Be very quiet. You might disturb the house elves… While all around you is manic, ‘bustle’ doesn’t quite convey the heat and crowds and traffic of Marrakech. Everything within the walls of the Royal Mansour’s estate is calm. And soothing. And perfect. Staff appear as if by magic, in a manner that would impress even…
Lungs and liver now get a combined beating at London’s best cigar bar. Surprisingly for an old hospital, the Lanesborough Hotel’s Garden Room is currently bringing back the fine art of creatively mixing booze and tobacco. Far from a sneaky tab and a swig from a 5cl Bells miniature in the outpatients’ ward, out of…
Monkey magic meets zen-like calm in rural Japan… On many occasions – both in print and in person – I’ve told people to slap me. It’s not some 50 Shades of Grey kink, but a genuine offer in instances of smugness or inappropriate toys-out-of-the-pram scenarios. Parts of this article are going to sound like one…
Take an old Scottish church. Furnish it to look like a shag pad as imagined by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. You’re in business. Debauched. One of those words that, being a pedant, I often flinch at. ‘Oh last night was SOOOOO debauched!’ some tool will indulgently groan at you. ‘Why?! What happened?!’, I’ll ask, my eyes…
Was there ever a more oxymoronic nominative concept than the ‘Bentley Continental’? Sure, it’s a GT. At some point over the previous century, the idea that a touring vehicle could and should be ‘grand’ became accepted orthodoxy. And, if you wanted to tour away from British shores, short of emigrating to the New World, you…
Play arctic explorer while being amused by your stag’s own frozen Pole. It’s safe to say that the majority of stag nights are no longer just ‘nights’. The occasion has become as mired in protocol and expectation as the wedding itself. Except here, there’s no excuse that the main driver of the ‘need for perfection’…
What happens when you take a cuppa and a slice of cake and pimp that shiz up? ‘We never do anything fun anymore…’ The words any hard-working, stressed yet romantically inclined man dreads hearing from the neighbouring pillow. Dinner has become routine. The ballet sends you (literally) to sleep. Nightclubs remind you that you might…
According to various panicked economic reports, Spain is falling apart. The weird thing is, nobody appears to have told Spain. Their football team is winning everything… According to various panicked economic reports, Spain is falling apart. The weird thing is, nobody appears to have told Spain. Their football team is winning everything. Spanish food is…
If John Jacob Astor hadn’t tanked it in the Titanic, you can imagine he would have got a real kick out of seeing a Bentley Blower parked up outside his classic New York Hotel, the St Regis. Built in 1930, the car matches the St Regis ethos – elegant, timeless, irretrievably fancy. Yet it’s also…
For LUSSO 28, regular contributor Chris West stopped for 36 hours in Verbier to separate truth and rumour about the coming 2012-13 ski season. Verbier continues to amaze. That’s partly the stunning scenery but it’s also due to the stunning shortage of high-end luxury for the young and active European super-wealthy. The hedgie who’s happy to…