Unique luxury hotels, fashionable travel and much more

“At this price, we are beyond luxury and even reality.”  That was the view in a local newspaper about the sale of the spectacular Villa Leopolda on the French Riviera.

The price tag is in the region of a cool £390 million ($720 million), making it probably the most expensive home on the planet.

Villa Leopolda is situated in the town of Villefranche-sur-Mer on the fashionable Cote d’Azur and was built in 1902 for King Leopold of the Belgians, who died before it was completed. 

The present owner is Lily Safra, the widow of a Lebanese banker, and it was widely reported recently that she’d sold it to a Russian billionaire, Mikhail Prokhorov.  His company have denied the story, but it seems certain to have been sold to one Russian oil oligarch or another.  They’re all apparently clamouring for an exclusive home, preferably in the South of France or London.

Whoever eventually buys this piece of real estate will get a sprawling cream-coloured villa set in 20 acres of lush grounds, looked after by 50 full-time gardeners.  It’s a place that’s hosted the rich and famous over the years, including Ronald Reagan and Frank Sinatra.

But even this spectacular building could pale into insignificance next year when the world’s fifth richest man, the Indian industrialist Mukesh Ambani, moves into the 27-storey property he has built to house his family and offices in Mumbai.

With a value reported to be up to £1 billion ($2 billion), the design is said to have been inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.  

by Andy Moreton

Luxique can offer a range of more than 30 luxury Cote d’Azur hotels.

Don’t ask me how it’s going to be done, but an enterprising charity group in Venice is planning to sell the red-carpet footprints of stars attending the city’s famous film festival.

The prints are going to be offered on e-bay, with the proceeds going towards funding the refurbishment of Venice’s 11^th Century cathedral.

The 65^th Venice film festival began on August 27^th and runs through to September 6^th. This year’s is dedicated to the memory of the Egyptian director, Youssef Chahine, who died in July at the age of 82. The tribute film will be Cairo Station, a 1958 classic that Chahine starred in and directed.

Among the celebrities due to attend this year are Brad Pitt and that committed Italophile, George Clooney. As I mentioned in an earlier report, Clooney is a big fan of the Venice festival and when staying there favours the sumptuous Cipriani hotel. This, and 22 other luxury hotels in Venice are available for booking through Luxique.

by Andy Moreton

I saw an article the other day about the competition between luxury hotels to provide the ultimate in unique features.
I loved the baby butler who warms the bottles and rocks the young one to sleep while mum relaxes in a hot tub, the monogrammed robes that are placed in the suite before the guests’ arrival and the idea of a poem being laid on your pillow at every turn-down.

But my favourite was the eco possibilities at the Four Seasons Resort Nevis in the West Indies.

Younger guests are encouraged in a variety of ways to help efforts to save Nevis’s endangered sea turtles in a programme designed by experts at the Caribbean Conservation Corporation. Included is the chance to pay to ‘adopt’ a turtle which has been tagged with a satellite transmitter for research purposes. Adoptive guests can then monitor their turtles’ migratory patterns via an Internet-based program at home or school.

Can’t imagine many hotels will be able to match that!

by Andy Moreton

Top fashion designer Georgio Armani has fallen foul of the authorities in the Spanish city of Granada.

He’s named a new perfume Alhambra without authorisation to use the trademarked name of Granada’s world famous Moorish palace and fortress.

Once the residence of the Muslim rulers of Granada and their court, the Alhambra is now one of Spain’s most popular tourist attractions. It’s also a UNESCO World Heritage site and, since 2001, commercial use of the world Alhambra has been restricted.

The trustees of the monument have approached the Armani fashion house for an explanation and could pursue legal action if a deal’s not reached.

Armani has called his fragrance ‘Oranger Alhambra’ and says it’s a homage to the gardens of the palace in Granada. The Armani blurb waxes lyrical: “White arrow-shaped blooms of jasmine and tender garlands of roses find shelter in the shade of the sweet-smelling foliage of orange trees, only spindly-leaved rosemary and the hardy stems of marjoram turn and face the baking sun.”

The top people in Granada have no problems with such approbation – they just wished he’d asked first.

It’s not all pain in Spain for Armani, however. He’s designed an outfit for one of the country’s top bullfighters, Cayetano Rivera. It’s a dazzling satin creation in grey and beige with a full-length scarlet velvet cape and silver thread and some Swarovski crystals here and there.

Rivera will wear it at Spain’s fiesta, the Corrida Goyesca, at Ronda in the south of the country, on September 6.

by Andy Moreton

Luxique can offer an unrivalled selection of luxury and boutique hotels in Spain, including the faux-Moorish Alhambra Palace in Granada and three distinctive hotels in beautiful surroundings around Ronda.

The Civil Aviation Authority in the UK has reported that the number of air rage incidents on passenger planes has more than trebled in the past five years.

There were 2,219 instances of disruptive passenger behaviour in the period April 2006 to May 2007, including 58 serious incidents.

Alcohol consumption featured in many of the episodes and in some of the serious cases, passengers had to be restrained and planes diverted.

One theory among some pilots about the increase is that with flight delays becoming more common, passengers are given more opportunity to drink prior to boarding and they then consume more during the flight.

Keith Bill, who represents the British Airline Pilots Association, is calling for tough measures. “Where there’s an air rage incident and the perpetrator is found guilty, we want the courts to be very, very tough and impose a term of imprisonment, not a fine, as a deterrent.”

by Andy Moreton

Holidaymakers on the beautiful beaches of the Italian island of Sardinia have given notice that nothing will be allowed to disturb their peace and quiet – especially not brash celebrities.

