Travel Leisure - USA (February 2020)

And why we love them



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CONTENTS ebruar













Departments





12 Letter from the Editor


Discoveries
17 Scope out cutting-edge
hotels along the Great
Barrier Reef, shop for
jewelry inspired by dreamy
destinations, and explore
the Presidio, San Francisco’s
urban oasis.


ISL AND ESCAPES
Experiences
26 OCEANS APART
There’s nowhere like an
island for understanding
why we travel.
28 SUN, SAND, AND STONE
The Greek island of Páros
enchants visitors with
its secluded beauty—and The Grill, a restaurant on the
a just-opened, design- pool deck of Silversea Cruises’ Features
forward hotel. Silver Cloud (page 76).
37 GOLD STANDARD Learning
the fine art of doing nothing The Intelligent 76 SPIRIT OF THE NORTH
on historic Jekyll Island, off Traveler Vistas and wildlife aside,
the coast of Georgia. a voyage to the Arctic is,
67 A look at the current state
40 A DIFFERENT TUNE A mother of accessible travel, plus at its core, about the people
and son journey across the tips on how to book an whose culture is bound to
wild, rugged heart of New adventure-focused trip, the environment.
Zealand’s North Island. accommodate the elderly 86 ROCK STEADY A first look
46 SUNNY OLD ENGLAND in multigenerational group at the dazzling redesign
On the Isles of Scilly, vacations, and fly with of Eden Rock, St. Bart’s
unspoiled English villages autistic children. most iconic hotel.
and surprisingly balmy 92 SHOP THE CASBAH
beaches keep visitors Marrakesh’s cutting-edge
returning year after year. designers, hip concept
stores, and craft traditions
have all the makings of
ISL AND ESCAPES
a retail extravaganza.
Caribbean Special
53 Islands like Vieques, the
Bahamas, and Barbados ON THE COVER Your Best Shot
are humming with stylish Model Tifany Lédée, wearing 104 Reader Sarah Bolak CHRISTOPHER CHURCHILL
a Stella McCartney suit,
hotels and hyper-local food photographs a parade
dives off a dock at Eden
scenes. Our pick of places Rock, in St. Bart’s (page 86). of flamingos at Baha Mar,
to plan your winter escape. Photograph by Noe DeWitt. in the Bahamas.






6 T R AV E L + L E I S U R E | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0



CONTRIBUTORS






New York City for more sand all to myself.” Next
ri o er urc i
1. than 20 years—keeps an month, Franklin and her
SPIRIT OF THE NORTH (P. 76)
apartment in London that’s husband, chef Chris Bradley,
For this issue, the decorated with Berber- will release The Phoenicia
photographer, who is style rugs and a shade Diner Cookbook (Clarkson
based on the North Shore of paint called Moroccan Potter), a collection of
of Massachusetts, traveled red. Despite her interiors 85 recipes from their much-
around the Arctic on choices, she hadn’t been loved diner in New York’s
Silversea Cruises’ ice-class to Marrakesh, Morocco’s Catskill Mountains.
expedition ship Silver shopping and design
Cloud. “I didn’t know it was epicenter, until last spring,
possible to get that level of when she went there to 4. o ua e - c a iro
hospitality at the edge of report for T+L. One of OCEANS APART (P. 26)
the world,” he says. When her favorite discoveries “I live in Manhattan but
he wasn’t going on kayaking was Al Nour, a sewing spend as much time as I
excursions and taking “polar cooperative in the medina can on other islands,”
dips” in the ocean, Churchill staffed by women with says the geographer and
attended expert-led lectures disabilities. “They make the author of Island People: The
on subjects like Inuit culture most exquisite clothes and Caribbean and the World
and climate change. “It made linens,” she says. (Penguin Random House).
the downtime feel really full He credits his “islomania”
and educational,” he recalls. to the summers he spent
3. ara . ran in as a child in the Canadian
VIVA VIEQUES (P. 54)
province of Prince Edward
2. e ac weene The Hudson Valley–based Island, where he “first
SHOP THE CASBAH (P. 92)
author first visited the experienced the sense of
The former Vogue features Puerto Rican island of inhabiting a place that’s
director—a resident of Vieques in 2014. She connected to every place
returned last fall—two years by the sea,” he says.
after Hurricane Maria tore
through the Caribbean—
and found the destination 5. ora a a o
more enchanting than ever. SHOP THE CASBAH; VIVA VIEQUES
“It feels wilder and quieter,” “In Marrakesh, I
she observes. Feeling photographed every nook
gloriously uninhibited, she and cranny,” says Matos,
even went skinny-dipping who traveled to the
at Sun Bay Beach. “I had Moroccan city for this issue. CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: ISABELLE CHURCHILL/COURTESY OF CHRIS CHURCHILL; PETER FLEISSIG/COURTESY OF EVE MACSWEENEY; COURTESY OF SORAYA MATOS; MIRISSA NEFF/COURTESY OF JOSHUA JELLY-SCHAPIRO; NATALIE CONN/COURTESY OF SARA B. FRANKLIN
a pristine stretch of white In contrast, on Vieques,
Puerto Rico, she couldn’t
resist putting down her
1 2 camera to go snorkeling.
“I saw a family of hawksbill
turtles and literally gasped
underwater,” she says. For
her next adventure, Matos
is uprooting her life in
San Francisco and moving
to a 150-year-old dairy farm
in Marin County, California.



