By CHRIS LEADBEATER

Higher and higher: The new hotel sits at the top of Hong Kong's ICC tower (in the foreground)


Many a hotel has used the prospect of a breathtaking view, whether of a pretty stretch of seafront, an urban skyline or towards rolling hills, to boost its appeal to would-be guests – only for said guests to find themselves staring at the kitchen bins or the fire escape.

But anyone checking in to the new Ritz-Carlton in Hong Kong is unlikely to be disappointed by the panorama visible from the window of their suite.

Because, occupying the top 17 floors of the city’s International Commerce Centre (ICC) skyscraper, this five-star, 312-room property is – as of its opening today – the highest hotel in the world.


Room with a view: Windows look out onto Victoria Harbour far below


Anyone wanting to stay here will need a head for heights. The tallest building in Hong Kong, the ICC rears to 484metres (1,588ft) – with the hotel beginning on the 102nd floor, at 425metres (1394ft).

Here, diners can gaze out across the field of neon below from a table at one of three restaurants – or opt for an even loftier perspective on the great Chinese city by taking a lift to the 118th floor, where the signature eatery Ozone awaits.

Those who like the feeling of floating on the lip of a precipice can also test their ability to withstand vertigo by visiting the hotel’s top-floor gym, where an infinity swimming pool offers what may well be an unnerving snapshot of Victoria Harbour, some 16,000ft below. Happily, the in-house spa, slotted two floors below, should soothe frayed spirits.


Different strokes: You may need a stern constitution to swim in the top-floor infinity pool


The hotel is able to offer such good views of the harbour because the International Commerce Centre sits, not on Hong Kong Island, but directly opposite, in the West Kowloon portion of the mainland – where it perches directly on top of Kowloon station.

The Ritz-Carlton’s launch today sees it displace another Far Eastern retreat – the Park Hyatt Shanghai, which ‘only’ lies between the 79th and 93rd floors of the Shanghai World Financial Center, in China’s eastern port-metropolis – as earth’s most elevated hotel.

Of course, while the new Ritz-Carlton can bask in the spotlight of being the world’s highest hotel, the ICC cannot claim to be the world’s highest building to host a hotel.


Do look down: The hotel's four restaurants also offer elevated views


That honour goes to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa - the super-skyscraper that, at 828metres (2,717ft), ranks as the tallest building on the planet.

However, its main accommodation option – the fashion-accented Armani Hotel – climbs no higher than its 39th storey.


source: dailymail

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Tags: Hong Kong, the world's highest hotel

By CHRIS ANDERSON

Relaxed charm: Diners eat al fresco at a busy cafe in one of the city's spacious plazas


It was with this in mind that I went to irresistible Madrid for a long weekend. More than that, I travelled there and back by train, taking my time, looping discursively around and between a number of other splendid towns and cities. And while in the Spanish capital I stayed at the Ritz. To do any two of these three things would have been a magnificent treat. To pull off all of them was heaven.

First, the trip out. An early-ish Eurostar to Paris to begin with, feeling pleasantly frivolous alongside all the business types frowning into their BlackBerries, finding myself eating every atom of the rubbery, airline-style breakfasts served in first class.

Then, at the Gare du Nord and with Europe at my feet, out came my secret weapon: an InterRail Global Pass, allowing unlimited travel around the Continent - from Lisbon in the west, in fact, all the way to the approaches to the Iranian border in the east. (I should mention that there are some small-print conditions to all this, such as reserving long-distance seats in advance, that you need to familiarise yourself with before taking the plunge.) The best thing about it, of course, is that you can plan your whole route yourself, and at your own pace. And that's what I did.

To begin with I skimmed down almost the length of France to my first overnight stop - monumental, cultured Avignon, some 450 miles south of Paris's Gare de Lyon but reached in not much more than two-and-a-half hours on the speed-of-light TGV.

For sightseeing, there's the gigantic Gothic palace that housed a succession of exiled medieval Popes; for corporeal pleasures there's an inviting, characterful old town with proper French shops, restaurants and bars. The next morning I was tempted to linger, but I had always wanted to see Carcassonne - only an inch or two away on the map, as a few of my former news editors used to say - so that's where I headed.

It meant a detour, but it was worth it. The ancient fortified city, romantically restored, exerts a powerful magic. I explored the mazy streets, sampled the astringent local wines and climbed the ramparts. To the west reposed the Pyrenees, calmly glorious in winter sunshine; there were no crowds; I dined regally in what I was told was the city's best restaurant, the Comte Roger, where the subtle perfection of a scallop mousse starter was followed by a knockout, gutbustingly authentic cassoulet.

A longish haul the following day, curling along the marshy coast towards Perpignan and then on the new high-speed link that crosses the border into Spain. This short stretch, which extends as far as Figueres, opened only at the end of last year and makes it comfortably feasible to reach Spain by train from London in not much more than a working day.

I'd been planning to pause in Figueres to visit the Dali museum but momentum propelled me on to Barcelona and, because I had been there before, I pressed on to Zaragoza.

It's a handsome place - bigger than I'd imagined - with impressively stately civic landmarks and a throbbing heart full of noisy tapas bars. Many of these are upscale, and not cheap; the dishes on offer, though, are outstandingly fresh and good. One tapas was composed of anchovy, soft cheese and chocolate shavings - an audacious combination to be sure, but this alien pairing of saltiness and sweetness made me try another one simply to work out whether I loved it or hated it. I loved it. or at least I think I did.

Two more good things about Zaragoza: because I visited it off-season my hotel - the five-star Melia Zaragoza - cost little more than a quarter of the advertised peak-season rate. And the city is so placed that my train ride the next morning to the main event of my trip - Madrid itself - amounted to a pleasant downhill coast of about 90 minutes.

Everything was brilliant in the Spanish capital that Saturday lunchtime - from the welcoming sunshine to the smile of the limo driver who was waiting at the station to whisk me up to the Ritz. The limo service is one of the things Kirker holidays pride themselves on. It's good thinking on their part because one always feels a bit unsure arriving in a foreign capital.

Five minutes later I was in the Ritz - cocooned by its balming elegance, and the imperturbable professionalism of its staff. As with all the best hotels, you sense that behind all this effortless calm is a mighty machine, humming away around the clock. The public rooms are masterpieces of mirrored, belle epoque swishness. My own room, like all the others, was beautiful: airy, tranquil, deep-carpeted, replete with those useful extras like an umbrella and bathrobes and dinky little toiletries.


Sociable city: Friends enjoy a snack and a chat in one of Madrid's many tapas bars


The hotel's position is unsurpassable, lying at the very heart of the grandly spacious centre of the capital (the building is a baroque landmark in its own right) and of the so-called Golden Triangle of world-renowned art museums that boasts the Prado as its senior partner.

The Prado is next door to the Ritz, and is of course essential. The only problem with this vast gallery is that it offers such a rich banquet of treasures that no matter how hard you go at it, you still feel that you've failed to do the paintings justice. The secret is to plan and execute surgical strikes.

The two other elements of the Golden Triangle - the Thyssen-Bornemisza, and the Reina Sofia - are not as well-known as the Prado but are equally unmissable, and you can buy a ticket that gets you into all three.

The Reina Sofia's must-see is Guernica, Picasso's incendiary, wallsized dissection of war and fascism and the horrors that they visit upon an innocent world. It's extraordinarily powerful. I went closer to get a better look; klaxons screamed in tones as outraged as the figures in the picture itself, and guards too remonstrated crossly with me. I reddened. I maintain, however, that the lines on the floor forbidding encroachment towards the picture are not marked terribly clearly.

Time for some fresh air - and Madrid's got lots of it, at least when it's not high summer, because its thoroughfares and squares are roomy and gracious. The government ministries have a certain majesty to them and the shopping districts are as sophisticated as any in Europe.