Flavio Briatore, the managing director of the Renault Formula 1 team and co-owner of an English football club, found this to his cost when he and his entourage tried to bring their dinghies ashore from his luxury yacht.

People having a restful afternoon on the Capriccioli beach were having none of it. Shouting ‘Shame, louts and go home!’ a group formed to meet the third dinghy, attempting to push it back out to sea. Water was thrown from hastily-filled children’s buckets, followed by wet sand bombs.

Briatore, who was in Sardinia to open a new restaurant, was outraged, saying: “We are nice people and we get treated like this. I will close down everything. I pay my taxes and this is my right.”

The Italian newspaper, La Stampa, saw this as the start of a fightback against celebrities flaunting their wealth on the country’s top beaches in front of ordinary cash-strapped Italians. The paper commented: “From north to south, the rebellion against those who show off their power and wealth is growing.”

by Andy Moreton

Luxique offers a selection of superb luxury hotels in Sardinia.

The Pyramids at Giza are a ‘must-see’ for tourists, but for me and my family, it was spoiled by the small army of aggressive hawkers.

Now the Egyptian authorities have erected a 12-mile chain-link security fence to put a stop to the trading. The fence comes with motion censors and CCTV. Visitors now enter the site through a security building equipped with metal detectors and x-ray machines.

Up to now, hawkers, mostly from nearby impoverished neighbourhoods looking to benefit from the tourist dollar, have had free rein.

Tourists have been besieged by peddlers selling statues, T-shirts and other trinkets while men on camels selling rides or photos sometimes refused to take no for an answer. Young men have even tried to force their way into taxi cabs carrying foreigners toward the Pyramids, looking to steer them to nearby horse stables for a ride around the site.

Egypt’s leading archaeologist, Dr Zahi Hawass, has welcomed the new security measures. “It was a zoo,” he said. “Now we are protecting both the tourists and the ancient monuments.”

The new security arrangements are the first step in a programme to modernise the site which is just outside Cairo. There’s to be a new lighting system, museum and café.

by Andy Moreton

Luxique can offer competitive rates at three award-winning luxury hotels in Cairo and Giza, including the world-renowned Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at the First Residence and the Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza.

A Spanish couple visiting Norway ran into trouble over pronunciation and ran up a taxi bill of £3,000 ($5,600).

The couple, who are in their ‘50s, were on a cruise of the fjords when they had to go into hospital briefly during a stop in Stavanger. Once out of hospital, they decided to rejoin the ship in Olden, a little further along the coast.

But their taxi driver misunderstood and took them to Halden, 348 miles east of Stavanger. Unaware of the mistake, the holidaymakers paid the £1,480 ($2,755) fare plus a tip.

Having spent the night in a hotel, the couple realised there was no cruise ship in Halden port and had to make the road journey back to Olden – for another £1,500 ($2,820).

For the price of their misadventure, they could have paid for a 10-day cruise in the fjords in a luxury suite.

by Andy Moreton

Luxique has a selection of boutique and luxury hotels in Norway, including the Solstrand, which is situated right by the Bjornefjord, and is just 19 miles south of Bergen and its airport.

One of the most protracted works in progress in Europe is the cathedral of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

The building was the creation of the visionary architect, Antoni Gaudi, whose vivid and unusual designs have left an indelible mark on the city. But Gaudi’s untimely death in 1926 under the wheels of a tram meant that completion of his opus was left to future generations.

That project is finally nearing its conclusion – well, comparatively … it’s about 20 years off now – but it seems not everyone is happy with the work.

More than a hundred figures from Spain’s art and heritage world have signed a manifesto protesting at what they see as a betrayal of Barcelona’s most famous son by those determined to leave their own stamp on the cathedral. They write of ‘the mediocrity of a group of technicians and developers who are well-meaning but full of anachronistic paternalism.’

Among those protesting is the director of Madrid’s Reina Sofia modern art museum, Manual Borja-Villel, who says visitors will not be able to tell where Gaudi’s work begins and ends.

“What they are constructing has little to do with the spirit of Gaudí. It has more to do with building a tourist attraction and for propaganda purposes.”

Architects working on Gaudí’s masterpiece have been plagued with difficulties from the start. The designer refused to stick to a blueprint, preferring to direct a building’s evolution on the ground. The plans that did exist following his death were badly damaged during the Spanish Civil War.

And fears for the foundations of the cathedral have been raised after approval was given earlier this year for a high speed rail link between Madrid and Barcelona that passes within yards of the building.

by Andy Moreton

Luxique has a superb selection of luxury hotels in Barcelona with great rates!

You have to admire the irony of the people who run the London Underground. A notice at a number of stations is headlined: “Keep Cool In the Hot Weather” and gives hints on how not to pass out while travelling.

That must have been those two days of hot weather we had in 2003, because we sure haven’t seen too much of it this year. It’s cool and wet and forecasters have predicted more of the same for the rest of August.

The gloomy weather has had two notable consequences. First, plants and trees appear to have been fooled into thinking that Autumn (fall) has arrived early. Traditional signs such as blackberries and red-tinted leaves have begun appearing around the country.

Secondly, bookings of last-minute holidays abroad have jumped by 30 per cent in recent weeks as Britons try to escape to the sun. Destinations such as Turkey, Bulgaria and Croatia have all proved popular as people look for the best value.

Francis Tuke, of the Association of British Travel Agents, said: “It is all a bit desperate. Our requirements as holidaymakers are fairly basic - we love sunshine and if the weather is a bit rubbish, we want to see some of it.”

by Andy Moreton