3 4 5






8 T R AV E L + L E I S U R E | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0



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LETTER rom e i or






Throughout this issue, our writers
build on this sentiment. Michael Joseph
Gross eats his fill of salty mussels,
discovers secluded beaches, and meets
new friends on Páros, Greece. Our
own senior editor, Lila Harron Battis,
finds joy in the nature trails and Gilded
Age history of Georgia’s Jekyll Island.
In our spotlight on what’s new and
noteworthy in the Caribbean, Bermuda,
and the Bahamas, Sara B. Franklin
drops by Vieques, Puerto Rico,
where she learns that, in the wake
of Hurricane Maria, a group of
restaurateurs, farmers, and hoteliers are
forging a path toward self-sufficiency.
They’re planning for the future.
It’s taken years for some Caribbean
businesses to rebuild after the storms
of 2017 (and now the Bahamas is
dealing with the impact of Hurricane
Jacqui outside
the Bulgari Dorian, in 2019). One of my all-time
Hotel Milano. favorite hotels—Little Dix Bay, a
Rosewood resort in the British Virgin
Islands whose founder was none
other than Laurance Rockefeller—
SLANDS! I love them. I was is reopening this month. I plan to
I born on one (specifically be one of the first to check in.
Honshu, Japan, during a The equally storied Eden Rock
FROM MY TRAVELS typhoon); vacationed on one regularly on St. Bart’s, where both Greta Garbo
I recently flew to Cannes, France, as a child (Kauai, on the South Shore, and Howard Hughes once vacationed,
to attend ILTM, one of the biggest in the early years of its tourism boom); away from the prying eyes of the
conferences in the luxury-travel
industry. My home for the week was and got married on one (Ireland, on a paparazzi, is finally welcoming guests
the Hôtel Barrière Le Majestic balmy winter’s day at Ashford Castle). after a two-year closure. Peter J. Frank
(hotels barriere.com; doubles And I now live on one—Manhattan— takes a fresh look at this icon, which,
from $217), which now feels like a place of hustle and frenetic energy to me, represents what a luxury hotel
a favorite friend. I obsess over the
creaminess of the scrambled eggs, that couldn’t be any more different should offer its guests: glamour and
the way the hallways are strange from the others listed above. scene and the height of discretion,
little mazes, and how the lobby And yet in all of these locales, all at the same time. On islands, you
turns into a grand people-watching
scene after 11 p.m. One of my most there’s a common thread: the thrill can definitely have all that. They’re
memorable meals in Cannes was I feel at seeing the water, and the sense havens in their own right.
at Astoux & Brun (chezastoux.com; of being surrounded by it. No matter
entrées $25–$50), a brasserie where I am in the world, my heart
that dates back to 1953 whose
seafood is sublime—I always order skips a beat when I’m on the edge of
the sole with frites. something—along with hundreds or
Then it was over to Milan, for thousands or millions of other people.
one night at the Bulgari Hotel Milano It changes my perspective, how I feel
(bulgarihotels.com; doubles from
$995). What I enjoy about this place about myself as a traveler and a human
is the polished residential feel and being. As Joshua Jelly-Schapiro writes
the subterranean spa, complete in the introduction to our special
with gold-and-emerald-tiled pool. Islands section, “There’s nowhere like COURTESY OF KATIE BANO
It immediately becomes your pool,
and your home, in one of the most an island for learning to see the world, @jacquigiff
dynamic cities in the world. and our place in it, a little differently.” [email protected]






12 T R AV E L + L E I S U R E | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0



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14 T R AV E L + L E I S U R E | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0

SAME PLANET.

DIFFERENT WORLD



Here, coffee and clove
make a healing scrub.

Ancient rituals

yield modern remedies.

Spas have treehouses.
And coquí frogs

serenade you to sleep.

Just a short flight away,
a different world awaits.



For reservations, please

call 787-626-1100 or visit
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W IN N ER

Discoveries
















A GLOBETROTTER’S GUIDE TO THE LATEST IN TRAVEL

Edited by LILA HARRON BATTIS
















New Gateways

to the Great


Barrier Reef



Resorts on and around Australia’s
chief natural wonder are pairing
luxury with sustainability to appeal
to the next generation of visitors.
BY KELSEY OGLETREE

































COURTESY OF CRYSTALBROOK COLLECTION The pool at









Crystalbrook
Collection’s
Riley hotel, in
Cairns, Australia.


T R AV E L A N D L E I S U R E . C O M 17

ESPITE ITS OCEANFRONT real estate and
D I S C O V E R I E S area were always lacking in high-end properties to
D
proximity to the Great Barrier Reef,
the city of Cairns and the surrounding

match those million-dollar views. Now a host of
recent arrivals and overhauled stalwarts are rolling
out the red carpet—along with initiatives that
ensure the delicate reef ecosystem will endure.
In Cairns proper, catch views of the glittering
Marlin Marina from the updated Shangri-La
Hotel, the Marina (shangri-la.com; doubles from
$149). All 255 guest rooms have balconies

and a modern, airy aesthetic. The Riley
(crystalbrook collection.com; doubles from $209)
and the Bailey (from $209) are the first of three
Crystalbrook Collection hotels in Cairns, all of Treasures
which emphasize responsible luxury, with local
sourcing, plastic-free policies, and partnerships from Far
with conservation groups such as Citizens Main image: Silvia
of the Great Barrier Reef. The final property, and Wide Furmanovich hand-
the Flynn, is slated to open this spring. painted floral earrings,
price upon request.
Located off Cairns in the Whitsundays, This season’s most covetable Clockwise from top right:
jewelry is deeply imbued with Silvia Furmanovich
the family-friendly, 277-room Daydream Island
i
(daydream sland.com; doubles from $271) a sense of place. Let these pieces butterfly earrings, price
upon request; Dubini
relaunched in April with neutral tones and objets from three up-and-coming
Chersonesos Lion ring,
d’art. At the Living Reef, a shallow lagoon that brands spark your wanderlust. $3,050, and Empires
wraps around the resort’s main building, guests BY SIOBHAN REID choker, $6,410.
can observe coral and more than 100 species
of other sea life, and learn how they can help
preserve these unique marine environments.
Travelers can get a deeper look at the AXENOFF SILVIA FURMANOVICH
ecosystem with an overnight at Reefsuites Designer Petr Axenoff São Paulo jeweler Silvia
cites Russia’s rich artistic Furmanovich goes to the
(cruise whitsundays.com; doubles from $799 per
heritage—from Tchaikovsky’s Brazilian Amazon to
person), a two-suite moored pontoon with beds
compositions to the encounter the flora and
that face floor-to-ceiling underwater windows. Symbolist paintings of Mikhail fauna that inspire her work.
Coral farming and transplant efforts help keep Vrubel—as the inspiration Her colorful, whimsical
the reef healthy and thriving. for his creations. Try on pieces—butterfly-shaped CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: COURTESY OF DUBINI; COURTESY OF SILVIA FURMANOVICH (2); COURTESY OF DUBINI; COURTESY OF MODA OPERANDI
Axenoff’s cocktail rings and earrings, brooches made
There are new reasons to journey inland, too,
pearl chokers at his Moscow from preserved orchid
l
such as Silky Oaks Lodge (silkyoaks odge.com.au; showroom, housed within petals—mix semiprecious
tree houses from $440), a collection of secluded the manor on which Tolstoy stones with seashells and
tree houses on rehabilitated farmland in based the Rostov Estate in other natural materials.
War and Peace. axenoff.com. silvia furmanovich.com.
the Daintree Rainforest. It’s within reach of
the reef, with a lush setting that’s a refreshing DUBINI
change of scenery from the usual beach retreat, Roman designer Benedetta
and has a low-impact approach that prizes the Axenoff drop Dubini sources ancient
natural environment. In addition to sailing tours, earrings, $2,400. currency, like coins featuring
busts of Roman emperors
Silky Oaks offers bushwalks and driving safaris—
minted two millennia ago.
just the thing to cap off a coastal adventure. Then, using traditional Italian
techniques, she transforms
them into one-of-a-kind
pieces, like pendants set
For help planning a Great Barrier Reef itinerary, in yellow gold and adorned
contact T+L A-List travel advisor Suzy Mercien-Ferol with garnet and citrine
(suzy.mercien@touringtreasures). cabochons. dubini.co.uk.






