FAQ me, I’m famous
Stars are practically kicking each other in the shins to tell the world how
much they love New York for the city’s Just Ask the Locals campaign (you’ll
find the link at www.nycvisit.com).
Some tips are worth scribbling down: Deborah Harry’s top five places to hear
live music, for instance, or P Diddy’s favourite clubs. But Ivanka Trump
extolling the virtues of subway travel? Someone stick her in a cab and send
her home.
Dreamtime in Oz
Restaurants with rooms? So last season(ing). Opening later this month in
Brisbane, Australia, the boutique Limes hotel (www.limeshotel.com.au)
is, heaven help us, a “designer bar/cinema with rooms”. Hoping to inject
fresh sass into Fortitude Valley, the city’s nightlife core, Limes promises
not only 21 rooms, but a lounge bar on the roof and an alfresco movie
theatre. Sounds like a mini Lakeside, Essex.
Worth a deco
With riadsmultiplying like rabbits in the Marrakesh medina, it’s
refreshing to find a Moroccan base that’s (a) somewhere else and (b)
something else. New for rent from the villa specialist CV Travel (020 7401
1045, www.cvtravel.co.uk) is La
Malletière, in Tangier, an art-deco villa for eight: huge 1930s bathrooms,
high ceilings, tables below palms and dedicated staff. Very dedicated –
the gardener’s been there 35 years. A week starts at £3,620.
Danish for dumbos
“Denmark” and “design” in the same sentence usually mean another dry story
about Arne Jacobsen chairs. But there’s something new in the state to
trumpet: the futuristic elephant house at Copenhagen zoo (www.zoo.dk).
Unveiled next month, it’s a lean structural marvel by star-chitect Norman
Foster. Not only good-looking, it’s eco-sensitive, with – a
novelty, this, apparently, for elephant houses – a vast separate
enclosure so that bulls can roam alone, away from the herd. They must be
expecting a stampede (of visitors).
Suck it and see
New in Bruges is the five-star Kempinski Hotel Dukes’ Palace (www.kempinski-bruges.com;
doubles from £145, B&B). Set in a former palace, it’s hardly
rock’n’roll – until you check in. They’re planning jazz
concerts in the old chapel, and the off-the-wall art includes Laurence
Jenkell’s giant aluminium “wrapped candy” in the garden. No jokes about
Europe’s biggest hotel sweet, thank you.
