A family holiday with teenagers: Vacanze con figli adolescente (To Sicily with the mob)

High50 | 8 Sep 2015

The language barrier is always one of the first obstacles to overcome on holiday in a foreign country. Even more challenging when the tongue you’re trying to understand is your teenager’s: “Whaaa?”… “Huurgh?” Yet here I am: August, Sicily, at Casalnuovo – a beautiful villa with majestic 360-degree views and a massive pool – with six teens, two of them with my DNA.

• Travel: Europe/ Africa

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The Aman Spa at The Connaught review

Queen of Retreats | 20 Aug 2015

The quick read: The Aman Spa is in (arguably) London’s premier hotel in swanky Mayfair. You come to this subterranean beauty when you want to swap stressy city life, noise and buzz for tranquility, spiritual sustenance and top-notch treatments. It’s very ‘om’, with an elegant twist – from the second a staff member glides to your side to offer you a steaming ceramic bowl of lemongrass or ginger tea until you leave the serene, Asian-style treatment room. There’s a 60-metre swimming pool with a cascading water wall, a steam room with twinkling lights, crystals and multi-buhzillionaires letting off steam, plus five treatment rooms. You leave a few hours later feeling as though you’ve had a mini holiday.

• Health, Beauty & Spa

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Learn how the internet works: How a technophobe went from digital dinosaur to world wide whizz

High50 | 16 Jul 2015

I’m a technological dinosaur. In my world, tweeting involves sparrows; a mouse mat is only important when there’s a marsupial involved; and icons are of little significance unless they’re slebs granting me exclusive interviews about their upcoming transgender ops.

• Culture

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Ham Yard Hotel

Our Man on the Ground | 30 Jun 2015

Tim and Kit Kemp have recently created their eighth London hotel, Ham Yard. And it’s barmy – in the nicest possible way – with décor that’s stylishly zany and elegantly nuts.

• Travel: Europe/ Africa

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Is This the World’s Most Expensive Hair?

Huffington Post | 9 Jun 2015

Hair royalty, hair-raiser — he’s been called many things. One thing’s for sure — hairdresser Daniel Galvin Jr knows a thing to two when it comes to tresses. And now he’s offering a mobile hairdressing service. Hair on Bikes. Like meals on wheels. Only think cut ‘n’ colour delivered to your home or office. That is to say, two men on a bike come to do your hair chez vous. Daniel and his top snipper, Joseph Bilton. They’re the only duo in London offering such a service.

• Health, Beauty & Spa,
• Shopping & Fashion

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The cure at Vivamayr Altaussee

The Luxury Channel | 5 Jun 2015

The talk en route to the resort is scary. ‘They’ll put us on a diet of 600 calories a day.’ ‘You’ll be given so much Epsom salts you’ll need Pampers.’ Such is the speculation among journalists on the way to the VivaMayr Resort Altaussee, the spanking new wellness and health clinic on the shores of Lake Altaussee in Liezen, Austria.

• Health, Beauty & Spa,
• Travel: Europe/ Africa

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Playa Nicuesa Rainforest Lodge review – Eco-friendly adventure, massage and yoga in Costa Rica

Queen of Retreats | 28 Apr 2015

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.

• Health, Beauty & Spa,
• Travel: Americas

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Best women’s travel pieces

Queen of Retreats | 28 Apr 2015

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.

• Shopping & Fashion

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Savage beauty

The Luxury Channel | 17 Mar 2015

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.

• Shopping & Fashion

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Redonda Bay’s Aqua Wellness resort

The Luxury Channel | 10 Mar 2015

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.

• Travel: Americas

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Monaci delle Terre Nere – an earthly paradise in Italy

The Luxury Channel | 5 Mar 2015

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.

• Travel: Europe/ Africa

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Hotel review: Morgan’s Rock, Nicaragua

Adelto | 4 Mar 2015

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.

• Travel: Americas

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