18 T R AV E L + L E I S U R E | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0

Where e tide


is the only time that matters.

Shonda Rhimes on a
trip to Cannes, France.





ON THE PLEASURES OF SOLITUDE
After every season of Grey’s Anatomy,
I take a solo trip. It started after the first
season, when my assistant took one look
at me and booked me a beach vacation
in Mexico. I slept the first 36 hours, and
then I had a beautiful time. This year I
was in Montreux, Switzerland. I did a lot
of chocolate tasting, went to a winery.
There’s a wonderful freedom to traveling
alone—you can eat chocolate for dinner,
or wander a museum for eight hours.


ON THE BEST KIND OF TRAVEL
My favorite trips are family vacations.
I have five brothers and sisters, and
we try to gather together as many of us
and our kids as we can. Last summer, we
went to Montana. All the kids rode horses
and go-karts. We went on long hikes.
But mostly we sat around and caught up.

ON CREATING MEMENTOS
Adventures in Shondaland I take a lot of pictures of my kids on
vacation, but now I try to get a few
pictures taken of me with my kids, too,
Television titan Shonda Rhimes—whose new reign at Netflix kicks off this because I’m always the one behind the
year with the forthcoming Bridgerton—is a full-fledged travel junkie. Here, camera. I document some of our trips
with Mixbook, or I’ll print pictures and
she shares her favorite trips and travel strategies. AS TOLD TO RACHEL CHANG
make a photo album. I’m very old-school.

ON THE GIFT OF TRAVEL
To celebrate our 350th episode, I wanted
to give the cast and crew of Grey’s
ON VACATION PLANNING ON PACKING Anatomy a chance to spend time with
The key to a trip is organization. Once, I always bring Clorox wipes on the flight their families, so I arranged for everyone
I arrived in Rome and discovered and wipe down the whole seat—once to choose a trip to any AMResorts
that Galleria Borghese, the museum that you read an article about plane germs, property—they have resorts in the
holds all the Bernini statues, was closed. you never forget. I learned a long time Caribbean, Latin America, and Spain,
That was all I wanted to see! But if I’m ago to always keep a set of toiletries so everybody could pick the vacation
going someplace beachy, I try not to bagged and ready to go. And I never go they wanted. I’m hoping to check out
research, so I can force myself to relax. anyplace without three books—books one of the brand’s Zoëtry resorts—they
If I know about all the things that can are like your friends. I just read She look so serene. To relax and be away
be done, I will try to do them. Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. from the world seems kind of perfect.

















D I S P A T C H TONY BARSON/FILMMAGIC/GETTY IMAGES. ILLUSTRATION BY MAY PARSEY

The Hotel Meal I Can’t Stop Thinking About

“The water lunch at Sausage Tree Camp, in Zambia. You boat to a
remote sandbank and eat three courses with your feet in the water
as elephants trot on the banks of the Zambezi. Pretty magical!”

— T+L A-LIST TRAVEL ADVISOR ELIZABETH GORDON ([email protected])






20 T R AV E L + L E I S U R E | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0

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LOS CABOS • PLAYA DEL CARMEN • PUERTO VALLARTA • SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE
PUNTA CANA 2020

D I S C O V E R I E S Garden by the Bay pristine swatches of nature—her dynamite
businesses help make the park one of
San Francisco’s greatest treasures.
In San Francisco, the Presidio—a park within the
At the park’s Main Post, a parade ground that
Golden Gate National Recreation Area—is just the spot
to escape the fray. JASON SHEELER finds chic hotels and
red lawn chairs. There you’ll find the Inn at the
close encounters with nature. once hosted military exercises is now dotted with
Presidio (presidio odging.com; doubles from $310)
l
and its 18-month-old sibling hotel, the Lodge at
the Presidio (from $275), in former barracks with
unparalleled views of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The Walt Disney Family Museum (walt disney.org)
tells the story of the man behind the mouse, and
the Officer’s Club (presidio.gov) exhibition space
currently features a poignant show on the
Presidio’s role in the internment of 120,000
Japanese Americans during World War II. The
Presidio Theatre (presidio theatre.org), closed for
25 years, now hosts music, film, and dance.
In the Southern Wilds, British artist Andy
Goldsworthy created four site-specific works,
including the 100-foot Spire, made up of 37 slowly
decaying cypress trees. It’s also the site of
Immigrant Point Overlook, a golf course, and
Rob Hill Campground (presidio.gov), San Francisco’s
only public camping spot. Nearby is Baker Beach,
the city’s best sliver of sand, where on a recent
The Lodge at the Presidio sits at the heart of San Francisco’s seaside park. walk, my dog, Franky, and I passed several nude
sunbathers (this is San Francisco, after all).
Across Highway 101 is Crissy Field, where
AST FALL, I MOVED to San Francisco’s Presidio Heights athletic types find places for kitesurfing and
L neighborhood, but after several months, I was indoor rock climbing before retiring to Fort Point
embarrassed to admit that I knew little about Beer Co. (fortpointbeer.com) for IPAs. Construction
the reserve next door. A decommissioned army base, the is under way on the Tunnel Tops project, a 14-acre
Presidio is home to eucalyptus groves, foggy beaches, and elevated park that will connect Crissy Field
panoramic views. “Don’t feel bad,” San Francisco chef Traci to the rest of the Presidio.
Des Jardins told me. “A lot of locals don’t know what’s going After a day of exploring, Franky and I checked
on here. It’s changed so much, even in the last five years.” in to the Inn. Later that evening, we set out for the
Five years ago, Des Jardins opened two restaurants in parade ground. A coyote emerged from behind
the reserve, the Arguello (arguellosf.com; entrŽes $21Ð$31) a chair and glared at us, his eyes making it clear
and the Commissary (thecommissarysf.com; entrŽes $28Ð$40). which of us really belonged there. Then he trotted
Along with excellent hotels and cultural institutions—and off toward the Southern Wilds, leaving no tracks.




D I S P A T C H BEN DAVIDSON/COURTESY OF PRESIDIO TRUST. ILLUSTRATIONS BY MAY PARSEY



The Hotel Meal I Can’t Stop Thinking About

“Dinner at Al Mare at the Hotel Santa Caterina, on the Amalfi Coast.
It’s a gorgeous atmosphere, with mandolins playing, and perfect
food, like the incredible pezzogna fish baked in salt. I could eat
there every night for the rest of my life.”

