Four Seasons Macau brings “boutique” to Asia’s gaming hotspot

As Asia’s fast-growing gambling mecca Macau has it all: slick casinos, high-rollers, designer labels, jaw-dropping shows, chic restaurants and huge hotel complexes. In this city of superlatives however, something has been missing: the “boutique” factor. Large-scale, Vegas-esq experiences are easy to come by in Macau, but the more individual and unique factor is harder to find.

Opening on the Cotai Strip in August of this year, the Four Seasons Macau, is doing its best to fill this void. It has brought the promise of something different and more personalised, which is a breath of fresh air for the traveller seeking quiet, comfort and personalised service.

Granted, with 360 rooms the Four Seasons Macau hardly conforms with the traditional perception of boutique, but when compared with behemoths such as the neighbouring Venetian (3,000 rooms) and soon the to be completed Sheraton opposite (some 4,000 rooms) the hotel feels it. The design – contemporary mixed with colonial accents and hints of the orient – brings a unique edge and antique pieces of furniture, sourced from local markets and antique shops, add to the hotel’s individuality.

Service reigns supreme here; staff are, without exception, friendly, polite and attentive. Your name will be remembered and your quirks indulged. As one Four Seasons restaurant manager underlined, the hotel is geared towards the discerning traveller seeking a haven of calm and top-notch service. Where many hotels in Macau compete on price, the Four Seasons seeks to differentiate itself by offering the best standard of hospitality.

Rooms are spacious and comfortable. They come kitted out with a 42″ plasma screen, WiFi (at an additional cost), vast marble bathrooms with walk-in rain showers, L’Occitane products and deep bathtubs. Don’t expect fantastic views, the Cotai Strip is still an eyesore of a building site, instead sink into the big bath and watch TV whilst sipping on something brought up to you by room service.

Guests seeking further peace and quiet should beat a retreat to Windows, which feels more like a country club than a bar / restaurant. Its leather wingback chairs, fireplace and big open-air verandah make it a great spot to enjoy a newspaper and afternoon tea far away from the hustle and bustle of the casino floors.

When it comes to eating, the hotel has a Cantonese restaurant, Zi Yat Heen, as well Belcanção, an extravagant international buffet bulging with European favourites and dim sum. The hotel’s most hyped destination though has to be Bar Azul, a stylish spot with moody blue lighting and a slick bar serving wine, cocktails, champagne and fantastic complimentary canapés.

Visitors seeking retail therapy can sleep easy knowing that the new Shoppes at Four Seasons, Macau’s first luxury mall, is just metres away. Guests after glitz and glamour have the Venetian’s gaming floor on their doorstep, plus Cirque du Soleil’s impressive US$150 million production, ZAIA, close at hand (the hotel concierge can arrange tickets or you can book online).

The Four Seasons also offers guests a big outdoor pool complex, plus a spa and fitness facilities.

For more information visit www.fourseasons.com/macau. Room rates start at HKD/MOP 2,700 per night.

Four Seasons Hotel, Macao, Cotai Strip: Estrada da Baía de N. Senhora da Esperança, S/N, Taipa, Macau; Tel. +853 2881 8888; Fax. +853 2881 8899.

To explore more hot hotels click here and to read more hotel reviews click here.

Shot of the Day: Tiger Leaping Gorge

Yunnan Province, China, is featured in Lonely Planet’s “Best in Travel 2009” book, and the famed Tiger Leaping Gorge epitomises the region’s beauty.

This shot, “Heavy Traffic” by Kiwi Mikex, highlights the Tiger Leaping Gorge’s stunning views and serenity.

For more travel photography and world landmarks visit http://www.iloho.com/landmarks.

Top 10 Luxury Christmas Presents for Travellers

We’ve researched, mused over and debated dozens of travel products that would make the ultimate Christmas present. We’ve spoken to travellers from across the world to find out what their most coveted and most trusted travel products are, and here is iloho’s list of the top 10 luxury Christmas presents for travellers.