But, for me, the joy of Madrid lies in the wonderful communality of those areas where the whole city appears to congregate to eat and to drink and, more than anything else, generally and unabashedly to celebrate life. For Madrid is a uniquely sociable place. According to legend there are more bars here per square yard than anywhere else on the Continent; the Calle Alcala alone, it is said, boasts more drinking holes than does the whole of Belgium. The bars themselves are authentic, atmospheric and welcoming. And, while the formal restaurants are pretty good - I had some fizzingly fresh cod in oil and garlic - tapas is king.

To immerse oneself in all this is a night-long thrill - made all the more exotic, and therefore enjoyable, by the way the Spaniards insist on keeping to their own idiosyncratic timetable: they really do lunch until four, and they really don't eat dinner until 9.30 or ten, and they really do then go on and on until the small hours. And nor is it an exercise in getting tanked-up.


Taste of city life: Tapas is king in Madrid and there is a staggering variety on offer


On the Sunday of my visit, the areas around the Plaza Mayor, Santa Ana and La Latina were thronged all day with Madrilenos radiating a sort of serene, civilised buzz. No rowdyism, no silliness (coming from England, one can't help but notice these things). In any case, beer and wine are served in thimble-sized measures, in a way that complements the staggering variety of tapas on offer. People of all ages are invited to this party; everybody joins in, or at least seems to.

But we all have to leave even the best parties sooner or later, and now it was time to have one last stupendous Ritz breakfast and to get into the limo and head for home.

At least, though, I wasn't facing a glum ride to a sterile airport. I was going to the station to head north - first to Vitoria (historic, pleasant, a bit provincial after Madrid) and then to San Sebastian. My arrival here coincided with the city's annual saint's day: its superb streets and central square, and its narrow old town bursting with tapas bars, were flooded with townsfolk, many of them banging on drums. In fact, the place went crackers.

Then my last stop, and the only dud one on the whole trip: Biarritz, which I found to be gratuitously expensive, antiseptic, and more than a bit stuck-up. Everywhere else I had gone I had felt positively grateful to be there in winter. Freed from tourists, the cities had seemed both more approachable and more themselves. Not so Biarritz. But perhaps I was getting a bit tired by now.

Still, there was plenty of time to daydream on the trip back to Paris. And then, after a quick stroll around Montparnasse, it was on to the evening Eurostar and home - where life seemed no longer oppressive, nor routine, at all.


Getting there

InterRail Global Passes start from £230 for an adult for a 'five travel days in ten days' pass or £327 for a 'ten in 22 days' pass. Return fares on Eurostar from London to Paris start at £69. Some high-speed trains and overnight services will require seat reservations in addition to the InterRail pass. Call 0844 848 4070 or visit www.raileurope.co.uk.

Kirker Holidays (020 7593 2283, www.kirkerholidays.com) offers three nights at the Ritz Madrid from £1,398 per person, including return Eurostar to Paris and 'Preferente' class sleeper to Madrid with transfers, B&B and a 48-hour Cultura Card giving access to museums and palaces. A three-night break with flights costs from £878.


source: dailymail

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Tags: Span, Travel Guide

By CAROLYN O'DONNELL

Green tea plantations: The rolling hills of Sri Lanka, where Carolyn found the happiest animals eating pineapple


Sri Lanka’s happiest farm animals live at a small hotel in tea-velveted central hill country where they eat pineapple and their main responsibility is to produce compost.

Their hard work is used to help grow coffee, fruit and organic vegetables in the 30-acre grounds of Jetwing Warwick Gardens, where guests are received like visitors at a country estate.

However this 19th-century former Scottish tea planter’s house is one where you can pick and produce your own beverage.


Sri Lanka: Where plants luxuriate in the 'eternal spring' of the hill country, and mist hangs in the valley


After extensive refurbishment it offers just five rooms, with walks to mesmerise birdwatchers, gardeners or anyone on the hunt for a snack. And if guests want to wander into the kitchen and cook something they’ve found, then they can do that too.

While there I explored the exquisite landscaping where plants luxuriate in the ‘eternal spring’ of the hill country, admired the mist hanging in the valley at lawn’s end and attempted to make parathas.

Parathas are a flat, pan-fried bread of Indian origin, though the Sri Lankan variety contain egg for extra crispness.

Stretching the dough looked a simple wrist-flicking matter when the chef did it, but lumpy is probably the best word to describe my efforts after clumping rather than expanding took place. But when dipped into chicken simmered with coriander, dill and chilli, shape no longer seemed important.

Most visitors to the ‘island of Serendib’ will sample the national dish of rice and curry, but many will remain unaware of the regional variations and diversity of Sri Lankan cooking as restaurant culture languished on the back burner during the nation’s civil war.

While a peacetime boom grips the capital Colombo, where polo-playing financiers discuss real estate deals at parties, much of the best eating is still to be done at the country’s better hotels.


Iconic citadel: Near the village of Sigiriya the vast Lion Rock, left, is a must-see monument on any traveller's itinerary. Not quite as large, but at 30m high just as impressive, one of the many statues of Buddha, right


With a dozen properties in different locations, Jetwing offers an unusually eclectic array of accommodation and while the focus might range from ayurveda to wildlife-friendly wetlands, they are united by a commitment to fine dining.

Priyantha Weerasingha, regional executive chef of four Jetwing hotels, is passionate about embracing new culinary trends while preserving traditional Sri Lankan cuisine. In an attempt to rescue recipes from oblivion, he has even visited villages to research what locals were eating 50 to 100 years ago.

He not only discovered dishes such as dum massa – pork cooked over charcoal with spices for smoky flavour – but some holistic wisdom. ‘The village people then were very healthy,’ he says. ‘Staple ingredients included honey, lime and tamarind, and we’ve added these things to hotel menus here.’

By ‘here’ Chef Priyantha means his ‘casually elegant’ hotels in the popular seaside town of Negombo, a convenient stop for tourists being only 10km from the international airport. Its wide beaches are a draw, as are its crabs, prawns and yellowfin tuna.

In another splendid merging of the attractions of food and ocean, chef Priyantha arranged a cooking demonstration for me on an outdoor terrace at Jetwing Sea – re-opened in January after a makeover - where waves caressed the sand a moment away from the sizzling pan.


Fruits of her labours: Carolyn gets to grips with the paratha, left, and al fresco dining, right, provided the chance to try some very tasty traditional and modern dishes


In the alfresco tradition of Keith Floyd – though without the wine - he produced Negombo prawns tempered Sri Lankan style, which is the signature dish of the nearby sibling hotel Jetwing Beach.

Its Sands restaurant is recognized as one of the area’s best and it offers three regional cuisines at Go Sri Lanka, its weekly showcase of Tamil (north), Muslim (east), and Sinhalese (west) Sri Lankan cuisine.

‘We represent three religions (Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism) and three kinds of food,’ Chef Priyantha commented, as he mixed the prawns with curry powder, chilli, turmeric and salt.

Hotel guests thinking of lunch ambled past, watching with interest as onions, garlic and ginger were added to the mix before the prawns were tossed in. With the addition of fenugreek, cinnamon, curry leaves and the coconut milk around which many Sri Lankan curries are based, the dish was ready for final seasoning in about 12 minutes.

That evening he walked me through Go Sri Lanka, pointing out some highlights: chef-sliced mackerel and tuna salad, Jaffna fish curry, sizzling roti (folded pancakes), Muslim khalia beef liver curry, black chicken curry and Tamil cooking flavoured with mango, coriander and tamarind.

Then there were sambals, pickles and chutneys, plus hoppers – bowl-shaped coconut milk pancakes – produced to order with various fillings.