— T+L A-LIST TRAVEL ADVISOR DAVID LOWY ([email protected])






22 T R AV E L + L E I S U R E | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0





Camille D I S C O V E R I E S
Utterback’s
Entangled
at the new
Oklahoma
Contemporary.



Paris, Please!
Culture Club



New and revamped museums around the globe offer fresh approaches THE ROMANCE OF the French
to curation and insight into emerging art communities. BY SCOTT BAY capital in the 1920s has
yet to fade, and this new
edition of Gertrude Stein’s
Autobiography of Alice B.
Toklas (Penguin Press,
SEATTLE ASIAN ART MUSEUM OKLAHOMA CONTEMPORARY
This Pacific Northwest institution reopens Downtown Oklahoma City’s newest $30), out March 3, will have
February 8 after a two-year renovation. creative hub features a reflective exterior you itching to hop a plane
The Art Deco structure now has a sleek that recalls the state’s wide-open skies. to CDG. Stein captures both
façade and a glass-enclosed lobby. A new Opening next month, the institution— the voice of her partner,
2,650-square-foot gallery will display a founded in 1989 as a community
selection of the museum’s 8,500 works. arts center—will offer more than 8,000 Alice Toklas, and the
FROM LEFT: JKA PHOTOGRAPHY, 2017/COURTESY OF OKLAHOMA CONTEMPORARY; MAIRA KALMAN/COURTESY OF PENGUIN
The inaugural installation, “Boundless: square feet of galleries, plus space for shimmering energy of
Stories of Asian Art,” explores the classes and performances. The debut the time. Kalman brings that
complexity of the continent, with works exhibition, “Bright Golden Haze,” includes world further to life with
from a diversity of media, cultures, works by Robert Irwin and Leo Villareal.
and periods. seattle art museum.org. oklahoma contemporary.org. expressive illustrations of
the couple, their home and
MUSEUM OF MODERN & KYOTO CITY KYOCERA MUSEUM OF ART travels, and contemporaries
CONTEMPORARY ART SRI LANKA Japan’s oldest public art museum like Matisse and Cézanne.
In December, Sri Lanka’s first modern-art opened in the 1930s as a tribute to
museum opened in a Colombo high-rise. Emperor Hirohito. Architects Aoki Jun Her work has a wry, witty
Three years in the making, it highlights the and Nishizawa Tezzo have reimagined quality that lends a sense
island’s vibrant community of sculptors, the Kyoto landmark, adding galleries, of immediacy to words
photographers, filmmakers, and painters. exhibition spaces, a café, and a rooftop written nearly a century ago.
The first show, “One Hundred Thousand garden. The museum holds more It’s just the thing to tote
Small Tales,” traces Sri Lanka’s artistic than 3,600 works, including notable
output since gaining independence in nihonga, traditional Japanese paintings. on your next vacation—need
1948. mmca-srilanka.org. kyoto city-kyocera.museum. we say where to? — L.H.B.





D I S P A T C H

The Hotel Meal I Can’t Stop Thinking About

“The Pullman Restaurant at the Glenlo Abbey Hotel & Estate,
nestled on 138 acres on the edge of Ireland’s Lough Corrib.
The restaurant comprises two carriages of the original
Orient Express—the actual ones in which
Agatha Christie’s book is set!”

— T+L A-LIST TRAVEL ADVISOR SIOBHAN BYRNE LEARAT ([email protected])





T R AV E L A N D L E I S U R E . C O M 23

For some, it’s sitting down to the first five-star dinner of the trip, and being transported
by the rich, unexpected flavors awaiting you. For others, it’s sailing into an exotic,

remote port without another ship in sight. And for you, it’s the little things.
Discover your moment.




ENJOY THE FINEST CUISINE AT SEA
™
ABOARD OUR INTIMATE AND LUXURIOUS SHIPS.

CALL 855-OCEANIA (855-623-2642) | VISIT OCEANIACRUISES.COM/TL
or CONTACT YOUR TRAVEL ADVISOR

TRAVELERS’ TALES, FROM NEAR AND FAR
Edited by PETER TERZIAN
Experiences










































































































26 T R AV E L + L E I S U R E | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0

T + L



























OCEANS APART






ISLOMANIA. IT’S NOT A TERM, as of 2020, that has made it into our

diagnostic manuals. But it’s perhaps fair to say that we humans, as a
species, have for millennia had a bad case of the affliction islomania
describes—“an obsessional enthusiasm or partiality for islands.”



From Homer on, islands have industrial-scale plantations flourished.
figured in our literature as sites of For centuries, the brutal force of
desire and of fear. Islands feature that industry powered the Atlantic
in our stories, and in our dreams, slave trade, and the modern global
as both prison and paradise. economy it helped create. The ghosts
We look to them, still, as places of these pasts are never distant. But
where we can be marooned, neither is the determination of the
reborn, or transformed. “Western people who live there today to make
culture not only thinks about all that they can of the beauty and
islands but thinks with them,” the charm of their home. They know it
historian John Gillis has observed. could only have been an island that
One reason why is that islands Shakespeare’s Caliban gazed upon,
are, by definition, worlds unto in The Tempest, to see a place “full of
themselves. But they’re also noises, sounds, and sweet airs that
connected to the rest of our give delight and hurt not.”
world by the sea. This is their Nowadays, many islands are
magic, and their power. menaced by a new threat: climate
This interconnection is also change. But this issue, worrying as it
why islands have often been ruled is, has also underscored the extent to
over, or owned, by people from which these places, so often viewed as
mainland nations. Rarely the seats marginal, are in fact bellwethers, and
of empires themselves, islands as central to our history as they are to
have more often been colonies: our imaginations. Islanders know this.
playthings for continental powers, So do those of us who spend as much
or places to make money. It was time as we can surrounded by the sea.
on the island of New Guinea that There’s nowhere like an island for
sugarcane was first cultivated, learning to see the world, and our
and in the Caribbean where place in it, a little differently.

