Elephants Never Forget

Country & Town House | 4 Jan 2019

We’re going to search for cave elephants – the elusive quadruped Babars found ‘tusking’ salt off cave walls. There’s just basic camping on offer. And malaria and yellow fever aren’t a lure either. But I’m a mahout manqué and will do (almost) anything to see elephants. Even hike for four days from a little-explored part of Uganda to Kenya.

That’s why my 22-year-old daughter Anya and I are being driven 165 miles from Entebbe to Mount Elgon in Eastern Uganda. Past Lake Victoria, egrets and bamboo forests.

• Travel: Europe/ Africa

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

Burmese Days

Harper’s Bazaar | 1 Dec 2018

Tourism to Myanmar is up and the 21st century has barely intruded. There are majestic rivers, thousands of temples and Buddhism is still a way of life. It will be quite unlike any land you know about.

• Travel: Asia/ Oceania

A bend in the river

Country & Town House | 25 Nov 2018

We’re cruising downstream past majestic mist-tipped mountains, buffalo wallowing at the riverside and long tail ‘taxi’ boats. Beside rubber plantations, banana trees and bamboo stilt houses. Fishermen casting out traditional nets from deserted white beaches. Mahouts bathing their elephants. And locals sieving for gold. The stuff of Asian adventure stories or Oriental fairy tales, perhaps.

• Travel: Asia/ Oceania

A passage to India

Country & Town House | 1 Oct 2018

Peeping out above a pine forest, Oberoi’s mountain retreat in the foothills of the Himalayas can’t help but sweep you off your feet. Built on the site of Lord Kitchener’s summer residence, it’s Alpine lodge meets colonial old-world charm. The 85 rooms with marble bathrooms are calm, neutral and cosy with Burmese teak panels, roaring fires and polished parquet floors. Best of all are the floor-to-ceiling windows which max out the spectacular snow-capped view.

• Travel: Asia/ Oceania

A dog’s life

Country & Town House | 23 Sep 2018

It’s a haunting place, if not haunted. You can almost hear the Tudor hounds and patter of paws past. This is Hales Hall near Norwich, Norfolk, a drop-dead gorgeous medieval estate in formal gardens of topiary, box hedging and lavender avenues. It boasts nine acres of moated meadowland and buttercups with fairytale cottages and a Great Barn (perfect for parties) – offering overall accommodation for 25.

• Homes, Interiors & Property,
• Travel: Europe/ Africa

Spa Guide 2018: ESPA at Castello Del Nero

Country & Town House | 23 May 2018

If you want to zzzz in a 12th-century former nobleman’s castle – set in 740 tranquil acres of rolling hills – then try Castello del Nero’s new Sleep Retreat created with ESPA. Bag a suite with Pompeian-style, 18th-century frescoes and let the butler draw you a steaming, essence-infused bath strewn with rose petals.

• Health, Beauty & Spa,
• Travel: Europe/ Africa

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

Buy on the island of dreams

Country & Town House | 23 Apr 2018

Imagine a palm-fringed beachfront retreat. An 8,500 sq/ft tropical villa built in 2005. One boasting a massage temple – with sides open to the jungle foliage – and a colonnaded walkway. An outside sitting room with a chandelier and a 49ft dining room overlooking monkeys swinging in the Khomba tree and the courtyard swimming pool. Add to this six colonial bedrooms with soaring ceilings and inside/outside bathrooms open to the fireflies that sparkle in the inky sky.

• Travel: Asia/ Oceania

Fire Mountain

Escapism | 29 Jan 2018

All the best trips involve the possibility of dying. The first time this occurs to me is when three soldiers cock their rifles at us outside our hotel in Ataco, El Salvador. (It transpires that the hotel is opposite an army communications mast.) On another occasion, we’re accompanied on a sightseeing trip to Conchagua volcano by two policemen with guns: a precaution because machete-wielding locals once mugged some tourists.

• Travel: Americas

Hotfoot it for half term: The Spyglass

Country & Town House | 23 Oct 2017

It would be hard to get closer to the sea without being on a boat. Spyglass is a bijou erstwhile fisherman’s cottage which was once part of a fort – all whitewashed outside and shabby chic maritime inside. It’s reached along the tiniest pedestrian-nly lane, by iPhone torch if you’re late (which the kids will love).

• Travel: Europe/ Africa

The Weekender: 48 Hours in Florence

Country & Town House | 24 Jul 2017

Florence, cradle of the Italian Renaissance and the place where Leonardo and Michelangelo worked, packs more beauty per millimetre than any other city. There’s something gasp-worthy wherever you go, from architecture to 15th-century frescoes, bas-reliefs and al fresco statues. Plus there are cobbled streets with botteghe (artisanal workshops), piazzas for relaxing with a cappuccino or a glass of Brunello di Montalcino, trattorias for ribollita (traditional bread soup) and (thankfully, given the crowds) a pedestrianised central zone. And then there’s all that Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana that just has to be bought.

• Travel: Europe/ Africa