Top 30 places to visit in 2015 part 2
MUST visit destinations in 2015 take us from the fashion centre of Milan, where Expo opens in May, to the parks and bike paths of Bristol, this year’s European Green Capital.
PART two of the top 30 places to go in 2015.
Return to the beginning of the list.
If you think Jozi is just a fly-through, 12-hour stopover en route to safari, think again. Fashion, lively food markets, pop-up shops, galleries and a newly opened Four Seasons hotel represent a city hitting its stride. Well-heeled visitors can now escape the hustle and bustle of downtown in the leafy gardens of Johannesburg’s famous Westcliff hotel, given a $59 million makeover under the international luxury brand. Within earshot of the zoo’s lions and affording great city views, the Four Seasons is tucked away in an old money suburb dominated by historic ”Randlord” mansions. More touristy but fun is Moyo restaurant in Zoo Lake Park, or tuck into great Cape Malay dishes (and the city’s best milk tart) at the District Six Eatery in Emmarentia. Check out Fourth Avenue in Parkhurst for local fashion and jewellery; the galleries on Jan Smuts Avenue in Rosebank or a revitalised Juta Street and its weekly warehouse market in Braamfontein; be early to nab a rooftop table and try the burgers.
If Adelaideans hear the phrase ”city of churches” one more time they’ll choke on their cows head shaka, one of the more challenging dishes served at Duncan Welgemoed’s Africola, a lively restaurant sprung straight from the pages of The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. This joyful eatery typifies a major rejuvenation of downtown. Successful multimillion-dollar projects, including the redeveloped Adelaide Oval, are being shored up at street level by a burst of laneway development and a boom in small bars (try Clever Little Tailor, the new Hains & Co, Chihuahua and Maybe Mae). The restaurant scene is going gangbusters with the innovative (game-changing fare featuring indigenous produce at Orana), the urbane (Hill of Grace at Adelaide Oval) and the plain fun: Peel St, Press and the new Sean’s Kitchen. You’ll find fashion-forward foodies at Sunday’s Market Shed on Holland Street, and food trucks everywhere. The Mad March festival season (including WOMAD and the Fringe) is being pushed out to include events throughout the year (Cabaret in June; OzAsia in spring); there are new hotels: The Mayfair on King William Street and The Watson. And the city’s favourite chocolatier, Haigh’s, turns 100 this year. Swing by Beehive Corner for a giant chocolate frog.
Forget big hats, big hair and big steaks. Well, don’t forget them entirely because they are a big part of the Dallas allure. But this Texan gateway is much more: a sophisticated arts-oriented and architecturally blessed city with the “largest contiguous urban arts district in the US” covering 19 downtown blocks and featuring buildings by Renzo Piano and Norman Foster. Jump the free vintage trolley running along McKinney Avenue and don’t miss the Nasher Sculpture Center (housing one of the world’s finest collections of 19th and 20th-century and contemporary sculpture). Shop at the quaint Highland Park, America’s first planned shopping centre, which opened in 1931; don your best cowboy, or girl, boots and brunch at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek; check in to The Fairmont, located in the Arts District and featuring an artist-in-residence program.
New boutique hotels and new-look markets have arrived downtown in this food-obsessed city, home to the largest fish market outside Tokyo and more bars than you can poke an olive at. (A 2103 report claims Spain has one bar for every 132 residents.) Occupying a century-old neo-classical building in Alonso Martinez, the Urso Hotel brings the first branded luxury hotel day spa to the central city and a pop-up dining concept that will see a young, up-and-coming Spanish chef arrive each month to take charge of the hotel kitchen. At the new Principal Madrid on Gran Via, acclaimed Catalan chef Ramon Freixa will be dishing up his modern Spanish and two-Michelin-star fare on a rooftop terrace dotted with olive trees and parasols. Located an easel’s toss from the Prado, this Design Hotels member has 78 contemporary rooms and on-call personal shoppers. New wave cocktail bars and brilliant casas de comida (bistros) abound but Madrid’s vibrant market scene is currently the talk of the town including the recently refurbished Mercado de San Miguel, Mercado de San Anton with its rooftop restaurant and bar and the newly opened Mercado de San Ildefonso.
For Australians, Turkey looms large in the national consciousness this year as we commemorate the Gallipoli centenary. And its East-meets-West capital is in the grips of a tourism boom with almost 12 million travellers visiting the city last year and a slew of star-spangled openings making Istanbul a global hotel hotspot. Shangri-La and Raffles, the latter featuring an edgy restaurant run by El Bulli graduate Sergi Arola, were the big-ticket openings last year. This year headline acts include St Regis in the swish Nisantasi neighbourhood, boasting Bosphorus views and interiors referencing the glamour and spirit of 1920s Turkey. London’s Soho House introduces its private members club concept to Istanbul, converting a gorgeous palazzo and the former US embassy into an 87-room hotel. The 36-room Banker Han hotel, opening in April in the heart of Karakoy, will feature an art lounge and rooftop suites with terraces overlooking the Golden Horn and Sultanahmet Mosque. Mondrian brings a touch of Hollywood glam to the old city with a 128-room hotel that will include a refurbished historic Turkish bath. Sheraton, Hilton and Mercure are also hanging out shingles.