SORAYA MATOS BY JOSHUA JELLY-SCHAPIRO








T R AV E L A N D L E I S U R E . C O M 27

E X P E R I E N C E S
























































SUN, SAND, AND STONE
end of a barely paved road on Páros,
Páros has long been the connoisseur’s Greek island, cherished for its the third largest in the group of islands
simple pleasures and secluded atmosphere. Now the debut of a design- known as the Cyclades. A few worn
focused hotel is raising the bar on style. BY MICHAEL JOSEPH GROSS wooden tables and chairs are arranged
by the water, in the shade of tamarisk
trees. My friend Kalia Konstantinidou,
who splits her time between Athens
HE BLADE OF the swordfish is not sharp. and Santorini and has just opened a
T My palm is wrapped around it. When chef hotel on Páros, suggested we come
Marios Salmatanis tells me to lift it, and I here. After Salmatanis and Kouda
do, I almost laugh—it’s so much lighter than it beckon us into the kitchen to see their
looks. The hilt is heavy, though: the head of an catch, we order lunch, kick off our flip-
From left:
Hellenistic-period 80-pound creature that stretches all the way flops, and dive into the ocean, which is
statuary at Páros’s down the stainless-steel kitchen counter of the a pale turquoise, like the iris of a cat’s
archaeological restaurant. “Our first swordfish in two years!” eye. We come up smiling, water
museum; dining
under the Salmatanis exclaims. His wife, Anna Kouda, trickles into my mouth, and it is so
tamarisk trees explains, “We only serve fish that is fresh-caught delicious and gently salty that I tell
at Thalassamou, and local. If it’s too windy for the boats, we just Kalia she has to taste it. For a moment,
on Aliki Beach; don’t have fish.” there is only sea, sky, sun, our bodies
sunbathers at
Kolympithres The restaurant, Thalassamou (thalassamou.gr; about to be fed—a sense of lightness so
Beach. entrees $11Ð$30)—Greek for “my sea”—sits at the complete and unexpected.






28 T R AV E L + L E I S U R E | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0 PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARCO ARGUELLO



E X P E R I E N C E S






















Granite boulders in
the pool at Parilio
evoke nearby
Kolympithres
Beach.







By the time Kalia and I walk back to our table, Panagia Ekatontapiliani (the Church of
the procession of dishes has begun: sea urchin, the Hundred Gates), that dates back to
octopus, mackerel, crab, shrimp, tuna, and, of the fourth century.
course, swordfish—presented with dips, greens, The yin and yang of sensation and
mousses, pastries, and herbed oils. Salmatanis is a tradition that drew Kalia to Páros is
fourth-generation cook, and the only Ritz evoked by its geography. The island’s
Escoffier–trained chef in Greece. Kouda tells us shape is approximately round. Hills
GETTING THERE the restaurant is especially popular among French ripple into plains and shores. The core
Olympic Air (olympic
air.com) runs regular vacationers. (The film composer Alexandre of Páros is flawless white marble that
nonstop flights from Desplat, who scored The Shape of Water, is a has been prized since antiquity. Many
Athens to Páros regular.) It’s an easy table to book, though, of Greek civilization’s greatest treasures
National Airport, in because it’s a hard place to find, and because were fashioned from it: the Winged
Aliki. Ferries to Páros
are available from Salmatanis and Kouda spend practically all of Victory of Samothrace, the Venus de’
Athens, Mykonos, their time and energy on the food, and on visiting Medici, the façade of the Temple of
and Santorini. with guests, and almost none on self-promotion. Apollo at Delphi. Quarrying the marble
“We want everybody to be full,” Kouda says, is now illegal, but if you are steady on
TRAVEL PLANNER
“Páros offers the bringing a bowl of mussels steamed in Chardonnay your feet, you can still hike down into
feel of Mykonos twenty and another white variety, Malagousia. “Can you the shafts where it was mined.
years ago,” says taste the salt in the mussels? That is the taste of the Better to see the marble glow in
Mina Agnos (mina@ water here,” she says, and I recognize it. sunlight, though. Beaches, not
travelive.com; 561- When Kalia first visited Páros, as a teenager, she quarries, are the island’s main assets
300-7436), a member
of T+L’s A-List of the fell in love with the island’s elemental pleasures— today, and many stretches of the
world’s best travel “a perfect tomato, the blue of the water.” The shoreline are scattered with marble
advisors. Agnos and island’s history enchants her, too. Powers from pebbles. Páros occupies about
her team at Travelive Mycenae to Venice left ruins here. The marvelous 75 square miles, so you need a car to
can incorporate Páros
into a more extensive archaeological museum in Parikía, the island’s sample its full buffet of beaches. There
itinerary of the Greek capital, holds the oldest surviving Cycladic marble are dozens, to suit any taste or mood.
islands. She can plan a statuette, made 50 centuries before the birth of If you can find no beach to love on
shopping excursion in Christ: a Neolithic figure of a woman, not much Páros, you are past helping.
the town of Naoussa, more than two inches tall. And there are churches. The one I like best is Kalogeros, a
as well as organize a
private boat trip to For a permanent population of fewer than 16,000 secluded cove where Kalia and I scoop
neighboring islands. people, Páros has 450 of them—including one, out thick veins of gray clay to slather on






30 T R AV E L + L E I S U R E | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0



Athens





Mystique and Vedema, part of Marriott’s Luxury
Collection; Parilio, their first project on Páros,
opened last summer.)
Clustered like the whitewashed buildings of a
Cycladic village, Parilio’s structures gently
descend from terrace to terrace. Each of the
hotel’s 33 suites has its own patio, and three
infinity-edged reflecting pools keep the sound of
falling water always faintly in the air. “For me, the
strongest piece of Páros is the sun,” the hotel’s
Crete
Athens-based designer, Stamos Hondrodimos,
tells me. “You feel like the white color of the
buildings is going to make you blind.” Calm
interiors give shelter from the brightness.
Bedding, upholstery, and tile floors in earth tones
our skin. While the clay dries, before we rinse it set off the glass-fronted dark-wood dressers.
off, she says, “On Páros, nature is a spa.” We make Parilio draws from the island’s church
one more stop, at Kolympithres, named for its architecture, too. Guests pass through arches
picturesque, eroded rock formations that resemble inspired by Páros monasteries on their way to
surreal baptismal fonts. meals, each of which could be a holy feast.
A pair of similar boulders slink stylishly, Breakfast at the restaurant, Mr. E., is a sublime
half- submerged, in the swimming pool at spread: cheeses made on the island, sweet
Kalia’s hotel, Parilio (parilio hotel paros; doubles tsoureki bread with mastic and anise, scrambled
from $275). “We wanted to bring a touch of eggs with fresh tomato and oregano, and Kalia’s
Kolympithres here,” she explains. Throughout favorite coffee, the traditional frapé that Greeks
the property, she and her husband, Antonis drank before espresso conquered the world.
Naoussa, a fishing Eliopoulos, took care to incorporate such local The dinner menu reinvents Greek classics—
village on the
northern coast design elements. (On Santorini, the couple own rich moussaka croquettes, bream baked in lemon
of Páros. and run several celebrated hotels, including leaves with a Párian chickpea stew. Fortified, Kalia
and I and a half dozen of her friends pile into cars
for the 10-minute drive to old-town Naoussa, a
maze of shops, cafés, and bars that sprouts from
two squares along the water.
As we enter the bustling square called Little
Venice, the lights go dark. Everyone takes a
breath—for a quiet instant, you can hear the sky-
blue-and-white Greek flag whip in the midnight
wind—and then, all at once, the crowd cheers. In
the blackout, nightclubs crank up generators,
dance music bounces through open doors and
windows, and Mario Tsachpinis, the ebullient
owner of Mario Restaurant (mario restaurant paros;
entrées $15–$31), shows us to a table in the square.
“Yamas!” he cries—a drinking cheer—and from
a glass flask he pours the first of many rounds of
souma, a clear, lilting spirit distilled from fermented
grapes. Small talk is as strange as dreams. “I run a
shipping company,” says a man in flowing gray
linen. “My luggage is on Santorini, but I think I
will go to Mykonos tomorrow, and I have meetings ILLUSTRATION BY MAY PARSEY
in Munich the day after that. What will I do?”
wonders a woman in a leopard print. Tsachpinis,
pouring, grinning, responds, “Yamas!”






