Beauty Test

Country & Town House | 1 Dec 2018

Facialogy? What’s that? It’s a combo of a blissful Vaishaly Signature Facial with a relaxing, health-promoting reflexology treatment.

• Health, Beauty & Spa

Soukya: the Bangalore health retreat drawing a starry clientele — and interest from the NHS

FT Weekend | 29 Apr 2018

I am lying on a wooden massage bed as two women rub my naked body with hot pouches of cooked rice, milk and medicinal herbs. They massage in tandem my legs, hip joints and up to my neck. A little gloop escapes the poultice bags each time and soon my body is covered with a gluey white residue. This is navarakizhi, a treatment claimed to reduce joint stiffness and relieve depression.

I’m at Soukya, a health retreat outside Bangalore that offers traditional Indian cures for conditions from hay fever to diabetes and strives to “restore the natural balance of your mind, body and spirit”.

• Health, Beauty & Spa,
• Travel: Asia/ Oceania

Ash boarding in Nicaragua

The Week | 12 Dec 2015

For a country the size of England, Nicaragua has more than its fair share of volcanoes, says Caroline Phillips in The Independent.

• Travel: Americas

Short cuts

London Review of Books | 9 Oct 2014

As we stepped off the ferry onto the Aegean island of Symi in late August, our thoughts were on sunbathing and sailing. But the first thing we saw was a group of what we soon discovered were Syrians carrying small backpacks holding those few possessions they hadn’t lost during the crossing from Turkey. A week later, the number of frightened, hungry and exhausted refugees had grown substantially; when we arrived there were about fifty, now there were around two hundred. An old man with gashes on his face sat bleeding in 30° heat for ten hours waiting for a doctor. He slumped forward, seemingly drunk from dehydration. He’d hit his face against the rocks when the Greek port police fired a shot in the air. Symi is the island closest to the Turkish mainland; the same thing is happening on many other outlying islands.

• Current Affairs

Dial H for Healers

Tatler | 18 Jun 2014

Mornings were worst. I would wake with lead in my veins, a jackboot pressing on my chest and my body rigid, as if set in formaldehyde. I’d be beset by a terrible inner loneliness and desolation, paralysed with foreboding. I became destructive, self-sabotaging and impulsive, forgetting that I’m a successful, loved woman with a good life and an exciting future.

This is depression. A crippling depression that has been with me all my life. So who would have thought that the best help would come in the form of a spa therapist?

• Health, Beauty & Spa

The world’s best family hotels – Anassa, Cyprus

Condé Nast Traveller | 22 Apr 2014

Cyprus is gloriously hot at Easter and autumn half-term, but its trump card for those travelling with under fours is that it’s less than five hours on a plane from London, saving you the hell of long-haul. And luckily, the nannies from Scott Dunn (English-speaking, young, smiley) are on hand to absolve you of a moment’s guilt about disentangling yourself for a few hours (or 9.30am-5.30pm, if you prefer)

• Travel: Europe/ Africa

A secret Greek island

The Week | 22 Feb 2014

It has been attracting attention from the rich and famous lately, but the lush and beautiful Greek island of Meganisi is still “firmly off the tourist radar”, says Caroline Phillips in The Times. Part of the Ionian archipelago, just off the country’s west coast, it feels lost in time, with patchy mobile reception and a population of just 1200, none of whom locks their house or car.

• Travel: Europe/ Africa

Motion Pictures

House & Garden | 6 Jan 2014

These are the islands on the edge of the world. You may see porpoises, basking sharks or dolphins. Or perchance a peregrine falcon or sea eagle. You’ll pass rivers of moss and mushroom colours of plaid, and bens and glens cloaked in bracken and tradition. ‘It’s the last great wilderness,’ declares our ship’s chief purser, Charles Carroll. It’s as if we are lost in time. Welcome to the Hebridean Islands.

• Travel: Europe/ Africa

Picasso, Caviar and Mojitos

Lusso | 11 Nov 2013

Sometimes you find a place so good you don’t want to tell people about it. The Samling is one such. But its restaurant has just won a Michelin star, so it’s too late to keep schtumm…. The hotel can accommodate 24 lucky guests – in rooms and six cottages – in a gabled 1780s house in Windermere, the Lake District. All set on a steep hill and in 67 acres of gardens with giant genera, lavender and hemp. You may inadvertently walk past ‘reception’ – simply a bureau desk in the hall – but soon enough you’ll encounter the young, smiley, ever-solicitous staff. They’re doing great things. Since changing hands in 2011, The Samling has been snapping up awards. (‘Best boutique dining hotel in the world’ type monikers.)

• Food

The Ab Fab of rehab

Stella | 13 Aug 2013

The owner takes ‘guests’ for a spin in his Porsche and bundles them off to Prada in the company of a stylist. No, it’s not the latest boutique hotel but arguably the most exclusive – and wackiest – centre going. Caroline Phillips meets its aristocratic founder.

• Health, Beauty & Spa

Tatler Spa Guide 2013

Tatler | 18 Jul 2013

Chiva-som, Thailand – The mother of them all. Chiva remains triumphantly at the top of its game. Come here to scrub your chakras, give up sleeping pills or smoking (or both), lose your post-baby lubber or have accelerated subdermal therapy (ultrasound does battle with cellulite) in the medi-spa. There’s a daily schedule that’s more tightly packed than a tin of chickpeas, from vinyasa flow yoga to gyrokinesis (pilates meets ballet). Plus it’s all run with Swiss-style efficiency.

• Health, Beauty & Spa

Cultural exchange

Bentley | 29 Jun 2013

This is the story of the Marquess, the Old Masters and the Bentley. The tale of masterpieces by Van Dyck, Velazquez and Rubens being returned from Russia to Britain after 234 years. The tale of an exclusive 48-hour trip to blaze the trail for the return of these priceless works collected by Britain’s first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, and sold scandalously in 1779 to Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, to adorn the walls of the Hermitage, St Petersburg.

• Culture,
• Travel: Europe/ Africa