Top 30 places to visit in 2015 part 3
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 three of the top 30 places to go in 2015.
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The action is in South and Mid Beaches with a slew of hotel openings most involving the makeover of a classic Art Deco beauty. Singapore-based COMO let Italian designer Paola Navone loose on a 1930s building to fashion its first US hotel, the Metropolitan. Slightly removed from the hubbub of South Beach, the hotel has a gin club, private dock and rooftop day spa. Ian Schrager has returned to Miami, more than two decades after opening the game changing Delano, with the oceanfront Miami Beach Edition. The landmark 1955 Seville Hotel has been updated to include a bowling alley, Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant, even a mini Studio 54. Argentinian entrepreneur Alan Faena is redeveloping six entire city blocks in South Beach with high-rise condos by Foster + Partners and an arts centre by Rem Koolhaas; he’s asked Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin to work their magic on the famous 1948 Saxony Hotel.
Celebrating 50 years of independence the Lion City has plenty in store this year: an impressive new National Gallery showcasing 19th-century and contemporary Southeast Asian art in the old City Hall and Supreme Court buildings, and an 8km Jubilee Walk winding through the civic district and Marina Bay area, taking in performance spaces and major public artworks. And there are yet more swanky hotels. Following on from Karl Lagerfeld’s efforts at the Sofitel So, Philippe Starck is designing a 654-room downtown hotel as part of a $2.8 billion redevelopment of an entire city block on Beach Road. For those on a budget, Singapore leads the charge with well-priced boutique hotels occupying old shophouses in Chinatown and the city’s bar scene goes from strength to strength with mixologists plying their trade behind secret, sometimes password-protected, doors (check out The Library, 28 Hong Kong Street, Operation Dagger and Jigger & Pony). And don’t miss the Gardens by the Bay’s stunning supertrees, well established now and swathed in greenery, or the delightful Haji Lane, its boutiques and bars.
Milan is expecting more than 20 million visitors to this year’s Expo, opening May, where 140 exhibitors are riffing on the theme of feeding the planet. Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron is designing a pavilion devoted to slow food, the Brits are going for a virtual beehive; the US for a postmodern barn. The Italians are building a striking “urban forest” constructed from special cement that captures air pollutants. The city is in a pre-Expo frenzy, opening new restaurants, bars, flagship stores, hotels even museums. The striking Museo delle Culture, designed by British architect Sir David Chipperfield, opens March 27 in a former factory; the Rem Koolhaas-designed Fondazione Prada opens May 9 in an old distillery to display the fashion house’s large collection of modern art; Wes Anderson is designing the gallery’s bar. Italy’s largest ever exhibit of Leonardo da Vinci’s works is at the Palazzo Reale (April-July). New hotels include the Mandarin Oriental opening July 1 on Via Andegari, steps from La Scala Opera House.
Europe’s capital of cool celebrates 25 years since reunification with a giant street party at the Brandenburg Gate on October 3. Meantime the city’s jam-packed cultural calendar – some 1500 events vie for attention every single day — includes the reopening of the Berlinische Galerie Musuem of Modern Art following renovation and a blockbuster Botticelli exhibition, in conjunction with London’s V&A, at Gemaldegalerie. A new spy museum opens on Leipziger Platz; the quirky exhibits will include infrared briefcases, “preserved smells” and an Enigma machine. In September it’s a feast of orchestral music at the Berlin Music Festival and the first European outing for the US Lollapalooza open air festival mixing music, food, art and fashion.
Digs are going urban safari. Almost half the guest rooms at the 25Hours Hotel Bikini Berlin look into the city zoo’s ape house and elephant enclosure. Meantime, the city’s famous Hotel Zoo, a 1950s Film Festival bolt-hole for Hollywood stars and starlets, has reopened following a two-year renovation.
Our greatest natural asset has an uncertain future with threats coming thick and fast: coral bleaching, micro plastics, mining, shipping, port development and rising ocean temperatures. Armchair travelers can look forward to David Attenborough’s forthcoming television series but if you’re keen to experience the Reef first hand, it’s probably wise to see it now. And remember to leave nothing but footprints on those sugar white sands. The region’s most famous resorts have been spruced up. Hayman reopened last year as the first One&Only resort in the Asia Pacific following a $50 million, top-to-toe makeover, with a team of dive experts and marine biologists on call. Lizard Island reopens in late March after a 12- month upgrade following Cyclone Ita. There’s a new stand-alone, two-bedroom ridge top suite, private plunge pools have been added to several other villas and the day spa has been expanded.
