Lizard Island Resort on the Great Barrier Reef offers holistic escape among nature’s wonders Publisher: South China Morning Post From 2000 metres above, the aquamarine lagoons and coral cays of the Great Barrier Reef, fringed by ribbons of silky white surf, stretch out as far as the eye can see. With its divine beauty, flying […]
Category Archives: Travel
Je suis un fan
Mandarin Oriental, Paris has just celebrated its first birthday. An oasis of contemporary luxury in the bustling heart of the fashionable Saint-Honoré district, to stay at this hotel is to savour modern Parisian style with a refined infusion of the Orient. Paris Fashion Week was in full swing when our taxi plied its way […]
Perfect Paxos
. Surrounded by sparkling blue waters, elegant harbours and tranquil bays, Paxos is rated as one of the world’s Top Twenty Great Escapes. But then it’s always been a place for a good escape: legend has it that Poseidon created Paxos by bashing Corfu with his trident to create a peaceful getaway for himself and […]
Bathing with Herodotus
Mike Sweet takes the waters in northern Evia, Greece. The healing powers of Edipsos’ thermal springs in the north of Evia have attracted politicians and artists for centuries; millennia even. Less than two hours drive from Athens, the luxurious Thermae Sylla Spa Wellness Hotel beckons at Edipsos. Built in 1890 and lavishly restored recently, the […]
Cretan Journeys: Return to the village
Mike Sweet reports from Vamos in western Crete, where a community has been revitalised by the vision of a generation who turned their grandparents’ homes into delightful refuges for discerning visitors. Nestled between the coast and the national highway connecting Chania with Rethymno, the Apokoronas is a region often overlooked by the scores of tourist […]
Cretan Journeys: Elixirs of life
It’s a short drive from Chania into the natural beauty of the Armenoi district in western Crete and a relief to be away from the kitsch of Chania’s old town, which in April attracts the first streams of tourist swarms. They mill through the alleyways, past the shops selling ‘Miss Kitty’ towels and the other […]
Industrial light and magic – a profile of architectural photographer George Apostolidis
Atrium, Mandarin Oriental Barcelona. Photograph: George Apostolidis. George Apostolidis is just about to head to Bangkok when I catch up with the award-winning photographer at his home in the prosperous Melbourne suburb of Kew. A two-week shoot in Thailand will be followed by work in Paris and then Barcelona, all for the same client: Mandarin […]
A house in Athens
The house Diligianis built. 19 Levidou, Kifisia. An elegant long-handled knife sits under glass at the National Historical Museum, the old Greek Parliament in Stadiou Street, Athens. Beside it lies a leather bag with a monograph. It reads Diligiannis. This personal effect of a late-19th Century Greek politician Theodoros Diligiannis would have passing interest for […]
In the footsteps of my father
The daughters of the first Aboriginal man commissioned as an officer in the Australian army – Reg Saunders, at his WWII hideaway in Crete. As the European winter stretches south, the winds across the Aegean pick up and flights into Nikos Kazantzakis International Airport in Heraklion may be cancelled. There’s no such misfortune for Glenda […]
A world apart – Gavdos, Europe’s most southerly point
There’s usually no shortage of takers for the journey from Chora Sfakion to the tiny island of Gavdos, nearly fifty kilometres off the coast of Crete. With less than fifty permanent residents and encompassing only thirty-six square kilometres, Gavdos achieved an almost mythic status in recent years as the last ‘undiscovered’ island retreat in Greece, […]