From decadent accessories to luxe luggage to services that will soothe travel aches and pains. These gift suggestions, whilst luxurious, are not meant to be wildly unobtainable or garishly ostentatious. They are things that real travellers really want, and they will all look fantastic under the tree!

1. Cashmere Travel Blanket

Give yourself an instant upgrade by travelling with a cashmere blanket. Forget about cashing in your hard-earned airmiles or grovelling to the check-in staff, instead wrap yourself in cashmere and make economy class feel like business and business feel like first. Frequent traveller, Katherine from London, says: “I was given a cashmere blanket by my boyfriend last year after months of grovelling. I travel a lot and if I’m stuck at an airport or have to fly long-haul it’s a little slice of luxury that makes life on the road a lot more comfortable.” We love Brora’s cashmere blankets (£329/$489), which measure 190 x 140cm and come in six different colours. Click here for more information.

2. Noise Cancelling Headphones

We all know silence is golden, but peace and quiet can be tough to achieve when engine roar and crying babies enter the equation. Noise cancelling headphones have changed the way some people travel; one Flyertalk.com member says: “The Bose QC2s I have had a huge impact on my comfort on flights. I even feel more rested when I use them.” Well, make way for the newBose QC3 headphones (£275/$349), which are more compact than their predecessors with the same level of performance. As well as drowning out surround sounds these headphones come with a detachable cord to connect MP3, DVD and CD players, or to plug into an in-flight entertainment system. It’s oh so quiet… Click here for more information.

3. Digital SLR

A top-of-the-range digital SLR consistently delivers rich, high-quality images, capturing your most incredible travel moments for years to come. SLR evangelists swear that the image quality is so far superior to standard compact cameras that once you start using one you will never go back (and that your travel photos will be the envy of all your friends). Nikon released theD90 digital SLR (£849.99/$999.95) in August of this year, which is successor to the popular D80 model. It is a high-end consumer camera with 12.3 megapixel resolution that, in the words of Hong Kong-based iloho user Gadgetlover, “is large enough to capture those great moments, but small enough to travel there with you.” Click here for more information.

4. Weekend Bag

A smart weekend bag amps up your travel style in an instant, and classic models will never go out of fashion; they are stylish and functional and make a fantastically indulgent Christmas present. Anna, an iloho user from Sydney, says of her new Italian suede weekend bag: “It’s definitely not a necessity, but it is beautiful and it makes me feel good when I travel.” We like the MulberryLarge Racing Clipper (£350/$625), which works well for both male and female travellers.

5. iPhone 3G

It’s slick and sexy and seriously functional. The iPhone combines three products in one — a 3G phone, widescreen iPod, and Internet device — perfect for travellers. Better still, the iPhone incorporates GPS technology and live tracking so you can forget all about cumbersome city maps. If you find yourself dying for a cappuccino in Rome you can search for “coffee” and the iPhone will show you every café nearby. There’s a host of travel applications you can download too, such as language translators, currency convertors and real-time flight tracking. For more information, and prices, click here.

 

It won’t be available for Christmas, but keep your eyes peeled for the launch of the nüvifone, a touchscreen device that combines a phone, mobile web-browser, and cutting-edge personal navigator, scheduled to hit the shelves in early 2009.

6. Travel Wallet

Digging out passports, hotel confirmations, e-tickets and addresses can be both tedious and time consuming when you are travelling. Make someone very happy by organising their trav-min with a chic travel wallet. Smythson has a great range of styles to suit men and women alike from £175/approx. $260. As 33-year old London-based lawyer Emily says, “When you’re travelling it’s essential to have everything in one place.” Visit smythson.comfor more information.