32 T R AV E L + L E I S U R E | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0

P R O M O T I O N












OnBoard
















EVENTS + PROMOTIONS + OFFERS | T R AV E L A N D L E I S U R E . C O M / P R O M O / C H E C K - I N







Join the Party in Aspen
with Celebrity Chefs, Renowned
Winemakers & Epicurean Insiders!

Don’t miss the most exciting epicurean weekend of
the year, June 19–21, 2020! Against the scenery
of the Rocky Mountains, guests enjoy three fabulous
days of wine tastings, food sampling, and cooking
demonstrations at the FOOD & WINE Classic in Aspen.
Tickets on sale at Classic.FoodAndWine.com









Unforgettable Nights
with Taste of sbe

sbe, the leading international lifestyle
hospitality group, hosted its annual culinary
showcase at the iconic Delano South Beach and
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12 culinary tastings and mixology experiences, and
special performances by Grammy Award-Winning
artists, Common and John Legend.
Find out more at sbe.com









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March 4–8, 2020

Taking place in the beautiful city of Charleston, SC,
this five-day festival champions the region’s rich
food culture through exceptional culinary experiences.
Charleston Wine + Food blends homegrown flavor
with top chefs, winemakers, artisans, storytellers,
and gourmands from around the globe.
Tickets on sale at CharlestonWineAndFood.com

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The countless angles refracted the sunlight like a beautifully cut jewel.

Our guide told us it’s the largest, calving glacier in North America.
We actually saw — and even heard — a giant iceberg break off!




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Biking on one of E X P E R I E N C E S
Jekyll Island’s
coastal trails.









GOLD STANDARD
Spanish moss, and the world seemed to hold its
Georgia’s Jekyll Island may revel in its Gilded Age glory, but don’t breath. I hung a left and eventually came to the
be fooled. On a weekend jaunt to an impeccably revamped resort, end of the road, to a grand, pale yellow building
LILA HARRON BATTIS finds simplicity behind the splendor. with a gingerbread-house portico and a flagpole-
topped turret rising like a beacon: the Jekyll Island
Club Resort (jekyll club.com; doubles from $159).
In the good old days of Jekyll Island, from the
S I DROVE ACROSS the causeway and club’s founding in 1888 to its final season in 1942,
A between the imposing pillars that mark men who gave their names to colleges and banks
the entrance to Jekyll Island, the air and cultural institutions would pack up their
became dense and quiet. The roads emptied out, families each winter and head south, to a speck
the wide skies of the marshland gave way to of land midway between Jacksonville and
gnarled red cedars and live oaks dripping with Savannah. Carnegies, Rockefellers, Vanderbilts,





PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER FRANK EDWARDS T R AV E L A N D L E I S U R E . C O M 37

Atlanta



eor ia The island fell out of fashion in the 1940s—

E X P E R I E N C E S Savannah ATLANTIC OCEAN U-boats loitering off the coast put a damper

on the festivities—and the club and assorted
mansion-cottages sank into disrepair. Five of the
16 cottages are gone—all that remains of one are
a pair of marble lions guarding the entry, nearly
Jekyll Island
swallowed by greenery. Resort concierge Sherri
Zacher, who fell in love with the island during
visits as a kid in the 1970s, recalls sneaking into
the dilapidated dining room and finding the club
and Pulitzers would arrive in the Golden Isles, ledger still in place, covered in dust and mold.
just off the Georgia coast, come January and “The clubhouse was a thing of beauty, but she was
spend the next three months living the simple going to be high-maintenance,” Zacher said. “She
life, far from the flash of Newport or New York. needed someone to come and love up on her.”
The simple life, when you were a Gilded Age The historic buildings held on long enough
gazillionaire, looked like this: A private club whose to be bought up and restored, and in 1985, the
members collectively held one-sixth of the world’s Jekyll Island Club Resort opened its doors. In 2017,
wealth. William Morris wallpaper in your dining new management added a beachfront sister
room and Tiffany stained glass in the church. property, the 40-suite Jekyll Ocean Club (doubles
Italian Renaissance and Shingle Style mansions from $199), and began a revamp of the main
that you called “cottages” without a trace of irony. building. This year, the resort will unveil updates
Driftwood Beach,
on Jekyll Island’s Black-tie attire every night at the Jekyll Island Club, to the cottage suites and marquee spaces in the
eastern coast. with not a single reworn ball gown all winter long. clubhouse, including the dining room.
Jekyll has a handful of well-loved attractions.
The freshly overhauled Mosaic Museum (jekyll
island.com), a small but thoughtful collection that
explores the island’s history, runs tours through
the historic district surrounding the resort. A rogue
guide let my friend Eléonore and me peek at the
off-limits upstairs of one cottage, cluttered with
turn-of-the-century relics—a spinning wheel here,
a cane wheelchair there. We visited the Georgia
Sea Turtle Center (gstc.jekyllisland.com), a
rehabilitation clinic and museum, and wandered
through the old servants’ quarters, now home to
tiny shops selling fudge and wind chimes. But my
favorite part of the whole weekend was the
moment I ran out of things to do.
I could have gone golfing or played tennis, if I
knew how to golf or play tennis. There’s a water
park, and kayak tours of the marsh. But after years
of turning my travels into a to-do list, it was
disarming to be in a place whose charms are rooted
in just being there, waking up to what surrounds
you. The island is only about nine square miles, all
of which is state parkland, and strict regulations
save it from overdevelopment. Beyond the resort,
cell service ranges from spotty to nonexistent.
There are few organized activities. The calm
sharpened my attention ever so slightly, and the ILLUSTRATION BY MAY PARSEY
world came alive.
On a nature walk with park ranger Ray
Emerson, I learned to distinguish cabbage