My sweet tooth divined the desserts, where I tasted wattalappam, a coconut milk pudding a bit like crème caramel, and bibikkan, a cake often eaten before marriage to provide energy for those expected to be busy, kama sutra-style, afterwards. Apparently it was very popular among kings with many wives.


A spot of impromptu bathing: While wandering down the dusty main street in Sigiriya Carolyn was invited to scrub a contented elephant lying in a stream


Spotting kingfishers and bee-eaters is popular among guests at Jetwing Vil Uyana in Sri Lanka’s ‘cultural triangle’, where luxury meets eco-friendly initiative. Its 27 ‘dwellings’ are built around two man-made lakes that have nurtured a busy haven for native creatures. And the accompanying irrigation system helps grow organic vegetables used in what is undoubtedly the finest kitchen for many miles.

With a naturalist at hand to advise on peacocks and elephants, the hotel is impressive enough itself – each dwelling is built in forest, water, paddy or marshland with vaulted ceilings and acres of wood-panelled floors. But Sigiriya (Lion Rock), a must-see monument on any itinerary, is just 5km away.

The briefest but most extraordinary of the island’s medieval capitals is a stunning archaeological site, with a citadel atop an outcrop 200m above the plain. Pleasure gardens sprawl at its base and the nation’s most iconic frescoes, the 5th-century Sigiriya Damsels, can be seen halfway up.

The village of Sigiriya has a sleepy charm too. While wandering down the dusty main street I was invited to scrub a contented elephant lying in a stream.

I was very contented too after a massage at Vil Uyana’s designer-zen spa, situated on one of the lakes. My open-air treatment room was lapped by wavelets, in which a bath serenely nestled.

Apart from food, Jetwing is rather keen on spas. Its distinctive Ayurveda Pavilions is an award-winning 12-villa Negombo resort, where guests can follow a personalized ayurveda regime and be steamed and bathed to holistic perfection.

Which is probably the only thing that could be better than being a pineapple-sated farm animal.


Travel facts

Carolyn stayed in Jetwing hotels www.jetwinghotels.com and used Jetwing's tour division. See: www.jetwingtravels.com

Sri Lanka’s top eco-tourism operator is worth a visit at: www.jetwingeco.com


source: dailymail

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Tags: Travel Guide

By BRUCE PALLING

Gallic glitter: Lyon is home to what may well be France's finest restaurant scene


Walking up the hill to the imposing Basilica de Notre Dame is not a bad idea in Lyon, because when you come back down, you'll be staring thousands of calories in the face.

There's no point feeling guilty about it. Lyon is the gastronomic capital of France - famous British-based chefs such as Michel Roux Jr, Antonin Bonnet, from the Greenhouse and Claude Bosi, from Hibiscus, all worked here. And if you aren't prepared to loosen your belt and empty your wallet, you shouldn't be here.

The essence of Lyonnais cuisine are the bouchons, simple pub-like bistros that serve all known forms of pork, offal and other delights for those who have a less delicate disposition.

The Cafe des Federation, with its gingham tablecloths, sawdust on the floors and sausages on the ceiling, is the most celebrated bouchon in Lyon.

Its full-framed dishes included 'poor man's caviar' (lentil salad in a cream sauce), oeufs en meurette (poached egg in a wine sauce), braised calves head and, perhaps the best of all, quenelle de brochette (pike wrapped in spongy puff pastry with a creamy crayfish sauce).

After the French Revolution, many female chefs, or meres Lyonnaises, opened their own restaurants.

A direct descendant of this tradition was Eugenie Brazier, who became the first woman to win three Michelin stars at La Mere Brazier in the Thirties.

It was re-opened a few years ago by Mathieu Viannay, a talented young man, who now has two Michelin stars himself.

He still serves the Lyonnais classics in the beautifully restored restaurant with its original stained glass and array of original private dining rooms, where guests can eat surrounded by the original art deco tiling on the walls.


Watery wonder: Lyon sits on two major rivers, the Rhone (pictured) and the Saone


But that was enough eating for our first day - and, so, against our better judgment, we scaled the same hill again, only this time to visit the Gallo Roman Museum.

From the outside, all you can see are the well-preserved ruins of the old amphitheatre as the museum is buried in the hillside.

After these gentle exertions, we headed to the most creative top restaurant in Lyon, Le Bec et Taka, named in honour of Takao Takano, the young Japanese chef who has just taken over.

This is not traditional Lyonnais cooking, however. It's superb contemporary cuisine is equal to the best in Paris, London or New York.

Taka is fascinated by game and even has silver sculptures of game birds throughout the restaurant.

During lunch, I asked the attentive Japanese waiter if it might be possible have a chat with this talented chef. I needn't have bothered, as the 'waiter' was Taka himself.

You don't have to shell out hundreds of pounds to eat superb food in Lyon. The best meal we had was at a simple 'neo-bistro', called Le 126 in an uneventful part of town. This tiny hole in the wall is run by 20-something chef Mathieu Rostaing-Tayard, who offers a scrawled blackboard list of four dishes for less than £30 a head.

The other great thing about Lyon is the quality of the food markets. Those along the river banks have dozens of small stalls selling local sausages, cheeses, mushrooms and seasonal produce.

Just as interesting is the purpose-built wholesale market, called Les Halles de Lyon - Paul Bocuse, in honour of the great octogenarian chef who still owns the three-star Michelin restaurant that bears his name.

My favourite discovery was an extraordinary bar in the Old Town, called 'Georges Five' in honour of the British monarch. This rowdy place is a hangout for off-duty chefs and wine waiters and doesn't come alive until midnight.


Take a seat: Fourviere hill is home to the remains of the original Roman city


Stacked with a collection of great-value rare wines, there is also a large simple bistro out the back, which was in full swing when we were there. Even the bar snacks were top-notch. It also has an award-winning wine shop down the street called Antic Wine, with a 'rocking pig' complete with saddle for any passing children.

This is the other reason for taking the effortless Eurostar, rather than a budget flight - there is no penalty for being overweight and perhaps more importantly, from carrying your bottles back home.


Travel Facts
Eurostar (08432 186 186, www.eurostar.com) tickets to Lyon, with a connection in Lille or Paris, cost from £109 return. The Radisson Blu hotel has double rooms from £121 - 00 33 478 63 55 00, www.radissonblu.com.


source: dailymail

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By JO TWEEDY

Natural highs: The fantastical Tiede National Park welcomes three million visitors every year


This time, though, it was going to be different. And as soon as the taxi driver put on some jaunty Spanish music and pelted away from the airport, going north, not stopping to pull his foot from the floor anywhere near the resorts in the island's south west, I had a good feeling.

As love affairs go, my relationship with Tenerife has been a slow-burner.

My first date with the largest of the Canary Islands came at the tender age of 18 when I spent two weeks basking in the glow of neon lights in notorious party town Playa de las Americas. I imbibed cocktails the colours of squashed frog, ate fast food, and deposited myself back on the doorstep of the family home looking peaky.

Later, a couple of work trips showcased a cruise ship, a conference centre and little else.

So far, so tepid. I had been to Tenerife - but never been to Tenerife.

And then came the banana fields. A sea of green flags swaying in the breeze, sectioned like paddy fields into staggered terraces, their plump, yellowing fruit fattening under the winter sun. It was my first clue that there is more to Tenerife than foam parties and frogtails.

You don't need to look too far to see what is responsible for the fertile soil. From almost all of the north, and a fair proportion of the south, El Tiede, Tenerife's active volcano, makes a sizeable dent in the inland panoramic.

The highest elevation in Spain, it dominates an island that is shaped roughly like one of the brawny legs of ham that hang in the north's tapas bars. And like el puerco, Tenerife has been carved into the choicest cuts. Tinerfeños have kept the lush, sloping foothills of the north to themselves and gifted the dry, arid plains - Wild-West-beautiful, but tarnished by mass development - of the south to tourism. It is a division of landmass that has served the island well. The locals' reward is a hefty slice of the European flop-and-drop industry, that brings some five million holidaymakers here annually.


