“Caroline Phillips is a tenacious and skilful writer with a flair for high quality interviewing and a knack for making things work.”
Mount Etna blows its top theatrically behind, the Ionian Sea twinkles in front and clementine groves jostle for space with fig trees on this blissfully stylish organic estate.
You won’t find a spa with a more peaceful view. The snow-capped Himalayas and the glacial Mo Chu river gushing past are a sight to ease a troubled mind like no treatment ever could. The hotel is gorgeous, and the spa simple – just two buildings and a tiny menu that makes decision-making a cinch.
The Quick Read: Accessible only by boat, Playa Nicuesa is an eco lodge set in a 165-acre private reserve in Costa Rica’s Golfo Dulce region, bordered by ocean and rainforest that leads onto a national park. The location is paradisiacal – an emerald coast with jade water in which dolphins play and turtles dive. It’s one of the most biologically diverse places in the world, with lush forestry, humongous leaves, three types of monkeys, iguanas, sloths, toucans – it’s like the Oscars for wildlife. There’s yoga and massage, but really you come for the wildlife. It’s perfect for hiking, snorkeling, fishing and jungle kayaking expeditions – though you can just meditate in a hammock. With a carbon footprint so small it’s almost a paw mark, the lodge has 5 leaves – the highest award for sustainability in tourism – but deserves an entire tree.
What to pop into your 23 kilo baggage allowance for an adventurous healthy holiday? Mosquito net? Tent poles? Rescue Remedy? A dog-eared copy of A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush? Well possibly, but some of this gear too – it’s what worked for Caroline Phillips on her healthy holiday to Costa Rica.
I’m suspended above the ground wearing a harness. Dangling over rain forest. I’ve already signed a waiver for death, dismemberment and suchlike. Now like some hybrid of monkey and horizontal parachutist, I’m rocketing past trees, rain forest and over coffee plantations. Jumping off the zip line at ceiba trees around which 60ft. high platforms have been built – there to ready myself to take the next leg of my treetop journey. Then careering off again as howler monkeys howl in the forest.
Almost nobody speaks English and we may be the country’s only tourists, as far as we can work out – which is a delight. Welcome to El Salvador. It is Central America’s least-visited country. Somewhere that has long struggled to gain tourists’ trust. A land perceived as dangerous and with gang killings, violence that has been going on since the 1990s. But if you don’t go into the shanty towns, you’re unlikely to be affected. Instead, we have a holiday in a little country with lots to offer… splendid wildlife and rich forests, colonial towns and beaches, vast mountain ranges and volcanoes. Above all, it’s never more than an hour to reach the city, sea or mountains by car from anywhere in El Salvador.
Savage Beauty, a major retrospective of the work of visionary fashion designer Lee Alexander McQueen, is a cut above the rest. The exhibition – which originated at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York – has been edited and expanded, with 244 items on display. Clothes will always look dull after these.
Aqua Wellness Resort in Redonda Bay, Nicaragua, is for the zen seeker who wants marshmallows on the campfire after her yoga session. Or a pizza night after her papaya body scrub.
It’s an earthly paradise. Mt Etna fumes theatrically behind, red molten lava slipping dramatically down its slopes, and the Ionian sea sparkles in front. Welcome to Monaci delle Terre Nere – the boutique hotel that’s pulling all the awards.
When it comes to eco design, there’s little to beat high-end eco lodge Morgan’s Rock. It was built to showcase the beauty of the location – San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua – but with minimum impact on the environment. Owner Eric Poncon, said: “We wanted guests to remain connected to the most basic and fundamental elements of nature, be it the sound of the ocean, the uplifting feeling of the natural breeze, the refreshing smell of rain on unpaved soils, and the multiplicity of sounds of animals, small, medium and large, night and day!” This is fortunate, given that the lodge is surrounded by a nature reserve of 4000 acres of reforested land and dry rain forest, and fringed by a glorious mile-long stretch of beach.
The monk in saffron robes clutches a mobile phone and iPad. It’s an incongruous sight. Normally these holy men are holding alms bowls for donations of sticky rice. ‘It’s wrong to use Buddha as decoration or tattoo,’ reads a notice nearby. Across the forecourt I hear the strains of musicians playing instruments with names like Krong, Krap and Pia. Maybe a dignitary has landed. Maybe I’ve got culture shock.
Morgan’s Rock really rocks. The Ecolodge is set on one of Nicaragua’s most gobsmackingly gorgeous and deserted, private beaches….a bay of sugar-fine sand and gently lapping Pacific waves. Gallop along the mile-long stretch of beach on horseback – “giddy up Pirata” – or saunter along it to watch sea turtles laying their eggs. The Ecolodge itself comprises 15 wood and thatched bungalows – so eco they’re enough to make anyone weep recycled tears of joy – with simple local furnishings, almond tree floors and the grooviest of upcycled copper taps and shower fittings. There’s no air-conditioning – just the freshest of sea breezes, plus fans and views to beat those in Adam and Eve’s back yard.
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Savage Beauty, a major retrospective of the work of visionary fashion designer Lee Alexander McQueen, is a cut above the rest. The exhibition – which…