Swanky Retreats

ALEXANDRA MAE EDITOR-AT-LARGE When you look up "wanderlust" in the dictionary odds are that a picture of me is in the definition. ANDREW INNERARITY DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY I prefer to let the images do the talking. AVA ROSALES FEATURES EDITOR Wherever the destination may be, it’s the villa life for me. DYLAN BENOIT CONTRIBUTING EDITOR I’m a chef with Champagne taste and a beer budget, but always seem to find myself surrounded by the most amazing people in the most amazing places. From eating termites in the Honduran jungle to learning how to make dim sum in Hong Kong, for me treasure is in the story. JEFFREY SOBEL CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF All I need is a book, a bourbon and a boat to a new destination - I’ll be just fine. SERGIO…

Hotel Restaurant La Cambuse Vex, Switzerland For a long time I have had in the back of my mind what the perfect ski hotel would be like. It goes without saying that it should be ski-in, ski-out and in a picturesque location, a design which complements the surrounding landscape and vernacular architecture, and where after a long, energizing, but ultimately exhausting day on the slopes, you can collapse, relax, and feel at home. I knew the moment that I walked through the doors at La Cambuse, greeted by proprietor Jerry and a roaring wood fire, that I had finally found that longed-for place. Hotel Restaurant La Cambuse is right at the bottom of the red piste linking Thyon 2000 and Thyon Les Collons. In fact, the Matze drag lift is…

A LETTER FROM Europe: 4 Valleys, Switzerland Greetings! I have found the perfect place to escape the damp, gray days of an English winter. The skies are a brilliant blue, the bright sunshine makes the snow sparkle like Swarovski crystals, and I am sat looking out at a panoramic view of the Swiss Alps with the warmth of a wood-burning fire behind me and a glass of a crisp local wine in my hand. Truly life doesn’t get much better than this! I expect you have heard of the luxurious Swiss ski resort of Verbier; well, I am writing to tell you that those who really do know their red runs from their blacks, and their fondue from their raclette, head to the opposite end of the 4 Vallees, the…

When you think of the best food in the world, what comes to mind? Perhaps it’s French haute cuisine, or perfectly al dente Italian pasta? Maybe you’re thinking further afield and your mouth waters at the possibility of an aromatic bowl of Vietnamese pho or even a simple pleasure such as a sweet glass of Indian lassi. Whatever your fancy, I daresay that very few, if any, reading this thought about Albania. Well, dear readers, allow me to take you and your taste buds on a journey into post-Communist paradise. Albania has a long coastline, which, naturally, means that seafood is a prominent feature on menus all along the Albanian Riviera. But Albania also shares a portion of Lake Ohrid in the west and Lake Shkodra in the north, as…

TODAY I had my choice of Reboot Float Spa’s 3 Bay Area locations, San Francisco’s Mission and Marina Districts and Oakland. I head in, knowing they will succeed where the Atlantic, Pacific, Caribbean, Mediterranean, Aegean, Dead Sea, the Adriatic and even geothermally-heated Icelandic fresh water have failed. I’m going from a sub-zero cold stand-up treatment to body temperature prone experience, so after check-in, I hit the changing room, before my hour of lying down I’m fully enclosed in the Cryo tube where liquid nitrogen cools the air, depending on the user’s comfort level from -165 to -220 degrees F. The idea is, during my 3 minutes of exposure in the telephone booth-sized compartment is for the sub zero temperature to activate a whole body “cold-shock response” in which the body’s…