Lodged between mountain and sea, the cities, towns and villages of Tenerife's north coast feel almost exclusively Spanish


In the soulless pocket of mini-England I called home for two weeks back in the mid-Nineties, the hotel-o-meter seemed to oscillate from downright-grotty to clean-but-unremarkable. Not so in 2011. The luxury developers have clearly been shovelling the volcanic soil as if their lives depend on it, and exclusive properties are now very much a part of the accommodation landscape.

What brought them here? Tenerife's most bankable asset...the weather. On an island pitched 300km from the coast of Africa, the average temperature is 22 degrees. In winter, the skies are clear, the sun high and hot. The trade winds caress. Nothing bites. You don’t sweat just walking around. You can sleep at night. It is the nicest climate I’ve encountered - summer or winter - in a decade of writing about travel, and it only took 3 hours and 40 minutes to get there.

Somewhere amid those banana fields on the west coast lies one of the new breed of hotels. Built in 2008 in the village of Alcalá, the Gran Melia Palacio de Isora is a vast, self-contained holiday village which counts almost 600 rooms, six restaurants, four pools and a spa and gym among its tourist-wooing credentials. Facing the smallest Canary Island, La Gomera, the resort serves up the kind of sea views (if not from all of the rooms, then certainly from the pool areas) that make you strike up conversations about 'moving to the coast...shall we?...one day?'.

In May last year, Thomson joined owners Sol Melia to offer the resort to the UK market on an all-inclusive basis. Five-star, it is a natural fit with the holiday goliath's luxury Sensatori brand. The hotel has been a roaring success with Thomson guests, especially with families who don't want to compromise on luxury but want somewhere where their offspring can run free and not be on the receiving end of snooty glances from fellow guests.

The general vibe that floats around Sensatori is Ibiza-lite. Couples recline on white leather daybeds, statement Swarovski chandeliers glint in the lobby, and when the sun begins its nightly descent, a DJ plays Café del Mar-style tunes. Pale English skins and under-fives may not seem the most natural combination, but the size of the hotel means that everyone rubs along nicely. An adult-only pool and sun-bathing lawn ensure that those who want to fade out the soundtrack of family chatter can easily do so.


Stacks of volcanic rock, moulded by the weather, teeter precariously around Tiede. Right, Jo catches the sun - and the wind - at a scenic spot in the volcano's foothills


The real test with resorts like this comes with the food. The bold offer of six restaurants turns out not to be quite true for all-inclusive guests. Two of them - including Calima, overseen by Spanish superchef Dani García - you must pay for. Of the remaining four, only one, Pangea, doesn't require a reservation to dine at night. During our four-night stay, I try to reserve one of the other restaurants every day...always to no avail. So, like the majority of other guests, we spend most evenings enjoying the culinary kaleidoscope of buffet-style dining. That said, you'd have to be very, very picky to not like something on offer. Chicken shish kebab anyone? A plate piled high with meatballs? Cuttlefish cooked to order?

By day three, though, it all feels too familiar. And while you can't fault Pangea in context, we are left craving something a little less inclusive. A quick 15-minute hop on the bus up the road to Los Gigantes - a small, quiet resort with a pretty harbour that is book-ended by chocolate-brown cliffs - suddenly feels like an exotic excursion. A mini-cauldron of paella, laden with hunks of fresh fish and slow-cooked chicken, proves a fitting antidote to any self-service tedium that may have crept in.

With a car, the hotel's west-coast location is a gift to easy exploration - you are a banana's throw from the Tiede National Park - which, in 2010, was the most visited in Europe and spans almost 19,000 hectares.

As soon as you deviate from the coast, you are already in the foothills of El Tiede.

Stay in low gear and you wind through hills where black, nutrient-rich soil nurtures up to 140 different species of plant. Up higher, the landscape is suddenly alpine, the cacti giving way to pine trees.

Approaching the gods at 2,000 metres, Tiede's snow-dusted crater comes into full view and the impact of hundreds of years of eruptions - the most catastrophic in 1798 - is laid out before you. A smooth tarmac road loops around the peak through vast, desolate expanses of 'aa', the Hawaiian name given to the type of lava that solidifies into a spiky, churned landscape that is the colour of charcoal. It makes your feet hurt just looking at it. A few miles on, the baked black makes way for red, and you're transported to what feels like America's Navajo country.

It is a desperate shame that many tourists never experience this awe-inspiring manifestation of Mother Nature's theatricals. If you have a whole day to dedicate, there is a cable car that trundles up to the summit, which stands at 3,178m.


Expect contemporary rooms and all-you-can-eat buffets at the vast Thomson Sensatori Tenerife resort in the west coast town of Alcalá


Coiling down the mountain roads in a northerly direction, you eventually come to Tenerife's capitals, one erstwhile, one new. They are just 9km apart - but culturally, there are centuries wedged between them. Current capital Santa Cruz is the 21st century face of the island, a cosmopolitan port city bristling with high street fashions and trendy bars. Just 5km north of it lies one of the island's best beaches, Las Teresitas, made golden with imported Sahara grains.

Old capital San Cristóbal de La Laguna - or just La Laguna - was made a UNESCO city in 1999. It was the first non-fortified Spanish colonial town, and its streets were used as an architectural blueprint for the fledgling towns in the Americas. Today, it is Tenerife's cultural outpost with some 30,000 students residing in the city.

Make sure to visit its core La Concepción, the towering early 16th century church around which much of La Laguna's colourful houses sprung up.


Short haul sunshine, long haul swimming: The resort's saltwater infinity pool is the longest in Europe


The city lit the touchpaper for similar easy-on-the-eye construction around the north-west coast. Towns and villages melt into the hills, offering rousing views of sea and mountain with the merest swivel of the neck.

The historic town of La Orotava hangs indolently in the verdant valley between volcano and ocean, and perhaps harbours the biggest visual thrills.

A 30-minute drive south and you come to Garachio. This former fishing port was almost obliterated by the 1798 eruption, but the the boiling lava which flowed through the town, eventually stilled by the Atlantic, hardened into what are now a beguiling cluster of rockpools, some shallow, some deep.

Tenerife bears the scars of over-zealous development and its reputation as a package holiday destination is unlikely to be changed. But don't dismiss this isle if you are looking for an out-of-season getaway with substance. Point your compass north and there are few destinations this side of an eight-hour flight that can match it.


Travel Facts
Thomson (0871 231 5595; www.thomson.co.uk) offers seven night holidays at the 5T+ Sensatori Resort in Guia De Isora on a full-board-plus basis, from £769 based on two people sharing – a saving £260 per person. Departing on 26 April 2011 from London Gatwick airport, this price includes return flights, accommodation, transfers and all taxes and charges.

For more information on holidays to Tenerife, visit www.webtenerifeuk.co.uk


source: dailymail

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By MARK PALMER

Stunning beaches: Tangalla's tree-lined beach


The problem with Galle is that it’s so far away. If this wonderfully atmospheric city was a mere four-hour flight from Britain then it would be the perfect, sizzling hot-spot for hedonistic long weekends.

In fact, it’s close to 11 hours by plane from London, plus another four hair-raising hours in a car. Which means you need to build Galle into a wider Sri Lanka adventure or combine it with a few days of flopping on one of the outstanding beaches to the west or east of the city. We opted for the latter - with triumphant results.

Galle is like the perfect Sri Lankan curry: colourful, spicy, full of flavour and remarkably good for you. Its fort is a walled town within a town, built by the Portugese in the 16th century, which fell to the Dutch after a four-day siege in 1640 and was then taken (without a shot being fired) by the British in 1796. The huge ramparts have repelled all kinds of intruders over the years, not least the rampaging tsunami on Boxing Day 2004 that miraculously failed to breach the old city’s defences - although some 3,000 people lost their lives on the other side of the walls.