The Korean Wave, K-pop and Psy’s 2012 Gangnam-style YouTube hit have helped transform the South Korean capital from pop cultural wallflower to the belle of the ball. So forget any preconceived notions, this town is officially hip. Last year, the gleaming silver Dongdaemun Designer Plaza landed like the Starship Enterprise in the city’s fashion hub, housing restaurants, a museum, stylish stores, even a rooftop park. The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art now has a city campus and there’s new wave Korean food, led by chef Yim Jungsik at his eponymous restaurant in Gangnamgu. Hotel stocks have been given a boost with the opening of the GLAD Hotel Yeouido, its brick façade in warm counterpoint to the steel and glass dominated streets of Yuouido. Four Seasons is slated to open a new build, 25-storey hotel on Sejongro Square in September featuring Japanese and Chinese restaurants designed by acclaimed Hong Kong-based architect Andre Fu and a large collection of specially commissioned contemporary Korean art.
President Obama’s initiatives to begin normalizing relations between the US and Cuba will in time un-dam a flood of tourists from the north; cruise company stocks immediately rose following the announcement. Currently US cruise lines based out of Miami bypass Cuba en route to the Caribbean. So here’s your big chance to revisit the 60s, its vintage cars and old world streets utterly devoid of Starbucks and McDonald’s. Australians have plenty of options. Bunnick Tours offers Havana sightseeing aboard a classic 1960s car, World Expeditions explores Cuba by bike, or you can join an Abercrombie & Kent group out of the US and tour Havana with a local architect, have salsa lessons or dine in a paladar (family-run restaurant). From May 22, the month-long Havana Art Biennial is a showcase for Latin American and Caribbean artists. New resorts include the Melia on Cayo Coco beach in the Jardines del Rey archipelago with more than 1100 rooms arrayed across 25 buildings in the style of a vast sugar plantation.
Australians never tire of London and with good reason. This year look out for Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery opening in Lambeth, housing the artist’s 2000-strong collection, including works by Picasso, Francis Bacon and Jeff Koons. The Alexander McQueen retrospective at the V&A is such a hot ticket you’ll need to book well ahead. At the National Maritime Museum Samuel Pepys’s diary comes to life. And if you miss tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show remember there’s always the Fringe (for guerilla gardeners and other green thumbed nerds) or book ahead for the Open Garden Squares weekend in June when more than 200 private gardens open to the public; highlights this year include the gardens at 10 Downing St and the River Café. On the hotel front, the famous Lanesborough reopens in spring following an 18 month-long makeover. Likewise the charmingly eccentric Goring, a royal favourite, has unveiled a brand new and very modern look. The old magistrates court opposite Shoreditch Town Hall will reopen as a four star hotel with a rooftop bar; the quirky Zetter is debuting a townhouse hotel in Marylebone.
Oman’s staggering mountain landscapes and frankincense-wreathed capital Muscat stand in stark contrast to the high rise glitz and bustling shopping malls of nearby Dubai. But don’t tarry. Hotel developers are moving quickly to stake a claim in this magical sultanate establishing resorts seafront and atop remote mountain escarpments. Glamping is becoming ever more popular although it’s unlikely Wilfred Thesiger would recognise the luxury tents popping up alongside desert wadis. Last year the Alila Jabal Akhdar resort opened in the spectacular Al Hajar mountains, a landscape peppered with pomegranate and walnut orchards, the hillsides terraced with damask roses. Anantara, a company that set The Arabian Nights gold standard at Qsar Al Sarab in Abu Dhabi’s Empty Quarter, is also opening in the region with a 115-room resort adjoining the Al Baleed UNESCO archaeological site in Salalah. Next year Kempinski debuts as part of a new beachfront residential enclave in Muscat that will include a 400-berth marina and Greg Norman designed golf course.
Hoi An is now a tourist staple, the UNESCO protected old town swarming with visitors, lantern-lit streets lined with can-do tailors able to whip up an entire wardrobe overnight. But don’t be too diverted by those bespoke threads – you’ll also need time to visit the imperial capital of Hue with its forbidden city, ornate opera house and a royal cuisine so lavishly garnished it would give Heston Blumenthal a run for his money. The gateway city of Danang, midway between the two, is enjoying bullish growth. At night the city is extravagantly lit and on the weekends the golden dragon bridge, spanning the River Han, breathes fire and spouts great plumes of water in a spectacular after-dark show luring three million visitors a year. Undeveloped beaches are unlikely to remain that way for very long but for the moment the luxury Banyan Tree, an all-pool villa resort situated on Lang Co bay feels very remote; it’s only neighbours are the family friendly Angsana and a Nick Faldo golf course.
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.