38 T R AV E L + L E I S U R E | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0

from saw palmettos, and attuned my ear to the One evening, just before sunset, we drove to It’s a croquet kind
scrabbling shout of an angry kingfisher. Eléonore Driftwood Beach, where bleached skeletons of of day on the lawn
of the Jekyll Island
and I borrowed bikes and pedaled on some of enormous oak trees litter the shore. A group of kids
Club Resort.
the 20 miles of trails laid over the former carriage chased one another, leaping over fallen trunks, and
paths. Riding in silence past dunes and marshes, my a young Mennonite couple walked at the water’s
senses felt heightened. When we were still, I heard edge, his pants rolled up, the hem of her long skirt
the tide receding over the mudflats, fizzing like Pop ringed with saltwater. I thought of the steel barons
Rocks. Life was everywhere: rabbits on the grass, and railroad tycoons who once made this their
bald eagles overhead, alligators floating listlessly in playground. Perhaps, between the formal balls and
Horton Pond. In the forest, we rounded a bend and political machinations, they, too, made time to
found a pair of white-tailed deer blocking our path, walk along the sand under an orange-painted sky,
so close I could see the wet sheen of their noses. hearing only laughter and the sea.







T+L A-LIST INTEL
“Loh Ba Kao Bay, on Thailand’s Phi Phi Island, is far from the bustle of Phuket. Tall green palm trees front the
beautiful cove, while the dramatic hillsides make you feel like you’re in paradise.”
— HONEYMOON SPECIALIST JIM AUGERINOS ([email protected])





T R AV E L A N D L E I S U R E . C O M 39

40 T R AV E L + L E I S U R E | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0

From far left: Mount Ruapehu,
in New Zealand’s Tongariro
National Park; the Northern
Explorer train, which traverses
the North Island.

shrubs lining the tracks were known
as pukeko. There were starlings and E X P E R I E N C E S
sparrows like the ones we have back
home in England. Nineteenth-century
Brits devoted unconscionable energy
to making New Zealand look like
home, and at a cursory glance farming
areas could be the Cotswolds or the
Yorkshire Dales. But then comes an
outburst of cabbage trees or a
gathering of hopbushes, the rise of
bright wings, and always that birdsong.
North Island landscapes vary
quickly, however, and by the time we
got to Tongariro National Park, the
landscape was more like southeastern
Iceland. Both are active volcanic
terrains where lava fields surge
A DIFFERENT TUNE
between mountains, and both lie in
On New Zealand’s wild and lush North Island, SARAH MOSS cool temperate zones where rain on
journeys through snowcapped mountain ranges and tranquil rich soil nurtures distinctive plants,
vineyards—following the sound of exotic birdsong all the way. insects, and birds. We stayed at
Chateau Tongariro Hotel (chateau.co.nz;
doubles from $79), a neo-Georgian
palace implausible amid heather and
UR FIRST NIGHT in New Zealand, there was low cloud. It was built in the 1920s, a
O hooting in the darkest hours, from nearer pioneer of luxury tourism in New
and farther around the flowering gardens Zealand (I later found an early menu
of suburban Auckland. Come dawn, more of a chorale displayed in Te Papa, the national
than a chorus. I got up, leaving my 12-year-old son, museum in Wellington), and continues
Felix, sleeping the sleep of the jet-lagged preteen, the traditions of that era. There’s
and ran along streets of pastel-painted wooden elaborate plasterwork on
houses, down through a park whose trees I couldn’t monumentally high ceilings, a sweeping
name, to the shore of the Pacific Ocean, which I was staircase, and enormous windows
seeing for the first time. framing views of Mount Ruapehu.
I was making stops in Auckland and Wellington on We arrived in rain—the North
a book tour, and had decided to slip a week’s vacation Island is as green as England, and for
with Felix in between. We took the train 400 miles the same reason—but as we set out
across the North Island, with a visit to Tongariro from the hotel gardens on one of the
National Park along the way. There were some locals hiking trails, the sun came out,
onboard the Northern Explorer—one couple attending highlighting shades of sedge green and
a high school reunion and another, greeted by name buttercup yellow on the rain-washed
by the guard, on their way to visit grandchildren—but moorland. Snow-covered mountains
it’s mostly a tourist line, leisurely and comfortable, appeared behind the high heath where
offered as an experience of landscape as much as an we were walking, but the gorse was in
efficient mode of transport. Carriage windows curve bloom and trees in full leaf. A marsh
up to the roof, and there’s an outdoor viewing platform harrier wheeled overhead, its piping
where you can rush from side to side, wind in hair and call belying serious hunting skills.
camera in hand, as mountain ranges rise and The next day, we were shuttled to
woodlands pass at a speed compatible with bird- the town of Pipiriki to take a jet-boat
spotting. We had a bird book, and learned that the trip with Whanganui River Adventures
large, blue-breasted swamphens puttering around the (whanganui river adventures.co.nz). I’d





PHOTOGRAPHS BY KIERAN E. SCOTT T R AV E L A N D L E I S U R E . C O M 41

E X P E R I E N C E S
























































typically hubristic: once the native forest had
been felled and burned for pasture, there was
nothing left to secure the topsoil, which slid off
the underlying rock in just six years, leaving the
arranged this mostly to please Felix—I remote area uninhabitable and obviating any
prefer to explore waterways at the pace of reason to complete the road. The bridge stands,
a kayak—but I found the landscape and a monument to imperial shortsightedness. But it’s
history surprisingly moving. Our guide, a beautiful woodland walk from the jetty to the
Thomas Hawkins, a Maori man whose bridge, and a shady place to enjoy a picnic and
family has hung on to their farm through reflect on the history of colonial ambition. On the
200 years of illegal European property way back Hawkins put most of his passengers
Clockwise from seizures, told us about the river and its sedately ashore and then took me and Felix out for
top left: Chateau
Tongariro, a hotel banks in a way that only someone who has some fast 360-degree spins, which delighted Felix
in Tongariro inherited the land could. and pleased me more than I thought it would.
National Park; a Hawkins still farms, but his family also The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is a classic New
jet boat on the runs a company providing various ways of Zealand hike, 12 miles around the shoulder of
Whanganui River;
bottles of Pinot in exploring the river, from multiday kayaking Mount Tongariro. It’s a good idea to have a guide,
the town of and camping trips to this jet-boat excursion especially in wintry conditions and with a child.
Martinborough; to the Bridge to Nowhere, which was built We met our small group of hikers earlier in the
the coast near across the Mangapurua stream in 1935 as morning than Felix considered humane. The
Wellington, as
seen from the part of a plan to open up the area to conditions felt Alpine: bright sun, cold air,
Northern Explorer. European farmers. The scheme was the land around us burgeoning with spring plants






42 T R AV E L + L E I S U R E | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0

With miles of pristine beaches for relaxing with


a chic, coastal vibe and endless possibilities,


there is so much to fall in love with.