The best place to stay (although far from the cheapest) is the Amangalla hotel, occupying a 1684 building of such stature that even the most vehement critics of the excesses of Empire will go wobbly at the knees as they pull up a planter’s chair on the airy veranda and order a mango Bellini.

Rooms are exquisite, the food sensational and the staff, in their flowing robes, glide around as if in a state of higher consciousness. The manager is an engaging Englishwoman with a forensic eye for detail, who is also brilliant at helping you get the most from your stay.


Grandeur: Amangalla hotel stands proud in Galle


"I will have a member of staff take you on a walking tour so you can get your eye in,” she told us after breakfast on our first morning. So off we went, stopping briefly at the magnificent Dutch Reform Church, then the more rustic Anglican place of worship, All Saints Church. Then on to the relatively new Maritime Museum; the British gunpowder store near the Lighthouse and Flag Rock, from where daredevil 'fort jumpers' hurl themselves from a terrifying height into absurdly shallow water.

In between, it was obvious that my wife took 'getting your eye in' to mean working out where she would later return for a shopping frenzy, returning to the hotel laden with enough antiques and alleged presents for nephews and nieces that we needed to buy a new hold-all before heading out of town.

Before you leave, you must book in for lunch or dinner at Kahanda Kanda, a former tea plantation overlooking Kogalla Lake, which George Cooper - an English interior designer who moved here lock, stock and upholstered barrel a few years ago - has converted into a sumptuous five-room hotel. We went for lunch, having arranged for bicycles to be on hand afterwards so we could peddle back to the coast via paddy fields, dusty tracks and leafy lanes.

Amangalla will sort out all the logistics, including a guide on his own bike, who arranges for the ride to end at a hippy-dippy beach bar called Wijaya, where you can swim to cool down and drink to liven up as the sun dips behind the Indian Ocean.

Another terrific spot at sunset is the Lighthouse Hotel, on the western outskirts of the city, where the sea pounds angrily against the rocks. This was one of the last projects of the late Geoffrey Bawa, the Cambridge-educated high priest of Sri Lankan architecture, who is so loved that he’s almost regarded as the father of the nation.


Southern history: Lighthouse, Mosque and the Dutch Fort at Galle


Galle is ideal for exploring the beaches along this stretch of coast. Stay a couple of nights at Amanwella (a sister hotel to Amangalla) a mile or so to the west of the little harbour town of Tangalle. Actually, stay a week or more if possible, because there can be no prettier beach in the world.

Amanwella was designed by Kerry Hill, an Australian architect with whom Adrian Zecha, the founder of the Aman group, has cooperated to brilliant effect in projects around the world. Hill has described Amanwella as his tribute to Geoffrey Bawa. And what a tribute.

Opening in 2005, it has been called 'minimal Modernism' and I’m convinced that even Prince Charles would be cheering from the timber rafters if he ever came to call.

Amanwella sits unpretensiously on a vast moon-shaped beach, its low-lying buildings blending effortlessly into the lush natural environment.


Luxurious minimalism: Dine at Amanwella hotel


At the entrance there is nothing except a half-cylindrical lectern - but even this has nothing on it. Presumably, there must be computers, telephones and other paraphernalia hidden somewhere, but just as you would not want to see such detritus in a church, you don’t find it here either.

The dining room and bar are perfectly symmetrical and the view from the pool terrace across the vast bay towards the opposite headland and beyond is pinch-yourself glorious. The guest suites - all with their own little pools and wide balconies - are spread out within a coconut grove, which rises steeply from the back of the beach.

Staff are unfailingly cheerful and helpful. There is not a lot to do, although we enjoyed our tuck-tuck ride into town, escorted by one of the beach boys, who proudly showed us the market and the beach where young and old congregate and where the tsunami left a deadly trail of despair.

On the way back to Colombo airport we paid our own tribute to Bawa by booking in for lunch at his former home, Lunuganga, inland of the Bentota River, about 90 minutes from Galle.

It was a highlight of our trip and should, somehow, be incorporated into any visit to Sri Lanka.

Bawa bought a small bungalow and 25 acres here in 1948, slowly transforming the site into a graceful and tranquil home and garden that provides a powerful insight into the man’s expertise.

Nothing grates: the outside and the inside work together brilliantly. There are spectacular vistas at every turn, such as that over Cinnamon Hill and across Dedduwa Lake. A guide will show you the table where Bawa took breakfast and where he loved to eat lunch. There are statues, follies, rare trees and shrubs, simple furniture and cosy chandeliers. Bawa may have been a modernist but he was also the king of shabby chic. As one entry in the visitor's book puts it: 'This is the place you cannot find.'


Tranquil: Outstanding beaches line the southern tip of Sri Lanka


Lunuganga is run by the Geoffrey Bawa Trust and you can stay here for as little as £100. We only had time for an exquisite curry on the terrace where Bawa entertained the great and the good - and near where his body was cremated.

We left Lunuganga with a heavy heart because it meant our next stop was the airport. Southern Sri Lanka had made a bigger impression on us than we had ever expected. Yes, it’s hundreds of miles away - but worth the effort hundreds of times over.


Travel facts

Stay three nights at Amangalla and four nights at Amanwella from £1,985pp, including return flights from London Heathrow, complimentary breakfast and private transfers. Save £310 per couple (0161 492 1355, www.carrier.co.uk).


source: dailymail

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Tags: beaches, Sri Lanka, Travel Guide

By ANGELA JONES

Tea for two: Enjoy an ear clean while your sip on your drink


This was the strangest cup of tea I had ever had. We were in a Chinese teahouse when a woman approached our table carrying a tiny spoon, a slim wire brush and what appeared to be a piano tuning fork.

Our guide explained she was an ear-cleaner and for £2 she would give ours a good scouring - standard practise in the dozens of teahouses in Chengdu, the capital of China's Sichuan province.

We chose Shuxin Ancient Teahouse, a place that perfectly captures the juxtaposition of the old and new. Walking through the doors was like visiting another era, as beautifully dressed waitresses floated serenely across a darkened, wood-clad room.

Chengdu provides the perfect hub from which to explore southern China. Viewed from the 18th floor of our luxurious hotel, it appeared like any modern Western city, with expensive cars thronging its broad thoroughfares. At night, when the skyscrapers were bathed in a spectacular neon light, we might have been in New York.

But at street level, the differences between West and East came sharply into focus.
For all the wealth of its entrepreneurs, most people still ride to work on bicycles, and it is not unusual to see an old rickshaw - though these days they are not pulled by hand, but tugged by a moped.

Behind the busy new shopping streets and office blocks, there are trinkets, too. Try places such as Jinli street (reminiscent of Convent Garden in London, but more authentic), with arts and crafts shops where you can buy beautiful brocade and embroidery, lacquerware, bamboo handiwork, herbs, medicines and, of course, teas.

Forget everything you've learned about Sichuan cuisine from Chinese takeaways - the real thing, performed at the food stalls on Jinli street, is entirely different. it's much spicier and almost always contains very hot chillies.

From spring rolls to squid kebabs and huge, tasty ribs to fat, slithery noodles, it's all delicious, and just £1 a carton. Quite often, dishes are sold for their purported health benefits. Chicken feet and snake wine are supposedly good for arthritis, for example.


Rice view: Terraced rice paddies in Sichuan province


Nowhere in Chengdu are the ancient and modern more beautifully paired than in the Jinsha Site Museum. In 2001, construction workers were digging a ditch for a sewage system when they unearthed figures made from old stone, bronze, ivory and jade - and realised they had stumbled upon an incredible lost kingdom, 3,000 years old.

