Arriving in Siem Reap, it's clear that Angkor
is no longer off the beaten track. Multiple hotels line the main roads and tourist buses cause mini traffic jams in town. I was anxious that the main temple sites of Angkor outside Siem Reap would be overrun but fortunately our guide planned a circuit of the temples specifically to avoid the crowds. It did however, mean that we drew up to the Angkor Wat in the full glare of the midday sun. Read more:Cambodia
Review of Iguazu Falls, Brasil & Argentina 2006-04-03 08:43:20 I’m always fascinated by ugly towns: Chongqing, Nairobi, Detroit, Dundee. They’re ugly because they are (or have been) centres of industrial-economic activity: working towns. They may not have a Hyde Park or a Champs Elysee, but if you scratch just a little beneath the surface of an ugly town, you’ll find hidden treasures, quirky stuff which doesn’t exist anywhere else. For example, next time you’re in Detroit, check out the Cadieux Cafe, one of the last places in the United States where you can play authentic Belgian feather bowling and enjoy a bowl of steamed mussels at the same time. Read more:Falls
, Brasil
, Argentina
Review of Los Notros, Patagonia 2006-03-30 07:53:58 One of our brilliant guides is standing by the sink-hole to hold on to each visitor while we look down. I am about half way down the queue. Everyone else has made it more or less intact and is now climbing the other side. I keep my penguin walk going steady right to the last step, and then start to feel my balance going. Instinctively, I push one leg out to balance myself, then realise I am going the other way. So I push back - right into the arms of our guide who grabs me with all the strength he can muster and utters a small cry of genuine concern. Without him there, I would probably have disappeared down that sink-hole forever. Read more:Patagonia
Review of Faena Hotel & Universe, Buenos Aires 2006-03-27 08:07:37 In a city which is know for its magical realism, the Faena Hotel
& Universe
is, in many ways the ultimate location. Just a few miles from where Borges wrote about fantastical other worlds - some fiction, some fiction within fiction - the Faena is almost certainly on another planet, although which one I’m not entirely sure.
Xian, The Terracotta Warriors 2005-07-16 10:31:12 KB is driven mad by those documentaries on satellite TV about Rome, which constantly refer to 'the greatest Empire the world has ever known'. The worst offender recently was the bombastic Boris Johnson in his BBC series on the glories and grandeur of the Romans. As an educated, worldy, Asian-born scientist, KB finds this kind of casual, narrow-minded claptrap infuriating; and who can blame him? By the time Julius Caesar was rolling around the Dordogne, the great Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi had been underground with his Terracotta Army for over 200 years, having created what was (and is) really the 'greatest empire the world has ever known' - with a culture, arts and sciences far ahead of anything which existed in 'the west'. Read more:Warriors
Shanghai, World City No 1 (2046) 2005-07-08 10:37:07 Before dinner, we head down to the ground floor for a stroll around Pudong. It’s all brand new, bright and shiny, big and bold - just across the river from the old town. This is where Shanghai
is building its world financial centre. At the end of this century, if our species is still here, that’s almost certainly exactly what it will be. Old Europeans may not like what is being built in Pudong, these massive temples serving international trade and business. But I find it oddly comforting, this confident vision of the future. It’s certainly a lot better than the alternative. Read more:World
Zuma 2007-10-21 13:34:03 I have a strange addiction to Japanese restaurants. It's strange, because I have a severe allergy to most fish and seafood. Therefore, seventy or eight per cent of the menu is off limits to me. However, I persist for two reasons: KB is with me and he loves sushi; and I can content myself with a superb bottle of Sake and a real treat: Wagyu beef.Where better to sample these delights than Zuma? Tucked away in a Knightsbridge side street across the road from Harrods and Harvey Nichols, this place is one of the best Asian restaurants in London, ...
Vienna, the Hollmann Beletage 2007-10-31 03:20:21 Looking for the Hollman Beletage Hotel? Do we have the right address? you may ask yourself as you head down Köllnerhofgasse, a short street about five minutes walk from St Stephen’s Cathedral. You stop at the entrance to a grand old apartment building and enter a secret code which opens the heavy door. Once inside, your eyes wander around the cavernous hallway, which looks little changed from the late Imperial era. Read more:Vienna
EOS airlines, London to New York 2007-11-02 08:01:27 The pitch seems too good to be true: an all-business airline, less than 50 passengers on a 757, flying from Stansted, fast track all the way, and considerably less expensive than BA or Virgin. Could EOS possibly live up to the hype? As one of the world's biggest cynics, I have to say that it's almost all true! This flight to JFK was one of the smoothest I have ever had, and probably the best business class service.The EOS staff whisk you through the check-in and security process as fast as possible to the smart lounge where attentive staff ... Read more:New York
Thai Airways Royal First Class, London to Bangkok 2007-11-04 12:35:18 The RoyalFirst
Lounge at Bangkok
is very impressive - better even than Qatar Airways
Premium Terminal at Doha in my opinion. There are nice private rooms to relax in (photo shown), sleeping areas, shower suites and a full service menu. The lounge staff were extremely attentive and were constantly offering to bring me food and drink. They also made me an appointment to visit the Royal Orchid Spa where I had a nice complimentary neck and shoulder massage. When the time came for me to board my connecting flight, I was personally escorted all the way to the aircraft.
Review of Balconies Restaurant (Searcys), Royal Opera House, London 2008-02-22 07:46:22 There are few experiences finer in this world than spending an evening at London's Royal
Opera House
. For last month's production of 'Die Zauberflote', we decided to go the whole hog and have dinner at Searcy, the restaurant inside the ROH.
Review of Sumahan on the Water, Istanbul 2007-12-10 13:59:48 Sumahan was created from the shell of a 19th century Ottoman distillery. It has been renovated with a great deal of care, and sits in perfect harmony with the quiet little village next door.
The Astoria, St Petersburg 2007-10-01 06:49:33 There are a small number of world class hotels in St Petersburg
, and this is one of them. The Astoria has been around since 1912, when the unfortunate Nicholas II was still living in style down the road at the Winter Palace. Just about every world leader who has visited the city since has stayed at the Astoria.
Explora en Atacama, Chile 2008-02-03 17:49:58 Trekking through the Atacama desert is the closest that I will ever come to being on another world. The resemblance to satellite pictures of the the surface of Mars is not so far-fetched. In 2003, a team of scientists from NASA found ‘Mars-like soils’ in the Atacama. In other words, the samples they analysed produced very similar results to those of NASA’s Viking mission to Mars in the 1970s
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