The recently-restored Adare Manor boasts 104 rooms, with a clubhouse and cinema and the only La Mer spa in Ireland. The Emerald Isle is not short of castles and grand houses, either, many of them now converted into luxury hotels. If it’s lakes and mountains you’re after but without the snow, there is an almost palpable timelessness to the loughs and drumlins that Ireland has in abundance.
#Timeless destination cracked
Many jokes have been cracked at the expense of this time-conscious nation, but in the cultural and political chaos that characterizes present-day Europe, it is the industrious, peaceable and fiscally sound Swiss who - to misquote Liberace - are crying all the way to their very many banks. It’s an irony, perhaps, that Switzerland, the highest, most mountainous country in Europe, is often “overlooked,” in favor of higher-profile neighbors, France and Italy.īut with lakes and mountains galore, superb food, outstanding wines, handsome cities and charming small towns - not to mention the finest skiing in Europe - Switzerland has it all. Moritz in the Engandine with tony Zermatt, lying below the Matterhorn, and there can be no more thrilling way to see the most stunning parts of the Swiss Alps in all their snowy glory. The newly inaugurated Glacier Express railroad now connects the world-famous ski resort of St. But technology and transportation doesn’t stand still either. In the country of watches, where time is of the essence, there is always something new and fashionable happening in Switzerland. Two hours away by high-speed train, the Sacher’s sister hotel, also Hotel Sacher but in Salzburg, effortlessly mixes old world charm with contemporary comfort. Famed for its Sachertorte chocolate cake, the hotel kitchen retains a dedicated “egg-cracker,” who cracks 7,000 eggs a day for the production of this world-renowned confection. Time has not dimmed the appeal of Vienna’s celebrated Hotel Sacher (founded in 1876), but rather added to its luster. With the inn’s on-site winery, its sumptuous three-course gourmet breakfasts and spa treatments in which the Cliff Lede Vineyards’ Cabernet Sauvignon is incorporated into the luxurious spa treatments, this very cool hotel is up-to-the-minute. Its rock ’n’ roll vibe and exceptional modern art and sculpture collection - reflecting owner Cliff Lede’s passions - are at once a throwback but also in the here and now.
Situated on 60 gorgeous Napa Valley acres, a half hour drive from San Francisco, Poetry Inn by contrast has only five bedrooms, but also exudes a sense of timelessness. Its 12 restaurants include two from Michael Mina and a branch of the ritzy modern Chinese restaurant Hakkasan, while its BleauFish ocean-to-table program has fish, lobster and Florida stone crabs delivered to a Water World - a collection of basement tanks beneath the kitchens, where they are kept fresh until the moment of cooking.Īnd yet the hotel still has an unmistakable 1950s/’60s vibe - Maurice Lapidus himself (the architect most associated with the “creation” of Miami Beach) almost stalking the corridors, the friendliest of ghosts, or James Bond playing cards with the villain Auric Goldfinger in the famous scene shot around the Fontainebleau’s then-only swimming pool. Following a $1 billion makeover a decade ago, the Fontainebleau is still up to date and boasts 1,500 rooms in 20 different categories. “For things to remain the same, everything must change,” the Italian writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa wrote in his great novel “The Leopard.” That’s certainly the sense you get at the famous Fontainebleau Miami Beach, originally opened in 1954, with 6 acres of formal gardens designed to replicate Versailles.
Time marches on but doesn’t dim the appeal of great hotels and destinations.
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