Archaeologists have since uncovered the foundations to entire buildings and thousands of once-common artefacts and items used in ritual burials. Now a superbly designed museum has been built to display them and English- speaking guides are available.

A couple of hours drive out of the city, we visited Qingcheng Mountain, one of the birthplaces of Taoism. it's well worth a visit - but wear comfortable shoes, and only attempt it if your lungs are in good working order.

To reach the pinnacle, some 4,000ft up in the clouds, you must climb thousands of steps in stifling humidity.

But the trek takes you through magical temples, and the vista from the mountain is everything you imagine the real China to be.

The curling pagodas, the tinkling of the monks' bells calling their guests to dinner, the lushness of the greenery of the gnarled ancient trees - one an incredible 18,000 years old and carefully protected - provide such tranquillity that you soon forget your exhaustion.


Tea time: A panda breeding and research base is located in Sichuan


Chengdu's greatest tourist attraction is its giant panda breeding and research base. We were there in prime breeding season and were lucky enough to see a one-week-old panda in the nursery.

For an evening's entertainment, nothing beats the visual delights of the Sichuan Opera. This isn't opera in the classical sense, but more of a variety show, with fleet-footed dancers, daring swordfighters, comic fire-eaters and a virtuoso who played the erhu, a kind of Chinese violin.

The best part was the 'changing faces' performance where a story was played out by masked mime players who switched the colour and pattern of their disguise to suit each scene. Their masks changed in the flick of an eye - we are still trying to fathom how they did it.

These were extraordinary, and perhaps some of the friendliest and most courteous, people we have encountered on our travels.

China is one of the few countries where tipping is not part of the culture, which made the smiles and handshakes all the more genuine.

For an introduction to the mysteries, ancient and modern, of this fascinating country, we couldn't have chosen a better spot than Chengdu. We left with opened minds and relaxed bodies - and, in my husband's case, a far keener sense of hearing.


Travel Facts
Air China from £817 return (www.airchina.com). Stay at the Crowne Plaza in Chengdu's city centre from £466 for five nights including breakfast (0871 423 4876, www.crowneplaza.com).


source: dailymail

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By PAUL GOGARTY

Mekong River: North Thailand is now easily accessible and provides the country's most intimate and authentic experiences - as well as having some fabulous hotels


Fireworks flare and traditional fire lanterns drift skywards as we exit Chiang Mai airport to witness the tail end of the Loy Krathong Festival.

Minutes later, as our mini bus chases tuk-tuks past the crumbling old city walls, a seasoned traveller to northern Thailand points to the smoke billowing over the roadside food stalls and knowingly declares, ‘If Bangkok is rock and roll, the North is the blues - laid-back and authentic.’

The following morning I wake at the Four Seasons Chang Mai to songbirds and water tumbling past my private loggia to the lake where a few early-bird guests are opening themselves like lotus flowers with a yoga session on a floating pavilion.

I however, have a Cook Thai course booked and trade yogic calm for the frenetic pace of the sprawling Tanin food market where the hotel’s sous-chef gives me and five other students a crash course on the bewildering local produce.

Once a little more knowledgeable regarding the ingredients that make up one of the world’s great cuisines, we speed back to the hotel kitchen to pound the exotic herbs and spices with a pestle and mortar.

Just twenty minutes later, with a fair amount of support from the chef, we transform that alien market produce into a pretty sensational spicy sliced beef salad and noodle curry (a northern Thai dish that’s a lot more exciting than it sounds).


The daily grind: Paul Gogarty learns how to pound those exotic spices before using them to make a traditional Thai dish in his cookery class


With such a feast at lunch it makes sense to progress onto an equally decadent pastime in the afternoon, massage. No, not receiving one, but learning how to give one.

I take part in an introductory Learn Thai Massage session at the Lila Thai Massage parlour, where all the masseuse are former inmates of the Chang Mai Women’s Prison.

The owner - who was also the director of the prison for 42 years - now concerns herself with rehabilitation rather than incarceration, running two centres with her daughter and employing 25 staff who all share in the profits generated.

Two hours of instruction and total incompetence later, I feel like I should be given a health warning rather than a certificate - I don’t think I’ve ever felt so irredeemably hopeless at anything.


Beware of trainee mahouts: Paul puts an elephant through its paces...or should that be the other way round?


Armed with some (dubious) new skills, I depart Chiang Mai to head further north, right in to the heart of the Golden Triangle, and stay at the aptly named Anantara Golden Triangle Resort.

From my balcony I can see an orderly column of elephants heading through the bush to the Ruak river to wash off the dust of the day.

On the opposite bank a red building consisting of 13 interconnecting tiled roofs rises in Burma. Half a mile beyond it is the fast flowing muddy Mekong and beyond it, Laos. This is the unique area where the two rivers and three countries meet.

Fifty years ago when Thailand was still Siam it was the most impossibly exotic place on earth. Now it’s our favourite long haul destination and yet for some reason the vast majority of those booking Thai packages tend to ignore the Golden Triangle despite the fact it’s where the country has best preserved its traditions.

For centuries the Golden Triangle’s shroud of mystery was as thick as its early morning mists and it remained inaccessible to all but longtail boats and elephant convoys tramping through the dense jungle.This inaccessibility also provided the perfect cover for the notorious poppy harvests that fed the world’s drug trade.

Opposite the Anantara is the hugely impressive interactive Hall of Opium museum which charts the dark trade that local tribes relied on until recent times when a Royal Project was initiated by the King’s mother and led to the razing of the poppy fields that covered the area and the establishment of fruit, vegetable, rubber, tea and coffee cash crops.

While former convicts were being rehabilitated, the fields healed and local tribes were given new livelihoods. The museum now provides essential education for school parties on the dangers of drug addiction.


Water view! The pool at Anantara looks out to Laos and Burma while the terrace bathtubs at the award-winning Four Seasons (right) look out onto beautiful greenery


On the road back from the museum to the resort, I notice a sign warning drivers to beware of trainee mahouts riding elephants. Soon - having learned three different ways to mount and dismount an elephant and a few essential words such as Pai (forward), Bain (turn) and How (stop) - I am one of those trainee mahouts gallumphing down to the river for a dip with our charges.

As our six elephants submerge themselves (and us up to our chests) and spray each other, us novice mahouts try manfully to concentrate - between howls of laughter – on remaining perched like hats on the elephants’ heads.

My mahout skills are further honed following an exciting longboat ride up river to our final base, the Four Seasons Tented Camp which for the last three years has deservedly won the Conde Nast Traveller’s Best Worldwide Resort award despite having only 14 exquisite ‘tented’ rooms (think Rajah’s pavilion rather than pop up tent).

Located just a slingshot from the Anantara and with even more incomparable views, the resort is supremely stylish, and almost impossible to leave. It just goes to show, you don't need to rough it to enjoy an off-the-beaten-track adventure.

On our final evening, suddenly and inexplicably an endless flotilla of floating candles drift downstream past the camp as more drum-shaped fire lanterns soar heavenwards. No opium high could create a more perfect vision.

Travel Facts
Bridge & Wickers (020 7483 6555; www.bridgeandwickers.co.uk) features three nights (room only) at the Four Seasons Chiang Mai, two nights (B&B) at the Anantara Golden Triangle and two nights at the Four Seasons Tented Camp, (inclusive of all meals, drinks, a spa treatment and activities including elephant training).

The holiday costs from £3,989 pp based on two sharing including return flights with Thai Airways from London to Chiang Mai and home from Chiang Rai, with private transfers from Chiang Mai to the Anantara.