Money and chocolate define this pretty city whether you’re shopping along the pricey Bahnhofstrasse or touring the tempting chocolatiers (the Swiss eat more chocolate per head than any other nation and look pretty good for it). New attractions include the FIFA World Football Museum opening early next year and featuring a cinema that recreates the atmosphere of a stadium. Check in to the groovy new Kameha Grand Hotel in the Glattpark business zone. With Marcel Wanders-designed rooms resembling stylised chocolate boxes and themed suites, this is the hottest ticket in town. The former industrial Zurich West is developing as a new city hub with its boutiques, restaurants and bars, many housed beneath the arches of an old railway viaduct. The style-savvy German 25Hours hotel group has a property in the neighbourhood with interiors by Alfredo Haberli and is planning another hotel near the main railway station next year.
One of the world’s fastest growing destinations, Colombia is fairly mainlining mainstream tourists and it’s easy to see why. The oldest port city in the Americas, the 17th-century UNESCO-listed Cartagena, is a magical place, its cobbled streets fortified against marauding pirates. Gabriela Garcia Marquez kept a walled house here and set many of his novels in the city (audio walking tours are available). The old city convent featured in Of Love and Other Demons is today the Sofitel Santa Clara hotel. Miami-based, Colombian fashion designer Silvia Tcherassi, who operates a luxury seven-room mansion hotel in the old town, is planning a second property while acclaimed English designer Martin Hulbert has two projects on the go. W and Bogota would not have featured in the same sentence a decade ago but the country’s capital is now home to a new member of the W design brand; a Grand Hyatt is also under construction.
Paddock-to-plate is big in this small, quirky and accessible city. Famous food writer James Beard was born here and many of the town’s best chefs pay homage with their local, seasonal menus. Exploring the city’s restaurants, famers markets, hundreds of food trucks (don’t miss Nong’s Khao Man Gai), and boutique distilleries and breweries is a piece of cake in a city easily managed on foot and serviced by a good network of streetcars. It’s nestled between the Columbia River and the forests of Mount Hood, andthe wilderness, coast and Willamette Valley wine country are readily accessible. Back in town, check out the Portland Art Museum and the labyrinthine Powell’s Books (their main city store covers an entire block and stocks more than a million books). The posh Heathman Hotel makes lays claim to the dubious privilege having featured heavily in Fifty Shades of Grey. Drop in for a themed cocktail.
The hottest ticket in town is the Picasso Museum reopened last October after a five-year refurbishment. Exhibition space inside the 17th century Marais mansion has been doubled allowing for more of the 5000-strong collection to be displayed. Book online to avoid the very long queues. Also new is the Frank Gehry-designed $157 million Foundation Louis Vuitton art museum. Dubbed the iceberg by Parisians, but equally a glittering ship, the glass sail-wrapped building houses 11 galleries in a park in the Bois de Boulogne. New hotels continue to debut in the city of light. Pierre Cardin’s former Haussmann style mansion in the 8th has been reborn as the drop dead gorgeous 40-room La Reserve hotel, with an indoor pool and views of the Eiffel Tower. The old Hotel Vernet, just off the Champs-Elysees, has been transformed into a modern work of art with a gallery-like restaurant perched beneath an ornate glass dome fashioned by Gustave Eiffel.
This might be a city with a bad rap and one major export of note, Aussie Open winner Novak Djokovic, but river cruising-addicted Australian travellers are discovering a different side to the ancient Serbian capital: a lively nightlife with bars and clubs popping up in derelict buildings and emerging art precincts in previously run-down neighbourhoods such as Savamala. Then there are the galleries, restaurants and antique shops of the old town Skadarlija, a bohemian quarter sometimes compared with Montmartre. And notorious buildings are being reborn. The famous Beograd InterContinental, a hotel and former diplomatic bolthole sprung straight form the pages of a Le Carre novel, where gangster and war criminal Zeljko Raznatovic (aka Arkan) was gunned down in the lobby 15 years ago, is back in business as the Crowne Plaza Belgrade following a $63 million makeover.
A champion in and out of the ring
His remarkable personality apart, Muhammad Ali was unquestionably one of the greatest talents to grace the boxing ring.
A champion in and out of the ring
Muhammad Ali beat formidable champions as both a young and old fighter, and was universally loved for his wit and courage.