Celebrity Life

andBeyond Ngala Safari Lodge, Kruger National Park, South Africa Situated in the andBeyond Ngala Private Game Reserve in the Kruger National Park, lies andBeyond Ngala Safari Lodge, surrounded by the magical bushveld and ancient tamboti trees. This Big Five game reserve shares unfenced borders with Kruger National Park, making your animal viewing fantasies a reality. Driving […]

The post andBeyond Ngala Safari Lodge, Kruger National Park, South Africa appeared first on Upscale Living Magazine.

5 reasons why Monaco is the perfect getaway location this fall The principality of Monaco is the place to be this fall. This tiny country, nestled between the French Alps and the Mediterranean, has more high-end boutiques and millionaire residents per square mile than anywhere else in the world. In spring and summer it gets […]

The post 5 reasons why Monaco is the perfect getaway location this fall appeared first on Upscale Living Magazine.

Reprint of an article published on 9 August 2017 in Snowy River Mail Orbost Australia Heads turn as Gracie Opulanza cruises by the goose crossing in Orbost’s main drag. It’s something the fashion blogger has had to get accustomed to over the past week, as she rolls into town in the Jaguar F-Pace, a luxury […]

The post How To Be Pioneers Of Luxury Lifestyle & Fashion Blogging appeared first on Gracie Opulanza.

Italian luxury hotel Palazzo Seneca nominated as Hotel of the year by Virtuoso

Next time you plan to visit Italy you might want to schedule a stay in one of the finest luxury hotels in the world, the Palazzo Seneca. According to the luxury travel network Virtuoso, this elegant stay has every perk to be considered the 2017’s Hotel of the Year.

Continue reading Italian Palazzo Seneca Titled as 2017’s Hotel of the Year at Luxxu Blog.

From mountain landscapes to delusional fields, these are definitely outstanding places to visit on your next vacations!

If you simply can’t stay in one place more than a few months, and need to experience the beauty of another country’s culture and landscape, today is your lucky day.

Today we are feeling inspired by nature and gathered a few travel destinations that scream outdoor living in the best way possible.

Continue reading Luxury Travel: Outstanding Places to Visit At Least Once in a Lifetime at Luxxu Blog.

From mountain landscapes to delusional fields, these are definitely outstanding places to visit on your next vacations!

If you simply can’t stay in one place more than a few months, and need to experience the beauty of another country’s culture and landscape, today is your lucky day.

Today we are feeling inspired by nature and gathered a few travel destinations that scream outdoor living in the best way possible.

Continue reading Luxury Travel: Outstanding Places to Visit At Least Once in a Lifetime at Luxxu Blog.

Historically afternoon tea is a British food tradition of sitting down for an afternoon treat of tea, sandwiches, scones and cake. This year I have been asked to experience and promote High Tea throughout the globe. Whether it be London, Australia, let alone Thailand it is very clear that the demand for a High Tea experience […]

The post High Tea – More Than Just Tea And Cakes appeared first on Gracie Opulanza.

Six Senses Yao Noi requires a little extra effort to get to, but rest assured, it’s worth it.

The journey starts with a scenic 45-minute shuttle from Phuket on the resort’s speedboat, zooming through the Andaman Sea’s turquoise waters and passing majestic limestone karsts along the way. As we approached the island, staff was standing on the jetty, waving enthusiastically. A few minutes later, I was whisked away to my villa by a butler, which was tucked away in a lush garden on a hilly landscape.

The resort might not be particularly known for its beach, but stunning views of Phang Nga Bay everywhere you go on the property make up for it. In the lush gardens, rare birds can sometimes be spotted, including the endangered hornbill. Unobstructed visuals were enhanced by balmy breezes and clear blue skies, which instantly rid me of stress and restored some serenity to my mind.

The most obvious attraction here is the plush, over-sized villas, but the ultimate delight turned out to be the newly refurbished Retreat. “With premium views and expansive living spaces, the Retreat is the best experience Six Senses Yao Noi has to offer,” says Graham Grant, general manager of Six Senses Yao Noi.

I couldn’t agree more. This exceptional over-sized villa – more like two villas in one – has direct access to the beach. It also features two bedrooms, one each on upper and lower levels.

Another new feature is the Sleep with Six Senses programme. While many resorts spoil guests with exquisite bedding, not many really pay attention to the essence of sleep. Here, they worked with internationally renowned ‘Sleep Doctor’ Michael J. Breus PhD to come up with personalised programmes to help guests sleep better.

Each villa is fitted with handmade, organic pillows and duvets from Hanse’s Naturalmat line, as well as bedsheets from Beaumont & Brown and and the state-of-the-art Withings Aura Sleep Tracker. The wellness practitioner then uses data to recommend a personalised program of spa treatments and activities to improve your sleep. Guests also get a ‘Sleep Bag’ – a sleep aid kit – to boost the quality of shut-eye once back at home.

But why stop at enhancing sleep when there is a whole wellness programme at your disposal? What I love about the Six Senses brand is that it takes wellness seriously – and sensibly – with a balanced, holistic approach. The operation is sufficiently eco-friendly, too. Most of the produce used in the kitchen is locally sourced and organic. And the activities and programmes keep your healthy routine going without making it feel like you’re vacationing at a boot camp.