Alternatively, without the Tented Camp, three nights at the Four Seasons Chiang Mai and three nights at the Anantara Golden Triangle with private transfers and return flights from London with Thai Airways costs from £1,795pp.


source: dailymail

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Eastern adventure: Tom and his girlfriend Emma board the Orient Express


Trainspotters in Eastern Europe, I can now say with some certainty, look just the same as the ones back home. Overnight we had rattled and creaked into Poland from the Czech Republic in our beautiful old Art Deco Wagon-Lit carriages, passing through dark forests that seemed to go on for ever.

We had started our unusual Orient-Express journey in busy, touristy Venice, but there we were the next morning, a long way from the canals and gondolas, blinking at the contrast as we rolled slowly past Zywiec.

A rust-coloured train was waiting at a platform covered with weeds. Walls by the ticket office were covered with indecipherable graffiti. The sun beat down (Eastern Europe was in the midst of a heatwave). And then we saw them - the trainspotters.

A scraggly haired fellow with a giant belly and an old baseball cap was holding up a camera and taking snaps. Next to him, a skinny man wearing black socks and sandals was squinting through old spectacles, capturing the train with a video camera. Another with a sleeveless jacket with pockets was scribbling in a notebook.

They smiled and waved, and we smiled and waved back - sitting at our little breakfast table in our tiny compartment, eating croissants and rolls, with cups of fresh coffee at a table with purple flowers in a silver vase.

It was a bizarre scene. It was also typical of the friendly reception the Orient-Express received as we moved deeper into Eastern Europe.

Locals, tipped off to the arrival of our shiny, navy-blue carriages, were waiting at platforms all the way. We were almost cheered past in places, especially as we moved on from our stop in Krakow towards Dresden - the first time the Orient-Express has ventured into the city that suffered such heavy bombing in the Second World War.

From Dresden we were travelling onwards, via a mini-stop in Paris, to Calais and buses into the Channel Tunnel to Folkestone, where another Orient-Express train was waiting to transport us to Victoria Station. The journey consisted of one night on the train, two in Krakow (at a plush Sheraton), another night on the train, two in Dresden (in an even plusher Kempinski), one more on the train, before returning home. Quite an adventure: it made London-to-Venice or Paris-to-Istanbul seem passé - we were travelling into the Orient-Express unknown.

So, via the Dolomites and long tunnels when the lights flickered (and we thought of Agatha Christie), Austria and the Czech Republic, we reached Poland. Along the way we dined on foie gras, fillet of beef marinated in dill and juniper berries, and dark chocolate cake ‘with Italian lemon zests’.


Former bordello: Tom's Art Deco Wagon-Lit compartment


We were dressed formally - a tie and suit for me (some wore black tie), a smart dress for my girlfriend Emma - as we listened to a tinkling piano. There were three dining carriages (each restored to Art Deco glory) as well as six sleeping carriages, all beautifully maintained. Ours dated from 1929. The mahogany panelled rooms were designed by Rene Prou – considered a master in this area. A sign also said that the compartment had been ‘used as a brothel in Limoges 1940-45’.

Our compartment had a funny sink in a cabinet in a corner. There was a bench-seat converted into bunks by a steward while you had your evening meal. There was a mini-fan in a corner, helping with the heat. But it was still pretty hot.

An American woman commented wryly: ‘Staying here is cheaper than a divorce.’ There was also no shower room – ‘This is authentic,’ explained the train manager, Bruno Janssens. Regarding the heat, he added: ‘We’re thinking of bringing in air-conditioning.’

In Krakow, we stayed by the Vistula river overlooking the 14th Century Wawel Castle. Krakow is easy to walk around, with a pretty old town encircled by a park renowned as a lovers’ promenade. We climbed the hill to the castle and took in the strange shoebox-like tourist boats on the river below and bathers on the small beach opposite. We walked on, passing a shopping mall selling every brand under the sun (Eastern Europe has come a long way since 1989) and had a coffee in the huge central square, where stalls had T-shirts bearing the slogan: ‘CK: City of Krakow.’

Then we went to Auschwitz. You can’t help wondering whether it is appropriate, having travelled in our sybaritic train on the very same tracks used by Hitler’s Holocaust wagons. But it would be wrong to visit this part of Poland without spending some time at this monument to man’s inhumanity.

We passed under the chilling sign that says Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Makes You Free) and entered the harrowing rows of red-brick compounds, overlooked by watchtowers and surrounded by barbed wire.

We saw pictures of inmates sentenced to death. We took in a courtyard where executions were performed against a brick wall. We visited the terrifying gas chambers, where a sign said: ‘Please maintain silence here: remember their suffering and show respect for their memory.’ A display explained that more than a million people died in Auschwitz and neighbouring Birkenau.

It gave us a lot to think about when we returned to the Orient-Express that night.


Masterpiece: The Zwinger in Dresden has an amazing art collection


We journeyed on to Dresden, passing great factories and Soviet-era housing blocks in the outskirts of the former East German city. There was music and dancing at the station before we were whisked to the Kempinski, a former palace built for a mistress of Augustus the Strong, who ruled Saxony from 1670 to 1733.

The hotel was rebuilt after being bombed in February 1945, and is next to the Royal Palace. We were soon being shown round the grounds of the Zwinger, another palace with a fabulous collection of Augustus’s porcelain and a gallery full of works by Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt and Vermeer.

Augustus, we learned, spent a fortune gained from mining silver near Dresden on his beloved art. Stalin had taken much of it to Russia, but it was returned by Khrushchev, who felt the works belonged in the city.

We were shown the marvellous domed Church of Our Lady, also destroyed during the war but rebuilt five years ago. Our guide said: ‘This is a symbol. I was five years old when this was destroyed. Now it is back, it feels as though the city is living again.’

Later, we visited a Volkswagen factory and the botanical gardens. Then we rejoined our train for the slow ride back via Paris to Calais – passing Eastern European trainspotters again on the way.

As we did so, the words of our guide came back to me: ‘For many years, living here was like living in a prison. Now we are free to go where we like. Now we can welcome the Orient-Express.’

With the piano playing in the dining car, we chugged out of Dresden on our very different (and extremely memorable) journey.

Travel facts
Orient-Express (0845 077 2222, www.orient-express.com) offers a seven-day Venice/Krakow/Dresden/London journey from £4,850pp including a cabin suite on the train with full-board, two nights at the Sheraton Hotel in Krakow and two nights in the Taschenbergerpalais Kempinski Hotel in Dresden, a special dinner in Krakow and excursions. It can also arrange flights to Venice, two nights’ accommodation and transfers from £475.

source: dailymail

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By CATHERINE EADE

Top dog: Canada has topped the global poll for the last five years
It has topped the list every year since 2007.


Vancouver has been named the world's 'most liveable' city for the fifth year running.

Melbourne came in second place in the annual survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit, with Vienna third, Toronto fourth and Calgary fifth.

Seven of the top ten cities come from Australia and Canada.

Perched on the west coast of Canada, Vancouver hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics. It scored 98 per cent on a combination of stability, health care, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

'Vancouver remains at the top of the ranking, a position that can only have been cemented by the successful hosting of the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, which provided a boost to the infrastructure and culture and environment categories,' the report summary said.

'Only petty crime presents any difficulties for Vancouver, although this would be a shortfall of any such location,' it said.

London moved up one place to 53rd while Paris came in at number 16.

Pittsburgh was the top US city with 29th place -- just ahead of Honolulu -- while Los Angeles moved up three places to 44th and New York held onto 56th spot.


Better than London or New York: The Japanese city of Osaka is the top-ranked Asian city in 29th place


The top Asian city was the Japanese city of Osaka at number 12, tying with Geneva, and beating the Japanese capital of Tokyo, which was placed 18th.

Hong Kong came in at 31, while Beijing, capital of the world's most populous nation and the second biggest economy, made a poor showing at number 72.

