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On WOWtraveler.net This Month Mary Gostelow’s Top 10 spectacular breakfasts in hotels and resorts around the world. Also read exclusively from the
top travel trend commentator Peter Greenberg. Here, below, are Pennyhill Park – Nairobi – Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces – Singapore – Jackson Hole WY – Paris – Berlin – Miami – Kuala Lumpur.
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Pennyhill Park
Pennyhill Park, 20 minutes from London's Heathrow Airport, is a treasure that, when found, soon becomes a favorite - England's world champion rugby foo tball team like the place so much that they live here during their four-month training session (the hotel has prepared them a top-class rugby pitch). The 231-room hotel also has an onsite golf course, and arguably the best spa in Europe, in a dedicated three-floor marble-lined building, with 21 treatment rooms and five pools, one indoor-outdoor with inbuilt hydro-massage systems. Other features include the best cigar collection in England, with pieces signed by Castro and former Formula One world champion Emerson Fittipaldi, whose own cigars are made in the Dominican Republic by Augusto Reyes (Fittpaldi has an eponymous cigar club in Miami, incidentally). Pennyhill bedrooms, a blend of tradition and the 21st century, really work. Think of wooden four posters with rainforest and side-plunge showers and easy Internet connectivity.
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Nairobi
Looking for a romantic escape? I like the sound of Giraffe Manor, a private house with five letting rooms just outside Nairobi. The 120 acre-property is to me to giraffes who are so friendly you can feed them, as well as spotting over 180 species of birds and viewing dik dik, warthogs and other animals. Apparently Mick Jagger and Brooke Shields are among those who love this place.
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Taj Hotels
Talking of wildlife, the Taj group will be expanding game lodges across India. It already has four, and now it plans up to 25 lodges in all. One of the company's partners is Conservation Corporation Africa CCA, well known for its 38 game camps in Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. More or less on the same day, incidentally, Taj announced an alliance with the Raffles group.
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Singapore
The Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore hosts an annual New World Festival of Food and Wine each August. One of this year's culinary pinnacles was dinner cooked by Sando Gamba, whom I first met when he ran Lespinasse in what is now the St Regis Washington DC - he is now chef of NoMi in the Park Hyatt Chicago. For connoisseurs, the wine highlight was a vertical tasting of Bryant Family wines, from Napa. As the moderator Richard Tobin said, this label is one of the premium from the whole of the New World. Outstanding in the tasting was the 1994, a benchmark year for California reds - Robert Parker gave this Bryant Family vintage 98/100 and it retails in the USA for about $600 a bottle. Another favorite of many in the room was the 1997, which gained an amazing 100/100 from Parker. It retails for about $750 a bottle. The entire festival was so stimulating that a few days later the hotel's general manager, director sales and marketing and executive chef Christophe Megel - who published his book Asian Tapas during the festival - came third in Singapore's triathlon relay one week later. Next New World Festival is will be August 16 - 21, 2005.The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
See other hotels in Singapore (11)
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Paris
I am inundated with vanity-published hotel books - but Grand-Hôtel Café de la Paix; two centuries of Parisian life, Eds Italiques 2004 is absolutely glorious. The story of what is now the InterContinental LeGrand-Paris is one of the best histories of Paris and its trendsetters. Do not miss it. (The hotel now has an eight-room I-Spa by Algotherm, the Deauville-based thalasso company - its wetroom uses real seawater, a bit of a challenge in the center of Paris!)
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Berlin
More on the spa side. In Berlin, the Adlon Kempinski opens its 15-room day spa. From September 1st, Chiva-Som executive chef Khun Paisarn is providing spa food and drink ideas being trialled in First cabins of British Airways on routes between Bangkok, London and New York - see this month's Top 10 on WOWtraveler.net.
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Kuala Lumpur
New hotels. Hilton International is opening some really exciting modern properties. The latest will be the Kuala Lumpur Hilton, a 35-floor glistening block towering above the new Sentral rail station, with direct link to the airport. The 510-room beauty opens September 22nd, but is booked for a conference until 25th. WOW factors include stunning views from the 33rd floor two-floor club lounge, which has its own jazz room, and, throughout the property, over 2,500 original artworks. I especially like the Innovation bedrooms, with granite and wood floors, soft moss, seaweed and grey colors, and a glass-topped desk. There is a freeform outdoor pool, spa, and a five-floor open-atrium dining court, featuring among others the father of East-West cuisine, Cheong Liew.
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On WOWtraveler.net Next Month
October 2004 Edition
Mary Gostelow's Top 10 List (WOW Top Ten):
Top 10 Activity Hotels
WOW Insider:
Bill Fischer, insider tips from New York-based unique travel professional
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