7. VIP Lounge Membership

It won’t breakdown, works in airports across the world and helps you escape the chaos of delays, cancellations and crowded departure floors no matter which airline you fly with and in what class of travel. For a frequent traveller VIP lounge membership makes a fantastic gift. Simbad, an iloho user in Hong Kong says: “Having lounge membership makes business travel much easier. I am on the road a lot with my job, and knowing that wherever I go I can always connect to WiFi, eat and drink at no extra cost and relax in peace and quiet before my flight is both practical and reassuring.” There are several VIP lounge programmes you can register with; one of the most popular is Priority Pass, which gives members access to 500 lounges in 90 countries worldwide and costs from $79/£55 per year. For more information click here.

8. Luxury travel pillow

For travellers who have problems sleeping on planes, trains or in hotel rooms a duck or goose down travel pillow will make a fantastic gift. There are a myriad of shapes and sizes, but this lightweight goose down travel pillow(from $24) compacts to a mere 5″ X 7.5″. For travellers looking for more support, the memory foam Komfort Kollar ($59.85/£40) is an excellent choice. Designed by a leading spinal surgeon the collar supports the head, neck and spine from every angle. Emma, 25, a frequent traveller from Macau says, “A good quality travel pillow is invaluable. When my flight is delayed and on long journeys my duck down pillow is worth its weight in gold.”

9. Games Set

Don’t know a Wii from a PS3? Don’t worry. What better way to while away a couple of hours of travel downtime than with a classic chess or backgammon set? Pickett, British luxury goods supplier, makes a great travel-friendly backgammon and chess set in leather with magnetic pigskin pieces (£399/$593). The company offers a bespoke service too so your backgammon / chess board can be customised to your exact specifications. Click here for more information.

10. Quintessentially Membership

What better present for the discerning jetsetter in your life than a whatever / wherever concierge service that’s accessible 24 hours a day, 365 days a year? The Quintessentially team is on hand for everything from solving pressing practical problems – such as organising a rescue mission for a member in a snowed under ski chalet – to making dinner reservations to booking and advising on incredible travel experiences, like an Indiana Jones-style adventure in Jordan, visiting the Cairo Museum afterhours with a leading Egyptologist, and touring the wine yards of Mendoza, Argentina in a classic rally car. The headaches involved in organising overseas business meetings, perfecting a romantic getaway and keeping everyone on a family holiday happy will become a thing of the past. For more information and membership costs in your region click here.

For tips on shopping around the world click here. To join iloho’s group “Shopaholics of the World Unite” click here.

Looking for quality? Fly low-cost

If you’re flying in the States over the holiday period go low-cost. America’s budget carriers topped the rankings of U.S. airlines for being on-time and handling luggage. Bigger airlines such as American Airlines brought up the rear, according to a new study on airline quality.

Hawaiian Airlines was rated best (with 92%) in Wichita State University’s report at being on-time for the January – June period. AirTran Airways triumphed at handling baggage, and Southwest Airlines had the fewest customer complaints, at one for every 300,000 customers.

American Airlines was the worst in on-time performance, at just 63%. United Airlines had the highest rate of customer complaints, seven times more than Southwest).

American Eagle was the worst baggage handler, mishandling luggage more than three times as often as AirTran.

Click here to read more report findings. For more information on airline ratings and to write your own flight review click here.

Photo: Hawaiian Airlines Kioea Boeing 767-3G5 by Cubbie_n_Vegas via Flickr (Creative Commons)

W Hotel brings “non-traditional luxury” to Hong Kong

W Hotel, new kid on the Hong Kong hotel block, is injecting some serious style into West Kowloon. With its breed of non-traditional luxury it’s helping to rejuvenate and glam up this burgeoning area. The hotel opens into Elements mall, the city’s newest, and sits next to the ICC, which will be Hong Kong’s tallest building upon its completion in 2010.