At the other end of the list, African and Asian nations subsumed in political turmoil, poverty and war made up the bottom of the survey's rankings.

'Conflict is responsible for many of the poorest performing scores,' the report said, pointing to issues such as violence, crime, civil insurgency and war.

There was also little change at the bottom, with Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, once again claiming the worst position.

The Economist Intelligence Unit survey ranks cities based on 30 factors including healthcare, culture and environment, and education and personal safety.

'Mid-sized cities in developed countries with relatively low population densities tend to score well by having all the cultural and infrastructural benefits on offer with fewer problems related to crime or congestion,' said Jon Copestake, editor of the report.





source: dailymail

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By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Stunning: Coral reefs like Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia could be wiped out by 2050, researchers have warned



They are the oceanic outcrops that attract tourists in their thousands, natural wonderlands where scuba divers can mingle with life below the surface.

But new research suggests that many of the planet's coral reefs could be obliterated by 2050 due to pollution, climate change and over-fishing.

Reefs across the planet - from the Indian Ocean to Australia, and the in Caribbean - are at 'dire risk' of being wiped out, researchers have warned.


Underwater: Pollution, climate change and overfishing have been blamed in the report for damaging coral reefs


The threat has emerged in the report 'Reefs at Risk', put together by the World Resources Institute in Washington and 25 other organisations.

'Mounting pressures on land, along the coast and in the water converge in a perfect storm of threats to reefs,' says Jane Lubchenco, administrator at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.


At risk: Countries that depend on the reefs for food and income from activities such as diving could be severely affected by the changes


'Since the last 'Reefs at Risk' report ... threats have gone from worrisome to dire.
'It's pretty clear that reducing greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide, is absolutely necessary if we want any hope of preventing a lot of the dire situations that are presented in the report.'

Warmer seas caused by global warming; ocean acidification blamed on carbon dioxide pollution; shipping, overfishing, coastal development and agricultural run-off all pose a threat to coral reefs, says the report.

The last study, released in 1998, found nearly 60 percent of coral reefs were threatened by human activity.


Protected species: Over fishing is another factor that has damaged coral reefs in more than 100 countries around the world


More than 500 million people around the world depend on coral reefs for food and income; the report estimated coral reefs provide £18billion a year in benefits.

The carbon dioxide emissions that fuel climate change also contribute to making oceans more acidic, which impedes coral formation. In addition, warmer sea surface temperatures cause damaging coral bleaching, the report said.

Local pressures include over-fishing, destructive fishing methods such as explosives or poison, pollution from farm chemical run-off, unchecked coastal development, ships that drag anchors and chains across the reefs and unsustainable tourism.


Damaged: Rubbish is left on Kailua Beach, Hawaii where precious corals have been crunched by reef-hopping snorkellers


If these threats don't change, more than 90 percent of reefs will be at risk by 2030 and nearly all reefs will be at risk by 2050, the researchers found.

More than 275 million people live within 18 miles of coral reefs. In more than 100 countries, coral reefs protect over 93,000 miles of shorelines.

The report identified 27 nations - most in the Caribbean, the Pacific and the Indian oceans - that are socially and economically vulnerable if coral reefs are degraded or lost.

Among those 27, the nine most vulnerable are Comoros, Fiji, Grenada, Haiti, Indonesia, Kiribati, Philippines, Tanzania and Vanuatu.

Local efforts to curb over-fishing and protect reefs are a known part of the solution, while limiting climate-warming emissions is more challenging, the advocates said.

The report's lead author Lauretta Burke says the situation is 'a perfect storm' of threats.

She explains: 'Make no mistake. This is a critical time for ocean eco-systems in general but especially for coral reefs.

'It will take a Herculean effort to rescue the current trajectory and leave a healthy eco-system to our children and grandchildren.'


source: dailymail

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Tags: reefs, Travel Guide

By MICHAEL BAILEY

Sweeping: The Landwasser Viaduct is one of Europe's great feats of rail engineering


You can understand why trains are held in such great affection by the Swiss. Until the middle of the 19th Century (when Britain provided the world with the gift of rail travel), moving from one part of Switzerland to the next was likely to be a lengthy, disagreeable business of trailing up and down vertiginous mountains.

The new age of the train heralded huge progress for Switzerland, and they've never forgotten it.

So while in other countries train lines have withered and died, I can't recall ever seeing an abandoned rail track in Switzerland. Here the railway proliferates in all its forms: from rack-and-pinion mountain crawler to lavish inter-city.

It's absolute heaven for trainspotters, who take particular pleasure in the superlative time-keeping of Swiss trains. No wrong type of snow or leaves on the line here, and never a preceding slow train to hold you up.

But you don't have to be a train nerd to be swept off your feet by the charms of Switzerland's Glacier Express - not just the most popular train ride in Switzerland but arguably the best anywhere on the planet.

Billed as 'the slowest express train in the world', the service travels between St Moritz and Zermatt, a seven-and-a-half-hour ride up into the clouds, through untouched Alpine countryside, over roaring mountain streams, past towering walls of rock. It crosses 291 bridges and chugs through 91 tunnels.

The journey's ultimate wow moment comes at the Landwasser Viaduct, near Filisur in south-east Switzerland, when the train crosses the narrow Landwasser river that runs down from Davos.


Panoramic: The Glacier Express offers a sensational view of the surrounding scenery


Whenever and wherever you travel by rail in Switzerland, you gasp in amazement at the achievements of its Victorian engineers. But the Landwasser Viaduct, opened in 1904, is particularly amazing.

Astonishingly, it took just 14 months to construct: it stands 130ft high and 426ft long and comprises six arches of dark limestone. The single track runs in a line shaped like a quarter-circle with a 324ft radius before plunging into an opening in a huge rock face and entering a 700ftlong tunnel.

The details of its construction are extraordinary. There was no large scaffolding in the traditional manner: a metal tower was built within three taller piers, each equipped with a bridge crane. The towers rose as construction proceeded upwards, until the arches could be built by putting up wooden scaffolding on them. The first and last arches are anchored by strong abutments to the rock face on either side of the gorge.

You could satisfy your Glacier Express craving in one intense day-long burst but you would be better advised to drink this rich rail cocktail down in enjoyably gentle sips.


Train holiday specialist Great Rail Journeys has created an easy-paced, eight-day Glacier Express itinerary that involves days on the train and evenings at hotels along the route. The trip includes rail travel to Switzerland from London's St Pancras International by Eurostar via Brussels and Thalys service to Cologne.

After an overnight stay in Cologne, the journey continues along the Rhine Gorge into Switzerland for three nights in Chur. The price of the holiday includes a Swiss Pass which allows you to make the scenic train journey on the Arosa Express.

You can also take the narrow-gauge Bernina Express from Chur over viaducts and bridges into the Engadine Valley before climbing even higher over the Bernina Pass to more than 7,000ft.

On day five you leave Chur on the Glacier Express narrow-gauge train to Andermatt and make your way down the Rhone Valley to Brig, where you have a three-night stay at the Hotel Victoria.

The following day is the mountain railway ride to Zermatt, a pretty, car-free alpine town overlooked by the Matterhorn.

The next day is at leisure when you can again use your Swiss Travel Pass to explore, so why not go along the Rhone Valley to Montreux, where you can enjoy a cruise on Lake Geneva, or join the GoldenPass Line panoramic train for the journey over the Golden Pass to Spiez?


In training: A rail pass will take you all around Switzerland - including to outposts such as the city of Brig


On the final day, you return home to London via Geneva where you join the direct TGV to Paris and the Eurostar back to St Pancras International.

Travel Facts
Great Rail Journeys (01904 521980, www.greatrail.com/Alps) offers an eight-day Glacier Express holiday from £978pp.


source: dailymail

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Tags: Switzerland, Travel Guide