An ideal life
So far the Shreyas retreat has come as close to my idea of an ideal way to live as I have ever experienced. Set in the lush Indian countryside it has beautifully landscaped gardens, a yoga pavilion,...
View ArticleAs good as it gets
Carla said this morning at breakfast that we should always remember this trip and how wonderful it has been. For example, if we get captured by Somali pirates we should think about how happy we were at...
View ArticleOne night in Bangkok
So I finally get a good night’s sleep, in Bangkok. Probably not what most people come here for but it made me happy. We are here for three days; Rupert is writing a cover story for the Travel section...
View ArticlePopping to Oman for the weekend
One of the advantages of living here is that you can pop to Oman for the weekend, which is what we did last week. We drove from Abu Dhabi over the border to the Musandam Peninsula and the exclusive,...
View ArticleHoliday time
Tonight we head off to Europe. All being well this time tomorrow we will be in the Swiss Alps at the Tschuggen Hotel where we spend four nights (working hard on a travel piece) followed by Paris,...
View ArticleThree in the morning stress
I suppose if you have to be awake at 3am there are worse places to be. I am sitting on a rooftop terrace in Paris with an (albeit limited) view of the Eiffel Tower. Our hotel room is a tiny … Continue...
View ArticleThings I have discovered
It was Shakespeare who said that no traveller returns, meaning that when you go away you come back a different person. We are now well into our holiday and I have learned a few things about myself and...
View ArticleFreedom
We are on holiday. I don’t know why we don’t spend more time on holiday, it is quite wonderful. As soon as we got to our friends Norrie and Mary’s the children did what they long to do in Abu …...
View ArticleAnother grand day
OK so I know I said in the last blog that it’s amazing how little you can get done on holiday, but after a week in Europe I’m amazed at what we have actually achieved. Yesterday we drove from Pezenas …...
View ArticleDrama on the beach
The house we are staying in here on the beach in southern Sri Lanka is one of the most beautiful places I have ever stayed in. It is called Thalassa and, as the name suggests, is by the water. It …...
View ArticleSoak up the spring in Switzerland
With its designer spa and pretty Alpine setting, the Tschuggen Grand Hotel in the scenic resort town of Arosa is the perfect place for a rejuvenating break, says Helena Frith Powell A few hours into...
View ArticleHigh tea amid desert dunes
We had planned tea at the Qasr al Sarab. Happily the Swiss contingent was in charge of most of it, we just had to make a chocolate cake The rendezvous was at 11am outside the Grand Mosque. “At the VIP...
View ArticleMontenegro’s exclusive island escape is hard to leave
Once the haunt of movie stars and royalty, the tiny island of Sveti Stefan off Montenegro’s coast has just reopened its doors to well-heeled guests. Helena Frith Powell explores In Norman Lewis’s...
View ArticleTravels with a yogi
We went on holiday with four children and a yoga teacher. Ria, as our teacher is called, is also a good friend. I have known her since we first moved to Abu Dhabi. It was Amanda, a friend I was in...
View ArticleRimini returns from the brink
Brash and gaudy? Mussolini’s Margate is being revived RIMINI will always be a special place for me because it is where I first saw my father. My parents divorced when I was a baby and I had no contact...
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