The hotel aims to create a nature-inspired oasis within Hong Kong’s urban jungle. Treelike columns rise up through the hotel lobby and bar, their branches twinkling with fairylights when darkness falls. The 393 guest rooms, designed by Australian firm g+a and Japanese firm Glamorous, are adorned with pretty butterfly motifs or a more masculine wood, fire, earth and metal theme. Even waiting for a lift on the guest floors will leave you feeling like Alice in Wonderland amid large bookshelves.

W Hong Kong’s commercial waterfront location makes for some fantastic, if somewhat gritty, views. No kicking back and enjoying the light show from these rooms: W guests can soak-up refreshingly different vistas from the traditional harbourside hotels – think docks and cargo ships rather than luxury cruiseliners and yachts – that cleverly offset the whimsical design theme of the hotel’s interior.

The hotel’s pool, with its views across the whole of the island, is the exception to this rule. When it is finished this will be one of the city’s hottest spots – Hong Kong’s highest pool (up on the 76th floor) with a cocktail bar and jacuzzi to boot. Just two floors below is Hong Kong’s new Bliss spa, fresh from New York – a haven of tension-fighting treatments such as the Ginger Rub and Triple Oxygen Facial.

Another soon-to-be hotspot is Kitchen, one of the hotel’s two restaurants. The chef’s table is a nice touch; solo guests can mix and mingle with each other over dinner without the embarrassment of formal introductions or pre-arranged dinner dates. For more reticent guests, there’s always the distraction of the restaurant’s open kitchen at hand to provide food for thought or topics of conversation. Expect to pay around HKD 450 for three courses (excluding drinks).

All W Hong Kong guests can rest easy knowing the brand’s signature Whatever/Whenever attitude applies – from the moment you arrive in the lobby to the time you check out you can have whatever you want, whenever you want it (so long as it’s legal apparently). Sounds good to us.

W Hong Kong:

1 Austin Road West, Kowloon Station, Hong Kong; Tel: +852 3717 2222; Fax: +852 3717 2888.

For directions and reservations call +852 2317 3303 or visit whotels.com/hongkong.

“Race for the Sky” with iloho’s new web game and WIN fantastic prizes!

Visit iloho now and check out our fantastic new web game, “Race for the Sky“. Top scorers can win a business class round-the-world ticket, plus a host of other prizes such as Canon digital cameras, iPod speakers and USB sticks.

To win this dream prize, and jet around the world in serious style, all you have to do is secure the top position on our leaderboard. The first two runners-up will receive a brand new Canon digital camera. All players in the top 20 will receive a fantastic iloho travel pack, which includes an iPod speaker, 1GB USB stick, t-shirt, cap and travel pillow.

To get into the leaderboard, players must successfully help the game’s character, Marco, race to the airport to catch his flight. Watch out for slippery banana skins, pesky spikes and damaging drain covers. The more points and hearts you collect along the way the more points they will score. Extra points can be secured by grabbing keys and Superman icons as you race Marco to his destination.

The competition runs until 31 January 2008. Terms and conditions apply.

For further instructions, and to play “Race for the Sky”, click here.

Good luck!!

Kōya-san, Japan’s Sacred Mountain

By Aaron Humphrey

In the forested mountains high above Kyoto, an enclave of temples and monasteries lies delicately arranged amongst the cedars. This is Koya-san (Mount Koya), home to Buddhist monks since the early ninth century and a serene retreat for devout pilgrims and curious travellers alike. As the centre of Japanese esoteric Shingon Buddhism, Mount Koya has seen the development of dozens of holy buildings over the centuries, and is now home to 120 temples; many of them are happy to host visitors for a night or two.

The journey from Kyoto takes about two hours, and as you pull further away from the city by train, the wait between stations grows longer. Time almost seems to go backwards, each station quieter than the last, as progressively smaller towns replace Kyoto’s sprawling suburbs and metropolis. Where the train tracks end, a red cable car awaits to take you on the final, scenic stretch up the mountain.

