Conde Nast Traveler December 2021

Over the last 18 months, there has been no shortage of cruise stories in these pages: about the industry’s heroic, cooperative response to the crisis; about how the ever-changing hodgepodge of global rules and regulations is impacting the sector; about how companies have used the pause to develop and refine amazing new ships, itineraries, and experiences; and above all, about when you might be able to go back on board. What there hasn’t been is a lot of stories about cruising—it’s all been desk-reported, to use editor lingo. Of course, that’s because we’ve spent a lot of time stuck at our desks, and because for most of 2020 and much of 2021, cruise ships weren’t sailing. But as you’ll see in this issue, boats are very much in the water again,…

AMAN NEW YORK Asia-born, Switzerland-based Aman spent decades turning places like Phuket and Montenegro into glamour destinations for the global jetset, so maybe it’s appropriate that the brand is set to open in midtown Manhattan just as international travelers are returning to the city. Understanding the reverence that comes with a Fifth Avenue address, Aman has pulled out all the stops for its first American city property, securing the iconic century-old Crown Building and tasking design star Jean-Michel Gathy with carefully turning its Gilded Age–era interiors into 83 rooms with cityscape views and a vast spa with dark wood and gold details. The hotel’s calling card may turn out to be the sweet garden terrace bar, an unexpectedly intimate surprise right in the epicenter of New York City. Prices not available…

I have had many clients like the Roy family. Their money is discreet; they don’t want it out there for all to see. So when I was first contacted by Succession director and executive producer Mark Mylod, who was looking for locations for two big scenes in the third season, my head was full of ideas. There was a large celebration in central Italy and a visit to the villa of a new character up north. I channeled the types of people involved in the show. Lady Caroline is an English aristocrat. She’d accept shabby chic. She’d accept a bad bathroom in a beautiful estate. But the Roy kids are American. They wouldn’t. They would want everything to be more sleek, more buttoned-up. Within a month, we were zipping around Northern…

Grand Hotel Tremezzo, Lombardy “It was so lovely to wake up here every morning while filming on Lake Como. And commuting to work each morning on the villa’s private boat was such a treat.” La Bandita Townhouse, Tuscany “This stylish country hotel’s owner, Jon Voigtmann, was heroic in hosting everyone the first night we got to Tuscany. Its restaurant became one of the places the cast and crew would go back to again and again to watch football and be convivial.” Osteria del Leone, Tuscany “This charming spot is run by a couple of formidable women, and the crew would go nearly every night while in Bagno Vignoni. They loved it.” Osteria Le Logge, Tuscany “We were based in Siena for a week, so I wrote a little guide to the city with all my favorite places.…

When she was 10, Eileen Gu tried out skiing for the first time at Nanshan, a resort about an hour northeast of Beijing, where she would travel every year to visit her mother’s family. “I met the resort’s founder, Dr. Lu Jian—he was half a century older than me, but we were practicing the same grabs,” she recalls. “He was instrumental in introducing the sport to China and definitely brought me in the fold.” Born in San Francisco to an American father and a Chinese mother, Gu will represent China in freestyle skiing in next year’s Winter Olympics in Chongli, northwest of Nanshan, where she used to train. Until recently, the area took hours to reach from Beijing, but a new bullet train gets skiers there in around 45 minutes.…

Over the last 15 years, new arrivals to Oslo’s harborside Bjørvika district, like the marble-and-glass façade of the Oslo Opera House and the Astrup Fearnley Museum, have turned it from an industrial wasteland to a modern-architecture hub. In October, it got another world-class cultural destination when the Estudio Herreros–designed Munch Museum opened to reveal 11 galleries housing the world’s most extensive collection from the Norwegian master, including several versions of The Scream. The 13th-floor terrace bar, Kranen, is already a hot hangout. Here, how to turn a visit to the museum into a full day in the neighborhood. 1) The Concept Space Launched more than a decade ago as a nomadic art and food project, Salt now has a permanent home in Oslo, where its tall wooden “fish racks” host live music…