Conde Nast Traveler January/February 2019

Celebrating more than 20 years of cruise excellence. From its humble beginnings in 1997, Viking is now the world’s most recognized cruise line, with award-winning river and ocean fleets exploring the world’s great waterways. Small ships, big advantage. Intimate vessels sail into the heart of your destination—where new discoveries are just a short walk from your ship. Sail in Scandinavian serenity. Viking has fine-tuned the art of exploring the world in comfort. Understated, elegant ships, thoughtfully engineered by nautical architects to bring the outside in. Graceful staterooms and public areas designed to inspire and refresh you. Cultural enrichment from ship to shore. Every Viking cruise opens doors of discovery and enrichment with an included excursion in every port. Viking also takes you beyond the iconic with Local Life, Working World and optional Privileged Access® experiences; and a…

This is the first issue of the transatlantic Traveler, created by teams in New York and London. Everything in it is gold, gold, gold. Not-finger, or-digger, or tooth, or rush…nor really, I hope, gold as in brash. But gold as in exceptional. Gold as in classic. I’m asked all the time what my favorite places are, my best hotels, so here are a few. I can’t give you my favorite moments, because those are the ones that take place in the places in between the actual places, the results of happy accidents. But consider the following: Brown + Hudson, a tour operator that goes to extraordinary degrees to arrange entirely bespoke trips, layered with top-notch experiences. It will cost you, but you get the feeling it costs the boss, Philippe,…

What is that amazing smell? In New Orleans, you’ll pick up wafts of chicory, spilled rum, and warm beignets—but in the lobby of Hotel Peter and Paul in the Marigny, it’s more like…gardenias. This is one of the most anticipated hotel openings in a city overrun with fusty properties. Hotel Peter and Paul is actually a bundle of buildings: a 19th-century Catholic church, schoolhouse, convent, and rectory reimagined by Ash NYC with gingham drapes woven in Switzerland and antique furniture shipped from Europe. The Eliza Jane near the French Quarter has taken over the space that once housed the printing presses for The Times-Picayune. It has a vintage aesthetic—exposed brick in the hallways, subway tile in the bathrooms—but still feels fresh. And this spring, the Ace Hotels team opens Maison…

PICTURE IT: A ship with lavish amenities that rival any top-rated hotel on land. A friendly and accommodating staff who makes you feel at home and ensures your trip is everything you dreamed of. A seemingly endless list of activities to enrich and entertain, both on land and at sea. Delicious, gourmet meals prepared by renowned chefs. Now, imagine experiencing this level of luxury while you travel to almost any destination on the planet. It may seem like the ultimate travel fantasy—and it is—but it’s a fantasy Regent Seven Seas Cruises® has made a reality. Traveling to more than 450 destinations throughout the globe, Regent Seven Seas Cruises has an extensive roster of itineraries from the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, Africa, and Asia, Alaska, South America, the South Pacific, the Caribbean, among…

FREE BUSINESS CLASS AIR* on intercontinental flights FREE ROUNDTRIP AIR* on domestic flights FREE UNLIMITED SHORE EXCURSIONS, with more than 2,500 options FREE ONE-NIGHT PRE-CRUISE HOTEL PACKAGE for guests booked in Concierge Suites & higher FREE UNLIMITED BEVERAGES, including fine wines & spirits FREE OPEN BARS AND LOUNGES, plus in-suite mini-bar replenished daily FREE PRE-PAID GRATUITIES FREE TRANSFERS BETWEEN AIRPORT AND SHIP FREE 2- or 3-NIGHT PRE- or POST-CRUISE LAND PROGRAM on select voyages FREE UNLIMITED WIFI *FREE Roundtrip Air includes ground transfers between airport and ship and applies to coach, roundtrip flights only from the following airports: ATL, BOS, CLT, DEN, DFW, DTW, EWR, FLL, IAD, IAH, JFK, LAX, LGA, MCO, MDW, MIA, MSP, ORD, PBI, PHL, PHX, SAN, SAV, SEA, SFO, TPA, YUL, YVR, YYZ. FREE Business Class Air applies to all suite categories on intercontinental flights. Airfare…

This boulder-strewn sweep of Baja California has been luring wine lovers and weekending West Coasters for some time (it’s just a 90-minute drive from the U.S. border). Now it’s earning itself the lofty billing of Mexico’s Napa Valley for its architect-designed tasting rooms and complex bottles—many of them innovatively organic, biodynamic, and minimum intervention. The foodie landscape has been maturing as well, drawing on farm-to-table ingredients and seafood from the Pacific. One of the area’s best-loved chefs is Javier Plascencia, who set up in the valley in 2012 when it first turned heads. His Finca Altozano now encompasses the original outdoor grill restaurant, a tortas truck, an ice-cream shop, and the pop-up dinner series Animalón under a 100-year-old oak tree. Close by, Finca La Divina is his beautiful four-bedroom B&B,…