It’s best to book a temple stay ahead of time, and there are plenty to choose from, ranging in price from ¥10,000 – ¥20,000 (US$105-$210/£68-£135). Included in that price are two meals, dinner and breakfast, which are prepared by the monks. Meals consist of traditional vegetarian dishes, from nuts and lotus root to tofu soup and tempura leaves, the food is plentiful, and as delicious as it is unique. Sitting on tatami mats and sampling the food of Mount Koya ranks among the most memorable culinary experiences in a country bursting with them.

After dinner dusk begins to settle on Koya-san, casting an even more mysterious air to the sacred mountain, this is the perfect time to stroll through the cemetery, where thousands of graves and shrines fill the quiet, mossy forest. This is Japan’s largest graveyard, home to stone jizo statues and memorials of all sizes, centred around the mausoleum where the founder of Shingon lies, not dead, according to the faithful, but merely meditating for the arrival of the Buddha of the Future. Here, many hundreds of small lanterns glow a colour between red and ginger throughout the night. Some of them are said to have remained lit for over a millennium, part of Mount Koya’s timeless serenity.

Getting there: Travel by train to Gokurakubashi station at the bottom of Koya-san. From Gokurakubashi visitors take a cable car to the top of the mountain, which takes 5 minutes. For more detailed travel information, click here

Stay:

Many Buddhist monasteries on Koya-san function as hotels and provide traditional accommodation that includes an evening meal and breakfast. Try Shojoshin-in one of the oldest temples on Koya-san, which offers Japanese style guest rooms as well as a “hanare” (private guest residence with bathroom), Japanese-style gardens and a pond.

See:

Kongobuji temple: Koyasan Shingon Buddhism’s headquarters. The temple boasts a stone garden that is said to outshine many of Kyoto’s best.

Oku-no-In: the mausoleum of Kukai, the monk who first settled Koya-san, which is illuminated by thousands of lanterns.

Konpon Daito pagoda and the Garan temple: Garan Temple is one Mount Koya’s most sacred temples and was designed by Kukai. The Konpon Daito pagoda sits within the temple’s grounds and is said to represent both the central point Mount Koya and all of Japan.

Photos:

Lanterns #3 by mrlins via Flickr (Creative Commons).

Koyasan Mountain Rail by Sofia Brightsea via Flickr (Creative Commons).

koyasan – 高野山 by kanjiroushi via Flickr (Creative Commons).

Good Manners Singapore Style

Walking through Singapore yesterday I spotted this sign and had to take a picture. It sort of summed up the place for me. I think they could do with a couple of these signs up in Shanghai (sorry Shanghai, but getting on a bus with you is never that much fun).

Aman opens doors to Beijing’s Summer Palace

Aman, the luxury hotel group, has opened its first Chinese property in one of the world’s most famous landmarks: Beijing’s Summer Palace.

The Aman at Summer Palace, Beijing, offers its guests 5* lodging steps away from the East Gate of this UNESCO World Heritage Site and the stunning Kunming Lake. It is also just 15km from the Forbidden City.

The hotel spreads across a series of historical buildings, gardens and courtyards. Some of the original rooms housed guests of the Empress Dowager Cixi, China’s de facto ruler from 1861 to 1908.

Rooms and suites reflect traditional Chinese architecture and use authentic layouts, materials and fabrics. The hotel is small; just 18 rooms and 25 suites decorated with Ming-style furniture.

Guests can take advantage of the hotel’s bars and restaurants, plus its spa, fitness facilities, library and boutique.

Rates start from USD 480 per night.

Photos courtesy of www.amanresorts.com

Shot of the Day: Lombok, Indonesia

This shot, taken by Nature Explorer has got me wide-eyed and frantically trying to plan a holiday to Lombok.

Nature Explorer says the image was shot at Kuta Beach at “a unique moment” when the sea water level was so low you could “see the seaweed, all coral and small fish in the bottom of the sea”. Apparently this happens on only 6 days per year.

Wow.