From romance to family fun, Hilton Head Island offers an irresistible

mix of natural beauty, culture, and outdoor adventure.







EXPERIENCE IT FOR YOURSELF. DISCOVER HILTON HEAD ISLAND.

HiltonHeadIsland.org


































© 2020 TIME INC. AFFLUENT MEDIA GROUP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

ew ea
Auckland






E X P E R I E N C E S Tongariro

National Park




Vineyards in
Martinborough,
a town in the North
Island’s Wairarapa
wine region.
Featherston





but deep in snow not much higher up. Lark-like pastries and discovering New Zealand
birds waltzed overhead. At first the trail crossed fiction while the orchard chimed
a lava field of bare red newly-born rock, on which with the call of what Felix nicknamed
plants have not had time to settle. Then we the glockenspiel bird. “Tui,” I said.
climbed up a steep volcanic formation known I had looked it up after my run on
as the Devil’s Staircase as a panorama unrolled our first morning; it’s native, an
below. The wind rose, the temperature fell, but iridescent honeyeater.
we were still in sunlight. “Rain is coming,” our In the neighboring town of
guide, Stewart Barclay, said. “Let’s get over the Martinborough, we rented bikes from
GETTING THERE top before it hits.” Green Jersey Explorer Tours (green
AND AROUND The first snowfield was dazzling, but as we jersey.co.nz) and cycled an easy six-
Air New Zealand
(airnewzealand.com) began our descent the rain did indeed hit, sideways mile trail around the vineyards. Rows
has regular nonstop and hard. Barclay picked up the pace, fast enough of vines and their shadows flickered
flights to Auckland for the weather to be almost exhilarating as the geometrically, realigning themselves
from Chicago,
path wound back below the snow line, zigzagged as we passed. Returning the bikes, we
Houston, San down turf hillside, and came at last to the shelter
Francisco, and Los happened upon the Martinborough
Angeles. The Northern of the silent trees. Sweet Shop (6 Kitchener St.; 64-2-198-
Explorer Train (great Powderhorn Chateau (powderhorn.co.nz; 7293), which offers tasting plates of
journeysofnz.co.nz) doubles from $260) was our lodging that night, locally made chocolates with citrus-
departs from Auckland an unpretentious but deeply comfortable hotel scented herb tea served in vintage
on Monday, Thursday,
and Saturday morn- in Ohakune, one of the national park’s gateway china. I tried to bargain with Felix for
ings. It’s a nearly six- towns. We stepped out of the rain into literal and his Pinot Noir dark ganache, and failed.
hour journey to metaphorical warmth, the staff being accustomed We celebrated Felix’s 13th birthday
Tongariro National
to hikers and skiers in urgent need of hot baths, with a trip to the Pukaha National
Park, and another five good food, and great beds. Felix’s shoes were so Wildlife Centre (pukaha.org.nz), in
hours to Wellington.
The Wairarapa wet he went to dinner in socks. We both ordered Mount Bruce, which holds some of
Connection (metlink. eccentrically and were given exactly what we the area’s last pristine native forest.
org.nz) is a commuter wanted, a pile of sprightly asparagus and a red- A nocturnal white kiwi bustled around
line that connects pepper soup with good bread for me; pork-belly its infrared-lit enclosure, exuding
Wellington to
sliders and a salad for him. We had planned to a ridiculous charm reminiscent of a
Featherston.
enjoy the heated pool after dinner, but Felix fell puffin. Our Maori guide, Everlyn
TRAVEL PLANNER asleep and I found my bed and book irresistible. Chase, told us her community’s stories
T+L A-List member and
After our train reached Wellington the about indigenous birds, who sang
New Zealand specialist following morning, we rented a car and drove back to her whistle.
Donna Thomas
(donna@ newzealand an hour to Featherston, a small town in the wine- There were farm stands selling
travel.org; 215-741- growing region of Wairarapa. The town has six strawberries and asparagus all along
5155) can curate secondhand bookshops, a fine artisanal baker, and the road back. One of the joys of this
itineraries in and a weekly produce market on the main street: Felix trip was stealing a second spring from
around Tongariro
reckoned all life’s needs were met. We sat in bright our northern winter, a second asparagus
National Park and the
Wairarapa area. sun under trees bearing ripe lemons, eating season, a second flowering.






44 T R AV E L + L E I S U R E | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0

Explore a dining scene brimming with


sustainable cuisine and fresh local flavors.



Here, you’ll find local restaurants that harvest their own stone crab

claws and soft-shell crab—some even have their very own oyster farms.







EXPERIENCE IT FOR YOURSELF. DISCOVER HILTON HEAD ISLAND.

HiltonHeadIsland.org




































© 2020 TIME INC. AFFLUENT MEDIA GROUP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

E X P E R I E N C E S



























































of 140 or so islands—only five of which are
SUNNY OLD ENGLAND
inhabited, by some 2,200 Scillonians—28 miles
The Isles of Scilly are home to aquamarine waters, subtropical west of the Cornish coast in the Atlantic Ocean.
gardens, and some of most glorious beaches in all of the Atlantic. Despite their location on nearly the same latitude
JANCEE DUNN visits and comes home smitten. as Newfoundland, the Isles are in the path of the
Gulf Stream, so are blessed with temperate
weather year-round, particularly when compared
with the rest of the U.K.
HEN I FIRST SAW Joanna Hogg’s 2010 Scilly is a remote spot, little known to even
W film Archipelago, about a dysfunctional well-traveled friends (“It’s in Australia, right?
upper-middle-class English family on No, Canada,” said one). Yet I felt hopelessly
holiday, I found I could barely concentrate on pulled toward it, and eventually scheduled an
Tom Hiddleston’s halting dialogue, so obsessed end-of-school-holidays jaunt with my husband
was I with the unnamed setting. What was this and our 10-year-old daughter. From Brooklyn,
bewitching subtropical paradise, with its stunning this took some doing: an overnight flight
botanical gardens, its car-free lanes that twisted to Heathrow; the Heathrow Express train to
past windswept sand dunes, its flower-bedecked Travelers can Paddington; a 5½-hour Great Western Railway
charter yachts
stone cottages? trip to Penzance; a cab to Land’s End Airport; a
for visits to Scilly’s TOM VANDERBILT
The place in question was the Isles of Scilly (it’s constellation of 20-minute flight to St. Mary’s (if you prefer, you
pronounced “silly”), a rugged, dramatic collection islands. can take a three-hour ferry); and, lastly, a short






46 T R AV E L + L E I S U R E | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0