Amsterdam’s Schipol may be the fourth largest airport in Europe, but it’s also by some distance the most civilised in terms of the way it tries to improve the lot of transiting passengers. It was the first, indeed remains the only, airport with its own … More
Top Picks
10 May 2012
Hotels where the art is
Given the buoyancy of the art market, and London’s pre-eminence, at least in Europe, when it comes to sales of contemporary art, perhaps it’s not surprising that the capital’s top hotels are keen to align themselves with contemporary art. Every aspiring hotel restaurant (well Wolfgang … More
8 May 2012
With an auspicious and a dropping eye
Of course you wouldn’t know from BBC4’s latest Scandi kommissar drama The Bridge that the sky above the Øresund Strait is ever this blue. But let’s hope the sun is out early next month when Elmgreen + Dragset’s sculptural riposte to Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid is … More
4 May 2012
The Prince’s Lodge at the Connaught
To the Connaught last weekend to sample Hélène Darroze’s new weekend brunch menu. (Her eggs Benedict with black truffle are surely the finest in existence and very much worth the detour.) But then so is the Connaught. I’ve long admired its Coburg bar and its … More
27 April 2012
In China at least, Burgundy is the new Bordeaux
The UK may be back in recession, but you wouldn’t know it from its hotels and restaurants, most of which – the expensive ones at least – are playing to packed houses. Earlier this week, a Chinese couple spent £19,000 on dinner at Le Gavroche. … More
21 March 2012
A properly presidential penthouse
Anyone curious to see how the Obamas live could do worse than book into The Lowell in New York, where the majority of its 49 suites and 23 rooms, have been designed by the Los Angeles interior designer, Michael Smith, who also happens to be … More
6 March 2012
Cinema paradiso
The super cinémateque at the Royal Monceau in Paris may have the edge in terms of its all-singing 3D tech spec, but the screening room – now something of a requisite at any properly luxurious hotel now – at Francis Ford Coppola’s just-opened Palazzo Margherita, in the … More
6 March 2012
Animals in transit
Salutary reading from the US Department of Transportation’s latest Air Travel Consumer Report on animal passengers, which reveals that 35 pets died onboard US airlines last year. (And also an archly contrived excuse to illustrate a story with Louis-Leopold Bouilly’s 1799 trompe-l’oeil of a cat, … More
15 February 2012
What lies beneath
As this week’s Economist sagely observes, “The Maldives operates touristic apartheid [and holidaymakers] need have no truck with Maldivian culture or currency, let alone its politics.” They therefore have nothing to fear from the political upheaval and protests ongoing in its capital, Malé, where its … More
31 January 2012
Ready for its close up
After its disrupted literary festival, Jaipur is poised for another month or two in the limelight, though this time the focus is film. First, 24 February sees the release of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a movie based on Deborah Moggach’s Bangalore-set novel, but shot … More
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Arbitrix is an occasional blog and archive of travel pieces by Claire Wrathall More
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Arbitrix | Web design London
Arbitrix | Web design London