At Six Senses Yao Noi, I discovered wellness can go a little further, thanks to the newly introduced Six Senses Integrated Wellness, a programme designed by in-house experts. To start, they use something called “Furthermore”, an electro interstitial scan-galvanic skin system – technology that reads and rates your bodily functions and performances.

This information, along with in-depth discussions about your lifestyle and personal goals, enables the Six Senses experts to recommend a personalised and results-driven programme that includes spa treatments and fitness and wellness activities. The resort’s chefs get involved, too. As part of the programme, they create dishes for guests with foods to favour or avoid during your stay. You also walk away with health tips that you can be applied when you’re at home.

This is probably why a holiday at Six Senses always feels good. Every time I’ve stayed at a Six Senses, I’ve never returned home with the kind of post-vacation guilt that would make me scramble to the gym or join a detox programme. I left Six Senses Yao Noi feeling better than ever, knowing that a satisfying holiday could also be good and wholesome.

The post Six Senses Yao Noi balances wellness with indulgence appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

The pilots aren’t wearing shoes. That’s the first thing I notice. Dressed in shorts, sunglasses and sandals, they’re standing on a pier, ushering passengers into a 12-seat seaplane that’s gently rocking beside the runway (a “runway” here in the Maldives being an open stretch of water). Once we’ve taken our seats and the engines have been revved, I see that our pilots have discarded their already minimal choice of footwear.

No shoes, no worries.

This barefoot ethos is one of the more indelible human qualities found in the Maldives. Over the next four days, split between Anantara Kihavah and Per Aquum Niyama, I’ll feel it in everyone I meet – star-gazing gurus, surf instructors, beachcombers and buggy-driving resort staff. There are many reasons this chain of islands has become the caviar of beach holidays, I’ll discover, but they don’t all circle back to the bright blue sea or luminous white sands.

Anantara Kihavah Maldives

Our steel bird is steered into the open water, and soon it starts to take flight. Before long, we’re floating at the cloud line, peering down at some of the most intense scenery this planet has to offer. The atolls are turquoise sunspots on the water, an otherwise infinite blue carpet broken by coral rings and the lagoons they surround. We pass over thumb tacks of vegetation, slender vacant sandbars and islands with lone resorts on them, as is the custom here. As we glide down toward the runway at Kihavah (also just a flat watery expanse with a pier nearby), I’m seeing why the pilots seem to express such a carefree mien: it would pretty much be impossible to live in this country without eventually surrendering to its abundant beauty.

At Kihavah, that beauty is downright dreamlike. The resort occupies a formerly uninhabited speck of jungle and sand in the UNESCO-recognised Baa Atoll. Here, Anantara has built 79 private pool villas around the existing nature. Many of those were built over the water and take in sunrise or sunset, both of which burst and bloom like roman candles. (Note: it’s not a bad idea to enjoy nature’s fireworks display over flutes of Taittinger on your private deck.)

But even with so many villas spread across maybe five hectares of land, Kihavah feels remarkably vacant – a triumph of space, as it were.

Over glasses of champagne, GM Dylan Counsel, a down-to-earth veteran of hotel management who previously ran the show at Thailand’s Anantara Si Kao, explains the lay of the land. Kihavah is framed by coral teeming with sea life, he tells me: parrotfish, sweetlips, morays, manta rays, black-tipped reef sharks (which, for the record, aren’t dangerous). Swim out 20 metres from the beach and the sandbar drops off, leaving you in cobalt blue water facing an impressive underwater wall.

The resort offers guided snorkelling and scuba diving excursions, which Dylan urges me to try, ergo the reason I remember anything specific about Maldivian sea life. But even if you’re not inclined to swim with the fishes, you’re connected with the sea. As well as its own pool, every over-water villa has direct access to the sea. Beach villas have their own pools, too, not to mention private beach access. Bathtubs and showers, toilets even, feature glass bottoms; if you’re lucky, you may spot one of the baby sharks that feed in the reef gliding beneath you while you bathe (it’s not as weird as it sounds).

There’s over-water yoga, Ayurvedic massage in over-water rooms – more over-water opportunities than should even be possible – but the most unique water-based experience happens at Sea, Kihavah’s underwater restaurant.

I head down to Sea for lunch. The dishes, from lobster medallions to wagyu tenderloin, would stand out even in Bangkok (food for thought: Tim Butler of Eat Me has done a guest spot at Sea). As tasty as they are, they aren’t the main attraction. A few tables encased in glass, the restaurant is basically a fish tank in reverse, with swaying coral and the random movements of wild fish as entertainment. As I’m carving up my lobster, I catch sight of a large creature lurking just outside the glass. Dylan, posing in full scuba gear for guests, who scramble to take photos, is sharing a welcome message scribbled on a whiteboard. “I just decided to go for it,” he tells me later. “I thought you all might get a kick out of it.”

Not all activities happen under the sea, though. Kihavah has its very own star-gazing guru – among many other gurus – who reads the map of the night sky and reminds us all how tiny we truly are. There’s open-air cinema, bespoke “dining by design” on the sand and so many other things to do outdoors that I almost forget to work on my suntan.

Two days fly by. Suddenly, a boat is waiting to shuttle a dozen of us to a seaplane bound for Malé and, later, Niyama. Before I climb aboard, I shake hands with Dylan, my concierge and a handful of other Kihavah staff seeing us off at the pier. When the boat pulls away, they jump into the water, bobbing like buoys and waving farewell.

Per Aquum Niyama Maldives

Arriving in Niyama is like landing in another country. The resort spans two islands – dubbed “Play” and “Chill” – linked by a manmade bridge. The islands are large by Maldivian standards, about two kilometres from tip to tip, and their narrow interiors feel raw and lush, like the kind of castaway lands where Robinson Crusoe washed ashore, even if groundskeepers maintain them so meticulously that you’ll barely see a mosquito.

Unlike Kihavah, which fits the lavish “away-from-it-all-doing-nothing-at-all” mould, Niyama is ideal for travellers who prefer adventure and exploration as part of their holidays. That isn’t to say Kihavah doesn’t cater to active travellers or Niyama lacks in sublime idleness (among its facilities are a perfectly tranquil spa, 40 over-water villas ranging in size and luxuriousness and a three-bedroom, 770-square-metre beach pavilion nestled among native plants). Rather, Niyama, owing to its location in southern Dhaalu Atoll, the Maldives’ surf capital, is better suited for the adventurous.

“Every morning I take the jet-ski out to check on the surf spots, see where the waves are breaking, and then I’ll go out on the paddleboard for a while,” Zach Zocher, Niyama’s resident surf pro, tells me over sunset Coronas at reggae-themed Surf Shack at the southern tip of “Play”. Pedal your bike to the end of the road, paddle out to sea while the rest of the island sleeps, spend your day riding waves. Such is life in paradise. The list of activities here seems endless: tennis in the jungle, diving, boxing, kayaking, wakeboarding, surfing, indoor golf or football at a lavishly equipped game centre when it’s raining.

Of all the options, though, the one that gets me most excited is dolphin-watching. No, dolphin-watching doesn’t require much physical exertion, but the experience is as exhilarating as any sport on the island.

A crew of three takes a group of us out on a speedboat, and we stop near a neighbouring island where a domestic airport is under construction. Watching waves crash into shore, we soon spot about a dozen fins cutting across the water, and suddenly we’re surrounded by hundreds of dolphins racing beside the boat, doing backflips in the air, leaping out of the water – more dolphins now than I have collectively seen in my life. The crew tells us we’re lucky. “We usually see a few, but this is really quite a lot,” admits one of the boat hands.

The excitement continues on solid ground. Niyama has a dozen different ways to dine, from going underwater at Subsix or up in the trees at Nest to private experiences that include lounging under an umbrella on a deserted island or feasting aboard a dhoni (a traditional fishing boat). Dinner, for me, is at Tribal, an outdoor restaurant inspired by Sub-Saharan Africa, featuring lots of grilled seafood and game, as well as some Latin American touches.

It’s my last night, and the Tribal team is putting on show. They come out of the kitchen in a line, banging on hand drums and singing some jovial-sounding songs. Sure, it’s for another diner celebrating her birthday, but I like to think they would be singing tonight anyway. Nothing I’ve experienced in the Maldives suggests the good vibes ever end.

Travel Essentials

For travellers departing Thailand, Bangkok Airways offers daily non-stop flights to Malé from Suvarnabhumi International Airport, and daily non-stop flights in the other direction, too. For more information, visit bangkokair.com.

For reservations at Anantara Kihavah and Per Aquum Niyama, visit kihavah-maldives.anantara.com and niyama.com, respectively.

The post These resorts in the Maldives are redefining luxury travel appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

UK residents have a fortunate position on the doorstep of Continental Europe, which makes last-minute weekend breaks a breeze. As one of the finest and most culturally rich areas of the world, Europe has an array of beautiful and cosmopolitan cities that boast some of the world’s finest architecture, entertainment, and cuisine. When time is […]

The post 5 Must-Visit European Cities for a Weekend Getaway appeared first on Upscale Living Magazine.

Ventana Inn & Spa, Big Sur Destination set to reopen in the Fall of 2017 Ventana Big Sur, the celebrated California resort, perched on a hillside among redwoods overlooking California’s Central Coast, has recently announced a multi-million-dollar re-imagination for the Fall 2017 reopening. The intimate 59-room resort will introduce distinctive experiences that invite guests to […]

The post Ventana Inn & Spa, Big Sur Destination set to reopen in the Fall of 2017 appeared first on Upscale Living Magazine.

Summer is finally here! Take a look at this season’s luxury travel trends.

Unless you’re living in the Southern Hemisphere, Summer is finally back with its warm temperature, blue skies and beautiful green landscapes. And as we all know, there’s no better season to be taking a break from our stressful everyday lives.

Today at Luxxu, we thought you could use some help picking your next luxury travel destination, since there are literally so many good ones in this world.

Continue reading Summer 2017 Luxury Travel Trends You Will Want to Follow at Luxxu Blog.